Nora wrinkled her nose. “He had to work. So annoying. I asked Tamara to go, too, but she already had plans. Why are my friends so lame?”
“Excellent question,” Blaire said, raising her glass.
Nora removed her trusty iPad and a stylus. Then, she opened a document, where she started shading in the barn at Wright Vineyard.
“Whoa, did you draw that?”
Nora waved her hand noncommittally. “Yeah.”
“It’s really good.”
“Nah, it’s just doodling. I like to draw all of my ideas for my clients. This is for Morgan and Patrick.” She turned the screen fully to me. “See how I want the chairs to be set up?” She flipped to the next page. “And this is the altar view.”
“Wow. Do you do this for all your weddings?”
“Not all of them, but the big ones, I include it in the package. You really like it?”
“Yeah. Did you do this for Peyton, too?”
“I didn’t. She didn’t ask for it. But I could! If you wanted to see it.”
“Not if it’s a lot of work.”
“Girl, I love it. It’s the best part of the job,” she said with a laugh.
Blaire leaned over. “Wow, Nora, you’re so good.”
Nora flushed. “Thanks. You think so?”
“Definitely. Would you be interested in designing some logos like this for Blaire Blush?”
Nora’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. I have Honey doing so much of the behind-the-scenes stuff, but she doesn’t have a design eye like this.”
“Oh, Honey,” I said with a laugh.
Blaire had gotten a new assistant at the beginning of the year. She’d been handling her Blaire Blush blog and all her social media platforms herself for so long that she claimed she didn’t need anyone. But when she took over Jennifer’s photography accounts, it had been too much. Enter Honey. Yes, that was what she asked to be called. Honey, despite the name, was a godsend for Blaire’s work. She’d had a few virtual assistants, but it was so much better to have someone in town.
“She’s nice,” Blaire said.
“She’s enthusiastic,” I offered.
“Maybe more accurate.”
“Hey, where’s your brother?” Julian called over the seat. “He was supposed to be here first.”
Nora held her hands out. “I don’t know. I’m not his keeper.”
“He has the tickets. So, we can’t leave without him,” Julian said.
“You were planning to leave without me?” Hollin asked as he climbed on board.
My mouth went dry. He looked…so fucking good. How could a man in jeans and a black T-shirt look like him? He shot me a half-smile filled with a dangerous energy that tore straight through me. I looked back down at Nora’s iPad and pretended not to notice.
“Course not,” Julian said. They clapped hands.
“You’re perpetually late right now,” Jordan said, low and slightly annoyed.
“Ah, Jor,” Hollin said, ruffling Jordan’s hair. Jordan looked ready to knock his teeth out for the gesture. He wasn’t exactly the kind of person used to being trifled with. “You know you love me.”
Jordan reared back from his hand. “You’re lucky I do.”
Annie chuckled. “Poor baby. Need me to fix your hair?”
He shot his fiancée a look, and her smile widened as she reached out to fix his hair. He grabbed both of her wrists. She squeaked as he kissed her.
Ugh. The level of cuteness. Sometimes, I was so jealous of other people’s happiness that it ate away inside of me. Blaire never seemed to care. Her followers liked that she was single. She got enough marriage proposals on the weekly that she felt perfectly loved. But I wanted that…that right there.
The guys joked around for a while as we prepared to take off. We looked over some more of Nora’s designs and then took our seats. I rummaged in my bag for my Kindle as we taxied down the runway. I was in the middle of Sierra Simone’s A Lesson in Thorns. The girls in my smut book club had recommended it, and I’d sunk into the story like inserting an IV into a vein.
We’d just lifted into the air when a voice spoke behind me. “Hey, what are you reading?”
I slapped the book down and looked into Hollin’s face. “What?”
“What’s the book?”
“Oh. Pride and Prejudice,” I lied.
It had become a common pastime. Not that I was ashamed of the amazing books I read. But everyone was always so weird about the fact that I liked romance and erotica. They said that I didn’t give off the right vibes. Whatever the hell that meant. Romance held the entire book industry afloat. It was single-handedly the best genre, and no one could convince me otherwise.
“Huh,” he said. “Is it good?”
“Sure. Darcy. Lizzy. Pemberley.”
I had read Pride and Prejudice in high school, but I was a bigger fan of the Keira Knightley version.
“Cool.” His eyes swept my face before he leaned back in his seat and started talking to his sister.
I turned away from him. Blaire arched an eyebrow, and I shrugged. I couldn’t explain Hollin Abbey.
With him occupied again, I pulled the book back up and began to read the sexiest truth-or-dare scene I’d ever read. A girl folded over a lap, skirt raised, getting spanked in front of all of her friends. I shifted in my seat and swallowed. Maybe this wasn’t the best choice to read around company.
“You’re free to move about the cabin,” the pilot said, coming over the speakers.
Jordan, Julian, and Hollin unbuckled their seat belts and went to sit on the couch. Blaire and Nora settled into seats nearby. I could sort of hear their murmurs about possible design logos. Jennifer had her camera out and was snapping shots of us all up here in the private jet. Annie was posing like a model. Blaire laughed and adjusted her arms and feet for proper posing.
I lost the train of the conversation as Auden and Poe in the book took control of my entire world. I licked my lips and squeezed my legs together. I wanted to stop reading, so I wouldn’t be this turned on, and I also had no interest in stopping at all. If I were home, I’d slip my hand into my jeans and get off right then and there. But…there was no chance of that here.
I was so consumed in my own world that I didn’t even notice that Hollin had moved from his seat with the Wright brothers. Not until I felt his eyes reading over my shoulder.
“Well,” he breathed, “that isn’t the Pride and Prejudice I read.”
My heart galloped ahead at the words. I was turning to castigate him for reading over my shoulder when plucked the Kindle out of my hand. I could barely react as he took the little Paperwhite in his massive hands.
“Hollin,” I protested. “Give that back.”
“What are you reading?”
I came to my feet, glaring. “Give. It. Back.”
The others were looking at us now. Color was coming to my cheeks. They were going to ask. I’d have to explain. Jennifer knew what kind of books I read because she sometimes borrowed them from me. She wasn’t in this particular smut book club though. Too dirty for her poor sensibilities.
“Hollin, stop being a jerk,” Nora admonished.