Page 36 of Perfect (mis)Match

She drifted off to sleep while I spent the next hour answering emails. I finally succumbed to my own exhaustion and closed my eyes for what I’d assumed would be a cat nap. To my surprise, I didn’t wake up until the pilot announced our descent.

Piper and I both stretched and repositioned ourselves as the cabin pressure shifted.

“I guess we both needed that,” she laughed.

It was rare that I let myself go and slept. Piper was right, I must’ve been more tired than I’d realized.

“I’m going to go freshen up,” Piper said.

I followed suit, because I had a feeling Jean and Joe were going to be waiting for us when we landed. I felt prickly about the hands-on-ness of the trip, but I was willing to do whatever was necessary to secure my blooms.

Except horseback riding.

We settled back in our seats, the soft hum of the plane filling the silence between us. Piper glanced over at me with that familiar provocative glint in her eyes.

“So, how good of an actor are you, really?” she asked.

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, we’re supposed to be in love, right?” She smirked. “You think you can pull it off?”

“We’ve done it before, haven’t we?”

“Oh, please…we’ve pretended for a couple of hours. This is different. This is therealshow.”

“Are you doubting my ability to pretend?”

She shrugged, but I could see the challenge in her expression. “I’m just saying…We’ll be in close quarters for an extended period of time. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not get called out for being a bad actor. Maybe we should…”

“Should what?”

She gave me a wicked grin. “Maybe we should practice.”

My heart kicked into overdrive, because I had a feeling I knew what she meant. “Practice?”

“Yeah. Work out how we’re going to show that we’re really in love.” Her voice was so casual, like we were talking about the weather, but her face…

Her sweet face was so open and beautiful in that moment, so thoroughly kissable that I had to force myself to keep my hands to myself. I wasn’t sure exactly what she was suggesting, but I could almost guarantee it wasn’t kissing. No matter how badly I wanted it to be.

“And how would we go about it?” I asked, my voice coming out lower than I intended.

“We could try a baby step…” she reached over and slid her hand into mine.

I reflexively closed my hand on top of hers, relishing how we fit together.

“Not too bad, huh?” Piper asked.

I grinned at her understatement. “Not at all.”

In fact, it felt so good, so right, that it made me feel impetuous. I pulled her closer and paused when she was just inches away.

“How’s this for romance?” I whispered, watching her face closely to make sure I hadn’t misread what she wanted.

Bold Piper was suddenly shy, her cheeks flushing a soft pink as she looked up at me. But she didn’t move away, and it was enough of a greenlight for me to close the gap between us and press my lips to hers.

Thesweetness. It was a brush of a kiss, but it was enough to make me imagine what could come next. We pulled apart slowly, right as the plane touched down.

“Welcome to Hawaii,” I whispered, my lips still tingling from the kiss.

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