“I know this has to be unbearable for you,” I whispered. Please let him open up to me now, I thought. William, let me in.
“The Xanax makes it bearable, but you, Catherine, you help more than you could possibly know.”
“I want to know,” I said. “Maybe talking to me would help.”
His eyes grew tender, and he pulled me into his lap. I could feel the tension in his tightly coiled body, but he seemed to relax slightly when we touched. His hands stroked up my arms to cup my face and then he leaned forward and kissed me gently. I tasted the bourbon again. It had a smooth, smoky flavor that was earthy and elemental, much like the man himself. The sweet kiss deepened when I responded, and he pulled me closer, pressing me against him so we were one. His lips touched mine tenderly, but there was something else there too—something desperate and dark. And something temptingly erotic. My toes curled as my body came alive with desire. I wanted more. More of his mouth, more of his hands, more of everything.
But instead of giving in to temptation, William pulled back and sighed again. “Thank you for coming, Catherine. I know this wasn’t what we had planned for today. It means the world to me that you would drop everything to be with me. And I know I owe you explanations. I promise they’ll come. Soon.” He raked a hand through his hair, closing his eyes briefly in what looked like pain. “It’s such a fucked-up, sordid story,” he said, eyes still closed as though he was seeing it in his mind. “I hope it doesn’t change anything, but I know it might.” His eyes opened and his gaze met mine again. I could tell that whatever this was, it was weighing heavily on him.
“William, I can’t believe…” I started to utter a protest, as I couldn’t think of anything he might reveal that would change the way I felt about him, but he cut me off.
“It can wait. It will take a while to tell you all of it anyway, and now isn’t the time.” He gently set me back on the couch, and I had to resist the urge to climb back into his warm, welcoming lap.
He stood. “As I said, it’s just the pilots and the two of us, no flight attendant. Are you certain I can’t get you something?” But he wasn’t really looking at me as he spoke. Again, he was distracted and so far away.
“I’m really not hungry,” I said again. “Maybe later.” I accepted I wasn’t going to get the answers I wanted right now, but that didn’t silence all the troubling thoughts that were starting to swirl around in my head. I tried to stay focused on William and his needs, as he was so obviously out of sorts. “Why don’t you go lie down?” I suggested. “Relax.”
“That’s a good idea,” he said and started for the bedroom without even a backward glance. I’d never seen him like this. It was fascinating in one sense, but it concerned me too. I waited for William to look back at me, for him to motion for me to follow him into the bedroom—I was hoping to join the Mile High Club, after all—but he opened the door and shut it without a single acknowledgement or invitation to join him. And that was really not like William.
What exactly waited for us in Napa?
Two
I looked around the empty cabin, feeling uneasy. It was a little creepy to be alone on a plane like this and I almost wished Anthony had flown with us. I didn’t like being by myself in the empty cabin, but there wasn’t much I could do at this point. The flight was just over three hours, and I was apparently going to be entertaining myself for most of it. I thought about pulling out my laptop and doing some work, but the idea didn’t appeal. Instead, I grabbed my tablet and my headphones and scrolled through the movies I’d downloaded. I curled up on the sectional, throw pillows tucked around me, and started a movie. After about fifteen minutes, my stomach rumbled and I decided maybe I would have a snack after all.
Leave it to William to stock his plane with the kind of food I’d expect from one of the Michelin-starred restaurants he favored. I spotted the lobster club sandwich and the spring rolls he’d offered, and there was also a cucumber and shrimp salad, Asian beef with noodles, crème brûlée cheesecake with fresh berries, and toffee-covered macadamia nuts. No airplane peanuts for William. There was even popcorn, but it was wasabi ranch flavor, which I’d never tried, and I didn’t want to sample it now. I decided on a fruit salad and a sparkling water and, with another look at the closed bedroom door, returned to my movie.
I’d unwittingly chosen a romantic comedy—or perhaps the choice was more deliberate on the part of my unconscious than I wanted to admit. The story reminded me of how I’d met William outside Willowgrass on the night I’d been scoping out the restaurant for the Chicago Now shoot. One of these days I was going to have to call Jenny Hill and thank her for breaking her wrist so I’d been able to take the assignment. It had turned out to be a lot more than a good career opportunity. I never would have thought that less than a month later, I’d be in love again—with Stormy Eyes, the handsome man I literally fell for that night—and watching a movie on his private jet.