“I can see why you wanted to go along with this,” he teased. “It’s quite a tour.”
“You’re the one who wanted to get fake married. I’m just being the accommodating assistant-slash-fake-wife.”
“I suppose you’ll want a raise,” he said.
“I deserve it, don’t you think? I mean, come on, it’s a lot to travel through Europe.” I grinned as I felt the loopty lou in my stomach as the plane’s wheels left the ground.
He laughed. “I’m so difficult to work for.”
I considered making a joke about being sexually frustrated, but again, didn’t want to put that pressure back on him. Yes, I had the hots for my boss, but I also enjoyed these moments when we’d just talk and have fun. When he wasn’t in work mode, he could be funny and light.
“It's a chore, that’s for sure,” I said instead.
“Perhaps all the shopping on this list will help take the sting out of all this.” He pointed to all the shops on the list just in Rome. “Hell, even the reservations for dinner have already been made.”
“He’s been quite thorough,” I agreed.
“I hope they’ve scheduled in down time.”
I knew for Ryan that downtime meant work, but I decided to go with the real definition.
“Martina has written in ‘romance time’ here,” I said, pointing to the red letters highlighting several times during the next week.
“That could mean anything,” he said.
I stared at him.
“What?”
“This was created by Christian and Martina, who probably had sex a dozen times in the day and half we were there.”
“Really?” he frowned.
“And, you and I were just married. While we know it’s not real, they believe it is, and newlyweds have a lot of romance time on their honeymoon.” I couldn’t believe he was being so dense.
He swallowed and I wondered if last night was coming back to him. “I guess you’re right.”
I shook my head.
“What?” he asked.
“Sometimes I don’t understand you.”
He didn’t like that very much. “What do you mean?”
“Christian is right, you’re all work and no play, but since we’ve been on this trip, sometimes I see signs of passion or romance.”
He looked away, and his jaw tightened. I was sure I offended him.
“I’m not an automaton, Kellie.”
Yep, I offended him. “I didn’t—”
“Do I focus all my efforts on work? Yes. I don’t see what’s wrong with that. But I am a man.”
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“I know, I didn’t mean—”