by Taryn Quinn
“Just what would you call it?”
I crossed my arms. Future Fuck Buddies of America? “He hired me to plan the Christmas party.”
“Hmm.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean? And what the hell did I say to her question? Not that it deserved an answer, because it didn’t. We were adults, both unencumbered.
He was single, right?
I hadn’t exactly asked. More like assumed. I cleared my throat. “Am I stepping on toes?”
“No.” The woman smiled down at her daughter, then at me. “Not at all. In fact, I’m thrilled he’s…whatever it is you’re doing.”
“Well, it’s not a thing or anything. It’s just—it’s not any of your business.”
Yeah, I’d handled that one well.
She hiked up Melody’s tights, tossed the diaper in the trash, and swung the diaper bag over her shoulder before depositing her child on her hip. “I’m not bashing you in any way. I hope it doesn’t sound like that. In fact, I’m freaking thrilled. He needs to laugh again. Especially this time of year.” With that cryptic statement, she stopped at the sinks and washed her hands, then let her daughter do the same before they both stood in front of the drier.
Melody giggled as the hot air blew at her hands. I couldn’t help but smile back at her. Talk about a happy kid.
I pushed the door open with my butt and let them pass in front of me.
“Merry Christmas—I didn’t catch your name. I’m Tracey Templeton, by the way.”
“Kandy Kane.”
Her grin widened. “Oh, man. Talk about priceless. The perfect is perfect.”
Before I could ask her what that was supposed to mean, she did this little hop-shuffle-dance with her daughter down the hallway.
Mel came up to me. “What was that about?”
“I couldn’t even begin to explain it to you if I tried.”
“Mr. Murdock wants you upstairs.”
My belly cramped. It’s not like I could renege on this deal. He still held the other half of our paycheck.
Being loyal and noble royally sucked.
I tucked my hair behind my ear. “Okay. Can you handle the party?”
“Yes. Everything’s all set. He even gave me the last check, so all I have to do is give the caterer the rundown of cleanup. You know, what’s ours, what’s rented.” Mel kept talking, but it sounded more like a wall of white noise to me.
He’d given her the money already?
I mean he could stop the check, of course, but the chances of that happening were pretty close to zero. I could walk out and never look back. I’d pay my people and could toss my heels into the back of the closet for a blissful long weekend.
I had New Year’s parties right after, but there was no need for Santas and elves for those. One of them required a stripper friend of mine, but otherwise it was simple organization skills.
I may have specialized in Christmas, but I was an all year-round planner. And from a business standpoint, a testimonial from the Murdock family could make my career.
Just saying I’d done their party was enough, but a little extra something on my website would throw my company fully into the black. This was a no-brainer.
I had to go upstairs.
I was going upstairs.
“Is everything okay, Kay?”
“Yes.” I answered quickly, my heart beat roaring between my ears like the freaking ocean. “I just…there’s this thing.”
“What thing?” Her eyebrows rose under her bangs. “Oh, wait. Would this be the kind of thing that missing stockings would include? That kind of thing?”
“Possibly.” I gnawed on my bottom lip. “There’s something there—you know, between us.”
Mel’s eyebrows snapped down. “How much of a something? And was that a contingency for anything?”
When she said it that way it sounded way more lecherous and hinky. The fact that I’d agreed so damn readily stole a lot of the power play there. Especially when everything between us had actually been in my favor. It wasn’t like he had demanded I get on my knees and suck him off to get into the Santa suit.
That I wanted to get down on my knees and do it was the more fucked-up part. I also wanted to see if he really could help push me past the super anxious stage fright I had about sex.
I was twenty-seven years old, for God’s sake. My virgin status was so overdue to be demolished it was laughable. In a regency novel, I’d be so far past a spinster, I’d be an old maid. I was beginning to feel like one.
I lifted my chin. “No, but I think I’m going to do something crazy anyway.”
“What kind of crazy?”
“Go to his cabin for the weekend kind of crazy.”
“What?” Her gasp of outrage echoed down the hallway. She brought her voice down to a furious whisper. “Are you out of your mind? What about Christmas?”
“What about it? My mother’s going on a cruise with her church group. She didn’t want to stay home without Dad this year.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
I hated the hushed, careful tone of her voice. My dad had passed away a few years ago, and I was thrilled that my mom was moving on and doing things with her friends. I didn’t have to worry about her as much anymore. With my job, I was happy to enjoy a quiet Christmas.
I was pretty Christmased out.
“I’m good, Mel. I swear.”
She moved closer and rubbed my arm. “I don’t know about that. I can’t get you to go on a blind date, but you want to go to a cabin with a near stranger?”
I pulled her in for a quick hug. “If you fixed me up with guys as hot as this guy, there wouldn’t have been a question.”
Mel laughed and hung on for an extra minute. “Okay, you have me there.” She pushed me away and squeezed my shoulders. “You take that extra charger and make sure your phone is always with you.”
“I think if he’s a murderer, I would have already been done for.”
“Don’t make jokes,” she said with her voice cracking.
“Hey.” I linked our fingers. “It’s fine. I swear. I’m a little crazy, but I’m not stupid. You know I’m not.”
“No.” She shook our hands lightly. “And I don’t know anyone who needs to get laid more than you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Mel laughed. “If nothing else, it does wonders for the skin. Not that you have to worry about that. You still look like you’re twenty.”
I touched the small blemish on my chin. “I could totally do without these.”
She pushed me away. “Go. Have fun. Text me every day so I know you’re okay.”
“Yes, Mom.”
“Shut up. Your mom would be more thrilled than I am.”
I winced. She wasn’t wrong about that. “All right. Merry Christmas and all that. Have fun with your parents and brothers.”
Mel sighed. “Heaven help me. You were supposed to be my support in that endeavor, you know. Think you can abandon me to have wild monkey sex?”
“Yes.”
She laughed. “Um, duh. Of course, you can. At least this one time. I’d lose my bestie card if I didn’t let you go. Besides, your lipstick is still smudged and I know that’s the super-stay-on-through-a-hurricane lipstick.”
Yeah, well, Lincoln Murdock could definitely be categorized as a storm, so that fit. I had no sarcastic reply for that one, so I just grinned.
“Ugh. There better be more details later.”
I hugged her. “You won’t be able to shut me up.” I grinned again and waved as I headed toward the elevator. I tapped the up button and the doors opened to a glowering Lincoln. He held a large leather bag in one hand. He’d changed out his Santa suit for his jeans and plaid shirt with his black leather jacket.
I was pretty sure my tongue was hanging out, but hope sprung eternal on the fact that I wasn’t quite so uncouth.
“Trying to escape, Miss Kane?”
9
Kay
“As a matter
of fact, I was on my way up.”
He held out his arm. “I saved you a trip.”
I slid my arm around his. “Lead the way.”
Instead of going out the front of the building, he brought me down a hallway to another exit. A burgundy Lexus was waiting in the alleyway. He opened the back door for me and slid my bag off my arm and moved to the trunk.
“Evening, Miss.”
Driver. Huh. So, this was how the other half lived? “Hi. Umm, thank you for driving.”
He nodded. Dark eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. “Of course.” He had massive shoulders and a military-short haircut. No suit. In fact, he was wearing a similar black leather jacket to Linc’s.
Linc got in and the luxury car immediately felt smaller. “Hi, Joe. We’re good to go.”
The driver nodded and the car smoothly navigated the dips and rough terrain of the gravel-strewn alleyway. Living in the city meant I rarely traveled in a car. I opted for the subway mostly with a cab or Uber driver here and there, but those cars were definitely not like this.
Is this what having struts felt like?
I ran my hand along the buttery leather of the seat and bumped into Linc’s hand. He twisted his fingers through mine and brought my hand up to his mouth. He nipped at the fleshy part of my palm then brushed his beard-roughened mouth along my wrist. “Are you a nervous flier, Miss Kane?”
“Not particularly.”
“Good. We’ll be taking off as soon as we arrive.”
“What time is our flight?”
“When we get there.”
My eyebrows rose. “As in private?”
“As in my plane, yes.”
“Oh.” I didn’t have a comeback for that one. He put his hand down next to me, but didn’t release my fingers.
More for the no comment squad.
It didn’t feel like a high school date or anything like that. More like I was tethered to him in a way that was going to have consequences I wasn’t entirely sure I was ready for.
Linc was quiet through the drive. He was on his phone texting with one hand and the other held mine, his thumb ever circling over my pulse. I tried to slow the beat down so it didn’t feel like a butterfly on crack, but I didn’t think I was overly successful.
We arrived at a small airstrip just outside the city. Joe dropped us off right on the tarmac. A white and blue prop jet was the only plane as far as I could see. When Linc opened the door and helped me out, I stumbled once.
“We’re not getting on the toy, are we?”
“It’s a bit windy, or I’d have taken the helicopter.”
“Helicopter?” Dumbfounded, I squeezed his hand tighter the closer we got to the narrow stairs. He led me in front of him and followed me up.
He nodded to a man who met us at the doorway. “We good for takeoff, Frank?”
“Ten minutes.”
“Excellent.”
I peered around to the front of the plane from the door. “Are you sure you don’t need someone to go out there and spin the propeller first?”
“It’s not icy,” Linc said with a smile.
“Oh, Jesus.”
“Relax. I make this flight a few times a month. It’s cake.” He grazed his hand along my lower spine.
“Sure. That propeller might make brownies, it’s so small.”
“I prefer double fudge.” He ducked his head and pushed me along.
“For what?”
“For the brownies you’re so interested in,” he said over his shoulder as he headed to the front of the plane.
“Where are you going?”
“Well, someone has to fly this thing.”
I followed him to the front of the plane. “Are you kidding me?”
He nodded to the seat behind the co-pilot seat, which was empty, thank you very much. “You’ll have the third best seat in the house. Once we’re out of the city, you can switch spots with Joe.”
“Joe?”
“Miss.”
I twisted around and my eyes traveled up. A rarity for a woman over five-nine. Joe was a big dude.
“Hi, Joe.”
“Miss Kane.” It didn’t sound nearly as snarky and hot when he said it. I wasn’t sure what to think of that one, so I was pretty much done with thinking.
I sat down and buckled my seatbelt.
“Good, we’ve got that level of trust at least.”
“Oh, I don’t trust you. I made a promise, and I don’t go back on promises.”
“Then you’d be the first woman I’ve known to do so.” His voice was flat, all teasing gone.
I frowned, but before I could say anything else, the engine fired up to a deafening roar. I gripped my seat and closed my eyes. There was a big difference between riding on a jet and a plane that might or might not be able to make a water landing. I wasn’t up on my plane knowledge.
It was probably a good thing. Facts and figures would only make me throw up at this point.
I slammed back in my seat as we turned on the runway and gained speed. My eyes opened of their own volition when we started our climb. I’d never been one to close my eyes against fear.
Frozen in fear with my eyeballs wide open was more my speed.
“Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck,” I chanted.
We seemed to bank left a bit and the plane shuddered before climbing again. I slammed my eyes shut. Yay for self-preservation taking over for fear and anxiety.
Finally, the plane seemed to even out and the engine went from roar to purr. Joe and Linc spoke in some sort of shorthand language that spoke of gauges and readings, along with mumblings to a tower using call signs that made my heart pound.
All the while, New York City got smaller and smaller in the distance. The city had been home for a long time. It felt so big and crazy, but New York as a state was far bigger than my little corner of the world. We went from lights nearly everywhere to a darkness so profound my gut bottomed out. It was worse than flying over water. There were no random mountains and valleys to get lost in if there was a water crash.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been staring out into the inky darkness when Joe tapped me on the shoulder.
I blinked up at him and accepted the large yellow headphones with the microphone.
“Enjoy the scenery. It’s dark, but there’s a lot to see.”
“I’m good here.”
“Mr. Murdock would like you to join him.”
“And Mr. Murdock gets what he wants?” I asked.
“Something like that.”
I unbuckled and moved into the cockpit. The plane was small and made me think of movies where tropical islands and crash landings were the only ending. Only in my crash landing there would be twenty degrees, snow, and hypothermia.
I fitted my headphones over my head.
“How many scenarios have you put together in your head, Miss Kane?” His voice buzzed into my ear. Deep and sardonic with far too much sex appeal for one person. The longer I was in this plane, the more I was sure that I was making a huge mistake.
I pulled the microphone up to my mouth. “Dozen or so.”
“I figured at least twenty.”
“I like long, sprawling death stories in my head instead of short flashes.”
He laughed into the mic and my skin went on high alert. Having him right in my ear like this probably wasn’t a good thing. In fact, I was sure it wasn’t.
“I’ve only crashed once.”
I gripped my seat and locked my gaze with his. “Then maybe you should keep your eyes on the…sky, or whatever.”
“We have at least two parachutes.”
“Oh, God.”
He laughed and reached over to tug on one of my curls. “Relax. I only crashed a simulator. And that was my first day.”
I batted his hand away. “Jerk.”
He shrugged. “You’re completely safe. I have over three hundred hours logged and Joe has thousands. He happens to have a cabin a few miles away from mine so we share the ride up.”
/>
“How adorable. You have three parachutes though, right?”
“Probably more like five.”
I took a deep breath. Jumping out of a plane wasn’t exactly on my bucket list, but I kinda liked my life. I’d do what I had to.
“I won’t let you get hurt, Miss Kane.”
“Good to know.”
“Unless you’re into that sort of thing, of course.”
“Har-har.”
His gaze remained on the dials of the board in front of us, then out the window. We drifted into an easy silence. Trees and shadowy mountains were interspersed with small towns with lights as bright as a beacon. Were we that close to the ground?
I was sort of afraid to ask, so I didn’t.
When he suddenly banked to the left, I gasped. The jerk laughed and did it again.
“Would you stop?”
“Jet streams are a little crazy.”
“You can feel that?”
“Hold the yoke.”
I looked down at the steering wheel thingie and how it moved. “I’m good.”
“Afraid?”
“Yep. I’m good with it. A healthy fear keeps you humble.”
“Would you prefer to sit on my lap?”
“You keep your filthy pilot fantasies to yourself, buddy.”
He tipped his head back. “Seriously. Just try it.”
“My mom used to say that to me to get me to eat peas. Didn’t like them either.”
What if I pulled on it wrong? Actually, that was a fear in my mind for more than one yoke, but we didn’t need to go into that line of thinking right now. I could only concentrate on one anxiety-ridden topic at a time.
Okay, evidently two, because I kept looking over at his lap. Did flying turn him on? Or was it just me who was humming?
It was probably the engine. And I was probably going to have a small heart attack and still never lose my V-card.
This sucked.
I grasped the yoke and earned a huge smile from Linc.
“I knew you had it in you.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t.”
“Now just pull back and look at that little gauge right there. It keeps us level with the horizon line.”
He let go and I yelped when the plane dove.