Chapter 37 Audra #2
“Of course, Mr. Wright,” she answered, then disappeared into the back.
I didn’t even understand what he said, but it sure sounded fancy.
Honestly, I didn’t even know that champagne differed from sparkling wine.
Cora is the one who explained it to me, and that was just last year.
The flight attendant brought over two beautiful glasses filled with light pink bubbly, and I knew I had a stupid grin on my face.
She put them down on the table, and Donovan grabbed his and held it up in the air.
My flute joined his. “To the first of many, Audra King,” he said, and he tinked my glass.
I took a tentative sip as champagne wasn’t my favorite, but this was like nothing I had ever tasted before.
Although I always read the backs of wine and liquor bottles for the outlandish descriptions like ‘buttery apple skin finishes’ or ‘velvety rainforest dirt at the nose,’ I would bet money that what we drank on the plane matched the description exactly.
I understood the hype behind champagne now; this pink drink undoubtedly danced across my tongue.
“Donovan, oh my God, this is remarkable. I mean, I know I’ve never tasted champagne as good as this.”
“Glad you like it. It’s one of my favorites when I have to drink champagne. My sister always laughed that this is what I stocked in the jet because it’s pink. I can’t believe she stocked this for me, too. That was thoughtful of her.”
“Thoughtfulness must run in the family then, because you’re one of the most thoughtful people I know,” I warmly smiled at him. “How often do you fly on this?”
“Well, I don’t anymore.” He hesitated, unsure of what to say next. “I haven’t seen my parents in years. Since I turned twenty-five, actually. But yes, this is how I used to get around the world doing crazy things.”
“Oh,” I said, waiting for him to continue. How old was he again? I think he said it at darts. Twenty-Eight? So he hadn’t seen his parents in three years? Yikes. I wondered what happened. So maybe it was a horrible split and estrangement after all. Thankfully, he kept going.
“We didn’t see eye-to-eye on things, and I took off.
Life is better for me without them around.
Let’s just say they weren’t exactly shining examples of what parents should be.
” He shrugged his shoulders and took another sip, though I felt bad that the whole mood on the plane shifted a bit.
It sounded like this incredibly successful, kind-hearted, wonderful man may have had to deal with some shit growing up.
He was still sitting next to me, so I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder.
“I know we don’t know each other too well, but I’m confident when I say, screw them. You’re pretty amazing, Donovan, and they are most assuredly missing out.”
At that, he grabbed my hand and intertwined our fingers. I closed my eyes and took it in. Private plane, pink champagne, D on the brain. Donovan, not dick of course. I mean, okay, maybe a double D.
“What about your parents? What’s their story?” He asked as he kissed those interlaced fingers.
“Oof-that’s a…” I didn’t know how to answer that. How deep were we getting here? He didn’t really give me anything besides that his parents sucked, but I suppose it didn’t do me any favors holding back.
“Well, my dad lives like two hours away in Kainerville, and both of my brothers live a little farther than that in the city. They have apartments in the same building. I don’t see anyone as much as I would like to.
My mother passed away when I was sixteen.
There was a car that had lost control because the woman that was driving had a heart attack.
The car was barreling towards us on the sidewalk, and she pushed my brother and me away.
” This was the part I hated. It’s when everyone gave me pity eyes and platitudes, like those words did anything.
“My brother was unscathed, my mother lost her life, and I almost died.” I brought myself to meet his gaze.
He looked pretty shell-shocked about it—everyone always was.
“Your mother,” he started, “how can you call me Batman when a real-life superhero raised you?” The words were said with such conviction that I felt my nose prickle.
“She saved you. My God, what an amazingly brave woman, what a sacrifice. I am so sorry. And you?” he continued, “look at you now, Audra, helping people in the same way you were helped. No wonder you are having such mixed emotions about continuing nursing.” My heart thumped wildly with his words.
No one had ever pegged that truth of mine before, and I had never told a soul.
There was a large part of me that felt like nursing was the price I needed to pay for surviving everything, and helping people was my penance.
There was more than a whisper of shame when I acknowledged, out loud, that nursing might not be for me.
That the people who saved me could hack it, but I couldn’t return the favor to a child that needed me.
And never have I ever heard a reaction like that to my family story either.
The sincerity of his words threw me for a loop.
“I … yeah … I… she was, wasn’t she?” I gave him a knowing smile.
“Sorry, that was a lot for a pre-8 a.m. conversation.”
He leaned over to me, right next to my ear, “If it were up to me, we’d be having lots of conversations before 8.
” I pulled back, and he winked at me. And in a matter of seconds, it went from a hard moment back to a lighthearted one.
Surprisingly, I didn’t carry my family baggage like trauma.
It was a situation that happened, and although I missed my mother every single day, I didn’t have some chip against the world.
Granted, I’d spent lots of time and money in therapy, but I had learned to deal with those emotions a long time ago.
Grateful for the break in tension, and the thought of what kinds of morning conversations Donovan and I would have, I laughed.
“Okay, now that it’s obvious we both have some family baggage, let’s move on to a couple of other things. Like, what’s your favorite color? Or can I get a tour of this thing now?” I asked.
He laughed and stood up. “Royal Blue,” he emphasized the royal with a smirk. “No joke. It’s no wonder I’m interested in a King.” He held one hand over his heart and blinked at me like a cartoon, while he extended the other to me. Taking it, he gave me the tour.
“So,” he said with playfulness, as we stood in the back of the jet after seeing everything.
He pulled my back against his chest, wrapping his arms around my front, and I immediately melted into him.
I didn’t miss how his thumb grazed right below my bra before he pulled my hair over his shoulder and placed kisses all along my neck.
I tilted my neck to give him full access and felt the goosebumps rush down my arm.
“Remember when you said that my bed was like a cloud?”
“I do.” I grinned.
He spun me to face him, and his thumb dragged across my cheek as I looked at him, every nerve tuned to what I hoped would come next.
“I make no promises about the cloud-like state of this bed, but I can give you an orgasm in the actual clouds right now if you’d like.”
“I’d like that,” I whispered as my head nodded at him.
At that, he bent down to give me a searing kiss, and I was ready to rip his clothes off in the middle of the aisle …
of the private jet. Because the only damn thing I wanted to do was join the Mile High Club with Donovan freaking Wright. Was this seriously my life right now?
Pulling me into the room, he closed the door and threw me onto the bed.
It wasn’t as gentle as last night, and I was all for it.
My thighs pressed together because I knew what was coming.
Propped on my elbows, I watched with bated breath as he took his sweater off over his head and threw it to the side.
My stomach clenched in the best of ways knowing that neat and tidy Donovan Wright wanted me so badly he was throwing his sweater into a crumpled heap on the ground.
When I looked back at him, I lost my breath again.
Damn. That was a sight I would never tire of seeing.
Those jeans rode low on his hips, and I knew that V on his abs led right to his promised land.
“Don’t close your legs with me, Chaos. This is mine”—he put his hand on my knees and pried them apart—“I want access to this all the damn time.”
The bed dipped as he knelt to unbutton my shirt, grazing my skin with the tips of his fingers as he went along.
When he peeled the front open and took in the sight, a sinful look spread on his face.
It appeared he was pleasantly surprised by the sexy white lace bra I was wearing.
I knew it was hot. The thing pushed my boobs into perfect little globes that looked like they’d spill out over the top if I moved too quickly.
When I was packing, I put it in my bag in anticipation of maybe putting it on one night out in New York.
After our tryst last night, I fished it out this morning, knowing that he’d find it at some point today.
Him seeing it as early as the plane ride didn’t cross my mind, but that’s what made it even sweeter.