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  “You sure about that?”

  “I’m not.” I opened my legs. The cool breeze from the open window flirted over my damp flesh, reminding me of how sensitive my skin was.

  Maybe he heard the rustle of the sheets as I moved because he seemed to believe me. “Don’t touch yourself just yet, alright?”

  Hearing him tell me not to touch myself served to have the opposite effect and I had to grab onto the pillow so as not to tempt myself. “I won’t.”

  “Good. If I was there, I’d lie between your legs, open you up and lick very slowly with long strokes. With just the tip of my tongue.”

  Oh Lord help me.

  “Would you like that, Claire? I’m pretty fuckin sure I’d like that. Each stroke would end by flicking across your exposed clit.”

  My already aroused body responded to his words. I cupped my breasts and squeezed hard, tugging gently on my nipples. It wasn’t enough. I ran my fingers down my sides and over my inner thighs. As if he knew what I was thinking his voice, commanding, came through the speaker.

  “Not yet. Just a little more patience.”

  My fingers stilled.

  “I want you to concentrate on each stroke of my tongue, starting just below your opening and running slowly between your lips, ending with that final flick. Concentrate on each stroke of my tongue running slowly up between your lips. Think about how spread open you are. Concentrate on the pressure of my hands holding you open—how my breath feels… Can you picture it?”

  Picture it? I could feel it. My nails dug into my inner thighs with the effort to restrain myself.

  “Breathe slow. Don’t close your legs, don’t move your hips either. If I was there I’d use my weight to pin you down if I needed to. Just breathe and feel each slow stroke. I’m not going to touch you anywhere else…yet. I don’t want you to feel anything else. Just my fingers splaying you and my tongue licking…”

  My breath was coming in short pants and although the phone was lying next to me, I was sure he’d be able to hear it.

  “Go ahead and touch yourself…lightly. I want this to last as long as you can take it.”

  My fingers eagerly met my wet flesh and my hips bucked off the bed. A sigh rushed out of my parted lips.

  “Do you feel good? God, I wish I could feel you now.”

  “It feels so good,” I husked.

  “I’m licking you again. Feel your heartbeat. That's how long each stroke takes. Touch yourself to the beat of your heart. I can feel your pulse in my palms pressing on the inside of your bare thighs, and every other beat is a stroke—a tap on your clit.”

  My clit was so swollen and sensitive.

  “Don’t speed up or slow down. I want you to see how much of this you can take. I want you to feel your open thighs quiver.” His wish was my body’s command because I was quivering something fierce now. I spread my moisture from my opening to my clit, twitching as my fingers brushed ever so softly over the swollen nerves. The tingle was turning into a full-blown ache.

  “How wet are you?” Kevin’s strained voice gave away how affected he was. It gave me perverse pleasure to know he was struggling too.

  My mouth was so dry I was battling to swallow. “I’m so wet.”

  My hips start rolling of their own accord, clearly my body wasn’t happy with the pace at which I was going.

  “Kev,” I begged, except I didn’t know what I was begging for.

  “I’ve got you, baby. Tease the entrance of your pussy with two fingers. Don’t go deep. Just barely inside. Feel how you pulse.”

  “Ahh.” I so desperately wanted to push my fingers inside me, as deep as they would go but I did as I was told.

  “Use your thumb to flick over your clit. Is it getting really sensitive?”

  Sensitive was not the word, painful was more like it. The ache deep in my belly spread to my aching sex.

  “Are you ready for me to stop teasing you? Are you ready to come?”

  “Yes, please. I really want to come.” I wasn’t even embarrassed by how needy I sounded. I was needy, I needed to come.

  He groaned and I think I heard the word, “Fuck” hiss through the phone but I couldn’t be sure. I was mindless with the need to orgasm.

  “Push two fingers deep in your pussy, feel how hot you are. Feel how you pulse around your fingers.” His breaths sounded just as laboured as mine. “Are you ready, Claire? Tell me…”

  “I'm ready. Please I'm ready...” Okay that time I did blush at how desperate I sounded.

  “Fuck yourself deep. Faster now. Feel how you clench.”

  I whimpered, the need so intense I couldn’t think straight. I heard the sound of a zipper and Kevin’s low groan. I could see his fingers curled around his cock and hear the sounds as he stroked his length at a furious pace.

  He hissed in a breath and I felt myself building. “Please…” I begged again.

  “Come for me.” The words were uttered in a low moan. My hips met my frantic plunges and I clenched spectacularly around my fingers as my body bucked through the spasms.

  I don’t know how long I stayed there, eyes closed, fingers drenched and inside me.

  “You still there?”

  “Hmmm.”

  “There’s something I need to talk to you about but I need to get back on set.”

  I languidly turned my head to the clock on my nightstand. Six seventeen. I sat up. Shit!

  “I’m gonna be late. I better hop in the shower.”

  “Oh, I’m gonna have fun thinking about that!”

  “Shut up!”

  He chuckled again. “I’ll call you when I’m done. Should be around ten your time.”

  “Chat then.” I hated this part of the conversation, the one where he said goodbye.

  “Love you, Claire.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. I was so screwed. So, so screwed, because when he told me he loved me, my heart tripped and not for the first time I wished he meant it the way I wanted him to.

  Chapter Nine

  I was going to throttle her. Hitting redial for what had to be the fifteenth time I stared at the clock and then back at my phone. When Kim’s voice came on the line telling me to leave a message, I wanted to scream but instead I calmly took my reading glasses off and counted to seventy. Jeffrey, the pilot scheduled for this afternoon’s charter, hadn’t shown for his shift so I called him to find out why. It turned out he had a bad case of food poisoning and had called Kim early this morning to tell her he wouldn’t be able to fly.

  I looked at the schedule again to make sure I hadn’t missed a note from Kim then rubbed at my temples, hoping to stave off the threatening migraine. Jeffrey and Jade were listed as the pilots for today and there was no mention of a standby pilot on the board. I walked out of the office to the main reception desk.

  “Alison, did Kim mention anything about getting a replacement pilot for Jeffrey today?”

  Alison cradled the phone between her ear and shoulder and raised a finger in the air.

  “Hi, this is Alison from Addington Air. I need a Jet A1 bowser to hangar 17.” She tapped her nails on her teeth. “Zulu Sierra, Bravo Sierra Alpha…Yes, that’s right.”

  While waiting for her to finish with the fuel depot I walked back to my office and opened my contact sheet to see who was on rotation. I scrolled down the names; the choices were slim. Themba had dislocated his shoulder last week so he was out. Evan had arrived for a charter two days ago reeking of booze and was fired on the spot. He’s lucky that’s all that happened; my dad was so furious I thought it was going to be the first time I would witness him violent. Thankfully, my mother had come out of her office and with a simple touch to my dad’s shoulder had calmed down enough to let go of Evan.

  Alison popped her head in. “What’s up?”

  “Do you know where the updated standby roster is? It’s not in the shared drive.”

  A crease appeared between Alison’s eyes as she frowned and walked around my desk to look for herself. “Nope. Have you as
ked Kim?”

  “I tried. Her phone is off.”

  Alison raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. She’d never explicitly said so, but I could tell she wasn’t captain of my sister’s fan club. “Did you try Steve?”

  “He’s away at the moment, remember? He’s proposing to his girlfriend.”

  “Ah, right.”

  A click of heels down the hallway had us both turning to my door just as Kim appeared. “Hey, I just got a call from Emily. They want to depart in an hour. I said it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s not a problem, right?”

  It took me a whole ten seconds to get my brain to stop my mouth from gaping. Alison wasn’t doing much better. Was she frikkin serious! “Are you serious? Of course it’s a problem! We’re a pilot down, the fuel has just been ordered, and the other pilot hasn’t even arrived yet.” Jade wasn’t late, she was due to arrive at three o’clock, which if Kim hadn’t messed with the departure time would have given her plenty of time to do the pre-flight and paperwork.

  She pushed the strap of her bag further up her shoulder and placed her hands on her hips. “Why was the fuel only ordered now?”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alison opening her mouth to explain but I beat her to the punch. “Because the flight was scheduled for two hours from now. It takes an hour to refuel, which would’ve given us more than enough time. But all that doesn’t matter if we don’t have a second pilot. I’ve been trying to get hold of you for the last hour to find out who his backup is because you didn’t update the schedule.”

  She waved her hand at me. “You don’t need to get all worked up. Devon is replacing Jeffrey.”

  “I wouldn’t need to get worked up if you’d update the schedule like you’re supposed to. Or answer your damn phone.”

  Kim raised her eyebrows. “I’m sorry, since when am I on your payroll?”

  How I managed to stifle a scream is anyone’s guess. “Kim, we have the schedule so that everyone in the office knows what’s going on.”

  The sound of the fuel bowser arriving was Alison’s excuse to make a getaway and her relief was evident. Shooting me an apologetic smile, she left to head outside and oversee the refuelling.

  “You’re making an issue out of nothing. I spoke to Jade, she will be here in the next five minutes to do the pre-flight and Devon won’t be far behind her.”

  “That’s still cutting it fine, Kim. The pax will have to wait half an hour.”

  She sighed. “Emily is a good friend of mine. She wants to make a good impression. Just make this happen, Claire. It’s your job.”

  She pivoted on her heels and clipped down the tiled hallway. I allowed myself thirty seconds. Thirty seconds to talk myself out of a murder charge or at best a charge of assault. I opened my desk drawer and grabbed the box of Advil. Taking two, I popped them in my mouth and chewed furiously, then took a large swallow of my water to wash the bitter taste out of my mouth. Ever since I choked on an Advil when I was a kid I couldn’t manage to swallow the tablets whole. My father teased me mercilessly when he found me breaking them into quarters to swallow the tiny pieces one by one. I knew it was all in my mind but I didn’t care—add it to my quirk sheet. I made a mental note to break the remainder of the tablets up so I wouldn’t ever have to experience the vile taste again and headed for the aircraft.

  I made a quick change to the fuel order. Eighty percent fuel would still be enough to make it comfortably to Cape Town but we’d save twenty minutes on fuelling time. Just then, Jade arrived looking crisp in her navy slacks, white pilot’s shirt, epaulets firmly in place and her blonde hair pulled back into a neat pony tail.

  “You guys robbed me out of some shower time with my new hottie.” Her blue eyes shining, she winked at me.

  I grabbed Alison’s arm and started heading back inside. “No time to grovel my apologies now. I’ll make it up to you at ladies’ night Thursday?”

  Alison snorted. “I don’t think you’ve got the tools to make it up to her.” She winked back at Jade. “Am I right?”

  Jade cocked her head to the side. “Well I dunno, I mean she has got a—”

  “That’s it.” I tugged Alison, causing her to stumble a few steps. “You two are terrible.” My attempt at looking stern failed miserably as I started laughing.

  As soon as we walked inside, I checked the time and realised we had thirty minutes till the pax arrived. “Let’s make up some goodie bags; that should appease the clients while they wait.” I went into the back room and grabbed an empty box to fill with goodies for the passengers. Alison followed me into my office where I started sorting gifts into piles: boxes of truffles, perfume for the ladies, pen sets for the men, and games for the kids. We worked well together, arranging the gifts in the bags with pretty tissue paper to finish off the look and when we were done I was well impressed with what we’d put together. I started placing the bags in the box to take to the front.

  “Uh, anyone home? You do know that a bus full of pax just arrived, right?” Devon’s voice rang out from reception.

  Shit! I placed the last goodie bag into the box and Alison and I made our way to greet the passengers. As we walked past Kim’s office I noted she was reclining in her office chair, phone at her ear, engrossed in a conversation with God knows who about her hydrangea wilting.

  Un-frikkin-believable!

  Banking my irritation for later, I greeted Devon with a smile. “Thanks for coming in on such short notice.”

  “No, probs! Let me put my bag down and I’ll take care of the luggage.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to do that, Thomas will be along shortly.” Thomas and Max were fondly known as the A-Team. They did everything from building maintenance to bag handling to security and all with smiles on their faces.

  “I know I don’t have to but I sure want to. Have you seen the honey stepping out of the bus over there?”

  I turned my head and sure enough, a pretty girl about seventeen years old climbed off the bus. She was staring at her phone with a standard look of mild disinterest most teenagers seemed to wear these days. Her denim shorts were short enough that the pockets peeked out of the dark blue fabric and her top barely covered her belly button. The outfit was damn adorable but likely had her father inhaling Tums by the fistful.

  “Don’t even think about it.” I pointed at Devon. “I mean it. She’s jailbait, Devon, and I don’t need a lawsuit.”

  Devon was a good pilot, but with his inky black hair, icy blue eyes, and bucketloads of charm, he’d narrowly escaped trouble more times than I was comfortable with.

  When his lip pulled into a smirk that I knew was his signature expression for “challenge accepted” I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “I’m serious, Devon. If you still want to be able to pee standing up, I suggest you find another toy to play with. Outside of my business.”

  “Okay, okay.” He raised his hands in mock surrender and swept a lingering look over the girl. “You’re killing me. Y’know that?”

  Thomas came in with the brass baggage trolley and I followed him outside to meet the passengers. A tall woman in a pinstripe suit and killer red heels broke away from the group as I approached. Her hair fell in a straight silky sheet to her shoulders.

  “Hi, you must be Emily.” I extended my hand which she shook. “I’m Claire Addington. Please won’t you make your way inside and we can go over the final arrangements.” I pointed to the door and ushered the party inside. Introductions were made inside the cool lounge and I learned that Mr. Croxley was Emily’s new boss and the financial director and shareholder of one of South Africa’s top food brands. He had kind eyes and a charming smile but Emily seemed jittery around him, which was either telling of her overall personality, or Mr. Croxley wasn’t as easy-going as he looked. It soon became apparent which one it was when Emily took me aside.

  “Please tell me we are ready to board.” She wrung her left hand so tightly the tips of her fingers turned an angry red.

  “We estimate we’ll be dep
arting in twenty-five minutes or so.” I smiled confidently.

  “Oh my God, I’m so dead. I totally got the times mixed up and now I have to tell him I made a mistake. I’m new to all this and…and he’ll never trust me again.” Emily turned an alarming shade of grey and I was suddenly nervous she’d pass out on me.

  “I’m sure it will be fine.” I squeezed her arm reassuringly. “Twenty-five minutes will be over in a blink and we have some gifts for your party, which should keep them happy. Would you like to hand them out or shall I?”

  Alison, who’d been readying the refreshments, appeared with the box. I don’t know how she did it, but she always seemed to be right there when I needed her.

  Kim’s voice, a hissed whisper, came from behind me. “Put that bloody box away. We are not handing out party packs to one of the richest men in the country. Emily, I apologize for my sister. Let me handle this.”

  Kim walked over to Mr. Croxley and introduced herself. I swear if I hadn’t been standing within hearing distance I would not have believed what came out of her mouth next. “Mr. Croxley, I do apologize for the wait. I’m afraid the girl taking down your booking made an error with the times. We are doing everything we can to speed up the process but if you’ll bear with us we’ll appreciate it very much.”

  “Not at all. These things happen.”

  “Yes, of course, but I’m terribly embarrassed. We pride ourselves at Addington Air with providing the best possible service and this won’t do at all. I wonder if you’d allow us to credit you twenty percent of your bill for the inconvenience.”

  WHAT!

  I looked around the room to see if I’d actually screeched the words out loud, but when no one seemed to be paying me any mind I realised I’d only exclaimed in my head. Mr. Croxley’s smile confirmed his acceptance of Kim’s kind offer. We were only making fifteen percent on this charter as a favour to Kim’s friend as it was and now she was crediting him with twenty percent. What the hell was she thinking?

  When I realised I was about to bite through my molars, I slipped my phone off the counter. Muscling every bit of professionalism I could muster, I smiled at the group and walked outside to see how far along Jade and Devon were with the pre-flight.