by C. Lesbirel
TAKE ME AWAY
COCKPIT SERIES, BOOK 1
C. LESBIREL
BRITNEY BELL
Contents
Prologue
1. Liam
2. Heaven
3. Liam
4. Heaven
5. Liam
6. Heaven
7. Liam
8. Heaven
9. Liam
10. Heaven
11. Liam
12. Heaven
13. Liam
14. Heaven
15. Liam
16. Heaven
17. Liam
18. Heaven
19. Liam
20. Heaven
21. Liam
22. Heaven
23. Liam
24. Heaven
25. Liam
26. Heaven
27. Liam
28. Heaven
29. Liam
Epilogue
Take Me Anywhere
Prologue
What’s next?
Acknowledgments
Take Me Away, Cockpit Series Copyright © 2019 by C. Lesbirel & Britney Bell
* * *
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
* * *
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions or locales is completely coincidental.
Created with Vellum
To our Heaven, thank you for sharing your passion for pandas. You were definitely our muse and the inspiration behind Liam and Heaven’s story. We love you, little panda.
Prologue
Heaven
Three years earlier
Sometimes, I think that men are like buses. They either fly past you at high speed ignoring you completely, or they stop, you ride them for a while, and then get off. They carry on, and you go your own way never really thinking about the ride again because frankly, it wasn’t anything worth remembering. Like clockwork, they keep coming, stopping and going, and all you really want is a car. Doesn’t have to be a shiny sports one, or a four by four with badass wheels and leather interior, just something comfortable and familiar will do. One to call your own. My problem? I never learned how to drive, so my dreamy new ride is not happening anytime soon.
Men, however, are the last thing on my mind right now as I ride the packed bus to the closest stop to Panda Hearts. It’s the last time I’ll be seeing any of my adopted furry friends for a long while. Going home was inevitable, my savings won’t last forever, and the thought of making China my permanent base is overwhelming. I’ve already outstayed my original plan by two years when I turned my visa into a working one, plus my gut tells me it’s time to go home.
Stepping off the bus as it barely pulls to a stop, I try to take in Chengdu, China in all its morning glory. The sun is scorching and despite the time, the route is already busy with people going about their business. It’s not the people that catch my attention, it’s the giant panda shaped building standing tall before me, surrounded by bright green foliage that fights the building for residence of the space. Of all the things in the world you’d expect to find here, a panda sanctuary was the least. When I took a chance on a random job in China, I fell in love at first sight, and I’ve spent the best part of three years working alongside the staff, who are now my friends, to support the welfare of the pandas. Last summer, I even got to help release one back into the wild. Zoe was a giant panda with a technical name no one can pronounce, confident and a real diva when you got to know her. She had been a timid, quiet thing at first, but by the time we let her go she was more than ready to handle herself in the wild. I had balled my eyes out and Steph, my co-worker and close friend, had railroaded me into staying on longer to work at Panda Hearts. She says there are some people who care about pandas, and some who carry them in their hearts, I am most definitely the latter. In fact, as my mom likes to point out whenever we touch base, I care more about my relationships with my fur friends than I do with humans.
It’s easy to see why.
Pandas are loving, affectionate and loyal. Humans are not. Humans are hurtful, fake and do brutal things to each other for pleasure. My jaw clenches tightly shut, and I close my eyes for a second, remembering why my relationships with humans mean so little. Why I barely trust anyone and keep my circle so small that you can fit it in your handbag.
Richie.
Most of my reasons for everything fall back to him. I’m stuck in an endless time loop that always starts and ends with him, and even after working to get Richie out of my system while I’ve been here, the damage he created still taunts me. At first it was just about falling out of love with him, or at least the idea of him. Truth is, I never really knew Richie at all. He was a cheat and a player, and for the longest time, I’d been his game.
Loving Richie was comparable to riding a bike with a flat tire. It slows you down, drags you along behind and drains you of all the extra energy. It doesn’t matter how hard you pedal or how much you pump up the tire. If the tire’s shit, then it’s shit, and you’re going nowhere fast with it.
Flying out to China and cutting the poison that is Richie out of my life was the best thing I ever did. A close second was taking the job at Panda Hearts, and I have a sinking feeling that going home will be the worst. Even after everything that’s happened to me since I claimed my life back, Richie stole some pieces of me that I don’t think I’ll ever get back. When I say pieces, I mean a giant chunk of my heart after he ripped it out and trampled all over it.
Being with the pandas half a world away from everything that has come before, has made it easy to forget the part of me who wanted to find a boyfriend. Someone to belong to, share things with and love.
Going home only reminds me of everything I once wanted, and everything I know I’ll never have.
He’d taken my self-respect.
Bruised my self-identity and crapped all over my self-esteem. But Richie could never take away my experiences here in China or tear apart the friendships I’d made, and those things are all I intend to focus on.
They say everyone deserves someone to share their heart with. I am one of the lucky ones because I get to share mine with the pandas.
1
Liam
I take another sip of my tasteless cheap Champagne and wonder who the fuck ordered this shit as I brush Emilia Ferdinand off like she’s nothing. Because she is nothing. Sure, tonight she’s dressed in a knockout red pencil dress that clings to every inch of her body. The very body my tongue touched just a few nights ago while thinking she tasted as sweet as candy, but something about Emilia leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Could be the way she looks at every man in a suit tonight in the exact same way she looks at me.
“You playing tonight, Liam?” she purrs, sliding a hand around my inner arm.
“Nah, I’m not in the mood,” I deadpan, not giving her a single ounce of interest.
“Aw, maybe I could cheer you up?”
“Me and every other guy in boat shoes.”
“Oh, don’t get all bratty, Liam. You knew the deal when we started this thing, and it’s a deal that pays off for both of us. Why be so sulky?”
“You know, I thought you wer
e different, Emilia.”
“Ouch.” She winces as my words rub against her like a stinging nettle. “You really are in a bad mood. We had fun, didn’t we?”
“I’m not saying we didn’t, but neither of us are getting any younger, Em. Aren’t you bored of being my plaything?”
“Not really. Jeez, what’s gotten into you? Isn’t that your signature saying? ‘Work hard, play harder,’ that’s what you Parker brothers live by, right?”
“Not anymore,” I mumble, sliding past her and out into the corridor to get some air.
The Parker annual thank you party for all our clients is in full swing with everyone who is anyone dressed in their finest, and I don’t think a single one of them has the capability of maintaining a serious relationship. Or the desire to, for that matter.
I didn’t either, or at least, I thought I didn’t, until I watched my little brother get down on one knee over Christmas. The gesture had shocked the shit out of us all. He fell hard and fast for Paige, and even though it had been a total train wreck and over within twenty-four hours, the fact that my little brother was ready to pop the question made me question why I wasn’t.
Shoulders bump into me, and I mumble the odd, “hello,” when required as I work the crowd until I reach the doorway next to the kitchen and step outside. Immediately, I take in a large breath of fresh air and pull out my phone from my pocket. Force of habit. That’s the thing about being CEO, you never switch off. I probably check my emails in my sleep without knowing it.
“Touch me like that again and I’ll drop this entire platter down your overpriced shirt.”
My head whips around to the corridor behind me, and my eyes land on a five foot nothing blonde, with an equally short guy pawing her ass.
I shove my phone back in my pocket to give them my full attention from the shadows of the doorway where neither know I’m standing.
“You’re way too hot to be working at nights like this, sweetie.” He wasn’t wrong on that count. Even dressed in that plain Jane uniform of black trousers and a matching blouse, there was no denying the sweet curves she’s carrying on that petite frame. “How about you put the tray down and meet me upstairs for some fun, huh?” the guy I don’t recognize slurs out.
“How about you take your hands off my ass and…”
“And get the fuck out of here before I detonate your ass and feed it to the guests with a side of mashed potatoes,” I sternly interrupt.
“Liam Parker,” his voice trembles as he realizes exactly who he’s dealing with.
“In the fucking flesh. Don’t make me tell you twice.”
“I’m sorry,” he mumbles, already backing away and getting ready to scamper off, leaving me to turn my attention onto the chick with blonde hair who he’d been mauling a few minutes earlier.
“What the fuck was that?” She scowls at me, her hair tightly pulled off her face in the standard catering ponytail, exposing her features in all their angry glory.
Midnight blue eyes glare at me accompanied by pouty lips and crinkled up forehead, yet still, she looks cute as a button.
“That was me saving your ass. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“Saving my… really? You’re serious? You think I need saving. Wow, this night is the gift that keeps on giving, Liam Parker. For the record, I don’t need you, or anyone else, ‘saving’ me. I’m quite capable of managing myself.”
“Yeah.” I snigger. “It looked like it.”
“Is this a joke to you?”
“No. No, it’s not. Are you okay?”
“Don’t pretend to be this big caring guy because we both know if you gave a shit, you’d answer your emails every once in a while.”
What the actual fuck is her problem? A pint-sized sass bomb with an attitude that I have a growing need to fuck right out of her. Of course, when she’s giving me attitude the way she is, I’m not going to bother asking what she’s talking about. She can go and fuck herself, for all I care.
I glance down at her name badge and can’t help but smile on the inside when I read her name. ‘Heaven.’ Her parents were clearly as delusional as she is when they picked that one out of the hat. Or were they?
The more I study her, the more her expression softens, and those deep midnight blue eyes shine so dark they almost turn black. It makes for an interesting contrast against her deep Floridian tan that matches my own.
Even in her uniform with her hair scraped back, she’s a beauty. Breathtaking, actually.
“I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot, Heaven, enjoy the rest of your evening.”
She smiles sweetly and turns to walk away when I hear her growl the word, “hardly,” under her breath.
“Excuse me,” I call after her, and she glances over her shoulder. I let her first comments slide, but she clearly wants to spar. Oh, bring it on little one.
“Nothing, Mr. Parker.”
I stride the two steps it takes to stand in front of her, blocking her path and causing her to come to an abrupt stop.
“It’s Liam, and if you are going to have the indecency to sass me, at least have the nerve to say whatever your problem is to my face.”
“Okay, Liam.” Her voice drips with sarcasm. “But first, let me past before I kick you so hard in the balls that you won’t be able to walk straight for a month.”
I step back an inch, trying not to laugh out loud and give her some personal space back. Everything about the waitress, with an attitude problem, amuses me. It’s a struggle to picture her out of her uniform and not in a naked-bouncing-on-my-dick way, but I do and can imagine she’s some sort of eco warrior like my sister. Probably a feminist, too.
“I said hardly. As in, I’m hardly going to have a good time when half of your guests are letching over me every time I walk by with a platter of food that’s so expensive it doesn’t even look like food anymore.”
I reach into my pocket and pull out a wad of bills, split it in two and pass her half. “For your troubles.”
She rolls her eyes, her fingers still wrapped around the tray of entrees she’s carrying and not budging to swipe the money from me.
“See, that’s the problem with men like you. You think money solves the world’s problems. Like, ‘hey, I know he grabbed your ass when you were just trying to do your job, but that’s okay because here’s a bunch of dollar bills.’ It doesn’t work like that, Mr… Liam. Money doesn’t just magically make things that are shitty, un-shitty. The sooner ya’ll realize that, the better.”
2
Heaven
I storm off down the corridor without giving him a second thought. That’s a lie, I am acutely aware that his unusual green eyes are burning into the back of my head as I do and am unable to get them off my mind for the next few hours. No wonder, as everywhere I turn they’re on me.
He studies my every move, and as much as I hate it, it makes me nervous. Guys like Liam Parker, CEO of Parker Airlines, don’t pay attention to women like me.
That’s why, before tonight he had no idea who I was, despite my million emails to him. His airline is the biggest and most elite in America. Probably even in the world. I know exactly who he is because I’ve been trying to contact him for the last three months to try to secure a donation from him for the Panda Hearts Charity Gala.
“Watch where you're going.” My best friend, Brianna shoves into my shoulder, and I almost drop the tray I’m waving under people’s noses.
“Sorry,” I murmur, under my breath in an attempt to stay as invisible as possible. They were her strict instructions for the evening. Tie your hair back, be on time, don’t flirt with guests or speak to them unless they specifically ask you something.
I just failed miserably as I’d more than captured the attention of the number one person Brianna would want me to avoid bothering. She’ll kill me if she finds about our altercation, but only out of love, because she knows how much I need this job.
This job pays well, but most of my wages are split between paying rent and se
nding money back to Panda Hearts. There is always some crisis there that needs funding, and the donations are always short after paying vet bills and building more enclosures for new arrivals.
I can’t help but think back to when I first fell in love with the pandas when I met them working as a volunteer at Panda Hearts rescue center in Chengdu, China. Almost every day, for three amazing years, I helped take care of them, played with them, loved them, and I’d gotten to know each of their personalities. In the end, it hadn’t felt like I was studying their behavior, but rather, they were studying mine. Each of them had shared a piece of themselves with me, and having their trust felt like a responsibility. I didn’t just want to know the pandas; it was my job to help them. Steph refused to let me go completely, nor did I want to let go of helping, so she hooked me up with Panda Hearts’ fundraising opportunity. I’m able to work on it in my spare time and remotely from wherever I live. Plus, it means I get to stay in contact with her, and she gives me updates on all my fur babies.
Although Florida felt like a world away, I always felt close to the pandas and carried them with me wherever I went. When I had left to come home, the team bought me a totem necklace to represent the panda’s spirit of gentle strength, peace and a positive outlook on life. I’ve rarely taken it off since leaving China, and its symbolism often gives me quiet confidence at times, I need that most. Like tonight, for example.
