Strictly Business [Stud Service 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (5 page)

“Susan, this isn’t going to work. I will just change my flight, too.” Ethan placed a restraining hand on Susannah’s arm.

Susannah frowned and pulled out of his grip easily. “But I won’t be sitting next to you.”

“Excuse me. Is this man harassing you?” The airline clerk intervened.

“No, no. More like stalking.” Susannah sighed, suddenly feeling weary of arguing.

A shadow of alarm touched Ethan’s face. “Hey! I’m not stalking her, This is all a misunderstanding.”

“Would you like me to call security?” The airline clerk’s fist tensed on the phone, waiting for Susannah to confirm Ethan was a problem.

“Maybe.” A half smile crossed Susannah’s face, but then she thought the better of getting him in trouble with security. She didn’t need to irritate her father more than she already had. “No, that shouldn’t be necessary. I just need to change my seat.”

“Well, let me see what I can do for you.” The clerk tapped away busily at the keyboard, her eyes scanned the monitor, until she finally looked up. “Aha. I have just noticed we’re overbooked on this flight. Would you like to upgrade to first class on the next flight out? I wouldn’t normally offer this to everybody, but since you are unhappy with your seating arrangement, this could help you.”

“Oh, you are a doll!” She turned to smile smugly at Ethan. “I’ll take it!”

“Fine.” Ethan smiled with devilish delight. “Then I need to change my seat, too.”

“I’m sorry, sir, there’s nothing else available, unless you would like to wait until a later flight?” The clerk hit a few keys to confirm her information.

His amusement swiftly faded. “No, that won’t work. Thanks.”

Ethan gave her a grumpy look that said she wouldn’t get off so easy, but she laughed and shrugged it off. So what if Daddy’s little spy was mad at her? He’d get over it.

While she got to sit in first class.
 

The smiling flight attendant waved her aboard the airplane and ushered her into the front of the plane after looking at her ticket. “Welcome aboard, Ms. Gibson. Your seat is the window seat the third row down on your left.”

“Thank you,” Susannah answered, happy as a clam to have escaped Ethan and the cattle cabin.

She easily found her seat and picked out a book before putting away her backpack. She opened the cabinet above her head, but a stewardess came up behind her before she could finish putting it away.

“Let me help you with that. You just have a seat and sit back and relax.”

“You don’t have to do that.” But before she could protest further, the stewardess had already tucked the luggage away. So Susannah obediently sat down in her seat.

“Really, it’s my pleasure. Is there anything else I can get you?” The stewardess smiled brightly.

“Maybe a glass of wine. I’ve always been a little nervous flying.” Susannah laughed, trying unsuccessfully to hide that nervous titter in her voice. The stewardess nodded and left Susannah alone for a few minutes.

Susannah flipped open her smutty romance book and pretended to not pay attention as the plane filled up with people slowly. She didn’t want to be forced into a conversation just to be polite to the person next to her, and they would get the hint if she was nose deep in a book.

Curiosity got the best of her when her neighbor sat down next to her, however. She glanced up to see a very unbusinesslike man. Sexy in a bad-boy kind of way, totally not the kind of guy she’d ever go for, but sexy just the same, and that dismissive glance he gave her was just cocky enough to know it.

It was not unusual for a Texan to be wearing a cowboy hat, but when he removed it to reveal his mussed brown hair, he was better looking if possible. There was a model-like quality to his chiseled features that made it seem like he would be just as sexy at 5:00 p.m. as he was rolling out of bed in the morning after a night of full-on hard-core sex. Damn, but that shouldn’t be possible.

Not that she cared. Nothing of the strange attraction she felt for this stranger would ever come to fruition. She was never that lucky, and he was so not her type it wasn’t funny.

This wasn’t the preppy boys who went to her country club and talked about the stock market. She imagined he’d be as much at home on the back of a motorcycle as he was here in a plane full of people. His black shirt clung to his chest, advertising a heavy metal band that she didn’t recognize amidst skulls and blood. A snake wrapped itself around his bicep. He had a tattoo for Christ’s sake.

This was not the type of guy she could bring home to meet Mom and Dad at Christmas. He was good for one night of hot, sweaty sex, and then it would be hasta la vista and on to his next conquest, and she would be just as forgotten as yesterday’s news, but it would solve her little problem of finding a loophole to get control of her trust fund without a marriage proposal.

This guy was so far off her radar he likely didn’t even recognize her name or her face from the weekly tabloids. So he wouldn’t have a clue she was one of the heirs to a fortune in oil, and he wouldn’t be trying to sleep with her to get her money.

If he liked her it would be because…because he must have felt an attraction to her physically. Which was a total turn-on. She could finally see a man who wasn’t just in it with her to become rich or use her. Sex with a stranger like him would be all about the sex and just fucking for the sake of sucking.

A heat swept through her body and straight between her legs as if that thought hit the magic
on
button. She clamped her legs shut and turned away from the man, noting he smelled as good as he looked. Her pussy was very interested in him.

Would he taste just as good?

God, what was she thinking? She was being illogical. This was just too crazy for words. She was ready to jump the guy and they just met. She wasn’t an animal and she wasn’t ready to fuck the first man she saw despite her sex-starved body’s overreaction to a virile and attractive man sitting next to her.

Quickly, she returned to reading her book, hoping he wouldn’t notice the burn of her cheeks or the arousal of her body caused by his nearness.

She tried to concentrate—honestly—but his sweet aftershave infiltrated her defense, and she found it hard to concentrate on her book with the heaving bosoms of the heroine and all the heavy breathing going on.

If she wasn’t in a plane full of people, Susannah would have thrown her romance novel against the wall. Who writes this stuff? Women with heaving bosoms and lady softness? The men may as well have been wagging manly swords. When she read a good romance book, she wanted to see frank language, strong women that were swept off their feet by an alpha hero and loved well, not purple prose. A good book was full of hot sex and emotional satisfaction, but this was not anything close to good. One day she’d have to try to put a pen to paper and prove a book could be written with a smart, sexy, kick-ass heroine that could still find love.

“Hmmph.” She grumbled before shutting the novel and laying it across her lap.

“Not enough sex for you?”

“What?” Heat torched her face.

“My sister reads those bodice rippers when she is between guys. I figured you set it down because it wasn’t dirty enough.” An easy smile tugged the corners of his lips and his brown eyes sparkled.

Judging from her supernova reaction to his words and his deep chuckle, her face was a nice shade of crimson about now.

“No, it was just getting a little predictable. By the way, since we’re going to be neighbors for the next couple of hours I probably should introduce myself. Name’s Susannah.” She stuck her hand out suddenly.

“Colt Vance.” He took her hand in his and squeezed her hand lightly, sending a lightning bolt of electricity up her arm. She pulled back sharply. Suddenly. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the sensation. The power his touch had on her just surprised her. She was acting like some silly virgin—which she wasn’t. It just had been way too long since she had been with a man. Years should not go by between boyfriends.

“I bet you always charm the ladies this way.”

“Just the ones who like to spice up their sex lives with trashy romance novels.” He flashed a cheeky grin at her that melted her insides. She could probably live with the fact he didn’t mind her reading romance novels. Most guys would get irritated or jealous that they couldn’t live up to the hero in her books.

“For your information, mister, I don’t need to spice up my sex life with books. It’s more like frosting for a cinnamon bun. Even without the frosting, it’s still good enough to eat.” There. Now she told him.

Before he had a chance to issue a comeback the stewardess interrupted.

“Your drink, madam.” The same stewardess she spoke with earlier handed her a plastic cup filled with an amber drink. Since she practically never drank, the alcohol should get her drunk pretty fast, and then hopefully she could relax.

“Thank God, Betty, you are a lifesaver!” She glanced at the name badge so she could issue a more personal thank-you and downed half the glass of the golden drink in one swig, pursing her lips against the cheap wine taste. It was bitter, and she struggled to get the alcohol taste out of her mouth, gasping for breath. She leaned against the headrest, wishing the alcohol would affect her more quickly.

“It’s kind of early to start drinking, isn’t it?” Her neighbor—Mr. Too Hot for His Own Good—cocked an eyebrow high in the air.

“It’s never too early in my book. Not when you are about to be a mile high for the next six hours and you hate flying.” She hated flying since an early experience of being kidnapped as a young child. It happened over a summer vacation and flying always brought back some of her worst memories.

In her family’s private jet she could feel comfortable taking a knockout drug and sleep for the duration of the flight, but not here, not with a commercial plane full of strangers. Today, alcohol would just have to do.

“Can I get you anything sir?”

“Naw—thanks. I’m good.” He waved her off, but she didn’t seem to want to leave, just standing there staring at him. He must have had this same magnetic effect on all the ladies, but he pretended not to notice and looked back at Susannah, giving her another panty-melting smile. “How ’bout you, sweetheart?”

“I’ll take another when you have time.” Susannah ignored his frown and sipped her wine.

“I’m sorry. We’ll be leaving in a few minutes, and I won’t be able to get you another drink until after we’re in the air.”

“But I’m not nearly drunk enough.” She panicked. Her heart raced in her chest, and her free hand clutched the plastic armrest. Tall, dark, and handsome put his hand over hers. Oddly, the small action felt comforting and calming.

“I’m sorry. Let me know if there’s anything else I can get for you before takeoff,” the stewardess said before walking away.

“There are other things you can do to relax, you know.” His lips curved into what was the beginning of a smile.

“Like what? This might be first class, but it’s not like they have a masseuse for hire or a spa up here.” Not that she was into spending her time getting her nails done up pretty. She wasn’t a high maintenance type of girl, just a country kid at heart. There were certain times she had a hard time controlling her anxiety, and being crammed on a plane with a bunch of strangers just set her nerves into a sudden flip-flop. Illogical or not, she couldn’t make herself relax.

“Sex has been known to calm the nerves.” He spoke the words so calmly, so matter-of-fact, and just like that she had to check his face to be sure he was serious.

And those whispered words sounded like they were meant just for her. It sparked an imaginative fantasy in her mind of just the two of them alone so that they could became two sweaty naked bodies merging to become one.

The image was difficult to dispel. Invitations like that one did not happen to her—not mousy-brown-haired Susannah. She was just the boring middle child. She often went ignored between the beauty of her older and younger sisters.

“I’ll stick to my alcohol, thank you very much. Unless that was an invitation, I don’t think I’ll be relaxing that way today.”

“No boyfriend?”

“Nope.” She adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose. “What about you?”

“Work keeps me a little too busy for relationships at the moment, but in case there is any question, that was an invitation.” His hand moved to cover hers, which she had not noticed was tightly wound over the armrest.

She sprayed her wine onto the seat in front of her. Hastily, she cleaned it up with the napkin the stewardess handed her with the drink earlier.

Damn nerves.

“I don’t know anything about you. I can’t sleep with you.”

“I assure you there wouldn’t be any sleeping involved. It would be purely sexual.”

She laughed. What else could she do when the random stranger next her suggested she have sex with him? She certainly couldn’t just… Well, she could sleep with him, but that was beside the point. Sex was out of the question, and yet her body was responding instantly to the thought.

“No-strings-attached kind of sex, right?” she asked while clenching her thighs tightly together.

“Just enough strings that we can do it again if you want to.” He laughed just a little and spoke in a really husky voice just loud enough for her to hear.