“Are you okay?” he asked, leaning toward her.
She looked into his bedroom brown eyes as his gaze seemed to scan her features with a slow, thorough caress. “I’m fine. At least we got a direct flight to LA.”
He returned her smile. “All five hours’ worth. The only good part about it is that I’m spending them with you.”
His words made her feel good inside. “Not sure how much company I’ll be. Long flights put me to sleep.”
He leaned closer and whispered, “If you go to sleep on my watch, I’ll retaliate and keep you up all night when we get to LA.”
Kelly gave him a cheeky grin. “Don’t expect me to complain if you do.”
He threw his head back and laughed, and she loved the sound. It brought pleasure to her heart. “What would you be doing about now if you weren’t on this business trip?” she asked him.
“That’s easy to answer. I would be out on the golf course.”
“You play golf every Sunday?”
“Just about. Either golf or tennis. I enjoy both. Do you know how to play?”
She shook her head. “Golf never interested me. However, I did take tennis lessons as a child. They were fun.”
He nodded. “What else did you do while growing up?”
She shrugged. “All the usual girly stuff. I played with dolls and had pretend tea parties with them. When I got older, I took dance classes and piano lessons. And I was a cheerleader in high school.”
“Any boyfriends?” he asked.
“Hmm…there was Derrick. He was on the football team, and we dated in my senior year. It wasn’t terribly serious. It was just the thing to do at the time.”
He lifted a brow. “The thing to do?”
“Yes. I was a cheerleader, so that meant I needed a boyfriend to cheer for at the games.”
Colton grinned. “I think you were supposed to cheer for the entire team, Kelly, not any particular player.”
“Too late to correct me now. Did you play football in high school?”
“Yes, in high school and in college. All three of us did. In fact, Cortez was the captain of our high school football team.”
“Did the three of you attend the same college?” she asked.
He nodded. “We all got our bachelor’s degrees from Harvard. Cortez decided to remain there for law school. I got my MBA from Vanderbilt, and Cobra went to graduate school at Georgetown.”
She nodded. “So, what about you? Did you have a girlfriend in high school?”
He didn’t say anything for a minute, and it looked like he was thinking. “If you did have one, she must not have meant much to you if you have to think so hard to remember her,” she spoke up and said.
“You’re wrong. Ivonne meant a great deal to me at the time, and I remember her fondly. We dated my entire senior year.”
Was that pain she heard in his voice? “What happened?” she asked, as if she had every right to know.
“She accused me of something that I didn’t do.”
This time, Kelly was certain she had not only heard pain but also irritation. “What?” she asked.
He paused before answering. “She claimed that I’d slept with another girl behind her back. That’s the lie the girl told her. I denied it, but she didn’t believe me.”
“Did she ever find out the truth?” she asked, studying his features.
