“Years ago,” he says, “there was a woman. I got wrapped up in her. It was twisted, babe, in ways I don’t wanna talk about. It was not a healthy relationship.”

“Okay,” I say softly, hating that I have to hear this and that he has to tell me. The plane banks, circling wide, and I gaze unseeing at the landscape below.

“Because of that, it took me too long to realize that she’d gotten into some bad shit. She was an addict.”

“Oh, Kosta.”

“She met her dealer in my club. He belonged to the same group as the guy last night.”

“Fuck,” I whisper.

“Yeah. I never countenanced that shit, but in those days I wasn’t as vigilant about keeping it out, had more of a live and let live attitude.” He shakes his head. “My fault. I should have known better, but I was young and stupid.”

“Honey.” I wish I could hold him right now, try to comfort him.

“By the time I woke up to what was going on with her, it was too late. I tried to get her help, but she wouldn’t take it. She overdosed. Found her one day with a needle in her arm.”

“Oh my god. Baby.”

“Everything that happened with her — not just how she died, but the whole fucked-up mess of what we had — put me off relationships. I didn’t want anything like that again, not for myself, and I didn’t want to feel responsible for anyone else’s welfare.”

“I can understand that,” I say quietly.

“It took me a long time to get my head on straight. I was a cynical bastard. Good-time Charlie on the surface, but scrape that off and I wasn’t much fun to be around.”

“Rico … he told me to be careful with you.”

“He was right to warn you,” Kosta says. I see the airport ahead of us, a distant patch getting rapidly larger. “What he doesn’t know is that night you and Cait walked into my club, something changed in me.”

That catches me off-guard. “Really?” I whisper.

“You were so full of light and life. Not to put you on a pedestal, babe, but there was something almost pure about you. I run a classy joint and you seemed too good for it, even in that outrageous outfit you had on.” That makes me blush, but he’s not done. “I couldn’t stand the thought of a bunch of sleazy guys putting the moves on you so I took you upstairs, to keep you near me and to keep you safe. Without even trying, you woke up a part of me I thought was dead forever.”

“Kosta, honey,” I say in a voice choked with emotion.

“You’re kind. You’re smart. You’re sexy as hell. You take my moods and give me sass. You take my cock like you were made for it. When I said you were perfect, carina, I wasn’t kidding, because for me you are.”

“That’s enough.” In about two seconds I’m going to cry all over his jet. “You need to stop talking now.”

His lips twitch. “Gotta land the plane now, babe, so yeah.” After that, his only words are to the control tower until the jet is on the ground and he’s run his final check.

As we’re walking back to his car, he takes my hand. I almost skip along beside him, everything is so right with my world. “Are we going back to your place?” I ask.

“That’s the plan, yeah.” He holds my door, then moves around to the driver’s side. “Why?”

“Because I kind of want to jump you.”

His eyes flash. “Fuckin’ perfect,” he whispers. “Strap in, Blondie; I might break some land speed records.”

My giggle is drowned out by the roar of the engine as the car leaps forward.

* * *

We’re ten miles out of town when it happens. The car’s racing toward the last of the daylight and I’m loving the speed, the Gs pressing me back into my seat. “Knees or no knees,” I shout, “I am going to give you the blow job to end all blow jobs.”

Two point five seconds later, Kosta swerves into a turnout and brakes. Before I have time to be worried, his seatbelt and mine are undone, his seat pushes back away from the steering wheel, his hands are on my hips, and then I’m straddling him and his hand is at the back of my neck, urging my head forward.

Our mouths meet in a heated rush, kissing like it’s our first time, or our last. His hands slide into my hair; mine frame his face. Our concentration is absolute, like the clash of our tongues is guiding the space shuttle to a safe landing and we can’t stop no matter what.

When a hungry moan crawls from my throat into his, we finally come up for air, but we still don’t stop. I’m peppering his face with tiny kisses — on the edge of his mouth, then along his jaw, until I suck his earlobe into my mouth — while his hands go under the sweatshirt and t-shirt and fill themselves with my breasts. He plucks at my nipples, then pinches them, and I latch my mouth onto his again.

I’m wriggling on his lap, trying to grind myself against him, his cock straining against his pants. He breaks the kiss to trail his mouth along my jaw until he nips my earlobe. Electricity surges through me and I growl. Me. Growling at him.

Kosta whips off my tops and tosses them aside, then goes to work on my bra. I suck his upper lip into my mouth, chew on it, then switch to the lower. “There’s no one else like you,” I pant between nibbles. “No one ever.” I suck his tongue into my mouth, doing my best to show him what I want to do to his cock, while my hands get busy with his jeans.

I get distracted when Kosta turns the kiss slow, deep, drugging me with pleasure. “Next time we do this,” he rasps when he finally frees me, “you’re wearin’ a skirt.”

“And no panties,” I agree, and he growls, then groans when I free him and take him in hand. I can’t contain all that he is so I use both hands, the thumb on my upper one rubbing the sensitive ridge under the head. “My beautiful man. I need you, all of you, always.”

When I climb off his lap, he doesn’t stop me, but when I stretch myself across the gap between the seats, he says softly, “Baby.”

“Shh,” I whisper, eyes on the prize. “Let me, honey, please.” I lick him from root to tip, lap up the liquid welling in his slit, then stretch my jaw wide and take him into my mouth.

Ah, glorious. I’ve got one hand cupping his balls, the other squeezing the base of his shaft. I suck him gently, then harder, angling my head to take him deeper, when the moment is shattered by the cold metallic clicks of multiple guns.

It’s so loud that I can’t mistake it, and I freeze, then slowly lift my head. In the fading light, I see half a dozen men around us, all of them armed with large and deadly weapons. “Get out of the car,” one of them says.

Turning my head just as slowly, I look up at Kosta. I love you, I mouth, and then the car door is yanked open and I go from heaven to hell.