Grounded (Up in the Air #3)(88)
James eyed up my legs. He traced my collar absently. “Even without heels, you have the sexiest legs on the planet.”
He had worked me over hard, but I still felt that drugging feeling of wanting that only he could inspire move through my system.
We met Akira at the Middleton Resort’s cantina. The instant I saw Akira, I understood the appeal. He was a huge man. I’d never seen James standing side by side with anyone taller than himself before Akira, I realized, as he shook hands with the other man, who stood a good two inches taller than James. He was an intimidating man, but God, was he a sight.
He had classic Hawaiian features, with thick dark brows over handsome brown eyes, and a generous mouth with a mean twist. He had wavy black hair, and everything about him was big, but it was all muscle. The man took good care of himself, going by the bulky muscles moving restlessly under his suit.
He treated me with marked deference right from the start. James, not so much. He had no qualms about going after the other man right from the get go.
“You went out with Lana. I saw you with her in the papers once.” Akira’s tone could not be mistaken for friendly or indifferent.
James grinned. Perversely, I thought that James saw Akira’s hostility as a good sign. And perversely, I thought he might be right. “We’ve been friends for years. We’ve accompanied each other to a few social events.”
“What does that mean, exactly? I read a piece that said you had dated.”
James studied the other man. “Why do you ask? Is it idle curiosity, or are you jealous?”
Akira didn’t answer, just stared at James like he wanted to strangle him.
James was far from intimidated. “I want to know because of Lana. I’d like to know how you feel about her.”
Akira silently fumed. It was easy to see that he was a volatile man, but I could also see that he was one that had spent time working on controlling his temper.
James sighed. “You’re difficult. Leave it to Lana. She has such a soothing way about her, so of course she would be in love with a walking powder keg of a man. Life is funny that way.”
I would have sworn that Akira’s dark skin was turning red.
“I’ll level with you, Akira. Lana doesn’t date; she never has, so she certainly never dated me. She’s been hung up on you for so long, and so badly, that she’s never even wanted to date. She’s been pining for you for years. I’ve checked up on you. You’re single, you’re straight, so what the f**k is your problem? Don’t you care about her?”
Akira flushed. Very carefully, he set clenched fists on top of the table. “Why the f**k is it your business?” he growled.
James leaned forward, undeterred. “Because I care about Lana, and because I know she’ll never come to you herself. It’s time to man up, Akira. If you love her, it is your job to show her.”
Akira tapped a giant fist to the table. The table bounced a little, because a tap from a man his size was like a full on punch from another man. “How do you propose I do that? I doubt she’d take my calls, and she hasn’t been back to the island even once since she left.”
“Call her dad. She’s a workaholic. Get him to send her here on business. If you can’t get her to stay, that’s your own fault.”
Akira took this better than I would have expected, just setting his mouth into a hard line and nodding thoughtfully. “You swear you never touched her?”
James threw his hands up. “I never even tried. I swear it! It’s probably the reason we’ve stayed such close friends.”
We had lunch and took our leave of Akira. He was severe but polite as we parted. He was an unreadable sort of guy, but I thought that he had warmed to James at least a little by the time we left. With me, he was perfectly polite, though of course I’d never been romantically connected to Lana in the media, as James had.
The next leg of the flight was longer, though sharing a spacious private jet with James for eight more hours was no hardship.
The private jet wasn’t designed with a normal galley, or a normal anything, really. The flight attendant and our security had their own enclosed space between us and the flight deck, where they could both have privacy, and give us some. James took advantage of this to the fullest.
The plane had barely reached ten thousand feet when he was kneeling in front of my seat, bending down to kiss my thighs, nuzzling his way between, spreading them wider as buried his face against my sex. I was still wearing my shorts as he teased my clit with his nose.
He had gone from buckled up and innocently sitting next to me to making me pant for him in seconds flat. He stripped my shorts and panties off and I gripped his hair into my fists as he set to work on me bare.
“You’re insatiable,” I gasped as he licked at me like he would never stop.
“Yes,” he murmured against my skin. “I’ll never have my fill of you, and I’ll never let you forget it, but you’re hardly one to talk, Love.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Mr. Indulgent
The Cavendish property was located in the Ginza district in Tokyo. I had gotten every tourist booklet that I could get my hands on about the city, but James had a wealth of information, as well, since he had apparently spent plenty of time in Tokyo himself. According to my tourist booklet, and James, Ginza was one of the main shopping districts in the city.