Chapter 28
K aplan just kissed me when I told him I didn’t read suspense, only straight-up romance that has a bit of a dirty twist to it. He thought I was kidding. I play innocent and physically, I kind of am, but total overshare time, I enjoy MMF books. But he doesn’t have to know that.
I digress.
Because Kaplan stays quiet as we drive through Boston, the signs becoming obvious as we hit the tunnel.
The airport. A deranged, almost sickly, excited feeling I’ve been trying to minimize since he told me to pack explodes and suddenly, I’m bouncing like a six-year-old who was just told she’s going to Disney World.
Wait.
I spin to face him, my hands still glued to the window. “Are we going to Disney World?”
He gives me the don’t be absurd look. And right. Can’t be naked at Disney. Steals the whole magic of the place.
“Do you ever sit still?” he comments dryly, his face still on that damn screen of his.
“Honestly, no. We can try to blame it on the ADHD, but right now, I’m a fourteen-year-old with his first hooker.”
“What?”
“Legit, I don’t even know. Two seconds ago, I was thinking about Disney World and my mind just flew right off the Mine Train.”
With a chuckle, he takes my hand, finally tucking his phone into his pocket. That’s all he does as the car weaves through Logan airport to the private side where the jets are smaller, sleeker, and increasingly more expensive.
We stop in front of an impressive plane that’s all white with gold-rimmed windows. The door opens and I peer up at Axl as he extends his hand to help me out. “Are you coming with us?”
“On the plane and a little beyond that. After that it’s just the two of you.”
Oh. Oh!
Now, I’ve been a rich girl all my life. But my wealth has been strange.
It’s been in the form of trust funds bestowed upon me by my birth father and then my stepdads.
It was never a life of dripping diamonds and swimming in champagne, much to my mother’s chagrin.
I mean, I never wanted for anything. Far from it.
I had everything I ever needed, never needed, and more.
My stepdads are very wealthy, and they buy me stuff and we lived an incredible life.
But my wealth is the accumulation of the men who loved and raised me.
And it’s not something I spend all that often. I simply live off the dividends from investments when needed. Most of the time, I try to make do with what I’ve got.
So flying on a private jet… That’s all Abbot-Fritz and it’s all new for me.
“Is this yours?” I hiss to him as he helps me up the small ladder and we meet Allegra, the flight attendant and Mike, the pilot.
“My family’s.” Kaplan slips onto a cream-colored leather bench, kicks his ankle up over his opposite knee and pretends to ignore me while I ogle everything in sight, though I can feel him watching me out of the corner of his eye.
The smirk on his lips that he’s trying so hard to hide tells me that he finds me amusing and I can’t help that.
“Is this to impress me, or is this just how you roll?”
“Do I need to impress you?”
I shake my head. “No,” I tell him honestly.
“Good,” is all he says and leaves it at that.
It’s gorgeous on here. Long and not as narrow as I would have imagined, the main cabin consists of twenty or so seats that vary between benches and deep-cushioned chairs.
There are tables, an eating area, a bar and a small kitchen at the far back, as well as an office with monitors, two mounted televisions, what appears to be two bathrooms, and… “Is that a bedroom?”
“Hmmm.”
Wow. Just wow. “It’s nice.” I go to take the seat across from him only to have him snatch my waist and drag me down beside him.
“Nice?”
“I guess. You know. If you’re into this sort of thing.”I scrunch my nose and he grins at me.
“Not impressed?”
“I thought you weren’t trying to impress me. Because if you are, there are easier and cheaper ways.”
He shakes his head, leaning over and nipping at my earlobe while sucking on my earring. “I’m not trying to impress you. This was easier than attempting to book a commercial flight and dealing with the timing of all that. I told you what this is.”
“You did.” I beam at him. I don’t think I’ve stopped. “Thank you. I don’t even know where we’re going or what we’re doing, but I’m already having the best time.”
His lips press to mine. “Being with you is the best time. This just makes it easier for us to do that.”
His hand slips between my thighs and I smack him away.
“Oh no. No mile-high club, mister.”
He chuckles, returning his hand to the same spot. “That’s Doctor and why not exactly?”
Why not exactly? “People will hear us,” I hiss, glancing around at Axl and Slash and Allegra, who are all grinning knowingly at me.
Another chuckle. “Only if we do it right.”
Oh.
The plane starts to pick up speed, racing down the runway until it lifts in the air, my stomach going along with it. I grip his arm, holding on even though I’m belted now.
His lips tickle my neck just below my ear.
“Relax, baby. Have a drink. Have some dinner. We’ve got three and a half hours and even though fucking you in a tiny bathroom or even on the bed with a host of witnesses within hearing range does have its appeal, I’m more anxious for what I have planned for us after. ”
Oh boy.
I turn to him, chewing on my lip. “Have you done this a lot? Flown women to unknown destinations for the night or weekend?” I’m not even being snarky. Just genuinely curious if this is how a Fritz operates. A Kaplan Fritz at that.
His thumb glides up and down the column of my neck, his gaze earnest and intense. “You’re the first.” Something in his eyes sparkles when he says that, lighting my soul up with their shine.
I kiss him. Letting him feel just what all of this means to me. How special he makes me feel. How… loved. We haven’t said those words, nothing even remotely close and I know that’s not what this is. It’s far too soon for any of that.
But this month and a half with him has been the best of my life. Even when we were fighting, and I swore to all that is holy, I hated him. I’m trying not to think. I’m trying to focus on the now. But with Kaplan, I’m starting to want all the things. Picture all the things.
And I don’t know how to stop it.
His hand grips mine and then I settle in only to wake with a jolt when the plane touches down hours later.
My eyes snap open, my head listing on his shoulder with an awesome wet spot of drool staining the dark blue of his shirt just past my lips.
I blink up at him, my cheeks flaming, but all he does is kiss my forehead followed by the tip of my nose.
“Sorry.” I nibble sheepishly on my lip as I try to wipe away some of the evidence.
“You’re fine. Stella drools way worse than that.
The first time I let her fall asleep on me, she was four and her mother had recently died.
She spent the whole night sleeping on me, woke screaming any time I tried to move her.
My T-shirt was soaked by dawn. It became a thing with her for a while and I went through a lot of shirts. ”
There are far too many things in that statement to focus on.
Him letting his tiny, brokenhearted niece sleep on him—I remember when Landon’s wife died, it was only a year after Forest did.
The fierce way he cares for and protects his family and those he loves.
The sexiness he exudes without trying or even caring if he is.
The way he goes to extremes to keep his life private and out of the spotlight when all the world wants is a taste of him.
But knowing him… the real him… he’s impossible not to love.
All his jagged ends and sharp pieces fit together to make the most incredible man.
One I’m growing day by day to realize I don’t want to lose or let go of. Not again.
The plane taxis and suddenly the door to the cabin opens, the ladder lowering. I stretch, the scent of warm air, flowers, and… possibly the ocean filtering in through the door along with a balmy heat that attaches itself to my skin and hair.
“Where are we?” I ask, squinting out the door into the darkness of night. Standing up, I watch while Axl and Slash go about getting our things. I have no idea what time it is, all I know is that it’s well past dinnertime, and I slept through it.
“Key West.”
“Key West? For real? Like Margaritaville Key West?”
“Yes, but this isn’t where we’re staying.”
“It’s not.” I can’t help the frown, only to realize how ridiculous it is.
I’m in the Florida Keys with Kaplan. What could possibly be bad?
He could take me to a hostel and it would still be amazing.
We exit the plane, another large, black car waiting for us, and a girl could get used to traveling like this.
He doesn’t even bat an eye and why would he?
He’s a billionaire who comes from a family of billionaires.
Hell, his parents’ families were billionaires even before they married.
Sliding in beside him, I let out an embarrassingly loud yawn and he wraps his arms around me, tucking me back into his shoulder.
“You must not care about your shirt.”
I feel his smile as he kisses the top of my head. “Tired still?”
“Honestly, no. I’m too excited now to be tired.”
“Do you know one of the things I love most about you?” he whispers into my ear, and my eyes shoot open wide, staring straight ahead, unblinking.
My heart just started a mariachi band. I lick my lips and take a breath and when I’m positive I can control my voice, I say, “No. What?”
“You have such a pure, honest heart. Your cousin betrayed you with your fiancé and threatened both of us and yet you still tried to help her. I heard you tell Jenny that she could be better than chasing a billionaire, and she plowed right past that. Most people wouldn’t have even tried to get through to them. ”
“Yeah, well, a lot of good trying to help Ava did and Jenny is a nasty person, but part of me feels sorry for her. Even if she was scheming for you.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. You’re you. You’ve always been you.”
I tilt my head up to him, my eyebrows pinched. “What do you mean? Who else would I be?”
His fingers tickle along my face as he stares into my eyes.
“The fact that you’re confused by that is what I love about you.
There is no artifice to you. No bending or attempting to conform to what someone else wants you to be.
If you’re afraid of something, you say it.
If you’re embarrassed or make a mistake, you own it.
You laugh and smile and genuinely see the best in everyone with no judgment.
I’ve told you before that you wear your heart and mind on your sleeve, and I love that you don’t even attempt to hide or change that.
” He sighs, his sweet breath coasting over my lips.
“I’ve never had that with a woman before.
They’ve always tried to be something or someone else.
They’ve always been women like Jenny. It’s all been an act, but with you, I can be me—something I’ve never been with anyone outside of my family—and you can be you and it’s just… natural.”
“I never knew how to do that. Be something I’m not. Ava and Tod mastered that art, and I had no clue. It’s why people view me as weak and naive. A pushover. Little helpless Bunny who can’t take care of herself.”
“I don’t see you that way. I think you’re one of the strongest, bravest, smartest, most capable women I know.
Being yourself takes courage. I convinced myself I was better off being alone.
That after all the bullshit, after all the years, it was just easier.
I’ve never been with anyone who is genuine. Who was with me for me.”
I scrunch my nose. “I find that very hard to believe.”
“I’m not saying they didn’t like me to a certain extent.
I’m saying that they liked what I could provide for them more.
Jewelry, clothes, front-row concerts or sporting events, celebrity meetings, a certain level of fame, social ladder climbing, bragging rights, whatever it was. It was always something.”
I nod numbly, at a total loss for words.
“I gave up. Detached. Swore off love and relationships altogether. A point that was only solidified when I saw all that my brothers went through with it. It was easier to use all of that as an excuse than to try and weed through the miasma of women for something legitimate.” His hand comes up and his features soften as his eyes dance about my face.
“Then I met you, B. You have me rethinking things I swore I’d never rethink. ”
My breath hitches and he smiles when he hears it.
Our foreheads press together, his nose gliding back and forth along mine. “I’m crazy about you.”
I swallow. Clear my throat. It’s no use. “I’m crazy about you too,” I croak.
“Good. Because we’re here.”
“What?”
Snapping toward the window, I peer out, climbing over Kaplan in the process. The door opens and I practically go tumbling out, only to have Slash catch me and help me up.
“I hope your sea legs are steadier than that,” Kaplan quips, but I’m too busy staring at where we are to care about his teasing me over my less than graceful exit.
“You’re taking me on a boat? Which one?” Only the second the words leave my mouth, I know exactly which boat it is. There is a massive sailboat down at the very far end of the dock. It’s long. Sleek. Has two colossal white sails raised high in the air and cool blueish-purple lighting in the water.
Kaplan comes in behind me, his chest to my back. His arm slips around my waist and he points to the one I was just marveling at. “That pretty lady.”
“You can steer that thing all by yourself? She’s huge.”
A kiss on my neck. “No. There’s staff on board. I’ll steer some though during the day. I’ll teach you how and then this summer I’ll take you on my smaller sloop and then we can really feel the ocean move.”
Oh god. “Am I going to get seasick? My mother does.”
“This is a luxury yacht, so even though you’ll feel her move, she’s not that fast and has a more balanced hull. I brought stuff with me for you just in case though. I remember you mentioning that about your mom.”
“How many does she sleep?”
“Fourteen plus up to ten crew.”
Wowzers.
I spin in his arms, wrap mine around his neck and kiss the hell out of him. “Can we go on?”
“She’s ours to do with as we like,” he breathes against me.
“What’s her name?”
“Amphitrite.”
My eyes glitter as I spin back around and face her. “Goddess of the sea. Poseidon’s wife. Queen of the ocean.”
“That’s the one. Come on. The sooner I get you on there, the sooner I can get you naked.”