Page 181 of Pure Recklessness

During the journey, we’d chatted easily about everything and nothing. We went from talking about the weekend, to discussing our favourite books and the board games we enjoyed playing as kids.

Unsurprisingly, Blake loved Monopoly, but we both agreed that Pictionary and Scrabble were top tier so agreed to play them together one day.

‘Did you have a good time?’ Blake asked as he fastened his seat belt and got comfortable in the leather armchair.

‘The best!’ I said. ‘Thanks so much again.’

Our eyes locked. Blake held my gaze. He opened his mouth then closed it and I wondered what he wanted to say. Part of me hoped it was something romantic like I love you, Ellie. Run away with me so we can live happily ever after. But as much as my time with Blake had felt like a fairytale, this was real life. And in the real world, a girl like me didn’t end up with a man like him.

Blake went to speak again, but his phone rang.

‘It’s Oscar,’ he announced. ‘I need to get this.’

‘Course.’

‘Hi,’ he said abruptly. ‘Yes. Good. Great. Speak tomorrow.’ He hung up.

‘Everything okay?’

‘Oscar just confirmed that Jake Myers is in.’

‘Wait, what?’ I shrieked. ‘You mean he’s agreed to be a narrator for the app?’

‘Yes.’ Blake smiled.

‘Oh my God!’ I threw my arms around him. ‘That’s amazing!’

Stacy appeared with two flutes on a silver tray.

‘Champagne?’ she asked.

‘Yes, please!’ I chirped. ‘We’re celebrating.’

‘Excellent. If you need anything else or another glass, just call.’

‘Thanks, will do.’

Once we’d finished our champagne, Stacy collected our glasses.

Soon afterwards, the plane taxied towards the runway.

‘You okay?’ Blake asked, holding my hand and giving it a squeeze.

‘Yep! I’m good.’

Now that I’d flown once, I was more relaxed. Plus, with Blake beside me, I knew I’d be fine.

This time, when I looked out the window and saw the plane soaring towards the clouds, excitement rippled through me.

Knowing that we had our first celebrity on board for the app also helped.

‘I was thinking about the app.’ I turned to face him. ‘As well as getting Jake on board, we should use some TV stars. Amazon and Netflix have got some great book adaptations in the works, including ones by Sated authors, so we should contact the agents of the lead actors and actresses to see if we can get them involved. Then when the shows come out and interest is at its peak, we can announce that the stars they’ve just seen in whatever hit TV show will be narrating stories exclusively on our app and then boom! We’ll get a wave of new subscribers.’

Blake’s face broke out into a wide smile and warmth flooded my belly.

‘Are you sure you have journalism experience and not PR? Because you’re a natural.’

I couldn’t even remember the last time I thought about journalism, which was weird because I was always convinced that was my calling. But that was before I knew that careers like the one I was building at Sated existed.