It was also entirely inappropriate for the plane, but I didn’t care.
When we broke apart, we panted softly against each other’s mouths, and I felt tears of joy sting my eyes. “Is this really happening?”
“It’s really happening.”
“You hate flying,” I murmured randomly.
“Aye. But I have you tae distract me.”
Despite the euphoria and relief flooding me, my insides still felt shaky with uncertainty. Caleb seemed to sense it, pressing soft kisses along my jaw until he reached my ear, where he whispered, “You’re mine forever now, wee yin.”
I fought back the tears his words incited and tightened my hold on him. “And you’re mine.”
He drew back to look me deep in the eye and he nodded.
He was mine.
I smiled. Big and happy and I was rewarded with his grin. I touched my fingers to his lips and whispered, “You should do that more.”
“I have a feeling I’ll be doing it a lot more from now on.”
We gazed at each other, taking in every little detail of each other’s face, but the moment was broken when the flight attendant asked us if we’d like a drink. I asked for two glasses of champagne and made Caleb clink glass to glass. “We’re celebrating.”
“I can think of a better way tae celebrate than this.”
“Oh?” I knew that look on his face. He was going to say something dirty and I was going to pretend to be appalled all while he made my girly parts tingle.
His gaze smoldered. “We could join the mile high club.”
I glanced over at the curtain that hid the bathroom and galley. “Are you kidding?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“We can’t.” Everyone would hear us.
“Who is going tae know,” he whispered. “Hidden behind the curtain, everyone will think I’m just waiting in line for the loo. Instead I’ll be inside it with you. While you come very, very hard but very, very quietly.”
He reached out to put his hand on my knee and he caressed it, his palm pushing the hem of my skirt up slightly.
“I need you, Ava.”
All cheekiness had faded from his voice, leaving just raw, serious need.
“We shouldn’t.”
Hearing the change from “can’t” to “shouldn’t,” Caleb’s expression tightened. “We should.” His fingers slid between the gap between my knees, caressing my inner thigh, and my belly tightened.
“Caleb,” I whispered.
He leaned over to whisper in my ear, “One way or another I need you. Here or in there?”
I pushed away his hand, even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. “In there,” I said shakily, my pulse rocketing at the idea of having sex in the bathroom of an airplane. I didn’t think the mile-high club was actually a thing!
Not too long later the flight attendant took away our glasses and the announcement came over that we were readying for takeoff.
Seeing Caleb tense, I reached for his hand again, bringing his attention back to me and not the plane. “I saw you with Jen,” I said, knowing the controversial subject would definitely take his mind off everything but us.
Sure enough, he scowled. “Jamie told me. And I told you that there’s nothing between me and Jen. There was a whole bunch of us from the office in that bar. Jen just …”
“She squeezed her way in beside you, huh?” I tried to suppress my grin at his agitated expression.
“She’s a pain in the arse.”
I chuckled. “I’m sorry I got jealous.”
“I’m not.” His gazed moved lovingly over my face. “I wanted you back as soon as you walked away from me in the park. But I thought I didn’t deserve you for making you feel like you weren’t worth the risk. I fought with myself for two weeks and then when Jamie told me how you reacted tae seeing me, I knew it was now or never. There was a window between you loving me and resenting me and I couldn’t miss it.”
“Leo is just a friend,” I replied, thinking it best to clear that up too. “We bumped into each other that day at the park. That’s all that was.”
The muscle in his jaw popped as he clenched his teeth, his hold on my hand tightening a little too much. I squeezed it and he loosened his grip. “I dinnae like the way he looks at you.”
“Just friends,” I repeated. Then I laughed, suddenly remembering our first time on a plane together. “I never would have imagined us being here right now that first time flying from Arizona to Chicago.”
“No, me neither. But I was thinking about getting you into bed.”
“I never would have guessed that. You were so mean.”
“Hey, you were mean back.” His lips twitched, eyes dancing with mirth. “It only made me want you more. When you got up to go to the bathroom, I imagined following you in there.” His lips brushed my ear again as he said in that low, sexy voice of his, “I imagined you pressed up against the sink, your back tae me.”
My breath stuttered. “Is that what you’re going to do to me?”
I felt him shake his head before he drew back to look deep into my eyes. “I need tae look at you when we’re in there. You’re not just some sexy stranger now. You’re Ava.”
Suddenly the beep of the seat belt sign drew us out of our bubble and we realized we were up in the air. We shared a smile.
“You’re so very good at distracting me, wee yin.” He caressed my lower lip with his thumb.
I discreetly swiped at it with my tongue and then pulled away, grinning at the hot look he gave me. “I think you were the one who did the distracting this time.”
He nodded and then gestured to the aisle. “I think you might need tae use the facilities, no?”
My belly flipped. “Now?”
“Aye,” Caleb practically growled. “Now.”
And that was how, on trembling legs, I got up out of my seat, readying myself to join the mile high club. I felt his hand caress my ass as I squeezed by him and I shivered, unable to fully comprehend the reality of what I was planning to do because all I really cared about was getting him inside me.
It felt like I hadn’t had him inside me in years.
And I never thought I’d get to love him like this again.
I pushed the curtain aside, giving the flight attendant a weak smile, before I let myself into the bathroom with shaky fingers. I locked it. And waited.
Less than a minute passed before I heard a knock. “It’s me.”
Lust tugged deep in my belly as I unlocked it and stumbled back in the tiny space to let Caleb in. We were crammed together, our bodies touching, as he locked the door behind us.
“I keep forgetting how tall you are,” I whispered, my head tilted back to look up at him.
His answer was to lift me up and my legs automatically wound around his hips, my skirt bunching up around my waist as he propped me on the edge of the small countertop.
“Only you,” he suddenly whispered.
I looked into his eyes, questioning the hoarse, painful quality in his voice.
He rested his forehead against mine, holding me tight. “You have the power tae hurt me. Only you.”
Understanding caused a rush of emotion within me, tears stinging my nose. “When you hurt, Caleb, I hurt.” My voice broke as I promised, “I’ll never hurt you.”
“I love you,” Caleb choked out abruptly, the words coarse and dragging, as if they cost him his soul to say it.
Relief, bliss, and sweet, painful connection made me smile in sympathy. “It’ll get easier.”
“Tae say it?”
“No.” I placed my hand over his heart. “To feel it.”
His answer to that was a kiss so hungry and deep I miraculously forgot where I was. I forgot everything but the need to be with him.
Epilogue
THREE WEEKS LATER
A nod’s as guid as a wink tae a blind horse.”
Lying facing Caleb in bed, I felt my lips twitch in amusement. “I have no idea.”
We were playing the “let Ava guess what Scottish words and sayings mean” game and I was having no such luck in guessing correctly so far.
“It means, ‘Explain yourself more clearly.’ ”
“Yeah, I was never getting that. What?” I shoved him playfully. “You’re making stuff up now.”
Caleb grinned and shook his head as much as he could since it was propped up by his hand, elbow bent to his pillow. “Another?”
“Yes. I am going to get one eventually.”