Chapter 4 #2
“Here.” Jackson pulled a protein bar out of his pocket. “Eat this.”
“Come.” I grabbed Jasper’s arm, trusting that Jackson had the situation well in hand. “Let’s give them some space.”
“Are you sure we—” Jasper asked, seeming reluctant to leave.
“Come on.” I tugged on his arm. “Sloan is going to talk to her doctor, right?” She nodded, chewing some of the protein bar. “And Jackson—” I met his gaze “—will let us know if they need anything.”
Jackson nodded then returned his attention to Sloan.
Jasper hesitated a moment more then followed me into the hall. I shut the door to Sloan’s office softly behind me.
“Is this normal?” he asked, and I could see the concern etched into his features. “It doesn’t seem normal.”
“It’s not abnormal,” I assured him. “When I was pregnant with Kai, I experienced light-headedness. Especially during the third trimester. She’s going to be okay.”
“You don’t know that,” he said. “You can’t promise that.”
“You’re right. I can’t.” I placed my hand on his arm, wanting him to know that I was listening. I wasn’t dismissing his concerns, but I also wanted to calm him. “But Sloan has a good medical team and a loving partner. All we can do is support her and hope for the best.”
“I know.” He blew out a breath, his shoulders relaxing. “I need a distraction. What’s this meeting I promised to attend?”
“Sloan and I were supposed to meet with an art dealer to select some art for the newly refurbished presidential suite and the new Golden Key Penthouse.”
He nodded. “Ah. Yes. Okay. Where do we need to be and when?”
I pulled up the Maps app on my phone and typed in the address. A quick peek at the estimated arrival time as well as the amount of red snaking over the traffic map, infecting it like a virus, had me squeezing my eyes shut.
“There’s no way we’re going to make it to the meeting in time.” My shoulders slumped.
I’d told Sloan we could reschedule, but I’d only said it to keep her calm. This art dealer was a stickler for punctuality, and if I was late, he wasn’t going to see me.
“Show me,” Jasper said.
I handed him my phone. He nodded, his entire demeanor focused. “Can you contact the art dealer and see if we can have permission to land a helicopter?”
“What?” I widened my eyes.
“You heard me.” He handed the phone back to me, and I immediately texted the dealer.
When I looked up, Jasper was already halfway down the hall. “I… where?” I tracked his movements. “Where are you going?”
“Helipad. Come on.”
Helipad? He couldn’t be serious. Could he?
I practically had to run to catch up. He stopped in front of a private elevator I hadn’t even noticed, it was so discreet. Jasper placed his palm on a scanner then punched a button marked “H.” This was serious James-Bond-level shit. I glanced at Jasper askew. The hell?
The elevator climbed up and up, and when the doors opened, bright sunlight poured into the small vestibule. Jasper put on a pair of sunglasses, and I did the same. Through the glass doors, I spied a gorgeous navy helicopter, its gold accents glinting in the afternoon sun.
I scanned the roof, noticing that we were alone. “Where’s the pilot?”
“You’re looking at him.” Jasper grinned from behind his aviators.
Jasper was a pilot? How did I not know this? I kept waiting for him to tell me he was joking.
“Come on.” He grabbed my hand but quickly dropped it.
It didn’t matter how brief the contact had been; my skin was branded by his touch. My breath hitched. “I—”
“Sor—” he started to say at the same time, and I waved it away.
“Are you sure you’re in the right frame of mind to fly?” I asked, thinking of how worried he’d been for Sloan only minutes ago.
“If I weren’t, I wouldn’t fly. I don’t fuck around with safety, especially not when it comes to you.”
I—what?
I ignored the butterflies that fluttered in my stomach at his statement.
I wanted to argue that his love of sports cars contradicted that, but then I remembered how insistent he’d always been that I wear my seat belt. Or the way he’d gently guide me away from the street when we walked together.
In ways both big and small, Jasper had always looked out for me. Protected me. If he said he was focused, then I believed him.
“Let’s go.” I practically shouted, crossing the helipad as quickly as I could.
I was determined to get to that meeting, and my adrenaline was pumping. It wasn’t until he’d opened the passenger door and I’d climbed in that I started to panic about the fact that we were going to be flying in a tiny aircraft with nothing more than a giant fan holding us aloft.
Jasper shut the door then rounded the aircraft, doing what I assumed was a preflight check. Finally, he climbed inside the cockpit, and suddenly, it felt a whole lot smaller. His cologne permeated the space, and I inhaled slowly, allowing a sense of calm to settle over me. Or at least, I tried to.
He checked the controllers and then told me to put on my headset. He placed his helmet with a built-in headset over his ears, but I was frozen. Maybe this was a bad idea. I mean…a helicopter?
“Are you sure this is safe?” I asked around a tight knot of fear.
“Halle,” he said, waiting until I turned to look at him. “Do you trust me?”
I held his gaze, and then I nodded. I did trust Jasper. He’d always treated me with respect. He’d always been honest. And he’d always put my needs first.
That reminder had me clenching my thighs together. Seriously, Halle? Now?
I told myself the threat of dying was the only reason I was thinking about sex. I mean, wasn’t that a thing?
“I promise to keep you safe,” he said, and it felt like he was talking about more than the impending flight.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat and nodded. “Okay. Let’s do this.” I placed my matching helmet over my head, my gaze snagging on him.
He looked like danger and money and sex. And I shouldn’t have been attracted to that, but something about the way he’d taken charge, coupled with the way he’d stopped to check in with me, had those butterflies swirling in my stomach.
My phone buzzed in my lap. “Sloan says thank you. She’s going home to rest.”
“Good,” Jasper said through the headset. His voice was in my ear, and it was…unnerving. “Any update from the owner?”
I nodded, my attention on my phone. “He said there’s a field behind the warehouse where you can land.”
“Perfect.”
“Right. But, um, don’t you need a flight plan or something? I didn’t think you could just take off in a helicopter like you can with a car.”
The corner of his lips curled into a smile. “You don’t need a flight plan as long as you’re using visual flight rules and flying below 18,000 feet.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded.
Jasper flipped some switches, and the blades whirled to life. He rattled off some information into his microphone, alerting air traffic control that he was going to take off and requesting VFR, which I assumed stood for visual flight rules.
Oh my god. We’re really doing this. He’s going to fly this thing.
I braced myself as we lifted into the air, the ground disappearing far below. I’d never flown in a helicopter, but it was a lot smoother than I’d expected. Slowly, I released my grip on the leather seat, relaxing as I grew more accustomed to the sensation.
Once we seemed to have reached our flying altitude, I chanced a glance over at him…and immediately regretted it. The man was hot on a normal day. But Jasper sitting at the controls of a helicopter, radiating confidence and control from behind his aviator sunglasses, was devastating.
Hoooly shit. How did I not know this about him?
He met my eyes briefly. “You good?”
I nodded, unable to hold back a smile at the absurdity that was my life. I was flying over the Hollywood sign with my billionaire boss, who happened to be a badass helicopter pilot. And I got to go shopping for art—for my job. Talk about a dream come true.
“It’s fun, right?” he asked, glancing over at me.
Now that I’d gotten over the initial shock of being in a helicopter, I could admit that it was pretty cool.
“Definitely.” God, Kai would love this. I couldn’t wait to tell him I’d gotten to fly in a helicopter. He was going to freak!
Jasper smiled a boyish smile, and his dimple popped.
“How long have you had your pilot’s license?” I asked, mostly out of curiosity, but also to distract myself from the sight of him.
“I’ve had a helicopter rating for the past ten years. And my private pilot license since I was eighteen.”
My attention jerked to him. “I… I had no idea. Is that what you wanted to be—a pilot?”
He turned, smooth and arcing. “No.” He laughed.
“Then why go through all that training?”
“Fear can be a powerful motivator,” he said in a quiet voice.
“Fear?” I asked, frowning.
The sun glinted off the windscreen, Jasper’s voice crackling through the headset. “After my parents’ crash, I was terrified of flying. But I also loved to travel. And I knew that flying was an inescapable part of my life.”
I placed my hand to my throat, my heart aching for him. For the family he’d lost and the fears he’d had to overcome.
“My gran suggested I learn more about airplanes to help with my fear. And that led to me wanting to get my pilot’s license. I absolutely fell in love with it. I loved learning something new. I craved the sense of control.”
“That’s both understandable and admirable.”
“I had no idea you were this easy to impress,” he teased. “Maybe I should’ve taken you for a helicopter ride sooner.”
I rolled my eyes, not that he could see them behind my sunglasses. “I’m not impressed.” When he turned to me, eyebrow raised in challenge, I said, “Okay. Maybe a little impressed.” I held up my thumb and forefinger. “You have to land us safely first.”
“Then you’ll be impressed.” I wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement.
“We’ll see,” I said, trying not to laugh.
“I hadn’t planned on getting my helicopter license, but I was sick of LA traffic. And if I’m in the air, I want to be the one in control.”
It wasn’t the only place he liked being in control, but I didn’t mention that. I didn’t have to, judging by the heated way he was looking at me. I squirmed in my seat, feeling my skin heat.
“Eyes on the sky.” I straightened in my seat, adopting a prim posture.
Sloan was relying on me, and I wanted to prove that Jasper and I could work well together. Or maybe I just needed the reassurance.
“What about the private jet?” I asked, trying to keep our conversation focused on work-appropriate topics. “You don’t typically fly that, do you?”
“No, but I rigorously review the flight plan and the crew.”
I knew the plane crash had affected Jasper and his siblings—how could it not? He’d lost his parents and his aunt and uncle in one cruel, tragic accident. But I hadn’t realized how deeply scarred he was by it until now.
Something from his childhood, from decades past, had such a profound impact on him. Understandably so. And it made me wonder how Kai would feel about the divorce as he got older. Would it push him to avoid love or romantic relationships? Would he find it difficult to trust?
“There it is,” Jasper said, breaking me out of my thoughts.
We gradually descended until we landed in a field next to the warehouse. As the blades slowed, their incessant buzz whirling to a stop, I removed my helmet.
“Are you okay?” Jasper asked, removing his helmet. “You got quiet on me there at the end.”
I forced a smile, opening the door. “I’m great.”
Even from behind his sunglasses, I could feel him studying me. Someone emerged from the warehouse to greet us, and I was grateful for the escape—from my thoughts, from the proximity to Jasper. Because his admissions had me making some of my own.
I wasn’t comfortable with the way Craig had treated me, and I didn’t want my son growing up thinking that was okay. I also didn’t want Kai to be afraid of love and connection. To avoid it or become jaded because of how I’d responded in the wake of the divorce.
And if I didn’t want Kai to follow in his parents’ footsteps—at least how they’d been up to this point—then I had to show him another way. A different way.