He turned to smile at me, and I had to fight a wince at how much dimmer it was than his usual bright smile. Yeah, getting rid of the asshole clients would make things better for him, but I knew he was missing doing the thing that had defined him for so many years. As happy as he was to be taking care of Syd and the baby-to-be, I didn’t think he was going to be over what he’d lost for a while…if ever.
I stared out at the endless blue sky in front of us, a sight that had always bonded us in the past, and thought back to our time when we were both younger, when I was just discovering the joys of flying.
Thatwas when Kevin was at his best. The man was born to teach, but now he was being forced to give up the role he loved.
“You miss it, don’t you? Teaching?” I asked.
He shrugged. “It’s not an option for me right now. I’m doing what’s best for all of us. Syd and the baby mean more to me than teaching. I’ll get past it.”
“Well, I’m going to see to it that things go a little smoother for you in the future. Sorry you had to deal with such a bad run of passengers.”
He finally turned to give me his full attention as I pulled off the headset and stood up. “Hey. I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful. I really owe you, man. Thanks.”
“Stop,” I insisted. “I oweyou. Knowing you’re up here changes everything for me. I can actually relax.” If I couldn’t be the one at the controls myself, Kevin would be my first choice in the pilot’s seat, any day.
Kevin cracked a smile. “Well, get back there. You’ve got a hell of a traveling partner, if I may say so.”
“Gwen?” I smiled back at him. “Yeah, she’s something.”
I stuffed down my concerns about Kevin’s state of mind and headed back to where Gwen was on her laptop, so engrossed that she didn’t even notice me.
“It’s officially the weekend,” I said. “Ready to stop?”
“Just let me…finish…this…” she muttered, typing rapidly before clicking the mouse with a flourish. “There! All done.” She looked up to meet my eyes with a grin. “Got all my loose ends tied up.”
“Tied up?” I repeated with a smirk. “That’s an interesting idea. One I think we should explore further.”
Gwen raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yup, that and more.”
She brought up her pointer finger and slowly shut her laptop. “Go on.”
I nodded toward the back of the jet. “She’s smaller than what I have at home, but the lavatory is bigger than what you’d find on commercial flights.”
“But…what about Dominic?”
“He’s busy hashing out his schedule because we just lost a flight attendant, and he’s stepping up to fill in until we hire someone else. I told him he’s on-call only for this flight since it’s so short. He won’t leave his jump seat unless I ask for him. Which I won’t. Because I’m about to be occupied making love to the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“In the bathroom?” I grinned as Gwen’s face turned red and her eyes went wide. “I’m sureyou’rea charter member of the Mile-High club, but I’ve never joined,” she said primly.
I leaned closer to her and locked eyes. “I’ll have you know that I have never, in all my years of private aviation,everhad sex on an aircraft.”
“Liar,” she whispered back to me.
“You don’t believe me? Think about it, how did I seem when Bumpy Dan was up there?”
Her mouth twisted as she considered it. “Distracted. Fidgety.”
“Exactly. And how do I seem now that the best pilot in the world is flying us?”
“Um…” she eyed me up and down. “Focused?”
I nodded. “Right. I’m not stressing about weather updates and traffic advisories for a change. All I can think about is something sweet and wet.”
Saying it out loud made my dick strain.
“Oh, so you’ve got peaches on the brain?” Gwen asked, fluttering her lashes at me.
