A-List Kiss: A Laugh-Out-Loud Romantic Comedy

by Brenda Lowder

  “Yes, but not in the next room when people are on a long flight with nothing better to do than to listen and…and…picture what we’re doing. Who knows if they would even picture it accurately, or…or flatteringly enough?” Blood rushed to my face.

  Gavin exhaled heavily. “I’m sure they won’t think a thing about it.”

  And I was sure they would. Did Gavin really think his employees wouldn’t think a thing about their boss having sex ten feet from where they were sitting as a captive audience? Or did he think that because he had experience doing this? Was this a routine occurrence? He’d just unwittingly added more worries to my already big pile of them. “Why? Because it happens all the time? Because this is a typical Thursday evening for you, Superstar?”

  “No! And don’t call me that.” A shadow of annoyance flitted across Gavin’s handsome brow. “It’s because you’re making this into a far bigger deal than it should be.”

  “And our having sex isn’t a big deal for you.” I looked down at my knees. There. He’d said it. Proof that I wasn’t important to him. What was I doing here?

  “That’s not what I meant.” He swiped at the hair that had fallen in front of his face.

  “What did you mean?” I waited for his answer. I wanted him to have a good one. I wasn’t trying to antagonize him. I really did want this to happen. I wanted to move our relationship forward. But I didn’t want to be just another statistic, and I did not like the idea of an audience.

  He wrested my hand from its death grip on the armrest. He smoothed it between both of his, and his electric touch sent sparks up my arm. “I meant that, regardless of the circumstances, I want to be with you.”

  He pulled my hand closer to him, and I lifted my head. My eyes met his, and my body swayed toward him with magnetic force. I leaned against him and buried my head in his strong chest. He put his arms around me, hugging me close. The edges of the world seemed to melt away, and suddenly I was in the dream, the fantasy, the moment—Elegy in Autumn, even. Without the horses. Alone with Gavin Braddock.

  A lingering doubt tickled my mind. I pulled back to look at him. “I don’t want them to think I’m a hussy.”

  Gavin stroked my arm, ending at my hand and pulling it toward him, splaying my hand on his chest as he continued to stroke it. “They won’t think you’re a hussy.”

  “Do you think I’m a hussy?” I reached up with my other hand and ran my fingers through his gorgeous hair, smoothing it behind his ear.

  “Of course I don’t think you’re a hussy! In fact, at this precise moment, I am desperately wishing you were a hussy.” His mouth was a straight line, but his eyes sparkled.

  I pulled both of my hands back and folded my arms. “I just want to point out that I don’t give it up very easily.”

  “I actually know that about you.” Gavin folded his arms, mirroring me, and regarded me with mock cynicism. “At this point I’m just hoping you give it up at all.” A smile tugged at the corners of his kissable mouth.

  I couldn’t help a surprised bark of laughter. “Yes, I’m going to give it up.” I smiled at him and then glanced back down the aisle as I felt the plane accelerate down the runway. “Are you sure that your staff members are all trustworthy and discreet?”

  “I can personally vouch for them. They’ve all worked for me for at least three years. And they’ve all signed standard non-disclosure agreements so they can’t talk to the press—or anyone else—without catastrophic financial consequences.”

  “Whoa. That sounds good.”

  “Yes, they can’t even talk to you. You’re press, you know,” Gavin said with a wink. He put his arms around me and pulled me closer.

  I laughed. “Just barely!” I thought about it, resting my head against Gavin’s solid chest. The plane lifted off, and I was pressed firmly against Gavin with the force of the lift. I could smell the warm, fresh scent of his fabric softener and wondered who did his laundry. Did he do it himself? I couldn’t picture it.

  When the plane leveled off, the kind and too-attractive-for-my-peace-of-mind flight attendant came over to see if we needed anything and to tell Gavin our estimated time of arrival. Gavin assured her we were fine for the moment. She returned to the flight attendant hiding place. Where do they go?

  “Okay, I have an idea.” I extricated myself from Gavin’s embrace.

  “What’s your idea? I’m dying to know.” Gavin crossed his arms and stretched his legs out in front of him. The plane had fantastic leg room. It wasn’t even leg room—it was living room.

  “Well, you get up first and go to the bedroom, and then I’ll wait five minutes or so and then meet you in there. We won’t look so suspicious if we don’t go at the same time.”

  His eyes widened. “Eden, there’s nothing else back there but the bedroom. They’ll figure it out.”

  “Aha! You said no one would care!” I pointed my finger at him for emphasis. “And now you say they’ll know what we’re doing even if we don’t go at the same time!”

  He rolled his eyes and put his arm around me. “They’ll know, but they won’t care. Seriously, Eden. No one cares.”

  “But I care.” I looked into Gavin’s eyes. I didn’t know what else to say. He mattered to me. Our first time together mattered to me. I wanted it to matter to him. Was that impossible?

  He exhaled heavily, moving his arm out from behind my shoulders. He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Whatever will make you feel comfortable.” He sat forward.

  “Really?” I reveled in my win.

  “Really.” Gavin unfastened his seat belt and stood up. He straightened and ran his hand through his gorgeous locks again, smoothing his hair out of his eyes. “Okay, so I’ll head back there, and you follow me in five minutes or so.”

  “See you soon!” I whispered, and then turned to look out the window as if I didn’t know where he was going and didn’t care. I peeked back at him. With a last shake of his head, Gavin walked down the short aisle to the bedroom, opened the door, and stepped inside.

  I wasn’t wearing a watch and so I started to look at my cell phone for the time and then with a horrible sinking feeling remembered that I’d left it on the charger at home. I was really getting away from it all. Oh well, it didn’t have to be exactly five minutes. I decided to estimate the time by singing my favorite Adele song twice. I sang “Hello” very quietly and then kind of sped it up since I really was looking forward to making Gavin my conquest.

  When I thought enough time had gone by, I jumped up but was immediately jerked back into my seat by the seat belt I’d neglected to unbuckle. I unlatched it and stood, slinking down the aisle casually, swiveling my head to avoid eye contact with Gavin’s entourage. I should have stared straight ahead. If I had, then I wouldn’t have met the eyes of some of the people when trying to avoid others. And I wouldn’t have known for sure if anyone was eyeballing me as I walked by, making assumptions about the strumpet-ness of my character. But I did glance to my right and saw PR lady and Patricia looking at me with narrowed eyes full of judgment. Beefy security guard number one was looking at me with a knowing leer. Oh, no.

  I paused in my walk down the aisle. “I never do this,” I announced to them all, pulling myself up to my full height and standing proud. “This is very special. We’ve been in deep, deep love for years. Well, I have, anyway. And don’t tell me how many other girls have walked this road. Unless you know, like, really specifically. And then you can tell me. The actual number. But don’t just say millions because that’s really pretty gross.”

  I was met with staring silence all around until PR lady cleared her throat and looked back down at the newspaper she’d been reading. The others took their cue from her and turned away from the babbling embarrassment that was me.

  “Ah, well, on with it, then!” I said as if it were time for me to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I continued down the aisle without looking back, shaking my head. Guess Gavin was right, and they weren’t as invested in what we were doing as I’d thought
. I opened the door to the bedroom and ducked inside. The lights were low—it was perfect mood lighting, a nice, flattering, diffuse glow—and soft music was playing. Gavin got up from where he’d been sitting on the bed and met me at the door.

  “You took forever.” He pulled me into his arms. “Did I hear you talking to someone?” He nuzzled my neck under my ear.

  “No. Not really. Nothing important.” I twined my arms around him and smoothed my hands down his back, luxuriating in the hardness of his muscles beneath the smooth fabric. Hopefully there’d be some localized mass amnesia incident and Gavin’s employees would forget all about my babbling—hey, and maybe even forget the fact that they saw me join Gavin in the bedroom at all! That would be nice.

  Although maybe it would be weird if Gavin brought a woman on the plane and then didn’t have sex with her. Like he decided she was defective or crazy or something in the ten minutes since takeoff. That would be bad. Okay, maybe I didn’t wish that. I was a beautiful and desirable woman after all, and really not all that crazy.

  “Is something wrong?” Gavin stopped the nuzzling and faced me squarely. “You’re thinking too much again.”

  “Not at all.” I inched closer to him, reducing the distance he’d put between us. I moved my hands up to play with the back of his hair where it met his neck. Warm and soft. I snuggled my face into his very sexy and slightly stubbled neck, running my cheek against his chin. I loved the cologne he wore, but I couldn’t name it. Was it Acqua Di Gio? Did he have to wear that all the time because he was in the ads? Did they give it to him for free? I bet they gave him a lifetime supply. But maybe he wore something else on his days off. Maybe I’d get a chance to see him put it on later, and I could find out from the bottle what it was. I could even buy some and spray my pillow with it at home. After he left me. Wait. Was I really already thinking forward to when this would be over? I shook my head. I should be savoring every moment. Just in case it was my one and only time with Gavin.

  I kissed him with renewed vigor. He growled low in his throat, reacting to my kisses on his neck, and grabbed me around the waist. He tossed me on the bed with a smile, and all my silly internal chatter stilled. Wow. I adored his sheer manliness. This was a man who got what he wanted. My stomach did flips that what he wanted was me. I slid higher up so my head was on a pillow, and Gavin knelt on the bed and slowly crawled until he was over me. I smiled and stretched up to kiss him. I ran my fingers along his neck down to the collar of his shirt and started unbuttoning it. When his shirt was unbuttoned, I skimmed my hand down his rock-hard abs and back up to his chest. What an amazing chest. I could caress it all day. I must have made some happy noises because Gavin laughed and whispered in my ear, “I showed you mine….”

  I giggled and started to unbutton my blouse, but Gavin covered my hands with his, and I let him finish. He pulled my shirt open and down over my shoulders, revealing my lacy black bra. Gavin took my shirt off and threw it in the corner and then kissed my neck, pulling my bra strap down and kissing across my shoulder, then down into my cleavage.

  “I really like these.” His voice was muffled.

  I laughed. “They’re real,” I confirmed. Take that, plastic Hollywood starlets.

  “I can tell.” He whipped my bra off and threw it the way of my shirt and his on the floor. I wondered if I’d be able to find everything later. Wouldn’t the staff posse love to see me do the walk of shame wearing only half the wardrobe I went into the bedroom wearing? I banished them from my mind. Gavin undid the button on my pants and slid the zipper down. I tried to do the same for his pants, but I could only get them so far. I let him take it from there, and I tended to my own pants, wiggling out of them and throwing them on the floor with the rest. I gave Gavin time to appreciate my matching black lacy panties and then yanked them off as well and tossed them as Gavin did the same with his pants and boxer briefs.

  The sight of Gavin naked was a beautiful thing. I mean, I knew it would be since I’d seen him naked before, but it—he—was even more compelling in the flesh. Fantastic. I was so excited to have him, flames were igniting all through my body, down to my toes. Although...

  “Wait!” I called out, putting my hands up and waving at Gavin like an air traffic controller.

  He pulled away, panting. “What’s the matter?”

  “We should be making more noise! You especially. We haven’t been making much noise since I walked in here. You should be really, really loud. You know.”

  He sat back. “Um, Eden, no, I don’t know. What are you saying?” His voice was husky with need, and he flicked his hair out of his face.

  “You know!” I jerked my head toward the cabin. “For the people outside the door! So they don’t think I’m bad at it. You have to make a lot of noise so they’ll think I’m doing a good job.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding.” He sounded more amused than annoyed this time, probably because he was starting to think that he would, eventually, get sex.

  “Well, I’ll make it worth your while. I’ll be sure to make you want to make a lot of noise. Believe me. I can do it. Just, you know, give me the benefit of some additional volume so my hard work gets recognized.” I smiled at him and raised my eyebrows suggestively.

  He laughed, picking me up and laying me flat under him. He leaned down and kissed my mouth hard.

  “You’ve got it,” he said when he came up for air. “I will sound—loudly—well-satisfied.”

  And he did.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The sex was fabulous. Mind-blowing. Transcendent. And Gavin made so much noise that I’m sure all of his staff members were very much impressed with me. I did hope that some of that noise was genuine, but Gavin assured me I’d rocked his world, so really the outcome was all great. As far as I was concerned, Corey’s theory about Gavin being gay was successfully disproven. Sorry, Corey.

  Gavin and I spent the flight in bed, sleeping and making love off and on. In between we ordered appetizers, entrées, and desserts that the flight attendant delivered to us from the chef. I hadn’t known it when I got on the plane, but Gavin’s plane staff was quite prodigious as well. He had a pilot, co-pilot, chef, and two flight attendants. I didn’t know whether our lovemaking noises had been loud enough for the pilots and chef to hear, but I was hoping that the staff who heard would tell the others. Hopefully, they’d all eventually know that I was winning in the competition for Gavin’s…heart.

  We got dressed and returned to our seats for landing. As we passed Gavin’s retinue, I received multiple looks from various staff members, which this time I interpreted as expressions of admiration and in the case of Gavin’s two assistants, the PR lady, and one of the beefy security guards, sheer envy. That’s right, staff people. I had sex with the man of my dreams, and I made him scream. Top that.

  Getting off the plane was as easy as getting on. No lengthy line for customs and no waiting for my bags on the baggage carousel. Instead, a customs agent came onto the plane and cleared us in no time. He also happened to be a big fan of Gavin’s, so Gavin posed for pictures and signed a head shot for the customs agent’s daughter.

  Tim was off the plane in record time and had the limo waiting for us with our luggage already loaded in the back by the time Gavin and I deplaned. I wondered how Tim had a limo here, too, and then decided that it was just one of those perks of being uber-rich. A limo in every port.

  Tim drove us to the Four Seasons George V Hotel and I nearly swooned—for something other than Gavin this time. Not only was the George V the hotel that Meg Ryan goes to in the movie French Kiss, which I’d seen dozens of times since it was one of my mother’s favorites, but it was also the most luxurious and best hotel in Paris. I should have expected nothing less from Gavin, but I kept feeling like I was going to wake up from a dream. Either that or I’d stop noticing all the fabulousness and start taking it for granted, and that might even be worse.

  Our suite at the George V was the penthouse where we had a 360-degree view of Paris, i
ncluding a balcony that looked right across the River Seine to the Eiffel Tower, or Tour Eiffel as they said here. It was so beautiful I wanted to cry. And did a little. All my life I’d longed to see the Eiffel Tower. And here I was. In Paris. In love.

  I unpacked, laying aside my dress for dinner, and then stepped out onto the balcony and into the Paris air. I took a deep breath of the delicious aroma of French cuisine cooking at one of the many restaurants on the street near our hotel.

  Gavin had been on the phone since we’d gotten to our room. I assumed his staff had dispersed to their own rooms with the exception of his security guards who were standing outside our door.

  The Eiffel Tower came alive with tiny twinkling lights against the Parisian sunset. Gavin ended his call and came up behind me, wrapping his arms around me. I sighed and leaned back, melting into his arms.

  “It’s so beautiful,” I breathed.

  “You really are,” Gavin said. He playfully kissed my neck, and a trail of fire ignited everywhere his lips touched. I turned around and faced him, winding my arms around his neck and kissing him in earnest.

  “Hmmm…this might have to wait until after dinner.” He pulled my arms from his neck and held my hands in his, tugging me toward him. “We have reservations at the Jules Verne in twenty minutes.”

  “Yikes! Why didn’t you say so?” I ran to the bathroom, scooping up my dress on the way. It was true that we’d just had sex and Gavin had already seen me naked, but the mad rush of getting ready was never attractive. At least not the way I did it. So I got changed in the bathroom with the door closed and locked.