Chapter 6
Chapter six
A Few Minutes Later
Her mouth has been on mine long enough for the rest of the cabin to disappear.
My world’s narrowed to heat, breath, and the taste of chocolate and champagne lingering on her lips.
Easing back, the reality of our situation comes into focus. Gold leaf glints under the light. Two porcelain ramekins sit abandoned between us, dessert forgotten.
For a moment I simply look at her.
Sky’s lips are flushed. Her amber eyes hold the same fierce intelligence I’ve known for years, yet the control she wears like armor is slipping. The strand of purple hair has fallen loose along her cheek and she doesn’t move to fix it.
God, she’s perfection.
I press the call button on the armrest, my thumb barely making a sound. Almost instantly, the attendant appears at the doorway. She steps in on silent-soled shoes, her posture so composed it’s as if discretion is stitched into her uniform. She reads the moment without a word.
“Could you clear this.” I gesture at the place settings. “We won’t need anything else for a while.”
She nods once and moves forward, efficiently collecting plates and glasses, folding linen and extinguishing the candles. In less than a minute the table looks untouched.
Throughout, Sky’s gaze drifts from my eyes to the lines of my jaw and back again, searching for the calm I reserve for every high-stakes negotiation.
When the curtain behind the attendant closes, the hush in the cabin deepens.
We’re essentially alone.
I rise first. Not abruptly. Enough movement to break the spell.
I reach for hers without thinking.
She pauses a heartbeat, not from fear but from consideration. Then laces her fingers through mine. Her skin is warm and familiar. A current sparks where our hands meet.
Hot. Familiar. Electric.
Together, we move past the dining nook back to the forward lounge. The two deep-set leather seats now face the porthole windows revealing a black expanse, pinpricked only by distant stars.
I sit, and Sky allows me to guide her, but instead of taking her spot beside me, she turns and settles onto my lap.
Her knees hook around my hips. The sensation of her weight on me sends a shockwave of desire through every nerve.
My hands instinctively find her waist, palms gripping the gentle curve of her hip bones over the smooth fabric of her skirt.
Our lips meet, slow at first, testing the space we’ve finally closed. I tighten my hold, feeling the shift when she gives in completely. The kiss deepens, no hesitation left, only heat and the quiet certainty we’ve both been denying for years.
The jet sways in an air pocket with a gentle puff of turbulence, and she’s jostled closer, breath still hot on my mouth. Her lips taste of champagne and a wave of emotion nearly overwhelms the moment.
I’ve wanted this for so long, I’d almost convinced myself I’d forgotten the ache.
Her fingers creep into my hair. At first tentative, then curling in with firm insistence. I trace the vertical seam of her blouse along the warmth of her back, mapping the slope of her shoulders, the small arch of her spine, every familiar angle.
She sways her hips deliberately, grinding on my hard cock. A low groan slips from me before I can swallow it. An involuntary confession of how badly I want to be naked and inside her.
Sky freezes, eyes wide, breasts rising and falling in rapid pulses. Then she rocks her hips again, slower this time. Purposeful. I tighten my hold on her waist, needing her anchored to me. The warmth of her pussy along my shaft is maddening.
With her forehead resting against my cheek, she inhales, steadying herself as she undulates. Holy fuck. This feels amazing. Imagine how it’ll feel to plunge into her wet heat.
“We need to talk,” she whispers, voice trembling but firm.
Reluctantly, I reposition her so I can look into her eyes.
Because she’s right.
She stays seated in my lap while she searches my face the way she always does when she needs truth. “We never actually talked about that night.”
Fifteen years of memory flicker behind her eyes.
“No,” I concede.
Her hand hovers above my chest before her palm flattens over my heart. “I thought you wanted to forget what happened.”
“I thought you did.” I quirk a brow. “You shoved me into the friend-zone first thing the next morning.”
She studies me for a long moment, absorbing my words.
We’ve devoted our friendship to remain silent on this subject. Dinner after dinner. Shared jokes. Shared history. Everything except the one moment which forever changed how I saw her. Maybe, how she saw me.
Her index finger lightly flicks my chest. “I was terrified everything would change.”
“But, everything already had.” The words come out before I can soften them.
She inhales sharply.
My hands drift slowly from her waist, along her back. I pull her closer until no space remains between us. Her heartbeat gallops almost as fast as mine.
“If we…um. If we do this, I don’t want it to be another night we never speak about again,” Sky murmurs into my ear.
I take her face between my palms. “Trust me. It won’t be. I don’t want that either.”
“You sound very certain.” Her eyes narrow a bit.
“I am.”
She watches me carefully, looking for hesitation.
There isn’t any.
Her hips rotate again. The motion almost unconscious now, and pressure between us builds until it’s impossible to ignore.
Her breath stutters. “I need to know.”
“Ask.”
Her voice drops to a whisper. “Do you want to fuck me tonight?”
“Yes.”
My affirmation lands solidly between us.
Her shoulders relax a fraction. “Zach, for me there’s no going back.”
“Sky, baby, there never was.”
She nods and kisses me slowly this time. Not collision.
Recognition.
Her mouth moves with mine with patience born from years of knowing each other. My hands tangle into her hair to hold her in place as I deepen our connection.
As far as I’m concerned, this entire aircraft has shrunk to the space between us.
When we part again her breathing is uneven. So is mine.
Her fingers stroke the back of my neck. “Can we move this to somewhere more private?”
“Are you sure?” I caress her cheeks with my thumbs.
She nods, unable to speak.
I stand. She doesn’t climb off my lap.
Her legs tighten instinctively around my waist. I lift her and her arms drift around my shoulders as if she’s done this a hundred times.
I carry her down the aisle. The forward lounge fades and the door to the aft suite closes behind us with a quiet click. Her eyes shine now with something deeper than nervousness.
Something hopeful.
Fierce.
“Tell me this is real.” She nuzzles my neck.
“The real-est.” I set her down and take her hands in mind.
She steps into me again, closing distance without hesitation.
For the first time in fifteen years, I’m not holding anything back.