I grinned back. “That’s awesome. Guess we’ll be sticking to New York for awhile, huh?”
He sighed. “I hope so. So how did it go with Mr. Beautiful?” he asked me with a smile. “You are looking much more chipper this morning than I had thought possible, considering the condition you were in when you left the bar. I assume he kept his promise to be a perfect gentleman last night?” He made the last into a question.
I nodded carefully. “Yes, he was a perfect gentleman last night. He was very sweet, actually. He even washed off my makeup. And he brought me coffee and aspirin this morning.”
Something caught his eye behind me, and I turned, expecting one of the tardy crew members. I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was James. I had left him behind in my room. He had to pass through the lobby in order to leave. But it was still a little shock to see him so soon after what we’d just done.
My eyes traveled unbidden down to the area of his body that I’d just given special attention to. I licked my lower lip. His blue eyes were positively vivid as he stared back at me, striding straight up to me.
He nodded politely to Stephan. They both murmured a good morning. James’s warm hand landed possessively on the nape of my neck. My eyes wandered back down south. His fingers bit harder into my nape, and my eyes shot back up to his.
“Our Buttercup is a handful, Stephan,” he said idly to the other man.
Stephan laughed. “She is that.”
“A fucking perfect handful,” James murmured to me.
Stephan heard him, and laughed harder. “Well, I wouldn’t exactly know about that, but I’ll take your word for it.”
“Walk me to the door, please?” James asked me politely.
I did. He lowered his hand from my neck when we reached the door.
“I’m going to tie you to my bed and take your hymen. I can’t seem to think about anything else,” he told me quietly. “Tell me when I can see you again.”
I swallowed hard. “I’m not sure. I have a twelve hour day tomorrow. We’re doing a turn to DC.”
“What about today?”
I just blinked at him. “I’m flying back to Las Vegas.”
He just nodded as though that was helpful, and left.
The other flight attendants came down in short order, starting with Brenda. She was a solid ten minutes late from our showtime. Melissa and Jake came down a few minutes after that.
We waited another ten minutes before Stephan had to phone headquarters.
“Yes, I’m just making sure that we are sharing an airport shuttle with our pilots this morning,” he murmured into his phone. “Okay, thank you.”
The disheveled looking pilots showed just as he was hanging up his phone. We had already loaded up our bags, so we piled in while the pilots got theirs loaded up.
We rushed through the airport, the entire crew hustling to avoid a delay.
Stephan had braided my hair into one sleek braid in the van, while I applied a minimal amount of makeup at red lights. There was no way I could have done it while the maniac driver was swerving around. Even after years of New York layovers, I had yet to get used to the crazy thing New Yorkers called ‘driving.’
We made it to the gate in record time, and an exasperated gate agent let us onto the jetway. She was plump, middle-aged, and harried looking.
“You guys are borderline late,” she scolded us. “If this flight is delayed, I’m putting down the flight crew as the cause.”
Stephan gave her his most charming smile. “Sweetheart, let’s not be delayed then. Send them down anytime you like. We have the A team working today. We don’t need any prep time at all.”
She smiled back, instantly relieved by his attitude. “That’s what I like to hear. Some flight crews need thirty minutes to prep.”
Stephan gave the Captain a meaningful look. “Well, that ain’t us, right Captain?” he prompted him. Some pilots took forever to prep, too.
Captain Peter nodded, smiling. “Like he said, we’re on our A game today, so send ‘em on down.”
It was a slight gamble. If we were unlucky enough to have any mechanical problems, we would have a plane full of passengers for the delay. But we were hoping for lucky today. It was that or a write-up.
“I’ll start the pre-board beverage service for you and have Jake man the door so you can take inventory in the galley. The caterers have come and gone by now. Hopefully they left us everything we need,” Stephan delved into the liquor cart as he spoke, pulling out glasses.
“Wanna take out a tray of mimosas?” I asked him. “They’re usually a hit in the morning, especially on this flight, and it saves time, since we have twenty-one up here.”