Chapter Eighteen
With Bryna’s father out of town for Christmas, she found the excuse she needed to disappear for a week.
“You’re sure that you’re going to be gone the entire Christmas?” Celia asked. “We won’t even see you on Christmas day?”
Bryna sighed. She didn’t want to look too sympathetic or Celia wouldn’t buy it. “Look I just don’t get to spend any quality time with my mother, and since dad is going to be gone the whole time, it seemed like a perfect opportunity. No reason to split time between the house if he isn’t going to be here”
Celia pursed her lips. “Well, of course I want you to have quality time with your mother, but I will miss you dearly, honey. The whole house will miss you.”
“I’m sure.”
Bryna resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She certainly wouldn’t miss her overbearing stepmother or Pace. Especially Pace.
He hadn’t spoken to her since the incident with Jemma’s party, which was fine by her. She didn’t ever want to talk to him again if she could help it. She knew that the silent treatment was probably too good to be true. She was sure he was plotting something behind his silence. He wasn’t giving up yet.
It would be nice to get away from the cold shoulder and constant seething.
So, once her Louis Vuitton luggage was packed, she hightailed it out of the house.
About an hour later, after sitting through hellish traffic, she parked her car at Jude’s apartment. Jude let her inside when she showed up at his front door. He took her bags from her, set them down by the coffee table, and then scooped her up in his arms.
“I missed you,” he said into her hair.
She closed her eyes and tightened her grip around his neck. “I missed you, too.”
“Are you all ready to go?”
“Go where?” she asked, looking around the apartment.
“You didn’t think I’d get you all to myself for a week and keep you cooped up in my apartment, did you?”
Well, yeah. She kind of had thought that. It had sounded pretty wonderful. No drama for a whole week. Just Jude.
“I think you’ll like what I have in mind,” he said with a wink.
She arched an eyebrow but didn’t argue. As long as she was with him, then she knew she was going to like whatever he had planned.
Jude had a car waiting for them downstairs, and the driver placed her bags in the trunk. A bottle of champagne chilled in a silver bucket. Jude popped the top and poured them each a glass of the sparkling bubbly.
“To new beginnings,” he said, raising his glass.
She clinked her flute against his and then took a sip. “Is this your new beginning?”
He smirked in an unbelievably charming way. “You’re my new beginning, Bri.”
She didn’t know what to say to something so sweet. Guys weren’t normally like this. They didn’t really get her or know how to treat her. They were just silly boys. With Jude, it was different. She could spend all day wrapped in his arms and feel completely content. Nothing else had ever been like that. She was always so antsy, ready to do something else, anxious to get moving, scheming away in her head. Jude quieted all the noise and let her be.
About half an hour later, they were pulling off of Interstate 10, long before reaching the Santa Monica coastline.
Bryna glanced over at Jude in confusion. Where the hell were they going?
When the small Santa Monica Airport came into view, she was even more confused, not to mention curious. The car drove around and deposited them outside of a large hangar.
Bryna gaped. “What is going on?”
Jude looked smug. “Surprise.”
“Surprise…what?”
The driver opened up her door, and she got out of the car. She was oscillating between shock and excitement.
“Seriously. What is going on?” she asked, as Jude hopped out behind her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and placed a kiss on her temple.
“You asked what was next—a private plane and a trip to Saint Barts.”
She whipped around in his grip. “Tell me you’re joking.”
“I’m not joking.”
Her hand flew to her mouth before she could even try for cool, calm, and collected. Jude was taking her on a private plane to spend the week of Christmas in St. Barts. Shock was definitely winning out.
“You said you take your passport with you everywhere.”
She nodded softly at this. A man who had actually listened and remembered what she had said. She had counted on her own father to come home for Christmas, and he had let her down. Here was Jude, who had cared enough to go out of his way to plan this just for her. She was beyond shocked. She was completely floored and enamored.
“I take it you like it?”
She shook her head and then cracked up laughing. “Oh my God, I can’t believe we’re going away together.”
He leaned down and kissed her hard on the lips. “I said it was a new beginning.”
“You did. There’s only one problem,” she told him.
“What’s that?”
“I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”
His eyes traveled the length of her body. “Where we’re going, I don’t think you’ll need one.”
She laughed again and gave him that one. She would absolutely need a swimsuit if she was going to be tucked away at a beach resort all break, but she liked his implication.
One thing was very clear. This was going to be the best Christmas ever.
* * *
The private plane had an interior cabin fitted with a plush cream leather sofa, two matching chairs, and a mounted big screen television.
A private attendant in a short blue uniform smiled at them upon their arrival. “Please make yourself comfortable. I’ll be in the galley. Let me know if you need anything. We’ll be taking off shortly,” she said before disappearing.
Bryna took a seat in one of the chairs and checked her cell phone. She had two missed calls and a text message from Celia. Ugh!
Bryna, please let me know when you make it to your mother’s safely. Have a great Christmas. We’ll miss you! Also, Pace says to have a great time.
She groaned at the message. What an overbearing and insufferable human being! She was obviously leaving to go see her mom to get away from her stepfamily. Even if it was all a ruse so that she could go away with Jude, they didn’t have to keep messaging her. Didn’t her stepmother get that?
And Pace! She was fairly certain he had told his mother to send that shit just to irritate her. She wasn’t going to let it bother her. She was on a private jet with Jude, about to leave for St. Barts. Nothing was going to get in her way.
Just got here. All safe. Tell Pace to have fun with Jemma over break.
A confident smile played on her features. If his mother was overbearing with her, then she would surely be that way with Pace. Bryna couldn’t wait for all the questions to be hurled his way.
She looked up from the screen and into Jude’s questioning eyes. She shrugged and stuffed the phone into the pocket of her black skinny jeans. She figured it was Christmas, so it would be safe to actually mention parents without sounding like she was still living at home. “Just my stepmother asking about Christmas…again.”
Jude nodded. “I see, and you don’t want to spend the holiday with them?”
“No,” she answered immediately. “I want to spend the holiday with you. Only you.”
“Good. I want nothing else.”
She smiled as she stood and sauntered over to where he was sitting on the couch, and then she straddled him. Her fingers threaded into his hair, and she dropped her mouth down onto his. This was the most romantic and amazing thing anyone had ever done for her, and all she wanted to do was show her gratitude.
The kiss heated as his hands slid down her sides and around to grab her ass. She started grinding her hips against him as if she were giving him a lap dance right then and there. She groaned into his mouth and then dragged his bottom lip through her teeth.
His hands continued to explore her body, sliding under her black tank top and blue blazer, climbing up her spine, and then moving around to her full breasts. Her whole body responded to the way he cupped and massaged her tits. One finger dipped inside the cup and flicked her nipple, causing her to arch against him.
“Fuck,” he moaned.
Then, he was hoisting her off of him and throwing her down on the couch. Her legs wrapped around his waist as he leaned over her. He kissed his way up her neck as his pelvis thrust against her in the most inviting way. God, she wanted to rip his clothes off.
A soft cough sounded from the back of the plane, and instantly, they both seemed to remember exactly where they were. The plane hadn’t even taken off. They hadn’t even left the city. They would have an audience until they were twenty thousand feet up.
Jude quickly straightened and helped Bryna into a sitting position as the attendant gave them flight instructions. Takeoff was a breeze. Soon, they were flying high on what Jude informed her was a nearly eight-hour flight from Los Angeles. Since it was a private plane, they would get there without any stops, but it would still be the next morning before they arrived.
After getting good use out of the cabin and effectively joining the mile high club, Bryna lay in Jude’s lap with a content sigh.
“This is the life,” she murmured drowsily.
He gently stroked her hair back, and she closed her eyes at the soothing motion.
“It’s one I’m glad you’re in.”
She yawned as she said, “Me…too.”
“Why don’t you try to sleep? I have some work I need to get done anyway.”
“What are you working on?” she asked, peeking up at him.
He gave her the look, the one she had come to associate with things he didn’t want to talk about. She never pushed it. He would tell her when he was ready. Just like she would tell him that she was seventeen…as soon as she wasn’t seventeen anymore. God, why did she have to have a July birthday?
“Nothing. Just go to sleep. When you wake up, we’ll be in paradise.”
She smiled up at him and let the issue slide. All she could think about as she drifted off to sleep to the sound of him clicking away on his laptop was how much she wished she could tell him everything about her.
One day, she wouldn’t have to hide from him the things everyone else already knew about her, but she didn’t think she would be able to share things he only knew about her heart with anyone else. Despite the secrets piled up between them, she felt she was utterly and unequivocally falling for this mysterious man.