Authors: Bethany-Kris
Air caught in my throat. His statement was a blunt
sort of honesty that hit me to the core. Instead of shrugging it off and
telling me not to worry about it, he made my lungs ache and heart pound. What
kind of man was he?
“Come here,” he demanded gently, arms out and
waiting. In the warmth of his embrace, my lips found his for the first time. Languid
in nature, the kiss began a searing burn from my inside, out, all over again.
Slowly, he took his time adoring, exploring, and tasting my mouth, touching
down to my lips in small pecks as he pulled away. “Don’t feel guilty, huh? I
sure don’t.” Waving at the screen playing a near-silent movie, Sal added,
“Let’s watch this, talk for a while, and then we’ll open the curtain back up,
okay? No one is going to know a thing, so don’t worry about it.”
Deciding to trust him, I finally sat back down in my
seat. Sal excused himself quickly after, going to dispose of the condom and
clean off, likely. But, it wasn’t long before he was back, shooting me a wink
and once again confirming that the attendant had been much too busy to notice
anything going on in our cubby.
I couldn’t ignore the sticky wetness between my
thighs, or the scent of arousal that almost tasted heavy on the back of my
tongue in the air surrounding us. I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t know he was
watching me from the corner of his eye, quiet, silent, and contemplative. Gaze
traveling the length of my legs as he wet his lips with his tongue before turning
back to the television. There was no possible way I could act like he wasn’t
having an effect on me from three feet away just sitting there…doing absolutely
nothing
but looking at me.
“What do you do for a living?” I asked, needing to
get a conversation flowing to stop me from crawling back over the space between
our seats.
Sal stretched his arms over his head, legs relaxing
out, and ankles hooking together. “I own a couple of businesses. They do me
well enough, but I also do odd jobs here and there to keep myself busy in
between. I can’t stand the feeling of my hands having nothing to do.” Laughing,
I agreed, knowing exactly how he felt. Sal’s eyes glittered with something I
didn’t recognize. “And you, Liv?”
I made a dismissive sound. “Web designer, actually—freelance,
mostly. Sometimes, depending on the customer and the amount they’re willing to
pay, I’ll manage a few sites as well throughout the year to make up for ends
that won’t meet until the customer can handle taking care of it themselves.”
Like Sylvia, but she ended up becoming a whole other problem instead. “But, I’m
doing all right.”
“Really?” Leaning forward in his seat, Sal
contemplated my job. “I would have thought something in the nature of
teaching…or maybe a nurse. Web designer, huh? That sounds…artistic.”
I shrugged. “It can be. It’s a lot more than just
putting together pretty colors that match and adding a few pictures.”
Sal appeared to take my comment seriously. “I don’t
doubt it, Liv.” Playful brown eyes lifted to meet mine. “And I bet you don’t
regret it.”
I didn’t.
And I wasn’t
talking about my profession, either.
Chapter
Ten
The flight hadn’t been all that long, and the plane
landed without much fuss. Of course, instead of being caught up in the
passengers and attendants like I usually would be on any other flight, I was
entranced and trapped by the tanned, handsome not-quite-a-stranger across the
row from me.
I learned that he was thirty-one, unmarried, and
without children. And given the fact that most of his friends had turned up
divorced from their spouses before they’d even reached their tenth anniversaries,
Sal was in no mood to settle down and marry anytime soon. He had time, he said.
He wanted to get out, have fun while he could, and when he met the right one,
he would know. He wasn’t going to get into a relationship he wasn’t sure would
work, but one he would end up having to work too hard to keep, regardless of
the end outcome. So he would know, he was sure, and for some odd reason, I
couldn’t find a way to doubt him.
Sal kept me engaged, more so than I thought he
could…or would. He spoke when I turned quiet, still watching me from the
corners of his eyes with a look that made my skin tingle because I knew…knew
what he could do and how he could do it with me. The very thought made me ache,
but neither one of us made the move to bridge the gap between us on the flight
again. If he had, I wasn’t one hundred percent positive I would have had the
ability to say no.
His hand found its way across our seats more than
once to touch lightly on the bare flesh of my knee, rising a little under my
skirt to grasp tightly with long fingers that made my breath catch all over
again.
He was sweet, smart, and funny—more so than I had
first realized, even.
Without even intending or knowing he was doing it,
Sal kept me calm and happy throughout the flight. He never once made me feel
awkward over what happened, or even that we were truly just strangers to one
another. Sal was familiar to me, his deep but quiet voice keeping me unfocused
from the sharp jolts of the plane when it landed on the runway, an action that
would usually send me halfway to a surefire panic attack. This strong man, with
his pretty eyes and handsome face, seemed to me like I had known him my whole
life…without ever having actually known him.
And it sucked. Sucked that we were a few minutes
away from separating, that I didn’t have the guts to ask him who he was, or
where I could find him if I ever wanted to seek him out again. Sucked that I
was sure he probably didn’t want me to, either.
In fact, Sal had kept me so preoccupied that I
hadn’t even remembered to open the curtain back up to expose our private little
world back to the rest of the plane until the flight attendant made her way
down the aisle and poked her head inside, informing us both that it was time to
prepare for landing.
Buckle up, she asked.
Put the duffle bag back up into the overhead, she
instructed.
Close the curtain, she informed.
And she was glad I was looking better as her
coworker was still terribly sick in the front bathroom.
I had to turn away when she said that, a bright pink
blush coloring my cheeks as I shot Sal a look that I hoped he understood was
intended for him to kill me before I died of embarrassment.
No one knew, though. No one seemed like they knew a
damned thing. When the plane landed, bussed to the gate, and people stood to
ready their belongings and leave, not one person caught my eye who acted as if
they knew. I was sure my insides would be churning, worry eating an anxious,
mortified path when I had to walk past these strangers who would smell my sex,
see the way my lips were pinked a little more than usual from my still-raging
desire.
But, no. Nothing.
Sal pulled my small carry-on bag out of the
overhead, handing it to me with a smile as coach passengers made their way down
the plane. First-class had already departed, but we took our time, noticing the
pilots and attendant were still up front, unbothered or unconcerned by our lack
of willingness to join the other passengers of the flight right then.
“You have a sweater?” Sal asked, looking concerned.
I cringed, seeing the slight drizzle of rain
pattering the porthole windows. “No, Barbados was my originally intended
destination, remember? Not exactly sweater-worthy weather, I suppose.”
He chuckled deeply. Bending down, he unzipped his
bag and produced for me a black drawstring hoodie with white, block lettering
covering most of the front. “Here,” he offered, holding the article out. I
looked at it, confused and unsure. “Take it.”
I did, then, still unsure of how I should feel about
his constant kindness and concern. “Thank you,” I murmured softly.
“It’s not a problem.”
I wanted to ask his last name, to see if he had an
address close to the place where I was staying, or if maybe he’d be coming to
Maine again anytime soon. Instead, I knew the reality of our situation.
Strangers, meeting under random circumstance. Not fate, despite his easy nature
that was so quick to match my high-strung personality. Not destiny stepping in
to show me a person I had been overlooking all this time. No, none of that. It
was a one-time thing, a hookup in an odd place with a fantastic memory to keep.
The small ache on the back of my thigh told me I’d
remember it for years.
Slipping the hoodie up over my frame and pulling my
arms through the sleeves, I held the side of the fabric to my face, hiding my
smile and smelling his spiced scent. “It was…good meeting you, Sal,” I said
quietly, slinging my purse over my shoulder and grabbing the handle to my carry-on.
“Maybe…” No, I couldn’t do it. I still couldn’t bring myself to ask him for
what I wanted. “Never mind,” I added quickly.
He nodded, the corner of his lip twitching up into a
quirky grin. “And you, too, Liv.” With the duffle bag clenched tight in his fist,
Sal said, “And uh…hey, try to get around the island, would you? Meet some
people, try to figure out the odd words, and enjoy the food.”
“The food?” My nose scrunched up. “I’ve heard you
Newfoundlanders have an odd taste in culinary choices, besides the mostly fish-for-meat
diet.”
Sal laughed deeply, the sound stunning my body with
sparks of want, just from where he stood. I couldn’t understand my reaction to
this man—not physically, or emotionally. “Yeah, you could say that. The general
rule is to boil everything.”
I made another face, disgust showing. “Boil
everything?”
“That’s what I said, girl. Boil it,” he repeated,
winking. “Boil it until everything is off, the flavor is gone, and it probably
tastes like rubber. Then, you add some kind of sauce and beans, and there you
go. Fit for kings.”
Grinning, I
asked, “But what if a queen doesn’t want something boiled?”
Sal’s eyes widened in amusement, “Then I guess she
should have gone to Barbados.”
Chapter
Eleven
GPS was the devil, hell-bent on destroying my life.
It just was.
The cute, silver Mazda my brother had rented for me
to pick up at the airport was a fantastic little car, with an easy pedal and
good fuel economy. But, the GPS with the annoyingly grating voice that had
managed to get me lost at least five fucking times since getting off the main
highway was working my last nerve.
Not only did it change direction without prompting
from me, but it also rerouted my course more times than I could count as well,
and told me that I’d missed turnoffs one or two turnoffs later. What kind of
GPS was in this damned thing, anyway? I seriously hoped my brother didn’t end
up breaking my bank account to pay for this car. No money was worth the hassle
it created for me already, and I still hadn’t even made it to my destination.
Again, the devil, I would swear by it.
An overwhelmed frustration had begun to settle
inside me, and between my inabilities to navigate the GPS, and still being unable
to find my favorite flimsy scarf I had been wearing earlier inside my bag, I
was finally defeated enough to call my brother’s cell phone.
Once again, Natalie picked up, her cheery voice
doing nothing to make me less aggravated. “Hey, how’s the island?”
I half growled into the device. “I wouldn’t know, considering
it is dark, it’s raining, and I can’t find my way to this place Josh rented for
me!”
Natalie squeaked on the other end of the phone from
the venom in my tone. Immediately, I felt horrible. “Bad day?”
Scoffing, I replied, “Bad? I’ve had the—” I caught
myself, stopping my words up short. Other than the initial flight issue, and
the evil GPS, my day hadn’t really been that terrible. In fact, Sal had made it
one to remember. Clearing my throat and shaking my head in an attempt to rid
the heated sensation traveling over my skin at the memory, I said quietly, “It
hasn’t been that bad, I suppose.”
“Really? Well…that’s good then, right?”
Her soft, unassuming voice made me feel like I could
maybe trust her. Natalie was the only female I spent any regular time with. It
wasn’t that I didn’t have a lot of friends, because I guess I did, I just
didn’t have a lot in the way of females with whom I cared to share every detail
of my personal life.
Impulsively, I blurted, “Have you ever done
something so stupidly reckless you were sure you needed to have your sanity
checked just for doing it?”
Even her breathing grew silent, but only for a
moment. “Um…like meeting a guy on Spring Break, spending the most fantastic
week with him, and then suddenly deciding to up and move, switching my
university and entire life to live with him when he asked me to? Uh, yeah, I
suppose so.”
I swallowed my emotions and words, knowing she was
talking about my brother. Turning to look out the rain-splattered window into
the darkness, I watched the headlights of cars pass me by as my car sat
unmoving on the shoulder of the road. I didn’t pretend to understand what
happened between my brother and Natalie, nor did I want to, but if they were
happy and their crazy choices worked for them, who was I to ever stand in their
way?