“We have three pilots, and one of the flight attendants is also licensed to fly, although her experience is limited to her father’s crop duster.”
“Arial applicator,” the flight attendant said with a soft chuckle as she set a coffee down in front of him and a bottle ofwater in front of me. “Your lunch will be ready shortly. Is there anything else I can get you in the meantime?”
I smiled at the attractive woman and shook my head. Locke finally looked up and met her eye, giving her a warm look that made me want to claw her eyes out. “Thank you, Kayla. We’re all set.”
She made her way forward and disappeared behind the galley wall. I shot Locke a look.
“What?” he asked.
I tilted my chin in the flight attendant’s direction, then toward him, before lifting my eyebrows in question.You and her?
His forehead crinkled in confusion before smoothing. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“What? Why is that ridiculous?” I lowered my voice. “She’s beautiful.”
He nodded and responded in the same lowered voice. “Yes. She is. She’s also married to one of my pilots. And even if she wasn’t, I don’t fuck around with my employees.”
I lifted my eyebrow again and grinned. “Aren’t I one of your employees?”
He narrowed his eyes at me and gave me a slow up-down, which made his eyes darken. Then he turned back to the laptop, muttering, “Regrettably.”
I snorted a laugh and glanced out the window at the ocean visible below us. The sun sparkled off the water in a blurry haze, making it look warmer than it was. We’d left the city on a beautiful, clear day, but it had still been cold as fuck. Thankfully, the forecast for Maiori was sun-warm and clear. Exactly what I needed.
“Surely you can find a way to occupy yourself,” Locke said.
“Was I complaining?”
“You’re fidgeting.”
I studied him, unreasonably entertained by the fact that he was so aware of me. “Maybe I’m pent-up.”
His eyes lifted from his screen again to pin me in place. “Maybe you need to go take care of that in private.”
I grinned. “Maybe I could help you while helping myself.”
The stern look on his face didn’t change, but the skin above his collar turned pink.Bingo.
His voice was slow and deliberate. “Maybe you need to stop distracting me and let me work.”
I shrugged and stood up, making a production of stretching so that my shirt rode up right at his eye level. He tried not to look.
He failed.
“Okay, then,” I said cheerfully before heading back to the rear lavatory.
Before I got there, I heard the door to the rear section of the plane close behind me.
I turned to find Locke standing inside the closed door with his arms crossed in front of his chest. This section of the plane had two long sofas on each side that could clearly fold down into a giant bed to make it a bedroom. A stack of luxurious bedding sat neatly folded on one end of the sofa to my right, the sun warming a fat stripe across it.
“Did you need to use the bathroom, too?” I asked innocently.
He didn’t say anything, simply crooked his finger at me and then pointed to the ground at his feet. The muscles in my stomach tightened with heat, and blood pooled low in my groin.
“Oh. You…” I swallowed. “You need a little help after all?”
“Stop talking.”
“Stop fidgeting. Stop talking. So, so bossy,” I said mock-sadly, even as I moved up the aisle to stand in front of him.
