Chapter 30
Taking Flight
“Will you be all right?” Sebastian said, concern in his eyes. They were sitting across each other in the cabin of the plane waiting for takeoff.
Victoria fastened her seat belt, and tried to brave a smile. “I’ll be fine.”
“We could drive back to L.A. instead if you like.”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head. “That would take us too long —”
“About a day or so.”
“Don’t you have an appointment in the morning?”
“I can cancel it, Victoria. It’s not a big deal.”
“No, really, I’ll be fine.” She smiled wryly. “Maybe I should have had another drink back at the bar.”
Sebastian didn’t reply, although there was something odd about the way he looked at her.
“What is it?” she said.
The intercom bell sounded softly. “Mr. Chase, we’re getting ready for takeoff now,” said the plane captain’s voice over the speakers.
Sebastian pressed a button on his armrest. “Thank you, Captain Moon. How’s the weather looking?”
“Pretty good,” Min Ah Moon replied, her girlish, cheerful voice making her sound considerably younger than her forty-five years. “Clear skies all the way. We should be landing in L.A. well before midnight.”
“Thank you. Please advise the crew we’ll need some privacy for an hour or so.”
“Will do.”
“Thank you,” Victoria said.
“For what?” Sebastian said.
“Well, if I’m going to be a nervous wreck, at least I won’t have an audience.” She gave a shaky laugh, as the plane start to roll down the runway.
“Actually, there may be a way to help you overcome the fear of flying,” he said.
“You mean talking? Okay.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll try anything.”
“Anything?”
“Yeah. What are you doing tomorrow? Your appointment, I mean. Work?”
“Yes, you can say that.” He looked amused. “You?”
“I have a 7 am shift at the coffee shop. Then a birthday dinner for a friend.”
“I’m flying to New York in the afternoon.”
“Oh.” Disappointment formed a lump in her throat. “You travel so much. No wonder you need your own plane.”
“I’m not allowed to fly commercial.”
“You’re not?”
“It’s in the terms of my contract. As CEO of Mattheson, I can’t take commercial flights. It’s a security matter.”
“And here I thought you were just being a jerk to the environment, using up all this jet fuel just to be fancy.” She allowed herself a small nervous smile.
“Aren’t you going to ask me when I’m coming back?”
Did she imagine it, or was he challenging her with his eyes?
“When are you coming back?” Victoria squeezed the armrests of her chair, her panic increasing as the plane accelerated down the runway.
“I’ll be back on Tuesday. What’s your favorite color?”
“What?”
“Don’t think about the plane. Tell me what your favorite color is.”
“Blue,” she replied. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop thinking about how this huge steel machine was about to take to the air and bring them all with it. Nothing between it and the hard ground but miles and miles of air.
Most of all, she thought of how much she wanted him to take her hand in his, and tell her it was going to be okay.
“What’s yours?” she said, almost in a whisper.
“Red.”
Is that a smirk on his face? she wondered through a haze of panic as the plane gently lifted off the runway and flew up into the sky.
***
Sebastian waited as long as he could.
To be precise, he waited until the seatbelt sign was off before he unbuckled his and got on his feet.
“What are you doing?” she murmured, her pale face looking up. He was bent over her, his hands on her armrests behind her elbows.
“I told you there was a way of overcoming your fear of flying.” His breath felt warm on her forehead, and the touch of his wrists on her elbow was comforting.
“I thought ... talking would —”
“Shut up.”
Her pale lips felt cold as he kissed her, but they parted immediately under the pressure of his mouth. He thrust his tongue in deep, hungry for the taste of her.
It had been what — two, three hours? It had been too long since he last kissed her. Too goddamn long since he last savored the sweetness of her on his tongue.
He could hear soft moans escape her throat. His manhood ached with the force of its sudden awakening.
Their tongues entwined in a slow, fierce dance of desperate desire. Her head pressed hard against the back of her chair under the weight of his kiss. He rested a hand on her shoulder, his thumb slowly rubbing the soft flesh below her throat.
When he felt her hands against his chest he stopped moving his lips for a breadth of a second. Was she pushing him away? But her hands didn’t stop moving over his torso. He could feel her palms seeking out every muscle, every ridge of his abs as they moved downward.
With a growl, he reached up to run his fingers in her hair.
“Oh!” Victoria cried out, throwing her head back.
Keeping a firm grip of her hair, Sebastian licked her exposed throat. His mouth traveled down her neck, sucking, kissing, licking. He pressed the edges of his teeth lightly on the base of her neck, letting his tongue press hot, wet circles on her skin.
Victoria eagerly pushed her neck up harder against his mouth. Her legs parted to wrap themselves around his knees.
Her hands had moved down to massage the throbbing, aching bulge between his legs.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” he whispered against her neck. At that moment, he was barely able to keep himself from wrestling her to the ground and tearing her clothes off.
If she tried anything else ...
He felt the button and zipper of his jeans come undone. Her hand slipped inside his boxers.
“Fuck,” he swore as she stroked him.
“Yes,” she gasped. “Please.”
Sebastian fumbled blindly with her seat belt. Once she was unstrapped, he pulled her to her feet and turned her around.
Victoria grasped the back of her chair, positioning her trembling knees on the seat. He encircled one arm around her waist and pressed his body against her back.
“Tell me you want me,” he whispered close to her ear.
“I want you.” She leaned her head toward him until his lips brushed her forehead.
He kissed her temple as his free hand lifted the hem of her dress. He plunged his fingers inside her panties.
“Do you want this?” He rubbed his finger on her slit. She was soaking wet. “Tell me you want this.”
“Yes ... Yes, please.”
Keeping one arm around her waist, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a packet of condoms. By the time he had torn open one plastic and sheathed himself, he was barely able to keep from exploding.
Swearing, he pulled her panties down roughly and bunched her dress up her waist.
“Oh!” she moaned as he pressed his tip against her.
It may have been the scent of her hair, or the way she felt so good in his arms, but an unexpected thought surfaced in his consciousness.
I love you.
The words burned behind his throat. Sebastian ached to say what he knew he had felt for such a long time.
He loved her.
This kind, beautiful, passionate creature in his arms who made him angry, who made him smile, who made him want to believe what he thought he never could again.
“Victoria, I—” he started to say, but she stopped him by slamming her hips back hard. He felt her folds surround the head of his shaft, and his one coherent thought splintered into a million pieces.
***
“Feel better?”
Sebastian’s voice dragged Victoria out of her dreamy haze.
“Hmmm, yes,” she said, smiling. She snuggled closer into his chest. “I think I’m over this fear of flying thing.”
He brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “That’s too bad,” he said. “I was looking forward to helping you through it again.”
“You horny man.” She giggled.
“Woman, you were the one who practically assaulted me.”
“Sorry about that.”
“I didn’t say I hated it.”
“Okay, so I’m not sorry,” Victoria said. “You know, there are, like, seven other seats in this cabin.”
“And?”
“I don’t understand why you’re making me sit on your lap.”
Sebastian patted the side of her rump. “I’m testing the seats.”
“This one took quite a pounding earlier.”
“It did. It’s a very good seat.”
“I hope you had a really good reason to wake me up, mister.”
“Why, were you having a good dream?”
“Yeah. I dreamt my hot boss was kissing me.”
He chuckled. “If you think you’re getting a raise just because you called me hot, you’re sadly mistaken, Ms. Slade.”
“Cheapskate.” She yawned.
“Don’t fall asleep on me now. We’re landing in five minutes.”
***
“Who was your first?”
“My first what?”
“You know. The first time you made love. Or fucked. Whatever you old people call it.”
Victoria had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at Sebastian’s expression of fake outrage.
“Old, huh?” he said, narrowing his eyes at her.
“No, seriously. Who was she?”
The flight had landed just half an hour before midnight. They were driving to Victoria’s flat, with Connor behind the wheel.
Sebastian leaned back in his seat. “Lupe Gomez,” he said. He said her name slowly, deliberately. As if pulling it out of a long-buried memory. “She was the niece of our ranch foreman, Isidro.” He grinned. “He practically raised me. He taught me to cook.”
“Yeah?”
“I was fourteen, she was sixteen. She was gorgeous and smart. I worshipped her like a goddess. We dated in secret.”
“You did not.”
“I swear. My dad wouldn’t have approved, and Isidro would have killed me. We dated for a year, until she left for college.”
“She went to college at seventeen?”
“Lupe was accelerated in grade school.”
“Impressive. Did you ever see her again?”
“Sometimes we’re both at Isidro’s place for the holidays. He’s retired now. She works as an attorney in Austin. I heard she made senior partner this year.”
“Wow.”
“Your turn,” he said, gently brushing a fingertip under her chin.
“Tommy Misner. We were seventeen. We’d been best friends since freshman year, before we started dating.” Victoria wrinkled her nose. “After a couple of times, we decided we were better off as friends.”
“That bad?”
“No, it was... good. I just didn’t hear any angels singing, you know?” She yawned, feeling a deep peace settle around her.
***
Victoria felt something rough on her forehead. She opened her eyes and lifted her head, wondering why her pillow was —
“Sebastian?” she croaked. Looking down, she realized she had been leaning on his chest. Sleeping. She glanced around her. They were parked right in front of her apartment building. The morning sunlight filtered through the tinted windows of the Mercedes.
Morning.
“I promised you I’d get you home by midnight,” Sebastian said. “It’s not my fault you wouldn’t get out of the car.”
“Oh no. Did I fall asleep?” She vaguely registered the fact that he still had his arm around her. “We were in the car all night?”
He pulled her close. “You look so cute when you sleep. I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Sorry.” She smiled, resting her head back on his chest. “Where’s Connor?”
“I sent him to get coffee down the street. I tried to make him go home, but he refused. He takes his bodyguard duties quite seriously.”
“Oh.”
They let the silence stretch for a minute.
“I like you,” she said. “Will you be my boyfriend?”
There was no reply for what seemed an eternity. Victoria wondered if there was any way she could bolt out of the car and sprint up her apartment before her embarrassment could catch up with her.
But she heard him exhale, and realized he’d been holding his breath.
“I’ll be anything you want,” Sebastian said, and kissed her forehead.
“Really?” she said, blinking. “I thought you didn’t do relationships?”
“Are you trying to make me change my mind?”
“No.” She smiled.
“My flight to New York is at 2pm. We can have lunch before we leave.”
“I can’t go.”
“Has anyone ever told you you’re a terrible girlfriend?”
She slapped his chest lightly. “I have work, remember? And it’s my friend Casey’s birthday dinner tonight. He just broke up with his boyfriend. We’re trying to cheer him up.”
“Fine.” He kissed her lightly on the lips. “There’s a company party on Tuesday night. It will be mostly boring bankers, and my father whom I’d barely spoken to in five years. Be my date?”