Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“Chris?” I asked, since he hadn’t responded.
“Yeah, sorry, I’m just—”
The loud clunking sound and vibrations alerted me to the closing airplane door. I glanced up at the flight attendant preparing to begin some kind of safety presentation. I could see the narrow cockpit door still partially ajar and the pilots moving around getting settled.
“I’m going to have to go,” I said. “They just closed the airplane door.”
“I’m not ready to settle down yet, Teo. That’s the reason. We’re only twenty-six for god’s sake.”
I sighed. “Yeah, well, I am ready.”
The bitterness was clear in his voice. “Then maybe you should find someone else to do it with.”
A deep rumble of laughter caught my attention from the open cockpit door.
“Maybe I will,” I said, absently, recognizing the familiar stubbled jaw and pointed canine tooth in the smile of the laughing pilot.
I didn’t hear Chris’s words over the sound of the roaring in my ears. The pilot turned to close the cockpit door and met my eyes. Time stopped and my stomach plummeted. There he was. The stranger I’d given myself to, the man who’d kept me company in my daydreams for months and held up as the standard by which all future bedmates would be judged.
FlyGuy.
While we stared at each other in disbelief and my entire world seemed to jangle unexpectedly, the efficient flight attendant reached back and pulled the cockpit door closed, cutting off our eye contact and beginning the stopwatch on an eight-and-a-half-hour flight to Frankfurt.
For the next eight hours I would have to sit there knowing that my sexy stranger was less than ten feet away from me.
And the man I thought was my future seemed bound and determined to become only my past.
8
Jack
It was him. I’d know those sweet light green eyes anywhere. My lips remembered the warm curves of his skin and the taste of his kisses. He’d looked just as surprised as I was when we saw each other through the cockpit door.
I forced myself to concentrate on the task at hand. We needed to get this plane in the air. The sooner we got to Frankfurt, the sooner I’d be able to beg him to give me a few minutes of his time to get his contact information. In the meantime, the captain’s voice snapped in my headset, helping keep me on task through taxi and takeoff. Once we were settled at cruising altitude, my mind wandered back to NurseTee. Had it really been him?
The surprised doe eyes had been unmistakable. The man was sexy as hell and irresistible. I wondered why he was flying to Frankfurt. Did he have family in Europe? Or business? And if he was a nurse the way I’d assumed, how could he afford to fly in a private jet? The only other passenger I’d seen was the elder Mr. Banks, whose company owned the plane. I’d already met some of the other family members who worked for the company, so I didn’t think Tee was part of the Banks family. But maybe he worked for the company with Mr. Banks?
Maybe Tee was the older man’s nurse. But what if he was more? Mr. Banks could be Tee’s sugar daddy for all I knew. How would that make me feel? It certainly could explain his need for the sexual hookup with me.
Even if he was alone, he’d been so adamant about no contact during our hookup, would it be unfair of me to approach him? Maybe I would have to approach cautiously and assess his body language.
My skin itched with the need to climb out of the flight deck and talk to him, but I couldn’t. I’d only been in this job for a few weeks, and I was still anxious to prove myself as focused and dedicated even though I was sure my fellow pilot wouldn’t mind. I’d already figured out this captain was diligent and professional but didn’t take his job too seriously. It was one of the things that had attracted me to the position. I hoped to learn about work/life balance from pilots like him, and I’d already enjoyed the few trips Nate and I had flown together.
He’d been an Air Force pilot who’d gone on to fly for Delta. We’d already shared several stories of our time in the service as well as crazy flights and crazier passengers in the few trips we’d taken together, but thankfully, he’d told me not much unexpected happened in this executive jet side of things. His wife, Brenda, who happened to be our flight attendant on this trip, agreed with him. It was quieter and more predictable.
And so far, it had been. Until about two and a half hours into this flight. It started with a sudden thump in the left engine. Alarms began sounding.
“What the hell was that?” Nate asked.