In Flight (Up in the Air #1)(11)

The pilots were the next to show. They came in together. I’m not sure I would have recognized either of them out of uniform. I only knew they had arrived when Melissa’s personality suddenly got real bubbly. Stephan and I shared a short, pointed look.

We all said our greetings, and by then Melissa had managed to snag the seat next to Brenda. Captain Peter was practically glued to the back of her chair. I tried not to stare. They weren’t being subtle. Those two were likely going to end the night together.

My eyes snagged on the ring on the Captain’s left hand as he rubbed it all over Melissa’s nearly bare back. Ewww, I thought. I hated that. I didn’t understand why people got married, and then acted like that. But it certainly knocked my opinion of Melissa down even further. There was no way she had missed the wedding ring on his finger if I had seen it from several feet away. Hell, she probably felt it on her back, he was rubbing her so hard with it.

I made an easy decision to just try to ignore them for the duration of the evening. They were a major buzz-kill.

I noticed with a little dismay that the first officer, Jeff, had ended up standing by my chair, his body angled towards me. He smiled at me as I noticed him. He waved at the glasses in front of me. “What’re you drinking? It looks like a good time.”

I told him, and he stepped closer as I spoke. I moved back a bit. I hated when people tried to casually touch me, and he just seemed like the type to try it.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, after he had downed his own shot, he reached out a hand, touching a strand of my hair. I shrank back just a little. “I love your hair.” He was nearly shouting over the rowdy crowd. “It looks so hot when you wear it down.”

I turned away from him at that, finishing my current round of drinks. Yes, it was official. I was drunk. I caught Stephan and Melvin sharing a look, and I knew exactly what it meant. Stephan was trying to tell Melvin to cut off my alcohol.

I glared, leaning closer to him. I pointed a finger at his chest threateningly. “Don’t you dare. I barely ever drink, and I really need to relax tonight. This is the first time in days that I’ve been able to unwind and just forget about Mr. Beautiful.”

Stephan had looked ready to argue until that last embarrassing sentence left my mouth. But as I finished, he sputtered out a laugh. “Mr. Beautiful?”

I nodded, and he laughed harder. “Well, he is. James Cavendish is too damned beautiful to be real. He scares the shit outta me,” I confided.

Stephan stopped laughing at that. “Why?” he asked seriously.

I shook my head. “Not like that. A different kind of scary. I haven’t figured it out. All I know for sure is, I need to stay the hell away from Mr. Beautiful.” I over-enunciated the last sentence so much that, even drunk, I noticed it.

Stephan’s eyes widened as he looked at a spot above and behind me.

“What?” I asked him in a loud, belligerent tone. Yes, I was definitely drunk. “What? Is Mr. Beautiful standing behind me or something?”

Stephan pursed his lips and I suddenly had an awful feeling that I’d hit that one right on the head. I turned my spinning head around and looked up, and up, into bright blue eyes. “Hello, Mr. Beautiful,” I said in a quieter, but still obviously drunk, voice.

CHAPTER FIVE

Mr. Persistant

I spun almost immediately to glare at Stephan. “Traitor,” I said to him, my words slurred.

He threw his hands up, giving me his innocent look. “I didn’t give out your number or anything. He asked if we were going out tonight. I just told him where. No harm done.”

I mouthed a few choice words at him. I felt a hard cheek press to the hair near my ear and knew it was Mr. Beautiful himself. “Mr. Beautiful, huh?” he whispered in my ear. I knew my whole body was bright red with embarrassment. “I’m going to take that as a compliment, though I have to say, it’s a new one.”

“Hello, Mr. Cavendish,” I said stiffly, without turning.

“I told you, call me James. Or Mr. Beautiful, if you prefer. You can save the Mr. Cavendish for when we’re in private.” It was the second time he’d said that, and I just couldn’t tell if he was teasing. Did I even want to know? I wondered. No, I told myself firmly.

I tried to just ignore everyone for awhile after that. Except for Melvin. Him, I tried to flag down to get another drink, but he was ignoring me. Vaguely, I could hear Stephan and James chatting amiably at my back.

James hadn’t moved, and he was standing close enough to my back to indicate that he and I were together. He was so close that it made the skin of my back tingle. If I shifted even an inch backward, we’d be touching.

I turned my head slightly and saw that the co-pilot had been forced to move away from me. He was looking between Stephan and James, an odd look on his face. He didn’t know what to make of the situation. I didn’t really care what he made of it. I was just relieved that he seemed to get the picture that I was clearly not available.

I lurched suddenly to my feet. I had expected to be a little unsteady on my feet, but it was much worse than I’d thought. I had to clutch the bar for several moments to gain my balance.

“Whoa, careful there, Buttercup,” Stephan was saying to me.

I felt a hard arm going around my waist for support, and I knew it wasn’t Stephan. “Buttercup?” James asked him, his voice amused.