Page 40 of My Forbidden Boss

“Sorry, ma'am… I was just trying to keep things professional.”

My eyes rolled hard, threatening to remain permanently stuck, staring into the back of my own skull. Hollis turned back to the plane’s front and moved into the Wyoming sunlight at the open hatch.

I followed, watching his broad back angle down the stairs in front of me before taking the steps behind him to the tarmac below.

“Just… ugh. Just use, ‘Tisha,’ alright? None of that, ‘ma'am,’ shit either.”

I covered my eyes from the sun and inwardly suppressed an impressed gasp as I reached the asphalt runway and caught sight of our next transportation mode, a beautiful, sleek sports car, one that I had only ever seen in a magazine.

“Whatever you say… Tish.”

I wriggled the smile away from my lips as Hollis turned, sliding my door open as I approached.

He feigned confusion. “What? Did you think we were going to take the bus?”

I caved, completely losing any sense of quiet control I held over my expression. I beamed attentively, feeling the dimples deepen on my cheeks as a warm feeling of being wooed washed over me.

Hollis’s eyes seemed to smolder at me.

Their gaze followed me as I carefully stepped into the car, watching as his hand lightly shut the shining door between us. Hollis elegantly walked around and swung in behind the steering wheel, slinging his seatbelt on before eyeing the vehicle’s electronic ignition button with devilish intent.

Softly he pressed, offering only the touch of an angel’s breath to send the car’s rows of cylinders roaring into life.

With the corresponding thunder rolling over my skin and the car’s trembling vibrations teasing up my legs, I looked over, taken aback and breathless.

Hollis’s stare was steady and unapologizing, unassuming, but also unafraid.

“I’m a pretty simple guy, Tish… but every once in a while…”

He paused, intently leaning his lips closer to mine.

“ Every once in a while, I just want to go fast.”

Hollis grinned, kicking the clutch and dropping the car violently into gear, coursing chaos through the growling engine and pushing me powerfully into the padded seat behind me.

Laughing and shrieking, I was overcome by a sudden influx of delight mixed with fear. Squealing tires and frantic acceleration kept me deaf to the sound of my own voice; an unbridled shout full of shock and surprise, but nowhere close to considering, ‘Stop!’ Desperately, I glanced over at Hollis, with a feeling of concern, but found him casual and confident, albeit totally concentrating on the task at hand. With controlled abandon, he sped us faster and faster away from the plane, hurtling us forward down the open black runway like a rocket just waiting to turn skyward to the very limits of space.

Hollis

I raised my voice, doing my best to make sure that Tisha would hear me over the roar of the engine while also trying to keep it from sounding like I was shouting at her.

“Do you want me to stop?!”

With the quick glances of a metronome, I looked back and forth from her shirking figure in the seat at my side to the glowing dials just beyond my firmly clenched wrists.

She was scared. I could see it in her eyes all too clearly. Moreover, I was still trying to figure out if there was any anger to sense there.

I kept speeding the car forward, subconsciously guided by my own feeling of fear mounting. Unlike Tisha’s, mine didn’t have much to do with the impromptu drag race.

I had indeed intended it as both a show of spontaneity and as a means of scaring her, but not maliciously so. Instead, it was my way of shocking her, of catching her off guard and, hopefully, as a means toward convincing Tisha that the two of us might possibly be seen as more than just a couple of coworkers. If I could spur her into having a good time and show her how naturally we could have fun together, I figured she might have an easier time seeing something starting between us.

If I can get her laughing and us bonding before she even has the opportunity to withdraw behind one of her walls, or fall back on some excuse, then us getting together might no longer just be my idea.

So, no, Tisha was not the only one reeling from a rapid rush of fear as we careened across the airport taxiways, comfortable as I was in control behind the wheel. Once again, I was going with my gut, betting blind. To slow down might stem her fright and, if my worries were confirmed and worse emotions indeed lurked beneath Tisha’s unmistakable aura of alarm, then any formerly subdued fury behind those eyes might just need such a drop in speed to be realized, and aim my way.

So, yes, I was afraid, but mine was not at all like hers. Tisha was terrified of crashing, probably having already imagined it rocketing into some unseen barrier and bursting the whole steel coffin up into gas-fueled flames. My fear, meanwhile, was of wrecking the chance to strike down whatever barriers Tisha had already shown to be between us.

As I continued to glance over, waiting for her response, there did indeed look to be something more hiding behind Tisha’s scared stare. With every glimpse I shot her way, each like another photograph taken in a series, she seemed closer and closer to edging her vision away from the scary scene swirling toward us from the windshield.

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