~Lena~
“This flight is damn bumpy,” I say as I grab the armrest for dear life. We’re back in the private plane, heading God knows where.
“I’ll take a bumpy flight over another ten hour drive,” Mason replies. When the plane dips again, and I gasp, he pulls me into his lap and holds me close. “You’re okay.”
“Shouldn’t I have my seatbelt on?”
“I’ve got you,” he replies and kisses my lips softly.
“I think you’re trying to distract me,” I whisper against his mouth.
“Is it working?”
“Oh yeah.” I grin and sigh when he kisses me again. His hand glides up my bare leg and under the skirt I’m wearing. When I packed for the trip, I had no idea we’d be doing so many outdoorsy things. Those fingers clench onto my bare ass and I bite his lower lip. “How can you turn me on so much when I’m pretty sure we’re going to die?”
“We aren’t going to die,” he replies. He stands with me still in his arms and then lays me down across the bench seats. He kneels next to me and kisses my cheek, then my neck. His hand slides up between my thighs and he smiles when his fingers reach my pussy. “And you are very turned on.”
“Have you seen you?” I ask and reach for the zipper of his pants. “Not to mention, you never stop touching me, and your hands are ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous?” he asks with a raised brow. “You think doing this is ridiculous?”
He sinks a finger inside me and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t tell you my name if you asked.
“We’re in an airplane.”
“Thank you, sweetheart,” he says with a smile. “I didn’t realize.”
“Smart ass.”
“We have a pilot and a co-pilot. No one is back here.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “We can do whatever we want.”
“We could land at any moment.”
“You’re overthinking again.” He clicks his tongue and shakes his head and slips another finger in to join the first.
“Shit.” My back arches. “You’re teasing me.”
“Just getting you warmed up.” His grey eyes are on fire as he watches me closely. His fingers are doing crazy things to me and all I know for sure is, I want him.
Now.
“Mason,” I say and then gasp when he presses his thumb to my clit. “Take your pants off.”
“Is that an order?”
“Yes.”
He cocks a brow.
Accepting the challenge, I push his hand away and plant my hand on his shoulder, urging him down to the floor of the plane. His lips twitch as he watches me take over the control, but after I’ve unfastened his pants and pulled his already hard cock out of the pants, all humor has fled his face.
He’s expecting me to climb on top of him and ride him, but instead I lick the rim of the head of his dick and smile when he sucks air in through his teeth.
“My turn,” I murmur and go to work, sucking and licking, touching, pulling. He buries his fingers in my hair and holds on as I work him over. And just when I think he might be getting close to coming, I crawl on top and sink over him, taking him all the way in. I begin to move, but he sits up and plants his hands on my ass, guiding me up and down.
He’s so tall that his eyes almost meet mine. Neither of us talks. We’re here, in the moment, in this place, making each other crazy.
I can feel the orgasm move through me, and I clench down on him as it washes over me. His hands tighten on my ass and he pushes up, hard, losing himself in me.
The pilot comes over the speakers.
“We’ll be landing in about forty minutes.”
Mason grins. “Excellent timing.”
By the time the wheels touch down, we’re both put back together and smiling smugly at each other.
The pilot comes out of the cockpit and passes Mason a letter.
“When you’re finished, come back to the plane.”
“We’re not staying?”
“No.”
Mason nods and ushers me down to the tarmac where another rental car is waiting. We climb inside, leaving our luggage aboard the plane, and Mason opens the envelope.
“Well, this I know nothing about.”
I grin and hold my hand out. This clue wasn’t a letter from Aunt Claudia. It’s a card.
A tarot card.
“It’s the Thunderbolt card,” I murmur. “Frankly, when this card turns up during a reading, it makes most people nervous.”
“Why?”
“Because it usually means that there’s about to be a significant change in one’s life, but not in a good way. It brings great upheaval. The good thing is, it usually means that it’s for the best, but it’s disruptive nonetheless.”
“Hmm.” His eyes narrow as he studies the card.
“Do we even know where we are?” I ask, realizing that I didn’t hear the pilot say.
“No.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket and brings up the GPS. “We’re in New Mexico.”
“Okay. I have no idea what we might find in New Mexico. Aside from really good TexMex food.”
His lips twitch in good humor as he thinks. He snaps his fingers. “I know where we’re going.”
“Great. Where?”
“We’re going to find Thunder eggs.”
He tries to start the car, but it doesn’t turn over.
“Seriously, the rental place gave us a car with a bad battery.” He sighs and moves to get out of the car, but I lay my hand on his arm and shake my head.
“I’ve got this.”
He frowns, but watches as I mumble a few words, wiggle my fingers, and the car starts. He raises a brow. “Good job.”
I can’t help it, I throw my head back and laugh. He’s not shocked, or repulsed, or afraid.
He’s acting like he sees witches do this every day of his life, and nothing could put me at ease more effectively.
He pulls away from the plane and away from the airport.
“Do you know where we’re going?”
“Yes,” he says with a smile. “Aunt Claudia brought me here a couple of times.”
“Okay, what is a thunder egg, exactly?”
“It’s a rock,” he says as he changes lanes, “that when you break it open, there is amethyst, or rose quartz, or something equally beautiful inside.”
“A geode,” I reply with a smile. “They’re beautiful. I’ve never had the chance to find them, though.”
“They were a common gift from Claudia. I have dozens. All different shapes and sizes.”
“Do they just lay out in the open?”
“Yes.” He nods. “ You dig for the best ones, but this will be a quick challenge.”
We arrive at a parking lot where several cars are already parked.
“I’m not dressed for this.”
He looks me up and down, his eyes hot with lust as he does, and just shrugs. “If we have to dig, I’ll do the dirty work.”
“That’s very chivalrous of you,” I reply with a laugh. Mason glances in the backseat of the car and grins.
“They gave us a pick.” He reaches in and comes out with what looks like a tiny pickaxe. “This will make it easier.”
“If you say so. You’re the expert.”
He reaches for my hand and leads me down a dusty path. There are men with hats on to protect themselves from the sun milling about. They have bags hanging from their waist, and they’re scanning the ground.
“This must be lucrative.”
“It can be,” Mason says with a nod. “The thunder rocks look jagged, almost shaped like cauliflower on the outside.”
“I hate cauliflower.” I wrinkle my nose, making him laugh. “But I like pretty, sparkly things.”
He veers us off the path to what looks like a mound of dirt.
“Stand back,” he says. “It’s about to get pretty dusty here.”
And with that, he begins to ferociously attack the dirt, picking away at it until a rock falls out of it and down toward me.
It’s the size of a soft ball, and definitely looks like what we’re looking for.
“I bet this is a good one,” I say as Mason joins me. “How do we break it open?”
He takes it from me, lays it on the ground, and smacks it with the pickaxe. It breaks into two pieces, showing off a gorgeous pink center.
“Oh, that’s a pretty one.”
“Rose quartz,” he says, examining it. “This was formed by a volcano.”
“We’re standing on a volcano?”
“An ancient one,” he says with a nod. “This was once lava, probably about a million years ago. All of the pressure over so much time formed this pretty quartz.”
“You’re pretty smart, Dr. Jones.” I take one of the halves from him and study it. “I’m keeping this half.”
“Of course.” He kisses my cheek and then my neck. “We should probably head back. Sounds like we have another flight in store for us today.”
“Let’s take a minute,” I reply. “Alan suggested we take our time and enjoy the adventure. There’s no reason that we can’t walk around and see what we can find.”
“It’s hot out here.”
“I’m not suggesting we stay for hours.” I bat my eyelashes at him, making him grin.
“As you wish.”
“Now you’re quoting my favorite movies.”
“What’s not to like about the Princess Bride?”
“Exactly.” I link my fingers with his and we take a stroll around the desert, looking for rocks. “Are there rattlesnakes out here?”
“Probably.” He glances down at me, then back at the ground. “Are you afraid of animals?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because you asked if there were sharks in the ocean, and now rattlesnakes.”
“Well, wildlife isn’t something to scoff at,” I reply. “You should always be aware of what could kill you.”
“That’s not a bad motto to live by. You should make it into a bumper sticker.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.” He laughs. “What happened in your youth to make you so wildlife-conscious?”
“I was almost eaten by an alligator.”
“Really?”
“Really. We were out in the Bayou, at Mallory’s grandmother’s house, and Mallory and I were running around on the boardwalks that ran between her grandmother’s house and my grandmother’s house.”
“There are a lot of grandmothers and houses in this story.”
“Two of each,” I agree. “Anyway, we were running and being silly young girls. I was ahead, and I glanced back to see where Mallory was, and my shoe caught in one of the boards. I fell into the swamp water.”
“Ew.”
“No kidding. It’s gross anyway, but unbeknownst to me, there was a giant alligator in the water, and he wasn’t super happy with sharing his space with me.”
“Jesus, Lena.”
“I was petrified. I didn’t swim well. Mallory was screaming, and this huge dinosaur was swimming right for me. Gram must have heard Mallory screaming and came running out, plucked me right out of the water, just as the alligator reached me.”
“I think I’d be afraid of wildlife after that too.”
“I just like to know what might be lurking about.”
He pulls me to him and hugs me tightly, rocking me back and forth under the scorching New Mexico sunshine.
“I just found another thing about you that makes me like you even more,” he says.
“What, that an alligator almost ate me?”
“Well, I can’t fault the alligator. You’re delicious.” He bites my neck, sending shivers through me. “No, you just used unbeknownst in a sentence.”
“Unbeknownst is a great word,” I reply. “It’s fun to say. It might be my favorite word. What words do you like?”
“Whilst,” he says. “That whole st sound at the end of a word is pleasant, isn’t it?”
I nod. “I also like soliloquy.”
“That rolls nicely off the tongue,” he says with a nod. “I have a bunch of dirty words that I like as well. But I’ll have to tell you those later, when I can point them out to you.”
“I always did enjoy show and tell.”
“Excellent,” he replies. “We’re going to have a fun session of show and tell tonight then.”
“I can’t wait.”