I smiled. “Then, I’d like for you to join me.”
I just hoped the chicken and pasta wouldn’t give me gas. That might turn him into a mouth-breather.
We kept up a steady stream of conversation for the entire flight. It was amazing how quickly seven and a half hours could pass.
I had learned that Ollie had grown up in both Brazil and England and that he spoke fluent Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, German, and French, in addition to Dutch. He was the oldest of four children, having a younger brother and two sisters. He was twenty-six, and he seemed genuinely surprised when I told him I was twenty-nine.
“I thought you were younger,” he said, his eyes sparkling with warmth. “I figured maybe twenty-three, twenty-four.”
His gaze roamed over my face, looking for telltale signs that I was approaching thirty, I supposed.
We discovered we had similar taste in music, and we shared my iPod for a few songs after I’d located the earbuds lurking around in a smaller pouch inside my bag. I told him of a few places in New York I planned to hit up for live music. He seemed interested in checking them out.
Before I realized it, the captain was announcing that we’d be making our final descent.
“I guess I should go back to my seat then,” Ollie said, not looking happy at having to do so.
“It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I told him with a smile. I had thoroughly enjoyed this man’s company.
He smiled back at me. “Likewise, Xanthe.”
Considering we had reached our destination, I figured Ollie would decide to move on from our meeting, but as we made our way off the plane and into the terminal, he caught up to me and walked with me through customs to baggage claim. We didn’t say much to one another, but it was a comfortable silence.
Big and handsome, he stood next to me at the luggage carousel, scratching at his beard.
Spotting my suitcase, I stepped forward to retrieve it when his graceful large hand closed around the handle, partially enclosing my own. The feel of his warm, dry skin against mine passed a thrill into me. My eyes darted to his, and the smile he gave me was cute. My brain went into a desperate form of overdrive, hoping he’d felt it, too.
“Thank you,” I told him when he set my luggage down next to me.
“Are you staying at The Plaza?” he asked, keeping an eye on the carousel.
“I am,” I replied.
His smile made my heart skip a beat. “Want to share a cab?”
My heart picked up in rhythm, and heat crept from my chest to my cheeks. “That’d be great.”
His gaze flickered toward me, catching my blush, and I thought he enjoyed the sight of it because his eyes twinkled.
“Why are you blushing?”
“I really have no idea,” I replied, miffed that he’d called me out on it.
“All right,” he said, a shit-eating grin on his face now.
Irksome, that smirk.
Perhaps I should just forget about all of this and head out on my own anyway. It would serve him right. I could now see the bastard knew he was a good-looking fellow, and no doubt, he’d noticed the fact that I found him a little more than attractive.
Instead, I busied myself with attaching my carry-on to my suitcase as he hefted his own suitcase off the carousel. When I finished, I looked up to find him watching me.
“Do you have plans tonight?” he asked.
“Oh, um…” Racking my brain for my schedule, I knew my day would be full, but… “No, I don’t think so.”
“Would you have dinner with me?”
“Really?”
He gave me a startled look. “Well, yeah. I don’t know anyone here besides you. It would be nice not to eat alone.”
So, not in a date sort of way then. “Oh. Yeah, sure.”
We made our way out of baggage claim, into the late October morning sunshine, to the taxi line. Within minutes, our luggage was stuffed in the boot of a cab, and we were sitting side by side in the backseat. Through the pungent fumes of the city and some ripe weirdness that was the taxi, I could faintly detect Ollie’s lovely scent.
It took nearly another hour to get to the hotel, and by the time we made it, I was beat. It was only nine in the morning, and I had a full day of meetings with Dreamstone and lawyers ahead of me. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep.
Ollie and the cab driver pulled our luggage, and a bellhop quickly came and stacked the suitcases on a baggage cart. Before I could think about it, Ollie had paid the driver.
“Here,” I said, fishing through my bag, once more in search of my wallet.
He waved his hand at me, signaling for me not to bother. “It’s nothing, Xanthe. I’m happy to.”
“At least let me pay for half,” I insisted.
He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.”
Dreamstone had already taken the initiative to check us into our rooms the day before, so all we had to do was pick up our keys at the front desk. Normally, check-in wasn’t until three o’clock.
“I have the photo shoot in about an hour,” he mentioned to me as the concierge handed him his room key.
Ollie ended up with a deluxe suite on the fourteenth floor. I guessed he was higher up on the food chain than I was with my ordinary Plaza room on the tenth floor.
Pfft.
“Are you excited?” I asked, hopeful that he was at least looking forward to something new.
He shrugged. I’d take that as a no then.
“What time do you start today?” he asked.
“Eleven. I have enough time to wash off the travel funk and head on out,” I replied.
Ollie bent down close to me, and I froze. I had no clue what he was up to, but then he sniffed me.
“You don’t smell too funky,” he said.
“Did you just sniff me?”
“I did.”
A snort of laughter burst out of me. Horrified, I covered my mouth with my hand. Ollie’s eyes widened, but then his face broke into a toothy grin, and he chuckled.
The bellhop stood by the front desk, patiently waiting for us to get over our sniffing business.
“Can I see your phone?” Ollie asked.
Digging it out of my front pocket, I handed it to him. I had turned it on after leaving the plane. Ollie was no novice when it came to other people’s phones, so it seemed, and I watched as he tapped what I could only assume was his number into it.
Then, I heard his phone ring in his pocket, and a sly grin spread across his heavily bearded face.
Sneaky shit!
He’d stolen my number from me.
“I’ll call you later about dinner,” he told me as I narrowed my eyes at him.
“You could’ve just asked for it, you know.”
“True, but it was more fun this way.”
In the elevator, he stood close to me, but that was mainly because the bellhop was with us, taking up the majority of the space.
Is it really that warm in here? I was starting to sweat in odd areas, especially under my boobs. I could smell Ollie even more intensely than I had before, and it was doing me in. My shower would undeniably be a cold one.
On the tenth floor, I stepped out, and the bellhop took my suitcase, leading the way to my room, while Ollie saved the elevator.
“I’ll be in touch,” he softly told me.
My face broke out in a grin, and I gave him a dorky little wave. “Sounds good.”