Throughout the day I’d constantly found myself turning to ask him about something I saw on the road or about the book I was reading. I’d missed his presence literally, his body next to me in the Land Cruiser. And the little things, like the way his eyebrows popped over the top of his sunglasses when I said something to make him laugh.

I’d been doing that—collecting comments and things I thought he’d find funny. I liked seeing Elias smile. It’s not like he was stingy with them either; his face was open and bright for everyone. And people were drawn to him because of it. But there was one kind of smile that tugged at one side of his mouth and made the corners of his eyes crinkle. That one only happened when I was being a particular brand of smart-ass, which my fool head decided made it my smile. And I was hopelessly addicted to it. I’d been desperate to see it all day.

I made it upstairs without interacting with anyone and rushed through getting ready for dinner. I tossed my dusty clothes in a corner and jumped in the shower, not even bothering to turn on the water heater, making quick work of getting clean and dressed. In less than ten minutes I was walking downstairs again, my laptop over my shoulder.

At one point during the day we’d made plans to have a working dinner in a small private room next to the restaurant, which Elias had reserved. He’d said that way our group would be able to debrief without bothering the other diners. Because he thought of everything. I pressed a hand to my chest as I made my way to the room, my stupid heart already skipping in anticipation of seeing him. It was sad how far gone I was. It hadn’t even been twelve hours since I’d been with the man, and here I was acting like a lovesick teenager.

I stepped in and found him alone in the room, and I took a second to look at him. A smarter person would have made note of the way my entire body ran hot just from seeing him and kept their distance, but I couldn’t bother with being rational at the moment. I moved to slide my water bottle into my bag, and the sloshing sound made him pop his head up. When he saw me he smiled wide, like I was the best thing he’d seen all day. And all I wanted to know was: how was I supposed to rein myself in when he looked at me like that?

“Hey,” I said, lifting a hand up like a complete jackass.

“Desta.” He gestured toward the seat next to his on the table. “Sit. Tsehay’s team only got in like ten minutes ago, so they’re running behind.”