and I didn’t want to fucking let her go. If seeing her ex was the way that she’d realized we were finally dating, I guessed I’d take that.
My hand slipped lower to the hem of her skirt and then ran up her leg. I pressed her back into the kitchen counter. She made a breathy sound of protest but kept kissing me. I wanted to go further, heft her up onto the granite countertop, hike her skirt up, and take her right here.
Just as I considered how to do that fast enough so we wouldn’t be interrupted, a throat cleared behind us. We pulled apart, and I found Emery standing in the entrance.
“The game started,” she said with a gleam in her eye.
“Thanks,” Annie said breathlessly. “We’ll be right there.”
Emery nodded, grabbing a water out of the fridge and disappearing again.
Annie tilted her head back and laughed. “Whoops.”
“I have no regrets.”
“Me either,” she said, pressing a kiss to my lips again. “But we should probably go.”
“Yeah, I need to see if I won any of these.” I dug the tickets out of my pocket.
Annie laughed and grabbed a few of them, reading them to herself. “Oh, perfect! I want the jackpot!”
I grinned at her as she headed back toward the living room. But then I snagged her before she walked through the doorway.
“What?” she asked, looking up from the tickets.
“If I’m your boyfriend now,” I said carefully, “can I make a request of you?”
She arched an eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”
“I want to go to Seattle with you.”
She startled. “For my interview?”
“Yeah. A lot of my friends live in Seattle, and I haven’t seen most of them in a few years. Plus, I wouldn’t mind getting away with my girl.”
She melted. “With your girl?”
“Yeah. What do you think? We could go early and see the city.”
“Well, I already have my ticket and room. I don’t think that I could get it moved,” she said, worry coming to her voice.
“Why don’t you let me take care of all of that?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Why does that concern me?”
“Come on. You’ve always wanted to see Seattle. Let me show you.”
She wavered for a second before nodding. “I’d love that.”
Part IV
The Boyfriend
24
Annie
Jordan had promised to “take care” of everything for this trip to Seattle. In fact, he’d told me to cancel my flight and the hotel I’d booked near Harborview Medical Center. The hospital was near downtown Seattle and the site of the University of Washington’s emergency medicine residency program. I wasn’t exactly sad about the hotel. It was the cheapest option that I could find in the area that wasn’t a total dump. But still, I’d chosen it, and I didn’t know what Jordan would choose.
We were in his truck at some ungodly hour. I held my coffee mug tight to my body, promising to never forsake it. We took the turnoff for the airport, and my knee jiggled nervously. I twirled my claddagh ring around and around and around in between sips of coffee.
Jordan just smiled at me. He could tell that I was nervous, but it wasn’t about us. I actually felt pretty great about us at this point. I’d been avoiding it for so long, but now that we were dating, we fit together perfectly. Like we were always meant to do this.
It was more that I liked being in control. I’d been one of those weirdos who hated surprises and snuck in to find out what my Christmas presents were so that I didn’t have to wait. And now, I wanted to know all the secrets he held up his sleeve.
Instead of heading into the regular airport, Jordan directed me to another entrance.
“What’s this?”
“You’ll see,” he said.
I could do nothing but follow. We walked through a small security area that I’d never seen before and then directly onto the tarmac.
I froze in place.
“Jordan,” I whispered.
He smiled brilliantly, that blinding smile. “Come on, Annie.”
“What are you doing?”
“Flying you to Seattle.”
“Yourself?” I squeaked.
He laughed. “No, I’m not flying the plane, but we are taking the Wright jet.”
“We’re flying private?”
He walked back to me and put an arm around my waist. “I told you that I’d take care of it.”
“I’ve never flown private. This is…too much.”
“It’s really nothing. Jensen uses it primarily to see Colton. He wasn’t flying this weekend, so he said it was free.”
“Jordan,” I groaned again.
It was one thing to know that your boyfriend was a billionaire with a private jet. It was another thing to