Playboy Pilot (13 page)

Our rooms were on the eighth floor, three doors down from each other. Arriving at Kendall’s first, I tried to charm my way inside. “Thank you for continuing this journey with me, Perky. There is no way I was ready to let you go. I don’t know what this is, but it’s the best thing I have in my life right now, and I don’t want to lose it.”

“I’m glad I came, too.”

When she opened her door, I attempted to step inside her room, but she stopped me with her palm to my chest. “The hallway has cameras.”

“I’d go to jail for a kiss right now. Might even do hard time to cop a feel at those tits of yours.”

She shook her head but smiled. “You have a wicked tongue.”

I arched an eyebrow.

“Go. Get some sleep. You must be exhausted. Tonight I want you to take me out on the town. Take me dancing.”

She was right. I definitely needed a few hours of sleep. But there was no way in hell I was going to do that without another little taste. I’d had it twice, and now I was addicted. I pushed inside her room before the door closed. When she saw the determination on my face, she let the door close behind me.

“Carter…we could get in trouble.”

“All the more reason to make it worthwhile.”

Ten minutes later, I left her room with a raging hard on. I hadn’t even noticed what I was humming until I showered and climbed into bed. The Beatles,
I Want to Be Your Man.

I was fucking done for.

I WAS SOAKING IN THE TUB
after a long nap when the hotel room phone rang. Conveniently, there was a corded phone in the bathroom, and all I had to do was reach over and pick it up.

“I had this dream you were next to me in the bed when I woke up.” Carter’s voice was still raspy from sleep. The sound traveled from the receiver, through my ears and straight down between my legs. “Disappointed when I reached over, and all I got was an empty bed.”

I sunk back down in the tub, leaving only my nipples above the warm water. Between the cool air and Carter’s voice, they were standing firmly erect. I splashed some water to warm them, but it didn’t help. “Are you saying you were dreaming about me?”

“Been dreaming about you since the minute I laid eyes on you at the airport lounge. Although not sure some of the things I’ve been thinking would be called dreams. Fantasies might be more like it.”

“Is that so?”

“It is.”

I cupped a handful of water and let it drip down onto my nipples as I spoke. “Did you have a good sleep, or did those dreams make it hard to rest?”

“Oh, it definitely made it hard. But I got a few hours shut eye at least. How about you?”

“I slept a little. I was achy from the long flight, so I thought taking a bath might help relax my muscles.”

“You’re in the bath right now?”

“Mmmm-hmmm.”

Carter made a noise that sounded like a groan. “You’re fucking killing me, Perky. I finally got my sail down, and now you tell me you’re lying naked in the bathtub talking to me?”

“It feels so good. You should try it.”

“You don’t have to ask twice. I’ll be right there.”

I laughed. “You have stress induced erectile dysfunction, remember?”

“I’ll show you how dysfunctional my erection is.”

“Be nice. I could have told them you had an STD, you know. Then you’d have trouble getting back in with the sky sluts, even after I’m gone.”

“Sky sluts, huh?”

I sighed. “Let’s talk about something else. I don’t like to think about you like that. You seem…so
different
when you’re with me.”

“I
am
different when I’m with you.”

I was quiet for a minute.
Can one person be two different people?
I didn’t think it was really possible. More than likely, one of the two personalities was an act. I couldn’t even let myself think about that…maybe
I
wasn’t the one seeing the real Carter.

“You went quiet on me. What are you thinking about?”

“To be honest, I’m wondering which Carter is the real you. The guy who slept on the floor in Rio without being asked because he knew I was uncomfortable. Or the guy who shacks up with a different flight attendant each week.”

“I’m sort of confused about that myself, too. But I know which one I like better. I
like
myself better when I’m with you. I think you bring out the best in me, Kendall—a side I haven’t seen for a really long time. Kinda forgot that part of me even existed anymore until you got on my plane.”

“I think that’s the sweetest, realest thing anyone’s ever said to me. I like you too, Carter Clynes.”

For the next few minutes, we just listened to each other breathe. Oddly, those minutes relaxed my muscles more than my nap and the warm tub had done combined.

“Are you still up for dancing tonight? I understand if you’re not. You flew a plane for fourteen hours and only took a nap, really.”

“I don’t require much sleep. I’ll be good to go in an hour.”

“I went through my suitcases before. I honestly don’t have much to go out in that covers all the parts that are required to be covered.”

“You have a light jacket?”

“I do.”

“Dress your sexiest. Throw the jacket over you to cover up. Rules don’t apply in licensed clubs, and I’m looking forward to seeing some skin.”

“Okay. Well then skin you shall see, Captain.”

FORGET DUBAI,
there was a chance I could get a ticket in Texas with this outfit. I turned to my left, then to my right, modeling my dress in the mirror one last time to make sure all of my important parts were adequately covered. They were…barely. From the front, it looked like a simple little black dress, although it was really, really short. It wasn’t until I turned to the side that you could see that the entire sides were see-through. A strip of sheer fabric about eight inches wide held together the black material and showed off that it was impossible to wear anything at all underneath. Braless wasn’t unusual for me, but going without panties to a dance club was a first. It was why I hadn’t worn the dress even though I’d picked it up at a trunk sale four months ago.

To go with my high-class call girl look, I’d teased my blonde locks to give them extra body and made up my eyes in a smoky purplish gray. There was a fine line between sexy and whore, and I hoped I was teetering on the right side. When Carter knocked, I was suddenly nervous with butterflies.

“One minute!”

I gave myself a last onceover in the mirror and took a deep breath before strutting to the door in my stilettos.

Apparently,
slutty
was a look Carter really liked. His eyes bulged from their sockets and he cursed under his breath. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. You’re trying to fucking kill me.”

I spun a slow circle to give him the full view. “You like it?”

“You have no bra or underwear on under that thing, do you?”

“There are no sides; you can’t wear any. Is it too much?”

He stayed in the doorway, holding on to both sides so tight that his knuckles turned white. The way he looked at me with such raw intensity made my skin prickle. “You look gorgeous, Kendall. It’s not too much. I just hate the thought of sharing you with anyone else in that outfit.”

“You said you wanted to see skin. So I wore it for you.”

“Thank you. It made my day. Fuck that, it made my year. Now grab your jacket and cover yourself up before I do something that you might not be okay with.”

My coat was on the bed. Slipping it on, I cinched it tight at the waist, and I was glad it fell all the way to my knees. No one could have imagined what little I had on underneath. Carter held the door as I passed, but I stopped to whisper. “I can’t think of anything you’d do that I wouldn’t be okay with.”

CLUB BOUDOIR WAS MORE
glamorous than any club I’d ever been in. And that includes the annual girls’ trip I’d taken the last few years to New York City. There was a long roped off line to get in, but Carter surprised me by walking to the front. When he gave his name, we were escorted right inside. He’d reserved a table that came with an expensive bottle of champagne.

“This is beautiful.”

He pulled out my chair. “I’m glad you like it. Because I might not be able to afford dinner for the next few days after this.” He’d said it jokingly, but I knew it had to cost him a small fortune for a bottle of American Dom and no-wait entry. We shared a table full of appetizers and drank the full bottle of champagne while people-watching together. It was so effortless to spend time with Carter, whether I was sitting in our room at Maria Rosa’s or swaying to music in my chair at a swanky club in the middle of ritzy Dubai. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how weird the entire situation was.

“I can’t believe a few days ago a monkey peed on my shoulder at a boarding house and now I’m sitting in a club full of beautiful people drinking champagne with you.”

“Which do you like better?”

“I don’t know. You haven’t shown me your moves yet. Can you dance, Captain Clynes?”

He gulped back the last of the champagne in his glass. “Maybe.”

I stood and offered him my hand. “Show me what you got, hot stuff.”

One brow arched. “Hot stuff?”

The champagne had me feeling no pain. I wrapped my arms around Carter’s neck. “You’re gorgeous, confident, funny, and an airline pilot. The only thing that can make that package any better is if you have rhythm.”