FLIGHT 22

Copyright © 2011 by Dyanne Davis

PO Box 1218

Bolingbrook IL 60440

[email protected]

All rights reserved. This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, locations, events and incidents (in either a contemporary and/or historical setting) are products of the author’s imagination and are being used in an imaginative manner as a part of this work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, settings, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Cover Design

A.M. Wells

FLIGHT 22
BY
DYANNE DAVIS

Flight 22

“Is this seat taken?”

Sela smiled as the now familiar heat traveled along her spine. She’d have to ask Nick how he managed to do that. Raising her gaze to meet his, she decided against it. He was already far too cocky where she was concerned.

“The seat is taken,” she
said sternly trying her best not to melt from the heated glance he was bestowing on her.

Nick grinned and took the phone from her hand. Raising a brow he looked at the phone, touched a couple of buttons and handed it back to her. “If you’d had it on or bothered to check you would have seen I’d called.” He waited knowing she wouldn’t just take his word for it but would indeed check the message. When she’d listened to it she barely glanced at him as though she were not in the wrong.

“Did you get me coffee?” he asked sliding into the seat alongside her instead of the one across. As she moved away he advanced on her.

“Why are you moving? This is our first real date, Sela. After three months of meeting like this it’s the first one we’ve planned instead of meeting accidentally.”

“But still we’re in an airport.”

“To be more precise we’re in a Starbuck’s in an airport. I kind of think of this as our connection now. Don’t you?”

In spite of her intention Sela smiled back. This was the first step toward something that could be more than a chance meeting. They’d both decided they wanted that. No storm stranding them, nothing of the sort.

“Starbucks is our connection?” she asked.

“No, Starbuck’s in airports. Why are you moving away from me? It’s not as though we’ve never kissed. And you do know I want to kiss you, right?”

“That’s why I’m moving.”

Before she could protest his arms were around her and he was pulling her to him. She was sliding toward him. Maybe it was the slick material of the seat, and maybe it was because she wanted to be in his arms. Whatever it was she was moving, hypnotized by this bronze Adonis sitting next to her.

“I like the taste of you,” he murmured placing soft kisses on her lips. “Let me see if I can tell what kind of coffee you had.”

His tongue slid between her lips and his hand splayed against her spine. She knew she should stop him but she didn’t want to. His lips were doing things to her that she’d wanted since the last time they’d been together. The man was filling her with lust. Breathing deeply she took his scent into her lungs and sighed. He grinned at her and moved his hand downward just a little. She was trying her best to remember they were in an airport.

To her surprise another small sigh of satisfaction escaped her lips causing Nick to pull back and smile at her before deepening the kiss. God, he tasted good, peppermint and chocolate. Sela wanted to laugh. He’d already had coffee. She almost stopped the kiss to ask but the feel of the oral assault stopped her. She didn’t care at the moment if he’d had an entire carafe of coffee. She just hoped he would continue kissing her.

“Just what I wanted,” he whispered into her mouth before returning to gently sucking on her tongue.

“Just what I wanted also,” she admitted half breathless because of his kisses. Sela closed her eyes and gave herself over to him, needing his kiss to fill the empty crevices she’d not known needed filling.

“Are you ready to leave?” he asked at last while holding her face between his hands, caressing her jaw line with the pad of his finger. “We finally have three full days. It could be two weeks if you would consent to be with me through Christmas.”

“You know I can’t. I have to be with my family. Family is very important to me.”

At the mention of family Nick stopped abruptly. He stared down at Sela. “Family’s not all it’s cracked up to be, Sela.” He shrugged. “I don’t see one in my future.”

There it was out in the open between them. He’d punctured her core without even knowing it. How could he?
It wasn’t even something Sela allowed to surface but it had always been there, gnawing at her bit by bit.
She wanted to belong to someone totally and completely
.
She wanted family.

With just a few words Nick had wounded her. No, she hadn’t been thinking wedding bells, but she’d have to admit some infinitesimal part of her soul had whispered, ‘
maybe.’
She brought her gaze up to meet his, chastising herself.

How could he work so closely with children and not want a family? She’d always wanted to have her own family. Sure she loved her mom and dad but there’d always been something missing, some disconnect that she firmly believed was the result of blood. She didn’t have theirs. She wanted that connection someday that a family tie was supposed to give. Sela sighed softly knowing she’d never be able to let go of that dream. She wanted children someday and she wanted to give a sense of belonging to them
.

“What do you see in your future, Nick? “

Sela continued out the doors of the airport waiting for him to catch up with her, waiting for him to answer.

“I’m not sure.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t want to start this off by lying to you. I’m not a big believer in marriage.” He shrugged again. “My parents were married and divorced to each other twice.”

His hand snaked out and he allowed his fingers to travel down her face pausing at her chin and tilting it upward.

“I know I’d like to see more of you in my future. I want this first weekend with us to lead to a second and a third. I wouldn’t be averse to meeting you in airports for a very long time.”

His words carried a warning and Sela should have been listening. In fact she was, but he was staring into her eyes his look blazing a path of want along her spine. Her heart was screaming for her to take a chance. Nick Winters didn’t have to be ‘the one,’ but she definitely didn’t have to discard him for telling her the truth either. As he continued smiling seductively at her she could feel much more than she wanted knowing what she now knew. With his touch, his looks and his kisses he was claiming bits and pieces of her. She had to say something to stop him from looking at her like he wanted to devour her then and there.

“Listen, I wanted to thank you for getting the ticket.”

“That was necessary,” Nick countered. “How else were you going to be allowed to go through the gates to wait for me at Starbuck’s if you didn’t have a ticket?”

Sela couldn’t stop the smile if she’d tried. Nick was beginning to grow on her big-time and that she didn’t need. But….he grinned. And she sighed. Her heart was leading her on this because her head had apparently taken its own vacation. Sure spending a couple of hundred bucks just so she could wait for him at the Starbuck was not a major amount of cash. But it was the thought that he’d wanted to do it that had her heart thumping. She could have paid for the ticket herself, she thought and frowned, wishing for a few years in the past.
A past when a ticket hadn’t been necessary to go past the gates to the Starbucks and wait for a friend.

Sela’s hand swinging back and forth entwined with Nick’s made her stare down. He was behaving like…like a little kid caught in some mischievous act. She looked at the shy smile that played around the corners of his mouth. Hmm, she thought, that was a first. She’d seen his smiles, flirtatious, teasing, sweet, seductive, but not this, not shy.

“Nick, are you embarrassed?” she asked. “You shouldn’t be. It was romantic. You could have just come to Caesars’ Palace. I told you I have a room. It was Sela’s turn to smile. My company paid for it for the entire week. They’re so pleased I got the job done in half the time.”

“I’m not embarrassed,” Nick lied. “I don’t know... I’ve just gotten used to seeing you at the airport.”

“What about the time we spent at the hotel during the storm?” she teased remembering how much she’d wanted him to make love to her, knowing she didn’t know nearly enough about him to go for it. Every meeting so far had been a chance encounter. If she was going to go to bed with the guy the least they could do was have a for-real-honest-to-God-date. This was it, this one
they’d planned and one where they were not worrying about rushing off to meet family or working. Sela had double checked three times. No emergencies with the family or her job, she was good to go.

Suddenly Sela found herself spinning. Nick had taken her hand and twirled her about making her laugh, making her feel like a silly teenager. It felt good.

“This is our first date, Sela. I think we’re worth it. I think we need to see what fate has in store for us. I can’t believe our constantly running into each other at airports in different cities is an accident. I didn’t want to mess with that formula.”

“You’re superstitious?”

“Not usually,” Nick said turning her to face him. “But I don’t want to tempt fate with changing things.” He stopped and stared at her. “Can’t you feel it?” he asked and pulled her to him. “I’ve felt it. Every time I’ve kissed you I can hardly wait for the next one.” He kissed her lightly on the lips, pulling back as she glanced around.

“Are you worried about kissing me in public,” he asked, “or just kissing me period?”

“I don’t do public displays of anything, Nick. You’re an actor, you’re in the public eye and that’s old news for you, but not for me. I don’t want to have my life invaded with paparazzi that might be following you for a story. I hope you understand.”

“I understand if you think because I’m an actor I’m always looking over my shoulder for the camera that we need this date more than I thought. My job is a job, same as yours.” He narrowed his gaze. “You shouldn’t believe everything you read. I haven’t found one woman yet who’s intrigued me the way you have.”

His voice turned soft and he stopped the half glare. “When I kiss you I feel this rush of warmth.” She hit him lightly on his arm
and he grinned. “Not there, although that too. But in here,” he said using his finger to tap his chest. “I feel something stirring here. I‘ve never had this feeling before so I don’t know what it is. I just know I want to find out more about you. I want to kiss you until you’re as dizzy as I am and then we’ll see.”

Darn, but he was good. He had her right then and there. Her bronze Adonis was making her melt and she knew they needed to get to the hotel quickly and take a nice cool dip in the Garden of the Gods pool. Her Adonis would be right at home there.

***

Several hours and two mojitos later Sela was falling even more under Nick’s spell. She’d suggested a swim in the hotel pool for more than one reason. True she’d had a couple of fantasies picturing Nick in a swimsuit alongside all the plaster gods that lounged in decadent poses along the entire length of the pool. An apt name, Garden of the Gods. It was. But she’d wanted something more, a sure fire jerk test. She’d covered her eyes with her wrap around sunglasses wanting to hide somewhat from Nick, wanting him not to be able to tell what she didn’t want him to know.

So far Nick was passing the jerk test with admirable colors. She’d watched as tall slinky blondes, brunettes and redheads had sauntered by, some doing a double take when they recognized Nick. And she’d watched one give him a come hither look or two. Sela was grinning like a Cheshire cat. He’d passed the jerk test. He’d barely glanced at the banquet of scantily clad women
.
His attention remained focused on her as he told her about his family.

Just when she should have been preening another thought took root. A stray thought
, why wasn’t he looking?
Could he be… Nooo he wasn’t. But then again one never knew.
He was perfect for it, the business he was in was known for it, look at his body. Someone should mount him on one of those plaster caster.