“I’m not going to be able to convince you, so how about you talk to the manager yourself?” he suggested. “You’ll see that I’m not lying.”
“Whatever you say, Simon.”
Her tone was infuriating him, but he didn’t push the subject. The room mix-up hadn’t made her angry and, best of all, it had helped to reunite them. He couldn’t have planned it better if he’d tried. Right now, the best thing to do was let her reach out to him. Let her set the pace for whatever was going to happen.
Simon didn’t want to push her so much that it scared her off again. If that meant he wouldn’t reveal the depth of his feelings just yet, he would have to find a way to live with it.
“Can you stay the night?” she asked, her cheeks turning pink. “We don’t have to do anything, it’s just that I sleep easier when you’re around.”
“Sure.” He smiled and kicked off his shoes, glad to hear that she wanted him around. With his shoes off, he climbed into bed and gathered her in his arms.
She smiled up at him, her hazel eyes lighting up. Her lips found his and she kissed him gently. Tenderly. It didn’t have the heat of their earlier, passionate kiss. This was a kiss that revealed her comfort with him.
It was then that he realized that Heather felt safe with him. Safe enough to reveal a secret side of her that few others knew existed. That gave him hope that maybe they really could have a future together after all.
When she pulled away from him, she sighed happily. “I doubt we’ll have much time for something like this tomorrow or the day after.”
“We’ve got a full schedule for tomorrow,” he said in agreement. “Let’s enjoy each other’s company tonight.”
“When we get back home to Seattle we can finally talk,” she said. “About us. About where we stand.”
She made it sound so easy, but his insides were already in knots. This talk meant that he was going to have to bare his soul to her. And Simon wasn’t sure he was brave enough to tell her he loved her and put his heart in her hands.
THE NEXT COUPLE OF days were a blur of contract signings and coming up with a campaign strategy for Blue Naught. Some of the marketing ideas were Linda’s, but Simon watched in awe as Heather came up with ideas on her own. She might not be his assistant anymore, but he still swelled with pride when she laid out her ideas.
Finally, on the last day, they grabbed their bags and took a taxi to the airport.
Hours later they were back in Seattle, and Simon found his electric car in the airport parking lot.
“I’ve got a meeting this afternoon at Dover,” he informed Heather. “If you need to come into the office today I can give you a ride.”
“I have to meet with Linda to talk about the trip.” She sighed. “I can’t wait to get some rest this weekend, because I’m exhausted.”
“Same here.” He helped her into the passenger seat and got into the driver’s seat beside her.
“Simon...” She paused as he started the car and drove out of the parking lot. “I know we haven’t gotten the chance to seriously talk about us, but when we go in to Dover this afternoon we have to be professional.”
“I know.”
“No, I mean, when we left we weren’t on the best terms,” she pointed out. “People knew that we had a tense relationship. If we go back looking all friendly, it’ll look suspicious.”
“Aren’t we friends?”
“Of course, we are, but we have reputations to protect. I assume you assured the board that we wouldn’t rekindle our relationship.”
He had tried to assure the board of that, but he recalled how that meeting had ended. With him revealing that he loved Heather and telling them all to go to hell. They couldn’t fire him over that, but it probably hadn’t helped Heather’s case with a scandal hanging over her head. She still hadn’t proven that she was innocent, and the board knowing that he loved her meant that the executives had serious leverage over him. Executives like Everett could use his love for her against him to punish her.
His grip on the wheel tightened and he cleared his throat. “Board members are very stubborn.”