A Perfect Ten

I backed her into the bathroom and then stopped short because there was nowhere left to move her. “Damn, these things are small.”



“I know,” she hissed. “This is insane. There’s no way we can fit—”



I picked her up by the waist and set her on the edge of the sink, which barely gave me enough room to enter the bathroom with her. Then I shut the door and almost couldn’t even turn back to face her.



She slapped her hands over her face and began to giggle. “There’s no way,” she finally said. “There’s just...no way. We don’t even have enough room to take our clothes off.”



“Speak for yourself, woman. All I gotta do is unzip.”



“Well, my pants are staying on. I can’t possibly get them off.”



I glanced down at the adorable black skinny pants she was wearing with a pair of boots and a long, swishy top thing. And yeah, there was no way anyone would be flexible enough to remove them in this kind of space.



“Bet I could still make you come through all that cloth,” I decided. I set one hand on the wall beside her head and the other high on her thigh. “We can at least fool around, right?”



Her smile told me she liked that idea, so I leaned in to give her a soft kiss, when someone pounded on the door.



“Sir. Ma’am,” some guy called through the thin door. “This is Jon, your flight attendant. Could you please step out of the bathroom?”



“Oh my God,” Caroline gasped, looking up at me with wide eyes.



I blinked right back before whispering, “Busted.”



Her face flooded with color. “This is so freaking embarrassing.”



Taking her hand, I helped her off the sink. “Don’t worry. I got this.”



She crowded against my back, seeking protection, as I eased open the door and peered out at the scowling dude in the attendant’s uniform. “Sir,” he said so seriously that Caroline had to muffle a giggle against my vertebrae. “There’s a one-person only occupancy limit for each bathroom. You two will have to separate.”



“Yeah, sorry about that,” I apologized. “She was...feeling sick. I was just checking on her.”



Jon narrowed his eyes. “Is that why she can’t stop laughing right now?”



“Well, you know.” I shrugged and flared out a hand. “Upset stomachs make her...hysterical.”



“Oh my God,” Caroline groaned in absolute mortification.



“Sir.” Jon was not amused by my lie. He folded his arms over his chest and glared up at me. “I wasn’t born yesterday. I know exactly what you two were doing. And those kinds of relations are not permitted on this commercial flight.”



“So...you’re saying we should’ve gone with Southwest instead?”



He huffed out an aggravated sound. “This is not the least bit amusing.”



“Oh, come on, man.” I sniffed and lifted my hands. “What’re you really going to do? Throw us in airplane jail?”



Jon puffed out his puny little attendant’s chest and gave me the look. “Sir, we are still close enough to turn this plane around and return you to O’Hare.”



I had a feeling he was bullshitting me. I couldn’t see them turning around just for two horny misbehaving kids, but damn he had his poker face down flat. I gulped, sensing he might just be telling the truth. “Well, shit.”



“Oh my God, no!” Caroline skipped around me and shook her head rapidly. “No, please, you can’t do that to him.” She clasped Jon’s arm desperately. “He’s on his way to an interview. The interview of a lifetime. Please.” She pressed her hand to her chest and drew in a deep breath. “It was my idea. This was all...my idea, and I’m so, so sorry. Just...please don’t do this to him. You can take me back to O’Hare instead. Just me. Not him. I’ll take all the punishment. He just...he has to get to Lake Tahoe.”



When tears filled the edges of her eyelashes, I lost it. “Damn, baby, no.” I pulled her to me and sent asshole Jon a scowl for making her cry.



His eyes bulged with worry as I stroked Caroline’s hair. “Don’t cry, princess. If you can’t go, then I won’t either. This was your first trip across country, your first plane ride. I’m not going anywhere without you.”



She looked up, and one of her hovering tears slid down her cheek. “But your interview.”



“Fuck the interview. My heart wouldn’t be in it if you weren’t there.” I clutched her face and looked deep into her eyes. “You jump, I jump. Right, Rose?”