T he flight across the Atlantic started out uneventful and my travel companion a very attractive man. So attractive in fact, that if I weren’t already infatuated with the mysterious Cashel McGuire’s voice, I would be flirting up a storm with him. Raul, aka limo driver, was not very forthcoming with any info as to why I was being summoned.
I shook a box of Reese’s’ Pieces minis at him. “I’ll trade you these for a little tip as to where I’m heading.”
He nodded eagerly and held out his hand.
“You don’t talk much do you?” I said, handing him the box. I sat there patiently waiting for him to spill the beans while he inhaled the candy.
I smiled at him. “Good, huh?”
Smacking his lips together he nodded.
“Okay?” I looked at him wide eyed, willing him with my mind to give me the dirt.
“Oh right.”
My eyes widened because for a second, his voice seemed familiar. But then, he coughed and smiled. And apparently, he must have had a frog in his throat because, his voice came out a few pitches higher when he said, “You wanted a tip. You have a long trip ahead of you. Get some sleep.”
He promptly turned his head towards the isle and started snoring.
I sat there dumbfounded. That was not a tip!!
Part of me wanted to reach out and smack his cheeks or kiss him until he answered but the rational part of me turned and stared out the window at the clouds. Before I knew it Raul was shaking my arm telling me to wake up. My eyes sprung open as I felt the plane jerk violently.
“What the hell is going on?” I stared at him wide eyed.
“Emergency landing. Duck your head between your legs.” I felt Raul’s hand on the back of my skull as he shoved me downward. So far that I could have kissed the floor if I stretched my lips out.
I sprung up the second his hand moved. “No!” I shook my head in denial, to the point I felt like a fricken bobble head that someone had flicked with their finger. “This isn’t happening!”
“Oh yes, it is. Stop talking and get down now!” he roared, shoving me downward once again.
I did what I was told but I was definitely not finished talking. Peering at him between my legs, I tried rationalizing with him. “This is just turbulence, right?”
“Not when the wing has been hit...”
“By what?!”
“A... um... not sure,” he said. “But whatever it was, it happened right out your window. I saw it with my own eyes.”
I popped my head up and looked out the window, and I swear by all that is holy, that by the time I arrived in England my eyes would be permanently bugged out. If I were to make it there that was. Because the wing wasn’t just hit, it looked like a dinosaur had bit a chunk out of it. I’m sure my mouth matched the perfect roundness of my eyes as I whipped my head around to look at Raul, who just happened to be popping up beside me.
“Mickle is gonna kill me if something happens to you,” he muttered as he wrestled me downward, covering me with his body.
“Who the hell is Mickle?”
“Never you mind! Just stay down and for the love of God, shut up!”
I had no choice but to stay put with his hulking form pressed against my back and for some inane reason I was quite enjoying the feel of him against me. That was until the plane jostled us to and fro and I realized the predicament that we were in. I gritted my teeth, knowing that this was the end. I was going to die over the Atlantic Ocean with a wannabe Hercules pinning me in the fetal position. I would never get a chance to tell my family one last time that I loved them, and I would never get the chance to meet the man that melted my insides with his voice alone.
“Tell me something would you Raul?” I choked out around the lump of unshed tears in my throat.
“What... what is it you want to know?”
“What does Cashel look like?”
“What?!” Came his muffled reply against my back.
“What does he look like? Does his voice match his...” —I groaned at the mere thought of what it had done to me over the phone. — “... you know.”