Bare In Bermuda (4 page)

Thinking of Eduardo, with his pretty mouth and deep brown eyes, made her feel desired by a man worthy of her attention once again. It also kept her from thinking about her sister getting married. How did Eden find a husband with the snap of her fingers while she remained single after years of concerted effort and first dates that never went anywhere?

She switched her thoughts back to Eduardo. Destiny did not exist. But if it could, just for once, she wanted it to bring Eduardo back to her. Eduardo and her carry-on. She needed her fabulous dress. Wearing her fabulous dress would automatically make her feel good no matter how much she wanted to feel sorry for herself on her sister’s wedding day.

Len and Cathy passed Junior over her once again. Either they possessed no sense of boundaries or they wanted to annoy her. Passing the baby back and forth seemed like some kind of bizarre fertility rite and she’d had enough. For two hours, she’d sat between them. When she’d refused her snack, Len had taken it. When she’d gotten up to use the lavatory the first time, he’d acted as if she expected him to give up a kidney.

As the baby was passed, leaving a trail of biscuit crumbs in her lap, she needed to get up. With a flick of her fingers, the seat-belt came undone. Len, in the aisle seat, barred her way to freedom. Standing and looking down at him wasn’t enough of a hint. Smiling and gesturing to the aisle didn’t do it either. Instead of moving, he filled in a word on his crossword puzzle and ignored her. If she had to straddle him and climb over him, she would.

“Can you please let me out?” she asked as nicely as possible.

His eyes flicked up at her then back at his crossword puzzle. A large and suffering sigh escaped him as his eyes rolled up to look at her. “You are just on my last nerve. You’ve elbowed me since you sat down and now you want to get up every two minutes.”

“This is only the second time I’ve gotten up.”

“You’re one of those little bladder people that drinks a lot of water. I can tell by looking at you.”

“Please let me out.”

“You’re not going to keep getting up and down are you?” He lifted the bulk of his stomach and unlatched his belt. She had brief and disturbing vision of his wife having to push his belly out of the way in order to have sex with him. Quickly as she could, she envisioned what Eduardo might look like under his clothes and smiled. Much better.

“Yes. I have a tiny bladder and I like to hydrate. Would you like to trade seats?” Hope rose inside her as she slipped past Len.

“We paid for an aisle and a window seat,” Cathy reminded her. “I told the gate agent very firmly, that we needed the center seat to be kept free. Ask the stewardess to move you, if you’re so unhappy.”

Henna looked up and down the plane. “There are no free seats.”

“Then make yourself useful.” Cathy pulled a baby bottle out from the bag she stowed under Henna’s feet. “Have someone heat this up.”

Henna stared at the offered bottle. “Give me the aisle seat and I’ll do it.”

“Clearly you do not have children.” Cathy shook the bottle at her. “Otherwise you’d be a little more understanding and helpful. People are just not nice to people with children. We’re treated like third class citizens, especially when we travel.”

“Aisle or you can do it yourself.”

“Never mind.” Cathy reached up and pressed the call button.

Henna popped open the overhead compartment, snatched her purse, turned away from the trio and walked to the front where the lavatories, the prep area, and the psychological curtain separating the huddled masses in coach from the privileged few in business and first.

A flight attendant worked busily preparing trays with fresh fruit and linen napkins. Not for coach. “Can I help you?” the woman asked with a smile.

“Umm…not really. I’m just standing up for a minute.”

“You’re between those people with the baby,” the flight attendant said.

“Yes.”

“Wine? Beer? Scotch?”

She laughed. “I’m fine.”

The flight attendant who threatened her with jail time appeared from beyond the mental barrier to business class. She looked up from the paper in her hands. “Dr. Hirsch?”

“Yes,” Henna said. “That’s me.”

The attendant with the fruit tray disappeared to the front.

“Your bag was found by a man working in the sports bar. It’ll be forwarded to you tomorrow. For now, it’s locked up. You’ll have your dress and your shoes for your sister’s wedding.”

Henna’s hand covered her mouth. “Oh, my god!” She hugged the flight attendant briefly. “Thank you. That’s so nice of you. I didn’t think I’d ever see it again.” Destiny had come through for her. Maybe she could be convinced that supernatural forces worked in her life.

“Honestly, it was nothing,” the attendant said. “From what I was told, someone from the sports bar in the terminal had followed you to the gate with it, but the door was already closed. Once the door is closed, we might as well be up in the air.”

“I can’t believe this,” she said. “I really can’t. Can you ask to have the person who found it leave their number or email address so I can thank them?”

“Sure,” the woman said. “Not a problem. I can’t guarantee they will, but you never know. You got your bag back. Maybe things are starting to look up.”

“I’ve had the worst day. It started out bad, got a bit better, and then turned horrible again. You’ve restored my belief that people aren’t really out to get me. I don’t even mind being stuck between that pair with the baby anymore.”

The attendant laughed. “Them!”

“I don’t care anymore. I’m going to have my dress.” Hopefully. She'd start getting the names of people and contact numbers of the people in the chain of custody for her bag. Then she could be certain that if it did disappear again, she'd know who had it last and how to find them.

“You were late boarding, so you missed the circus. We had to kick them out of first class. The woman went to look if there were empty seats, found that it's nearly empty, and decided she'd just give herself an upgrade.”

Henna laughed. “I've never gotten an upgrade in my life. I'm pretty sure if I paid for one of those seats, I'd be furious if they were moved next to me without having to pay for the privilege.”

“Come with me.” The flight attendant nodded in the direction of business class. Henna followed her through the archway to the better class of service. “I think you need some TLC.”

“No.” Her breath stopped in her lungs. “Really?”

“Really. I’ll go back and let your new friends know we moved you.”

“Please do.” Henna walked behind the woman past the rows of business class seats and then through another curtain to the world of privileged frequent fliers. It could have been just her imagination, but she thought it might have even smelled better. Another first. Two actually. An upgrade and first class. All new experiences weren't bad.

The attendant put her hand on a seat back. “Here. Enjoy the rest of your flight.”

“Oh, I will!” She took the woman’s hand. “Thank you so much.”

“Honestly, we’ve all had bad days. This is just some good karma for me the next time I have one coming my way.”

Henna took her seat next to the window and gazed out at the blue ocean beneath her. Maybe an hour of the flight remained, but she would enjoy every moment of that hour. Just as soon as she used the lavatory.

She walked to the front of the airplane and slipped inside the cavernous first class bathroom. Never before could she conceive of how people could have sex in an airplane toilet. Seeing the size of the first class lavatory cleared up that particular question for her. It was by no means enormous, but there was a lot more room than in the coach lavatories. And it was clean.

“Nice.”

She took all of the time she wanted. She brushed her teeth, did her hair, fixed her lipstick, moisturized, and at last, freshened up her perfume. If there had been a bathtub, she would have used it. Like all good things, her time in the lavatory came to an end when someone knocked on the door.

With a sigh, she gathered her purse and flicked the latch to the side. She looked down at herself for a final check, then up as the door opened and into the face of Eduardo.

“You,” she breathed.

“You have been in here for twenty minutes,” he said. “Are you unwell or just fussing with your hair? I know what women are like.”

“Fussing with my hair.” Her mouth refused to close. “What are you doing here?” First her bag had returned to her, then Eduardo. Destiny refused to be dismissed by her skepticism.

“Destiny. I knew destiny was working in my life today. I knew we would meet again.” He pushed her with his body back into the lavatory. The door closed behind him then he latched it closed. “Do you want me to let you out, or do you want to hear about my fantasy?”

She swallowed hard. “I think I’d like to hear your fantasy.”

“My fantasy,” he moved closer until she was pressed against the wall by his body, “has me meeting a beautiful woman on an airplane then having her seduce me and make me feel like a man.”

“I can do that,” she said. “Mostly. I have no condoms.”

He reached inside his trouser pocket and pulled out a condom. “Yes or no?”

“Yes.”

“How much? I don't want to be crude, but I respect the fact that you are a professional and I will pay you for your time. Normally, I would be more discreet about such a thing, but I think we are past that point at this moment.”

She looked at him with his warm eyes filled with heat. “How much?” In those beautiful brown eyes, she was a prostitute. A sexy thrill shimmied up her body. Why not? “Normally, I'm pretty pricy...”

He pulled out his wallet, flipped it open, and offered her five crisp hundred dollar bills.

She added being offered cash for sex to her list of firsts as she held up a refusing hand. Pretending to be an escort was one thing. Taking cash in exchange for sex, just seemed a bridge too far into the fantasy. “But let's call this one mutual gratification and fantasy fulfillment.”

He put the cash and his wallet away. “Can I kiss you?”

“Yes.”

Without another word, his hand snuck around her neck under her hair and pulled her mouth against his. His lips roughly opened hers as his tongue plunged into her mouth without hesitation. A squeak of a sigh escaped her, a reminder to breathe before she passed out from the sudden rush of unexpected ardor.

His hand released her neck as his lips moved from hers and down her throat. His hands moved to her hips and rested for a brief moment then slid down her thighs to the hem of her skirt. With a quick move, he inched up the fabric to her waist, leaving her panties exposed. He looped a finger around each side and, with a sharp tug, ripped her panties off, exposing her bare mound. Another first. She looked down for a brief moment as he examined her.

“Nice,” he said as his palm cupped her. “I like this.”

Before she could object to having a pair of fairly pricy panties ripped into a rag, she checked herself. The woman she wanted to be at that moment lived a life filled with panty-ripping adventures in airplane lavatories. That woman would keep her ripped panties as trophies of her sexually charged encounters with dazzling foreign men. When his finger slid between her lips and found her already pounding clit, her panties were the least of her concern. His finger slipped, slid, and swirled around her pussy like a magic wand. Every flick of his finger brought her closer to an orgasm that had been itching to be released since their first encounter in the bar.

“You are already ready for me,” he breathed into her ear. Before she could respond, his mouth took hers again. He grabbed her tightly around her bare hips, pushed her up onto the sink, and then released her. The sink beneath her vibrated from the power of the airplane’s engines in an unexpected and completely invigorating way. She deepened the stretch of her thighs, opening them to draw in the thrum and shimmy of the airplane.

His tongue jerked in her mouth as he fumbled and tugged on his trousers. The sound of the zipper stimulated her nearly as much as the vibration from the powerful engines pushing them through the sky.

“Look at me,” he told her.

At first, she glanced into his eyes, then she followed his gaze down to where he stood between her thighs. He held his cock in his hand. A spontaneous and wholly genuine wow flew out of her mouth as she took in the size of him. His hand came under her chin and forced her to look into his eyes. “Tell me the truth,” he said. “Have you ever seen bigger?”

“I can truthfully tell you I have never seen bigger in my life.” He released her chin and she looked down again. Her hand reached for what had to be a mythical ten inches of engorged manhood. When her fingers wrapped around him, he was as solid as granite and as big around as a tennis racket handle. “I am really impressed.”

“Are you lying to me as a professional courtesy, or are you telling me the truth?”

She stroked and tugged on him as she marveled at not only the size of his cock, but to her utter amazement that he grew even thicker and longer in her hand. “No lie. I have never seen such a big cock before in my life.”

“Good,” he said. “Now you won't forget me.”

“That is a fact,” she said.

He handed her the condom without bothering to give her any instructions. She knew what to do without being told. After the wrapper was discarded, she held him tight and unrolled the condom as far as it would go up his substantial cock.

He took her hands when she finished and placed them around his neck. “Tell me if I hurt you.”

She nodded and fixed her hands around his neck. He entered her quickly and roughly then moved without pausing, plunging into her then out in rapid succession. With every thrust, she took another inch of him until she felt stretched and pulled like a virgin. The foreign feel of being so full equaled the exquisite and tantalizing hurt.

His hands fell on her legs, then his fingers wrapped around her knees and forced them up and open even wider. Every yoga class and Pilate’s session suddenly and wholly became worth the time, money, and effort as he buried himself inside her. Being filled by a man after a near year long absence of male attention curled her toes. Size really did matter a great deal. It might not be everything, but it made more of a difference than she previously imagined.