hen the going gets tough, the tough soar. There’s nothing better for emotional turmoil than the command of a fast jet aircraft. This flight is domestic. One the flights I’d been fighting so hard to secure. The pay is shit compared to what I’m used to, but if my taking a shorter trip makes Alexa smile then the loss will be worth it.
Or would have been worth it. I don’t know what’s gotten into her, but she’s been running so hot and cold with me that I feel like maybe I need to get away for a little while.
“You look like you have a lot on your mind tonight, Captain Long.” It’s a voice I don’t recognize, but it’s feminine and sultry, and I don’t have to put two and two together to know who it’s coming from. The leggy brunette in the stewardess uniform is eating me up with her eyes. She’s wearing Executive Privilege colors. She’s standing by my gate. I wish I’d checked the roster to see who was on before I flung myself blindly into another contract.
I’m classy. I’m a leg guy. By all rights, the brunette should be right up my alley, I’m not interested right now. All I can think about is Alexa.
“That’s the secret to being a great captain,” I tell her. “Always have a lot on your mind.”
“Mm. Well. We could put a little more on, if you’d like. I’ve got ways to make that mind of yours keep busy.” The flirtation is blatant. The stewardess has no shame. I don’t even know her name. Her hair is perfectly mussed and her liquid eyes smolder.
“And who are you again?” I ask.
“Lacey,” she says, batting her eyelashes at me. “But you can call me anything you want, Captain Long. I am very receptive.”
“Welcome to Executive Privilege, Lacey. Is this your first flight?”
“My third, but it’s my first with you. I’ve heard wonderful things about you from the girls, you know.” Her smile is devilish. It curls the corners of her scarlet lips and sparks in her eyes. “I’m so glad we’re finally flying together.”
“Well, since you’re new here, I guess it’s a good a time as any to introduce you to the ground rules and the airborne rules.” I look her in the eye, and I don’t think she’s used to that. She’s gorgeous, all curves and feminine charm. “If I ever have to turn the turbulence sign on, you better damn well strap in and brace yourself for a bumpy ride. No one comes into the cockpit unless there is an actual fire aboard. And, most importantly, your candy won’t work on me, sugar. Save it for the clients.”
She twitters with laughter that I can tell is fake. “Oh, Captain Long, you’re safe.” The look she gives me says the opposite. Her blue eyes are heavy with lust. “I don’t mix business and pleasure.”
The way she says ‘pleasure’ could set off fire alarms. I shake my head. She could set the whole plane ablaze with her attitude and I still wouldn’t burn. I’m not interested. My head’s still wrapped up in what happened with Alexa, trying to figure it out.
“What else have the girls been telling you?” I ask to diverge from the conversation at hand.
“Oh, little things.” Lacey shrugs. “Most of the time they talk about the instability of the air taxi business. I guess I’m too new to know much. Some of the girls say they’re seeing their hours cut, and that they’ve noticed a lot more people are losing their jobs recently, but if Executive Privilege just hired me, they can’t be doing all that bad, can they?”
“I’m not sure,” I admit. Pilots are treated differently from other staff. I check my watch.
“Some of the girls said that the new benefits package that just got rolled out a few months back was a sham compared to what it had been before. Some of them are talking of leaving.”
I snort. As if that’s going to happen. Half the stewardesses are too hooked on exotic travel to ever leave. The other half are addicted to flirting with our executive clientele. It’s a cushy job for them, all things considered. Smile and look pretty for however long the flight lasts, serve refreshments, fluff pillows… maybe fluff something else, too. All for big paychecks, beautiful locales, and experiences most people can only dream about.
“I wouldn’t believe everything you hear,” I say pointedly. “A lot of those girls are all talk, no substance.”
“I don’t know about that,” Lacey says. “They sounded pretty serious.”
I just shake my head. It’s time to board and run the pre-flight checks. “If you think that any of the stewardesses are serious about anything, you really are new. Now let’s get going. We’ve got a plane to get ready for takeoff.”
“Right away, Captain.”
Not even her flirtatious dip as she uses my title is enough to get me going. I shake my head and usher her ahead down the sky bridge.
It feels like no matter how far away I fly, Alexa is going to be right there with me. Suddenly I’m not sure if that’s a delight or a curse.
The flight is smooth, the sky is near flawless. There are a few pockets of turbulence I avoid for the sake of a smooth flight. We can spare the fuel. Because it’s not a commercial flight, our weight allowances permit us to keep more gas in the reservoir. I’m able to fly the way I want whenever I want.
Alexa wouldn’t understand the difference that makes. Piloting this Gulfstream is like racing an Italian thoroughbred sports car. Next best thing to a fighter jet. Steering a big Boeing or an Airbus is like driving a rattling commuter train in comparison. All stops and schedule and weight.
It’s not like I’m trying to avoid her when I take on long term contracts. It’s not like that at all. And it isn’t only the money, although the money is great. There’s freedom in flying with a private air service that I don’t get on a commercial airline. The long days, sometimes weeks, spent away are a side effect of that, but not a redeeming quality. I wish she’d understand.
The jet responds perfectly as I guide her through a flawless final approach over the bay. Wheels touch the Sea-Tac tarmac as smooth as silk. Not only am I an expert in the air, but I’m a professional when it comes to finessing the landing. The best in the business by far. I took to flying like most people take to breathing, except no one gets paid big bucks to breathe.
I taxi to the gate while my co-pilot runs through the details with the tower. He’s another face I didn’t recognize. My usual partner in crime, Julien, is jetting somewhere more prestigious, no doubt.
I kick back and relax while they set the sky bridge up and my clients deplane. Some tech billionaires, I think I remember from my cursory glance at the roster. Who I’m flying doesn’t matter to me so much as the dollar signs at the bottom.
“We’re clear, Captain,” my copilot says. “It was good flying with you. You do excellent work.”
“Good flying with you, too.” I shake his hand, then get the hell out of the plane. I’m itching for a drink.
Alexa has been in the back of my mind the whole way across the country and I’m no closer to figuring out what to do about her than I was before.
On my way to the bar, Lacey stops me. I’m used to stewardesses trying their best to get me back to bed, but the look in her eyes isn’t aroused determination, but shock. “Captain, have you heard?”
“Heard what?”
“Oh my god, you haven’t heard.” She looks around with widened eyes, like she’s afraid someone might overhear. I’m instantly on alert. If it’s a security issue, I need to take it seriously. But when she speaks, it’s like nothing I feared. “Executive Privilege… it was sold.”
“What?” I’m not sure I hear her right.
“Yeah! It happened while we were mid flight, apparently. I knew the girls were on to something when they were talking about reduced hours and cuts to their benefits. People losing jobs… All of it was because the company was bleeding money and they were looking to fold.” She’s talking fast. Starting to gabble.
“What the hell does that mean for us?”
She doesn’t know, obviously, but I need to find out pronto. What’s my route back? Will we continue operations or will we immediately be mothballed? Did the management sell out to an entrepreneur or an asset-stripper?
They could have got a message to us. It’s not like paying for a flight back to LaGuardia is going to break the bank, but that’s a damn shitty thing to do to someone in the middle of a job.
“There are new owners stepping in, is what I heard.” She looks addled. “Everyone’s going to be made to compete to keep their job at an hourly rate. A higher hourly rate, but according to all the frantic texts I got from the other girls in group chat, we’ll get no benefits, no security, minimum travel expenses allotted, minimum healthcare, no paid vacations…”
Stewardesses were often full of hot air and they loved to blow things out of proportion, but they wouldn’t exaggerate something like this. When it came to their terms and conditions, cabin crew were dead serious and all business.
If they said it was bad, it probably was bad.
Was I going to be able to keep up the payments on the new huge Manhattan condo I’d just bought? I’d put in the offer to impress Alexa, so that she’d move in and live there with me, but that was before Executive Privilege decided to screw me over. In my minds eye, a sickening drop looms.
Blinking I haul my thoughts back into order. My life of luxury, of glamor and prestige, isn’t going anywhere. I live fast and hard, and I’m not about to compromise. I will find a way to keep my head above water, no matter what it takes. I will win Alexa over and bring her to live with me.
But I definitely need to figure out a way to make the ends meet and soon.
Looks like it will be bye bye, condo.
Lacey’s eyes well up. She starts to fan at her face. “How can they do this to us so suddenly?” she asks desperately. “Aren’t they supposed to give two weeks notice or something? Or at least two days? I mean, these are peoples’ jobs we’re talking about! Peoples’ wellbeing! Their livelihoods!”
“Take a deep breath, doll,” I tell her. “Calm down. Breathe in and out, in and out, nice and slow. You’re going to be fine. You’re still new and you’re not set in your ways. Whatever new company this is will look on you favorably enough. They’re going to see a pretty stewardess who they can easily shape into the kind of employee they want. It’s the other girls who may need to worry. You’ve got the advantage.”
“You think so?” she asked, brushing her tears away. Good thing she was wearing waterproof mascara. I could only imagine the mess she’d make otherwise. “God, I hope so. I just… I don’t know what to do.”
“Checklist. Step one, calm down,” I tell her, even though I’m hard-pressed to follow my own advice. “Step two, figure out what steps you need to take and what order you need to take them in. Step three, follow through. That’s life in a nutshell. It’s no different here.”
She nods and sniffles, but I can’t stay around to comfort her anymore. I need to get myself under control, call up my former boss, and find out what the hell of of this is really going to mean to me.
I’m cool and composed on the surface, but on the inside I’m ready to start throwing punches. Executive Privilege has jeopardized my future. They’ve stolen from me. Everything I want with Alexa is in peril of plunging through the cracks. To say I’m pissed is an understatement.
If this is what it’s going to come down to, I might need to move back to my late father’s big, gloomy old Brooklyn house. I rent it out, but the tenant has mentioned vacating. It’s not like the rent was all that much, anyway. The place is a disaster. Outdated, dusty, and in shambles. It’d need repairs and redecoration at the least.
Maybe a good old bulldozing at the worst.
“I’ve got to get going,” I tell Lacey. There’s too much on my mind. “Take it easy. Hold your head high.”
She tells me goodbye, and something else but I don’t even hear her words, just the sounds her mouth makes. I’m already on the move. There’s a cubicle of a room in Sea-Tac waiting for me, and I need some alone time in it to decompress after that bombshell of an announcement.
The only thing I want right now is to hear Alexa’s voice and know she isn’t mad at me. Her eyes on that night at the restaurant and the hesitation on her lips screamed disinterest. I want to know we’re okay.
Our relationship is the one thing I’ve resolved to keep. No matter what the cost. The sudden crisis has brought me clarity. I know that I want her too much to ever let her go. If it’s not too late.
In the tiny pilot’s room that I secure in the terminal, I call Alexa. The phone goes to voicemail, so I try again. On the second try she answers, and I’m relieved.
“Hey Jagger.” Alexa’s voice is a balm for my soul, and I let it roll through me and repair the damage done. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.” I don’t want her to know the truth. “I just landed in Sea-Tac. I wanted to know how you are, what you’re up to. Did you have a good day?”
“You were called in to fly?” she asks, disappointed. I know I told her I’d be in New York all week, but after our night at the restaurant, I needed some air. “You’re always away, even when you say you won’t be.”
“I know.” It’s all I can say, but for once I do understand. I feel it and there’s warmth in my voice. She doesn’t sound angry. In fact, it sounds like she’s missing me. I want to get back to her. What I wouldn’t give to feel her soft skin, kiss her plump lips, or run my hands through her silken hair. I wish I’d never agreed to the flight. I guess I need to play pretend. “But I’m there with you. Don’t you know that?”
“No you’re not,” she pouts, and damn if it isn’t one of the cutest things I’ve ever heard.
“Do you remember the tips of my fingers?” I ask, keeping my voice low. “How they trace along your sides and worship your skin?”
There’s a moment’s hesitation before her whispered reply. “Yes.”
“What about the way my fingertips trace along the ridges of your teeth?” I ask, letting all my anger and frustration bleed over into sexual tension. It vibrates in my voice, greedy and seductive. “The smell of them? The taste of them? How your tongue rises up to trace along them, shy at first, until you take those same fingers into your mouth and suck like you want something more?”
The heat curls in my groin. My cock is a flagpole kept down by my pants. The bulge is almost painful.
“Yes,” Alexa says, and her voice is dipped in pleasure.
“My hands are your hands now,” I tell her, spinning the tale. The sound of her voice spurs me on. I want to hear more of it. I want to know that she’s beside herself with lust for me. “My fingertips are your fingertips. Where do my fingertips go, Alexa? Where do they wander?”
She’s drawn into the fantasy now. I know it. I listen to the way she breathes and I know that she’s succumbed to me. She’s not beside herself with pleasure yet, but she will be soon.
“I’m going to tell you the next part of the story while my hand wanders your body, wherever you want it to go,” I tell her. “Will you listen?”
“Yes,” she promises. I can almost feel a ribbon of tension being drawn out in her voice.
“When last we saw them, the beautiful dancer asked the prince if there was anything more she could do for him. The prince was steadfast and shook his head. ‘No.’
“But the girl was very beautiful, and the perfume of her skin was intoxicating. She drew back and kept dancing, rolling her hips and letting her hands trail all over her body, and when she’s done dancing, she straddles his hips to feed him treats as he lay back on a cushion. Then she leans over him so their bodies are almost brushing and whispers into his ear, ‘Can I do more for you, my prince?’”
I hear Alexa’s breath hitch. It’s music to my ears. I undo the button of my fly and tug down the zipper underneath, stroking myself through my boxers. She’s all I need.
“The prince’s throat is so tight he can’t speak. He hesitates, but then shakes his head. The music beats harder and she dances again, sinking down over his lap so he feels every movement. As she dances, she offers him a glass of dark red wine. He takes it as he looks into her eyes and drinks, she asks him once again, ‘Can I do more for you, my prince?’
“He stares into her smoldering eyes, but he can’t speak. So she smiles coyly and leans down to whisper into his ear, ‘no-one will know.’ And as her perfume filled his head, he thought to himself that one kiss wouldn’t matter. There would be no harm in it. Nor even two kisses, for that matter.
And so the prince accepts the invitation of her supple body. He wraps her in his arms and pins her to the cushions, pushing his hips into her as hers roll soft and fluid against him. They kiss and he leans into her and she can feel everything she’s done to him. Her plump, pliant flesh opens for him in a deep and welcoming embrace, and his mouth opens as he kisses her again.
“And as he does, two armed guards step into the room and haul him away.”
Alexa says nothing, but I can hear the way the breathes and I know she’s still listening, touching herself, imagining that it’s me there touching her. It makes me feel powerful, like I have the ability to span time and space to take the woman I want wherever and whenever I want her, even when we’re far apart.
Hearing her breath flutter, I imagine her eyelids dropping, her lips parting. Her fingers slipping down and her thighs clenching as her fingertips find the soft wetness of her trembling petals.
I’m careful not to make a sound as I clear my throat. This moment, even while we’re so far apart, is precious. I don’t want the spell to break.
“The king is disappointed and deeply saddened by the loss, but he knows he’s done the kindest favor for his daughter that a father ever could. So it comes as no surprise when the next prince comes to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage that the king proposes the same terms. And of course, the prince agrees.
“He declares himself boldly, ‘I love your daughter with a passion that no ocean could quench,’ the prince tells the king. ‘I guarantee you that I shall be worthy of her.’ And so the king takes the prince’s word at face value, and he has the prince brought to the room with the lavish cushions and fine carpets, the food and the low flicker of soft candlelight.
“As the prince settles into the cushions, another beautiful dancer enters the room and she begins to sway to the low, slow music.
“The prince is transfixed, but unlike his brother, he sees the temptation and he is determined that he will resist. She dances for him, all curves, and long smoky stares, and smiles of invitation. She bats her eyelashes, but he blinks slowly and looks away. When she sinks onto his lap and grinds upon him, he does not engage.
“She tries to feed him but he brushes her hand away. When offers him wine, he will not drink. All of her charm is hot and beating, ready for him, but he is indifferent.”
“What happens?” Alexa asks. Her breath is deep and she’s swept along on the moment, pulling herself onward on a wave of pleasure.
“A second dancer enters the room.” I am working now to get the words out. They roll like gravel from my lips, as my voice sinks, gritty with my own desire. The picture in my mind distracts me. My beautiful Alexa, stretching and flexing under her soft covers, biting her lip and pressing my voice to her ear. A sigh seeps through my teeth. I hear her sigh in response.
“The second girl is dark. Slender and sinuous. She dances with the first girl. They gasp as they touch each other. Then themselves. They dance close, and closer, and eventually they sink down into the cushions on either side of him. The first dancer breathes on his neck and his chest, her eyes flicking up into his. The second dancer runs a hand down his thigh and leans to whisper into his ear, ‘No-one will know.’”
Alexa gasps.
“And the prince’s resolve crumbles away.”
I hear a shake in Alexa’s soft, stifled moan.
“Like a wind that finally slams open a fastened door, like a lake bursting through a dam, the handsome prince sweeps the two girls vigorously into his arms. Their eager fingers and lips and tongues find each other’s heat and need. The three spend the night in a wild flurry of kisses and desperate, overheated releases of pleasure.
“The prince samples one dancer and then the other, until the sweetly perfumed air is burdened with the scent of their sweat and their passion. And when he wakes, wrapped in the arms and legs of not one, but two sated beauties, two armed guards step into the room and haul the prince away.”
“Jagger,” she says. There’s a soft moan in her voice that I only ever hear when I’m inside of her. I slip my hand into my boxers and grasp myself in full as I close my eyes and let my head fall back against the pillow.
“Hmm,” I murmur, coaxing her. I know she has to be touching herself, too. “Oh, Alexa. What do I feel on the ends of my fingertips now?”
She gasps, confirming what I already know. The sound becomes one of my favorites the second she makes it. She wants me. It’s a damn good thing I want her just as badly. If only I wasn’t in Seattle…
“See?” I say, whispering the words to her so she pants and moans for me. “I feel everything you feel. I’ve guided your hand and brought you this pleasure.” Then, to drive the point home, I tell her, “I’m there with you. I’ve been right there beside you the whole time.”
And yet I never felt further away.