“It’s no problem.” He shoved his hands in his pants pockets. “I’d better let you get some sleep.”

“Good night.” She pushed the words past her chalk-dry throat, her body mourning the loss of his nearness even as her brain applauded the boundaries.

He was already stalking toward the door, his footsteps sure and quick. Running from the same seductive thoughts plaguing her? She couldn’t be sure, but she knew that three days in Tahoe together were certain to push the issue.

But perhaps between his business, her interview with Chiara and visiting his friends with a new baby, they would be too busy to indulge in the desire that smoldered between them. She’d just have to make sure they were alone together as little as possible. Because she already knew that underneath all that red-hot attraction, there wasn’t enough trust to hold them together.

Gage had done his level best to distract himself with business obligations during the two-hour flight to Tahoe. After how close he’d come to kissing Elena the night before—an impulse he felt every time he was around her—he’d been determined to lose himself in work for the course of the trip.

Things had started off well enough, with each of them taking seats on opposite sides of the aircraft. Wearing a tailored jacket and matching skirt in deep emerald, with her mass of dark hair piled on her head, she looked every inch the businesswoman he remembered. He’d assumed she’d been working for the past hour.

But something in her tone distracted him as she spoke to a friend on a video call. She sounded upset.

Glancing up from his tablet, he saw her seated at the built-in workstation in the front of the plane, her laptop open while she engaged in an animated dialogue with a woman he didn’t recognize. Up until now, Elena had kept her head down and her eyes on her work, seemingly as committed to ignoring the sparks jumping between them as he was.

Yet how could he pretend not to hear her when her stream of agitated whispers indicated she was obviously distressed?

She peered back over her shoulder, catching him staring. Any guilt he might have experienced at not giving her more privacy was immediately negated by the sight of her red-rimmed eyes.

He unfastened his seat belt but by the time he made it to her, she was already stabbing the button to disconnect the call, her screen going black.

“Is everything all right?” He wanted to touch her, to offer what comfort he could, but he also didn’t want to overstep those prickly defenses of hers. “Can I get you anything?”

“No. Thank you.” She blinked fast, tugging tissues from a slim, sapphire-colored bag. “I’m fine.”

“Elena.” He lowered himself to kneel in front of her, needing to see her face. “You’re obviously not fine. What’s wrong?”