I WAS SOAKING IN THE TUB after a long nap when the hotel room phone rang. Conveniently, there was a corded phone in the bathroom, and all I had to do was reach over and pick it up.
“I had this dream you were next to me in the bed when I woke up.” Carter’s voice was still raspy from sleep. The sound traveled from the receiver, through my ears and straight down between my legs. “Disappointed when I reached over, and all I got was an empty bed.”
I sunk back down in the tub, leaving only my nipples above the warm water. Between the cool air and Carter’s voice, they were standing firmly erect. I splashed some water to warm them, but it didn’t help. “Are you saying you were dreaming about me?”
“Been dreaming about you since the minute I laid eyes on you at the airport lounge. Although not sure some of the things I’ve been thinking would be called dreams. Fantasies might be more like it.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
I cupped a handful of water and let it drip down onto my nipples as I spoke. “Did you have a good sleep, or did those dreams make it hard to rest?”
“Oh, it definitely made it hard. But I got a few hours shut eye at least. How about you?”
“I slept a little. I was achy from the long flight, so I thought taking a bath might help relax my muscles.”
“You’re in the bath right now?”
“Mmmm-hmmm.”
Carter made a noise that sounded like a groan. “You’re fucking killing me, Perky. I finally got my sail down, and now you tell me you’re lying naked in the bathtub talking to me?”
“It feels so good. You should try it.”
“You don’t have to ask twice. I’ll be right there.”
I laughed. “You have stress induced erectile dysfunction, remember?”
“I’ll show you how dysfunctional my erection is.”
“Be nice. I could have told them you had an STD, you know. Then you’d have trouble getting back in with the sky sluts, even after I’m gone.”
“Sky sluts, huh?”
I sighed. “Let’s talk about something else. I don’t like to think about you like that. You seem…so different when you’re with me.”
“I am different when I’m with you.”
I was quiet for a minute. Can one person be two different people? I didn’t think it was really possible. More than likely, one of the two personalities was an act. I couldn’t even let myself think about that…maybe I wasn’t the one seeing the real Carter.
“You went quiet on me. What are you thinking about?”
“To be honest, I’m wondering which Carter is the real you. The guy who slept on the floor in Rio without being asked because he knew I was uncomfortable. Or the guy who shacks up with a different flight attendant each week.”
“I’m sort of confused about that myself, too. But I know which one I like better. I like myself better when I’m with you. I think you bring out the best in me, Kendall—a side I haven’t seen for a really long time. Kinda forgot that part of me even existed anymore until you got on my plane.”
“I think that’s the sweetest, realest thing anyone’s ever said to me. I like you too, Carter Clynes.”
For the next few minutes, we just listened to each other breathe. Oddly, those minutes relaxed my muscles more than my nap and the warm tub had done combined.
“Are you still up for dancing tonight? I understand if you’re not. You flew a plane for fourteen hours and only took a nap, really.”
“I don’t require much sleep. I’ll be good to go in an hour.”
“I went through my suitcases before. I honestly don’t have much to go out in that covers all the parts that are required to be covered.”
“You have a light jacket?”
“I do.”
“Dress your sexiest. Throw the jacket over you to cover up. Rules don’t apply in licensed clubs, and I’m looking forward to seeing some skin.”
“Okay. Well then skin you shall see, Captain.”
FORGET DUBAI, there was a chance I could get a ticket in Texas with this outfit. I turned to my left, then to my right, modeling my dress in the mirror one last time to make sure all of my important parts were adequately covered. They were…barely. From the front, it looked like a simple little black dress, although it was really, really short. It wasn’t until I turned to the side that you could see that the entire sides were see-through. A strip of sheer fabric about eight inches wide held together the black material and showed off that it was impossible to wear anything at all underneath. Braless wasn’t unusual for me, but going without panties to a dance club was a first. It was why I hadn’t worn the dress even though I’d picked it up at a trunk sale four months ago.
To go with my high-class call girl look, I’d teased my blonde locks to give them extra body and made up my eyes in a smoky purplish gray. There was a fine line between sexy and whore, and I hoped I was teetering on the right side. When Carter knocked, I was suddenly nervous with butterflies.
“One minute!”
I gave myself a last onceover in the mirror and took a deep breath before strutting to the door in my stilettos.
Apparently, slutty was a look Carter really liked. His eyes bulged from their sockets and he cursed under his breath. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. You’re trying to fucking kill me.”
I spun a slow circle to give him the full view. “You like it?”
“You have no bra or underwear on under that thing, do you?”
“There are no sides; you can’t wear any. Is it too much?”
He stayed in the doorway, holding on to both sides so tight that his knuckles turned white. The way he looked at me with such raw intensity made my skin prickle. “You look gorgeous, Kendall. It’s not too much. I just hate the thought of sharing you with anyone else in that outfit.”
“You said you wanted to see skin. So I wore it for you.”
“Thank you. It made my day. Fuck that, it made my year. Now grab your jacket and cover yourself up before I do something that you might not be okay with.”
My coat was on the bed. Slipping it on, I cinched it tight at the waist, and I was glad it fell all the way to my knees. No one could have imagined what little I had on underneath. Carter held the door as I passed, but I stopped to whisper. “I can’t think of anything you’d do that I wouldn’t be okay with.”
CLUB BOUDOIR WAS MORE glamorous than any club I’d ever been in. And that includes the annual girls’ trip I’d taken the last few years to New York City. There was a long roped off line to get in, but Carter surprised me by walking to the front. When he gave his name, we were escorted right inside. He’d reserved a table that came with an expensive bottle of champagne.
“This is beautiful.”
He pulled out my chair. “I’m glad you like it. Because I might not be able to afford dinner for the next few days after this.” He’d said it jokingly, but I knew it had to cost him a small fortune for a bottle of American Dom and no-wait entry. We shared a table full of appetizers and drank the full bottle of champagne while people-watching together. It was so effortless to spend time with Carter, whether I was sitting in our room at Maria Rosa’s or swaying to music in my chair at a swanky club in the middle of ritzy Dubai. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how weird the entire situation was.
“I can’t believe a few days ago a monkey peed on my shoulder at a boarding house and now I’m sitting in a club full of beautiful people drinking champagne with you.”
“Which do you like better?”
“I don’t know. You haven’t shown me your moves yet. Can you dance, Captain Clynes?”
He gulped back the last of the champagne in his glass. “Maybe.”
I stood and offered him my hand. “Show me what you got, hot stuff.”
One brow arched. “Hot stuff?”
The champagne had me feeling no pain. I wrapped my arms around Carter’s neck. “You’re gorgeous, confident, funny, and an airline pilot. The only thing that can make that package any better is if you have rhythm.”
Carter leaned in slowly, brushing his cheek against mine and whispered in my ear while his fingers slowly trailed down the side of my body. “Oh, I have rhythm. But that you’re going to see later in private. I promise.”
When he pulled his head back, my lips were parted and my breathing was labored. I wanted him so damn much, it physically hurt. “We could skip dancing?”
“No way. I’m grinding myself against you out on that dance floor. It’s going to be your foreplay. Because I’m not sure how much you’ll get when I rip this dress off of you later.”
CARTER MOANED INTO MY mouth when I slipped my hand into the back waistband of his pants. We were in a hallway by the bathroom, both of us soaked with sweat from hours of dancing. We’d laughed and danced, swayed to slow songs and grinded to American R&B. Lord, Carter Clynes could dance. The way he moved his hips, pushed his unrelenting erection into me, I could almost come from that alone.
The last ten minutes, though, things had changed. The kissing became more urgent, the need ratcheting up to a level that felt like if we didn’t both have our clothes off in the next few heartbeats, I’d pass out from sex deprivation.
A slow song had just come on again. I didn’t know the words, but Carter sang along at parts, our bodies swaying as we stayed pressed against each other in the privacy of the dark hallway.
“You’re driving me crazy. We need to go,” I said. There was an emergency exit at the end of the corridor. It didn’t matter that we had no idea where it led. All that mattered was that outside was one step closer to us getting back to our hotel. I tugged Carter’s hand. He followed as I pushed the side door open. The fresh air felt so good on my sweaty body, sending tingles everywhere that the air met dampness. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so alive before. Even my skin felt the excitement. Just before the club door was about to close, Carter caught it. “Fuck. I left my credit card with the waiter. I need to close out the tab and grab it. We have to go back inside.”
It was the most incredible summer night. I could smell the salt water in the air, and the light breeze felt so good. The street was quiet and no one was around. “I’ll wait here.”
“No way. I’m not leaving you out here by yourself.”
I slipped my shoes off my feet. “I can’t go back in. You go. Hurry up.” He attempted to protest again, so I wrapped my arms around his waist and leaned up on my tiptoes. “If you don’t hurry…I’m going to start without you.”
Carter groaned. “Don’t move. I’ll be back in two minutes.”
I could still hear the music from inside even after the door closed. Shutting my eyes, I smiled feeling freer and happier than I could ever imagine. Beyonce’s Dangerously in Love came on, and I swayed my body to the music thinking how in tune she and I were. I felt free, even though the man I was falling for was dangerous. Lifting my arms in the air as the chorus came on, I twirled around a few times singing along Dangerously, Dangerously in Love. I was so lost, so happy, so falling for this man, I wasn’t even paying attention to my surroundings. Which is probably why I didn’t notice the police car coming down the road until the sirens were blaring.
THE TRANSLATOR WASN’T making any sense.
“But it wasn’t on the rule card. How can dancing in public be illegal? No one told me? I wasn’t even really dancing. It was more like swaying.”
“It’s considered an act of indecency. Don’t worry, you’ll go in front of the judge, and you’ll plead not guilty. It’s unlikely you’ll receive a sentence of more than ninety days since it’s your first offense.”
“Ninety days! I can’t do ninety days in jail. I didn’t do anything wrong. Where’s Carter? I need Carter. Or my lawyer. Can I call my lawyer in America? He’ll know what to do.”
“After you speak to the judge, you’ll be taken over to the holding facility. They’ll get you settled in and then, in a few days, you can make some calls.”
“No. I can’t. You don’t understand. I didn’t do anything wrong.” My heart was beating out of my chest, and I had a horrible itch on my arm. I kept scratching and scratching, but it just wouldn’t go away. Hives had broken out all over my body just like they did when I was a kid.
This cannot be happening. How can this be happening? It’s insane!
“Miss. You need to calm down. The judge will be very upset if you act like this in his courtroom. The expectation is that you will remain silent unless you are spoken to.” Speak when spoken to. I was not in America anymore.
A little while later, my translator disappeared leaving me alone in a room that reminded me of a bad interrogation scene from CSI. It had no windows, only two chairs and a dirty old table. I wanted to cry, but I was afraid once I started, I’d never be able to stop. The reality of where I was set in. A woman alone in an Arab nation where I’d broken their indecency law. Scared didn’t begin to describe how I felt.
They’d taken my phone, and there was no clock on the wall, so I had no idea how much time had gone by. My head was resting on the table, but it was impossible to fall asleep. Hours after my interpreter left, a uniformed officer wearing a beret and not one, but two holstered guns, came in. He was carrying a plate with a sandwich and threw it in my direction. The dish clanked loudly on the table, and I startled, jumping out of my seat. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t speak English or just pretended not to, but he ignored every question I asked and walked right back out the room.
At some point, I must have dozed off. A different officer slammed the door to wake me. Wiping the drool from my face, I jumped to my feet. “I need to make a phone call.”
“You’ll see the judge now.”
“But I haven’t spoken to my lawyer yet or made a phone call. Don’t I get to do that first?”
Again, I was ignored. Instead, I was handcuffed to a dozen other people and we were led in a straight line down a series of long hallways. Eventually, we came to a door, and we were ushered in. Once inside, I realized the bars on the other side of the room looked out to an empty courtroom. I felt like an animal in a cage about to go on trial for a crime I barely even committed.
A few minutes later, two uniformed officers unlocked the back doors of the courtroom, and people started to fill the galley. I held onto the bars, frantically searching through the people entering. Carter! Thank God.
“Carter!” I raised my hand to wave, yanking up the arm of the person next to me I was still cuffed to, without warning.
He tried to come to me, but one of the guards stopped him from getting that close. “Don’t say anything. I got you a lawyer. She’ll take care of everything.”
I nodded, feeling the first sense of relief since this nightmare had started. Tears started to stream down my face, but I couldn’t even wipe them away without bothering the person next to me. So I just let them fall.
A little while later, court was called into session. A judge wearing an ankle-length, traditional, white Kandura robe with a red and white-checkered headdress draped over his head, took the bench. He spoke fast and furious in Arabic and rarely looked up.
So much was going on at once. The judge would be speaking to one person while two or three others were having side conversations in difference languages—some of which I wasn’t even sure what language they were speaking. I just kept looking back and forth between the front of the courtroom and Carter sitting in the back. It was the first time I saw Carter look anything other than his calm, laid back, confident self. That alone scared the shit out of me.
Eventually, an officer called my name. He uncuffed me from the chain of prisoners and led me into the hallway where a woman wearing a suit was waiting for me. She spoke perfect English, but with a thick Arabic accent. She was also stunningly beautiful.
“When the judge calls your name, I will speak for you. We’re going to plead not guilty. The arresting officer will not show up to give his testimony, and this will upset the judge.”
“What? How do you know the arresting officer will not show up and why do we want to upset the judge?”
She sighed as if I was annoying her. “Because the officer was told not to appear today. And this judge is a stickler for hearing testimony at the initial arraignment. There’s a fifty-fifty chance that it will annoy him so much that he’ll release you to prove a point.”
“What happens if things go in the other direction? What happens if the other fifty percent chance wins out?”
“Then you go to jail for a maximum of thirty days until such time the officer can be located and appear.”
“But…” Before I could object, an officer called my name.
“It’s our turn. Let’s go.”
“Wait…”
“No. We go in now.”
Everything that came next played out before me as if I was watching it from a distance. I was physically present in the courtroom, but my mind was floating somewhere above watching it all play out. I glanced back at Carter before standing next to my lawyer in the front of the court. He was sitting on the edge of his seat and looked as nervous as I felt.
The judge said a few things I didn’t understand, and then my lawyer responded in Arabic. I held my breath watching the judge as he grew angrier and angrier with each stream of words he barked. After a heated debate, the judge picked up his gavel and slammed it down angrily. I jumped from the sound.
“Come with me.” An officer took my elbow and began to lead me out of the courtroom.
“Wait. Wait…What happened?” I asked my lawyer. “What did the judge say?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re free to go. The officer will take you to collect your belongings now.”
CARTER WAS WAITING ON the front steps of the courthouse with my lawyer. My initial reaction was to run and throw my arms around him. But then I remembered that was how I got in trouble in the first place—being indecent in public.
“You okay?” His face was so full of concern.
“I think so.”
He turned to my lawyer. “I don’t know how to thank you, Serine.”
A sly grin crossed her face, and she nodded. “I’m sure you’ll think of something the next time our paths cross on a flight to America, Captain.” She turned to me. “Good luck with your sister. Try to keep her decent from now on.”
I stood with my mouth hanging open as she walked away. “Your sister?”
Carter attempted to explain. “We met a few times on flights. I thought the chances she would help me were better if…”
I put my hand up and stopped him. “I don’t even want to know.”
“I’m so sorry, Kendall. I should never have left you out there by yourself. I should have made you come with me, and this would never have happened.”
“It’s not your fault.”
He tipped his chin toward the parking lot across the street. “I rented a car. Can we get out of here please?”
“God, yes. I need to take a shower so badly and get out of these clothes.”
“Good. I already have your bags. I got housekeeping to open your room. Pretended I lost my key.”
“My bags? Where are we going?”
“Where I should have taken you the first night.”