Temporarily Yours (Shillings Agency #1)(12)
Author: Diane Alberts

He let out a short laugh then swallowed it down. He’d expected her to panic about landing or about, oh, he didn’t know, f**king coming in front of a whole plane, and she handed him a sanitary wipe? The woman was unbelievable. “Seriously?”

She turned beet red. “Sure, why not?”

He took the wipe from her and cleaned his fingers, his thoughts scattered. “You have something for any situation in that thing, don’t you?”

“Pretty much.” She shrugged and dropped her gaze. Then peeked back up at him from behind her hair. “I like to be prepared. Oh, and thanks, by the way. For all the distracting.” She flushed even more. “You went above and beyond the call of duty. So…yeah. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said dryly.

The way she clutched her hands together tightly told him all he needed to know about her. She might pretend that it wasn’t a huge issue to her, but she was clearly nervous as hell. Their eyes met, but instead of calming him down…she fueled him on.

She might think this was the end of their time together, but if he had anything to say about it…it was only the beginning.

…

Well, that had certainly been a plane ride like no other.

Ever since Cooper had made her come with his fingers and a few whispered words, she’d been at a loss for what to say. He seemed to accept this without question, though. In fact, he’d been holding her hand and comforting her as they descended.

Who was this man, and what planet did he come from? In her experience, men like Cooper weren’t real. They existed purely in the pages of romance novels and chick flicks.

But here he was. In the flesh. Driving her crazy with need.

What was she supposed to do with him now?

The plane jostled as it touched ground, and he fisted his hand in his lap. “Looks like we made it alive. No fiery crashes, and no watery grave.”

“Thank God.” She sat up straight and cleared her throat. “Thank you, again, for…well, everything.” And for the mind-blowing orgasm. Definitely for the orgasm.

His lips quirked, almost as if he’d read her mind. “You’re welcome.”

The attendant’s voice came over the speaker, welcoming them to North Carolina. Cooper looked at Kayla. She stared back. After a moment, she broke the silence. “What now?”

“Now we wait to get off.” He looked over his shoulder and tapped his foot impatiently.

She snorted. “I thought I already did.”

A chuckle escaped him. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“All right, everyone,” the flight attendant said from the front of the plane, her eyes skimming over all of the passengers. Kayla couldn’t help but wonder if she knew what they had been up to in that back row. “Please watch your step on the jet bridge as you exit the plane.”

Kayla stood up clumsily, cursing her legs for feeling so damned weak and shaky. “We made it in one piece.”

“Indeed we did. After you.” Cooper motioned her forward, waiting for her to clear the aisle. Then he grabbed his carry-on out of the overhead bin and followed her. “So, did you rent a car, or are your parents picking you up?”

Kayla looked over her shoulder at him. “No car for me. I’m catching the shuttle to a nearby hotel, where I’ll be staying for the next few days. I’ll call my mom to pick me up in the morning, when they’re awake. She wanted to come tonight, but I decided to take a night to recover from the flight before I got swept up in the wedding madness.”

He scratched the back of his head, looking utterly adorable with his tussled hair and sleepy eyes. Damn, but not many men could pull off that look. She was staring so hard as she walked, she tripped over a child’s seat that was waiting to be picked up in the jet bridge.

“Watch it!” he called, just as she stumbled forward.

She righted herself quickly, trying to hide her embarrassment. “I’m okay.”

He caught him fighting back a grin. “Good. That car seat came out of nowhere, huh?”

After that, they walked the rest of the way up the jet bridge in silence until they reached the gate. “Do you have baggage to pick up?” she asked.

“No, this is all I brought.” he said, gesturing to his bag. “But I’ll go with you to the baggage carousel if you want. If not, that’s okay, too.”

Oh, she wanted, all right. The question was, did he? He hadn’t said a word about continuing what they’d started on the plane somewhere else yet. But he hadn’t walked away yet, either.

So that meant something, right?

“Sure, come on.” She took a step, then remembered something he’d said to her earlier. “Wait, you said you would see me after the flight. If you didn’t have baggage to collect, then why did you say you’d see me again? Did you lie to me?”

“No.” He shifted on his feet. “I would’ve come to check on you.”

“Even though you didn’t need any luggage?”

He met her eyes. “Yep. I would’ve made sure you were all right before I left. I don’t make empty promises. If I say I’ll see you later, I’ll see you later.”

“Oh.” Her heart melted even more. He was oh-so-dangerous to her well-being with all his heroic thoughts and his magical orgasm-inducing fingers. She might as well climb out of her underwear and straddle him now, because that’s how tonight was going to end if they didn’t part ways soon. “I see.”

He fell into step beside her. “After we’re done here, I need to grab the keys for my rental. Want to come with me? I can drop you off at your hotel.”

That sounded promising. “Okay.”

She couldn’t wait to bring him back to a hotel for one hell of a night.

Chapter Six

After picking up the key from the rental car desk, Cooper followed Kayla outside, wheeling her suitcase behind him. She’d been quiet ever since they landed. He wasn’t sure what was going on in that pretty little head of hers, but he was dying to know.

He didn’t want to walk away yet.

He swallowed hard and glanced up at the moon. It seemed just as unreachable as the beauty in front of him. “My car is in spot 123C.”

She pointed off to a row across the lot. “There’s row C.”

“Yeah, I think I see my ride.” When she headed in that direction, he picked up speed so he could walk beside her.

There was no other car near his rental, which made sense considering the hour. It had to be pushing one in the morning, if not later. In fact, the only reason the front desk was still open was because he’d asked if they’d wait for him to arrive. Now that he’d picked up the key, even the desk attendant had turned off the building lights and was nowhere to be found.