In Flight (6 page)

I laughed and took the shot.
 
Screw slowing down.
 
I wanted our next surprise.
 
Stephan and I unwisely raced to finish the Pom-tini.
 
I pointed at him, laughing, as I finished mine just a second ahead of him.
 
“I win,” I said.

With perfect timing, Melvin slid a new shot and martini in front of us just as Stephan set down his glass.
 
“A Kamikaze, and a Razzle-tini,” he told us, having to almost shout now with the horrible rendition of ‘Moves Like Jagger’ a group of three were belting out from the stage.
 
I thanked him.
 
Stephan did the same, squeezing Melvin’s hand just as he was pulling back.
 
It was a surprisingly bold move for Stephan.
 
Melvin blushed and smiled at Stephan as he went back to tend to customers.
 

I practically beamed at Stephan.
 
“He’s soooo interested.
 
You know that, right?” I asked him.

He nodded, looking suddenly shy, but very pleased.
 
“Yeah, I’m finally sure of it.”
 

It wasn’t long before the crew started showing up.
 
Brenda showed up first.
 
She was a middle-aged woman, in her mid-forties, I guessed.
 
I saw her less than anyone else on the crew, since she worked in the back galley of the plane, and I worked in the front, but she seemed very nice.
 
I thought we could easily be friends, if we spent a little time together.
 
She walked up to us, smiling.
 

She had dark brown hair cut in a bob that flattered her bone structure nicely.
 
She had a medium build and was very pretty.
 
I knew she was married with some teenage children, but I didn’t know all the details yet.
 
I made a note to ask her more about her family.
 
She seemed like she would be a good mom, with her kind eyes and calm manner.

We greeted her a little more loudly and boisterously than was our habit, and she laughed at us with good humor.
 
“You guys have been at it for awhile, huh?”
 

Stephan insisted she take his chair, and she did so, thanking him with a dimpled smile.
 
“He’s one of the last throwbacks to a true gentleman,” she said to me.
 
I could tell she was assuming that he and I were an item, and I didn’t correct her.

Within five minutes, Stephan had secured the seat on the other side of me.
 
I giggled at him.
 
“How do you always do that?” I asked, turning in the direction of his new seat.
 

He arched a brow at me.
 
“You should know better than anyone, Bee.
 
I’ve been hustling since I was a kid.
 
Talking someone out of a seat at the bar is child’s play.”

Melissa was the next to show up, already looking around with boredom as she approached us.
 
Probably looking for Captain Peter, I thought.
 

She was in rare form, wearing a white micro-mini skirt and a clingy pink top that sort of clashed with her dark red hair.
 
The top was so thin that I could tell two things; her boobs were fake, and she wasn’t wearing a bra.
 

She couldn’t be more than five foot two barefoot, but she was making up for it tonight.
 
Her white, rhinestone-studded stilettos were easily over five inches tall.
 
She handled them well, too, gliding in them as though she wore heels like that every day.
 
For all I knew, she did.
 
She had a heavy layer of makeup on, her lips bright red and her lashes so thick and black they looked like something you’d see on an old-fashioned pin-up model.
 
She was very pretty.
 
What she lacked in taste she more than made up for in sheer good looks.

“Hey guys,” she said without smiling.
 
It was as though she didn’t want to waste a good smile on us.

“Hey,” I said.
 
Brenda and Stephan greeted her.
 
I noticed that Stephan didn’t offer her his chair.
 
I knew that she got on his nerves just a bit without him having to say it.
 
She wasn’t exactly a hard worker, and she seemed to think she was entitled to more than other people.
 
Those were two qualities that he and I just had trouble relating to.

The pilots were the next to show.
 
They came in together.
 
I’m not sure I would have recognized either of them out of uniform.
 
I only knew they had arrived when Melissa’s personality suddenly got real bubbly.
 
Stephan and I shared a short, pointed look.

We all said our greetings, and by then Melissa had managed to snag the seat next to Brenda.
 
Captain Peter was practically glued to the back of her chair.
 
I tried not to stare.
 
They weren’t being subtle.
 
Those two were likely going to end the night together.
 

My eyes snagged on the ring on the Captain’s left hand as he rubbed it all over Melissa’s nearly bare back.
 
Ewww
, I thought.
 
I hated that.
 
I didn’t understand why people got married, and then acted like that.
 
But it certainly knocked my opinion of Melissa down even further.
 
There was no way she had missed the wedding ring on his finger if I had seen it from several feet away.
 
Hell, she probably felt it on her back, he was rubbing her so hard with it.
 

I made an easy decision to just try to ignore them for the duration of the evening.
 
They were a major buzz-kill.

I noticed with a little dismay that the first officer, Jeff, had ended up standing by my chair, his body angled towards me.
 
He smiled at me as I noticed him.
 
He waved at the glasses in front of me.
 
“What’re you drinking?
 
It looks like a good time.”
 

I told him, and he stepped closer as I spoke.
 
I moved back a bit.
 
I hated when people tried to casually touch me, and he just seemed like the type to try it.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, after he had downed his own shot, he reached out a hand, touching a strand of my hair.
 
I shrank back just a little.
 
“I love your hair.”
 
He was nearly shouting over the rowdy crowd.
 
“It looks so hot when you wear it down.”

I turned away from him at that, finishing my current round of drinks.
 
Yes, it was official.
 
I was drunk.
 
I caught Stephan and Melvin sharing a look, and I knew exactly what it meant.
 
Stephan was trying to tell Melvin to cut off my alcohol.
 

I glared, leaning closer to him.
 
I pointed a finger at his chest threateningly.
 
“Don’t you dare.
 
I barely ever drink, and I really need to relax tonight.
 
This is the first time in days that I’ve been able to unwind and just forget about Mr. Beautiful.”

Stephan had looked ready to argue until that last embarrassing sentence left my mouth.
 
But as I finished, he sputtered out a laugh.
 
“Mr.
 
Beautiful?”
 

I nodded, and he laughed harder.
 
“Well, he is.
 
James Cavendish is too damned beautiful to be real.
 
He scares the shit outta me,” I confided.

Stephan stopped laughing at that.
 
“Why?” he asked seriously.

I shook my head.
 
“Not like that.
 
A different kind of scary.
 
I haven’t figured it out.
 
All I know for sure is, I need to stay the hell away from Mr. Beautiful.”
 
I over-enunciated the last sentence so much that, even drunk, I noticed it.

Stephan’s eyes widened as he looked at a spot above and behind me.
 

“What?” I asked him in a loud, belligerent tone.
 
Yes, I was definitely drunk.
 
“What?
 
Is Mr. Beautiful standing behind me or something?”

Stephan pursed his lips and I suddenly had an awful feeling that I’d hit that one right on the head.
 
I turned my spinning head around and looked up, and up, into bright blue eyes.
 
“Hello, Mr. Beautiful,” I said in a quieter, but still obviously drunk, voice.
 

CHAPTER FIVE

Mr. Persistant

I spun almost immediately to glare at Stephan.
 
“Traitor,” I said to him, my words slurred.
 

He threw his hands up, giving me his innocent look.
 
“I didn’t give out your number or anything.
 
He asked if we were going out tonight.
 
I just told him where.
 
No harm done.”

I mouthed a few choice words at him.
 
I felt a hard cheek press to the hair near my ear and knew it was Mr. Beautiful himself.
 
“Mr. Beautiful, huh?” he whispered in my ear.
 
I knew my whole body was bright red with embarrassment.
 
“I’m going to take that as a compliment, though I have to say, it’s a new one.”

“Hello, Mr. Cavendish,” I said stiffly, without turning.

“I told you, call me James.
 
Or Mr. Beautiful, if you prefer.
 
You can save the Mr. Cavendish for when we’re in private.”
 
It was the second time he’d said that, and I just couldn’t tell if he was teasing.
 
Did I even want to know?
 
I wondered.
 
No
, I told myself firmly.

I tried to just ignore everyone for awhile after that.
 
Except for Melvin.
 
Him, I tried to flag down to get another drink, but
he
was ignoring
me.
 
Vaguely, I could hear Stephan and James chatting amiably at my back.
 

James hadn’t moved, and he was standing close enough to my back to indicate that he and I were together.
 
He was so close that it made the skin of my back tingle.
 
If I shifted even an inch backward, we’d be touching.
 

I turned my head slightly and saw that the co-pilot had been forced to move away from me.
 
He was looking between Stephan and James, an odd look on his face.
 
He didn’t know what to make of the situation.
 
I didn’t really care what he made of it.
 
I was just relieved that he seemed to get the picture that I was clearly not available.

I lurched suddenly to my feet.
 
I had expected to be a little unsteady on my feet, but it was much worse than I’d thought.
 
I had to clutch the bar for several moments to gain my balance.
 

“Whoa, careful there, Buttercup,” Stephan was saying to me.
 

I felt a hard arm going around my waist for support, and I knew it wasn’t Stephan.
 
“Buttercup?” James asked him, his voice amused.
 

I looked at Stephan, who was looking a little sheepish.
 
“It’s an old nickname, from when we were kids.
 
Bee will have to tell you the story sometime.”

“I look forward to it.
 
Does she drink like this often?” James asked casually, but I thought there was a slight edge to his voice.
 
He was still just talking to Stephan.
 
About me, and in front of me.
 
It was infuriating.

“All the time,” I said loudly.

“This is the first time she’s had a drink since the month she turned twenty-one,” Stephen said quietly.
 
“At least two years ago.”

James’s mouth was at my ear again.
 
“You remember what I told you about lying to me,” he warned softly.
 
“That’s two.”

He’d said he’d put me over his knee.
 
“He’s a kinky bastard,” I thought drunkenly.
 

 
Oops
, I’d said that out loud.
 
Luckily, only James had heard.
 
He laughed, showing even white teeth.
 
He hadn’t taken it as an insult.
 
He nodded at me, making very solid eye contact.
 
He agreed.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” I declared loudly.
 

“I’ll help you get there, Buttercup,” James told me.
 
Stephan rose as we moved, as though to help.
 
James waved him down.
 
“I’ve got her.”

And he did.
 
He wrapped my arm around him and took the brunt of my weight as he led me effortlessly through the crowd toward the restrooms.
 

“Why are you here?” I asked him bluntly.

“Well, I came here because I very much want to fuck you until neither of us can walk.
 
I want you so bad I can’t see straight.
 
But since that won’t be happening now, I’m staying to make sure you make it back to your room in one piece.”

“Why won’t that be happening now?” I asked him.
 
I knew it was a bad question, one that implied that I was disappointed that it wouldn’t be happening, but I was just too drunk and curious to care.