Anyone But You: A BRAND NEW feel-good celebrity, second chance romance (Love is in the Air Book 2)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

‘Are you going to stay fastened in that grown-up highchair until we land again?’ Dylan shouted over the din of the engines as they took off once more.

Scarlett turned her head away, stared out of the window, but Dylan knew she was just pretending she hadn’t heard him. It was his one chance to talk to her, though, and he didn’t intend to waste it. The aircraft levelled out, but the captain didn’t switch off the seat-belt sign, and he wondered if Scarlett had asked him not to.

He unbuckled his seat belt anyway, and walked over to her, working on Scarlett’s theory that the customer was always right, and that she was unlikely to throw him off the aircraft.

Her lips compressed into a thin line, and she gripped her seat as if she expected it to catapult her up in the air.

‘It’s not turbulent anymore, Scarlett.’ He hunkered down next to her, nerves kicking in. He couldn’t afford to mess up again. ‘Come on, Scarlett, sit with me.’ She folded her hands tightly in her lap, and he recognised the signs: she was angry with him — or maybe even with herself. Either way, he knew he had his work cut out.

Surprising him, she unbuckled her seat belt and stood. ‘Coffee?’ Her voice quivered, and it gave him hope.

He watched as she gathered drinking paraphernalia together, guessing she wanted an excuse to move away from him. ‘Yes, please, one sugar.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘It hasn’t been that long.’

Blimey,he thought, she reallyis in a bad mood.

She rounded on him again as she stirred sugar savagely into his mug, whipping up a veritable whirlpool of coffee. ‘So, you’ve turned into a limousine kind of guy?’ She gave him a brittle smile, and he gave her a knowing look, right back. If she wanted to fight, he could handle it. It might even be fun.

‘For your information I don’t ask for them, they just keep turning up. Ten a penny, apparently.’ He grinned. ‘I wanted a Lamborghini like my friend Harrison, really.’

Scarlett didn’t crack a smile. Maybe she didn’t like the reference to Harrison, he thought. It wasn’t exactly a good phase for them both. He glossed over it. ‘I think someone must have done a deal with the agency, thinking it fitted in with my image. My nan nearly died of fright when I rocked up in it the other week. She thought the Mafia was coming to get her, and the driver wouldn’t get out of the car because she lives in a dodgy part of Lowestoft. I suppose there would be some good money to be made if you managed to jack a limo up onto bricks and nick the tyres.’

He sat back in his seat, as she handed him a coffee, his gaze trailing over her body, deliberately provocative. ‘You look good, considering.’

‘Considering what? No, wait, don’t answer that,’ she snapped as she sat down opposite him, nursing her own mug of coffee. Her brow furrowed and her lips tightened once more.

God, she was cute, and he couldn’t resist teasing her, just to see her chin jut out and her eyes flash that beautiful sea-green that he’d missed so much. ‘I don’t know why you’re mad at me. You were the one who walked out, remember?’

‘Yeah, like I really wanted to do that.’

He paused. ‘You didn’t? Then, why did you?’

‘Water under the bridge,’ she snapped, her lips compressing again. She glared at him. ‘Actually, things have really moved on for me, recently. I’ve got a new job in Dubai starting soon. I rented out my flat when I got the job in Liverpool.’

‘Really, you’re moving to Dubai?’ He already knew she’d moved out of her flat, but Dubai came as a shock. Still, he wasn’t daunted. She’d missed him, and he needed to remember not to let on that he knew that.

He was, however, intrigued by her performance earlier, when she’d seemed determined to shove her breasts and her very lush bum at him in that sexy uniform. Very nice it had been, too. He just wasn’t sure of her motivation — maybe he’d ask her about it later. Snapping his gaze away from her breasts, where it had wandered of its own free will, he forced himself to focus on her face.

‘Dubai, yes. How could I stay at StarJet after everything that happened?’

‘What happened at StarJet?’

‘I was “suspended” over the Angel Brothers thing.’ She did air quotes. ‘Pictures of me half-naked and visiting a known drug felon in a national newspaper don’t go down well in the corporate airline world, for some reason. Well, it certainly didn’t go down well in a certain person’s world, this time around. Notably, one Todd bloody Carrington who decided to make an issue of it, for his own agenda.’ Her mouth turned down in disgust.

He nodded slowly. ‘I saw someone brought out a biography about the Angel Brothers.’

‘Yes. Stupidly, naive me thought they were taking photos and dredging it all up again because Axel was out of jail but turns out it was a punt for the forthcoming book. The publishers probably paid the newspaper a fortune to print that load of garbage.’ Her chin jutted out again in that adorable way, but the hurt she carried was clear, in her voice and in her eyes.

He wanted to smooth away her anger and kiss away the pain she tried so hard to conceal. ‘I tried to find you — at StarJet. All they would say is that you left.’

She turned shocked eyes towards Dylan. ‘You tried to find me?’

‘Yes. I nearly hit the obnoxious Captain Carrington when I saw him. Why were you kissing him, Scarlett? You didn’t sleep with him, did you?’ Dylan’s possessive streak was always close to the surface, and he tried to moderate his voice, even as it pained him to ask her. He really shouldn’t have brought up the topic so soon, but the words were out and done and so had to be dealt with.

She looked angry again. ‘I’ve told you, he was no more than a colleague.’

He pressed his lips together, determined not to lose his cool. ‘So, why were you kissing him?’

She had the look of a cornered mouse in her eyes, and he prayed she wasn’t about to lie to him. He was pretty sure he’d know if she did.

Scarlett closed her eyes and swallowed, and he knew she wasn’t lying when she finally spoke. ‘I didn’t want to kiss him. He offered me an ultimatum, which was basically get promoted, or suspended.’

Dylan breathed out. It wasn’t as bad as he thought, though he’d always known Todd was a chauvinist, but she still hadn’t answered his question. ‘Scarlett, will you just tell me why you were on your doorstep kissing Captain fucking Carrington?’

Her eyes flashed once more, the scared mouse gone. ‘Not that it’s any of your business, but the deal he offered me included sleeping with him — unspoken, but it was there alright. And I wasn’t kissing him. He forced himself on me.’

‘What?’ Dylan’s body heated up in anger, and he clenched his fists. ‘I should have smacked him while I had the chance, the slimy bastard. You should have kneed him in the balls.’

Scarlett laughed. ‘That’s just what Louisa said.’

‘So, that’s why you left StarJet?’

‘That’s why I left and moved to Liverpool. It was the only job I could get at short notice.’ She turned puzzled eyes in his direction. ‘Why did you come to find me at StarJet and who told you I was here?’

‘We can talk about that later,’ Dylan said as he glanced at his watch, checking how long he had left with her.

‘What lateris this, then?’

He ignored her question. ‘You know these things are really good — Apple watches.’ He tapped his watch. ‘I’m amazed at the things they do. Natasha has one, too.’

‘I noticed, and actually, I think matching watches are really tacky.’

Dylan grinned and suppressed a guffaw.

Scarlett’s lips compressed even further until she looked like she wanted to punch him.

Good. She could get all her anger out before they landed, with a bit of luck. ‘Matching watches?’ He laughed harder and slapped his thigh. ‘Priceless!’

‘I don’t see what’s so funny.’

‘Do I look like a matching watches kind of person? Seriously?’ He laughed some more and wiped his eyes. ‘Oh, I love that. I must tell Natasha that one.’ He caught his breath and patted her knee. ‘No, it was another freebie. You wouldn’t believe the stuff they dish out to you, once you make a name for yourself. You don’t even have to promise to wear it, or eat it, or anything. Things just turn up, like those blasted limos. Anyway, some television agency sent me two watches, so I gave one to Natasha . . . who is my PA.’

Her face was a picture. Dylan loved it. She looked relieved and contrite, all at the same time. She must have been dreaming up some really nasty hexes on poor Natasha. He loved the way she tried to compose herself, shifting in her seat and straightening her shoulders. Scarlett blinked as she digested this news. ‘Oh . . . She’s not your girlfriend?’

His mouth twitched. ‘No, don’t be daft — she’s far too scary and efficient.’ Scarlett smiled thinly.

‘No, I have a different girlfriend. She’s very feisty. A bit of a pain in the arse, if I’m honest, but she keeps me on my toes.’

Scarlett’s fledgling smile dissolved. ‘Oh, I see.’

‘So, all is good, with you?’

‘Why are you doing this, Dylan? We said all we had to say months ago.’ She tilted her head away from him, but he could read the truth in her eyes.

‘You said all you had to say. I didn’t get a look in, once you’d made up your mind.’ He sighed as he turned towards the window where squares of green grass whizzed by, far below. They must be nearing the private airstrip Natasha had located earlier. ‘I suppose I’m being mean because I’m pissed off with you, and I want you to get an inkling of how much hurting I did over you.’

‘Well, I hope this makes you feel better because I feel like crap, too — especially since you showed up on my aircraft. So you win in the who made who feel the crappiest competition.’ She hugged her arms around herself and Dylan felt a slight twinge of guilt as he spotted tears glistening in her eyes. He wasn’t done yet, though. It would soon be time to put Plan B into operation, and he prayed it would put things right between them, for good.