“I talked about that with Josh last night.”
“So you can get me up to speed and we’ll finalize everything.”
“All right.”
A couple of hours later, heads bent together over his laptop, she was more comfortable. Working with Zach was easy; he was smart and organized, took ideas and constructive criticism without getting alarmed, and valued collaboration. She could almost forget that he was a sexy guy, and someone with whom she’d almost hooked up; at this moment, in a meeting of the minds, he was a business partner.
Feeling enthused, she took a sip of water from her bottle. “Zach, I think we really got this. I know we’re going to get amazing pictures for your site. This travel package you’re going to offer with Fantasy? I think you’ll sell out within hours. I can already see it.”
He smiled and closed his screen. “I think so. I can’t wait to see what you do for us.”
She closed her notebook and stowed it in her case. “Is it getting a little bumpy?” She bit her lip, peered past him out the window, although nothing was visible but clouds below them in a plateau of blue.
He shrugged. “Turbulence is pretty common on this route.”
“Yeah.” Unconvinced, she blinked hard, still staring out the window, as if the force of her gaze could summon something of substance. “I kind of hate turbulence.”
He patted her hand, letting his palm rest on the back of her fingers for a second. The warmth was comforting as well as exciting. “But don’t you have to fly a lot for your job?”
“Until this year, that job with you for San Diego, I did mostly weddings and portraits and some commissions for local companies. So travel was mostly for vacation. Sure, I fly, but not a lot. And I’ve always been a nervous flyer.”
“You’ll have to get over that if you decide to branch out and do more travel photography.”
The plane lurched and she bit her lip. “Yes. Thank you for the reminder. I appreciate that.”
“Not trying to give you a hard time.” He regarded her. “There are a lot of techniques available.”
“Yes, I know—oooooow.” She gripped the armrests hard, knuckles whitening with pressure before she forced herself to let go. “Okay, that was a big bump.” She sucked in a deep breath. “It’s fine, though! Right? It’s totally normal.” She knew it was; had read articles and even books on it. Still, nothing she’d read could halt the nervous dread that came when the airplane skipped.
Glancing around the cabin, she noted that nobody else had flinched. Across the aisle, a young couple was asleep, him with a blanket, her with a sleep eye mask, lolling on his shoulder. In the row ahead, a businessman was typing without pause. An elderly woman touched her tablet, turning pages, placid and stable.
“Yes, it is.” Zach gave her a reassuring smile.
The plane settled into a rhythm, and Harper tried to relax. Zach was reading something. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, thinking it would be good to wake up and have already landed. But the irregular jostles, just more than fitting into her comfort zone, kept her stomach zinging.
She carefully pulled up her purse, not wanting Zach to see what she was doing, and searched for the bottle of Ativan. Fuck. It wasn’t there. She got a sudden image of the bottle sitting on the bathroom counter, waiting to go into her purse. She’d never taken it.
Harper turned to Zach. “How much time until we land?”
He checked his watch. “About an hour and a half.”
“Fuck.” She whispered it, but he heard.
“Harper?” He put his hand on her arm for a second, and she wished he would keep it there. “You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You seem pretty anxious.”
“Well, I—raaaaah!” she squealed as the plane jerked in the air. This time, she was loud enough to attract curious, if passive, glances. “Sorry.” She grabbed Zach’s hand next to hers, not giving a shit if it was inappropriate. “You know what? I am. I am anxious. And I forgot my anti-anxiety airplane medicine.”
He didn’t act like this made her some psychotic weird person, or a weak loser. Instead, he reached over and put his other hand on hers. “It’s going to be okay.”
She nodded vigorously, grateful for his support. “I know. Of course. Oh my God. Fuck this airplane. Why does it have to be so bumpy?”
Bing, bing, bing. A second later, the pilot’s voice, clear and calm: “Ladies and gentleman, please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts immediately. We’re in a bit of rough air right now, and reports tell me it’s going to last a while, as we’re heading into a bit of a weather pattern. Please sit tight. Flight attendants, take your seats.”
Deep breath. This was normal. People did this every day. No reason to be alarmed. But she couldn’t stop the clammy sweat that broke out on her palms, or the way her heart started to pump hard, banging in her chest like sneakers in a dryer.
She rubbed her lip over and over, only stopping when it hurt. “This is just so much fun.”
“Let’s talk. Distract you. Okay?” Zach patted her hand, clenched in his other one. “Tell me something about your childhood. Something you don’t usually talk about.” His voice was low and encouraging.
She swallowed. “Okay. Yeah, so, interesting fact. When I was a child, I never flew on shitty turbulent planes.”
He laughed. “Something serious. Come on. Give it a try.”
“Okay. So—” She thought for a minute, then let the words flow, as if they could build some scaffolding and connect this airplane to solid ground. “So my grandparents had a farm in Wisconsin, about four hours out of Chicago, and we’d go there on weekends. My grandma had a horse named Pulaski, but it was a girl. She liked the name Pulaski. We told her it wasn’t a good girl name but she didn’t care. She said the name with an awesome accent, and she talked to Pulaski in Polish. She said Pulaski looked just like the horse back home, the one they had to leave behind.”
“Was your grandma from Poland?” He rubbed her hand with his thumb.
“Yes, she came here during World War II as a teenager. Her life is insane. Sometimes I can’t believe I’m afraid of planes, when she lived in DP camps in Germany and had to leave her home and everything, and took a ship to a new country. When she was younger than I am.”
“Bravery comes in many forms.” His voice was serious. “Sometimes doing the thing that makes us nervous is the hardest thing in the world.”
“What’s hard for you?” She blurted it out, keeping her death grip on his fingers.
“This is about you.”
“Well, if that’s really true, then spill. I can’t have a one-sided serious conversation. It’s too much like therapy, which reminds me of things that make me need therapy, like flying through turbulence.” She squeezed harder.
“Okay! Okay. What was the question, then? I’ll talk, interrogator.” He grinned.
“Tell me something that’s hard for you to do.”
“For me?” He paused, then met her eyes. “Well, for me, it’s hard, sometimes, to delegate. I built Travel On from the bones up. I hire people I trust, and yet it’s difficult to let them take ownership of things I used to do.” He cleared his throat. “This isn’t something I talk about a lot. I think it’s best for a leader to show his strengths, not his weak spots.”
“Like you delegated to Josh?” She made air quotes on delegate.
He looked away. “That’s different.”
“Well, I only ask because it seems that you didn’t trust him with this project, after all.”
“I trust him with the project.” His eyes drilled into hers. “But—”
A larger lurch had her whimpering. This time, other people noticed the turbulence, and the gasps and squeals around the plane only made her more nervous.
“It’s fine.” His voice was firm. “Keep talking.”
“I can’t.” She gripped the seat harder.
He leaned in. “Yeah, you can. Tell me a secret. Something important.”
�
�A secret?” Despite herself, she leaned in, interested in where he was going with this.
“It’s either that or I’ll give you math to do in your head. You want to multiply fractions for me?” He raised an eyebrow, at once humorous and stern.
“No!” she giggled, amused, even through her fear, and also aroused at his domineering attitude, which was incredibly and unaccountably sexy. “God, no. Okay. A secret.” She blinked, then leaned in. “You promise you’ll never tell anyone?”
“On my honor.” His voice was low and his breath warm on her ear. She sucked in air, suddenly caring not at all about the plane and the way it bucked like a horse with a stiff back.
“I’ve never tasted tequila in my entire life.”
He laughed. “That’s your deep, dark secret?”
She shrugged. “I’m squeaky clean. What can I say?”
“Dig deeper, Harper.” His voice was a mesmerizing command. “I know you’ve got more in there.”
CHAPTER 4
“Well, I’m not going to tell my secrets unless you do, too. We’ll trade. One for one. Fair?”
“Deal.” He smiled. “So go on and wow me.”
“No way. It’s your turn. You do some wowing.”
“Ah. All right.” He leaned in and whispered, “I’ve never tasted snake meat.”
“That’s even a thing?” Her eyebrows shot up. “Please. That does not even count.”
His chuckle rolled over her. “It’s about as secret-ish as tequila. You get as good as you give in this game.”
“Whatever.” She felt her body thrum with energy. This was fun. “Okay, so here’s one. Once I went skinny-dipping in college at my apartment complex. It was me and my friend Dawn. We were a little drunk.” She paused to drink water. When she looked back, Zach’s eyes were glittering.
“Go on,” he urged, his voice silky.
“So we were drunk and we just stripped down right at the outdoor apartment complex pool one night. It was late, like midnight. There was nobody around, just us. We jumped in and were splashing each other and giggling. The water felt so good, you know? Like silk. I was drunk, but I remember how nice it felt to have my entire body bathed in the water, no clothes at all. It was amazing.” She paused, remembering.
Zach clenched a muscle in his jaw. “Harper?”
“Yes?”
He shook his head. “Never mind. Please, carry on.”
“I remember thinking how pretty she looked in the moonlight and the halogen lights, like a mermaid in the water. And I couldn’t see myself, but I felt the same way. Beautiful. Powerful. Like everything was going to be okay, right then and forever.”
It seemed like her story was having some kind of effect on Zach. And although she honestly hadn’t originally intended to mess with him, the opportunity was too good to pass up.
She leaned in a little closer. “Now this part is really a secret, okay?”
He didn’t speak.
“So then she and I, we just looked at each other. And her eyes were so pretty, Zach. And her lips were all wet with water and luscious. And she was, at that moment, the most beautiful person I’d ever seen in the world. Can you imagine what I wanted to do next?”
“What?” His whisper was harsh.
“Now it’s your turn to tell me a secret. Then I’ll finish mine.” She gave him an innocent smile.
He laughed. “Okay. You want a secret like that?”
She nodded. This was entirely inappropriate, but she liked it. And right now, trapped in this aluminum can, shaking like a dryer about to explode, she needed it. She needed every goddamn word of this, to celebrate life, and passion, and remind herself that she was coming back to them both in just a few minutes.
“I’ve been skinny-dipping with a gorgeous woman, too. More than once.” He gave her a dirty smirk. “And I didn’t just imagine what I wanted to do. I did it, right there at the side of the pool, on the deck chairs. In the cabana. Even in the water.”
“I heard it doesn’t work that well in the water.”
“Oh, if you know what you’re doing, you can make it work anywhere, Harper.” His gaze was direct and sexy, and she caught her breath. “Now you finish your story. I’m very eager to hear about that girl’s lips.”
“Mine doesn’t end the same way,” she confessed, a smirk on her face. “Sorry to disappoint.” She giggled. “I didn’t want to kiss her, Zach. It was different. I just thought she was so pretty, and the fact that the two of us were there—so young, and pretty, and wet…”
She checked his face and continued, “It made me feel like we had the whole world at our disposal. Like, we’re young, and free and smart, and we have this amazing potential to do whatever the fuck we want. I felt sort of infinite.”
She thought he might laugh, and she held her breath. “It was a really important moment. Because at that same time, I also felt sort of sad, and worried. That I might not live up to that potential. That maybe, just maybe, this magical moment was the highlight of my entire life, and from here on out, instead of soaring high, I’d start a slow, downward slope into oblivion.”
“Wow.”
She nodded. “So it was really interesting. And then. So there was this older woman who lived at the complex? Nadine? Well, she hated me and Dawn. Always complaining about our loud music or the fact that Dawn smoked.” She paused. “In retrospect, we probably were annoying. But anyway. Nadine really hated us, and she came out to scold us for laughing so loudly in the pool right next to her open window. We sort of, probably, if I remember right…” She ducked her head. “Maybe we were not too sympathetic.”
“Oh, no.” Zach smiled. “What did she do?”
“She took our clothes!” Harper’s voice rose in mock indignation. “Just scooped them up and hobbled off, the old crone. She was like ninety. Then she yelled some more, and other people opened their windows to look, and Dawn and I had to get out of the pool totally naked and run back to our apartment. It was horrible.”
“That’s kind of funny.” But his eyes gleamed with something other than humor. “You know, most guys would want an alternate ending to that story, though.”
“I am aware. I also wanted an alternate ending. Not a lesbian experience.” She punched his arm. “But one that involved clothes and less humiliation.”
“But I bet you played your music more quietly after that, am I right?”
She scowled. “As a matter of fact, we received a visit from the apartment manager regarding our midnight shenanigans and were put on an eviction warning. We had to be on our best behavior after that.”
She sighed, thinking it over. “It’s a funny story, but there’s a reason it’s a secret. Do you know why?”
He shook his head.
“It’s because I’m not like that anymore, and it embarrasses me to know I once was. I’m not upset that I skinny-dipped. The part that bothers me is that we were bitchy to that old lady so much that she hated us. You know? Today, I think I’m a kind person who cares about others and would never deliberately inconvenience someone. To know that I acted that way once? It’s not a good feeling.” She bit her lip. “It makes me call into question everything about myself, sometimes. It makes me try harder, to really focus on being a good person.”
“I understand that.”
“You do?” She checked his face.
“I’ve done things I’m not proud of. Things in my past that I’d never repeat. Of course. I think we all have. The important thing is to learn from it, and grow and change.”
“But doesn’t it bother you that those things are still in you?” She shook her head.
“Not if the me of today is not like that.”
“So what’s one of yours?”
“My what?”
“Things you’re not proud of.”
He thought. “I walked by a homeless man one time. When my friends made a rude joke about him, I laughed, too.”
She was silent, giving him room to continue.
“I was probably in se
venth grade. This is in New York City, Manhattan. I used to see this guy all the time outside the Apple Deli. Because I had chess club—”
She couldn’t help but interrupt. “You did chess club? In grade school?”
He raised a brow. “And I won trophies. May I continue?”
“Of course. Carry on.” She let go of his hand to give him a royal wave, then took it again.
He squeezed her fingers gently. “Thank you. So I stayed later than my friends, who thought chess club was stupid, but accepted it. It was a little tense but it worked. So this guy, he was kind of funny. Maybe mentally fucked up a little bit, I don’t know, but funny. And he’d never ask for money outright, but he always had a different sign with something clever on there. And he had a dog.”
He ran a hand through his hair and hesitated. “I started saying hi to him. I’d go in there to get a snack, in the deli, and sometimes I’d get him a Coke and candy bar, too. It’s not like we were bromance buds or anything, but we sort of had an understanding.”
“Okay?”
“So one time I went there with my buddies, earlier than usual, and he was there, with his dog, sitting on the milk crate, with a sign. And my friends.” He stopped. “This is still hard. So my friends started saying really mean shit, like, He’s as ugly as his dog, I’d rather feed the dog than that asshole. And he looked at me and recognized me. And I looked away, and I laughed with them. And we walked away.”
His voice grew taut. “And the next day I went to find him, thinking I could maybe buy him a real lunch to let him know I didn’t mean it, but he was gone. Never came back. Ever.”
“Oh, Zach.” She pressed her palm to his forearm. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. You know, I’m sure he heard worse. It’s not like my stupid experience was going to make or break his life. Maybe he found a better place to go, that got more money. Maybe he found a shelter. I know he probably didn’t leave because of me and my shitty friends. But still, every time I think about that, I get a bad feeling.” His face looked somber.
She nodded. “I know.”
“So from that moment on,” he said, “I told myself I’d never stand by again and listen and laugh while someone else was a bully. And I didn’t.”
Tropical Tryst: 25 All New and Exclusive Sexy Reads Page 229