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I give a startled yelp, not expecting the movement, and he goes back to his own seat. My chest pumps up and down with my heavy breathing. I’m not sure if it’s from the surprised backward motion of my seat or Asher’s behavior.
“Go to sleep, Poppy. I’ll wake you when we get there.” His eyes are still laughing at me, but I choose to ignore it.
As I expected, the seat doesn’t go back very far. Just enough so my head won’t fall forward. I ignore the man at my side, who’s eyes I can still feel on me, and relax back against the seat.
I wake up to something warm rubbing up and down my arm. My head is nestled against something firm, but comfortable. I don’t want to move, so I snuggle my face into it. What I smell has me wanting to burrow my nose in deeper, or stuffing whatever it is up my nose so I can smell it all the time.
“Poppy,” a deep, velvety voice calls.
I reluctantly open my eyes and am met with a swirl of color and black lines. I furrow my brow, trying to figure out what I’m looking at, or remember where I am. It doesn’t take long for mortification to set in when I remember getting a little too tipsy off two glasses of whiskey and sniffing Asher like a dog in heat. And what’s worse is that during my nap, I somehow managed to end up with my head against Asher’s shoulder.
I look down to see my hand resting against his thigh, and his hand is lightly rubbing my arm. I stiffen in my seat and slowly lift my head from his shoulder. I move my arm back to my side, dislodging his hand in the process. Embarrassment isn’t a strong enough word to cover what I’m feeling right now. I decided to take a nap to try to avoid any further awkward moments, and now here I am, doing it even before I wake up. The ground, or rather the sky, just needs to open up and swallow me whole to put me out of my misery.
I force my eyes to meet Asher’s. His are soft as he watches me.
“Sorry,” I mumble, sitting upright in my seat.
“No need to apologize,” he says with a devastating smile.
Although I’m sure he shaved this morning, there’s a hint of a dark shadow that’s starting to form on his chin, cheeks, and above his lip. It looks really good on him.
“I would have let you sleep, but we just landed. I figured you wouldn’t like me carrying you to the car.”
I look over at the window and see we’re back on land.
“Oh! I didn’t even feel us land,” I say dumbly.
“You were sleeping pretty hard. Even snored a few times.”
I whip my head around at his remark, horrified. His lips are quirked up at the corners, looking amused.
“I did not snore!” I protest.
He shrugs and chuckles. Reaching over my lap, he unbuckles my belt as he says, “If you say so.”
Maybe I should just go ahead and paint my face red, because it seems to stay that color whenever I’m near him. Only now, it’s so much worse.
Asher stands and grabs his jacket. I grab my purse and stand as well. Looking around, I no longer see Seraphina. I wonder if Asher’s already fired her. We couldn’t have been on the ground long, but maybe he was in a hurry to get it done.
“Ladies first,” he says, gesturing with his arm that I should lead the way.
Captain Hayes is standing at the door when we walk up.
“Miss Lexington. How was your first trip?” he smiles and asks kindly.
I smile in return, but answer him honestly. “I’m sure your flying skills are excellent, but I definitely won’t be making any unnecessary trips that require traveling by plane. I think I prefer to stay on the ground.”
He chuckles, and I’m grateful he takes no offense. “I’m sure it’s something you can get used to. Unfortunately, the winds were somewhat heavy today, so there were a bit more bumps along the way. Hopefully, the return trip won’t be so bothersome for you.”
“I hope not. See you in a few days, Captain Hayes.”
“That you will. Have a good weekend, Miss Lexington.”
Asher stays behind to speak with Captain Hayes as I walk down the steps to the tarmac. It’s hotter than Hades here. I knew it would be hot, but Jesus, it darn near takes my breath away. I can already feel sweat beading on my forehead and my arms feel slick from the instant humidity. Even though we’re still at the airport, excitement at being here in Texas has me smiling.
I feel a hand at my back and look over to see Asher standing beside me. He leads me to a sleek black car, where a man in a black suit is waiting with the back door open. I don’t see how he can stand there, wearing what he’s wearing. He has to be roasting. I slide into the car and am immediately met with blessed cool air. I slide over and Asher climbs in beside me. It’s quiet as the car starts rolling forward. There’s plenty of room in the backseat, but it still feels cramped with Asher sitting next to me.
He pulls his phone out of his pocket, reminding me I need to take mine off airplane mode, and then sets the jacket beside us on the middle console. I grab my phone from my purse, just to give myself something to do. It feels awkward sitting in silence. As soon as I switch my phone over, it dings with an incoming text. My heart jumps when I realize it could be from Sterling. I cast my eyes to the side to see what Asher is doing, before checking my messages. I need not have worried as his eyes are focused on his own phone. I pull my missed messages up. One is from Liv, and the other is from a private number.
