by Kaye, Nikky
Sitting hip to hip in my First Class pod, he put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.” I couldn’t believe my voice was so wobbly. “I will never get this opportunity again.”
“Oh, Audrey.” He let out a heavy sigh. “You didn’t need to ask for another freshly baked chocolate chip cookie.”
“I know,” I wailed. “I couldn’t help it. The first one was so good and I could smell them and I wanted another. You know what I mean?”
Mischief battled with arousal in his eyes when I met his gaze. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“But I’m so full.” The dinner, the wine, the dessert.
The cookie taunted me from the plate before me. The melted chocolate gleamed in gooey pools, oozing up from the crispy, chewy, golden foundation of butter and sugar. It was supposed to be a bedtime snack before they turned off the cabin lights and drew the curtains around the pods for those who wanted privacy to sleep.
Or do other things.
“I just hate that they went to all that trouble, and it’s going to waste—”
Dev snatched up the cookie and crammed the whole thing in his mouth. “If mof goink do vafe.”
Now I really wanted to cry. The cookie was gone and so was the opportunity. I couldn’t even admire it now, like airplane food porn. Wait—was there such a thing? Most airplane food was reputedly awful if you even got it in the first place. These days you were lucky to get drink service and half a dozen itty-bitty pretzels.
But First Class was different. I could not allow myself to believe this was normal. This was not how normal people traveled. This was like a flying carpet with butler service.
He swallowed. Licked his lips. “It’s no trouble. They just pop it in the little Easy Bake oven thing. I’m sure you’re not the first person to ask for another one.”
“I don’t want to be any trouble.” At least, that’s what I think I said—I was distracted by the melted chocolate on Dev’s fingers.
Before I thought about it, I grabbed his hand and pulled the tip of his middle finger into my mouth. It was a toss-up as to who was more surprised.
He groaned. “Baby, believe me—you’re trouble.”
Around us the lights were dimming, the attendants busy converting seats into doll-size beds and drawing curtains around pods. I’d pulled Dev into my seat because it was so awkward to talk between the seats. Now, as they informed us that his seat had been turned down, he unfolded himself into the aisle and announced we were moving to his bed.
I raised an eyebrow. “What if I don’t want to, aaah, sleep?” My yawn completely undermined my question, but I could already anticipate his response. In three… two… one…
Smirk. “Who said anything about sleeping?”
My belly twisted in response. Sitting so close to him for hours had my whole body on overdrive. His hands kept brushing up against mine. Our thighs pressed together and his breath was hot on my neck. Not to mention the way he kept peering down my shirt. I think he missed some top buttons on purpose.
Add the decadence of First Class to all that sensation, and I was ready to join the Mile High Club.
Actually, I’d been ready to join the On the Tarmac Club.
Dev Sharpe had awakened something in me. Not just desire, but the ability to have fun again. To open up. To laugh. It filled me with adrenaline and made my heart pound. The prospect of having an affair with Dev was like standing before a giant rollercoaster—tantalizing, nerve-wracking and just scary enough to make your question your judgment.
He was the Six Flags of fake fiancés and I planned to take advantage of my all-access pass.
I’d wallowed in my pity party long enough, I decided. Time to send everyone home and clean up in the morning.
“What, no mints on the pillows?” I pouted as we played airplane bed Twister.
It was only about the width of a doorway, so he ended up spooning me as we faced the outside of the aircraft. The windows had darkened automatically, but he reached over me to pull down the shade, anyway. Behind us, the attendant drew the curtain.
“This is cozy,” he whispered in my ear.
“Mmmm.”
“You know, on some planes they have whole bedrooms and butler service.”
“No way, on a commercial flight? Not just some billionaire’s private jet?”
I felt him nod against the nape of my neck. “Costs tens of thousands of dollars.”
“Wow,” I breathed. “What a colossal waste of money. Who does that? Seriously, even if it’s a long flight, it’s still probably only twelve hours—maybe sixteen—tops.”
“Some people want to sleep comfortably.”
I wriggled my butt against him. “This isn’t comfortable enough?”
“Audrey…” His fingers tightened on my hip.
I rolled back, and he shifted enough to prop himself up on an elbow and hover over me.
“Nobody needs to spend that kind of money to sleep better for a few hours.”
“Some people,” he said quietly as he toyed with a button at my cleavage, “want to fuck. Maybe that’s worth the investment.”
My breathing grew shallow, my nipples tightening into sensitive buds. “For that much money, you’d have to be an amazing lay,” I whispered back.
“Well, maybe we can splurge on the way home.”
Though my heart was thudding in my chest, the idea of coming home momentarily discombobulated me. I didn’t want to think about it. We were just beginning our journey. The end would happen… later.
It was time to live in the now.
Now, I stretched up to kiss him.
Our lips met firmly, our passion simmering at the surface and ready to heighten into a rolling boil. From my prone position it was impossible to take control of the kiss, and to be honest I didn’t want to. I relished in the way his mouth slanted over mine, seeking my tongue. I thrilled at his command, my body responding to him with instant heat and wetness.
Dev was a First Class kisser.
I let out a little moan when his mouth moved to my throat. That was absolutely my weakest spot, right there like a Bermuda triangle drawn between my jaw, earlobe and collarbone.
My hand curled around the back of his neck. “More.”
He sucked harder on my heated skin, making my back arch. Nibbled and laved until I was certain I would have to buy a scarf at the airport as soon as we landed.
“God, I’ve wanted to do this for so long,” he panted.
“Yeah?”
He nodded. “I don’t think I really noticed you until your junior year, though. Do you remember that Christmas?”
I paused. Oh, I remembered. I’d reminded him I’d turned sixteen, like that was enough for him to finally date me. I was such an idiot.
“You were temptation itself,” he said, brushing the back of his hand over my cheek. It left a trail of tingles in its wake. “I had to get out of there before I embarrassed myself.”
“You mean by getting me under some mistletoe?” That had been my fantasy at the time.
“More like jerking off in your bathroom.”
My mouth dried up at the instant visual. “You know, I never had a boy in my bedroom there. Never made out like this. You make me feel like a teenager again.”
Before my parents died. Before Darren. Before—
“Oh, Audrey. I couldn’t have handled you as a teenager.”
“Then handle me now,” I dared him. Emboldened, I snuck my hand between us to squeeze the hard length of his arousal.
He groaned, kissing me hungrily. His free hand moved up and down my body, not landing anywhere long enough to satisfy me. My hands clutched at his arms, his back, his hips and ass—like I could absorb his strength and take it inside me.
“Can you be quiet?” he whispered against my lips.
The tension in my body rose with every button he undid on my shirt. Slowly, silently, they slipped through the holes until the air was fresh on my skin and my
black bra was on full display—again.
He growled. “Fuck, you’re still temptation itself. All grown up.” His groin shifted against my thigh as he sought friction for himself.
“I want your mouth on me,” I confessed, my face hot.
All of me was hot.
Dev didn’t need an invitation. With less finesse than he undid my shirt, he pulled down the cups of my bra and bent his head to suck a nipple into his mouth.
“Ungh!”
Pop! “Quiet, baby.”
I bit my lower lip, holding in each gasp and moan until I was lightheaded. His mouth and hands moved over me with purpose as though he had a map of my erogenous zones.
Briefly, a mundane thought floated through my head—Could I get an extra pair of panties out of my bag? Because these were done for.
Then his fingers skated underneath the waistband of my yoga pants—and panties—and all rational thought dissipated.
He moved slowly, meeting my gaze solidly. Silently questioning. I nodded, then closed my eyes as his fingertips grazed the top of my mound.
“You’re so wet,” he said in a low voice.
“You make me that way.” Part of me felt shy. Part of me wanted to hump his hand. Guess which part was in charge of my brain?
His whole hand found its way into my panties, his middle finger sliding against my clit.
“Oh god,” I breathed. “Yes.”
“Audrey. Jesus.” His mouth fell on me, his tongue finding mine at the same time as his first two fingers stole into my body.
I keened into his mouth at the delicious invasion. The tension inside me eased and ratcheted up a notch at the same time. His fingers moved in and out, slick with my moisture. Then another. The heel of his palm massaged my clit.
While I could happily spend the rest of my life kissing this man, right now it took more focus than I could give it. I turned my head to the side, panting as a quick and dirty climax threatened.
Too soon.
“You like this, don’t you?”
I whimpered.
“Yeah, you love this. Love me finger fucking you. Love knowing that people are just a few feet away while I have my hand in your pussy.”
My own hand flew down, and I tried frantically to push my pants down over my hips and ass. Tried to spread my legs wider. Unsuccessfully.
“You feel so good, Audrey. You’re burning up, making me crazy.” He moaned and pushed his erection against my thigh while one hand pumped up and down in me and the other one flicked open the button on his pants.
Naturally, the beautiful bastard had to be an effective multi-tasker.
“Fuck!” Now he had one hand in my pants and the other down his own. “Touch me, Audrey.”
Our eyes met as he guided me to him. It infuriated me that I couldn’t see him properly, but wrapping my fingers around the heat and the hardness was enough—almost.
He tilted his head back as his eyes closed. His fingers inside me stilled as my thumb slid over the slippery end of his cock. “Oh god. Yeah, I can see why people spend the money on a bedroom.”
I lifted my hips as much as I could in the small space, luring his attention back to the ache in my core. If I closed my eyes, it was like my teenage fantasies coming true—only with a lot less Taylor Swift playing.
With a grunt, he shifted his position to rise up a little on his knees. Scissored his fingers inside me, then caught my gasp with his mouth as he curled them.
I was not as good at multi-tasking, so my grip on his cock weakened. “Sorry, I can’t—argh!” I was a lot more limber in my sixteen-year-old brain.
“Don’t worry. I want to see you come.”
Well, that shouldn’t be a problem. The way the pad of his thumb kept rubbing against my clit, it should happen any ti—
“Oooooohhhhhh!” My orgasm took me by surprise, like most things in my life.
“Quiet, baby.”
He didn’t need to worry; I wasn’t a screamer. But I sure as hell wanted to bite his shoulder as my climax ripped through me.
In my solitude and grief over my last relationship ending, self-care had only extended so far. No amount of time with a battery-operated boyfriend, however, could compete with this pleasure—like a lightning storm in the sky, where you couldn’t predict where it would flash next.
I rode Dev’s hand through each wave until the undertow threatened to drag me under. That was when he finally withdrew his hand and licked his fingers clean. It should have been gross, but somehow it was just super hot.
“I waited a long time for that,” he admitted, lying down half on top of me and nuzzling my neck.
Oh yeah.
We breathed in and out in tandem, slowly reorienting ourselves to our surroundings.
The cabin.
The curtain.
The attendants.
Our destination.
Our journey.
A First Class finger fuck.
I sighed. Later on my brain would probably realize that this could complicate things, but right now this was exactly what I wanted. I fought back the urge to thank him, not wanting to sound like a needy dork.
So I sighed again. As my chest rose and fell, Dev’s palm cupped my breast possessively. “That was so much better than a kiss under some mistletoe,” I finally murmured.
Now I just sounded like a satisfied dork.
He nodded, chuckling. Then he rose and dropped a lazy kiss on my lips. Smirked.
“Now… if you’ll excuse me, I need to go jerk off in the bathroom.”
11
Dev
You know what they say about the road to hell…? Well, okay, I wouldn’t say all my intentions with Audrey were good—some of them involved being very, very bad. But it didn’t seem to matter as we were on the road to hell anyhow.
In Delhi traffic.
The past few days had been a whirlwind of activity, which was extra dizzying when you added in jet lag and culture shock.
I’d like to say that I jumped Audrey the moment we got into the hotel room, and that we launched into our fling by gripping the headboard like it was an Olympic luge, but the truth is that we were fucking exhausted.
We also weren’t sharing a room.
My agent had warned me that the CEO of Hessa was conservative, but it didn’t occur to me that his invitation to my fiancée would mean our separation.
Like, separate floors.
We didn’t even have adjoining suites, though they were very clean, modern, and the beds were very comfortable. I know this because I fell asleep as soon as I stripped down and got between the sheets.
When I woke up at four in the morning, I was ravenous enough to order half the room service menu. My text to Audrey got an immediate response, so I messaged her I was on my way down and instructed the food to be delivered to her room.
“Sir? That is not your room number.” The man on the phone sounded perplexed.
“I know. But that’s where I’m eating.”
There was a pause. Did he think I was pranking a guest in the middle of the night or something?
I sighed. “Just call the room and ask the lady if she will accept the food order there.”
“Very good, sir.”
The lady did accept the food order, but I still got the stink-eye from the waiter.
“This is stupid,” I complained to her over a veggie burger. “Just move your stuff up to my room.”
She could even leave stuff here if she wanted. I looked around. Her bag had exploded, spilling her things onto the floor. I spotted a pair of pink panties and swallowed hard.
“Are you sure?” Audrey sat across from me on the unmade bed, her back against the headboard.
“What, you don’t want to?”
Her legs were distractingly bare beneath a pair of lace-edged shorts. As she shrugged her shoulders, the lacy strap on her matching tank top slipped down. “The hotel belongs to the company, doesn’t it?”
“So?”
“Look at how much g
rief they gave you about ordering food to my room.”
Shit. She was right. I dropped the rest of my burger on the plate. “Yeah.”
“So maybe it’s not a good idea right away. Let’s see what happens tomorrow,” she suggested, reminding me of our first meeting with Mr. Sharma.
I frowned and slid off the bed. Apparently being engaged was a double-edged sword if I was going to end up cock-blocked.
Looking at Audrey now, her tantalizing legs pressed up to her chest and her hair wavy from taking out her braid, I weighed the risks. Would having her head on my pillow be worth losing millions of dollars?
Maybe it was unromantic, but the answer was no. Didn’t mean I had to like it, though.
She yawned and unfolded herself enough to move my plate off the bed and onto the desk. It looked like she wanted to go back to sleep. I wanted nothing more than to stay with her, to wrap my body around her and push her hair out of my face.
“It’s just temporary, Dev,” she said, shoving her feet under the covers and wriggling down. “It’s not a big deal.”
So why did it feel like we’d gone backwards? The intimacy we’d shared on the plane was out of reach. My mind and body were all over the fucking place and I felt frustrated and on edge.
I turned to the window, suddenly lonely for a woman who was only six feet away—and completely unable to articulate it. My hand rose to the glass, curling into a fist. I could see her reflection as she smoothed her hands over the covers.
“You know, we don’t have to sleep together to sleep together.”
Her husky voice went straight to my cock. I only wore gray sweatpants low on my hips, an inch away from being indecent. They were becoming more indecent by the second, with the way her gaze slid over my body like a physical touch.
Yeah, she wanted me. A fling was her idea in the first place. Being here, though, was different than a flirtatious proposition.
More real.
More serious.
More committed.
Maybe this would have been easier, more casual if the woman in bed behind me had been anybody else. I wouldn’t have hesitated to seduce some random model or flight attendant in the past. Audrey was different. It wasn’t just that I’d known her for so long, but I felt like she could see through me. She saw me, not just the pretty face or the body or the money.
