"I don't see a ring. You mentioned an ex?"
"Divorced. You?"
"Never married."
"Girlfriend?" I was dying to know and the liquor was loosening my tongue.
"No. Boyfriend?"
I shook my head. "Not enough time. My friend says-" I cut off my sentence, realizing I was sharing too much. It didn't matter that I would never see this man again once the plane landed in Bozeman. It didn't matter how easy he was to talk to. There were some things a girl just didn't share. Like the fact that I needed wild and crazy monkey sex up against a wall and at least five orgasms.
"Your friend says … ?"
I looked at his gorgeous face, his very broad shoulders, the entire package. I could just tell him what Elaine said. I could proposition him, tell him I wanted to have monkey sex with him. He was single, had said I was beautiful. While I doubted we could be in the Mile High Club-the bathroom on this plane was barely big enough for one, let alone two people-we could easily find a hotel near the airport when we landed. I bet he was good, too. Really good. Those hands, the cock that was clearly outlined in his jeans. He could easily rock my world. The words were right there on the tip of my tongue. Are you interested in a one-night stand?
Elaine so would have done it. But I chickened out. Hell, I didn't want to be rejected. Chad had found me lacking. If Jack did, it would be crushing.
"Nothing." How could I get out of this conversation? Bathroom. Every woman needed to powder her nose, even at 35,000 feet. "Um, if you don't mind, could you let me out?" I pointed toward the back of the plane.
Jack unbuckled his seat belt and stood, moving out of the way in the narrow aisle so I could walk to the back of the plane. When I shut the lavatory door behind me, I laughed out loud. How anyone had sex in a space this small was beyond me. It was so tiny and definitely unsanitary. I took a second to look at myself in the mirror, to see what Jack saw. My blond hair was wavy and hit my shoulders, my bangs long and combed off to the side. It was somewhat untamable in the east coast humidity, which wasn't all that great for the corporate look. I'd resigned myself to that a while ago, but I was pleased that the color didn't come from a bottle. I tucked it behind my ears and wiped my fingers beneath my eyes, ensuring my mascara hadn't moved downward.
"You're talking to a hot guy. He's interested in you, regardless of your quirks and insanity. He's not going anywhere so get out there and talk to the man." I stared at myself, then frowned. "Yeah, right. As if he'd be interested in me."
Working my way back down the aisle, I discovered Jack asleep. He had his head tilted back, mouth open slightly. God, what would those full lips feel like on mine? I couldn't keep standing in the aisle and stare, but I didn't want to wake him because he looked completely out. The only way to get to my seat was over him. Putting one hand on the seat back in front of me, I lifted my leg and winced as I stepped over his. God, he was big. I put my foot down on the floor, leaning my weight on it to bring the other one over, but my legs were too short. I'd totally miscalculated and I was stuck straddling his thighs. Oh shit.
Jack startled and shifted his legs, which lifted my toes off the floor. I lost my balance and fell forward, my knee landing on the empty seat next to him, and my bottom landing firmly on his lap. This, along with my little squeak, had his eyes popping open. Instinctively, his hands went to my waist. Being as small as I was, his thumbs brushed the bottom curve of my breasts which were pressed to his chest.
My eyes widened in alarm as I felt the hard length of him at the juncture of my thighs. If the thin barrier of our clothes weren't in the way, that hard length would be sliding through my folds right about now. Naked, I could ride him like this, right here on his lap, my breasts pressed to his chest, his mouth just out of reach. If I just lifted my chin-
Our eyes met, held. I was frozen in his lap, like a frightened rabbit. My brain completely shut down and I couldn't move, couldn't talk. I had no witty comment to smooth over the situation. No. Not me. First in my class on the trial advocacy team, and I couldn't think of a single thing to say. Nope. All I could think about was getting a complete stranger naked. Monkey sex.
His gaze narrowed and was filled with heat and intensity. His pale eyes were a stormy gray. Like the clouds beneath us. I shuddered.
I finally got my voice back. "Oh um, shit." I leaned toward my seat and tried to lift my other leg over, but his hands held me in place. "Sorry, I … um … didn't want to wake you." I knew my face was fifteen shades of red, but there was nothing I could do about it.
He grinned then, easily lifting me so that I could swing my leg over and turn to sit back in my seat.
"Anytime, Catherine, anytime."
I could still feel the squeeze of his hands on my sides, the hot-and very hard-press of him on the backs of my thighs. Mortified, I felt my cheeks burning and I looked everywhere but at him. With fumbling fingers, I put my seat belt on. God, how does someone survive such embarrassment? I had to do something, anything, so I didn't have to talk with him anymore. Elaine had wanted me to throw myself at a man. Well, I'd done it. God, not that I wanted the plane to crash or anything, but I could die of embarrassment right now. Nothing had changed. I sucked at flirting. Always had. Give me a rule book or a procedure manual and I was a genius. But this? Flirting and sex? Yeah. Not so much.
"I … um … I better get back to work." While the words were for Jack, I spoke to the seat back in front of me.
In my periphery, I could see he lifted his chin once in acknowledgement, pressed the button on his chair to go back the measly two inches and closed his eyes once again. I could look at him unaware. He wasn't flustered like I was. He wasn't embarrassed or mortified. It had been nothing to him. I was nothing but an amusement on a delayed flight.
To me, that was the closest I'd probably get to riding a cowboy in this lifetime.
When he shifted in his seat, I turned away, afraid he would open those intense blue eyes and see me staring. After the falling in his lap incident, I couldn't be caught ogling.
Hooking my foot to pull my bag out once again, I spent thirty minutes typing up the remainder of the brief. With Jack sleeping, I was able to forget my blunder and focus, glad that I couldn't get any internet or cell service on the plane. My work insanity was at a minimum, but my to-do list simmered in the back of my mind. I might be in radio silence, but that didn't mean my world wasn't falling down around me. I could only imagine what I'd be in for when I got to Bridgewater.
CHAPTER TWO
JACK
"How was your trip?" Sam asked, tossing his pen onto his desk.
I never could understand how a man could work at a desk all day. But that was my cousin, and it made him happy. I thought of Catherine from the plane and realized she and Sam probably had a lot in common.
"Uneventful." I hung my hat on the coat rack by the door, then settled into one of the chairs in front of his desk. I'd gone to Denver to sell one of the quarter horses. While it hadn't been necessary to meet the buyer in person, sometimes it took a face-to-face to close the deal. The arrangements for transfer from my ranch to the one in Colorado could be handled by phone. "The return flight, though, was anything but."
Sam leaned back in his chair and put his boots up on the antique desk. You can take the boy off the ranch, but can't take the ranch out of the boy. "Did the plane hit another bird?"
"What?" I realized he was referring to a flight a few years ago when, on takeoff, a bird had hit the windshield of the plane and the pilots had aborted the flight. Not fun. I could laugh about it now, but I'd been stuck at a hotel by the Denver airport overnight because of a damn bird. "Shit, no. Thunderstorm this time, long delay, but that's not it. I met someone."
Sam's fair brows drew together and I could practically feel the judgment oozing from his skin. "Oh, yeah? Who's going to be in your bed this time?"
"Don't give me your bullshit, Sam, about having no-strings sex. She's just in town for a few days and looking for a good time. She's from New York. I sat beside her on the plane. Talked with her for awhile. Practically the whole time we were delayed a friend of hers was messaging her, telling her to find a hot cowboy and have some fun."
Was that a grin teasing at the edges of Sam's mouth? "I don't know how you find them, Jack."
"She needs me. Her pussy needs me. I can't just walk away." I sat down in the chair opposite my cousin in his big, fancy lawyer's office and couldn't keep the happy grin off my face. "One, she's sexy as hell. Curvy, blond, and strung up so tight she'll probably pass out the first time I make her come."