There was a red splotch at the base of her throat to match the pink in her cheeks now, but her nipples were hard, too, two twin peaks pressing against the thin cotton of her T-shirt. At least he wasn’t the only one affected.
She stared up at him, the brown of her eyes darkening to almost black. “I might just have to leave you on the side of the road once we’re a few hours into the drive.”
“Very funny,” he said, amused by her attempt to scare him. “Like the drive is going to be hours.”
For the first time since he’d walked out of the passengers-only area, Hadley smiled. “Web didn’t tell you?”
His stomach sank, and that old familiar gurgle in his gut started. “Didn’t tell me what?”
Her smile got even bigger, transforming her entire face and making her eyes sparkle with undeniable glee. “We’re going to be at my family’s ranch all week.”
“Yeah, I knew that.” Cows. Grassland. Saddle sores and barn stink.
“It’s a five-hour drive from the airport.”
Each word came out slowly, like a tiny little bomb that hit harder than she could have realized. Since childhood, he’d been able to make it two hours tops before the car got to him and he puked his guts up. After five hours? His stomach was already rebelling at the hell that was before him.
Web had set him up, no doubt as an oversize punishment for Will giving him a slight case of food poisoning. So much for brotherly love.
“You’re kidding,” he finally managed to get out.
“Not even close.” She giggled, and the sound scared him more than anything else. “Get ready, city boy—you’re about to take a long drive in the country.”
This was not going to end well.
Chapter Five
The look on Will’s face when she’d told him how long the drive was going to be had been priceless. Seriously. Not even he could have afforded it. Hadley was going to treasure that oh-shit-what-have-I-done expression for the rest of her life.
Served the big jerk right, even if after an hour on the highway, he’d gone quiet and— She glanced over, and her stomach dropped. He had a distinctive green sheen to his face, his jaw had gone from square to rigid, and he kept flexing his fingers but otherwise remained perfectly still.
Oh shit.
“Are you okay?” she asked, breathing a sigh of relief when she spotted the gas station ahead sign, regret snipping at her for not noticing earlier that he was obviously in real misery, not the spoiled and bored kind.
“Perfect.” He gave her the smallest nod possible, maintaining a stick-straight posture. “As always.”
Lord have mercy. What, was he too rich and privileged to get car sick? Of course he would think so. The sun rose and set on his command.
“Are you ever not full of shit?” And to think she’d felt bad for him for a whole half a second before he went all Will Holt on her.
He turned in his seat, winced, and then let out a shaky breath. “Like you’re one to talk.”
She side-eyed him. “What does that mean?”
“We both know why you are so-called friends with Web.”
“Because we actually are?” They had been pretty much since they met and bonded over their mutual hatred of candy corn and love of office supply stores.
“Yeah.” Will let out a weak chuckle. “As long as he has all that money in the bank, you’re friends.”
He couldn’t be serious. She glanced over from the long, straight highway that went on forever and glared at him. He didn’t flinch. That’s when realization struck. That’s why he hated her? He thought she was after Web for his money? Disbelief and righteous indignation whipped through her, making her whole body sizzle. What a total and complete jerk.
“Oh no,” she said, sarcasm thick in her tone as she turned her attention back to the road. “You caught me. I’m really just softening him up so he’ll fall in love with me and then bam, I’ll steal his money and have an affair with the pool boy and the upstairs maid.” She shook her fist in mock frustration. “And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for you being an interfering jerk who assumes he knows everything.” She stopped shaking her fist and flipped him off. “Breaking news, you don’t.”
He snorted. “Don’t bother denying it. I know all about how you’re always talking to Web about moving the Holt Foundation money over to your client list. I know about the meals and cab rides where he picks up the check. I know about all the planning-for-tomorrow IG posts with photos of homes that only someone in our income bracket could afford. You’re good, I’ll give you that—it’s never too over-the-top. It’s as subtle as the way you always point out that the expensive outfits in the storefronts near the rugby field are gorgeous but that you’ll never be able to afford them without winning the lottery—or marrying a millionaire. I doubt Web has even noticed the way you’re working the long con and planting these little ideas. Plus, if you can’t get your money by marrying into it, you can use Web’s money to climb the corporate ladder. I suppose you look at him and see the perfect mark.”
What. The. Ever-loving. Hell.
“Are you deranged? I talk to Web about working with the Holt Foundation because I’m damn good at my job. As far as the rest of that bullshit goes, I’m not even going to justify that kind of ridiculousness with a response, beyond that as far as climbing the ladder, I’d need a job for that. Remember, you kicked the good ol’ corporate ladder out from underneath me in that coat closet. Or wait! I suppose what happened at the fundraiser was part of my master plan?” If it were, she truly sucked at being a gold digger. Almost banging her target’s brother would be a seriously shitty ploy.
“How can I know what goes on in your mind?” Will shrugged. “Maybe you’ve decided to switch targets.”
“You seem to think you know a lot about my motives.” Of course he did. He’d always been like this with her—a judgmental asshat. She squeezed the steering wheel tighter as she punched back the urge to holler in frustration. “Knowing me, I probably finagled it so that the meanest woman on the charity circuit walked in on us at the very worst moment.”
She blushed at the memory of her hands reaching for his zipper. His hands going up underneath the hem of her dress. Everything hot and sudden and beyond want into gotta-have-you-or-I’ll-explode territory. Hot annoyance and slick desire mixed together in an instant, making it hard to figure out if she should pull over the car to yell at him or finish what they started in that closet.
“Maybe you were hedging your bets,” he said, no longer even looking her way but instead at the cornfields as they sped past.
“More like the three sips of champagne I’d had on an empty stomach—unless you counted a couple of canapés—had affected my usually very good judgment.” Her cheeks burned at the memory of the door opening, light flooding in, and the cruel disdain on Mia Cardin’s face. “Then, like a virgin in a slasher movie, I paid for my momentary lapse in judgment when we walked out with everyone watching, thanks to an early alert from Mia. Amazing forethought on my part to ensure you were still tucking in your shirt at that moment so no one would be left doubting what had happened in the coat closet and, thus, furthering my evil plan.”
“I tried to fix that,” he said, almost sounding like he meant it.
“Is that what you call it?” She let out a harsh chuckle to cover the hurt that cracked like a whip against her skin. “You told my boss that the whole situation was being blown out of proportion. Any fool, and I quote, would know that a guy like you with your social status would never actually be with some poor chick who’d moved to Harbor City with everything she owned packed into three suitcases. Then you laughed.” The memory of that humiliation burned like lava through her veins. “And everyone else laughed.”
“That’s not exactly what I said.”
“Close enough.”
She swerved with a hard jerk of the steering wheel to avoid a pothole, and Will let out something that sounded like a mix between a miserable groan and a curse before clenching his jaw tight enough that she was surprised it wasn’t followed by a tooth cracking. Despite knowing that he was the last person in the world who deserved any sympathy, it slid in between the cracks of her protective shielding anyway.
“Okay, cut the crap,” she said. “You’re carsick, aren’t you?”
“As long as I keep my eyes on the horizon, I’ll be fine,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Okay. Whatever.” If that’s how he wanted to handle motion sickness, he could. See if she cared.
That, of course, lasted all of about thirty seconds.
Way to go, Hadley. Do you really hate him enough to want to see him puke his guts up in the rental?
Because she was still pissed enough that she was doing what her mom called her “huffy breathing,” she had to stop to consider it as they barreled down the highway. After all, he was the reason for one of the more humiliating experiences of her life, and now she knew he thought she was friends with Web only for his money. Still, her mom had raised her better than to leave a person—even a total asshole—to suffer, so she started scanning the road up ahead for signs advertising a decent place to stop. Well, that and the fact that she didn’t feel like driving for three more hours in a car that smelled like upchuck.