Undercover Bachelor. Rebecca Winters

was a good friend to his students as well as a terrific teacher. Obviously he was trying to be nice because he’d just heard that Whitney had asked to be part of his group and had been turned down.

      On the heels of that thought came another one. Maybe Mr. Bowen had observed her chaperone on other trips. Maybe he knew about Mr. Smith’s proclivity for teenage girls and was trying to protect her.

      If that were true, then she appreciated what he was attempting to do for her. But if she changed her seat now, she’d lose a singular opportunity to get close to the man who’d compromised her sister. Fourteen hours was a long time to be closeted together, so to speak. Anything could happen. That was exactly what she was hoping for.

      “Thank you for thinking of me, but I’d better wait and discuss this with Mr. Smith.”

      “Discuss what?”

      The deep, familiar male voice could only belong to one man. His tone of voice charged the air. Whitney’s head whipped around to see Mr. Smith standing in the aisle, topping Mr. Bowen by several inches. With those fascinating gray-green eyes, he cast both of them a shrewd regard.

      “Mr. Bowen was just telling me I should go forward and sit with the girls in his group, but the plane’s ready to take off and I think it’s too late to make changes now.”

      “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

      She felt her heart begin to thud. Mr. Smith doesn’t want me to move. My plan is working.

      Her chaperone had been careful at the gate not to peruse her too intimately, but more than ever she sensed the strong physical chemistry between them. Certainly she would never forget the look of male desire she’d seen in his eyes the other night. She could still remember his hand on the back of her waist It had felt natural. It had felt right.

      She switched her glance to the other teacher. “Maybe on the flight home we can come up with other arrangements. Is that all right with you, Mr. Bowen?”

      A fatherly expression dominated his features. “Of course. I just wanted you to know you don’t have to feel left out.”