Despite her decision to distance herself a bit, it still hurt not to see him tonight. Rather than torturing herself more by calling, she texted him instead.
Hi.
The ellipses appeared on her phone immediately.
Hi.
I need to cancel our date tonight.
This time the ellipses took a while to pop up.
Is there a particular reason?
Yeah. Emergency girls’ night in.
Is there something wrong?
Not really. Well, there’s something. I’m just having some daddy issues that I need to vent about to June. She knows my history.
She stopped herself from explaining any further. She had every right to hang out with her friend. But Colin’s answer brought a smile to her lips.
I hope it isn’t anything serious and you could still have a fun time with her.
Not to worry. We’ll have fun. It would be hard not to with pork belly and soju in the mix.
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.
I can’t make any promises, she typed without thinking.
There was another pause from him, and she realized that she’d inadvertently brought up their no-promises rule. She hadn’t meant to fling that out like a defensive mechanism. While she wanted to maintain some distance, she didn’t want to remind him that they weren’t meant to last. Was she overreacting? Colin probably never even thought of having something long-term with her.
She wanted to tell him that she would miss him. She missed him so much already, but heartfelt confessions weren’t conducive to not forming an attachment.
After they texted their goodbyes, she tried to focus on her game plan to dig in to her father’s secret. Jihae had people she trusted within Rotelle Corporation, but she wanted to avoid asking them to outright spy on their own company. She would have to figure out a legitimate way to have them look for a connection between Rotelle and Yami Corp., no matter how minuscule. If she didn’t know about it, it wouldn’t be easy to find, but her people knew how to open doors.
If they found nothing then she would have to play a dangerous game, and get June involved in her mission. But that had to be the very last resort. It involved using June’s connections in Rotelle’s accounting department to follow the money. With her father, money was always the focus of any situation or problem. Whatever he was keeping from her had to involve payment of some sort, and no matter how deeply it was buried, someone from the inside should be able to unearth it.
But Jihae was terrified of what she would find. And it was the ultimate act of rebellion against her father. What if she discovered something bigger than she could imagine? She wanted the truth, but she didn’t want to put any of her friends in danger of being disciplined by the company. Hopefully, her friends in high places would be able to sniff out some minor scandal, and she wouldn’t have to get June involved.
She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. It was too much. She wanted to forget about her suffocating life, and the strangeness that was seeping into it. To forget that she would soon have to leave Colin. She wanted the world to fall away as she fell apart in his arms, where nothing mattered but the two of them being together.
A humorless laugh escaped her. She was the one who’d decided to cancel the date. She was the one who needed the reminder that their relationship was finite. But now all she wanted was to wrap herself around him and hold on. Hold on tight.
She stopped herself short. Bloody hell. How long had it been? How long had she been on the precipice of falling in love with Colin? The frightening part was that despite everything—including her guaranteed heartbreak when she had to leave him—she wanted to let herself fall.
* * *
Colin was becoming an expert at creating legitimate business reasons to spend alone time with Jihae. The latest and most brilliant idea was this location-scouting trip. It wasn’t just an excuse to get away together. It was an important part of the production. They’d been discussing the possible location for a scene they both loved.
“I’d never been on a road trip,” Jihae said in a singsong voice as she adjusted her sunglasses. She had her legs up on the dashboard and the sun glinted off her pink-tipped toes.
“So you’ve mentioned...about six times in the last couple hours,” Colin teased. She leaned over and delivered a decent punch to his arm. “Hey, there will be no abusing the driver. I’m guessing you’re new to road trips, so you may not be aware, but distracting the driver is a no-no.”
“It is?” she asked in a suspiciously innocent voice.
“Yes. A big no-no.” He shot a quick glance at her to see what she was up to, but she just gave him a wicked grin.
“So...let’s say I unbuttoned myself, like so.” She undid the top button of her thin, loose shirt. Then reached for the next button. “Then unbuttoned another one, like so. Would this be considered distracting the driver?”
“Not at all,” he growled through clenched teeth. “By all means. Make yourself comfortable.”
Her laughter felt like a caress down his body, and he frowned harder. How did he always manage to get into these situations with Jihae? She was relentless and he was helpless against her bold moves.
“Then I’ll just undo one last button, so the top of my white lacy bra peeks out. Oh, look! It’s your favorite one.”
“You know I’ll get you back for this.”
“I don’t know what you mean... I’m new to road trips and just don’t know how to behave. Am I being bad?”
“As soon as we check into our hotel, and I hang the Do Not Disturb on the knob, I’m having you against the door.”
“What the hell?” The top of her chest, exposed through her unbuttoned shirt, turned pink as color traveled up her neck. “It’s all right for the driver to turn on and distract the passenger? That’s a double standard. Who made up these ridiculous road-trip rules?”
Helpless laughter escaped him, affection tangled up with frustration. He reached out and patted her thigh, his fingers a hair’s width short of the inseam of her pants. “Don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it.”
“Ugh. You’re incorrigible,” she said, squeezing his hand before she slapped it away.
Colin drove the next three hours with blue balls and anticipation rushing through his veins. When they at last entered Death Valley National Park, the sun had begun its descent, painting the sky and mountains with splashes of red, orange and violet.
“This is brilliant,” Jihae breathed, leaning forward in her seat to look out the windshield.
“It is. The rest of the park is spectacular but you can’t beat the sunsets against the mountains.” He turned into one of Death Valley’s two hotels. “So are you ready to rough it for two nights? We’re on the same travel budget as location scouts, so the accommodations won’t be up to your usual standards.”