Chapter One
Of all thethings I could be doing the week before Christmas, sitting in a busy airport waiting to find out the status of a flight that already has been delayed several times is near the bottom of the list. All around me, mothers are ready to yank their hair out as their children grow more restless by the minute. Their husbands are trying to calm everyone down, without much success. And then there are the people like me: weary singles who want nothing more than to get to New York so they can be done with the mayhem.
I told Andrew that it was a bad idea to get married so close to the holidays, but my best friend would do just about anything to put a smile on his fiancée’s face. I can’t fault him that, not really, because I was once the exact same way.
“Attention passengers scheduled on flight 2192 to LaGuardia. It appears the weather in New York is quickly deteriorating and we’ve been notified that we’ll be unable to land due to limited visibility. If you’ll please form a single file line at the gate, we’ll do everything we can to get you on the next available flight.” I look up from my phone and feel bad for the flight attendant who looks about as pleased as the one hundred passengers who’ve just been told we’re screwed.
Rather than join the stampede to the front of the line, I linger toward the back, watching the frustrated holiday travelers fight the urge to wrap their hands around the necks of the completely innocent airline staff. Logically, everyone knows the crew has no control over the nor’easter dumping over a foot of snow on the city at the most inopportune time, but that doesn’t change the fact that no one is going anywhere. It’s not that I’m not upset to hear that we won’t be flying out of Reagan Airport tonight, but I’d prefer to put my energy into finding a viable solution to the problem.
It only takes a few minutes tapping away at the screen of my phone to find the answer to my dilemma; if I can’t get to the city by plane, I’ll rent a car and drive. The weather may be crap tonight, but I have a meeting in the morning and I’m not about to be delayed by a little snow.
Truthfully, I’m looking forward to being back in a state where you don’t have to look at the calendar to know what season it is. I’ll never admit it to anyone, not even my best friend who looked at me as if I’d grown a third eye when I announced my plans to move to Phoenix and open my own business, but I miss this side of the country. At first, I thought the restlessness I felt was caused by the uncertainty of this new venture, but the company has grown into a huge success and I still feel lost and alone.
After reserving an SUV that costs almost as much as my entire round-trip flight, I pick up my bags, grateful that I won’t have to sit through the chaos at the gate to figure out how to get to New York on time.
“Are you kidding me?” the frustrated baritone voice stops me in my tracks. It isn’t the man’s frustration, although I can sympathize with the sentiment, there’s something more. I turn around, watching as the man grows more agitated with every click the agent makes on the computer, scrubbing a hand over the scruff covering his strong jaw. “There has to be something sooner than that.”
“I’m sorry, sir. It appears everything through Saturday morning is already booked. You might want to try checking with the other airlines to see if they have anything available.” The young woman shuffles from foot to foot, eyeing the irritated traveler as if waiting for him to snap. I take a few steps closer, ready to jump to the agent’s defense if that should happen. This is the worst time of year to find available seats on any flight, even without Mother Nature throwing a wrench in the works.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” His perfectly styled, jet black hair flops back into place as he scrubs his hands over the top of his head, gripping the back of his neck firmly. With every swallow, I can see his Adam’s apple dip. Whoever he is trying to getting home to see is a lucky woman. Despite how aggravated he is, he’s doing his best to be kind to the agent and he looks like he just walked off the pages of a magazine which means that he’s a double-threat. “There’s really nothing you can do? My sister’s getting married Saturday and she’ll probably chop off my balls if she’s short a groomsman. And that’s only if she’s in a good mood. You don’t want to know what she’ll do to me if she’s as stressed as she has been lately…”
I let out a ragged breath upon hearing that the guy is going home to his sister and not his wife and kids, which even I can admit is insane. It’s also a sign that it’s been far too long since I released the sexual pressure building up in my body. Before moving to Phoenix, it had been easy to call one of my fuck buddies for a night of mutual gratification, but now that I’m thinking about it, I’ve spent the past year with no more company than my hand.
Against my better judgment, I quickly close the distance between us. “Uh, hi, I’m Dominic, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but if you want, I just rented a truck to drive up to New York tonight. There’s plenty of room and it’ll be good to have someone to keep me awake,” I offer. It’s either his eyes or the fact that my long-neglected cock twitches at the way the other man’s face lights up upon hearing that he may not be stuck here after all that tips my world slightly off kilter.
“Are you serious?” the stranger asks. “Fuck man, that’s awesome. Name’s Tony, I can pay for part of the rental and gas.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I laugh, knowing from my recent talks with Andrew how volatile brides can be as the wedding day draws near. He fell in love with Cara because she’s low maintenance and easy-going, but their upcoming nuptials have reduced her to a ranting, stressed out shell of herself. “I have to be in the city for a meeting by ten o’clock tomorrow morning, so this will all get charged to the boss. He won’t know or care if it’s just me or both of us.”
I’m not sure why I fell back on the meeting excuse rather than tell Tony the main purpose of my own trip is for a wedding as well. It would have given us something to talk about on the drive. Then again, it’s a better explanation for why I have no desire to take money from him.
We walk through the terminal, carry-on suitcases in tow. I purposely fall back a few steps, giving me a chance to check out the way Tony’s faded jeans hung from his narrow hips. Tony stops to pull on his sweatshirt before we reach the doors and I nearly run into him because I’m so busy thinking about what it would feel like to dig my fingers into Tony’s broad shoulders. Tony is, without the slightest bit of doubt, one of the most gorgeous men I have seen in a long time. Not that I’ve spent enough time away from work to have a broad sampling of eligible men.
“Excuse me, sir,” a small, breathless voice calls from behind us. “I’m sorry, but do you happen to have room for a couple more people? You see, my friend and I have been planning this trip for a long time and we can’t get refunds if—”
“Erin, what do you think you’re doing?” the girl’s friend shrieks. I wince at the high pitch of her spastic voice. “We said we weren’t going to do anything stupid, and now you’re asking strange men for a ride before we even get to New York!”
Erin jerks out of her friend’s tight grasp, turning her attention back to us. “Sorry about Tracy, she doesn’t understand that we’re about to spend the first half of our Christmas break in a freaking airport in Washington D.C. if we don’t find a ride. So, do you have room or not?”
“You’re being ridiculous,” Tracy hisses. Tony and I lean against the wall, waiting for the girls to get done bickering about the sanity of Erin’s idea. “We can’t just get in a car with them. What if they’re murderers or rapists or something?”
I reach into my back pocket, handing my driver’s license over to the girls. “Look, normally I’d agree with Tracy, that’s your name, right?” I’m speaking more to the mousy girl hiding behind her friend. Erin probably didn’t make the smartest decision, running after a couple of strange men to beg a ride, but these are desperate times. I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing had I been in her shoes. “But right now, she’s right. All flights are already filled through Saturday, and every flight depends on the weather.
“Take a picture of my license and text it to someone so they know who you’re with. The only thing I’d ask is that you cover the license number.” Tracy tries to argue that it won’t be enough if we try to hurt them and I start to lose my patience. “If something happens to you, I assure you, they’ll have no problem finding me without the number. It’s a bit of security for you girls, but I’d prefer to not have a piece of my identity floating around for anyone to try to swipe.”
“Oh, I suppose that makes sense,” Tracy mumbles, snapping a quick picture with her phone. She seems to be relaxing, which is good because I’m not in the mood for her to continue lecturing her friend all the way up the east coast. “I’ll text it to my sister. She’ll be the least likely to kill me for doing something to stupid.”
“What about me? What if you try to kill me?” Tony quips. I stare at him, noticing for the first time that the other man has a gleaming white smile and freaking dimples.
This drive is going to fucking kill me.
I hold my license between two fingers, ignoring the zing I feel when Tony’s skin brushes against mine. “If you really think I’m going to somehow manage to overpower you, then you need the security as well. Honestly, I figured you were big enough to hold your own,” I tease. What started out as a tense and stressful leg of the journey is starting to look like it may not be so bad.
Tony scans the license. He hands it back to me without taking a picture. “Interesting,” he mumbles under his breath as his eyes scan every inch of my body. The way he takes in my appearance makes me feel naked and unsettled.
“What was that?” I ask, fidgeting under his scrutiny. “Thought you wanted to send someone a heads-up that you were riding up the east coast with a strange man.”
“Nah, I just wanted to see if you’d fork it over,” Tony laughs. God, that laugh was something I could listen to all night and not tire of hearing. “Besides, now I know where you live in case I want to stalk you later.”
