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The temptation was there. The curiosity. The desire to keep in contact with this enthralling, sadistic Dominant. If I got on that plane, we could keep playing together in New York, and who knew what heights of arousal I might reach?
But I couldn’t get on the plane. I knew that for a fact. Even now, the slightest thought of it triggered that sensation of dropping through the sky, the engines quiet, the oxygen mask pressed to my face, and Captain Ross’s whispered prayers…
“I can’t,” I said, pushing away from him. “I just can’t.”
“Jesus Christ.” The sharp tone of his voice belied the gentle way he’d held me. “You stubborn little fuck.”
Chapter Eight: Devin
I told Ella it was okay if she didn’t want to come. I was still leaving. I was willing to fly back at some point to get her if she needed my help, but she seemed determined not to need my help.
Fine. I understood about wanting space, about preserving independence.
Still, I had to leave, because I had a job and responsibilities in New York, and I missed the comforts of home. I pushed all thoughts from my mind and focused on duty, a useful holdover from my military years. I made it as far as packing and riding to the airport before I admitted to myself that I couldn’t leave without her.
Damn her and her flight phobia.
Fort and Juliet arrived just before boarding, fresh off a sightseeing trip around Ponta Delgada. “Where’s Dr. Ella?” Fort asked when he saw me.
“Not here.” I moved over on the padded bench to make room for them. “She says she can’t get on another plane. Not yet.”
“That’s unfortunate. Can they charter another flight?”
“I don’t think it’ll matter.”
Juliet touched my arm. “How are you feeling, Dev? Mostly recuperated?”
I did a self-check. Had I recuperated? I wasn’t sure. My mind was full of two things…flying and Ella. I met their concerned gazes with a frown. “I can’t leave either,” I said after a moment. “I mean, I’m fine about flying, honestly, but I guess I have to stay.”
Juliet and Fort exchanged a look. “Did she ask you to stay?” said Fort.
I laughed, a sharp, bitter growl. “No. She told me to go.”
Juliet stood, adjusting her bow-trimmed knee socks. “I’m going to pick up a magazine or two before we get on the plane. You guys want anything?”
“No, thanks,” I said, as Fort squeezed her hand.
“So this is really happening,” I said to him when Juliet was gone. “Things are working out for you two?”
“Things are fucking awesome,” he replied. “But let’s talk about you and the archgenius.”
“What about her?”
He continued looking at me, the asshole.
“Fine,” I said. “Let’s talk about her.”
“You slept with her, didn’t you? I mean, I’m assuming…”
“Assuming from what?”
“The fact that you never made it to your hotel room, even though we stopped by several times to talk to you. Hey, it’s awesome that you want to stay here with her.”
“I don’t want to stay here with her,” I said, hitting the bench beside me. “But I don’t feel like I can leave, either. I said I’d get her to New York so she could join her freaking study on time-space warps or whatever. She’s all ripped up about almost dying, and I don’t feel like I can just leave, like, see you later. Nice knowing you. Good luck getting off this island.”
The more agitated I got, the more amused Fort was. “She’s good, huh? Really good in bed?”
I let out a breath. “That’s not why I’m staying, and I’m not going to discuss it with you. Anyway, it’s complicated.” I felt bound to protect Ella’s privacy, but at the same time, Fort and I had been friends for years, sharing as many secrets as we shared women. “I didn’t meet Ella for the first time yesterday,” I finally said. “I met her in Pisa, at Via Sofferenza, the night before we left.”
Fort’s lips formed a silent “O.”
“Yeah. And there happened to be this big going-away group scene going on, with Ella as the main course. She’s pretty much kinky as hell.”
“Did you participate in said scene?” asked Fort.
“Of course I did.”
“Wow. And there she was at the airport the next morning.”
“There she was at the airport, yes.”
Fort slapped me on the back. “Only you, Dev. What are the chances? What are the fucking chances?”
I thought of my earlier conversation with Ella. Chance is bullshit. Astrophysicists deal in infinite possibilities. “She’s great,” I said, summing up all the anxious horniness I felt in a stupid, generic sentence. “We have some things in common.”
“And she’s your type,” said Fort. “Physically.”
“My type?” I snorted. “I wouldn’t go that far. She’s cute and blonde, yeah, but we don’t have much of an intellectual connection. She’s off in space most of the time. God knows what’s going on behind those big black glasses.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t think about work all the time,” he said, “especially if she’s participating in group BDSM scenes at Via Sofferenza.”
I shook my head. “Stop trying to fix us up. She insists she’s not the falling-in-love type, and what would an archgenius want with me? Hell, I’m the anti-genius.”
Fort pulled a disapproving frown. “You aren’t what you came from, Dev.”
Fort was one of the few people I’d confided in about my squalid childhood, my miserable life before my mom met my stepdad. Even Fort didn’t realize how squalid it had been. I hoped he never would.
“Anyway,” he continued, “I don’t know many anti-geniuses who are decorated war veterans.”
I waved a hand. “Any pimply teenager with gaming skills can operate a military jet.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.” He held up his hands in a gesture of capitulation. “But whatever. I’m not going to play therapist, you fucked-up asshole. I agree you and the archgenius don’t have a future, but don’t act like you’re not smart enough to join her games.”
“Oh, I’m going to join her fucking games.” I glanced over Fort’s shoulder, watching Juliet return. “If I’m stuck here waiting on a twice-weekly direct flight to New York, she’s going to entertain me.”
“Good thing she’s kinky as hell.”
“Who’s kinky as hell?” asked Juliet, who’d overheard the last of our conversation. She resumed her place beside Fort. “Your Dr. Ella? I figured.”
“How did you figure?” Fort asked.
“Science people, you know? Mystery and experimentation. Plus, Devin told her yesterday on the flight to be good girl, and her head didn’t explode or anything, so…”
“Oh, I didn’t hear that.”
A voice crackled over the intercom, announcing the start of boarding for our flight. They both turned to look at me.
“Well, have fun,” said Fort. “And give Ella our best wishes. Hope you make it back to New York within the next month or so.”
“I have a job,” I said, rolling my eyes. “We’ll be on the next plane.” I wouldn’t have minded tormenting Ella for the next month here in this Azorean paradise, but I had a life to get back to in New York. And other submissives. I wasn’t one to fall in love after sex either.
I also wasn’t one to re-arrange my schedule and life for a flight-phobic science genius, but for some reason, I was doing just that.
Chapter Nine: Ella
I sat at the table near the open balcony door, trying to compose an email.
Dr. Mann, I wrote, because I refused to call him Leo in official correspondence. We were ex-lovers, but we weren’t friends.
