by Lisa Childs
“A raw one,” he said. “I imagine it wasn’t easy for you, that, given your career choice, you must have dealt with a lot of discrimination.”
She nodded. But she suspected she would have dealt with more if not for Grant. He’d always had a way of protecting her. Yet she’d still been hurt too many times. Too many times to hope that this time—with Teo—would be end in anything but more pain.
She tamped down the hope that was trying to swell inside her heart. She wouldn’t be like her mother—always thinking that it was going to happen, that she was finally going to get her husband’s love. Blair didn’t think she could really get Teo to forgive her, let alone love her.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“I chartered a flight to Greece.”
“You could have flown any number of airlines to get there.”
“I really hate flying commercial,” he said with such obvious distaste that she nearly laughed.
“There are other private charter companies.”
“But yours is the best,” he said, stepping closer to her. He cupped her cheek in his hand and stared deeply into her eyes.
She saw no anger in his now, but she was afraid to identify the emotion she did see. She didn’t want to be wrong.
“You’re the best,” he told her. “And I’m not talking about just your flying.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked. The way they gave each other so much pleasure? The sex? Was that all he wanted? Or like her, did he want more?
Dare she let herself hope...?
He moved his hand from her face as he glanced at his watch. “There’s no time for this discussion now. You need to take off soon. Grant already filed the flight plan.”
“Of course he did.” He would have, because he’d wanted to make sure that she didn’t chicken out. And she had no intention of doing that this time.
She was thrilled she’d been given another chance...even if it was just for Teo to tell her how badly she’d screwed up and that he couldn’t trust her ever again. But somehow, she suspected he wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble...
Unless it was Grant who’d set them both up.
Either way, she intended to make the most of it. She wasn’t going to let him walk away again without a fight.
* * *
The minute she stepped into the cockpit, Teo expelled a breath of relief. He hadn’t been sure that she would agree to fly him anywhere again—not after how badly he’d reacted to finding out that she’d been his pilot all this time.
She was so damn good. So good that, when the plane leveled out after takeoff, he found himself joining her in the cockpit.
She glanced over her shoulder and asked, “Checking up on me?”
“Admiring you,” he corrected her as he settled into the copilot seat.
“I thought you hated me,” she said, her voice cracking with the pain that thought must have caused her.
“I was mad at you,” he said.
She spared him another glance. “Was?”
“I couldn’t stay mad.”
“Did Grant threaten you?” she asked.
“Your brother and Miranda both had plenty to say to me,” he admitted. After Teo had seen Miranda in Monaco, Grant had looked him up in Madrid. Maybe he’d intended to beat him up at first, but they’d talked instead. Grant had shared that he’d never seen his sister cry, not even when their dad had died, until she thought she’d lost Teo. That had devastated him even more than realizing she hadn’t been completely honest with him. Blair Snyder was not a woman who used tears for manipulation. She was too proud for that—too strong. And he hated himself for causing her tears.
She was smiling now, though. “Did they both threaten you?” she asked.
“I’m not sure that I would actually call them threats. More like warnings for me to make this right.”
“I’m the one who made this wrong,” she said. “I was the one who blew it.”
“I understand why,” he said. “Miranda told me about your mother.”
She sucked in a breath. “She’s not who I want to be.”
“Daughters rarely want to become their mothers,” he said. “Francisca doesn’t.” He sighed with pity. “But she is starting to.” He shook his head. “My mother is manipulative and selfish.”
“My mother is just stupid,” Blair said. “And weak.”
“You don’t have to worry about ever becoming either of those women,” he assured her.
She glanced away from the controls to his face. “I was stupid,” she said. “When I told you my name was Savannah.”
“It is.”
“And when I pretended to be Bill.”
He chuckled. “That was stupid, and a shame to ever cover up your beautiful face with a beard.”
She touched her fingers to her jaw. “It did a number on my skin, if that makes you feel any better.”
“No,” he said. “You in pain or discomfort makes me feel worse, not better.” His heart ached at the thought of her tears. “That’s why I booked this flight.”
“To make me feel better?”
“To make us both feel better.” He reached out then and touched her thigh.
She was so good that the plane didn’t move at all. But she tensed and admonished him, “No touching while I’m flying. You didn’t try that with Bill.”
“I was tempted,” he teased her. “Bill was pretty hot.”
“I’m not wearing that beard again,” she warned him. “In fact I’m not sure what I’m going to wear when we get to Athens. Grant didn’t give me time to pack.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I’ve got you covered. Actually, Tony does. Although it’s going to be a shame to cover you at all.”
She jerked her thumb to the open door of the cockpit. “Let me get us there safely,” she told him. “Then we’ll talk.”
“I don’t want to talk anymore,” he told her. “I want to touch you.”
She jerked her thumb again toward that open door. “Go.”
“I’d rather come.”
“Teo!”
He chuckled. But he got out of the copilot seat and headed to the back. He knew it wouldn’t be long before they landed...on the ground and on each other.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
DESPITE ALL HER hours of flying experience, Blair was surprised she hadn’t crashed the plane with as distracted—and excited—as she’d been. But she’d managed to land safely at a private airport in Athens, where a car had been waiting to bring them back to an elegant hotel near Syntagma Square that had an incredible view of the Acropolis.
But Blair, who loved Athens, had no interest in the view or in the designer dresses hanging on a garment rack in the living room of the suite. She was interested only in Teo.
“I can’t believe that you specifically chartered a flight with me,” she said.
His handsome face contorted with a slight grimace. “I’m really not a chauvinist,” he said. “I had no problem with having a female pilot.”
She still had a few doubts. “Then why did you request a man?”
“I didn’t want to meet you,” he said. “The way your brother raved about you I knew that I’d be interested in you, and I was already seeing this Savannah woman who had me so messed up and on edge that I didn’t know if I was coming or going.”
She smiled. “I can help you with the coming part,” she teased.
He groaned. “Savan—Blair...”
“You can call me Savannah,” she said.
“I thought only your mother called you that.”
“No. She gave me the name, but I stopped answering to it long ago.”
“Oh,” he said. “That’s why you never called me back. You don’t answer to that name.”
“Whatever you call me is right,” she assu
red him.
“Then I will call you my love,” he said. “Because you are.” He pulled her into his arms then and lowered his head to hers, but he just brushed her lips with his as he stared into her eyes.
She knew what he was looking for, and it had to be there because she could no longer contain it or deny it. “I love you.”
He kissed her then, really kissed her, his mouth moving hungrily over hers as if he wanted to taste the love on her lips. It was there.
Her love for him was everywhere. Her desire for him was, too. She’d missed him so much. And finally she knew that hollow ache inside her would be filled. She reached for the hem of his sweater and pulled the cashmere up, over his washboard abs, over the hair covering his sculpted chest. That hair was softer than the cashmere, tickling her palms as she pushed the sweater past his shoulders and head. It mussed his chocolate curls, making one fall over his forehead, into his thick lashes.
“You are so damn good-looking,” she marveled.
He grinned. “So you don’t want me for my money—just my body?”
He acted as if he was kidding, but his body had gone tense as he waited for her answer. Too many people had used Teo, wanting only what he could give them without giving him anything in return.
“I want more than that,” she assured him. “I want your heart and soul, too.”
“You have them,” he said as he brushed his mouth across hers again. “You have all of me.”
She entwined her fingers with his and tugged him toward the bedroom of the suite. “And you have all of me,” she assured him.
The minute they stepped into the room, he reached for the buttons on her shirt. But she lightly smacked away his hands and slowly undid each one, teasing him with each inch of skin she revealed.
“You don’t trust me with your buttons anymore?” he asked.
She smiled. “I’m still missing a couple.” But she didn’t care. She only wanted to make sure that he realized she was giving herself freely this time. So she undressed herself. And then she undressed him, as slowly and deliberately.
He groaned as she touched and kissed him everywhere. “You’re killing me.”
“I want to please you,” she said.
“You do—more than anyone ever has...”
Sadness pulled at her for moment—that nobody had taken the time with him, the time to treat him as generously as he treated everyone he cared about. But she was glad that she was the first to love him like he deserved to be loved.
“Sav—Blair,” he murmured.
She chuckled and reminded him, “You can call me either one.”
“My love...” he murmured.
She loved him—with her hands and with her mouth. Dropping to her knees, she closed her lips around his cock and sucked it deep in her throat. As she did, she stroked his balls and ran her palms around the back of his muscular thighs. His legs shook slightly, as if she was making him weak in the knees.
“I can’t...” But he could, and he did—coming in her mouth. He yelled her name. “Blair.” Then he cursed. “I’m sorry I have no control. You take it all from me. But I’m taking it back.”
He picked her up and tossed her gently onto the bed. Then he made love to her—kissing and touching her everywhere. Flipping her onto her stomach, he licked a trail down her spine and along her butt. Then he moved her toward the end of the bed and parted her legs. First he slid his fingers inside her, then his tongue.
And like him, she had no control. She came so quickly, so powerfully.
But then his body was covering hers, and his cock replaced his fingers. Hard again, pulsating with need.
She turned her head and his was there, his mouth covering hers. He kissed her deeply as he moved in and out of her, driving her crazy with his long strokes. Then he reached beneath her, finding her most sensitive spot. His thumb pressed against her clit, and she came again.
He took longer this time, driving her up again and again. Bringing her orgasm after orgasm...
As always, he gave more than he took. So much pleasure and so much love.
Then finally his body stilled and then shuddered as he found his release. He collapsed onto her back for a moment, pressing her into the mattress before he rolled off onto his side.
But he was too far away. And even though she was boneless with sexual exhaustion, Blair managed to move so that she lay beside him, her head on his chest where his heart pounded madly, like hers.
“I love you so much,” she said, and she was awed by the depth of that love. But she was more awed by the man who’d made her fall so deeply for him. Who was so amazing...
* * *
Even though Teo had finally managed to stop panting for breath, his pulse raced yet and not just from making such mind-blowing, soul-shattering love with her but also with nerves.
He didn’t want to push her too far again. But he had to know this was more than dating.
“Will you commit?” he asked her.
“To being your pilot?”
“Yes, I do want you to fly me everywhere,” he admitted. “But more than that I want you to fly with me everywhere.”
She turned her head, which was nestled between his neck and shoulder, and stared up at him. “You know that I have a job, a business...”
“And I’m not asking you to give up any of that,” he assured her. “I know you’ll be busy with your life, and I’ll be busy with mine. But I want to make sure that we make time for each other and not just for this.”
“For this?” she asked with feigned innocence as she ran her finger from his chest, down his abs and lower, over his cock. Despite the satisfaction she’d just given him, his cock moved, pulsating again with desire for her.
“Yes, this,” he agreed through gritted teeth. He thought about rolling her onto her back and plunging himself inside her. But he really wanted to have a discussion with her. “But also for each other, to be there for each other, supporting each other, loving each other.”
She sucked in a shaky breath and nodded. Her beautiful blue eyes glistened with unshed tears. “Especially for loving each other,” she agreed.
“We’ll support each other without losing ourselves,” he assured her. “I’ll never ask you to change and give up any part of who you are.”
“I know that now,” she said. “And I will never keep anything from you again, especially not how I feel about you. I love you so much.”
He tightened his arms around her, tempted to never let her go. But he knew now that if he did, she would come back to him. She loved him; he had no doubts about that anymore, no doubts at all about her. Only trust. And love...
“Ti amo,” he murmured as he kissed her.
“Ti amo,” she repeated as she kissed him back.
* * *
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CHAPTER ONE
THE WAVES ROLLED around the point, slow and glassy-smooth. A blanket of morning mist hung low, shimmering in the first hints of dawn. Jessie’s surfboard rose and fell with each breath of the ocean, up and down. Breathe in, breathe out.
Finally, she was here. Yes, she had fought the idea of spending a week at this ultra-luxury resort, with so much going on to keep up with their company’s growth, but her sister had put down her foot, refusing to listen to Jessie’s plan for their business unless she took this vacation. Now that she was at the Kalani, with only the gorgeous Hawaiian coastline in sight, Jessie had to admit her sister had been right: she loved it here.
