Chapter Twenty-One

Blake’s breathing stuttered. He was watching Jewel out of the corner of his eye as she took her sweet time stripping off her clothes. Her body was a thing of beauty. Would he ever want any other woman again?

He suspected the answer would be a flat no.

“Lean your seat all the way back,” he said, his voice strained.

Jewell searched for the controller on the side of the seat and then slowly, surely, her seat moved back, and her body was stretched out there for his eyes to feast upon. Setting the plane on autopilot as they drifted high in the sky over empty fields, he turned and took his fill of her beauty.

He ran his hands down her smooth skin, pausing to feel the peak of her nipples jut against his palm. His groin throbbed instantly. Trailing down the slight indent of her stomach, he slid his fingers slowly along the slick folds of her core, and nearly lost control when he felt how hot, wet and ready for him she already was.

When he slipped two fingers inside her, the echo of her groan filled the small cabin. Her scent was driving him mad. He needed her now, but the last thing he wanted was for this to go quickly. Hell, if they crashed, at least he would die one very happy man. Screw his earlier guarantees.

Reluctantly withdrawing his hand, he yanked his shirt off, tossing it somewhere onto the backseat, then unbuckled his seat belt and began undoing his jeans. He looked over and took pride in the knowledge that Jewell was watching him take off his clothing as avidly as he had watched her. There was a difference between them, though, and her innocence and curiosity acted as a complete and utter turn-on.

Sliding his seat back as far as it would go, he took a moment to catch his breath. “Take me in your mouth.” His voice didn’t come out nearly as strong as he wanted it to, but he was past the point of caring.

Sex with this woman was an experience he’d have difficulty finding again. Though untutored, she seemed to know instinctively what to do. He had to grip himself and squeeze to tame the pulsing when she sat up, her hair drifting over her shoulders and playing hide and seek with her breasts.

Jewell leaned over the seat between them, and her ass rose in the air as her head descended. He threw his head back when her hot mouth circled around the tip of his arousal and she sucked hard, making him lurch upward on his seat.

He gripped her ass with one hand while holding the back of her neck with the other as she slowly moved up and down his arousal. He cried out in pleasure. But as things grew too intense for him — he came close to ending this moment much too soon.

“Enough,” he said after she licked his entire length, then sucked his tip again, groaning in pleasure at the task.

She let him go slowly, turning her head, her cheeks flushed as she looked up at him, her eyes shining, her nipples brushing against his thighs. She was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen in his life.

He grasped her hips, pulled her over to him, and he sat her on his lap with her back to him.

“We can’t do this — the plane will crash,” she gasped, though her stomach shook beneath his hand and her head fell back, passion in her tone.

“It’s on autopilot, and there’s not another plane around for miles,” he assured her, not that he’d let anything stop him right now. If he had to do an emergency landing in a cornfield to finish this, he’d damn well do it, but he’d never before made love while flying, and that’s all he could think of doing right then.

Unable to wait even a minute more, he lifted her up, and then pushed her inch by delicious inch down onto his ready erection, completely filling her. When he didn’t move for several long moments, she began to grind her hips seductively against him, her body obviously quivering with the need for release.

“Wait!” he ordered her. He needed just a moment to regain control.

She fell still as he slid his hands up her stomach and then clasped her breasts, kneading her sweet flesh before pinching the nipples and making her cry out again.

When she began once more to move up and down on him, he couldn’t even think about stopping her any longer. Her slick heat coated him, so he held her tight as he felt pressure build low in his stomach and his hardness pulse inside her.

Leaning forward, he sucked the smooth skin of her neck, then ran his tongue along her shoulder, delighting in her taste, in the way her skin felt against his lips and tongue. “You make me lose my mind,” he whispered in her ear, and a shudder rushed through her as he grasped her hips and set the pace for their movements, guiding her now instead of following her lead.

When their rhythm was in perfect sync, he ran a hand back up her stomach and took hold of one of her breasts, squeezing the flesh, rubbing her nipple, and the hardness of its peak made him even more aroused. His other hand found the slick bump that would make her fall into glory.

He rubbed her there, making her pant while she continued her little dance upon him, and then he lost all sense of time as wild sensations rushed through him. Their bodies glistened with a fine layer of sweat, and he kept tormenting and delighting two of her crucial pleasure points while still sucking on the honeyed skin of her neck.

“Blake!” she cried out, and he felt the tight grip of her core as her body began convulsing around him with exquisite tightness.

Blake thrust deep inside her and then groaned loudly as he let go, feeling his release wash all the way through him, making his vision blur and his head light.

“Ouch!”

Blake was startled by her exclamation. “What’s wrong?” He was frustrated that he was barely able to speak.

“My knee hit the dash.”

She was limp against him, utterly exhausted, her voice coming out weak, and he sagged against the seat as he tried to recover.

“You’ll live,” he said with a chuckle, fully relaxed.

“I don’t think I’m afraid of flying anymore,” she finally said.

And that’s when everything went wrong.

The stall horn sounded in the cabin of the plane, alerting them that they were no longer engaged in autopilot. She must have hit the switch when her knee banged against the dash. Before he was able to respond to the alert, the plane tipped to one side and went nose down, sending them into a spin.

Jewell let out a gasp of shock, but he didn’t have time to focus on it. He grabbed her waist and thrust her back to her side of the plane. Going on instinct, he slid his seat back into place so he could reach the rudders, then reached forward and took the controls. They were up high and he had plenty of time to get the plane flying again, he told himself — though he also knew everything could go bad in no time at all.

Jewell’s body was thrown against his side as the plane spiraled toward the earth, making him lose his grip on the yoke for just a single second.

“Hold on!” Blake yelled when she tried scooting away. He couldn’t hold out his hand to her, couldn’t keep her safe and stop the spin. She went still against her seat, her body pressed against his side, and he moved quickly, knowing he had to get this plane back under his control.

Reducing the power back to an idle, Blake pushed against the rudder control in the opposite direction from the spin, then quickly applied full forward pressure on the controls to break the stall. Once he’d broken the stall, he held the rudder in nose-down attitude, and he didn’t take his first real breath until the plane’s spinning eased and then stopped. Even though this was something he had practiced several times, he had never gotten to experience it in a real-life situation and never had another person’s life in his hands.

It wasn’t a pleasant experience with her there. He was sure he would be getting a thrill from it if he were alone. But then again, if he were alone, it never would have happened — accidentally, at least.

The craft finally leveled off, and both of them were breathing heavily. Jewell sat frozen against her seat, gripping his arm, her nails leaving bruises and possibly breaking some skin, but with not so much as a finger twitching, while he pulled up on the yoke and brought the plane back up to altitude before he turned toward home.

Maybe mixing sex and flying wasn’t such a good idea.

Nope. He couldn’t think that even now, not even after nearly plummeting to the earth. It had been just too damn great.

“You can get dressed,” he said, making sure to keep his voice calm.

“I…I…uh…don’t know if I can move,” she replied, her voice barely more than a squeak.

“We’re fine, Jewell. Spins happen. Pilots are trained for them,” he said, not particularly shaken up by the near disaster.

“Well, I’m not trained for it,” she said, her voice stronger. Her anger came through loud and clear.

“Give me some time,” he said with a chuckle, but his laughter faded away. If there was one thing that he and Jewell did not have, it was time. They had only a few days left, and then he would never see her again.

Suddenly his joy of flying, his joy of making love in the sky, his joy of it all disappeared. Jewell Weston had gotten underneath his skin, and he had a feeling it would be a long time before he was able to purge her from his system.

“Put your clothes on, Jewell. Our flight is over.”

Blake’s fear of falling for her made him much crueler than he needed to be, but he had to protect himself. If she knew how vulnerable she made him, she would hold power over him, and that was unacceptable.