“Ma’am, can you go over the incident? Don’t leave any detail out,” the policeman said. He had his pen to paper so she started to recount their afternoon. She started in on the story about her mom’s necklace, but stopped realizing she was giving him too much. When she got to the part about being on the balcony she felt like she was telling someone else’s story instead of her own. When she finished her hands were shaking.
“Okay. That’s really all I know.”
The policeman smiled, “Just a few more questions.” The few more questions turned into hundreds and she answered him the best she could.
“If you think of anything else, just give me a call.” The policeman handed her a card. “Do you need a ride back to your hotel?”
“Are you sure it’s safe to go back to the hotel?” Melody wasn’t sure. It had been three hours of questioning after the incident and she was exhausted. The police were being very thorough but it didn’t seem like they knew any more than they had when they arrived.
“It’s our belief you weren’t the target, ma’am. If it makes you feel better, we’ll station a police officer outside of your room. Rest assured we’ll get to the bottom of this.” Somehow that didn’t make her feel safer. She wasn’t sure what to think and how exactly Maverick found himself on the other end of a sniper’s rifle.
When she walked into her hotel lobby she was surprised to see Remington waiting there for her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, slowing down as she approached him.
“I was making sure you made it safely since Maverick is still tied up with the police.”
Remington smiled at her as if it were a social call, and she felt uncomfortable. She couldn’t decide if it was nice or creepy that he was there. Smiling politely she just continued walking towards her room.
“Thank you for checking,” she called over her shoulder.
***
Where in the world was he? Surely he knew Maverick needed his bags. The night had taken a horrible turn and he wondered if Melody would realistically ever speak to him again. It had to be the lady designer he’d publicly refused to go out with. It had been an accident. He hadn't known a reporter had a tape recorder backstage at fashion week.
He sat in the chair next to his bed, waiting for Remington so he could brush his teeth. If the driver didn’t come soon he’d have to hunt the car down and get his stuff on his own.
Before he knew it he’d drifted off to sleep. Suddenly he was in the plane again, in coach in front of a scantily clad Melody. She took Maverick’s hand and led him back to a room in the back of the plane. She pushed him inside before pulling the door shut and locking it.
“Where are we?” Maverick asked.
“Shut up. Stop asking questions,” she hissed before pouncing on him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a passionate kiss.
After kissing her back for a few moments he broke the kiss and panted several times. “You have to tell me where we are,” he whispered.
“Relax,” she said with a smirk. “This is the staff’s private room, if one of us gets sick or needs a nap or something. It’s also just a room we can use to separate a passenger from everyone else if we need to. The girls and I sometimes will use it for…well, you know,” she said with a wink before walking over to a couch and patting the cushion beside her. “Come here, baby.”
Maverick, satisfied with the information he had received, wasted no time moving to the couch. He pushed her onto her back, moved on top of her, and pulled her into another kiss. He could feel her full, plump breasts pressing against his chest. He could feel her lower half pressing against his. The heat between the two was almost unbearably warm. A moan slipped past his lips and into hers.
Melody broke the kiss only to move her lips to his neck. She nibbled and kissed her way up and down his neck before pressing her mouth against his ear. “I want you, Maverick. I want you to take me. I want to feel you deep inside me,” she purred.
Chills rolled down Maverick’s spine as his body filled with goose bumps. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so turned on by a woman. What was it about this girl that was so special?
“Are you sure?” he whispered. “We aren’t moving too quickly?” He was trying to be a gentleman despite the fact that he wanted to rip her clothing off and ravish her.
Melody bit his neck a little harder to get his attention.
“You want me to get rough with you, Maverick?” she said before biting the same spot on his neck a lot harder. Maverick yelped in a combination of pain and pleasure.
“Oh? So you like it rough?” Melody said softly before sliding her hand down his body, finding a way into his clothing, and firmly grabbing his manhood. She gripped it tightly. “I want this to be mine.” She moved her head and pulled him into another passionate kiss, biting and nipping at his lip with much more aggression this time as she continued to squeeze his manhood firmly in her hand.
Maverick’s entire body quivered in pleasure. He was on top and yet she was very much in control. Finally having enough, he growled, grabbed both of her hands and pinned them above her head with his. “Yes, I like it a little rough. But I also like to be in charge. What about you? Can you be submissive?” he questioned. He pinned both of her hands with one of his and with the other one undid his belt and took it off. He used the belt to tie and secure her hands above her head. “There. Now you let me control the show for a while.”
“Take me. Take me please Maverick. Take me now!” Melody begged. He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to have her. He kissed his way down her clothed body and placed his fingertips on the waist of her pants, preparing to pull them off, when he heard a door open on the side of the plane.
That couldn't be right, could it?
"I'm sorry, sir. I got held up getting a bite to eat." Remington had come in and awakened him from an amazing dream. He was mad about it but happy to see his stuff had made it back to the room.
The phone rang and with a glare he moved stiffly from the chair to answer it. It was the woman who'd literally been in his dreams.
“Maverick, I’m sorry. I need some time away. Don’t call me for a little while.”
“It’s okay, I understand you need some time, Melody.” It was the last thing he wanted to hear from her, but he understood where she was coming from.
“Okay Maverick, I’ll call you next week.” They hung up and Maverick sat down in the chair shaking his head. He hoped they wouldn’t be apart for a long time.
CHAPTER FIVE
Two weeks later. Maverick was headed to his jet to go meet up with Melody and he was looking forward to putting behind them the awful things that had happened on their first date. They’d talked often on the phone and he’d given her a while to deal with the way she felt about the shooting.
It seemed like it had been an eternity since he'd had his private jet, but they’d finally fixed it. He didn’t really mind flying commercial at this point, though. He purposely went out of his way to make sure he was on planes where Melody was one of the flight attendants, of course. He booked early enough to sit in first class. He’d never go through coach again, not even for her, if he could help it. Then she went out of her way to make sure she was the attendant who saw to his needs. The other attendants on the plane were always willing to switch spots with her. They thought it was cute that she had developed a crush on the man and that he kept coming back on her flights just to see her again. But it was still nice to have his private jet back.
He wondered whether or not Melody would ever consider going on his private jet with him. He actually wondered how offended she would be if he asked how much she made doing her job and if she would rather be his private flight attendant on his private jet instead. He would happily match her salary and give her a wage increase for giving up her job and coming with him. Yes, she would probably be offended by that offer, but he still might ask.
Maverick was surprised when made his way to the private jet to find t
he police were lingering. He knew they had wanted to check the plane when it was being fixed. But he hadn’t really expected them to stick around.
“Hello, sir. My name is Officer Keegan. I was hoping I could steal a few moments of your time before you go on your way.”
Maverick nodded in response. The officer was a little on the scrawny side. He was tall and had absolutely no muscle tone. He wondered what kind of police officer he was. He certainly wasn’t a very intimidating one. Maverick thought to himself that this kid being a police officer wasn’t the best career path. He truly felt all police officers should have some depth of intimidation. How else did they survive at doing their job?
Officer Keegan handed Maverick a plastic bag with a note inside it. “It’s evidence, sir, but we wanted to show it to you before to see if you recognized the paper or maybe the handwriting.”
Maverick took the plastic bag and held it up to look inside of it. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned the flashlight application on.
He shone the light on the bag.
I will ruin you.
It was written in thick bold, black, and slightly stylish writing on a pastel-pink Post-it note. Maverick tilted his head to the side for a moment. He was not really sure what to make of this. “What is this? Where did you find it?”
“It was on the plane, sir,” Keegan responded before taking the evidence bag back. “Does it seem familiar to you? Do you have any idea who would have sent you this?”
“A fashion designer or maybe a model or his or her manager. Unfortunately, the people in the fashion industry tend to be very moody. It isn’t that surprising that I could have pissed someone off,” Maverick said.
“Well, sir… I don’t know how to tell you this but you are lucky that the jet didn’t start when you had planned to leave Chicago. The jet was tampered with. The intention of the culprit was for the jet to make it to the air and then to malfunction while you were flying. Had this happened, you would have likely been dead.”
Maverick felt his stomach sink a bit. He wasn’t really sure he wanted to get on the jet and go back to Chicago now. At the same time, he was not about to let whoever was screwing with him ruin his life. He clenched his fists. “It would be a lie if I said that wasn’t a very upsetting discovery you made, officer. I was shot at recently.”
“We know, and we think this could be related. You should consider hiring extra security, sir, maybe even someone to check the jet for tampering before you fly anywhere. For your own safety.”
Maverick sighed. “I’m going to be late for an important business meeting if we don't leave soon, but I will look into the extra protection and getting the jet checked before I go anywhere.” The officer’s concern was nice, but Maverick refused to let some psycho control his life. He would continue living it.
Remington, who had heard the whole conversation, drew closer. When the officer left the two of them walked to the jet.
“The people in the fashion industry are fucking crazy,” Maverick said.
Remington frowned. “I don’t know why anyone would want to hurt you, sir. I don’t know how anyone could possibly hate you. You’re such a great boss. Easily one of the best bosses I’ve had.”
Maverick nodded and laughed a little. He had no way of knowing if his driver was being honest or not. But he was no stranger to his employees buttering him up at every turn. He knew why they did it. They did it to get a bonus or a raise out of him. This driver hadn’t been with him very long, but he was not wasting any time trying to get on his good side.
“It must be a pissed off fashion designer,” Maverick said before stepping on the jet and getting settled for take-off.
When they landed, Maverick found he had dozed off. The quiet of the private jet was so much better than the noise of a public flight, even when he did have first class.
He took his time gathering his things while his driver disappeared to fetch the car. The plane ride had been non-eventful, just like he liked.
Once he got settled into the car he pulled his phone out of his pocket and decided to call the stewardess. Melody. He pushed the button and put the phone up to his ear, waiting for her to answer.
“Maverick? I’m so glad you called.” She sounded thrilled to hear from him.
“Hello, Melody. I wanted to see if you wanted to get dinner on Saturday or Sunday.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at a meeting in Chicago. But I was calling to see where you were going to be on Saturday. I was hoping we could grab a bite to eat somewhere.”
“You’re just going to fly to wherever I am? Get on my plane if you have to? Just to go out to eat with me?”
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
“It just seems a little extreme, is all. We barely know each other.”
“You travel all over the world and I’m the owner of my own company. This is the only way we are going to get to know each other.”
She sighed. “Okay. I have a plane landing in Orlando on Friday night and we are flying on to Atlanta really late that night or early in the morning, depending on whether you consider two in the morning to be night or morning,” she said with a laugh. “I have Sunday and Monday off in Atlanta before I have to fly to Nashville on Tuesday.”
“Great. I’ll be on your Orlando flight. We can do something in Georgia if that is all right with you.”
“That’s fine with me. Though I’m not sure you’d stay away if I told you no.”
“Probably not.” He laughed. “I’ll see you then.” He wished her well before hanging up the phone. As far as jobs were concerned, the one she had was pretty cool. Sure, she didn’t make tons of money. But she probably did okay and she got to travel all over the world. How many people could say they got paid to do that?
Then again, she had to deal with asshole passengers. He thought about the way he had treated her early on when they first met. He was so rude to her. He hoped she didn’t deal with too many people who acted the way he did. This was one of the real reasons why part of him wanted to offer her a job and take her away. She could still travel, but she would only have to deal with him.
He sighed thinking about it. That might not be a good idea either. Oh well: he had his date to look forward to now. He was surprised she wanted to be around him after the shooting, but maybe she’d written it off as a one-time event of some sort. He was going to have to tell her about the plane so she knew being around him could indeed be dangerous.
CHAPTER SIX
Maverick smiled as he boarded the plane at the Orlando airport and spotted Melody.
“Hello ma’am,” he said softly, pretending not to know her.
The stewardess next to Melody giggled and nudged her in the side with her elbow as Maverick took his seat. Ashleigh, the other stewardess, wasn’t someone she had to work with often. Which was good, because Ashleigh drove her a bit crazy.
Melody had done a lot of soul-searching and decided she was going to live her life and not be taken over by fear. Yes, someone was trying to kill him, or so it seemed. But she liked the guy and felt if they stayed in public places when they were together, it would be okay. She really hoped she wasn’t being foolish.
“Did you see that guy?” Ashleigh pointed at Maverick, bringing her back to the present. Melody could tell he knew they were talking about him. He flashed a bright smile when he was sure they were both looking at him before opening a magazine and pretending to read it.
“He is gorgeous!” Ashleigh squealed to Melody when the two took their seats so the plane could prepare for takeoff.
Melody rolled her eyes. Actually, Maverick was not the kind of guy Melody would usually go for. He was pretty and attractive. The guy that attracted the attention of a lot of girls. Melody didn’t want to be with someone who attracted that kind of attention.
“I guess,” she replied with a shrug.
“Melody are you blind?!” Ashleigh hissed. “If you’re going to be so nonchalant about it, I’m going to talk to him.
Maybe try to get him in the bathroom,” she winked.
Melody felt jealously build up at the way Ashleigh was talking about trying to seduce Maverick. It wasn’t like he was her boyfriend. He definitely didn’t belong to her. But in this moment she wanted to smack Ashleigh for even thinking about him in that way.
Melody wandered over to Maverick once the plane was up in the air. She made sure Ashleigh was watching as she leaned down and whispered in his ear, “Come with me to the bathroom.”
Maverick perked up a bit and immediately stood up and followed her to the bathroom. Ashleigh’s eyes were wide and her jaw dropped as she watched. Melody made sure to wink at Ashleigh before going into the bathroom with Maverick.
“What are we doing in here?” Maverick asked.
Melody smiled and pushed him so he was sitting on the toilet lid. She climbed on top of him and straddled his waist, facing him. “Listen. That blonde bimbo with gigantic boobs was going to ask you to come in here. I needed to prove a point.” Melody hoped no one would tell the pilot or her boss, because this was a dumb move on her part. But now they were here, she might as well enjoy it.
“You were jealous!”
“No! I just needed to prove I could do it.”
She leaned in and kissed him aggressively on the lips before running her hands through his hair. She broke the kiss and smiled. “Kiss me. I risked my job to be in here with you.”
He did kiss her until she had to go back to work and emerged from the bathroom with a huge smile on her face.
After they landed, Maverick waited as Melody clocked out and got ready to go. She changed into a nice dress and heels in the staff area. Ashleigh watched as they walked hand in hand away from the airport.
He took her to the best restaurant he could find, Pablo’s, it was a Mexican restaurant. It was a really nice place with a huge water feature right when you walked in.
“This place looks expensive, Maverick.”
Taming a Maverick, Book 1 Page 2