light 1244 is jam packed. Travelers, some exhausted, some anxious, fill the seats of the commercial plane. Some are still frantically trying to cram their carry-on luggage into the overhead bins. It’s a tight squeeze to get to my seat, but I manage. Jared is already waiting in the seat beside me, and he’s all smiles as I take my purse from my shoulder and slide it beneath my seat. I’m just about to sit down when someone taps my shoulder.
I turn around to find the stewardess standing there. She has a sweet smile on her face, so I doubt I’m in trouble.
“Excuse me,” she says, voice as sugary and charming as she looks. “I’m pleased to tell you that you’ve been upgraded to first class.”
Jared stands, but the space is so tight he has to stoop. He hovers behind me, offering his support. I smile back at the stewardess and take it as yet another sign that I’m making the right choice. “Both of us?” I ask, gesturing back at Jared.
“Oh, no.” She smiles, professionally. “Just you, ma’am,” the stewardess replies.
“Oh, that’s sweet, but I’m going to stay with my friend, thanks. Can you offer the spot to someone else?” My mood continues to brighten. The trip is already going better than I could have hoped, and I’m so glad I have the chance to share some of my good fortune with a stranger.
“Yes, ma’am.” The stewardess nods. “But are you sure?”
“Positive.”
The stewardess leaves to make her rounds of the cabin. I sink into my seat and stretch my legs as best I can. The cabin doors close as I stretch. The vibration from the engine rumbles through the plane, and I know we’ll be taxiing to the runway shortly.
This is it. I’m on my way. It’s goodbye New York, hello Orlando. Sunny skies, hot weather, and beaches for as far as the eye can see.
And most importantly, space from Jagger. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do.
“That was lucky,” Jared remarks. “I’ve done a fair amount of flying and I’ve never been randomly upgraded to first class.” After a moment, he says, “You should have taken it.”
“And left you back in economy?” I shake my head. “We’re taking the trip together. There’s no way I could do that.”
There’s a glint in his eye as he smiles. “You are sweet.”
“And so are you, to do all of this for me.” Odd, but sweet.
The conversation comes to a natural conclusion. I sit back and listen to the commotion around us. A baby shrieks elsewhere in the cabin as his mother tries to soothe him. There’s the shuffle of people moving, fidgeting, and getting comfortable. Above it all is the white noise of the engine. I close my eyes and take it all in, and it’s not long before I feel the first lurch as the plane starts to taxi toward the runway.
A voice comes on over the tinny speaker system as the plane moves. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Kendrick. On behalf of East Coast Airlines, welcome aboard airline flight 1244 with nonstop service to Atlanta.”
“Here we go,” Jared whispers gleefully. “Won’t be long until we’re in the sky.”
“Our flight time will be two hours and thirty-five minutes. We’ll be cruising at an altitude of thirty-four thousand feet. At this time, if you could help our stewardesses out by making sure your chairs are in an upright position and your tray tables are secured, we’d much appreciate it.”
Check and check. I’m set. The stewardesses make a sweep of the cabin to make sure everyone else is in compliance, and it’s not long before Captain Kendrick’s voice comes on over the speakers again.
“Cabin crew, we are second in priority for take off. Prepare the doors and please take your seats.”
I glance past Jared out the tiny window. The airport is flat and barren, and in the distance I see the plane hangars and aircrafts being serviced. This is my last taste of Jagger. Probably the last time I’m going to have any reason to think of him.
It’s fitting that my last exposure to him is of the very place that’s stolen him away from me. Jagger’s heart belongs to the airfield. It’s never belonged to me.
The plane moves forward to a stop, the engines whine. Then the huge machine rolls forward, accelerating hard. We’er pressed into our seats and gaining speed along the runway. The plane tips upward and the force pushes down on me. There’s a bump and a little lurch and we’re airborne. Out the window the world tilts and zips away. The hangars in the distance grow smaller and smaller as we make our ascent, and it’s not long before I’m looking down on the city I’ve know for so long.
My goodbye to New York isn’t as wonderful as I thought it would be. Instead, I feel pangs of regret that I couldn’t make things work. But Sonya is right — if I’m getting so worked up that I worry about a house having opinions of me, it’s time to get away. Get out of the city and set my head on straight.
The light is dazzling and I ask Jared to lower the window shade as the spires of Manhattan shrink away to a spec on the horizon. My ears pop and I turn my gaze away from the window. Two and a half hours will go by fast. Then, one more flight and it’ll be the start of my whole new life.
One day soon, I won’t feel this upset over leaving Jagger behind. I’ll be whole again. I know it.
I’m accepting my independence as a reality when a voiceinterrupts my thoughts.
“Alexa.”
My fantasies run wild, but it can’t be him. I know it can’t. A lump blocks my throat. My heart leaps. I know that voice. It is Jagger. It can’t be. But I know it is.
Breathless, I spin around, banging my knee against the metal arm rest. Wincing, I look up and come to face Jagger’s dark eyes.
“Won’t you join me in first class?” Jagger asks. His voice is smooth. Effortlessly commanding, even though he asks rather than demanding. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
“J-Jagger,” I stammer. The shock of seeing him here is intense, but I can’t let it win. I need to stick to my guns. “I don’t know how you got here, but it’s not going to change my mind. This is what I need, even if it’s just for a few weeks.”
“A few weeks more is too long to wait to see you.”
“We’ll keep in touch.” The argument sounds hollow now that we’re on the same aircraft, headed to the same place. My heart is pounding. “I’ll see you when I get back.”
“You can see me now,” Jagger says heavily. His voice is thick with emotion. “We’ll have privacy. Upstairs in the first class lounge. It’ll be just you and me.”
I shake my head. My heart bangs against my ribs and my breath is catching, and with every beat it takes it begs me to give Jagger a chance, but my mind clings to my conclusion. I need some time apart.
He’s only come back because he knows I’m serious. When the storm passes and he thinks I’m happy, he’ll be back in the sky on unpredictable tours.
I can’t let myself give in.
Jared stands, awkward in the cramped space. His face is stern. “I think you’re bothering the lady,” he says in a deep voice I don’t recognize. “It’s best if you go.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Jagger’s eyes narrow and he examines Jared with a scrupulous eye. I don’t want a fight. Not now.
“Jagger, this is my friend, Jared.” I tell him. People are starting to stare and I feel their eyes boring through me. “Please don’t cause a scene. He’s helping me, so—”
“Wait, I know you.” His voice thins and hardens. “I recognize you,” Jagger says, his voice darker than I’ve ever heard it before. I have an urge to rise and stand between them, but I’m too slow.
Jagger’s eye are hard. “You came to the house in Brooklyn once.”
Jared lifts his hands. His face pink and filling with bluster. Jagger’s nose point rearer to Jared’s face. “You and your father. You’re realtors.” Jared leans back unsteadily. “You told my father he should sell the house because the block was going to be condemned, and do you know what happened?”
Shocked, I look at Jared. A realtor? “Jagger, you must be mistaken. He’s a barista”
If Jagger hears me, he doesn’t acknowledge what I say. “The property value skyrocketed. And for months, you and your father kept poking, whispering lies to try to get us to sell low.”
Jared’s face has gone tomato red. “N-No.”
“Your father went to jail, didn’t he?” Jagger doesn’t give up. He leans over my seat to encroach on Jared, and Jared shrinks away like he has something to hide.
All of the stories and rumors about the house being haunted, did he make them up? Was his intention to get me to move out so he could try to get his hands on the property? I’m in shock and I don’t know what to believe. Jared had always seemed so nice, but was all of it a ruse?
“The two of you committed fraud, but he was the one who took the fall. And now look what you’re doing, sucking up to Alexa, trying to get into her mind to infect her with your same old lies. Are you going to tell her it’s haunted, too? Or maybe scare her by saying the backyard is an old Indian burial ground?”
My eyes widen. There’s no way Jagger would know that Jared had told me the house had bad energy and it was haunted. I sure as hell didn’t tell him.
Unless Jagger’s making wild accusations, Jared really is a fraud.
Finally I rise from my chair, a million different emotions swirling in my chest. Anger and confusion rise up first and foremost. Was Jared only being so nice to me because he wanted me out of the house? Because he wanted to dissolve my relationship with Jagger so Jagger would associate the house with such negativity he’d sell it?
I tremble with rage, and I’m composing myself to ask Jared for an explanation. There is some simple explanation, surely.
But as I block the space between them, Jared’s eye bulge as he lashes around me at Jagger with a sudden ferocity. I shriek and step back, moving into the aisle. In my haste I back into the chair of a poor man seated across from me.
“Jagger!” I cry as I stumble. I know where my priorities lie, and I know now how foolish it was for me to run away from my problems. I’m afraid that Jagger’s going to be hurt. I’m afraid I’ll never get to tell him how sorry I am.
But I have nothing to worry about. Jared lunged at Jagger.
Jagger’s already got Jared by the collar, and he yanks him over the chair. I’m wide-eyed in awe. Jagger’s body is wound tight beneath his pilot’s uniform, and when he shoves Jared back against the wall of the cabin, I see the raw power in him.
Jared is struggling and lashing out against him like a cornered cobra, but Jagger doesn’t show any signs of weakness. He slams the flat of his hand high on Jared’s chest. Jared’s face is colors up and his arms flail, but uselessly. His face glows red as he draws a foot back to aim a kick at Jagger. Jagger pushes him hard into his seat and draws back a fist.
The fist is clearly a warning, a threat. He isn’t going to hit Jared, if Jared behaves and calms down. A wave like a sigh drifts through the cabin. In that one move I see Jagger commanding a plane. Commanding anything. I want him to command me. Now. I feel it.
Before I know it, the cabin crew have rushed the scene. They’re deferential to Jagger. A man in civilian clothes pulls Jared out from under Jagger’s grip and handcuffs him. An undercover air marshal.
“We’re turning the flight around,” the air marshal says to the stewardess. “Call the captain and get on the phone with air traffic control.”
The rest of the plane is dead silent. I’m still pressed up against the opposite seat, scared and shocked. Breathless. The air marshal removes Jared and takes him to the back of the plane. Jagger’s eyes are a mix of triumph and heat as he looks at me. His voice is firm and makes me tingle from my core.
“Do you understand why I needed to have cameras installed?” Jagger asks.
I nod. God, do I. I can only imagine a man like that slipping in through a window or picking a lock. It makes me shudder.
“Can we talk now, Alexa?” Jagger asks. “Upstairs in the private lounge?”
He holds out a hand. As his fingertips touch my palm, my knees shudder. Talking like rational adults is no part of what I want us to do now. I tremble.
Taking a chance did lead to happiness, just not in a way I’d ever have expected.
Jagger takes me right to the front of the plane, to a set of spiral steps. A cabin crewman waits at the bottom of the steps. As Jagger waves me up the steps, he leans to the crewman. I hear him say quietly, “No-one follows us upstairs.” And he fixed the crewman’s eye. “No-one. Got it?” I can see the attendant struggle to hold a straight face
Up the steps is the private lounge. There are a couple of couches, a small bar with a few stools, though no-one’s there on either side. The deck is empty save for Jagger and me. Tufted benches upholstered in velvet line the walls. Through the windows, all I see is mists of cloud, and a bright, watery blue sky above.
My respect for Jagger swells. He indicates one of the little button stools. I’m too excited to sit still, but I try. This man can appear from who knows where, halfway around the world. He shows on a plane, commands the exclusive, first-class lounge and has it cleared, just for me. He’s done all of this, just for me.
I can only imagine what will come next and I try not to. Any little thought jus makes me hotter and more flustered. The urge to open reach across to him, to grab him, hold him and open right up is almost irresistible. He waits until I’m seated, though I can’t exactly settle. I’m trying not to squirm on the stool but the scent of him, the nearness of him doesn’t make it easy. He looks serious.
“No more bullshit from Executive Privilege,” Jagger tells me. Inside I’m “No more sudden overtime, no more dropping whatever I’m doing to take a call, and no more 3:00AM phone calls.”
“You quit?” I can’t be hearing him right.
“No. But I might as well have after the stunt I just pulled. We were supposed to land in Morocco. And I brought us to New York instead. From here on out it’s either they assign me clear cut flights with no possibility for extensions, or I don’t fly at all. There are other companies who will treat me like gold. I’m ready to make the leap to find them.”
I’m speechless.
“You’re what matters to me, Alexa,” he tells me. The sincerity in Jagger’s voice is full to brimming. He cups my cheek, his palm firm and broad and everything I’d missed so dearly for so long. “Hell, if I never flew again, I wouldn’t mind so much if it meant you stayed in my life. There’s no one else for me. No one. I will keep you safe and happy. It doesn’t matter what it takes.”
This is the Jagger I remember.
“I knew that I almost lost you to find that out,” he says. The rage has gone but, in its place, the steady, burning passion that I remember.
“Do you promise?” I ask. My voice is trembling.
“I promise.” His thumb strokes along my cheekbone.
“How do I know it’s true?”
“You know because I’m telling you.” he says. And he’s right. I feel it. A rush inside me, like floodgates are swinging open.
I close my eyes and press my cheek against his palm. A single touch is all it takes to make me remember it all. Every touch, every kiss, and every late night conversation. How much he means to me.
How much he will always mean to me.
What binds us runs deep. It seeps through my bones and infuses in my muscles. When we’re together, it feels like I’m whole again. The limb I severed off when I said goodbye to him the final time has been reattached.
I’m in love.
In love with Jagger, the world class pilot and expert weaver of not-quite-romances.
Simply, he tells me with that authority he has, “I don’t know if I’ve said enough to tell you that I love you.” My chest feels ready to burst. I’m about to react but he holds up his hand. His eyes are hard. Determined. “I haven’t told you clearly enough.”
He takes my hand. “I can tell because it feels fresh and new in my mouth. I love you, Alexa. More then anything, more than forever. I love you and I want you.”
He guides my face forward. Our lips meet, and he takes the lead. Tears bead in the corners of my eyes from relief, not from sorrow. He’s giving up everything for me. He’s put his career at risk so he can put our life together front and center.
I’m not going to Florida. I can’t. How could I? Why would I?
When I have a man like this, wanting me, needing me to stay. A man who’s prepared to go to such lengths for our relationship. He lifted my hand. As his fingertips touched my palm and a burst of thrill opened inside me.
Pressed against him I need him and he holds me so close, with a tender passion but urgent. His hunger rises though his chest as his pulse beats against my rising breasts. Against the trembling of my stomach, the heat of his stiffening ridge swells and calls to my own twisting, rocking pelvis.
His hands wind in my hair, exploring. He holds my face as we kiss and he pulls me to him. Pressing tighter to him, I lean against the hard, rolling muscles of his chest and draw his trunk to me. My hands grasp and claw, slide down the rails of sinew in his back and my breath escapes as I grab and squeeze on the marvelous hard globes of his ass.
He guides me to a couch. On the way down, Jagger tucks his hand behind my head to cushion my fall. He’s on top of me, but his weight is distributed across the couch. Our thighs brush. I search the liquid pools of his hungry eyes.
His knee is between my legs. Heat sweeps through me. I know where this is going. Jagger is going to take me, mid-flight, up here in the first-class lounge. He’s going to show me how much I mean to him. He’s going to remind me what I’ve missed all this time.
Slowly our lips part and his look is eanest. His body slips down mine as I pant for breath, and pretty soon he’s dragged my jeans down around my knees. Jagger’s knees are on the floor now, and he looked up at my from my pantie line. Dominance burns in his eyes, and when my eyes meet his, they sharpen with desire.
He says nothing as his fingers hook beneath the elastic band of my panties, nor does he speak as he guides them down my thighs. When they’re hooked around my knees, he presses a hot kiss to the inside of my thigh and whispers, “You have no clue how perfect you are.”
His lips meet my thigh again, then move higher. I gasp as he nuzzles against my petals, then once again, my breath trembles when his tongue meets my skin. The nimble tip dances, laps and then presses inward. He traces it along my hood, burrows in until he meets the pearl within. My back rises in a tight arch and my fingers rake through his hair. He chuckles against my body before he lets his tongue caress and stroke.
I’ve almost forgotten the plane, but that’s because I’m soaring sky high inside and out. Jagger lifts me and his tongue propels me, up, up, until I feel like I’m caught in orbit. When I come crashing down, I know I’m going to be bursting in a streak of burning explosions of pleasure like a meteor shower meeting the friction of the atmosphere and surfing as it burns and blazes down from orbit.
My hips twist and sway. I can’t wait.
His tongue trills and flicks. I squirm, unable to keep still. I choke my moans as best I can, but Jagger is skillful and he’s not afraid to let me know it. If he keeps going like this, I’m going to peak from his mouth alone.
“Jagger,” I utter, gripping his hair in my fingers and trying to keep as quiet as I can. My voice trembles and threatens to crack. “Please…”
Jagger looks up at me, his pupils blown wide and even while his mouth is buried between my thighs, I can see the evil glint of his grin. I feel his moan of primal pleasure. My heart skips a hard beat.
His tongue plunges lower, searching, tasting. He waits, watching my eyes beg and plead. Then he enters me. He pushes deep, filling me before he rolls his tongue and pushes upward.
I cry out and jam my forearm in front of my face, biting down as I see stars.
The crackles and blasts of pleasure start to brim and cascade. They spark through my body in trickles and bursts, like fireworks spreading a bloom across a night sky. Then Jagger finds a spot that makes me clench and convulse.
I cry out loud, and in a split second a huge, unstoppable grand finale begins. My whole world lights up as pleasure rockets through me, whistling in my ears and detonating from my core to my nipples, my chest and my brain. Sparks of ecstasy shower my limbs, my chest, my core, and my sex, tumbling and rolling in a set of inevitable quakes.
I rock against him, clenching, arching and clawing, milking that pleasure for all that I can.
All too soon it spills and it’s gone.
Jagger is over me now as my body twitches. He lays across me and I spread my thighs for him instinctively. I’m exhausted but I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. And I don’t. Pleasure like that makes me crave more.
“Alexa.” His voice is hot and lusty in my ear. He drowns in his desire for me. “God, Alexa, seeing you like this…”
The deep rumble of his voice brightens the echoes of those fireworks. I can’t stop my body from quivering. Ripples run through me, my orgasm starts up again from nowhere, stretching on and on. And when the massive head of Jagger’s cock presents at my entrance, the ripples I feel make my moans deepen and the thrills redouble.
I want this. I need it.
“Jagger, please,” I beg. I need to know his touch again. I need to know we’re okay. “I need you. Please, please.”
He silences me, taking a firm, commanding kiss. He will not be denied and I want nothing more than for hm to take me, to fly me how and where he wants. I feel him need me and I need nothing more than that.
I part. I open, trembling. I know how it will be. Still as pierces and reams into me, my eyes and my mouth stretch and my fingers claw at him. When I give into him and let him take me as he will, he pushes into me. Every inch of him feels so huge and stretches me so far, he fills me more than I can believe possible. Exactly as I need. The slow inward pressure is almost too much to bear, and I lift myself to him, needing more.
I need him to fill me so far, so deep and so hard that I’ll lose myself on him. Be nothing but his.
And he obliges.
His pace starts out slow, agonizing, torturing, making me feel every ridge, every hard pulse and all the pent up rage of his need. But that’s only to tease me. It doesn’t take long before he abandons his composure and rocks faster. Harder. Deeper. I gasp against his lips and claw at his back, more lost in every second.
Jagger has chosen me above all else. He wants to give us a second chance.
That’s what I want more than anything, too.
His thrusts grow hard and urgent. The tension in his body change. I kiss him harder and his kisses is deeper in return. We rock faster, harder. He rips and piles into me so fast and so hard, the pleasure becomes pain and the pain becomes dark, unique pleasure.
Then, with a low grunt and a push of his hips, I feel him ready. Knowing it makes me begin to crest, desperate to follow him. To go over with him. I try to pull his ass into me my I can’t keep up. He’s too fast. His rhythm’s too hard. I have to let myself go and be carried by him. Let him fly me. My limbs flail.
I grab and flail and shout his name as he throbs. I know he’s coming and I tumble over a precipice of sensation as he beats mercilessly into me. He swells and throbs, hammers and groans as he lets go and blast into me. Hot, sweet bolts empty against me and fill me with warm love. I roll my hips and welcome him.
It’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to be okay.
We clutch at each other as the tension finds release. Then, wrapped together, we lay entwined on the couch, both of us unwilling to move. His body softens. I watch him in wonder and the light in his eyes makes me melt. We part naturally.
I already want more of him and I dream of the next few hours as we explore the Brooklyn house’s Egyptian cotton bedsheets together.
“Well,” Jagger says once both our hearts have slowed to a normal pace. “The plane is turning for the final approach. Florida it’s not, but damn if we aren’t making the most of this flight.”
“Darn.” I mock disappointment. “I was really looking forward to relaxing on some beaches. What ever am I going to do now?”
“I’ll make sure your luggage is picked out and brought to us. I’ll get us on a flight to take you back home,” he says and with a determined look in his eye, “Where you belong.” A shudder of pleasure ripples through me as he grins and says, “We have a house to explore together.”
“A home to make our own.”
He smiles at me, and it’s one of the most genuine expressions I’ve ever seen. I’m not the only one who’s glad we’re trying. Jagger looks at me like I’m the crowning achievement of his life.
A selfish, indulgent part of me feels like I am.
One more chance. One more opportunity to see if there’s joy or sorrow at the end of this journey. We dress, and Jagger leads me from the airport. We head home.
I know what waits at the end of this story. Jagger’s always so transparent. I see the ending in his eyes.
He loves me. I really know it.
And I’m eager to do everything in my power to prove that I love him, too. Every day.
But, when he tells me again, I still love to hear it.
“Alexa, I love you.”
“And I love you.” I tell him. “Captain Long.”