Fight or Flight(108)

Suddenly the beep of the seat belt sign drew us out of our bubble and we realized we were up in the air. We shared a smile.

“You’re so very good at distracting me, wee yin.” He caressed my lower lip with his thumb.

I discreetly swiped at it with my tongue and then pulled away, grinning at the hot look he gave me. “I think you were the one who did the distracting this time.”

He nodded and then gestured to the aisle. “I think you might need tae use the facilities, no?”

My belly flipped. “Now?”

“Aye,” Caleb practically growled. “Now.”

And that was how, on trembling legs, I got up out of my seat, readying myself to join the mile high club. I felt his hand caress my ass as I squeezed by him and I shivered, unable to fully comprehend the reality of what I was planning to do because all I really cared about was getting him inside me.

It felt like I hadn’t had him inside me in years.

And I never thought I’d get to love him like this again.

I pushed the curtain aside, giving the flight attendant a weak smile, before I let myself into the bathroom with shaky fingers. I locked it. And waited.

Less than a minute passed before I heard a knock. “It’s me.”

Lust tugged deep in my belly as I unlocked it and stumbled back in the tiny space to let Caleb in. We were crammed together, our bodies touching, as he locked the door behind us.

“I keep forgetting how tall you are,” I whispered, my head tilted back to look up at him.

His answer was to lift me up and my legs automatically wound around his hips, my skirt bunching up around my waist as he propped me on the edge of the small countertop.

“Only you,” he suddenly whispered.

I looked into his eyes, questioning the hoarse, painful quality in his voice.

He rested his forehead against mine, holding me tight. “You have the power tae hurt me. Only you.”

Understanding caused a rush of emotion within me, tears stinging my nose. “When you hurt, Caleb, I hurt.” My voice broke as I promised, “I’ll never hurt you.”

“I love you,” Caleb choked out abruptly, the words coarse and dragging, as if they cost him his soul to say it.

Relief, bliss, and sweet, painful connection made me smile in sympathy. “It’ll get easier.”

“Tae say it?”

“No.” I placed my hand over his heart. “To feel it.”

His answer to that was a kiss so hungry and deep I miraculously forgot where I was. I forgot everything but the need to be with him.





Epilogue



THREE WEEKS LATER

A nod’s as guid as a wink tae a blind horse.”

Lying facing Caleb in bed, I felt my lips twitch in amusement. “I have no idea.”

We were playing the “let Ava guess what Scottish words and sayings mean” game and I was having no such luck in guessing correctly so far.

“It means, ‘Explain yourself more clearly.’ ”

“Yeah, I was never getting that. What?” I shoved him playfully. “You’re making stuff up now.”

Caleb grinned and shook his head as much as he could since it was propped up by his hand, elbow bent to his pillow. “Another?”

“Yes. I am going to get one eventually.”

“Is the cat deid?”

“Is the cat dead?” I translated.

“Aye. But it’s a saying.”

Bewildered and wondering if he really was just making phrases up now, I announced, “How the hell am I supposed to know what that means?”

He chuckled. “You would say it to someone to mean, ‘Your trousers or your hem is too short.’ ”

“You’re lying.”

“Am not.”

“Why would you ask if ‘the cat is deid’ for that?”

“If your hemline is too short it’s like a flag flying at half mast.”

Understanding dawned and I felt a snicker rise in my throat. “Like when someone dies.”

“Exactly.”

I threw my head back in laughter, tears of mirth drenching my eyes, and I heard Caleb’s soft, husky laughter join mine. “Okay, that’s funny.” I giggled. “Completely bonkers, but funny.”

“We’ve got tons of sayings like that.”

“And you all grow up saying them?”

“Nah.” He shook his head. “Most of them are from generations past. I only know them because my gran still says them.”

I thought of the last three weeks of bliss together and how although Caleb hadn’t repeated that he loved me; he showed it in his every action. At his brother’s art show in Chicago, he barely let me out of his sight, and Jamie looked genuinely pleased to see us together. Since arriving back home in Boston, we hadn’t spent a night without each other. The bathroom cabinet in my place was overflowing because of the toiletries Caleb kept there, and I had my own products littering the bathroom in his apartment. Although we were both busy with work, Caleb wanted us to come home to each other at the end of the day and I was not complaining. Not a bit.

In fact, we felt so much like a couple, I wondered if he would introduce me to his gran and the rest of his family during one of their Skype calls. I was nervous about their reaction to me after Jamie’s presumption that I was just like Caleb’s deplorable ex.