A Mile High

by Bethany-Kris

  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?

  No one, that’s who.

  “Okay, kind of like that,” I replied quietly. “But I meant more in the way of something really intimately physical, with a stranger…”

  “Is this a trick question?”

  “…On a plane,” I finished dryly.

  Natalie screeched in my ear and I cringed from the volume that had even the speakers crackling. “Oh my God, you did not!”

  “I did,” I muttered, suddenly studying my fingernails, which were super interesting compared to the thought of spilling all the dirty details to my brother’s girlfriend. “His name is Sal, and I have no idea who in the hell he is or where he lives, but Natalie…my God, it was…” I was unable to come up with a suitable description, honestly. Nothing was comparable to the actual moment.

  “Hot,” she suggested and I swore I could see her grinning all the way over in Maine. “And oh, my God…yeah, just hot.” Then, she made a noise of disgust. “You didn’t do it in the bathroom, right? Because that would just be a whole lot of grossness.”

  “No. And that’s all I’m willing to say about it.”

  She scoffed. “You suck.”

  “And swallow,” I added, laughing.

  “Great, thanks for the info. I’ll add it to my already growing pile of uselessness rattling about in my head.” After a moment of silence, Natalie sighed heavily. “So, no telling Josh about this, then?”

  Oh my fuck, my face was already burning red at the thought. “Please don’t. I would die and he would never let me live it down.”

  She hummed her agreement quietly. “I wouldn’t ever. Besides, you clearly needed to tell someone. Feel better?”

  I did, surprisingly. “Yeah, but I know this car’s damned GPS thing is Satan’s spawn intent on killing whatever high I have left over. Karma is biting me for doing bad things again.”

  With soft laughter, Natalie went about Google searching all the proper directions for me. Writing every bit down that she said, I figured I wasn’t all that far off from my final destination, despite having driven around in circles for more than two damned hours thanks to the evil inside this car. After a short goodbye, and Natalie forcing me to promise I would give her more details over our lunch date, I once again pulled onto the highway and was off.

  When I finally found my rental house, the two-story, pale yellow home that stared back at me was beautiful. With large, bay windows covering the front, I knew it must get a great deal of light for most of the day. I could almost see myself sitting out on the tops of those cliffs for the entire week, not wanting for a second to do anything else.

  The spectacular view overlooking those particular cliffs led straight into the ocean where waves crashed into rocks, taking my breath away instantly. Leaning against my car with my back turned to the softly lit house I watched a storm roll in from the ocean, the sky looking as if it were about to wage a war with the water. Despite knowing the owner lived in the bottom section and rented the top to tourists, I wasn’t concerned about being bothered by the person for my stay here.

  How could anyone be a bother when this was what I was able to look at every day?

  With the slight pattering of rain falling down on me, the cool liquid soothing my overworked nerves, I enjoyed the smell of the salty water and the sounds surrounding me. I knew the person inside the home behind me was likely wondering what in the hell I was doing, or where I had been, for that matter, but I couldn’t be bothered to move.

  I didn’t have to. The sounds of soft footsteps coming from behind me drew my attention back in the direction of the house. When I turned, my heart stopped. The man froze midstride, that signature grin he wore covering lips that I suddenly wanted to skip over and kiss.

  Sal. What were the chances, right?

  He wore the same clothing from the plane, although his grey t-shirt had been exchanged for an A-line tank that showed off even more of his glorious form: muscled, flexing, and far too perfect. The throbbing in the apex of my thighs began again, an ache I couldn’t escape settling deep in the pit of my stomach. And I sure as hell didn’t want to escape.

  His gaze traveled over me like I was the only thing he’d been looking for. A man starved, wanting, and lost. “Liv?” he asked, voice rougher than ever before, brow quirked in surprise. “My sister-in-law who booked the rental…she said the tenant was last-minute and she didn’t realize I was out of town for the week. That tenant was you?”

  Something unexpected called him back, I remembered him saying. That something unexpected must have been my brother’s last-minute rental of his home. My throat constricted around words and air, rain wetting my face even more as I stared, unashamed and happily, at the man before me. That scarf I had been looking for earlier dangled out of his back pocket. While he’d given me a stinging souvenir of our encounter to keep, he’d clearly taken one for himself as well. The bag in my hand dropped as he took a step forward, voice rushing away in the winds that whipped.

  Maybe he hadn’t wanted to say goodbye on that plane, either.

  And fate sometimes had its own way of stepping in when we didn’t have the courage to take what we wanted, too.

  “Sal.”

  Epilogue

  Laying in a king-sized bed, a too-big t-shirt bunched up around my stomach in Sal’s clenched fist, I whined a
high cry and withered under his hands and tongue. With two fingers knuckle-deep and thrusting hard into my pussy as his lips encased my clit to suck roughly against the aching nub, I was ready to explode. Ecstasy washed over my senses in waves with every flick of his tongue.

  Like a musician with an instrument they loved, this man seemed to know how to play my body so well without any need of encouragement or instruction from me. I was more than happy to let him go at it, too.

  Sal’s head turned, teeth biting into the tender flesh at the inside of my thigh, fingers curling inside my wet walls and driving deeper again, so much harder. I cried out with my back arching off the mattress, a bliss-induced pleasure ravaging my bones and blood, filling me from top to bottom so wholly and perfectly.

  Nothing felt like this. Not a damned thing.

  I was sure nothing ever could again, either.

  And I was leaving tomorrow.

  Sal’s soft lips kissed my leg, moving to my center to kiss the slick folds that throbbed with the aftershocks of my orgasm. I panted his name low under my breath, willing air to fill my lungs so I could calm down and speak for a moment.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, propped up on his elbows and looking at me with a cocked brow. “And don’t you say nothing, Olivia. I can see it.”

  Swallowing thickly, I turned my head away to look out the window. With it nearing dark, I couldn’t see the beautiful cliffs out his bedroom window where the house was located. They looked out over the ocean. An ocean that had been so dark and uncontrollable over the last week, torn with storms that kept us inside and away from the sights of his home island that he had wanted to show me.

  I hadn’t minded, though. I spent a week learning the beauty of a man I wasn’t sure I would ever find again. A week of loving … lost, needing, and spent. I didn’t open my computer once, never spent a minute worrying about my company, and I had no regrets.

  Not a single one.

  But, I was still leaving.

  And I didn’t want to.

  Sal looked up at me through his thick lashes, brown eyes questioning and waiting for an answer I wasn’t sure how to give. What was I supposed to say?

  I want to stay.

  I don’t want to forget you.

  This is more than what we made it…maybe.

  “My flight leaves at two in the afternoon tomorrow,” I finally managed to whisper.

  Sal nodded, a hand trailing up my thigh. I reached down, a thumb swiping at my arousal that glistened over his lips. Tasting the fluid on my own tongue, I watched his eyes darken at the sight.

  “Tastes better from the source,” he informed, a salacious grin covering his handsome features.

  I bit the inside of my cheek, wondering how it tasted on his mouth. “Come here.”

  Crawling between my opened legs, hands gripping tightly to my sides as he kissed me, his lips moved languidly, our tongues seeking and pressing against the heat our mouths found together. And I did taste better on his mouth, I found. Sweeter, with a tangy bite that left a flavor on the back of my tongue I wasn’t likely to forget.

  He probably made it that way.

  His cock, so hard and ready for the honeyed warmth he’d find buried between my thighs, pressed between our bodies. My legs wrapped to his waist, hips rising to urge him to find me like he wanted…like I knew he had to want. Sal always did. Insatiable, willing, and so driven to please: that was the lover I’d found in him.

  I was terrified I wouldn’t find another like it, honestly.

  “You don’t want to leave,” he guessed quietly, nose skimming my cheek as he pulled away.

  “Would you?” I shot back, voice weaker than I wanted it to be, but high enough to tell the emotion hidden underneath. “This place…you…”

  Clearing his throat, Sal rolled off to the side of the bed, propping his head up on his hand to look down at me. “You’re from Maine, yeah?”

  “Just outside of Presque Isle,” I confirmed, wondering about his point.

  Sal’s infamous grin returned. “Remember that friend I mentioned on the plane?” When I nodded, he continued with, “He’s actually a business partner of mine. We own a hunting lodge for caribou, moose, deer, fish and all that good nonsense. His wife is um…sick, unfortunately.”

  “So?” I asked, confused.

  “He wanted to sell out.”

  “Oh, you were meeting your new partner, then?”

  Sal bit his lip, shaking his head in disagreement before murmuring, “I bought his share out. I have dual citizenship from my father’s side. I’m moving there next month, actually. Didn’t trust anybody else to run it right and keep it going. I had a private offer for my land and house here a little while ago, and they’re still interested in buying, so I’m not losing out anywhere.”

  My heart stopped. I was positive it did. “You’re lying.”

  “Do you want me to be?” he asked, looking hurt.

  I scrambled to climb on top of him, his hands grasping at my sides to stop us both from rolling off the bed. “You’re not lying?” I demanded, pushing to his strong chest with opened palms as tears welled in my eyes. “Really?”

  “I’m not,” he murmured. “Really.”

  The feeling I had been ignoring for half the week bubbled up from my insides. “I think I’m going to love you,” I blurted out, watching as he reached up to stroke the side of my face softly. “That’s kind of scary to me. I’m busy as hell, work too much, and get really bitchy when I’m stressed out. But you’re calm, and you make me quiet and happy. Nothing … Nothing makes me feel like this, Sal. It’s too soon, though, right?”

  Sal shrugged. “I was pretty sure I could love you the moment you let me take you on that plane, Liv. When you know, you know.”

  Like my mother, who refused to marry a man after my father, but lived happily with her lover for ten years before she passed. Like my father, who still loved the woman he knew for only a few short days and still said she was the love of his life. Like my brother who demanded I try and see it from his point of view, when it came to Natalie.

  When you know, you just know, even at a mile high.

  The End

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