Wilde by Abby Brooks
Chapter Twenty
Amy
Leo texts the details of the trip as promised. What I never stopped to consider were the details of those details. Our flight leaves at six-thirty. In the morning.
Which would have been fine…okay fine-ish…if I’d managed to go to sleep at all. All I could think about was what Leo almost said before we were interrupted at Inked. Was he going to tell me he’s falling for me too? Or was he going to let me down easy and bring me back to earth? I had to put that down and focus on the details of the trip. What to pack. What to wear. Only, my mind kept coming back to Leo. Of spending so much time together. Of possibly sharing a hotel room. My mind went round and round and I stayed up, daydreaming about ‘what if’ and ‘why not’ and just how very ready I am to see him naked again.
My alarm jolts me out of sleep. I should be exhausted, but I’m not. Energy courses through me, propelling me from bed, and I stumble into the bathroom and flip on the switch. The unforgiving fluorescent lights above the mirror blink before clicking on and staying lit. Laughing aloud, I take in the consequences of tossing and turning all night. My hair is jacked. With a sigh, I pop in my earbuds, turn on some music, and get to work taming the rat’s nest on my head.
I choose a flowy blue skirt with white polka dots and a slouchy tee for the flight. It’s simple but cute but most importantly? It’s comfortable. With my mind happily shifting my daydreams of the trip from family friendly to X-rated, I change out of my practical undies and into a thong, then say fuck it and put on my prettiest bra too. After all, they say dress for the job you want and apparently, what I want is to find myself naked with Leo Wilde with an E.
Out of time, I shut off the light, grab my bag, and tiptoe downstairs. I peel the front door open wide enough to slip onto the porch, then pull it closed behind me. A minute later, the rumble of the Scarlet Harlot’s exhaust echoes off the houses up the block.
When Leo pulls to a stop at the end of the driveway, I unlatch the passenger door and slide into the seat, depositing my bag by my feet. “Morning, Skips” he says, holding a foam cup that reeks of stale coffee. “It’s too early for any respectable place to be open, but I thought you might appreciate some go-juice. Well, decaf go-juice for you, which kind of defeats the point.”
“You’re a mind reader.” My hand brushes his as I take the cup, sending my nerves on the offensive.
The drive is quiet. Blurs of light flit past my window as I nervously sip my coffee and battle the growing anxiety about the trip. If things are this awkward now, what’s going to happen when we get to the airport…
…on the plane…
…after we land?
What if we’re sharing a room?
What if we aren’t?
You’re being ridiculous. Quit being a coward, bite the bullet, and bring it up. Just turn to him and casually say, “So, about yesterday.”
That’s as solid a plan as any.
“So…” I blurt into the darkness. “Why are we leaving this early?”
Almost, Ames. Almost.
“Fair question.” Leo stifles a yawn. “Turns out this was the only flight that still had two seats available in first class. I guess this airline considers booking nineteen hours before departure to be last minute. Go figure.”
“Wow.” I stare in surprise. “I’ve never flown first class before.”
“Really? Never? I always fly first class. Whenever it’s available.”
The conversation is so surface level, it’s killing me. After spending all night daydreaming about this trip, I’m starting to worry I misread him. That he wasn’t about to tell me I mean something to him too. That he was about to brush me off. But if that’s true, what am I even doing here right now? Why would he invite me to join him?
Just ask, Ames. Just ask what he was about to say before that dude in the beanie interrupted.
“What are we going to do after we land? I assume the show isn’t until later in the evening, so we’ll have some time to kill.”
Not even close.
“You are correct. The day is ours to do with as we please.” From the soft light of the dash, I see a wry smile lift his lips. “Ever been to Tennessee?”
“Are you kidding? I’ve never been east of Kansas.”
“Really? Young Amy and her doting father didn’t do vacations?”
“Sure we did. Camping mostly, with the occasional museum trip and theme park thrown in. But nothing that ever took us east. Dad’s not a big city type of guy.”
In the distance, the Denver skyline emerges from the darkness and Leo changes lanes to follow the signs for Denver International. “Yeah, I hear you. Whenever I think of places like Indiana or Ohio, I stop and question if I want to deal with all that big city hustle.”
“Ha. Ha. Let’s just go with nothing that ever took us east, then.”
“Fair enough.”
Somehow, and I don’t know if it’s down to fate or unbelievable planning, we park in the short-term lot, check in, and pass through security with such precision that we arrive at our gate as they call for first class to board.
After we find our seats and stow our things, we settle in while the rest of the plane boards. I’m so content to be with him, I barely feel the wheels lift off as we climb into the faint light of morning. We chat, the awkwardness of the car ride bleeding away. He asks me to break my sketchbook out of my carry-on and show him my latest drawing. As he compliments my style, I lose myself in the way he looks at me, as if I’m the only other person on the plane. Time stands still while countless acres of farmland pass below.
As our conversation dies away, Leo takes my hand in his, gently stroking my skin with his thumb. “So, about yesterday…”
Look at him, just bringing it up like it’s no big deal. He makes it seem so easy!
I suck in my lips and cautiously meet his eyes. “Yeah, about that…”
“We were interrupted.” He glances at me with a vulnerability that isn’t usual for him.
“We were.” I bob my head slowly while keeping my eyes fixed on his, analyzing every gesture, anticipating where he’s going. “It’s been killing me, Wilde. I don’t want to make this, us, more than we are. Not if that’s not what you want.”
“I’ve been trying to show you that’s exactly what I want. You’re important to me, Skips.” He brings my hand to his mouth and kisses a knuckle. “And I don’t have a lot of experience with that. You’re the first person who makes me feel like it’s okay to be me.” With the cabin lights turned down to accommodate sleepy travelers, whisps of morning sun break through the unshaded portion of my window, bathing his face in gold. His eyes narrow, their hungry intensity practically searing my flesh as they rove my body. “There’s still a lot we need to work out. But I want to work it out. I want this. I want you.”
“I want you too.”
“Kiss me.” His hand searches my thigh as he leans in. Rubbing. Kneading. Exploring. His tone couldn’t be clearer. He isn’t asking. A bomb detonates inside me when our lips touch. My head spins. My core burns. I want him too. So much.
Here.
Now.
Weeks’ worth of fantasies resurface with each brush of his skin against mine. My focus narrows until I can’t see anything beyond him. Acting on instinct, I stand and hastily grab a blanket from the overhead, tossing it across our laps before guiding his hand under the fabric. No further instructions required.
Out of my depth and treading water in the deep end of the pool, I drop my hand under the blanket covering his lap only to be cockblocked by a renegade belt. Leo, on the other hand, seems to know this playbook by memory. His nimble fingers go right to work, tantalizing and titillating with every seductive movement. I want to be smooth and sexy. I want to seem chill and casual about everything that’s happening. Just another early flight across country—nothing to see here—but when he tugs my skirt out of his way and his palm grazes my inner thigh, all bets are off. By the time his hand reaches my panties, competing tides of urgency and need swell and crash inside me.
Frantically, I pull and tug at his belt until it finally loosens enough to snake my hand behind the denim. Jackpot!
My eyes close as his fingers tease their way along the crest of my opening. I gasp, then bite my cheeks to keep myself from shattering the silence of an otherwise quiet flight. My hand clenches around his unbelievably stiff cock as his finger pushes past my folds. Almost immediately an orgasm begins to build. The palm of his hand massages my clit, edging pleasure ever closer until I clench around him, coming harder than I thought possible.
I blink, panting, my hand still wrapped around his dick, eager to return the favor.
“Just a little taste of what’s to come.” Leo slides my hand from his pants and situates himself as the pilot’s voice comes over the intercom, informing the crew to prepare for initial descent into Nashville.
The cabin lights come up. Within a few minutes, the sleepy travelers accompanying us in first class begin to stir and gather their things.
I can’t believe what just happened, I think to myself as I float back down to my body. Or what almost happened. I mean, fooling around under a blanket? On an airplane?
That is not me. At all.
Then again, maybe that’s the kind of thing that’s possible when you focus on during. Not after. When you have the right people in your life to guide you out of your comfort zone.