by Davis, Carla
Some maintenance guys were just clearing away their equipment after washing ‘Make a Wish’ inside and out. They nodded politely to me as I approached the plane.
“We’re all done, Ma’am,” one of them smiled.
The usual day-to-day cleaning of the interior was usually my job. But after she’d been sitting idle for several days, the larger crew was instructed to give the plane a thorough cleaning.
“Thanks,” I replied with a courteous smile.
It was only once they passed me that I began to wonder whether they’d seen something that would reveal what Alex and I had done in there. Again, I felt my cheeks burn. Again, I tried to talk some sense into myself. Even if they did find evidence that someone had had sex, they would have no way of knowing who it had been. Of course, given that I was often the only woman on the plane, they might draw a conclusion, but they could not know for sure. With a nod of confidence in that thought—which I still did not entirely believe—I gripped the handrail and ascended the steel steps that led me into the cabin.
I found the cockpit door open, the pilot leaning against it with a clipboard tightly held in his hand.
“Morning, Melissa,” he said, tapping the end of his ballpoint pen against his bottom teeth.
“Morning,” I quickly replied, heading as fast as possible to the relative safety of the rear of the plane. I pretended to sort through some supplies, checking that we had enough coffee, tea, and other drinks. My rush to get away from him was driven by nothing more than rampant paranoia. Did he know? Was there a way for the cockpit to listen in on what happened in the cabin? Was there a way for him to see what went on in the cabin?
By the time he finished his preflight routine, I was a nervous wreck.
And then things got worse. I heard the quick, energetic footsteps of someone jogging up the airstairs. There was only one person who bounded into the plane with that much energy.
Ducking his tall frame under the entry archway, he appeared in the cabin; all bright, sparkling dark eyes and blinding smile. “Morning, Dan,” he greeted the pilot.
“Hi, Alex,” he replied.
“Morning, Melissa,” my employer called, lifting a hand from one pocket and waving to me across the long plane’s corridor.
“Good morning,” I responded, trying to force a smile and knowing that the attempt was doomed. I hoped he would walk toward me and we could exchange a few quiet words in private.
However, he didn’t move. Instead, he graced me with a broad wink before settling into his usual seat in the front portion of the cabin.
I could not help feeling deflated, but within a moment there were voices and more footsteps on the airstairs. Two of Alex’s colleagues climbed aboard and were instantly making themselves comfortable on the couch next to Alex’s seat.
One of them, Laura, I had met on another trip. She was a senior member of the company’s legal team. She was one of those impossibly thin women, beautiful and tall. I assume she’d had to make a decision between going to law school and becoming a model. The other passenger was a man I hadn’t seen before. He looked no older than twenty-five and had curly brown hair that was long enough to be considered shabby chic. However, he wore a snappy suit and a pair of thick-rimmed glasses that were heavy and constantly being pushed toward the bridge of his nose.
Taking a deep breath and pressing the backs of my fingers to my cheeks in an attempt to chill them off, I walked toward the small group and offered them coffee.
“No thanks, Melinda,” Laura replied, not even looking up from the file she was hunched over.
“M—” I began to correct her.
“It’s Melissa,” Alex interjected on my behalf, leaning forward to slide his jacket off his shoulders. “Oh,” he blurted, “you haven’t met Nathan yet, have you?”
“Umm, no,” I mumbled, turning my face to the messy-haired man and offering him a small smile.
“Nathan, this is Melissa,” Alex continued.
Nathan jumped off the couch and offered me his hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” I responded.
“I’ll have something stronger if you don’t mind,” he continued.
Raising my eyebrows, I peered questioningly at him. “At nine in the morning?” I asked, trying not to sound judgmental.
“I get really nervous about flying,” he replied, still smiling. “It’s just to relax me.”
“Oh,” I nodded, “I see.”
“I’ll have a Bourbon on the rocks. Thanks, hon.”
I seethed silently about the over familiar way he’d addressed me. He might not have meant anything by it; some people are just free and easy with meaningless appellations. “And for you, Alex?” I said, turning to my employer, but not quite meeting his eyes.
He wasn’t looking at me anyway; he was busy setting his laptop on his legs. “I’ll have a cappuccino, please.”
Grateful that the exchange was kept short, I turned my blushing face from the three of them and headed toward the rear of the plane to prepare their drinks.
That morning, Alex and his colleagues had a meeting in Detroit. The flight was a little over an hour, but it seemed much, much longer.
After his scotch, Nathan became chatty and, while Alex and Laura worked silently, he was determined to talk to me. As I pottered in the kitchen area, he propped himself against the bar.
“Hey there,” he began, one hand moving to loosen the knot of his tie. “Wondered if you were getting lonely back here.”
“Umm, no,” I replied. “I’m fine, thanks.”
“Well, I’m lonely up there,” he grinned, the forefinger of his left hand giving his spectacles another brisk shove. “So…” he sighed, drawing the sound out. “How long have you been part of the family?”
“Err,” I hesitated, “only a couple of months.”
“Uh huh,” he nodded. “And has anybody given you a proper welcome?” he asked, the right side of his mouth lifting in a smirk.
It felt distinctly as if he was hitting on me. It sounded distinctly as if he was hitting on me. But I didn’t want to make any assumptions. And, truth be told, I didn’t want to deal with it. I hoped, if I could just ignore the lascivious undertones, he’d simply go away.
My silence didn’t deter him, though. “Maybe we could…?” he suggested, leaning closer. “You know,” he added, grinning.
“Not really,” I responded quickly, bending to pick up a clean dishtowel and focusing my energies on wiping the already clean bar.
“I hear there’s a bedroom back there,” he mumbled. “What do you say?”
Chapter Two
“Excuse me?” I indignantly replied, my eyes angrily flashing up and discovering that Nathan and I were no longer alone.
Alex stood almost directly behind him. His hands were casually dipped in his pockets, but his face was rigid and stern in a way I’d never seen it before. His usually smooth forehead was furrowed with deep lines. His jaw, which had always looked so strong in its definition, suddenly seemed harsh. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Nathan responded, spinning to look at the man by his shoulder. “Melissa and I were just talking.”
“Hmm,” Alex responded, his deep brown eyes moving toward me as if he wanted my interpretation of what had been happening.
I could not hold his gaze, and as my hand automatically went back to rubbing the dishcloth in small circles; my focus dipped to the shiny surface of the bar.
“I think Melissa is wasted,” Nathan continued, oblivious. “She could be doing so much more than just serving drinks and snacks.”
“Yeah,” Alex replied absentmindedly. Even though I couldn’t see him, I could tell his eyes were still on me.
“Yeah,” Nathan echoed. “You seen that ass? Damn, that girl could be offering the executive staff something much more interest than coffee.”
There was a moment of uncomfortable, intense, heavy silence.
“What did you just say?” Alex muttered.<
br />
I looked up, mortified not only by the objectification but by the fact that Nathan had possibly struck on a kernel of truth. Did Alex see me exactly the way Nathan did? Had I just been an additional perk; another luxury of his private plane? Was I anything more than a rich man’s toy?
“I’m just saying,” Nathan replied, shrugging and chuckling. “I think she could provide an additional service.”
Alex moved so fast that I barely saw his hands emerge from his pants pockets. They lunged forward, grasping Nathan by both lapels of his expensive jacket. “Melissa is a member of the company,” he said, his voice low and dangerous as he tugged Nathan toward him. “Now, unless you can treat her with the same respect you would the board members, you’ll need to start looking for another job. Do you understand me?”
Nathan was trembling and laughing nervously. “It’s just…it was just a joke.” He tried to sound easygoing, but he stumbled over his words in panic. “I didn’t mean anything by it, Alex. Jeez, man, calm down.”
Eventually, the color came back to Alex’s knuckles as he released his hold of the squirming man. “I want you to apologize,” he said bluntly.
“I’m sorry,” Nathan mumbled, rolling his shoulders and smoothing his palms over his ruffled lapels.
“Not to me, you idiot,” the taller man sighed. “Apologize to Melissa, and then I suggest you sleep off the booze. It’s not flattering on you.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, this time his head turned begrudgingly toward me.
I chose neither to reply nor acknowledge it. Instead, as Nathan made his way back to his seat at the front of the cabin, my eyes lifted to Alex’s.
“I’m sorry about that,” he softly announced. A small muscle in his jaw flexed; a residue of his anger.
“That’s all right,” I shrugged. “It’s not your fault.”
“If he gives you any more trouble, you will tell me?” he asked, setting his smooth, large palms on the edge of the bar and leaning toward me. I knew what those hands felt like. I knew how strong they were. I knew how gentle they were capable of being. I knew that the memory of their caress was enough to instantly turn my mouth dry.
“Sure,” I nodded.
Suddenly, he visibly relaxed, his pink lips lifting in a small smile and his broad shoulders loosening. “He’s right about one thing, though,” he offhandedly mentioned, inclining his head ever nearer. “You have got an amazing ass,” he whispered.
With shock and some amusement, I tried to stifle a grin. If anyone else had said that, I would have been offended. Something in the way Alex said it made me feel good. Or maybe it was not how it was said, but who had said it. Nevertheless, I tried to affect a slim veneer of displeasure. “What happened to respect?” I asked, keeping my own voice low. Glancing over his shoulder, I could see that Nathan was lying down on the couch while Laura was reading a newspaper.
“You don’t think I respect you?” he replied, chuckling.
“I don’t know,” I told him honestly, the smile fading from my lips.
He sighed, regretfully turning his head over his shoulder to look behind him. By the time his face twisted back to mine, he was biting on the corner of his bottom lip. “If we were alone right now, I would respect the hell out of you,” he joked.
“That’s not quite what I meant,” I replied, sharing a small smile with him. “I suppose…I’ve just been wondering-”
My attempt to speak was cut off by the nasal sound of Dan’s voice coming over the small speakers that embedded in the walls along the length of the cabin. “We’re about to start our decent, so buckle up everyone.”
“What did you want to say?” Alex urged, ignoring the announcement.
“It’s okay,” I sighed, brushing the matter aside. “It doesn’t matter, really.”
“Alex, have you seen this?” Laura asked, getting out of her seat and waving the paper at him.
“Go on,” I encouraged, nodding my head toward the woman behind him.
“We’ll pick this up later,” he promised, with sincere insistence.
I hoped by the time he’d finished with his meeting and got back to the airport that afternoon, he would have forgotten about it. But he hadn’t. Even though nothing was said, I could tell out brief conversation it was still on his mind. He kept looking at me, even when he was supposed to be discussing the legal terms of a contract that had been drawn up during the meeting in Detroit. I tried to maintain my distance, only occasionally interrupting them to ask if they needed anything.
When we’d landed and the three of them got off the plane, I thought I had gotten away with it. Straightening up the cushions and tossing away some of the rubbish that had been left sitting on the coffee table, I prepared to leave, too. However, not two minutes after leaving the plane, Alex jogged back up the steps. He almost collided with Dan, who was on his way out.
“Oops, sorry,” the pilot chuckled, shrugging his black jacket onto his shoulders. “I thought you’d left already.”
“Yeah,” Alex nodded. “I forgot something.”
With a pleasant nod, Dan stepped around Alex and made his way down the noisy metal steps.
Standing just inside the cabin, Alex looked at me. Nothing was spoken; we both listened to the soft clump, clump, clump of footsteps until we could no longer hear them.
“What did you want to say earlier?” he asked, tossing his briefcase into a nearby seat and taking a step toward me.
“It’s really not important,” I replied.
“Yes, it is,” he countered. “You don’t think I respect you?” he asked, tilting his head to one side.
“I don’t know whether you do or not,” I slowly responded. “I’ve spent the last week wondering if it meant something, wondering if it meant as much to you as it did to me. Then, Nathan said what he did…” I continued to ramble; the faster the words flowed, the less control I had over them. “And I began to think; maybe that’s how you felt about it.”
“What do you mean?” he said, shaking his head in confusion.
“I’m just an executive perk,” I shrugged.
“You weren’t thinking that at the time,” he stated, before a questioning look drifted over his features. “Were you?”
“No,” I quickly assured him.
“So, what’s changed?” he wondered.
“I’ve had seven days to overthink everything,” I reply, humorlessly laughing at my own stupidity. “I’ve had a week with nothing but my own internal monologue telling me that it was a mistake, and that it can’t possibly mean anything to you.”
“Why can’t it possibly mean anything to me?”
“Because,” I offered in the same way a small child would.
“You want to know what’s been going on in my mind for the last seven days?” he asked, taking another step toward me.
He was so close; so close I could have reached out and touched him. But I didn’t. Instead, I clasped both hands at my solar plexus and entwined my fingers anxiously.
Alex did not wait for an answer to his question. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he said simply. “The way you feel, the way you smell, the way you taste.”
Heat rising to my cheeks, I swallowed with difficulty. “I…” I opened my mouth to speak, but very little came forth. “I—”
“Come with me,” he urged, his hand suddenly smoothing over mine and disentangling them. Taking my left hand in his, he turned and walked toward the rear of the cabin.
I followed, unable to think clearly and unwilling to tug my fingers free of his.
Alex paused only momentarily, pushing the door of the plane’s large bedroom open. Quickly, he led me inside and, as he closed the door, he pushed me against it.
Sweeping down, he claimed my surprised mouth in an ardent frenzy. I made some muffled groans in response to the way his lips had roughly claimed me, but I had no intention of pushing him away. He still held my left hand and, squeezing it firmly, he lifted it over my hand, clamping it to the ba
ck of the door.
With my free fingers, I seized his belt just above the hip and tugged his lower half to me. The action elicited an excited whimpering pant when I felt his burgeoning erection push against my lower belly.
Gasping, he pulled his lips away. Eyes locked on mine, he smiled before sinking to his knees before me. As he went, his hands smoothed their way slickly over my arms, ever so slightly stroking the curve of my breasts and caressing down to my hips. Reaching behind me, he easily unfastened the small button and zipper at the base of my spine, which held my clinging, knee-length skirt to my body.
I gazed down at the top of his head. My fingers, drawn to the rich, dark hair, played idly with it. Threading my hands through its softness, I involuntarily shivered as Alex slid my skirt down, stroking my nylon-covered legs all the way. When he’d reached my ankles, he began the return journey, leaving my skirt on the carpeted floor. This time, he grazed the backs of his hands up the inside of my legs, creating a tingling over every inch of my skin.
Without realizing I was doing it, I parted my thighs slightly, as he gently worked his way higher. The tips of his fingers responded by rubbing small, almost ticklish circles as they crept toward the crease of my leg.
“Alex,” I gasped, his touch sending sparks of liquid heat shooting through my body. My fingers were stroking through his hair more frantically now, desire pulsing hot and fast.
Taking his eyes away from the movement of his hands, he peered up at me with a blissful gaze and continued to do so as he grasped the edges of my white panties and coaxed them from my hips.
I was unable to break eye contact, so fascinated by the expansion of his pupils; that gleaming darkness that seemed as though it would pull me right in and never release me.
As my underwear reached my feet, Alex gently lifted one of my legs, then the other, before tossing the pale cotton to one side. Except for tan holdups and black heels, I was naked from the waist down.
His face was still tilted up, staring at me with an incongruous mix of fierce, almost violent, passion and warm affection. Suddenly, his head thrust forward and he began scattering open-mouthed kisses over the hard curve of my hipbone.