Take Me Away (Cockpit Series Book 2) Read online

  “What did you think I’d be?”

  “I’m not sure. Cold.” I wince at her playfully. “The handful of dates I’ve been on have all been disasters, and honestly, I’m so over dating.”

  “You’re not on your own with that one. Dating is brutal. Tell me your worst dating story; I’ll see if I can top it,” I say as we are briefly interrupted with our food arriving.

  “Only if you promise not to laugh.”

  “Promise,” I reply, twisting up a fresh forkful of spaghetti.

  “Okay, but it’s bad. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She lowers her voice a little and bites the inside of her cheek. “My best friend, Brianna, arranged for me to meet this guy, at what I thought was a restaurant. Well, it turned out to be a dance club with theme nights. This particular night happened to be a 70s theme. At first, I was taking it all in, trying to be open minded and optimistic for the date. The music wasn't that bad, so I was sitting there listening and having an okay time. About an hour after meeting at the club, this woman walks up behind my date and just stands there. She had a slim figure, I was thinking she was a little on the older side, she dressed in an extremely short skirt with knee-high white platform boots. She finally greeted my date from behind and gave him a big hug. I'm truly puzzled, thinking maybe this woman is someone he knew, and she wanted to say hello.

  “He turns around and greets her with, ‘Mom! I'm so glad you were able to make it; I thought you weren’t going to be able to.’”

  “What?” I gasp out loud.

  “I know! I was so shocked and couldn’t get out of there fast enough.” Heaven leans back in her seat and looks up at me for the first time since she started her story.

  Our eyes meet and then she looks a little lower down to where I am covering my mouth, trying to contain my laughter. I love how unashamedly animated she is when she’s storytelling, and how her ocean eyes sparkle when she smiles. Her lashes are long and thick, framing wide eyes. She lets out a full-bodied laugh that sounds like unicorns or Christmas or some shit. “Hey, you asked me not to laugh, and it’s not fair that you get to,” I joke.

  We continue telling each other horror stories of our past dating disasters while diving into the two huge bowls of pasta. The conversation seems to flow easy with her, and I feel so comfortable. I can't believe this date - I guess, now, I can truly call it that – it’s going so well. There must be something that I am missing. This is the first date that I've been on that hasn't been a total waste of time, which begs the question: now what?

  This girl, with her dirty blonde hair and mesmerizing eyes has captured my full attention, but she’s far too good for what I can offer her. I just need to walk her to her car, say good night, and then be on my merry way back to my cold bed. Back to the routine of everyday, waking up to the alarm clock, going to work, and returning to my empty condo.

  “I have to say, I’m pleasantly surprised that I really enjoyed myself tonight,” Heaven says, breaking me out of my thoughts.

  “Agreed. Here’s to no freaky endings,” I raise my glass, and a cute giggle escapes her lips as she taps her glass against mine.

  “You must have traveled a lot, since you’re a pilot? What’s the best place you’ve ever been?”

  “Weirdly, I love the snow. I’m a bit of an extreme sports geek, and every year we visit this picture-perfect place in the Swiss mountains. That’s probably my favorite place.”

  “We?”

  “My family. The entire group meets up every year to spend Christmas there.”

  “That’s so sweet.” Okay, so winter sports…” She pauses to ponder the thought. “What about for sun?”

  “Hands down, Monaco, every time.”

  “Ever been to China? If so, what was your favorite part?” She’s firing questions at me left, right, and center, and I love how much interest she’s taking in me as a person over interest in my bank balance, like previous women have, and we have yet to finish talking about a donation.

  “Yeah, actually, I’ve visited Shanghai a few times with my brother.” The place had been my old haunting ground with Jaxon back in the day when we were reckless mother fuckers. We’d coordinated client’s flights to ensure we ended up with a night in a flash hotel, and we’d made the fucking most of every hour before our return flight.

  I’ve visited the other major cities a couple of times with Warren, and I’m sure Mason has spent a weekend with me in Beijing, although it might have been Dubai; I can’t quite remember. I decide to skip that part. I don’t want her to think I’m showing off.

  The gambling scene. The nightclubs that never close. The women… take your pick. “I’ll have to say the food, what about you?”

  “Definitely the pandas, closely followed by the food.” Her smile is bright and infectious.

  “Always the pandas, right?” I arch an eyebrow at her, inquisitively.

  “Yeah, they’re kind of my thing.” She pops a shoulder, and I watch the way her cleavage shifts in the V of her wrap dress. For a slim girl, she’s got sweet curves in all the right places. Shit. Stop gawking, Liam. You’re acting like you’ve never seen a set of tits before.

  The waiter comes by and asks if we would like dessert. I reflect the question to Heaven because I know I am stuffed and can’t possibly eat another bite.

  She answers him with a polite, “No, thank you.”

  “I believe that will be all for the evening. Can you please bring us the check?”

  “Do you want to split it?” she asks, politely.

  “Split the bill?” I ask in surprise.

  “Yeah, I totally don’t mind. In fact, I’d prefer it. I mean, we both ate the food, right?”

  “Heaven, here’s a heads up, when you’re good company, and as gorgeous as you are, you don’t split the bill.”

  The compliment has her cheeks blushing, and the same heated rush hits my balls making them ache like they haven’t in a real long time.

  The waiter returns, and I take care of the bill.

  “Thanks for tonight. Let me walk you to your car?” I offer as I stand up and come around to the same side of the table to escort her up from her chair. Leaning forward, I allow my face to get close enough to her neck to inhale her fresh sea breeze scent and wonder what she would do if I planted a gentle kiss on that beautiful golden skin.

  “Actually, I am going to order an Uber, or call my friend, since she’s waiting to hear from me after our dinner ‘date’, as she calls it.”

  “You didn’t want to drink and drive? Sensible choice, although, I don’t think we drank enough to be over the limit,” I point out.

  “It’s not that.” She bites her inner cheek again indicating she’s feeling awkward. I like this, I like that I can guess what she’s feeling without her having to tell me. Usually when it comes to women, I have no clue.

  “I can’t drive,” she admits.

  “You can’t?” Who doesn’t drive in this day and age? Everyone does. She obviously feels weird enough about it without me saying anything, so I shrug it off and add casually, “Then I’m taking you home.”

  “Oh no, you don’t have to do that.”

  “I rarely have to do anything, Heaven. If I do something, it’s because I want to.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

  “Come on, my car’s just around there.” I tilt my head towards my new Merc as we step outside, and her deep blue eyes widen.

  “That’s your car?”

  “Yeah, what do you think?”

  “It looks expensive,” she states the obvious.

  “Probably because it was expensive. Now, hop in so I can get you home before the awkward call from your friend comes in to check on how the date went,” I tease.

  “If she calls, and I’m riding shotgun in your fancy car, she will flip her shit. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “If she calls, I’ll answer and tell her you’re too busy to talk to her, give her something to really flip her shit about.”

  Heav
en giggles as I open the door for her to get in. She guides me through town to her apartment, and I glance up at the tall buildings thinking how different her life must be to mine.

  “Thanks for bringing me home and for a good time,” she murmurs as we come to a stop. I side-eye her while she does the same to me. Her long eyelashes are doing the girly, fluttery thing, but I don’t even think she’s meaning to. Without warning, I reach over and wrap my palm around the back of her head, pulling her toward me.

  “I’ve been wanting to do this all night,” I greedily say under my breath.

  “Do what?” she asks, pouting and pretending she has no idea, when we both know from the way her lips part, and her eyes glow a shade of grey I haven’t noticed in them before, that she knows exactly what I’ve wanted all evening.

  Without words, I pull her in further until our lips are touching in a harsh kiss that makes the world around us stop turning. For a moment, I let myself get lost in that kiss and stop thinking. Really, I stop thinking about work or numbers and data analysis. I’m a computer, and she is a virus that just crashed my entire system. I have a feeling it will never go back to the way it was before. It needed rewiring. I need rewiring because she tastes like heaven. Pure unadulterated heaven mixed with pasta and a little red wine. Her tongue is shy, but needy, at the same time as she lets me explore her mouth in a passionate kiss that is so sexy it almost counts for second base all on its own.

  I pull away first, needing to see her reaction, and she holds her fingertips to her lips as though I’ve just stolen her first kiss from her.

  Before I can say anything, she panics. “I gotta go.”

  “Goodnight, Heaven,” I say as she jumps out of my car and heads to her apartment. My engine is still running, yet I make no attempts to drive away while I stay to watch her turn her key in the lock. She glances back at me before she disappears inside. Catching my last glimpse of her, I wonder what the fuck just happened.

  8

  Heaven

  The next morning, I wake up to my cell phone startling me. I feel around on the nightstand and fumble to find it. Of course, Brianna would call me an hour before my alarm is set to go off just to check on how the date went. Grabbing the phone and rolling over with a groan, I answer, “Your unbelievable.”

  “But you love me, anyway,” her cheerful and way too wide-awake voice bounces back. “So, how did it go?”

  My eyes snap open as my thoughts dart to a pair of green eyes and a mop of light brown hair.

  “Are you sitting down?”

  “I’m still in bed.” She chuckles.

  “It was amazing,” I reveal.

  The line goes quiet, and I wait for a second. “Brianna? Bri, are you still there?”

  “Sorry, that was me dropping the phone and passing out in shock. I’m back now.”

  “Pull yourself together. You were right, it was a date.” I roll my eyes to no one but myself and sit up in bed a little, feeling wide awake now.

  “I fucking knew it. Tell me everything. Oh my God, I can’t believe it went well, this is the best news. Did you kiss? When are you seeing him again?” She gushes with excitement, and my mood deadpans.

  Running back through how the date ended, I realize for the first time that we didn’t exchange numbers, nor did we settle on any donation. He hadn’t asked for mine, and I’d been so caught up in that kiss I’d not given it a second thought, but if he liked me, he would have definitely asked for my number.

  But that kiss. Why would he have kissed me like that if he was planning on never seeing me again. A sinking feeling quickly deflated my happy bubble, because realistically, this was just another one of my dates with a crazy ending. Except, his kiss didn’t feel like an ending at all. It felt very much like a beginning of something that I’m not sure I am ready for, but I want it, just the same.

  “I’m not?”

  “Wait, back up. What do you mean you’re not? I thought you said it was amazing. Please don’t tell me he pulled some weird shit out of the bag, at the end?” Bri interrogates me.

  “Nope. No weird shit, only the most amazing kiss I ever had, and we didn’t even exchange phone numbers.”

  “No fucking way. You kissed him and didn’t get his number?”

  “It’s fine. It probably wouldn’t have worked out anyway. You know me and men.” I tell her, knowing my track record it’s great.

  “Hmmm… nope. I know you and dickheads. There’s a difference. Don’t do this, Heaven. You always do this.”

  “I’m not doing anything; I’m just being a realist.”

  “Heaven Nicole Samson! You know exactly what you’re doing. You’re doubting yourself, and you shouldn’t be. Don’t overthink this. You said it yourself, the date was amazing. He obviously thought so too. So what if he forgot to take your number, he was probably too swept up in the moment.”

  “I did kind of run off pretty quickly afterwards.”

  “There you go.”

  “Maybe,” I mumble back. “I gotta go; I’ll call you later.”

  “Fine. But, don't be stressing. I know you; you’ll be stressing, and you don’t need to. If it’s meant to be it will be. ‘kay?”

  “Okay,” I confirm, sounding more confident than I feel.

  I hang up and drag myself out of bed and into the shower. This is one crazy ending I didn’t see coming. My first impression of Liam being an arrogant asshat had been way off the mark. Letting the cool water wash over me and wake me up, I force the thought of his stupid square jaw and inquisitive eyes out of my mind. Or, at least, I try to. Funny how one date can change everything like that. I literally meet the guy twice, and now I’m obsessed with him; this is so not me.

  My high waist ripped mom jeans and a mustard yellow crop is the perfect outfit to relax in, and I stuff my iPad into my bag and head to my trusted place of solace. The coffee shop.

  Latte Life has seen it all, me at my best, me at my worst, and somewhere in between like I’m feeling today. I order my usual French Vanilla Latte and make myself at home in the cozy back corner. The thing about the coffee shop is that you’re surrounded by people who are handling their shit with a coffee and a few moments to themselves to make sense of the world.

  Pulling out my latest book, I lose myself in a world where vampires and werewolves compete for the girl while sipping my coffee. Usually, when I’m reading, I forget about every aspect of reality, but not today. After my dating disaster, suddenly everything was a symbol or reminder of Liam.

  The vampire sinking his teeth and drawing blood at the heroine’s neck turned into a daydream about my hot kiss with Liam. The more I try to forget about Mr. CEO, the more I am consumed by thoughts of him.

  Two hours later, my coffee is cold, I’ve finished my book, and have snapped myself out of my daydreamy trance. If the beautiful bonehead didn’t want my number, then I’m better off without him, anyway. It’s his loss, not mine.

  9

  Liam

  My morning meeting drags, and I’m not myself. I still deliver the presentation, but when it’s everyone else’s turn to speak, my thoughts wander to Heaven and our date. Scanning through the string of emails she sent me, I can’t find a number for her aside from the main office one. Why would I not get her number? She was out of this world gorgeous and had good banter, too. She didn’t even seem phased by the fact that I’m CEO and basically own my own airline. Her kiss had made me want to pin her to the hood of my Merc and make out with her, there and then, but instead, I watched her walk inside like a little pussy. As usual, when push comes to shove, I know for a fact she is too good for me.

  That woman deserves someone who is going to be around for her when she needs them. A proper relationship, not some half ass attempt at one.

  With a sigh, I pick up the buzzing office phone to be met with my sister’s voice. How the fuck does she manage to get past my assistant every single time? I specifically told her no calls for the rest of the morning, I need to focus, and to wallow for a while.
r />   “Shiloh. Have you got nothing better to do than stalk me for the entire time we’re both in town?”

  “Not really?” she admits. “Anyway, don’t you ever pick up your cell anymore? Much as I like Susan, she’s not going to give me the 411 on your date last night, is she?”

  “Neither am I, and it wasn’t a date, for the record. How do you even know about last night?” Yeah, well, a business meeting that turned into a date, since we didn’t really finalize any business, but she doesn’t need to know that.

  “Sully. You should know that twins can’t keep secrets like that for long.”

  “It wasn’t a secret, it was nothing.”

  “Nothing,” she repeats the word, sounding disappointed.

  “Well, not nothing…”

  “So, you liked her?”

  “Have you got anything better to do than grill me? Besides, you do realize it’s almost eleven, please tell me you’re not still in bed?”

  “I’m not still in bed. I’m on the couch having a much-deserved duvet day, if you must know.”

  “Why does this not surprise me.” I picture her all cozy, and a hot tinge of jealousy fills my veins. I always envy anyone who can chill like my little sister can. She could quite happily spend an entire day watching trash tv on the sofa, whereas if I tried, I’d have zero chill in my bones. I don’t do relaxation. Even as a kid I was always on the go, making shit happen. I wanted a good body; I worked my ass off for it. I wanted to take the business to the next level, so I committed an entire three years of my life to it. Dreams don’t just happen, everyone knows that, but it doesn’t mean a day off once in a while wouldn’t be nice.

  “Stop dodging the question,” she says in an annoyed tone.

  “Okay, you’re not going to like this; I’ll warn you now.”

  “That bad?” Her tone raises to a surprised high-pitched squeak.

  “No, not bad at all. It was amazing, actually.”