CHAPTER 21
Ian
“Wanna fuck?”
The petite blonde teetered in her sky-high heels, her hair cascading in waves over her sequined silver dress. Her bright pink lips curved into a sultry smile, and she regarded Ian like a cat sizing up its prey before pouncing.
Ian’s gaze moved from the purple cocktail in her hand to her green eyes, an olive, swampy color. “Your sash reads, ‘Bride.’”
“Yeah.” She giggled. “I’m getting married next week. This is my last chance to do something wild. Or someone wild.”
Ian swirled the cognac in his glass. “And out of all the men in this bar, you chose to come to me.”
“I chose to come with you. How many times can you make me come tonight?”
“Zero.”
She pouted. “Why?”
“Not what I’m here for.”
“I have a mouth that doesn’t quit.”
“Good for your fiancé.”
She took a big gulp of her drink. “You’re really handsome, do you know that?”
If he had a dollar for every time he’d heard that in the past month, he’d have more money than his friend Devon. “Thanks.”
Before he knew it, she’d slithered into his lap, her hands sliding to his shoulders.
“You’re most welcome.” She giggled. “Welcome in my room, that is. I’m in 1535.
” She peered up into his face, grinding hard into him.
“I can tell you have a smokin’ bod underneath those clothes.
” She leaned in to whisper in his ear. “I want to take them off and lick every inch of you.”
“What would your fiancé think?”
“Honestly? He’d probably want us to make a video for him to watch.”
God, his body was beginning to react to her rubbing herself against his groin, and he wanted no part of this. Ian set down his snifter with a clink. Gently but firmly, he gripped her by the waist and stood, placing her on her feet and steadying her as she tottered.
“I’m flattered,” he began, “but—”
“There you are, honey! I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” a woman’s voice said.
Angie sidled up to Ian and swooped in to kiss his lips. “Traffic was a nightmare. Damned conventions.” She turned to bestow a brilliant smile on the brazen woman. “Who’s this?”
“This is …” Ian raised a questioning brow.
“Stephanie. And I didn’t know you had a girlfriend,” she said accusingly, her lower lip protruding.
“You didn’t ask.” Ian couldn’t hold back a grin.
Stephanie shot Angie a dirty look, then whirled and left in a huff, the purple liquid sloshing in her glass to spill some on the floor.
Ian lowered himself back into his armchair and motioned to the bartender, raising his empty glass. The man nodded and quickly went about getting another drink.
“Thought I might find you here again.” Angie tipped her head and looked down at him, hands on her hips. “It’s not good to drink alone.”
He ignored her comment. “Thank you for saving me. You didn’t have to, but I’m glad you did. The kiss was over the top, though.”
“But it worked.”
“It did. Have a seat.” He motioned to the chair across from him.
She eyed his empty snifter. “Are you even supposed to be drinking? We have a long trip tomorrow.”
“Eight hours, bottle to throttle. Our flight to Japan isn’t until the afternoon. Besides, I’m celebrating.”
“You know Adam’s rule is ten hours.” She smiled at his nonchalant shrug. “What are you celebrating?”
“One month of employment at LarsAir.”
“Has it been a month already?”
“It has.”
“It went by fast. Faster for you, I’m sure. How long do you intend to keep this breakneck pace? Anyone else would have keeled over by now.”
He’d been busy getting type rated in all of Adam’s planes. Between that and taking every long-haul flight that could be had, he’d barely had time to breathe. Or think.
“That’s why my brother wanted me,” he said. “I can even outwork him.”
“That’s saying a lot.”
“I know.”
Her gaze caught his and held it. “Need a release?”
He smirked. “Is that your way of asking me if I want a fuck?”
She laughed. “That’s what I’ve always liked about you. No runaround. Just straight to the point.”
“Straight arrow, that’s me.”
“Oh, I remember that straight arrow of yours.” Her blue eyes turned sultry, and she lowered her voice. “It gave me pleasure. A lot of pleasure.”
The bartender appeared with Ian’s second Hennessy. “Anything else, Mr. Larssen?”
“Thank you, Brandon.” He accepted the snifter and gestured toward Angie, who, shifting in her seat, managed to raise her skirt a little more. “Anything the lady wants.”
Angie gave Brandon her most dazzling smile. “Cosmopolitan, please. With pear liqueur instead of triple sec.”
“Yes, ma’am. Good choice.” Brandon beamed and gave her a little bow, his eyes lingering on her cherry-red lips before he turned to do her bidding.
“Well, you just gave him a fine boner.” Ian took a sip of his cognac, regarding her over the rim of his glass.
“Would you like one?”
The woman was relentless.
“Just what are you after, Angie?”
“You.”
Ian said nothing.
Angie’s smile was wicked. “The Ian I knew was insatiable. I seem to remember you outlasting me.”
Yeah, well, I’m no longer that guy.
“Come on, Ian. You’ve been working nonstop for weeks. A man like you has to have a release, and I’m more than willing to give it to you, no strings attached.” She focused on his mouth and squeezed her thighs together. “I need a release too.”
Why did that sound familiar?
Use me for sex.
Yeah, that had gone swimmingly. He raised the glass to his lips. The sip of cognac went down burning, tasting bitter.
“You’re a very nice woman, Angie,” he began.
“And?”
He already read disappointment in her eyes. “And you’re very attractive, and I had fun with you those times.”
“Five. Five times.”
She’d counted their dates? “Yeah, OK, five.”
“I hear a ‘but’ coming.” She pouted, and he had to admit she looked pretty when she pouted.
“But my head is in a different place right now.”
“So what? That’s not the head I wanted,” she muttered.
He had to laugh. “I do like you. But we are working closely together, and for both our sakes, I’d like to keep it professional.”
Brandon reappeared with her cosmopolitan, which she accepted with a flirty bat of her long eyelashes.
“I made this myself,” he told her.
She tipped her head. “Really?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “I wanted to make sure we got it right.” His eyes glittered as he watched her take a sip and run her tongue over her full lips.
“This is delicious. You nailed it.”
His chest puffed out with pride. “Um … I hope I’m not too forward, but”—he cast a furtive glance at Ian— “has anyone ever told you that you look exactly like Angelina Jolie?”
Her eyes widened in what Ian knew was fake surprise. He watched in amused fascination.
“Why, no! You think so?” She flipped her hair and fixed him with her heart-melting baby blues. “And do you think she’s pretty?”
“Not pretty.” Brandon flushed. Even the tips of his ears turned red. “I think she’s beautiful. You’re beautiful … um, hot. I mean …” he stammered, glancing at Ian again. “I’m not supposed to hit on customers.”
“I won’t tell a soul.” She took another sip of her drink, giving the rim of her glass a tiny flick of her tongue. “And neither will Mr. Larssen.”
Brandon bowed and hurried away, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just done.
“You’re trouble.” Ian chuckled.
“I’ve been told that once or twice.”
They discussed upcoming flights for a while. Ian contemplated a third cognac but decided against it. He’d been drinking too much lately, and it was time to stop.
Angie finished her cosmopolitan, set her glass down with a clink, and stood. “Well, I shot my shot. I’m going to my room. Alone.”
Ian raised a hand in parting. “See you tomorrow.”
With one last disillusioned look over her shoulder, Angie grabbed her handbag and began threading her way through the busy bar, earning appreciative looks from nearly every man whose chair she passed.
Ian watched the sway of her pert ass. Any one of those men would think him certifiable for having turned her down.
He drained the last of his drink, thankful for the numbing effect of alcohol, and resumed staring at the spot where he had first sighted Claire.
He didn’t even remember the last time he’d texted or talked to her.
He wondered how she was doing. What she was doing. Did she miss him? Think of him?
Fuck it.
He swiped up his phone and dialed. It rang several times, and he almost hung up.
“Hello?”
His chest warmed at the sound of her voice. “Hello, Claire.”
“Ian? I almost didn’t answer. I didn’t recognize the number.”
“Work phone.” He’d programmed her number into both.
“Oh. Is everything OK?”
She sounded sleepy, and he realized that with the time difference, it was after 1:00 a.m. in Florida.
He mentally cursed. “Sorry, I forgot it’s late there. Go back to sleep.”
“No, no, it’s fine.”
He heard the rustle of sheets and imagined her sitting up, her fiery hair cascading in a silken riot over her shoulders. He knew exactly what she looked like waking up. If he lived a hundred years, the image would remain emblazoned in his mind.
“How are you?” she asked.
Lonely.
“I’m good. You?”
She was silent for a moment. “I’m OK, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Mm-hmm.” He heard her exhale in a little sigh.
More silence, and Ian got the distinct feeling that something was wrong.
“Talk to me, Penny.”
“I don’t want to unload on you.”
“You know I’m always here to listen. Now, out with it.”
“It’s Mom.” Her voice wavered a little.
His heart sank.
“They found a match for her.”
Well, that was good news. Why did she sound unhappy?
Ian frowned. “That’s great.”
“It would be if they found the person.”
“I don’t understand.”
“NMDP hasn’t been able to get hold of them. They’ve been trying for weeks. Phone calls, emails … I think they even sent a letter. Jake says they might have changed their mind.”
His teeth gnashed at the mention of the doctor. “Let’s not jump to that conclusion. Maybe there’s a perfectly good reason why this person can’t respond.”
He heard a little sob. “The chemo didn’t work, Ian. The doctor says she needs the transplant, and they’ll need to do the kind where they harvest the marrow from the pelvis.”
Ian nodded. He’d read about this when he’d registered. There were two types of stem cell transplants: one where they used the donor’s blood and a second where they extracted tissue directly from the bone and used that to replenish the patient’s unhealthy cells.
He heard a sniffle. Great, not only had he woken her up, but now she was crying.
“I’m sorry, Penny,” he said softly. “Don’t give up hope.”
“It’s hard not to.”
“I know.” Her despondent voice was killing him. God, how he wished he could hold her.
She sniffed again. “Enough about me. How are you doing? Flying a lot?”
That was an understatement. “Day and night. And going to school.”
“School?”
“To get type rated. We have three different types of planes. I’m typed on one, but I have to learn the other two.”
“Learn how to fly them?”
“Not only that. The systems too, nose to tail. It takes three weeks minimum for each. I’m working on the second one.”
“Wow. I thought you were just flying everywhere.”
He chuckled. “I’m doing that too. I’m flying to Tokyo tomorrow.”
“Sounds like a lot.”
“It is.”
But it has helped to keep my mind off you.
“Any upcoming flights to Orlando?”
“LarsAir doesn’t fly there often, I’m afraid.”
“Oh.” Her voice was laced with disappointment. She was silent for a beat. “How’s Angie?”
He grinned. “She’s great.” Dared he hope Claire might be jealous? He’d seen the look she had thrown Angie at the airport. “When she isn’t trying to get in my pants.”
“Trying?”
Ian thought he detected a note of amused satisfaction in her tone. “Yes, Penny, trying.”
She was quiet for so long, he thought he’d lost her. “Is she failing?”
“Yes.”
And so had every other woman who’d attempted it. Claire had single-handedly taken a wrecking ball to his sex life. Because every woman he encountered was now compared to her and, inevitably, failed to measure up.
“I miss you, Ian.” Her voice was barely audible.
His heart began to pound. He’d waited so long to hear that from her. God.
“So, come to Vegas.”
She huffed a breath. “I can’t.”
“Why can’t you?”
“I got fired from my law firm.”
Shit. “What?”
“I took too long of a leave of absence. They gave me an ultimatum: I either return to Virginia right away, or they would have to let me go.”
Ian cursed under his breath. “That’s terrible. What are you going to do?”
“I already did. I managed to find a job locally. Not as good as the one I had, but at least it pays well.”
“You’ve moved to Orlando permanently, then?”
“It was a tough decision, but Mom may need long-term care, and I want to be close. I had my things delivered this week. Thank God for the Hogettes. They packed everything and hired the moving van too. They even had a yard sale for the things I didn’t need down here.
” She paused, and he pictured her smiling. “They sent my bike.”
“The Harley?”
“Mm-hmm. I’ve been riding a lot. It helps with all the stress.”
He grinned. “You never told me what it was.”
“It’s a Sportster 1200.”
“Let me guess. Red.”
“Wow, you’re good. How did you know?”
“I can’t picture you on anything else.” He thought he heard a muffled yawn. “You need to get some sleep.”
She groaned. “Sleep is so overrated. Imagine all the things we could do all night if we didn’t need to sleep.”
He couldn’t help it. He lowered his voice and said, “I don’t have to imagine, Penny. I can remember.”
She was silent for a few beats. “Well … good night, Ian.”
“Sleep tight.”
“And, Ian?”
“Yeah?”
“Next time, do FaceTime.”
He chuckled. “It could get raunchy if I did that.”
Her soft laugh was decidedly sultry. “Exactly.”
Ian waited to end the call until she hung up, then stared at his screen.
Dared he hope she was coming around? That would be …
no, he couldn’t go there. Believing he could have her and then it not happening would crush him.
And speaking of crushing, he wished she didn’t have such burdens on her shoulders.
He hated not being able to do anything to help her.
Ian frowned. By now, he should have received something from the bone marrow registry. It had been a while since he’d mailed his cheek swab for tissue typing. He’d checked his phone messages and email regularly but so far, nothing.
Huh.
On a hunch, he opened his email to the junk file and quickly scrolled down. There it was, an email from the National Marrow Donor Program. Ian opened it. It said they’d tried calling and couldn’t reach him.
Shit.
He’d listed his personal phone number. The one for the phone he’d never replaced. Their messages had been left there and gone unanswered.
He speed-read farther down.
And his jaw dropped.