“My cabin. I have a cabin in the woods in Washington state. Wow. That wasn’t so hard.”
She couldn’t help but smile back. “So, you went to your cabin to decompress?”
“Decompressing was the plan. That’s not what happened, though.” A shadow seemed to pass over his face. A shadow and a plea. For some reason, the change in his expression made her nervous. She shifted her weight. Even in flats she had an inch of height on him.
“Look,” he said, voice hurried and low. “In the interest of truth and trust, I need to tell you something.”
Rosie’s stomach clenched into a ball. See? her subconscious jeered.
“Something…intimate…almost happened with my neighbor. Almost. I need you to hear that word.”
She was no longer smiling. What the hell had been the correct response. Tate, as her client, had no business kissing her. Rosie, as his architect, had no business liking it. They both knew better.
His finger brushed against her wrist. “Rosie?”
She silently cursed the ice forming in her stomach. The kiss had been a blip. Tate was just her client. His admission shouldn’t hurt so badly. “What?”
“What’s going on between us?”
A bit of her anger dissolved at the question, and the soothing circles he was drawing on her wrist with his thumb. “I don’t know,” she admitted. Tate certainly felt like more than a client. More than a blip.
“I know you wouldn’t be upset by what I just told you if you didn’t feel for me what I’m feeling for you.”
“How can you feel anything for me?” she deflected. “We don’t know each other that well.”
“I don’t know how I feel so drawn to you. I just know that I do.” He leveled his gaze at her. “When I got to my cabin, I learned that Donovan, my neighbor, my friend, had died. On the heels of losing George, his loss hurt.” He exhaled. “I wanted closeness. Comfort. Maisie offered it. But I can’t tell you how glad I am that nothing happened. Wouldn’t have been fair to any of us when the only person I’ve been thinking about is you.”
Longing flashed through her veins at those words. But longing was dangerous. “I’m sorry for your double loss. Truly. But you kissed me. I think I’m allowed to be unhappy that you almost slept with your neighbor afterward.”
If she was being generous, she’d say Tate gave her a half smile. Right then she was learning toward calling it a smirk. “I kissed your neck. If I’d have kissed you properly, like I wanted to, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. I never would have left the parking lot because I wouldn’t have been able to stop kissing you.”
Rosie tried to glare at him. “Not true. You would have gone to Florida. You would have done the right thing.”
Definitely a smirk. “You’re ruining my romantic moment.”
His smirk faded when she didn’t respond. She shouldn’t be having a romantic moment with anyone, regardless of how quickly Tate had felt like someone. She hadn’t healed yet.
“You do have a right to be upset,” he agreed, tone slipping back into seriousness. “I’m sorry.”
Rosie sighed, giving in just a little. He could have just almost slept with his neighbor and kept silent. She tried to see Tate’s confession for what it was. “Fine. I guess it’s not fair to punish you for something that didn’t happen when we’re nothing but colleagues.”
His brows drew together. “Nothing but colleagues? You know that’s not true, Rosie.”
“Why me?” Truly, she needed to know. Tate was gorgeous, a billionaire businessman in an elite field. Why an out-of-town architect with serious trust issues?
“Truthfully?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“You’ve awakened something in me. I want to see where it goes.”
Rosie’s stomach tumbled. Did she want that same clarity?
Smiling, his lips brushed the top of her hand. His voice was so low she had to lean in to catch his words. “We always have an after-party at The Saloon in town after the first test flight of a campaign. Stay?”
The effect of his touch and his honesty on her resolve told her she shouldn’t. The bloom in her belly told her otherwise.
“I’m not sure I can. My dad drove me here.” She cringed. “Yikes. Sounds so middle school when I say that out loud.”
Tate chuckled. “I wouldn’t know. I barely attended the last académie my parents thrust me into.” He smiled knowingly. “If your dad is an out, you can take it. If not, you can take my jet back to San Diego tonight or tomorrow morning, or Sunday for that matter. Your choice.”
The crowd Rosie had forgotten surrounded them began to surge toward Stratos. The noise of the engines and the crowd grew louder, but the spell she was under hadn’t broken.
She sighed. She must be crazy, because she wanted to see where this dance led, too. “I’ll stay for one drink.”
10
It was a party mostly for Chen, but the man of the hour was nowhere to be seen. Didn’t matter. Tate wouldn’t have been looking at him anyway. Not with Rosie there.
After executing a perfect test flight to the Karman Line and back, Tate was sure Chen had gone in search of Elle. Tate was no dummy. He saw the two of them dancing around each other. He had no rules in place at OrbitAll about interoffice dating. He wasn’t his mother. If OrbitAll brought his team in contact with like-minded people they wanted to get to know better, so be it. He was curious to see what happened between his pilot and the experiential planner who seemed driven crazy by him more often than not. If a work-based relationship worked for them, maybe it would work for him, too. Maybe love and legacy could go hand in hand. Maybe one didn’t have to be at the expense of the other.
Maybe.
He watched as Rosie giggled with Quinn and some of the engineers. She was on her third bottle of pale ale. Her cheeks glowed pink and her sweet smile seemed permanent. He loved her soft, dressed-down look. The jeans allowed him to learn the outlines of her. Her short-sleeved top highlighted long, graceful arms. The flats brought her closer to his height: Tate stood at five-nine; Rosie was at least five-ten. He wasn’t bothered by their reverse height difference if she wasn’t.
When he brought his eyes back to her face, he realized she was watching him. He returned her resolute gaze, warmth growing in his gut. He sipped his whiskey as she sauntered over and plunked down on the stool next to him, their legs tangling as she got situated.
He stroked the silky skin of her wrist because he couldn’t help himself. He was glad she’d stayed, even if she didn’t end up staying longer than her “one drink.” “Are you enjoying yourself?”
“Immensely.”
He chuckled, leaning closer so she could hear him in the crowded bar. OrbitAll had taken over the whole place, and engineers could get surprisingly rowdy. “I have a serious question.” He paused for effect. “What do you think your patronus would be?”
She gasped, her perfect lips parting over straight, white teeth. Fuck, he wanted to kiss her. “Oh, my gosh! Did you actually read Harry Potter?”
“Books one through three before I needed to come back.”