CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

HAYDEN

Lydia smiled as I sat next to her.

“I could look at you all day.”

I leaned over taking her lips. “Me to baby.”

Lydia eyes shot up toward Arodia, retrieving the water from her hand. “Thank you.”

Arodia placed a glass of water in front of me then placed the mugs of coffee on the table across from us.

“Thank you.”

“You are welcome Ms. Carmichael and Mr. Gaster,” she stated patting my shoulder.

Lydia stared at me after Arodia walked away.

“What?”

She folded her arms. “You better get to talking!”

I exhaled. “We flirted and things happened. I had sex with her six months ago. I forgot to change flight attendants.”

“Hayden, you were going to hide it from me? That’s how you were going to start our relationship.”

I smiled brightly. Sitting our drinks aside, I pulled her into my lap.

“Hayden, what are you doing?”

“Showing you only you matter.” I stared up into her beautiful eyes. My heart skipped a beat.

She’s slowly making me this mush of a man.

“I had a talk with Arodia. I apologized for getting carried away with her. She told me it was mutual. She said she couldn’t believe a woman is on a trip with me. She told me I was in love.”

Lydia blushed. “Hayden, but you’re not though.”

“I don’t want this special time to end. This is the best birthday month by far.” I didn’t want to admit my love for her just yet.

Her stare turned serious as she searched my eyes. “I love being with you too.”

Her lips lightly touched mine. My hands swept over her big ass.

“Hayden,” she moaned.

My tongue pushed past her lips. She was fighting her heart. I feel her holding back.

“Lydia, I don’t want to hurt you.” My fingers swept through her tresses, deepening our kiss.

“Tell me you want us,” I whispered against her lips.

My blues eyes remained on her gray ones. My fingers swept under her sweat shirt, slipping under the underwire of the navy-blue lace bra over her breasts.

“I want to taste you. Will you let me taste you again? I’m not trying to make love to you yet. Baby when I’m your husband that will be the inevitable. Are you wet right now?”

She swallowed hard. “So wet,” she breathed.

My tongue circled her perky brown nipple.

Her worried eyes popped open. “Hayden, you can’t.”

“I’ll stop for now.”

Slowly, she slipped back into her seat. She grabbed her scrunchy, pulling her hair up into a ponytail.

Straightening her clothes, she didn’t say anything for fifteen minutes just stared out the window.

“Hayden, let me see your phone.”

“Why?”

“Go back one year on your phone. I want to see your pics and messages.”

“Lydia, really?”

“Yes, I’ll give you mine too.”

Took me a minute, but I gave her my phone. For an hour, I sat answering her questions about the various pics and conversations I had in the past.

I felt a little uncomfortable, then relaxed. I knew this was her way to see if she could trust me.

“Rachael. What happened to her? She texted you last Saturday wishing you a happy birthday. You replied thank you. Later after midnight she texted asking you what’s up? You didn’t call her.” Her eyes fell on me. Did you go to her house?”

“This is a trick question. No matter how I answer it you won’t be happy.”

“Hayden, just answer.”

“I met you and I was no longer interested in her.”

Lydia laughed.

“Come on Hayden.”

“She was rich and stuck up anyways. Yes, she was getting me over the hump with sex, but I was going to end it with her.”

“Are you willing to wait for me until we are married?”

“Only if we are getting married within three months. We both laughed.

She thought I was kidding. Once I met Lydia no one else mattered. It was like they didn’t exist. My tunnel vision was all Lydia. Even with this ridiculous process of hers I don’t mind.

“What’s your favorite subject?”

“Science and computer science,” she smiled.

“Way to go nerd.”

“That’s right I’m a nerd. I plan to graduate summa cum laude.

“Ambitious, I like that.”

“What was your favorite subject?”

“Money.”

“Hayden.”

“Business and math.”

She smiled. “What is your favorite color?”

“I don’t have a favorite color. If I had to choose I would pick any shade of blue because it brings out my eyes.”

She licked her lips. “Much like that faded blue t-shirt you are wearing. She shook her head, looking away.

“What is your favorite color and what do you like to do in your free time?”

“I love the color purple, pink, and gold, but not together. I love sitting on my balcony people watching. One day, I want to sit on the beach and tan until I’m tired of tanning then tan again,” she laughed.

“It’s settled. Our next trip will include a beautiful beach. Maybe we can visit a beautiful island for our honeymoon.”

She cut her eyes at me. “Hayden, please don’t talk like that. If I had time I would be fine with relaxing in Savannah on Tybee Island or on a beach in Florida. I almost forgot, my father said thank you for tearing me away from my busy life. He said I need to enjoy my twenties,” she smirked.

“Tell him it was no problem. I knew you needed a break.”

“Hayden, what about you?”

“I love to paint. I sometimes lose track of time, painting in my studio.”

“You should get out, paint people interacting in the park or wherever you want.”

“Maybe I will.”

“Do you work out a lot?”

“Yes, two to three times a week.”

“How long do you lay in the tanning bed when you are there?”

“I should have given you a better tour of my condo. I’ll be sure to do so when we return. You can work out right down the hall from my art studio. I do not own a tanning bed. This is my natural complexion. My mother is Caucasian and my father is Italian. My mother’s skin is pale compared to my father’s.”

“Do you speak Italian too?”

“Si, .”

She crossed her legs, glancing out of the window again.

“What’s wrong?”

She stared at me. “Nothing. Yes, beautiful woman, sounds so beautiful in Italian.”

“Do you know any other languages?”

“Yes, Spanish, French and a little Japanese.”

“I can speak Spanish and a little French. Maybe you can teach me Japanese.”

“Watashi wa hansamu o okonau koto ga dekimasu.”

I smiled. “What did you say?”

“I can do that handsome,” she winked.

My dick got hard listening to her speak in Japanese. My mother always told me never judge a book by its cover. If I never looked deeper into who Lydia was I would have missed out on my perfect woman.

She stared at the clouds in the blue sky. “Hayden, do you know what I miss most?”

“What’s that?”

“Going skiing with my parents. We went on our last ski trip when I was fourteen for Christmas. It was right before my mother became ill. It was the best Christmas ever.” Her voice trembled while she spoke.

I knew she was crying. I pulled Lydia into my arms. “Baby, we will create new memories. When we do. I want you to share something about your mother each time.” Her head felt like a weight against my chest. She just let herself go to me. It was the kind of weight I was willing to carry forever.”

“Let’s go into the bedroom and take a nap for a few hours,” I whispered.

She nodded her head. I retrieved tissues from the custom side seat pocket. I wiped her beautiful face dry. The way her heather gray eyes stared into mine made me want to marry her on the spot. Everyone in the world would tell me I am fucking crazy. I don’t care. Lydia is going to be my wife.

Holding Lydia’s hand, I led her into the bedroom in the back of the plane. Arodia awkwardly smiled at me. I locked the bedroom door behind Lydia and me. After removing her shoes, I removed mine. Quietly, I held Lydia in my arms. She studied my face. Her fingers swiped through the single hair hanging in my face intermingling it with the rest of my black hair. Her eyes stared at my lips for a long time. I crushed her lips with mine. A moan escaped her from deep within. I hungered for her taste.