A Model Fiancé

by Kaye, Nikky

  Since Dev’s proposal the month before, my mind and mood had been all over the place. I vacillated between anticipation and terror, surfing the web for hours each day and trying to prepare myself for my first big trip—with a boy!

  It was like job-hunting, only hoping to encounter sexual harassment in the workplace.

  But while my stomach flipped and flopped over the prospect of the heat and the food and the crowds, underscoring all of it was a keening desire to see Dev again. Nerves or not, I trusted that he would take care of me (as did Brett). Maybe that was a mistake. Was I putting too much faith in a man again? It sure hadn’t worked out for me last time. I wasn’t the same person as before, having been changed forever by that break-up.

  Thinking about Dev was like having an itchy spot on my back I couldn’t reach myself—distracting and nebulous. I’d tried scratching it myself but, uh, the angle wasn’t quite right.

  As I strode through the airport, I met the gazes of different travelers around my age. Head nods, raised hands, tired smiles—I returned them all without thinking. It wasn’t until I caught a reflection of myself that I realized why.

  The people—strangers—recognized me. I was one of them.

  I wore the same uniform—comfortable shoes, yoga pants and a long-sleeved flannel shirt over a stretchy black t-shirt. My braided hair kept rubbing against the travel pillow I’d clipped to the top of the brand new pack that looked like it could pop open into a tent or an emergency raft if it needed to.

  Essentially, I looked like a college kid going backpacking for the summer. With that realization, my smile got bigger. I felt like Benjamin Button, aging in reverse. I’d gone from being an unemployed, unattached, homeless failure to… well, still unemployed, unattached and homeless, but the socially acceptable student sort.

  I was doing this!

  My good mood gave way to the butterflies in my stomach only once I saw the doors to the lounge. What if they didn’t let me in? It’s on your boarding pass, dummy! Dev probably told them he was expecting me, too. Before the frosted glass of the door, my backpacking alter ego smoothed her hair back, hiked her pack more comfortably on her shoulders, and pulled out her boarding pass.

  Time to do this.

  I’d heard so many stories about airline staff being grumpy, but I couldn’t tell from my brief interaction with the personnel in the lounge. A lady took my information with a smile and, upon my confession it was my first time, gave me a quick rundown of where I would find things.

  I automatically scanned the room for Dev. I didn’t need to; apparently he had his eye on the door the whole time.

  He jumped up from his chair with a huge grin on his face.

  I jogged a few feet toward him, my full pack threatening my equilibrium. When we reached each other, it was like we suddenly didn’t know what to say or do.

  “You’re here!” He sounded relieved. Did he think I wouldn’t come?

  “Yep. I made it.” My turn to sound relieved, I guess.

  Dev made a quick move to hug me, but couldn’t get his arms around my pack. “Why do you look like you’re on an expedition?” he muttered in my ear. I shivered at the heat of his breath. “Didn’t you check a bag?”

  “Nope. Just carry-on.”

  He stood back, tilted his head, and then helped ease the bag off my shoulders. Resting it on the floor against his shins, he said, “Are you sure this isn’t too big?”

  Oh no. I looked down at it, ready to panic. “The guy at the store said it fit the requirements.” I’d spent so damn long perfecting my packing! Would they still let me on the plane?

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine.” With a shrug, Dev grabbed a strap and swung it over his shoulder. “Come on, we’re sitting over here.”

  I felt like I was floating on air at his side, but that could have been thanks to losing the extra weight on my back. A giggle tripped out of me as we sat down, facing each other, in leather club chairs.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked.

  I waved a hand. “It’s silly.” My face was warm, and not from the walk across the terminal.

  “Now I definitely want to know.”

  He leaned forward with his legs spread, his forearms on his knees. The sleeves of his worn denim shirt were rolled up to expose the tan skin and dark hair of his arms. When he put his palms together and laced his fingers under his stubbled chin…

  The way he looked at me, listened to me… I would have told him anything.

  “It’s just, you took my baggage off me. Literally.”

  He looked at me blankly. I looked at the carpet between us.

  “I have a lot of… baggage right now.” It was embarrassing to say out loud, but Dev knew the crappy stuff that had happened in the past six months. Well, most of it.

  “Ah. I see.” There was no judgment in his voice, no disappointment—just acceptance and maybe a little sadness. When I looked up, there was sympathy in his eyes. “Does it feel better to lose some of it?”

  I nodded.

  He reached out and grabbed my hand. “Audrey, all that shit… it’s not you. It doesn’t define you. It happened. It sucks, but it’s done and you’re past it.”

  He was partly right. Some of what happened between my ex and I would always define me. How could it not?

  “C’mere.” He gestured to his lap. I looked around the lounge, milling with business people and wealthy families. He rolled his eyes. “Nobody cares.”

  “Eep!”

  With a deft move of his wrist, he pulled me off-balance enough for me to have no choice but to fall into his big leather chair.

  Correction: I fell into his lap on the big leather chair.

  “That’s better.” He adjusted me, my legs folded and angled over his thighs and his arms around my ribs. His palms rested above my bellybutton.

  I should have protested more. I should have slid off. But he was just so warm. And comfortable. And Dev.

  Damn, I was being snuggled. And I loved it.

  My cheeks burning, I looked around to see that mostly we were being ignored. There was one teenage girl with her family that had her phone up. Of course, I was #MrsDevSharpe.

  “This is kind of silly,” I said, squirming.

  “Just pretend you’re on Santa’s lap.”

  I snorted. Santa didn’t have washboard abs and thighs made of rebar.

  His eyebrow lifted. “What do you want for Christmas, little girl? I’d love to put something in your stocking.”

  I gasped. “Santa, that sounded kind of dirty.”

  “Well, there are showers here. Want to go take one together?”

  Wriggle. His resulting groan widened my smile. “Is this how it’s going to be, now that we’re engaged? So to speak?”

  “What?”

  “Public displays of affection.”

  “Hmmm. Get used to it.”

  A bubble of delight rose in my chest like a balloon let go in the wind. As he rubbed his nose against my cheek, my breath caught in my throat. His breath was hot on my jaw and his body even hotter beneath me, sending a frisson of aching awareness through my body.

  “Amazing,” he murmured. “You’re amazing.”

  “You keep saying that, but we have no proof yet,” I pointed out.

  He nipped my earlobe. “I have total faith in your ability to come on my cock. And my mouth. And my hands.”

  If I thought my face was hot before… “Oh my god, Dev. You can’t say that kind of stuff in public.”

  “What? It’s not like anyone can hear me.”

  “I can hear you.”

  “That’s the point, Audrey.” He kissed my neck. Right. There.

  “Y-you’re taking this fake engagement act a little too seriously.”

  He shifted me so he could look me in the eye. “Audrey, there is absolutely nothing make-believe about what I want to do to you.”

  I swallowed.

  “Fantasy, maybe,” he added. His head tilted, his eyes darkening. “Will you tell me your fantasie
s?”

  I tried to swallow again but there was no saliva left in my mouth.

  “I’ll tell you mine. Tasting every inch of you, to start with. I want to lick your pussy until you scream. I want to come down your throat. I want to take you in every way possible, touch you in places you never thought you’d want to be touched.”

  He flexed his hips, pressing his erection into me. “If I could, I would bend you over this chair right now, pull down those sexy little yoga pants, and fuck you so hard the chair would move.”

  I found my voice. “I think it’s, uh, bolted to the floor.”

  “Your point being?”

  Oh god. My whole body was burning up. While I knew that he wouldn’t, I had no doubt that he could fulfill all those indecent promises, and more.

  “I will not lie to you, Audrey,” he said softly. “Nothing between us is fake, okay?”

  Truth. Trust. They were as entwined as we were. I’m doing this, remember?

  I touched the divot under his full lower lip. “Kiss me.”

  9

  Dev

  Audrey was like a little kid exploring her First Class pod. Her head appeared over the divider, her grin almost lighting up the cabin.

  “This is so cool. There’s a menu!”

  “Yep.”

  “For everything.”

  She was so damn cute. Just wait until she discovered the designer toilet bag and cashmere—

  “Eeeeek!”

  I laughed. I wasn’t so successful that I was used to this kind of luxury—flying First Class didn’t happen often—but Audrey’s reactions made me want to be. If she flew with me all the time, that was.

  “Mr. Sharpe?”

  A smartly dressed attendant stood beside me, holding out a tray with a flute of champagne.

  “Thanks.” I was polite but wary. My experience with flight attendants was something akin to a foxhunt, with me being the fox.

  She threw a smile in Audrey’s direction before leaning over to talk to me quietly. I nodded. This flight just got a lot more interesting.

  After she sashayed down the aisle, Audrey’s head popped up again like a suspicious gopher.

  “What did she say?”

  “Hmmm?” I stabbed at the video screen, checking out the available entertainment. Seen it, seen it, didn’t want to see it…

  “Did she come on to you?”

  She turned her head to the front of the cabin and let out a little growl. No lie—it was sexy as fuck. I was almost tempted to let her believe that the attendant had been interested, just to see how jealous she might get.

  I leaned forward and rose up enough to fold my arms over the top of Audrey’s seat, right over her hands. “Relax. She only wanted to congratulate me on my recent engagement—”

  Snort.

  “And remind me that not only do the seats unfold into beds but also since you can pull curtains around each pod, nobody would notice if two people happened to be in one together.”

  Audrey was silent, her mouth slightly open. It took very little for me to stretch forward and kiss her. In fact, it was becoming difficult to stop myself from kissing her. I had to expend more effort restraining myself around her than not.

  When I drew back, there was a mutinous tilt to her chin. “Well, she didn’t congratulate me.” She pursed her lips and shot a glare toward the First Class galley.

  More kissing may be required, I thought as my charming fiancée dropped back into her seat with a “Hrmph!” Then I heard “Oh, crap!” at the same time as the pre-flight preamble began.

  “What?”

  I heard indistinct grumbling coming from her seat, but now buckled up and with the plane taxiing, there wasn’t much I could do. As soon as the seatbelt sign darkened, I scooted around the divider and squatted beside her.

  “You okay?”

  She held her t-shirt out, embarrassment and champagne dripping from her. “First world problems,” she sighed, rolling her eyes.

  My gaze went to the droplets of wine clinging to the cleavage peeking out. Licked my lips. “Take it off, then.”

  “I can’t get a new shirt out of my bag that easily, Dev. It’s all very carefully packed.”

  The plane tilted, making me grab at the edge of her seat cushion. Damn, it was wet, too. How much champagne had she spilled?

  “What about your carry-on?”

  “That was my carry-on,” she said, nodding her head up at the overhead compartment where her crammed-full pack was hibernating. At least they hadn’t gate-checked it.

  “Rookie mistake.” I shrugged. “Well, take it off then, and just wear the other one,” I said, touching the plaid flannel shirt. It got bumpy again, forcing me to my knees beside her. “Shit.”

  Ding! Ding!

  “Sir, you’ll have to return to your seat.”

  “My fiancée has spilled something. Can she sit with me until her seat can be cleaned?” I lowered my eyelids a little and gave her the panty-dropper smile. “Please?”

  Her lips pressed together. “Fine. Briefly,” she warned.

  Audrey moved quickly, wedging herself in beside me as the attendant passed us a belt extender. The plane continued to jump, and the crew strapped themselves into the jump seats.

  “I’m going to get you all wet,” Audrey said as I clicked the belt over both of us like an amusement park ride.

  “That’s my line.”

  “Ha ha.” Her face got pinker as she tried to shimmy off her flannel shirt behind her back.

  Because I was a gentleman, I didn’t help until the sleeves got stuck on her hands. Between the pocket of turbulence and the way she shook her shoulders, her breasts bounced around hypnotically. The overhead light reflected off the dampness on her skin, her taut nipples pressing against her bra.

  “Need help?”

  Sigh. “Please.”

  Her tits brushed up against me as I undid the buttons of her cuffs. She tried to pull her arms in and underneath the short sleeves, but there was only enough room to elbow me in the ribs.

  “Here, let me take your shirt off,” I offered.

  “That’s my line,” she joked.

  “I have a better angle.”

  “I’ll say.”

  Audrey looked up and swept her gaze around the cabin as my fingers closed on the hem of her damp t-shirt. Sitting in these pods, you couldn’t really see the other passengers, so chances were good they couldn’t see us either.

  “Nobody’s looking. Arms up.”

  She bent over, stretching her arms above her head and toward the wall of her pod ahead of me. I tugged the stretchy material up, exposing her creamy back inch by inch to the black straps of her bra. Her breasts were practically in her lap, her voice muffled as she said, “Damn it, I’m getting champagne on my thighs now.”

  Jesus. The simple, carnal image that those words evoked made my hands still on her back.

  I took in the sinuous line of her spine and the dimples on each side at the bottom above the waist of her pants. The crease in her skin as she folded in half, and the bumps of her ribs as she stretched.

  “Fuck, you’re gorgeous.”

  “Drph! Iddlehelfere?”

  Her shirt was spread up over her shoulders, caught on the underside of her breasts as her face smushed into her knees. She reached up awkwardly to pull the t-shirt over her head, gasping as my left palm swept up her back and my right around her side. Within a second I got the collar over her hair and she rounded her back to get the rest out.

  Audrey sat up, her face red and her braided hair frizzy. “You have the worst timing for compliments.”

  I shook my head, glancing down at her black bra. At her. “No such thing.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  “Really?” I grinned and dropped my head to taste the lingering wine on her skin, just above the cup of her bra. “Would you beg?” I asked, my tongue trailing over the top of her breast, from the center outwards.

  She inhaled sharply and let out a little yelp, pushing me a
way and reaching for her flannel shirt.

  Fair enough. The curtains weren’t even drawn around the pod. Plus, the flight had smoothed out and my peripheral vision caught movement in the aisle.

  With a minimum of elbows to the nose and fingers in ribs, I helped her on with the shirt.

  “Nuh uh.” I spread my hand over her bare midsection. “I get to do the buttons.”

  “Seriously?”

  Her skin was hot beneath my hands, her belly trembling as I slowly moved up her shirt. “Oops. I missed one. Have to start over.” She groaned, and I bit my cheek to stop from laughing.

  Wait, no. Covering up Audrey’s bare skin was not a laughing matter. It should be a national day of mourning. I sighed heavily as I did the shirt up enough so she wasn’t flashing anyone but that my view was still pretty damn good.

  A voice startled us.

  “Just to let you know that we’ll be resuming service shortly. If you haven’t selected your dinner yet, please let me know as soon as you can.” The friendlier of the attendants raised her eyebrow at us before moving on.

  Audrey glared at me. “Is this one of those PDAs we were discussing before?”

  I chuckled, shaking my head. Not even close.

  “Believe me, you’ll know it when it happens.” Judging from the quiet cabin and the time… “And it might happen after dinner when they turn out the lights.”

  “Promises, promises,” she sang as she unclicked our shared seatbelt.

  As she scurried ahead to her seat, my hand shot out to pinch her delectable ass. Before I could hit my target, the service cart slammed into my wrist from the rear.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” said the flustered attendant. “Er, have you selected your meal, Mr. Sharpe?”

  I narrowed my eyes at the tall seatback separating me from my fiancée. “Absolutely. I’m starving.”

  10

  Audrey

  I was beginning to regret this whole thing. And I told Dev as much.

  “I can’t do it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I just… can’t. It’s too much.” I felt like I was going to cry.