High (2 page)
“Hmm…they have twenty-four hour
entertainment on board, but the private suites are private. Fuck, if you come
back and tell me you never left your suite, I’ll kill you.” Keely glared at
her.
“I haven’t agreed I’m going yet, Keel.”
Her best friend sighed and dropped the
envelope. “Listen. I know why you don’t want to go. Chris-the-A-hole did a real
number on you with that I-prefer-men thing, I get that. Hell, it didn’t even happen
to me and I was fucking traumatized. But you need to move on, baby girl. You’ve
worn out six vibrators in the last six months and God knows how many more
dildos, and those are the ones you’ve told me about—”
“Keely!”
“You’ll break your goddamn clit if you
don’t stop using battery powered gadgets on it and believe me, you need your
clit for when a real man comes along. Seriously, can you tell me you don’t miss
the real thing? A warm body against yours, a hard cock inside you?”
Heat suffused Bethany’s face and she
sagged onto the sofa. “Okay, fine I do but—”
“No buts.”
“Yes, buts!
For fuck’s
sake, Keely.
The last hard cock I had inside me decided it preferred
anal with other men. It is any wonder I have a goddamn complex?”
Keely’s green eyes gentled in sympathy.
“Of course not.”
“Those are stories we read in trashy
magazines and laugh ourselves hoarse. Do you know how it feels to know I’m
suddenly that girl? The one who couldn’t keep her man happy enough, so he jumped
into bed with another man?” Even after all this time, just saying the words
made her stomach turn over with pain, anger and disgust.
Slowly, Keely shook her head, but then
she got the look in her eye. The look that said,
I love you but...
“No, I don’t know how it feels, honey, but
neither am I going to let you hide away forever because of what that asshole
did. What better way to get over it than to open yourself to new experiences?
You go, you have a sizzling, no-strings-attached hook up in the lap of pure
luxury, and you come back and move on with your life. Bethany, the Indigo
Lounge couldn’t be more perfect for you right now.”
“It’s not that easy…”
“Yes, it is. You need to get your ex
out of your system, and a flying sex palace is just the way you’re going to do
it. You really should give up trying to fight me because I’m not letting you
chicken out of this, B. It’s time to step back into the real world.” She picked
up her dish and sat back, chopsticks poised. “Now eat up, you’ll need your
strength to keep up with the to-do list I’ve drawn up for you.”
***
Sunday dawned bright and sunny over New
York.
Bethany lay in bed, her whole body
alert and tingling with an excitement she hadn’t felt in a long time. It
would’ve been the perfect time for a session with her Rabbit but Keely had
confiscated each and every single pleasure-giving gadget before her diva exit
last night.
When Bethany had begged, she’d produced
a brand new, hermetically sealed one, which was now stashed in one of the two large
weekenders at the foot of her bed.
“You’re not allowed to open it until
after a full day on board the jet and only in case of emergency. And if you
bring it back unopened, I’ll love you forever.”
Heaving a sigh of regret at the loss of
Dildo Pete, Bethany got out of bed and jumped into the shower.
Twenty minutes later, she winced as
Keely revved up the engine of her beloved Mini Cooper, Hermione.
“Please promise me you’ll go easy on
Herm while I’m away?”
“It’s just a car, B.”
They argued all the way to Newark
Airport about Keely’s shoddy treatment of Hermione, but both fell silent when
they drove into the private jet area of the airport.
The Indigo Lounge jet was immediately
recognizable. The immense, gleaming black super jumbo jet with two thin lines
of indigo running from nose to tail screamed its dominance over the smaller, lighter-colored
planes.
Keely slowed as they gaped at the jet.
“Color me sludge-green with envy. Remember you owe me one. I could’ve had Clark
reciting the Fibonacci sequence to me while I fucked the living shit out of him
Friday night
and
last night. Now all
I have is nerd porn for company while I imagine you living it up on that jet.
At least promise me you’ll have wild fun?”
The look in Keely’s eyes was a cross
between that of a worried sister and a stern schoolteacher. She brought the car
to a stop in front of a glass and steel building that had “The Indigo Lounge—Executive
Guest Suite” over the doorway.
Bethany nodded. “I can’t promise it’ll
be wild, but I’ll have fun.” She tagged on a smile and saw Keely relax a little—if
it were possible for someone as high-strung as Keely to relax.
“Great, now…shoo!” Keely made
accompanying gestures and Bethany smiled as she opened the door and stepped
onto the hot asphalt.
A gust of wind blew out of nowhere as
she opened the back door where her bags were stashed, lifting the skirt of her
dress.
A low whistle sounded behind her. “
Christ
, check out those legs.”
Grabbing her bags, she turned to see
three guys, good-looking, dressed like they knew their way around the style
section of a grooming magazine.
Behind her, she heard Keely’s satisfied
laugh. “You’re off to a great start, I see.” Taking her sunglasses off her head
she jammed them on her face. “
Adios, amiga
.”
She waited till Bethany had slammed the
door before she accelerated away in a squeal of tires. Bethany tried not to
wince at the hammering poor Hermione was in for and turned.
The men were disappearing into the
glass building. She followed slowly, her pulse thundering at the knowledge that
she was stepping over an unknown threshold. She glanced back at the huge black
and indigo jet, a feeling of mingled apprehension and excitement shivering
through her.
The opportunity of a lifetime.
She could shy away from it; from the
possibilities of letting go and having…
FUN
.
Or she could embrace it in the hope that it helped her banish the pain of the
past few months once and for all.
Zachary Savage looked up from the
papers he was perusing and watched three men enter the Executive Guest Suite.
From his position behind the glass wall
of the mezzanine floor office he’d commandeered from his assistant, he tracked
them with narrow-eyed attention.
The lead member of the rock band Friday’s
Child was immediately recognizable. Back in what felt like another life, Zachary
had attended a couple of their gigs. But that was before everything had gone to
hell.
As usual, any thoughts of how his life
had changed over the past six years made his jaw clench with anger and sorrow.
If he’d known that his stopover would
clash with one of his Indigo Lounge flights, he’d have made other arrangements,
placed himself very far away from harsh reminders of the past.
What the hell; he was here now.
He tried to get his brain back to work
mode. So far he’d gone through the info on all the passengers boarding his
plane except one.
That he normally did the vetting from
the comfort of his San Francisco home office was neither here nor there. The
stopover from London to refuel his jet was taking longer than expected. Working
while he waited helped contain that restlessness that continued to prowl inside
him.
As far as he’d been able to determine,
the band members were clean. No evidence of drug use or excessive drinking. The
other six parties travelling on this Indigo Lounge experience had been equally
vetted. He tracked the band members to the front desk, watched them flirt with
the receptionist.
His boredom escalating, his gaze
returned to his papers. There was only one unknown quantity. He glanced down at
the papers.
Bethany Green.
The
wild card.
Her invitation had been issued late,
but so far the preliminary background check was clean.
He was about to flip over to the
photograph page when a flash of yellow caught his attention.
She stood framed in the doorway of his
building, a large weekender clutched in her hand and an oversized purse slung
over one shoulder.
Long, dark hair spilled in rich waves
around her bare shoulders and over her arms. Against the sunlit backdrop, Zach
couldn’t immediately see her face but what he saw of her body made his breath
catch as something flickered awake inside him.
The way she held herself, slightly
unsure but poised on the threshold as if talking herself into taking the next
step, intrigued him. In his world, women reveled in being ball-breakers, strove
to show no weakness in his presence in hopes of impressing him.
Seeing one who recognized her
vulnerability and was struggling to own it was oddly captivating. He stood and
walked to the window, surprised by how much he wanted to see this woman.
The wind caught and flattened her short
dress against long, sexy bare legs, legs that seemed to go on forever before they
curved to embrace rounded hips and a firm, flat stomach.
Zach’s cock jerked, stunning the hell
out of him with a hunger his jaded existence hadn’t allowed him in a very long
time. When his gaze reached her breasts, he let out a growl and realized his
fingers were braced against the glass, his head almost touching it as he
strained to see her face.
But she remained in shadow, poised on
the threshold of the building, undecided whether to step in or bolt.
Come
in.
He realized he’d whispered the words
and froze, a touch of confusion making him frown. As he watched, her head
cocked to the side, one hand lifting to brush her long, luxurious hair off her
face. And still he couldn’t see her.
But with her hair out of the way, he
caught sight of a sleek neck, smooth skin.
The hunger grew, slammed inside him
like a living thing. His cock, now fully awake, demanded action. Action it
hadn’t seen in weeks because now even the thought of sex bored him to
distraction.
He breathed in deeply, every nerve in
his body straining to see her fully.
Come
in!
She continued to play with her hair,
holding it back from her face. He grew harder, nearly dizzy with the force of
his erection.
Finally, she stepped forward.
Zach’s breath blew out of his body when
he saw her face. Sensation hit him with the strength of a force-five hurricane.
Her face was luscious; her pink mouth full and deliciously curved as if created
for kisses…his kisses. High cheekbones and a pert nose completed the gorgeous
tableau and he watched with unwavering attention as she entered his domain.
With each step she took, he felt a
powerful charge go through him. By the time she was directly below him, his
fist was clenched against the glass, his emotions and his body both on fire.
She glanced up directly at him, but of
course, she couldn’t see him through the one-way mirrored glass. At that angle,
her face was even more stunning, her clear blue eyes shining with a mixture of
excitement and hint of apprehension.
Zach wanted all her excitement and none
of the apprehension. Hell, he wanted her, period.
No, “want” was too tame to describe the
feelings coursing through him. The desperation racing through him was as alien
as it was forceful. He didn’t do spontaneous. Didn’t crave a woman on just
seeing her. Nowadays, his girlfriends were carefully chosen, fully vetted.
And yet…
Zach watched her lower her gaze, shake
her head slightly as if to clear it, and look around her. The moment he saw her
head for the desk where the rock band were getting checked in, Zach cursed.
He was running out of his office before
the string of filthy words was complete.
***
Bethany tried to shake off the strange sensation
that had come over her and moved toward the front desk, where a drop-dead
blonde goddess was checking in the last of the group of men. One of them,
dark-haired and wearing an expensive-looking leather jacket, glanced over at
her and winked.
She wasn’t naïve enough to mistake his
interest but her return smile felt strained all the same.
Now that she was here, out of the
sphere of Keely’s confidence, she was bombarded with second thoughts. And that
sensation she’d felt a moment ago, like she was on a yawning precipice, staring
into the face of danger as she’d looked up at the frosted glass…well, that had
scared the shit of out her—
A door to the side of her burst open,
and Bethany stopped dead.
Jesus!
He was all her wet dreams personified. The
living god of her sexual fantasies, her daydreams and her cravings come to
life.
Eyes the color of slate zeroed in on
her from a face so incredibly stunning that she felt her mouth go dry. His bold
stare transmitted a raw, sexual pulse of electricity straight between her legs.
Her clit pulsed to life—contrary to Keely’s hypothesis, it wasn’t quite
dead it seemed—as he moved, an animal barely caged by civilization,
toward her.
Everything fell away, every human being
in the vicinity ceased to exist as she stared at the god before her. The
vaguely familiar god…
She was searching his features, her
brain struggling to make the connection, when he moved. His shoulders were
wide, strong and imposing. He was breathtakingly tall, easily six-foot four,
with hair as black as the T-shirt he wore with black jeans that emphasized
narrow hips and taut, manly thighs.
Weathered boots and a chocolate-colored
leather jacket completed the package but did nothing to disguise the air of raw
masculinity that vibrated from him.
He stared at her as if he had the right
to, as if he owned her and intended to claim her right there and then.
Bethany’s pulse raced as she stared
back, feeling extremely vulnerable but unable to pull her gaze away.
He moved one more step and stopped
right before her, threatening to block even the sunlight out.
“Welcome to The Indigo Lounge.”
His voice, like honeyed gravel, rough
yet melodic, sent another wave of heat right through her.
Bethany had no trouble imagining it
during sex, whispering hot, dirty things to her as he fucked her. God, he
probably fucked like a goddamn champion.
What the hell had he said? Welcome?
“Umm…thank you.”
He finally broke his electric focus and
nodded over to a spare desk. As if conjured up by magic, another blonde goddess
appeared behind it.
This one seemed to have eyes only for
the man in front of her. No surprise there. But the avid interest in the woman’s
eyes made Bethany itch to wipe the smile from her face.
“Serena, can you check in Miss…?” He
looked at her, one brow raised.
Bethany forced herself to focus.
“Green. Bethany Green.”
His eyes gleamed
,
then his lashes swept down to shield his expression. He nodded and turned to
Serena. “Check Miss Green in, and arrange for my bags to be moved, too. I’m
joining this I.L. trip.”
Serena’s eyebrows hit her carefully
arranged bangs. “You’re no longer heading to the West Coast?”
His nostrils flared slightly and his
jaw protruded as if he was battling with himself. Finally, he smiled. “No,
change of plan. Can I rely on you to arrange that, Serena?”
Of course he could. Serena’s simpering
smile indicated Mr. Sex God could rely on her to arrange everything to suit him—including
herself
should the whim take him.
“Right away, sir.”
Sex God smiled. “Not quite right away,
Serena. First, please deal with Miss Green.”
Stormy grey eyes locked onto her once
more. There was something about him that was devastatingly powerful; Bethany
had to force herself to look away, desperately willing her brain cells to track
when Serena asked for her passport.
She handed it over, along with her copy
of the Indigo Lounge agreement, which she’d signed in triplicate. All the while,
the burn of his gaze silently branded her.
When Serena fake-smiled and handed back
her passport, Bethany’s hand shook as she placed it in her purse. The force of
his stare was that little bit too much.
“If you leave your bags right here, it
will be taken onto the plane. Your hostess, Tracy, will be here in a moment to
introduce you to your team and she’ll arrange the final search.”
“Search?”
Serena’s fake-smile stretched wider.
“It’s our company policy to do a drugs search before our clients board. It’s
right there in the agreement you signed. Mr. Savage’s rules about drug use on
his planes are very strict.”
Bethany’s teeth ground together at the
patronizing tone but she forced a smile. “Sure. If Mr. Savage insists.”
“He does,” Serena emphasized, casting
another simpering look past her at the Sex God.
Bethany glanced over at him too and
caught his faint look of amusement. But the moment their eyes met, amusement
faded to be replaced by sizzling, possessive heat once more.
He shifted as if the same restless
energy that prowled through her stormed through him. His fingers flexed then he
jammed them into his back pocket. The movement stretched the material of his
T-shirt over his powerful biceps, making her mouth water.
She struggled to rein in her reeling
senses. She’d never felt like this before, not even with Chris—
Yeah…Chris.
Not thinking about him right now!
“Allow me to escort you to your
hostess,” the man said, rocking forward on his feet.
She wanted to ask him who he was, why
he was taking an interest in her check-in. But words felt useless.
The chemistry between them was blatant
enough, powerful enough, that words seemed superfluous.
Despite her floundering, despite the
puzzlement as to why a man so sexy and gorgeous was watching her with such barely
contained hunger, she couldn’t dismiss the bone-deep truth firing through body.
Bethany wanted to fuck him.
Pure and simple.
Except there would be nothing pure or
simple about it.
The jaded wariness she saw in his eyes
didn’t detract from the raw sexual experience that lingered within the grey
depths. Sex with this man would be insanely filthy; it would be nasty and
sweaty. It would also be beautiful and complicated beyond words. She knew it as
surely as she knew her name.
Without answering she nodded and fell
into step beside him.
Behind her, Serena gushed about seeing
to his needs, but neither of them paid any attention.
His scent, warm, lemony with a hint of
spice, filled her head along with a dizzying progression of filthy thoughts.
God, she wanted to lick him in places she’d never once dreamed of licking a
man! And that was just the beginning…
He led her through the doors he’d
emerged from what felt like an eternity ago. A set of luxuriously carpeted
stairs led to another door on the mezzanine level.
