Page 72 of The Acquisition

"Can't wait," I grumped.

The flight attendant reentered the cabin moments after I'd pulled my dress down over my hips. Her face turned red as I quickly smoothed my skirt down the rest of the way.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Mr. Greyson. The captain sent me to tell you we're about to land."

"Thank you, Ms. Valle. We'll return to our seats," he promised.

I resettled in my seat and turned to the window to finally learn where he'd taken me. The clouds barely started to part as we descended when Colt slammed the shade closed.

"Anticipation," he chided.

* * *

The plane taxied down the runway. Before the flight attendant could open the door, Colt slipped a blindfold over my eyes.

I grumbled some colorful words under my breath. In a louder voice I said, "If you say one more word about anticipation I'm going to get violent."

His teeth pressed into my neck under my ear, and I shivered. "It turns me on when you get feisty," he whispered.

"How am I supposed to exit the plane if I can't see the stairs?" I complained.

"Like this." All the air was pushed out of my lungs when he tossed me over his shoulder.

"You're taking this whole surprise thing too far, don't you think?"

Colt swatted me on my ass. "Let me have my fun," he scolded.

I braced myself as I jostled back and forth on his shoulder. Each step down he took, my fingers shook with the urge to pull the blindfold off.

Finally, he set me down inside a car. "Can I look now?"

"Pa—"

An irritated grunt escaped me. "I know,patience."

We rode in silence for a while. Every time I opened my mouth to ask when we'd get where we were going I heard his voice in my head stressing the benefits of anticipation.

When my phone started ringing, I groped blindly trying to find my bag. I managed to get ahold of my device when another problem occurred to me. I couldn't see to answer the call.

"A little help?" I held out the phone in Colt's general direction.

"Taking calls on our honeymoon isn't very romantic," he griped.

"Honeymoon?" Suddenly his need to surprise me made more sense.

Colt's hand brushed across mine as he took the phone from me. "Just this once, then we turn our phones off for a few days."

"Hello, Care," he greeted.

"I need to speak to Jana."

"You're on speaker," he said at the same time I said, "I'm here."

Caroline sighed on the other end of the line. "The Easton Corporation board is making moves against Maxwell. Apparently, the losses for the Vodka campaign were much more damaging to the bottom line of the entire corporation than you thought."

"What does this mean for my claim to the company?" As the words came out of my mouth, I wasn't even sure I wanted to take over Easton Corporation.

It was what I expected growing up, but now that I was on the precipice of taking the reins, I wasn't sure it was what I actually wanted.