“Because...”
“We’re opposites.” She reached out and traced a finger along his jaw. “For all the ways we seem to be perfect for each other? We’re really, truly opposites. You can’t tell me you’d have sought me out in a crowded room if we’d been left to our own devices.”
“I’d like to think I would have.” An unfamiliar pang in his chest told him he wasn’t being honest with himself.
Or her.
When he was alone in bed in the middle of the night, he’d look at the truth more closely. Until then? It was something he’d tuck away and let lie.
“What are your aspirations for Power Match?” Rachel asked, shifting to reach for a sausage on his plate.
He picked it up and fed it to her from his fingertips, trying to keep his mind on the conversation. “I’d like to see the app replace Date Me as the number one app that singles, particularly corporate singles, use to find their perfect partner.”
“You’ll need to work out the glitch. Oh, come on. You know we’re a glitch.” She scooted closer and snuggled into his side, easing the sting of her words. “The best glitch ever.”
But still,by her admission, a glitch.
Unwilling to go down that path, he set aside his plate, flipped the covers back, stood and stretched. “Well, my sexy glitch, what do you say we abandon this fine establishment and go see as much of this city as we can before we’re required to return to real life?”
Rachel scrambled out of bed and reached for her little suitcase filled with new clothes, retrieving what were unquestionably his favorite pair of jeans on her and a heavy wool sweater. “Let’s blow this Popsicle stand.”
“What do you want to see first?”
“Everything,” she answered as she pulled her sweater over her head.
“I’ll do my best,” he declared.
And he meant it.
They spent the day exploring as much of Dublin as they could on foot before, with more regret than he could ever have anticipated, it was time for them to gather their things and head to the airport, where his corporate jet waited.
They talked the entire way home, arguing at times over differences of opinion. He loved that she had no problem holding her position, even if he battered her beliefs with irrefutable facts. She didn’t cave, held firm and gave as well as she got.
The woman was one in a million.
She slept the last leg of the trip, rousing only when he woke her for their descent into LaGuardia.
“How are we here? I just went to sleep,” she mumbled into her pillow.
“That was three hours ago.”
“Whatever.” She buried her face in her pillow.
“C’mon, Rachel. You know the drill.” He hooked an arm around her shoulders and sat her up, using his free hand to lean her seat forward. “Seat in the upright and locked position.”
“Blah, blah, blah.” She scrubbed her hands over her face. “What good is being rich if you have to follow all the rules?” she grumbled.
“You’re cute when you’re irritated.”
“Then I ought to be damn precious right about now.”
He grinned. “You are.”
“Don’t patronize a sleepy woman. I need coffee first.”
He laughed, warming when she turned away to hide her answering smile.
The lights of New York City were brilliant, reflecting off the overcast sky so that the city itself appeared to glow.