Page 67 of Making Over Maris

The plan definitely called for disinterest.

It was more challenging than he’d anticipated.

When Jenny’s fingers began to twitch again, when they clearly wanted to travel upward, in all probability onto his crotch, he lifted her hand off his thigh and held it on top of the table. He wanted to flirt with Jenny but only to make Sara notice how desirable he was. He didn’t want a hand job under the table in the middle of a staff meeting, for God’s sake—

He made the mistake of looking at Sara.

If he’d been a vampire, he would have combusted on the spot, so hot was her righteous fury. She glanced pointedly at his hand holding Jenny’s on top of the table and all of a sudden Jack realized how that appeared.

As though he and Jenny were holding hands on top of the table.

He took a quick check of the room to see if anyone had noticed.

Shit. Kat had. Her eyes narrowed. But Kenny gave him a thumbs-up.

Jack let go of Jenny’s wrist as though it were a hot coal. He jumped up and headed for the coffee bar. To get a cup of Joe. And to escape.

When he sat down with his coffee, he deliberately wheeled his chair away from Jenny and angled it to face the front of the room. So she couldn’t surreptitiously stroke Mr. Happy. Even Jenny wouldn’t grab his cock in full view of his boss.

One would hope.

Adam stood and cleared his throat. “Hi, all. Thanks for coming. I know this was last minute. But this afternoon we got a call from Levin. Seems we’ve been invited to give a session on our virtual platform at a tech conference in Sydney in a couple weeks.”

Jack’s heart did a flip-flop. All thoughts of dodging Jenny’s advances flew from his head. “Sydney? As in Australia?”

An annoying titter of laughs rounded the room.

That was the trouble when working with people who knew you so well. They knew you so well.

“What is that?” Tristan pretended to ponder. “A twelve, thirteen-hour flight?”

Fucking Tristan.

Jack shifted in his seat. Annoyance raked him. He disliked being the brunt of a joke. Hated it when people made fun of him. And they did it a lot. Especially about this.

“Obviously Jack won’t be able to go. Unless…” The glance Adam shot him was hopeful but tinged with resignation.

Jack frowned. “Unless what?” Okay. Maybe he didn’t need to snarl. But this whole deal was annoying as crap.

“There are drugs that can knock you out.” Clearly Jenny had no inkling of the horror that shot through him at her words.

Kenny understood. “Who wants to be unconscious when your plane crashes?”

Shannon laughed and raised her hand. “I think I’d rather be unconscious.”

This triggered a flood of comments about planes crashing, escaping a burning hulk and surviving in the water with sharks circling, all of which made Jack clammy.

“Okay. People.” Finally—finally—Adam shut them up. “So the question at hand is, if Jack isn’t going to go, who is?”

God. He hated this. He hated the irrational fear that clawed at him whenever he thought about getting on a plane. Granted, there were reasons he didn’t want to fly, damn good ones, but he hated it.

“I’ll do it.” Tristan winked at Shannon. “I’ll take my lovely bride. It’ll be like another honeymoon.”

Sara sighed. “How romantic. Sydney is lovely.”

Jack’s pulse thrummed. Sara loved to travel. How he wished he could just—

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t.