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“Yup,” I said. “The snow’s retreating now, but as you can see,” I said, with a rushing intake of breath as an icy blast of wind ran through me, “it’s pretty damn chilly up here!”
“Sure is,” shivered Alicia, gripping my arm. I felt her recoil a little from the involuntary grasp but said nothing. I wanted her to open up to me a little more, and I knew that once we’d taken a look around, she would.
After we walked around the mountain for a little while and I helped Alicia take some pictures, we came back to the Walnut Lodge Resort. “You hungry?” I asked Alicia, and she nodded. Walking out on the perilously slippery slopes and icy pathways around the resort was pretty tiring. “Luckily,” I explained as we clambered up the stairs and through the enormous, oak doors of the lodge, “this place has a great restaurant.”
I’d reserved us a private room on the top floor of the resort for dinner. The room was decorated in alpine style, with bare, wooden floors covered by an enormous, intricately hand-stitched rug. We had our own roaring fireplace, and through the glass door at one end of the room, you had an amazing view down the mountain.
“This is incredible,” whispered Alicia, before I saw her eyes nervously search for me. She was beginning to warm to me a little, but I knew she didn’t want me to know it. So, I didn’t tease her as we sat down at the pretty table they’d arranged for us, and we ordered our food.
“This is a really great way to spend some time together, Jake,” confessed Alicia after a while.
“I know,” I said. “That’s why I brought us here. Let’s be honest, neither one of us was planning on seeing the other in the future. But now that we’re in this situation, we have to make the best of it.”
I leaned forward and looked her in the eyes. I didn’t tell her the truth, which was that I now realized I’d really missed Alicia, that if I’d known how to tell her, I would have tried to keep her in my life, even though it was impossible, what with her being related to Sam. And there were other reasons I hadn’t told her how special she was to me.
“I promise to look after you,” I said. “Though we both wanted what happened to happen at the time, I know you wouldn’t be in this mess without me. And I want to help provide for you.”
Alicia seemed to lower her guard a little when I said that. I felt her frosty temperament thaw a little and glimpsed the warm, cheerful, friendly, and flirtatious girl I’d met in Chicago.
“What do I do?” she asked in a small, gentle voice. That voice made her sound lost. It made me want to swoop down and pick her up in my arms. Whether as a helper or as a predator, I didn’t know. I was growing restless with my desire for Alicia, even now that we were in this tricky situation. I adjusted my legs slightly, concealing my erection below the tablecloth as we spoke.
“If you want to raise the baby, I’m happy about that. Kids should be with their parents. I won’t deny it. Of course, we may need to handle the situation carefully. My position at CAA isn’t exactly great right now. But I accept full responsibility, as the father of our child.”
Those words clearly meant the world to Alicia, because at that point her face softened and her soft blue eyes seemed to open. Inside them, I thought that I glimpsed all sorts of thoughts and dreams that I could only guess at.
After our food arrived, we ate while looking out at the beautiful place we were in. After we’d finished eating, I rang for the chopper. I had a lot of stuff to take care of back in Chicago, everything from fighting fires with Tom McLaughlin to acquiring a new fleet of Boeings for the operation.
As I flew Alicia back into Chicago, it was raining, heavily. “I guess the April showers have started already,” Alicia’s voice crackled over the microphone. She sounded happy and optimistic, and that delighted me. I wanted her to know that there was no way I’d be leaving her behind from now on.
We touched down on the helipad, right back where we’d first taken off. I turned off the engine and let the chopper’s wings die down. “There’s a car waiting for you to take you back home,” I said. The truth was, I would have much preferred to keep Alicia with me, but I knew she had a life of her own.
“This has been a really amazing d—day,” said Alicia as we stood together and bid farewell, while around us the city lights shone through the drizzle. I could feel my hair getting slick while Alicia and I lingered on the platform. It was like neither of us wanted to say goodbye. She stood close to me, her soft hair blowing gently in the wind.
“Look, I’m here for the next few days, and then I’m going to Grand Cayman, but I’ll see you when I get back,” I said, uneasily. But I couldn’t wait a week to see her again. And we both knew it.
I leaned down and kissed her. I placed my hand around her waist and another in her hair, and we kissed as one, feeling our lips press against one another’s. I turned Alicia a little and pressed her back gently against the helicopter, where I could shelter her a little from the rain, as my mouth explored hers with a passion I’d never known before. For a minute, I forgot that it was raining, or that we were standing on top of a windswept building. For just one moment, we were back in that hotel room, where ecstasy and passion had made us one body, one mind, for a brief time.
Chapter 9
Alicia
Ann-Marieburstintotherest compartment in tears. “What’s the matter?” I asked.
Ever since I’d got myself reassigned to passenger flights for CAA I’d immediately returned to the highs and lows of the job. Some days I felt amazing at work—glamorous, confident, and completely in control of things. On other days, I regretted leaving behind the comfortable life Jake had offered me aboard his private jet.
“It’s … oh, it’s this asshole sitting in B49,” said Ann-Marie. We both lived in Chicago and were assigned to the same aircraft most of the time, so we’d become friends. As she sat down inside the narrow, cramped rest compartment, I reached out and gave her a hug. “Let me go deal with it,” I said.
“Oh, no, Alicia, it’s your break. Come on, you’ve got like, another twenty minutes.”
“I’ll be fine,” I replied. “How bad can it be?”
I straightened my hair, exited the compartment, and locked the door behind me with the keypad. Then I moved up the stairs and used my key to exit into the business class compartment.
My eyes searched the cabin for B49 when I saw the guy who’d made Ann-Marie upset. He looked the type, honestly. He was wearing a pinstriped suit and was balding around the temples, even though he didn’t even seem to be that old. We’d be landing in Florida within forty minutes, and I couldn’t understand what he’d want.
When I got to his seat, though, I immediately understood the problem. The smell of booze wafted up from the guy as he turned, eyes glazed, and looked at me. “What can I do for you, darlin’?” the guy said, and then wheezed. I could see his fingers anxiously drumming on his knee. No doubt the guy was a chain smoker.
“Sir, my colleagues asked me to come and see if there’s anything I can do to make you more comfortable?” I said, as politely as I could.She’s also been reduced to tears by whatever it is you said, and I’ve come to find out exactly what,I thought.
