“How?” I whispered, not knowing what else to say. I was so confused.
What was he doing here?
The corner of his mouth tilted up attractively. “I know a guy.”
I let out a noise of disbelief. “You know a guy?”
“I know a guy.”
That didn’t clear up my confusion. Caleb was here. Sitting in the seat next to mine. And I had no idea how he’d managed it. But more important for me to know was his reason for being here.
“Why?”
He reached out and took my hand in his, his thumb caressing my knuckles. “Because I can’t regret you for the rest of my life. I won’t.”
Shock, elation, fear, bafflement … I didn’t know what to feel. “What does that mean?”
“It means there is no Calum Scotia in Chicago.” He gestured to my sketches. “Just a Caleb Scott.”
“Oh my God …” I shook my head and squeezed his hand, cursing myself for not having worked that one out.
He grinned unrepentantly.
“Stella?”
Caleb nodded. “I didn’t know how tae do this. I was worried that if I even tried, you wouldn’t give me the time of day. So I remembered the last time I had you trapped.” He chuckled. “You couldn’t escape me on our flights. And Jamie has an exhibition in Chicago this week. I called Stella tae see if she’d help me and she agreed. She gave me your identification details and I booked us on the flight together. She came up with the Calum Scotia stuff.”
“I’m going to kill her.” I thought my heart might pound right out of my chest.
He tugged on my hand, his eyes darkening. “Does that mean you aren’t willing tae give me another chance?”
Hope began to build, swelling inside of me until I felt uncomfortably stretched by it. It was at once a wonderful and horrifying feeling. “Is this real?”
Turning toward me, Caleb took hold of my other hand and brought them both to his chest. I could feel his heart banging hard and fast against my palm. “I want tae be with you, Ava. Do you still want tae be with me?”
There was a part of me that whispered I should leave him hanging after the weeks of hell he’d put me through, but staring into his face—a face I loved—I couldn’t. “No more running away?”
“No more running away, wee yin. Never from you. And I am sorry I ever did.”
Recognizing the sincerity in his voice, I slid my hand up to cup his face, to feel the familiar prickle of his stubble beneath my palm, and I reached for him.
He reached back.
Our kiss was deep, tender, and filled with such longing.
It was also entirely inappropriate for the plane, but I didn’t care.
When we broke apart, we panted softly against each other’s mouths, and I felt tears of joy sting my eyes. “Is this really happening?”
“It’s really happening.”
“You hate flying,” I murmured randomly.
“Aye. But I have you tae distract me.”
Despite the euphoria and relief flooding me, my insides still felt shaky with uncertainty. Caleb seemed to sense it, pressing soft kisses along my jaw until he reached my ear, where he whispered, “You’re mine forever now, wee yin.”
I fought back the tears his words incited and tightened my hold on him. “And you’re mine.”
He drew back to look me deep in the eye and he nodded.
He was mine.
I smiled. Big and happy and I was rewarded with his grin. I touched my fingers to his lips and whispered, “You should do that more.”
“I have a feeling I’ll be doing it a lot more from now on.”
We gazed at each other, taking in every little detail of each other’s face, but the moment was broken when the flight attendant asked us if we’d like a drink. I asked for two glasses of champagne and made Caleb clink glass to glass. “We’re celebrating.”
“I can think of a better way tae celebrate than this.”
“Oh?” I knew that look on his face. He was going to say something dirty and I was going to pretend to be appalled all while he made my girly parts tingle.
His gaze smoldered. “We could join the mile high club.”
I glanced over at the curtain that hid the bathroom and galley. “Are you kidding?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“We can’t.” Everyone would hear us.
“Who is going tae know,” he whispered. “Hidden behind the curtain, everyone will think I’m just waiting in line for the loo. Instead I’ll be inside it with you. While you come very, very hard but very, very quietly.”
He reached out to put his hand on my knee and he caressed it, his palm pushing the hem of my skirt up slightly.
“I need you, Ava.”
All cheekiness had faded from his voice, leaving just raw, serious need.
“We shouldn’t.”
Hearing the change from “can’t” to “shouldn’t,” Caleb’s expression tightened. “We should.” His fingers slid between the gap between my knees, caressing my inner thigh, and my belly tightened.
“Caleb,” I whispered.
He leaned over to whisper in my ear, “One way or another I need you. Here or in there?”
I pushed away his hand, even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. “In there,” I said shakily, my pulse rocketing at the idea of having sex in the bathroom of an airplane. I didn’t think the mile-high club was actually a thing!
Not too long later the flight attendant took away our glasses and the announcement came over that we were readying for takeoff.
Seeing Caleb tense, I reached for his hand again, bringing his attention back to me and not the plane. “I saw you with Jen,” I said, knowing the controversial subject would definitely take his mind off everything but us.
Sure enough, he scowled. “Jamie told me. And I told you that there’s nothing between me and Jen. There was a whole bunch of us from the office in that bar. Jen just …”
“She squeezed her way in beside you, huh?” I tried to suppress my grin at his agitated expression.
“She’s a pain in the arse.”
I chuckled. “I’m sorry I got jealous.”
“I’m not.” His gazed moved lovingly over my face. “I wanted you back as soon as you walked away from me in the park. But I thought I didn’t deserve you for making you feel like you weren’t worth the risk. I fought with myself for two weeks and then when Jamie told me how you reacted tae seeing me, I knew it was now or never. There was a window between you loving me and resenting me and I couldn’t miss it.”
“Leo is just a friend,” I replied, thinking it best to clear that up too. “We bumped into each other that day at the park. That’s all that was.”
The muscle in his jaw popped as he clenched his teeth, his hold on my hand tightening a little too much. I squeezed it and he loosened his grip. “I dinnae like the way he looks at you.”
“Just friends,” I repeated. Then I laughed, suddenly remembering our first time on a plane together. “I never would have imagined us being here right now that first time flying from Arizona to Chicago.”
“No, me neither. But I was thinking about getting you into bed.”
“I never would have guessed that. You were so mean.”
“Hey, you were mean back.” His lips twitched, eyes dancing with mirth. “It only made me want you more. When you got up to go to the bathroom, I imagined following you in there.” His lips brushed my ear again as he said in that low, sexy voice of his, “I imagined you pressed up against the sink, your back tae me.”
My breath stuttered. “Is that what you’re going to do to me?”
I felt him shake his head before he drew back to look deep into my eyes. “I need tae look at you when we’re in there. You’re not just some sexy stranger now. You’re Ava.”
Suddenly the beep of the seat belt sign drew us out of our bubble and we realized we were up in the air. We shared a smile.
“You’re so very good at distracting me, wee yin.” He caressed my lower lip with his thumb.