It had been a long time since she’d last touched a man. Over a year since her ex-boyfriend, Brian The Banker, left. Even before they broke it off, they hadn’t been together often. With their busy work schedules, it was amazing they’d managed to get together every few weeks. She’d known it hadn’t been working, even before he pulled the plug by announcing he was moving to New York. Brian hadn’t suggested she go with him and she hadn’t broached the subject either. Since then, she’d been footloose and fancy-free, and more than a little lonely.
She stood naked in front of the large bathroom mirror and applied a few dabs of an expensive perfume sample, a freebie on the bathroom vanity. In the mirror, her reflected body looked pretty good. Not bad. Not as taut as she was at twenty-one, but slim and tall, with decent breasts and pretty nice hair.
Why did she have so much trouble meeting a man who wanted a real relationship with her? It was what she wanted, eventually. But she wasn’t even seeing anyone. No man had sparked her interest for years, Brian included. She’d gone for a different type with him. Safe. Undemanding. Boring. It hadn’t worked out so well.
She was the first to admit she’d been scared to get into anything serious, after Padraig. She’d been scared and alone and almost broken. But now she was strong and independent. So she told herself every day.
Was it something about her personality scaring the men away? Her mother would say so. Ma had always loved to criticise her, like a kind of hobby. She would’ve said Sinead was too quick to speak her mind. But since when was honesty a bad thing?
She shook her head to dismiss such depressing ideas and wandered through to the living area. Rifling through her bag for fresh clothes, she made a snap decision to get dressed. She didn’t want to stay in her room moping all night. She put on her off-duty clothes. Nice lingerie, skinny jeans and a funky silk top. She styled her hair so it hung in loose waves down her back.
It was so good to express her own style and feel unconfined after hours of having her hair pinned back, dolled-up like Barbie in her straight-laced work uniform.
As she bent to pick up her phone from a low coffee table, she stumbled, lightheaded, as a wave of dizziness hit. She’d forgotten to eat lunch on the plane and then left the airport lounge after only a coffee. On a whim, she decided to check out the dinner menu at the restaurant downstairs.
After a quick pit-stop at the mirror to apply some lip gloss and mascara, she zipped on her ankle boots. She was good to go.
Damn it! Gabriel couldn’t believe his luck. His flight status had officially changed from delayed to cancelled, along with every flight scheduled for the evening and he was stuck with nowhere to stay, like your typical cattle-class passenger. He’d backed down with Sinead, let her take the suite. He didn’t want to scare her or snatch the room when she was clearly there first. Just a few floors up from where he now sat in the hotel bar. She was probably in the shower.
He left another furious message for his PA in Melbourne, then punched at his iPad and tried to make hotel rooms magically appear. No luck. Of course the Global Village website was down too. Just perfect.
The airport hotels were both fully booked and there wasn’t a taxi or a bus in sight to take him to the heart of the city. He’d tried to charter a flight but had missed his chance. He wasn’t going anywhere for at least twelve hours. The airport was officially closed.
The news reports on the bar’s TV screens advised everyone to stay indoors. The weather was much worse and they were in the thick of it at the airport. The rain beat hard against the windows facing the street at the hotel bar, pounding like someone urgently banging on the door, begging to come inside. He was stuck, sure as shit.
Gabriel signalled to the barman from his prime barstool and ordered a Tiger beer. He checked out the bar, full of stranded passengers like him. Except most of them probably had comfortable rooms upstairs. Rooms they would actually get to sleep in. As he sipped from his tall frosty glass, he spotted a new patron entering the bar. A tall, curvy vision of a blonde bombshell. His night instantly improved.
Hello again, Irish.
Sinead walked into the bar looking like a hot rock chick. Even better than the flight attendant uniform, and that was something. Tight jeans clung to her long legs and fine arse. Some sort of slinky shirt skimmed the curves of her absolutely outstanding breasts. Long blonde hair hung loose and tousled like she’d rolled straight out of bed. His bed. He could still be in with a chance to convince her to share the suite.
His pulse thrummed wildly and he tried to get a grip. How should he play this? His standard treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen approach hadn’t worked. She was smart enough to see through it. Time for Plan B. His mum had always said flattery would get you anywhere. It was worth a shot.
“Sinead!” Gabriel shouted loud enough for a few heads to turn his way.
Her head snapped round too and she met his eyes, but with eyebrows raised sky-high. She was wary of him, based on their last conversation. Fair enough.
“Come and join me.” He tried not to sound desperate. Not cool.
“Hello again. Ready to haggle for the suite, are you?” She sighed and sat on the stool next to him. Then she looked up at him from under long eyelashes. She was obviously pissed-off and exhausted, but the fire in her eyes nearly burned him alive.
Wow. His voice caught in his throat and he swallowed, hard. “Look, I’m sorry about earlier. Let me say, you look stunning. I thought it was you, but I had to double-check.”
“Are you saying I didn’t look good earlier? Because I had a pretty hard day and I don’t need to hear it.”
This was not going according to plan. “No! I meant you looked so neat and perfect in your uniform and then you were in nothing but a towel.” He cleared his throat. God, that towel. “Now you look …” He reminded himself to be charming. He didn’t want to put her off. “You’re absolutely smokin’. Stunning. Beautiful.”
“Well thank you. It’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day.”
She moved closer, hitting him with a dazzling smile and leaning an elbow on the bar. Warmth rolled through his stomach. She might like him. Her body language was giving him the go-ahead.
He gestured to the bar. “Can I buy you a drink?”
“Um, I haven’t eaten and I’m not sure if I have to fly soon, so I’d better not.” But she scanned the printed wine list on the bar. She was tempted.
“Didn’t you hear? The airport’s officially closed. The typhoon’s moved closer.”
“Really? The update must have come while I was in the shower.”
Gabriel instantly pictured her naked under the shower, her luscious skin dripping wet. So very distracting. But definitely in a good way. He gave his body a talking-to. Down boy.
Sinead pulled her phone from her clutch purse and checked her messages. “Yep, everyone’s grounded for the night. Grand, I can relax. I’m so glad I booked a hotel room earlier. I had a feeling I might get stuck here.” Her lips pursed, the expression was so smug, she was obviously winding him up.
“I tried every hotel I could think of and everything’s booked. Too bad I don’t have hot-chick superpowers to steal a suite from an innocent