CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The next morning, during Cordelia’s press conference in the S&W Aviation building’s conference room, Alec sat on her left side, her parents on her right. Flanked by the people who only wanted her happiness, she almost felt ready. Almost felt able to get through it in one solid piece.
Her mother gripped her right hand beneath the table, but Alec made sure the whole world saw her left hand in his on top of the table. He’d kissed her, too, before the press conference officially began, but while there were plenty of journalists and photographers there to take note of their intimacy.
His kiss had been both sweet and hungry…and it had instantly taken her back to the previous night they’d shared in her bed, loving each other between her floral sheets. And then in her shower. And then again in the kitchen when he’d finally started to make dinner.
Still, even after all they’d shared, Cordelia knew the kiss was simply part of their plan to make everyone believe they were a couple to keep the fortune hunters at bay. The way her face flushed at his touch, his kiss, his nearness—all of that was real, however.
They hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep, but she wasn’t tired. Cordelia couldn’t have cared less about rest when the alternative had been so incredible. She wasn’t naïve enough to think things couldn’t have gone weird this morning when they’d woken up tangled in each other. But it hadn’t.
Hot? Yes.
Strange? Thankfully, not in the least.
Especially when Alec had clearly been determined to keep her laughing all morning with one story after another about his and Gordon’s customers and the crazy things they’d done over the years. She’d known what he was doing—that he hadn’t wanted her stewing about the upcoming press conference. And her heart had grown yet another size bigger at how sweet he was. At how many times he’d gone out of his way to help her through a difficult spot.
A glamorous woman from The Westchester Times stood to ask a question, and Cordelia forced her brain back on task. For forty-five minutes she’d answered a rapid string of probing questions about whether she really had been clueless about Gordon all these years, how she was planning to deal with the huge inheritance, if she was going to continue working in her garden store, if she was tempted to buy a chateau in France and cover herself in diamonds and rubies.
Just as she’d planned, she told the truth. But those were the easy questions—about her birth father and her inheritance. Questions about Alec would be much harder to answer, and she couldn’t imagine she’d get away today without addressing their relationship. Especially when the two of them had gone out of their way to act like a couple during the press conference.
“Cordelia,” the journalist said, taking off her glasses as she spoke, “you’ve told us you had no knowledge of Gordon until last week and that you’re planning on giving the bulk of the money to charity. And yet, you’re already in a relationship with Alec Sullivan, Gordon’s business partner. I’m sure you can appreciate how that might not add up.”
Cordelia’s heart was racing as she turned to Alec. “She’s right. We don’t add up, do we?” She knew she had a role to play, one that made sense on paper. But she needed him to know something too. “And yet, you’ve already become one of my best friends.”
He grinned at her. That beautiful smile he gave only to the people he truly cared about—his sister, his brothers, his cousins. And now, her. Then he turned to the journalists and photographers, who were snapping pictures rapid-fire. He was all handsome confidence and barely leashed power as he told them, “I first saw Cordelia standing outside this building a week ago, and even from a distance she made me pause. There was something about her. Something that made me want to look a little closer.” He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to it. “Losing Gordon was a blow. One I’ll be recovering from for a long time. But I can’t regret that he brought Cordelia into my life.”
There were more than a few aah’s and ooh’s from the members of the press. And they weren’t the only ones.
Cordelia would never let her feelings for Alec trap him, and she really did mean everything she’d said to him about not letting sex mess up their friendship. But that didn’t mean she would deny the truth inside her heart either.
She’d barely known him a week. But she already loved him. With everything she was, for everything he was.
Not just because of the beautiful things he’d said.
Not just because of the breathtakingly wonderful way he’d made love to her.
Not just because he’d been there for her again and again.
Cordelia loved him because no one had ever been so careful with her heart, so adamant about treating her right, so dedicated to bringing her blue skies and sunshine even on days when that seemed impossible.
“Do you think Gordon would be surprised by how things turned out?” the reporter asked them both.
Cordelia tried not to let the tears that suddenly welled up fall as she replied, “I wish he was still here so that I could ask him.” But if Gordon had suddenly appeared, she wouldn’t have jumped immediately into asking him questions about his past and why he’d given her up. First and foremost, she would have wanted to thank her birth father for taking such good care of Alec for so long. And for being the father Alec had needed when his own had been too filled with grief to support his son.
It was in that moment that Cordelia suddenly realized that she forgave Gordon for never letting her know who he was. Because Alec had needed Gordon in a way that, honestly, she hadn’t. And he’d helped make Alec the incredible man that he was.
More questions were called out from the crowd, but when Alec stood and helped her to her feet, it was clear that everyone else should do the same. “Thank you for coming,” Alec said, then deliberately drew Cordelia away from the reporters and photographers, blocking her from them not only with his broad shoulders, but also with the sheer power that radiated from him.
“You did great, honey.” Cordelia’s mother pulled her into her arms. “You were so strong. So confident. I couldn’t be prouder of you.”
Her father hugged her too. “Do you want to come and have a cup of tea with us?”
She always loved spending time with her parents, especially when she was feeling a little off kilter. But their lives had already been turned upside down enough by all of this. “I know you’re both missing an important district meeting.” It would do them good to go back to their normal lives. Plus, she knew they’d worry far less about her if she didn’t make a big deal about how drained the press conference had left her. “Thank you for being here for me—” She looked at Alec and amended that. “—for us today. I love you.”
The group hug between the three of them should have felt as good as all the other group hugs they’d shared over the years. Only, this time, it didn’t seem quite right. Because something was missing.
Someone was missing.
She reached out and grabbed Alec’s hand. “Get in here.” A surprised laugh rumbled up from his chest as he was all but tackled by a Langley family hug.
* * *
“Thank God that’s over.” Now that everyone but Alec was gone, Cordelia let herself collapse into her chair. “If I never answer another question about anything again, it will be too soon. I should have planned on having somewhere to hide for the rest of the day.”
“I thought you might feel that way.” He had a glint in his eyes that made her blood heat, even when she felt more wrung out than she could remember ever feeling before. “Do you trust me?”
“Of course I do.” She didn’t even need to think about it.
He took her hand, led her first to his office, where he grabbed a black leather bag, then outside to the hangars. They walked past one jet after another, finally turning into the last hangar, where there was only one plane.
“This is mine. It’s a 1930 Fleet, a two-seat biplane that was used in the military until the end of World War II.”
“Alec, it’s incredible. Like something straight out of a black-and-white movie.” She’d been impressed with the luxurious jets he’d shown her before, but she wanted to run her hands over the biplane’s yellow and blue paint.
She wasn’t surprised that it was a war plane. Of course that would be the aircraft Alec would love best—strong, handsome, and built to keep flying, to keep moving forward, even through a war. Just like he had.
“Thirty seconds in the air,” he said, “and I guarantee you’ll forget all about the press conference.”
Her heart jumped into her throat so fast she nearly choked on her words. “I told you, I get sick in planes. I’d never forgive myself if I barfed in yours.”
He looked utterly unconcerned. “You won’t. Remember what I said about Gordon? He never got motion sick when we were flying my plane. It’s not like being inside a narrow little tube. Flying in a biplane is what flying was meant to be, Cordelia.” He drew her closer and brushed back the hair from her face. “You said you trusted me.”
“I didn’t think you meant about this.” But he was right—she did trust him. And if she could find the nerve, it might actually be a brilliant way to reset her memories of today. Flying in Alec’s biplane would definitely help her to forget all about the press conference. She took a deep breath. “I might need a kiss for courage.”
He didn’t need to be asked twice as he gave her a kiss that left her breathless—and made her need more. She put her hands on either side of his jaw and kissed him back as though they were in her bed again, rather than standing in a hangar about to take flight.
No doubt about it, his mouth on hers was better for quelling her nerves than a shot of tequila. Better for filling her senses than a hundred blooming rose bushes. Better for heating her up than a roaring fire.
“Remember this feeling,” he told her when they finally drew back. “And tell me if you feel the same when you’re up in the air.”
“I won’t.” She already knew that nothing could make her feel this way. This good. This alive.
When he kissed her again, she knew he liked her answer.
* * *
The first time Alec had taken the controls of a plane when he was eighteen had been even better than sex. He’d finally felt free.
He had a healthy respect for the elements—rain and wind, thunder and lightning. And every time he lifted off, every time he soared, he felt a deep appreciation for the wonder of the clouds, the endless sky. Hundreds of flights later, he was still awestruck.
Until last night, he’d never felt awe like that outside of a plane. But from the first moment he’d held Cordelia in his arms, from their very first kiss, she’d sent him flying. Higher than he’d known a woman could ever take him. He hadn’t realized how jaded all the women he’d been with were until her amazing exclamation. And that had been scratching only the surface of her sensuality, from the bed to the shower, and then even the kitchen table.
His entire adult life, he’d held fast to one core rule: Keep everyone at a distance. Gordon had succeeded in getting Alec to trust him after years of constantly proving himself worthy, steady, and sane in every situation.
But for Cordelia? Within minutes of meeting her, he had decided to help her. Within days they were friends. Within a week, lovers.
Introspection had never been high on Alec’s priority list. He preferred to leave the past in the past and keep his focus on forward momentum. So he didn’t want to probe what it was about Cordelia that kept making him break his own previously unbreakable code of conduct. Not only was he faking a relationship and forgetting to hold his cards firmly against his chest, but for the first time ever, he was more in thrall to his passenger than the joy of soaring through the air.
“Oh…Alec.” The wonder in her voice through the headset was big enough to push everything else away. “You were right. This is incredible. It’s not like any other plane I’ve been in. Not like anything I could ever have imagined.”
When he and Cordelia had been making their plans for the press conference, he’d known they’d need a way to release the tension of a situation that only seemed to cage them more tightly with every hour that passed. More sex was a hell of a temptation—and he wasn’t counting that out later today—but only flying had ever worked to completely empty Alec when he was twisted up inside.
He’d also needed to see if he was right, if Cordelia would respond to this flight the same way he did, the same way Gordon always had.
With pure joy.
Her laughter rang beautiful and clear. “I don’t even need a barf bag!”
It felt good to laugh, to shake off everything but this flight—and Cordelia. “Ready for some tricks?” When she didn’t reply, he teased, “Maybe an air show tumble or a loop-the-loop?”
“No!” Her panicked scream made him laugh harder. Soon, she was laughing again too. “You jerk. I almost thought you were serious.”
“Almost?” he teased. “That squeal was pure terror.”
“You’re going to pay for that later.” But he could hear the smile in her voice. And that little hint of wickedness that you wouldn’t guess was there unless you knew her the way he did.
“Is that a threat… or a promise?” He loved hearing her swift intake of breath, wished he could see her skin flush, her pulse jump.
“You’re making my head spin, Alec.”
He was planning on making her head spin a hell of a lot more than this before the day was over. But first, as the airstrip for the Bayport Aerodrome on Long Island came into view, he said, “I’m about to bring us in for our landing.” One he planned to make so smooth that she would barely feel the wheels touch down.
Minutes later, he was helping her unbuckle and climb down from her seat. As soon as they were on the ground, she threw her arms around him. Her legs too. And it was perfectly right, holding on to her like that.
“My God, Alec. I loved it! But you know what I love even more?”
He shouldn’t have wanted her to say his name. Was stunned that the thought had even crossed his mind when he’d sworn his whole life that he wasn’t looking for love. “What?”
Her mouth on his was his answer.