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I couldn’t help scoffing. If only this guy knew what a hot mess I was. “I wish that was true,” I mumbled.
He released my hand, and I had a crazy feeling of regret. I wanted to keep the contact. Hell, I wanted to feel those rough hands caress all over my body.
Yikes.Yep, I was officially losing my mind.One hot guy sat next to me, and I was already thinking about what it would be like to do the horizontal tango with him. It was probably the alcohol influencing my libido, but that wasn’t going to stop me from ordering a drink as soon as we were in the air. Horny or not, with this gorgeous man sitting beside me, I was feeling slightly less bummed about my single status than I had since I was dumped.
The flight attendants made their announcements, and I leaned back in my seat, yawning from boredom. Ben was completely alert, I noticed. He gave the two women his full attention as they went over the emergency exits and a whole list of other rules and information that I hoped we wouldn’t really need to know.
I didn’t get the chance to fly as often as I’d like since travelling was so expensive, and I didn’t always have the money on my teacher’s salary, but I had never been afraid of being in an airplane. I knew the statistics, and that it was much more dangerous to drive a car.
But as the plane started taxiing along the runway, I realized that my seatmate didn’t feel the same way. Ben didn’t say a word, but as the plane picked up speed, the engines getting louder, his hands gripped the armrests so hard that his knuckles turned white. He kept his eyes on the back of the seat in front of him, and took slow, deep breaths. I could see the veins in his neck sticking out, but as curious as I was about his reaction, I didn’t say anything about any of it.
In fact, I looked away, trying to give this stranger as much privacy as possible while sitting mere inches apart. I didn’t want to bruise the guy’s ego by staring at him while he struggled through take off. I turned my attention to the window, watching as the nearby trees at the edge of the airport’s property became a blur of green and brown while the plane picked up even more speed. Then, we were in the air, the ground falling away as I watched, my face practically pressed up against the glass.
It was exhilarating. In a matter of minutes, we were up in the air with clouds on all sides. When I finally turned away from the window, I saw that Ben was starting to relax, loosening his grip on the armrests as tension eased out of his rigid body.
“You okay?” I asked, hoping that it didn’t offend him that I was asking. I knew that some men could be sensitive about showing weakness, especially to women. But Ben just gave me a tight smile.
“I just hate taking off and landing,” he said, rolling his shoulders. My eyes caught the way his taut muscles moved beneath his clothing, and I swallowed hard. “For some reason, I feel my stomach drop every time and sweat breaks out on my forehead. I guess my body just knows that it’s not natural to fight gravity like that.”
I chuckled. “Well, you won’t have to deal with it again until we land in four hours.”
The flight attendant was working her way down the aisle, and she reached us at that moment. “Can I get you guys a drink?” she asked, handing over small bags of pretzels.
“I’ll take a gin and tonic,” I said, hoping to keep myself a little tipsy until I got to the island. I was still feeling the lingering effects of my drinks at the bar, but that nice, floaty feeling was going to wear off soon.
She handed over two bottles—one gin and one tonic water—and a little plastic cup of ice. Pulling down the tray table on the back of the seat in front of me, I got to work pouring the entirety of my gin into the glass and topping it off with the tonic water while Ben ordered himself a can of soda. Using the straw to stir my drink, I gave it a sip. It was strong, which was exactly what I wanted.
Ben took a book out of his carry-on, and I turned my attention back to the window. There wasn’t much to see, but my thoughts weren’t on the clouds anyway. I was thinking about my bleak future, wondering if I’d ever find a man that loved me,for me. Would I ever get married myself? Have kids? Or was I a hopeless case?
My drink was gone before I knew it, and I realized that I’d officially crossed the threshold from tipsy to drunk. Resting my forehead against the cool glass of the window, I sighed. My eyelids were suddenly starting to feel heavy and I didn’t have the will to stay awake.
Wrapping my arms around my midsection, I felt myself relax and eventually succumbed to the bliss of deep sleep.
CHAPTER2
Ben
Icouldn't concentrate on my book. It was a mystery novel that I’d been saving to read on this long flight since buying it a week ago. I should have been engrossed in a classic whodunit tale by now.
The problem was the woman in the seat next to me. Well,problemwas probably the wrong word. She was just a hell of a distraction.
She fell asleep early in the flight, her face pressed up against the window. I didn’t realize she was out at first, but when the flight attendant came around for our trash, Tatum didn’t hand over her empty cup, so I did it for her.
Then, she shifted her position, turning over until her head landed on my shoulder. I stiffened at first, not sure what to do. My eyes ran over her face, taking in her ivory skin and those long eyelashes that brushed her high cheekbones. She was beautiful. I noticed it the moment I sat down and got a look at those big hazel eyes and the long dark blonde waves that fell past her shoulders. She was wearing red lipstick that drew my gaze to her lips and caused my cock to jerk in my pants as my imagination went down a very dirty path.
Now, as I stared at her, those lips parted and she started to speak. Her eyes were still closed, so I was pretty sure that she was still asleep.
“...Aiden,” she mumbled.
I frowned. She was travelling alone, so who wasAiden?
“No, don’t…” she continued, frowning in her sleep.
I looked down at her again and saw that her V-neck top had shifted and was leaving little to the imagination when it came to her cleavage. The swells of her breasts were visible, and I felt a hot blast of desire.
“Why can’t I make love work?” she murmured, and I would have found her chattiness while sleeping funny if she didn’t sound so upset. There was pain in her voice. “What’s wrong with me?”
Not a damn thing from my perspective.That would bemyanswer to her question. As far as I could tell, she was a total catch.
