Hate to Love You (Strong Brothers 4)

"Here's to not annoying each other to death," Noah said, holding up his drink.

I clicked my glass against his and worked to avoid saying something snarky. He was in charge on this trip which sort of made him my boss. I didn’t want to do anything that might jeopardize my employment.

As I sipped my drink, Noah studied me for a moment, and I worked not to shift uncomfortably in my seat.

"I guess you've probably traveled with Gran, huh?"

I shook my head. "No, your grandmother hasn't traveled for business since I started working for her."

Noah seemed to think about that for a moment. "Do you like to travel? What places have you been to?"

I suspected that I would like to travel given how excited I was about this trip, but I hadn't spent any time traveling since I started working for Strong Incorporated. "I don't really travel very much. Not since I left college and started working."

Noah frowned. "Surely, Gran pays you enough you can afford to take a nice trip every now and then."

Noah's grandmother paid me very well. Well enough that I'd been able to save for a deposit on a cute little bungalow in a quaint neighborhood. Since it was just me, I didn't have many expenses beyond my mortgage. I’d already paid off my car. So, all my extra money went into savings and retirement. At 24, I was financially quite secure. Not bad for a woman who grew up in foster care. I was lucky that I didn’t have the horror experience that many had. I simply got what I needed and when I turned eighteen, set off to make my way in the world. I was strong and smart, and with Margaret as my mentor, I’d achieved my goals.

"She does, but I've invested my money into my home and my savings.

Noah drooped his head and started to snore.

Anger grew inside me as once again I knew he was suggesting that my financial plan was boring, which was rich considering the family he came from. He didn't have to earn anything. He worked when he wanted and spent the rest of his time riding his motorcycle, or fucking as many women as he could come across.

"You're a jerk, you know that Noah?" I turned and looked out the window although there wasn't much to see anymore since we were over the Pacific Ocean.

"You're too young to not be taking some me time to use that good income to enjoy your life."

I turned to look at him working to hold my anger in check. "And you still need to grow up and realize that not everybody is born with a silver spoon in their mouth and can do whatever they want because their grandma and their brothers will support his bacchanalian lifestyle." I glared at him. "Have you earned anything you've ever gotten in your life Noah?"

He flinched and his jaw tightened as he turned away from me. It wasn't the reaction I expected, and I wasn't quite sure what it meant. But the fact that my comment seemed to have landed was all I needed to know.

Noah pulled out his laptop opening it up and I nearly made a joke about wondering if he was going to watch porn, but he pulled up some sort of program that had coding in it, so apparently, he was going to work.

There was nothing I needed to do on the trip, so I decided that I would watch a movie. The movie I ended up choosing was a sexy little romcom that on the one hand I thought was stupid, because let's face it, real life doesn't end with happily ever after's, but at the same time thought it was sweet. I suppose it tugged at something inside me that wanted a true love. I'd seen Ryan and then Hunter and now Carter find it, but I knew it wasn't something that was out there for me. I was smart and independent, but I also knew that being outspoken and sometimes prickly, as my last boyfriend had called me, made it so that many men felt I was more than they wanted to handle. And I wasn't one of those women who was going to try and change to win a man.

I settled in and began to watch the movie.

The plane droned on, and I leaned my head back in the seat. I turned to look at Noah whose head was facing me, his blue eyes piercing, and his smile sexy as sin.

“What are you looking at?” I asked.

“You. Do you believe in all that happily ever after, bullshit?” he said nodding toward the screen playing the movie.

“No.”

“Are you a virgin?”

I gaped. I was going to threaten to call HR, but I was over the Pacific Ocean. Actually, honestly, my girly parts flared to life louder than I was incensed.

“No.”

I didn’t think it was possible for his smile to grow. Not just wider, but more lecherous. “Are you a member of the-mile-high club?”

“You know I’m not.”

“You have an opportunity to join.” His fingers brushed over my nipples shocking a gasp out of me. I looked around the plane but there was no one there.

I turned to look at him again, wondering what was going on.