Tell Me You're Mine (The British Billionaires #1) - J. S. Scott Page 0,23

wouldn’t be fair to her. Just. Let. Go. It’s better that way.

And just like that, the aircraft door opened, and that fleeting moment of opportunity was gone.

I shrugged off my disappointment.

I didn’t want to be the tosser who hurt her feelings.

I’d rather just be…nothing. A brief encounter that she’d soon forget.

Waving her in front of me, I watched as she gripped her suitcase and went toward the exit.

The woman moved with purpose, her ample hips swaying, a fact that made her look elegant, even though she was still dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt.

I followed behind her as we both headed toward the baggage claim, wondering if I was going to regret not getting one last taste of Nicole before we parted.

“Bloody hell. I regret it already,” I grumbled under my breath as Nicole’s long-legged strides carried her into the crowd and out of sight.

CHAPTER 8

Nicole

Kylie: Waiting in a no-waiting zone. Hurry!

I SMILED DOWN AT the text. It wasn’t unusual for Kylie to be parked illegally, but she’d gotten so many parking tickets in the last year that she was actually starting to be more cautious.

I spied my bag the moment I got to the baggage claim, and hefted it off the belt.

Two seconds later, I was sprinting, two suitcases in tow, to get to the pickup area. If Kylie was forced to circle the airport, it could take forever for her to get back to me again. It didn’t matter that I had an evening arrival. LAX traffic was pretty much a nightmare at any time of the day.

I was breathless by the time I got outside and to the curb, but I kept moving toward the median since there was no curbside pickup.

Even if I’d wanted to, there hadn’t been time for me to find Damian and say goodbye.

Part of me was relieved that the farewell opportunity hadn’t been there. No doubt it would have been awkward, and since I was the queen of being ill at ease, that moment was better off avoided.

“Nic! I’m here!” The forceful female voice called out just as I spotted my best friend.

Kylie was waving a hand in the air at the back of her older Honda Accord, the trunk already opened for my luggage.

“Welcome home,” she said jovially as I tossed my suitcases in the trunk.

We hugged hurriedly before we jumped into the vehicle. “I’m glad to be home,” I said with a sigh.

“Bad flight?” she asked with a frown.

I shook my head as I put my seat belt on. “No. It was fine. I just…”

“Come on, Nic. Tell me. I’ve known you since kindergarten. It’s not like I can’t tell when something’s wrong. I know the presentation didn’t go the way you wanted it to go, but you’d normally be over something like that pretty fast.”

“Not necessarily. It was bad. And it was a very large deal to blow. It would expand the entire company if we went international. Especially with an initial client like Lancaster International.”

Honestly, I hadn’t actually thought much about my botched presentation after I’d told Damian about it.

He had completely distracted me.

The loss of the deal hadn’t even crossed my mind when I’d woken up near the end of the flight, either. I’d been too mortified about what had happened before I’d fallen asleep.

Kylie put the car into gear, but we didn’t move very far. The entire area was like a very large parking lot, so we were going to be inching along until we got outside the pickup area and onto the freeway.

“Spill it,” she demanded. “I heard about the scandal that happened right before your presentation. But I know this isn’t about the meeting.”

Sometimes I really hated the fact that Kylie could read me like a book. “It’s nothing really bad. I just met this guy on the plane. I’m not sure what happened, exactly. I just had this…weird instant attraction to him. That’s never happened to me before.”

She snorted. “It’s happened to me plenty of times, and it never ends all that well. After you satisfy your insta-lust, you usually find out the guy can’t carry on an intelligent conversation. So what was he like?”

“Very tall. Dark. Handsome. British.”

Kylie squealed. “See, I told you. That sexy British accent will turn a woman on every single time. Did you join the mile-high club with Mr. Orgasm?”

I turned my head to glare at her, but it was hard to see her face clearly in the dark. “You’re kidding, right?” Like I was