“Do I ever not?” Jihae sighed wearily. “But I know what you’re saying. I’ll make sure and wear one of my pantsuits, not even a dress suit, and low-key shoes. And I’ll shake his hand when we meet and as we part. Those will make good, boring pictures.”
“You’re a pro. But can you try to have a little fun? Just a little bit. Deep inside.”
Jihae burst out laughing. “I adore you.”
“I adore you, too.”
* * *
The next evening, Jihae smoothed down her jacket and made sure she didn’t have a single strand of hair out of place before she stepped out of her cherry-red Corvette. It was a bit showy, but there was no rule that said she had to buy a white car. When she was in Korea, she happened to be driven around in white cars, but it had never been specifically discussed with her PR specialist.
She was lucky enough to find a spot in the tiny parking lot behind the equally quaint theater. Her sensible, white wedge heels clacked against the sidewalk as she strode toward the ticket booth, and it took all her strength not to stop and gawk at Colin Song. He’d ditched his jacket and tie, and he wore a pair of khaki pants and a white button-down shirt with his sleeves rolled past his forearms. Manly, veiny forearms. Gah. That multiplied his sexiness tenfold in her book.
Without breaking stride, Jihae came to a stop in front of Colin and extended her hand to him. She braced herself for impact. Even as a frisson traveled down her spine, she kept a polite smile on her face and maintained direct eye contact. But she forgot to withdraw her hand, and Colin didn’t seem to have any intention of releasing it. Unable to feign calm a second longer, she took a hasty step back and her hand dropped to her side when he let go.
“I hope I haven’t kept you waiting,” she said in a steady voice. She was a freaking rock star. No one would be able to tell she wanted to climb all over the man in front of her.
“Not at all. You’re right on time. I just got here a few minutes early.”
“Did you say you already purchased the tickets?” she asked, not sure about the right protocol for their casual business meeting. It should be fine if he already bought the tickets. He could expense it.
“Yes, I have the tickets,” he said, extending his hand toward the entrance. “Did you want anything from the refreshment stand?”
She nodded a little too eagerly. She would finally get to try all the movie-theater goodies. “Yes, but I’ll get them myself.”
“By all means. I’ll stand in line with you.”
Colin stood beside her, keeping a respectable distance between them. Very businesslike. Soon Jihae was lost in the wonderland of choices. In the end, she ordered a small popcorn, a Coke slushie and some peanut M&M’S. She peeked over to where Colin was ordering, curious about his selection. He only had a bottle of water and some red licorice. She must look like a junk-food glutton.
Oh, screw it. It might seem a bit unprofessional, but this was her first time at a public movie theater. She was going to live a little.
“Are you ready?” Colin asked, coming up to her. He was obviously holding back his amusement at her bounty.
“No, I’m not done ordering. How are the nachos?” she said and snorted at her own joke. Then she gasped in horror. Oh, Lord. She instinctively lifted her hand to cover her mouth, but she was holding her Icee, so she stuck her straw in her mouth and took a long sip. Her public persona had slipped way off at the wrong time in front of the wrong person. She was grateful she didn’t get a brain freeze in front of him on top of everything.
“Horrible, but the pretzels aren’t half-bad,” he answered in a level voice, though he was grinning from ear to ear.
“Shall we?” She arched an eyebrow and bit hard on her cheeks to hold back her answering smile.
“Yes, we’re in theater three. There are only three theaters here, so it’s easy to get around.” He quickly reined in his smile, but his eyes still sparkled with humor.
He led them to their seats in the center aisle and several rows back from the screen. It was perfect, and it was all she could do to contain her excitement. It wasn’t until they were seated and the lights went out that she noticed how close they were sitting. He definitely wasn’t man-spreading, but he was a big man and his leg grazed her knee when he shifted in his seat. God, it felt so good. She really was a sad, lonely woman to get turned on by an innocuous brush of his thigh against her leg.
Before she could spiral into one of her self-pitying moods, the previews filled the screen. She couldn’t help but critique the trailers, but she promised herself she would lose herself in the feature film, let herself feel the full impact of the screenplay.
She drank half of her slushie, and ate almost all of her M&M’S and popcorn before the movie started. She hadn’t eaten dinner, so she only felt a little guilty. Colin extended his box of red licorice to her, and she took one with a sheepish smile. She was doing a horrible job with her Princess Jihae persona. Was she trying to get him interested in her? No. Not possible. She wasn’t hard up enough to risk Rotelle Entertainment for a man. Definitely not that hard up. She ripped off a piece of her licorice with her mouth and chewed vigorously. This attraction. It would fade. She would just book a date with one of her vibrators. Some good solo fun would do the job.
When the feature film started, all thoughts of lust and dirty fun were replaced by joy, tears and laughter.
* * *
In the name of all things holy...
Jihae was so close to him that he could feel the heat radiating off her body. She smelled fantastic, and that laugh of hers was doing strange things to his heart rate. And the cracks in her icy demeanor did nothing to cool him down.
It struck Colin that he was sitting beside an actual human being with a sense of humor, empathy and dedication to her work. He couldn’t fit her into the spoiled-villainess role he’d created in his mind. Of course, he still didn’t trust her, but it had been the idea of her that he’d despised, not the real woman. He wouldn’t go so far as to say that he liked her, but he would be lying to himself if he said that she still made his skin crawl. The problem was she made his skin feel tight and sensitive with awareness. He couldn’t have those feelings toward her.
His smiles and charm weren’t exactly feigned, but he had the partnership in his mind. He had to make that happen in order to earn her trust, and have her drop her guard around him. He cringed inwardly at using her that way, but this was the path he’d chosen. Hopefully, she would let something useful slip.
Colin wasn’t going to seduce her—he would never do something that abhorrent—but he would befriend her if necessary. She’d only moved to the United States several months ago and couldn’t have made many friends with her famous workaholic tendencies. Besides, he wouldn’t be acting based purely on his ulterior motive. If all went well and they ended up working together, they needed to get along to be the most efficient and productive team they could be.