28
Liam
Ty and I boarded the plane together. Mick was on the same flight, but Tara and Kyle were charged with transporting our equipment and would meet us at the location after we had it secured and set up.
I kept watch through my peripheries, stepping right behind Ty, feeling like his personal bodyguard.
Occupational hazard, that feeling that anyone, anywhere, could be the enemy.
Considering that Ivan Blackmore Jr. was our prime suspect at the moment, I didn’t figure he was likely so sophisticated that I needed to be concerned about our immediate safety, but better to let my paranoia reign supreme and keep me overprotective for no reason than to let my guard down and wind up blindsided. That had already happened once, after all.
Ty stuck his bag in the overhead compartment, glancing around uneasily. When I finished putting my own bag up and slid in beside him, I leaned close and whispered, “You’re safe on the plane, Ty.” Although, I could have taken my own advice right about then.
Ty took a breath, snickering. “Sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry about.”
I reached over and rested my hand on his thigh, stroking gently. I could tell everything was starting to catch up with him, especially after we’d dyed his hair.
It had seemed such a simple thing to me, but for Ty, it was evident the experience wasn’t just about his hair, but a symbol of so much more. Even before he’d wound up in this adventure with me, he’d stressed how confused he was about the direction his life was taking. He was a little lost, and certainly, changing yet another thing was only adding to his stress on that front.
Of course, his survival was the most important thing at the moment, and a struggling Ty was better than a dead Ty. I’d tried to relieve some of his stress the night before with a blowjob. Something to take the edge off.
Who knew when next we’d have a chance to mess around, considering it was going to be mostly work and no play once we arrived at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, from where we’d head to Austin.
I put down the armrest between us and worked to find the most comfortable position for myself in the economy seat.
“You should have at least upgraded to economy comfort,” Ty said. “Those are some first-class legs you have there.”
There he went making me laugh again, and as I turned to him, he had that bright smile across his face. His new look with the brown hair threw me for a moment, and I had to admit, even though I hadn’t wanted to make him uneasy, I preferred his dirty-blond locks. Not that the slight adjustment took anything away from his beauty, especially with the way he was glowing in the light flooding in from the window behind him.
“Yeah, well, these legs have been in far more cramped places than this,” I told him.
“So has another appendage of yours,” he quipped, which made me think of the other night when I had a taste of that tight ass. I growled softly, and Ty’s expression shifted to one filled with intensity—determination, even. A promise that we’d return to that at some point.
I pushed the thought away. We had more important matters to tend to.
“Sir, can you please put your seat belt on?” a flight attendant asked, pulling me away from Ty’s expression.
“Oh, yes, of course,” I said, slipping it on.
I continued adjusting while Ty messed around with his screen. “Eh, it’s not working yet. I’m looking forward to watching a movie that isn’t some piece of crap you picked up or Netflix. God knows I’d already watched too much Netflix before all this—”
He stopped, like he was keeping himself from acknowledging the mess we were in. He changed tack, asking, “Wanna watch a movie together?”
“What?”
“We’ll share my earphones. I put in an earbud, you put in an earbud, and we watch it at the same time. You’ve never done that before?”
“I usually watch by myself.”
“It’s more fun to share,” he said, like he was trying to persuade me, and it was working.
“Okay, well, how do we agree on a movie, then?”
“Liam, you sound like you’ve never compromised with another human being in your life.”
“You’re probably right about that, but in fairness to me, I haven’t really found anyone I wanted to compromise with.”
