Chapter Thirteen
The day I understood my sexual desires I learned how to fly.
Tonight, it’s time to teach Chloé how to soar.
~ Zayne
Lights from the runway signals and tarmac crew blinked in the distance as they approached the busy airport, and Chloé’s excitement grew.
Paris…
France…
She still couldn’t believe they’d convinced her fathers this was a good idea, but somehow they had, and now here she was.
It was like a dream. A perfect, romantic dream.
“How you doing over there, Red? Haven’t fallen asleep, have you?”
She looked at Zayne in the passenger seat beside her and grinned. “I couldn’t sleep now if I tried.”
“Excited?”
“Very. J’adorela France. Paris in particular. It’s like my home away from home.”
“Then you can show us around,” Ethan said from the front seat. “It’s all still relatively new to us.”
As the car approached the turnoff to the main terminals, it veered in the opposite direction to everyone else.
“Uh, where are we going?” Chloé asked. “I thought check-in was over there.”
“It is.” Ethan’s eyes crinkled at the sides. “If you’re flying commercial.”
“If you’re— Wait, we’re not flying commercial?”
“Nope.” Zayne reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. “We’re flying private. Very, very private.”
The look in his eyes made every nerve ending in her body tingle as the implications of eight hours in a small private space with them filled her mind. This trip just kept getting better and better.
The SUV went through a manned boom-gate and into a private terminal, then it came to a stop and they all climbed out. A man appeared from out of nowhere to load their luggage, and the next thing she knew, they were being ushered through check-in and security.
Within minutes, they were led outside toward a sleek jet that was sitting on the runway, its boarding steps down in invitation, and Chloé’s feet faltered.
Ethan and Zayne came to a stop beside her, frowns on their faces.
“Red?”
“I… It’s just…” She blinked as she looked past them to the private jet waiting on them. “How is this my life right now?”
Ethan tugged her forward and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Because you’re ours, and we will only accept the best for our girl.”
Chloé’s pulse skipped as he took a step back, and before she could say anything else, he headed toward the plane to talk to the crew.
Zayne held a hand out to her, and she slipped hers inside, falling into step.
“Do you two do this kind of thing often?”
“What’s that? Whisk gorgeous women away on private jets?”
“No.” She chuckled. “Fly to France on a private jet.”
“We’ve done it a couple of times now. But I have a feeling we will be adding a lot more miles since we finally closed on a place.”
Chloé nodded, still trying to wrap her head around the fact she was about to fly to France in anything other than business class.
She’d always known she’d grown up privileged.
With a famous father and another a silent partner in one of the most prestigious law firms in the city, she’d been very fortunate in life, something she never took for granted.
But this? A private jet? Traveling back and forth to Europe whenever you wanted to visit your pied-à-terre in Paris? That was a whole other level of wealth.
“Just how rich is Ethan?”
“Honestly? I don’t even think he knows.” Zayne squeezed her hand. “Come on, they’re ready for us.”
He led them over to where Ethan stood, and they all boarded the plane.
Chloé was ushered inside, where there was a four-chair setup. Beyond that were two couches facing one another and a closed-off section that she was dying to nose around in.
Before she could, though, she was directed to one of the four seats and told to buckle up for takeoff. She settled in by the window, and Zayne took the seat beside her, while Ethan sat opposite them.
“Do you like to fly?” Ethan asked as he slid up the shade.
“Definitely. I’ve been flying for as long as I can remember.” She looked out the window as the plane began to taxi toward the runway, a huge grin on her face. “But I’ve never flown private.”
“No?”
“Definitely not.”
“Good. We love being your first.”
“Sure do.” Zayne reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze.
Chloé flushed from head to toe as she thought about all the recent firsts they’d given her. “I love that too.”
“Hmm, maybe that’s something we should talk more about, then. I’m sure we could find some more firsts to explore while we’re in a city known for passion and romance.”
Ethan’s seductive tone had her heart beating a little faster as the plane came to a stop and Zayne reached over to smooth his hand across the belt at her waist.
“All buckled in nice and safe…for now.” She turned until their lips brushed. “Hold on tight, gorgeous. We’re about to take off.”
The engines fired up and the plane began to rumble as it sped down the runway and took off into the clear Chicago night.
The ascent was smooth and uneventful, just the way Chloé liked it, and by the time they were told they could unfasten their seatbelts, her stomach was beginning to growl.
“Hungry?”
She whipped her head in Zayne’s direction, horrified that he might’ve heard. “I am, yes.”
“Good. Me too.”
She let out a sigh of relief that her stomach hadn’t given her away as he got to his feet.
“You want anything?” he asked Ethan.
“I’m good food-wise, but I’ll take a whiskey on the rocks.”
“You got it.” Zayne headed through to the closed-off section behind their seats, and Chloé leaned over, trying to get a peek at what was back there.
“Would you like to go with him?”
She sat back up and shook her head, laughing. “No. I’m just being nosy. I’m new to fancy flying, remember?”
“So are we, for the most part. But I’m thinking if we keep this up, we might have to invest in one of these.”
“One of these? As in a plane ?”
“Seems to make the most sense, don’t you think? Who wants to try to sleep sitting up with a bunch of people around when they could have a bed at their disposal and a door for privacy.”
He had a good point, and she did like the idea of a bed and some privacy.
She licked her lips. “So, um, that’s what’s back there? A bed?”
“Yes. Would you like to see it?”
A yes was right there on her tongue, but then she remembered they weren’t the only ones on the plane. She glanced over her shoulder to where the flight attendant had disappeared to earlier, and Ethan chuckled.
“Don’t worry, I’ve asked the staff to give us our privacy. We won’t see them again until our descent.”
So that meant they were alone for the next seven hours or so? With a bed?
Was it getting hot in here? Or was it just her?
Zayne came out from the closed-off section with two bottles of water, a small charcuterie board full of cheese, crackers, and cold cuts, and a glass of whiskey.
Clearly a bed wasn’t the only thing back there. Even if it was now the only thing on her mind.
He placed the items down on the side table next to her, but instead of retaking his original seat, he moved into the spot beside Ethan. That was just fine by her—now she got to look at both of them.
“That enough?” he asked, handing her a napkin.
“It’s great.” She grabbed up a couple of toothpicks and speared some brie and gruyère, along with several grapes, and as she settled back and popped them in her mouth, she felt like a queen. The only thing missing was someone to feed her.
“I was just telling Chloé about what was behind the door back there.”
“Ah, okay.” Zayne leaned over and stabbed a piece of cheddar, a grin stretching his full lips. “Once we’re done here, we could always give her a tour.”
Ethan sipped his whiskey and eyed her over the glass. “That’s what I said.”
“What do you say, Red? Ever fantasized about joining the mile-high club?”
Honestly, she’d never really thought about it, considering the only time she usually flew was with her family.
Zayne chuckled. “I’m going to take your silence as a no.”
“It just never occurred to me, I guess.”
“Nothing wrong with that. But now I’m curious. What do you fantasize about?”
She shifted her eyes between the two men watching her, one with a sexy grin and the other with a fire in his eyes that threatened to ignite. What did she fantasize about? Anything that involved them.
“Red?”
She took another glance over her shoulder, then looked back at their expectant expressions. “You want to me tell you right now?”
“Well, I’d prefer you show us.” Ethan smirked. “But if you’re concerned over your modesty…”
Her heart thumped a little harder, because that was exactly what she was concerned with. Unlike the night in the foyer when he’d sent Lillian away, if they decided to take her right here and now, the plane wasn’t all that big.
People would hear. They would know what they were doing.
Which raised the question, did she really care?
If she were being honest, the idea of people listening or watching her with Ethan and Zayne was one of her biggest fantasies. She just wasn’t sure she was ready to live that out tonight.
“Don’t worry, petite fille. ” Ethan stroked his finger over the rim of his glass. “We’ll work our way up to that. But since we have some time to pass, I think this is a great opportunity to talk about some of those fantasies of yours.”
Chloé could feel the heat creeping up her neck and couldn’t believe how shy she suddenly felt.
It was one thing to be told to do something in the heat of the moment, but to talk about what she wanted them to do to her in general conversation over a cheese board?
That was a completely different situation.
“You seem nervous.”
“Do I?”
Ethan ran his eyes down over her black chiffon pants, then brought them back up to lock with hers. “Yes, you do.”
“Well…” She tried for a laugh. “This isn’t exactly everyday conversation.”
“Depends on what you do for a living every day, Red. For us, this is a fairly standard conversation.”
Her lips twitched, despite the jittery feeling in her tummy. “I suppose you’re right.”