"I don't think I'm everyone's cup of tea."
"You're certainly mine. I like my tea strong and dark." She felt his smile press against her cheek.
"You might be unusual in that."
"Or I have superior taste. I'm glad no one else snatched you up yet."
She blinked, trying not to take him too seriously. He barely knew her. "I've only had one real boyfriend, and that was in high school."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-six." She regretted the confession, but she didn't want him to get the wrong idea and think she was someone else.
He stiffened. "So you've been single for…eight years?" "I've been on dates, but none of them have really led anywhere." He let out a long exhale of surprise.
"I shouldn't have told you. It's weird, I know."
"Only because you're so gorgeous."
"I did warn you I was married to my work."
"I didn't believe you until now. I'm almost tempted to ask you to get a divorce."
She laughed, but it wasn't entirely genuine. She knew plenty of women, her mother included, who'd abandoned careers they loved the moment a relationship started to make demands on their time and energy. "I'd never give up my work. It's what sustains me."
"I was kidding. Don't take me too seriously."
Now he was letting her down easy. Warning her not to expect anything of him. "Don't worry, I won't." She wanted to bring back the easy calm they'd shared a few moments ago. "And you didn't seduce me into anything I didn't want to do. I enjoyed it."
"Me too." He kissed her cheek. "And now we should get some sleep."
She snuggled against him, trying to keep her breathing slow and steady, like someone who really was about to fall asleep. Not like someone who was about to start sobbing, as she realized-in the esoteric atmosphere of a crashed luxury jet-that from now on the life she'd built so carefully would feel empty and lonely without someone to hold her close.