by Haley Travis
I couldn’t believe he didn’t want sex, in any way. It just didn’t seem right for me to not take care of him as well. I mean, it was our wedding night, fake or not.
“Listen,” he said quickly, “I hope I didn’t overstep any bounds last night. You seemed stressed and rattled all week, and that whole day was intense and exhausting. I was just overwhelmed with the urge to take care of you. I hope that was okay.”
He looked seriously worried, studying my eyes for my reaction. I smiled, chucking him under the chin. “Jacob, that was fabulous. I was just surprised that you didn’t want more.”
He looked incredibly relieved, then shrugged. “Want? Yes. But thought it was appropriate? Nah.” He got out of bed, looking hot as hell in that little pair of shorts that hugged his snug ass perfectly. Then he flung open the curtains, making me jump back like a vampire.
“The daystar... It burns,” I whined.
“Daytime is where food lives. Get dressed and let’s go eat.”
I actually spent a solid ten minutes glamming myself up for breakfast, another first in my weird new life.
As we settled in the unbelievingly fancy hotel restaurant, we sipped coffee and ordered a gigantic breakfast. Then I grabbed my phone. Jacob frowned slightly, and I instantly laughed. “I swear, I’m not being rude at the table. Shouldn’t we change all of our social media statuses to say that we’re married? That’s usually the first thing newlyweds do.”
“Oh, wow – you’re right,” he said, grabbing his phone. We posted a few pics from the wedding, and took a silly selfie with our coffee mugs hiding most of our faces.
There were already a slew of photos from the night before all over our guest’s pages, and it sounded like absolutely everyone had a wonderful time. The phrase, “The most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding” came up twice.
I was finally beginning to actually relax, even though I knew in a few hours I’d be flying for the first time ever. I knew that Jacob would lead the way, and guide me. I’d never allowed anyone to take care of me before, but it seemed to come so naturally to him that my shields were crumbling.
JACOB
<<< 27 >>>
FLYING
I’d found that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they travel. Some people get stressed out of their minds if the tiniest thing goes wrong. Some become haughty and belligerent. Others zone out into sort of a zombie shuffle, not caring what happens as long as they arrive in one piece.
Mia seemed perfectly calm, and happy to let me take care of everything.
“You’re really not going to tell me where we’re going?” she asked with a smirk. Her eyes were sparkling while she pretended to be annoyed.
“Nope. It’s warm, and we’re going to lounge. That’s all you need to know.”
She stuck that luscious bottom lip out in a gorgeous pout, and it was difficult not to kiss her. I realized that this trip was going to be a tricky balance of keeping a polite distance from her so that I wasn’t overly tempted.
I led her through the small Toronto Island airport, and she seemed to be looking around a lot.
“What’s your favorite part of this airport?” I asked casually.
She giggled. “You can tell I’ve never been here before, can’t you?”
“I suspected.”
“I assume you know where you’re going?”
“Of course.” As soon as we were spotted, assistants from my private jet ran toward us.
“Mr. Stoneburrowes, we could have met you at the door,” a young man said apologetically, as he and a young lady quickly took our luggage.
“No worries,” I said, “We were running early.” Mia looked confused, but I took her hand and led her through a series of doors, then outside to the waiting jet.
A tall, dark-haired woman was waiting by the steps. “Hello, Mr. Stoneburrowes.”
“Hello, Marie. Nice to see you again.”
“Mrs. Stoneburrowes, so lovely to meet you,” she said graciously.
“Hi. It’s Mia.”
“Welcome to the Flying Stone,” Marie said with a wide smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll be taking excellent care of you. Your bags are being stowed now, and Captain Nick will be flying you today.”
Mia looked a little out of sorts, not used to having people wait on her.
“He’s the best,” I said, giving her hand a little squeeze. “He’ll even let you go up and check out the controls if you like.”
She shook her head. “No thanks. I’d be too afraid to even breathe on anything wrong.”
Marie smiled warmly, guiding us up the steps and into the plane. “Are you a nervous flyer, Mia?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never flown before.”
My head swiveled. “Ever? Why didn’t you tell me?”
She laughed lightly. “You have enough to deal with. I didn’t want you worrying about me. They do this all day long, right? I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
Marie guided us into buttery soft leather seats. “Be sure to swallow several times on takeoff and landing to clear your ears,” she said kindly. “There’s gum available if you like, or peppermints. Those are also good for calming the flutters if your stomach is sensitive. However, I find a glass of wine is the best medicine.”
“Yes, please,” Mia said.
Marie quickly served us each a half-glass of wine. “I don’t mean to be pushy, but chug those, and after takeoff I’ll serve champagne and snacks. We’ll be taking off in about three minutes.”
I held up my glass to Mia’s. “To our honeymoon.”
“To finally relaxing together,” she grinned.
We both drained our glasses and Marie cleared things away, I was pleased to see that Mia didn’t seem nervous exactly, just curious.
Takeoff went smoothly, and Mia laughed like crazy when Captain Nick announced “Parts Unknown” as our destination.
An hour later, after champagne and mini sandwiches, she was reading a book on her new e-reader, one of the very few things I’d noticed that she’d purchased for herself with her new credit card.
“Hey,” I asked. “Do you prefer e-books to paper books?”
“I like them both,” she said. “But this is handier for carrying a hundred books in my purse. Also, overall e-books are cheaper, so I’ll be saving money in the long run. I ran the numbers, and taking in the cost of the reader and my usual book consumption, it will pay for itself within a year.”
“And here I thought you were treating yourself.”
Mia shrugged. “I’m always looking to save money.” Then she gave me a very odd look. “No offense, but that’s one thing that I know that you could never quite understand. You’ve never stood in the grocery store agonizing over whether to buy your favorite soup, or the slightly sour one that’s on sale if you buy five of them. That’s your whole budget, but that way you have five days of food taken care of.”
I probably looked horrified. “You can’t possibly tell me that a can of soup is a whole day’s worth of food?”
She looked very uncomfortable. “In university, several times, yes.”
“Wow.” I couldn’t help taking her hand. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s normal.”
“No, it’s not.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it really is normal. It happens to everyone now and then. Hopefully not often, or for very long, but I don’t know a single person who hasn’t gone hungry for a few days due to lack of money.” She bit her lip. “Except for you, of course.”
“I had no idea.”
“That’s the thing,” she said, leaning in. “Rich people don’t have a clue how a huge section of the population lives. And when they do hear a few details by accident, they’re horrified, then try to erase it from their minds. There are likely thousands of people across Toronto right now who are skimping on dinner because they have to make it to payday.”
I squeezed her hand again, trying to think of what to say, when the plane lurched to the right, throwing Mia against me.<
br />
She screamed, shaking as she clutched me, and I wrapped my arms around her, stroking her hair, murmuring, “It’s just turbulence, baby. You’re okay.”
Marie came running for us, making sure that we were buckled in. “The Captain is so sorry. We hit a rough patch, but should be through it in a minute.” Even though Marie was buckling Mia’s seat belt back on, she left it a bit loose because Mia would not let go of me.
The plane bucked again. “Marie, go strap in, we’re fine.”
She nodded and went to the front, as I held Mia, who was shaking like a leaf. Stroking her hair, I held her tightly. “It’s going to be fine. I’ve been through it when it’s been ten times worse.” The seats rocked a bit, then everything seemed to smooth out.
It felt so perfect holding her like this that I would have been happy to spend the rest of the flight with my arms around her, but she sat up, her face so close to mine. “I’m sorry… I can’t…”
“Breathe. Big, slow breathing.”
She nodded, but she really didn’t seem like she could catch her breath, gasping awkwardly. It was like she had overloaded on fear and the adrenaline rush was making her unable to shake it out. Watching her breathing stutter so hard was completely unnerving.
If a heart isn’t beating with any rhythm, a defibrillator shuts the heart off to reset it. What do you do when there is no rhythm to a person’s breathing?
Pulling her against me, I kissed her roughly, deeply, hopefully literally taking her breath away. She trembled with shock for a second, then melted against me, kissing me with a fire that drove me wild. Her lips parted, her tongue exploring my mouth. Her fingers gripped the back of my hair and I thought I heard the tiniest whimper over the hum of the engines.
I finally pulled her away. “Mia, are you okay? Can you breathe now?”
She nodded, slightly flushed. “Wow. I’ve only panicked like that once before. Your method of fixing me is a lot better than when Rayanne had to throw ice water in my face.”
“Glad to help,” I grinned. “Are you alright? Can I get you anything?”
“Yes, and yes,” she said, giving me a sly smile before kissing me again.
This time was softer, sultry, her fingers caressing my neck and shoulders. Her lips were so silky, as she moved them gently against mine. My hands wandered along her back, wishing I could slide them under her shirt, but not sure where the lines were anymore.
She finally pulled away, giving me a wink. “I’m still blaming that on the turbulence, and you can’t stop me.”
“I wouldn’t dare,” I grinned. I was thrilled that she was so comfortable with me, but wondered how far this would go.
She settled back into her seat, and Marie instantly appeared with more wine. “I’ve switched you to pinot grigio, as too much bubbly champagne can cause hiccups when you’re flying,” she said.
“This is why she is the best,” I said to Mia while giving Marie a wink, “She takes care of what we need when we didn’t even know what we needed.”
The rest of the flight was quite mellow, with the two of us drinking a little more wine, while Marie fed us water and snacks as she saw fit.
After about two hours, the Captain’s voice came over the speaker. “Mr. Stoneburrowes, we’ll be landing in approximately two minutes, so you might like to tell your lovely bride where we are, and look out the window on the left side.”
Mia looked at me excitedly. “Well?”
“We’re staying at Hamilton Harbor, Bermuda. Mother insisted on paying for our honeymoon, but I picked the location.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never heard of it, but it sounds super fancy.”
“Look.”
She turned to peer out the window and made a tiny cry of excitement as the plane circled a gigantic lush green island surrounded by brilliant blue water. “I have a photo that looks just like that in my room. Even the palm trees.”
“That’s why I chose it.”
Her mouth fell open, then her bottom lip began to tremble. Blinking hard, she was obviously fighting back tears.
“It’s a private resort,” I said softly, leaning close to stroke her back. “The only rules here are to overindulge completely, and if you see someone famous, politely ignore them unless they talk to you first.”
The look she gave me filled me with a joy I couldn’t even make sense of. Her happiness satisfied me in ways I couldn’t fathom. I was so hooked on this girl I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep our lines in place any longer.
JACOB
<<< 28 >>>
HONEYMOON NIGHT
After we got to our luxurious villa and I enjoyed the sight of Mia’s lovely eyes nearly popping out of her head, we stashed our things and got settled. The villa was basically one big room, plus a bathroom with a huge glassed-in shower, and a hot tub on the deck that faced the ocean.
“So, what first?” she asked.
“Dinner, I guess. There are three restaurants and two bars all a short walk away, or we can rent scooters.”
She crinkled her nose. “I’d rather walk.”
“Okay. What would you like for dinner?”
“Um, I actually filled up on the plane pretty well.”
“What if we went for an appetizer, then went to a bar for a drink and snack, and just wandered around?” I asked.
“Perfect! I should change. How dressy would you like me?” She looked at me oddly. “I’ve never been on a vacation before. But I packed well.”
“Just be comfortable. Nobody cares around here.”
Mia smirked. “I’m the new Mrs. Stoneburrowes, wife of the financial emperor of Toronto,” she laughed. “I’ll find something.”
Emerging from the washroom ten minutes later, Mia was a vision in a dark purple dress, black flats, her hair held to the side in a rose gold clip with pink crystals that matched her ring.
I chuckled. “You already have hair accessories that match your new ring? Stylish.”
“Yes,” she said, grabbing her purse. “I’ve also found bracelets, necklaces, and a couple of pins. All for three-ninety-nine each at one of those junk bauble sections of a dollar store near the bridal shop we went to.”
I pretended to be horrified, then grinned as I led her out. “I would never have known. In the future, you should lie and say that you found them in a darling little shop here on the island.”
“Do they have jewelry stores here?”
“Of course. Rich women love to shop. You can’t bring them anywhere and expect them not to purchase trendy things for five straight days.”
“The horror!” she croaked, then collapsed into giggles.
We wandered around the various resort bars having snacks here, and a fruity drink there, enjoying the heat and each other’s company. Now we could finally relax, having no more work other than taking a few fun photos every day.
But it was getting harder and harder to keep my hands to myself, especially when Mia pulled me onto the dance floor, slinking against me as she moved to the beat.
As we swayed around gently to the music, I couldn’t help but notice that Mia’s nipples were completely hard as she pressed against me. I had to shift my hips to the side so she couldn’t tell how aroused I was, but her fingers kept wandering along the back of my neck, driving me crazy.
The warm salty air, the fruity drinks, and this gorgeous woman pressed against me was the most delicious torture. I had no idea how hard it would be to keep my hands relatively to myself.
“Shall I get us another round?” I said, needing a distraction immediately.
“Sure,” she said brightly.
I could tell that Mia was likely near her limit, so I asked the bartender to make hers half strength. He nodded knowingly, putting an extra lime on the edge of one glass to mark it.
When I returned, Mia was laughing. Her long, lovely hair was flying as an older man twirled her around the dance floor. Then I recognized him as one of the stars of a recent superhero movie.
When he saw me appr
oach, he spun her toward me. “Hey there, mate. My wife went to the loo, so I borrowed yours. I love this song.”
He kissed Mia’s hand, then went back to a table where a tall blonde woman was rolling her eyes and laughing at him.
