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  Two

  Hugh

  I race off the plane and rush as much as a person can through Customs. The new automated system that’s supposed to save time and manpower isn’t saving me any time. My flight from Heathrow arrived late. My time between connections is thin already.

  Once my bag is rechecked, I take off at a full sprint toward my flight to Denver. I clutch my briefcase like a football and run through the concourse like a star receiver. My eyes focus on the gate numbers as I pass them one by one. A wheelchair shoots out from the elevator and forces me to navigate to the side. I run smack into a soft body.

  My briefcase hits the floor. I reach both of my hands out to catch the woman I nearly plowed over. The whole world stops as I grab her bare arms to straighten her from toppling over.

  She grabs my biceps and leans into me for purchase. I lean in and inhale. She smells like brown sugar and cinnamon.

  “I’m so sorry.” I run my hands up and down her soft skin, checking to make sure I haven’t broken her. She’s a stunning brunette with hints of sun streaking through her long locks. Eyes the color of a new spring meadow stare at me in surprise. For what feels like a lifetime but passes in a second, we stand in silence to take the other in.

  “It’s okay.” Her smooth voice floats over me like fine spun silk wrapping fibers around my body from top to toe. A tingle races through me and settles deep in my gut. I wonder if I’ve hurt myself. It’s not a sensation that I’m familiar with. It's a non-hungry rumbling in my insides like a thousand horses running wild. I tamp down my discomfort and attend to the woman before me.

  “Are you okay?” Once again my hands travel up her limbs looking for bruises or abrasions, but the only red I see is the pink blush on her cheeks and the gloss on her lips. “I should have been paying closer attention, but I didn’t want to miss my flight.” I look at the gate behind her. “I’m headed to Denver.”

  She licks her cherry red lips and sighs, “I’m not the only thing standing in the way of you reaching your destination.” She takes a look over her shoulder, then looks back at me. “All flights to Denver have been cancelled due to weather.”

  “Are you sure?” I let go of her arms and take a step toward the counter. In big red letters the words Flight Cancelled scroll and flash across the screen.

  “Yes. I’m sure.” She picks up my briefcase and hands it to me. “If you stand in line, they’ll reschedule you for tomorrow.”

  I bend over and pick up her backpack from the floor. “Sorry I crashed into you like a car with no brakes.”

  She takes the backpack and laughs. “It’s okay. I’ve always been easy to overlook.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  She hugs her backpack to her chest and smiles. “Good luck with your flight.”

  A second later she disappears down the concourse.

  I spend the next half hour at the ticket counter rescheduling . It turns out I’m not the only tornado running roughshod and claiming random victims. The skies above Kansas, Wyoming, and Colorado are swirling in a menacing fashion.

  I leave the counter with a new ticket in hand, a reservation at the airport hotel, and a grumble in my stomach.

  The lines for food are as long as the lines at the counter. There seems to be standing room only when I walk into Chili’s. I scour the restaurant for an open seat, and instead I find the beauty I bowled over sitting in the corner. She’s texting someone. Her fingers dance over the screen, and then she waits. She smiles. Texts more. Laughs. With what I hope is more finesse than last time, I approach her.

  “Hey.” When I speak, she startles and looks up at me. “I don’t want to interrupt, but I thought since we already kind of know each other, maybe you’d be willing to share your table with me.”

  “I wouldn’t call a hit and run a real introduction.” She looks down at her phone when it lights up.

  “I don’t want to interrupt anything.” I glance down at the lit screen and wonder if it’s a boyfriend.

  She picks it up and flashes the screen in my direction. “It’s my sister.”

  My smile grows so wide my cheeks hurt. “I thought maybe it was…” The sentence hung there incomplete.

  Her hair moves across her shoulders as she shakes her head. “No, I don’t have one of those.”

  I lean on the back of the chair. “Shocking.” I hold out my hand to her. “I’m Hugh. Can I buy you lunch?”

  There is a minute of indecision etched into her beautiful face and then her eyes soften. She lays her hand in mine and says, “I’m Katy. You don’t have to buy me lunch, but you can have a seat.”

  That turmoil in my gut starts again. It isn’t an unpleasant feeling. More like an adrenaline rush on steroids. The same feeling I get when I sky dive.

  “Well, Katy, the least I can do is buy you lunch since I almost killed you on the concourse.”

  The light on her screen flashes again. She picks up her phone and shoots off a text. “Sorry, my sister is relentless.”

  I take the seat to the side of her so we’re both facing the restaurant. Our legs touch, and a jolt of awareness surges through me. This woman affects me like no other.

  “Older or younger sister?” I peel off the paper band from the silverware and unwrap the napkin to place in my lap.

  “Older.”

  “Protective?”

  She laughs. Her eyes squint, and her lips purse as if she tastes the answer. “I wouldn’t say protective. I’d say she’s supportive.”

  “That’s amazing. It’s nice to have family.”

  “It is nice. By your accent I’ll assume you’re not from here. I’m going to guess England.”

  “You have a good ear. I’m originally from London.” I raise my hand to get the waitress’s attention. “Can I get you a beer or a glass of wine?”

  “Wine would be great.”

  I call out a beverage order while the waitress breezes past us. “This place is busy.”

  “It’s only going to get busier as more people get stranded.”

  “Your flight cancelled too?”

  “Like you, I'm Denver bound, so I suppose I’m now Atlanta stranded.” Her phone lights up again and Katy groans. She taps across the keys and sets her phone back down. “My sister wants to know what you look like.”

  “You told your sister about me?”

  A blush floats across the swell of her breasts. “Kind of. When I told her I was stranded, she bet me that I was tucked into the corner of a restaurant alone.”

  “She knows you.”

  The waitress drops off the drinks and disappears before I can order food.

  “She can’t always be right, so I told her I was tucked up in the corner of a restaurant with a sexy Englishman.”

  “You think I’m sexy?” I sip my beer and lick the foam from my lips. She watches the action with a look of curiosity and interest.

  Her blush rises from her neck to her cheeks. “It’s the accent.”

  “Oh. Is that all?”

  Another text comes in and Katy rolls her eyes. “She doesn’t believe me.”

  “Let’s prove you right and her wrong.” I pick up her phone and scoot in so our bodies are touching. She leans into the crook of my neck and smiles as I snap the selfie and press send to her sister.

  Katy picks up her wine. “Here’s to being right.”

  We tap glasses and sit in silence until her screen lights up again.

  “What did she say?”

  I watch the rosy color in Katy’s cheeks turn crimson. “I’m not telling you.” She presses her palm over the screen to hide the reply.

  “Oh come on, Katy, tell me.”

  She slowly shakes her head. “I barely know you.”

  “So change that. We have an entire night to know each other.” I look around the crowded restaurant. “No one is going anywhere.”

  Three

  Katy

  I slide my palm from the screen and push the phone to him. The message means everything to
me, but I’m sure it will be nothing to him.

  “Who are the Benson twins?” He reads the message again. It says he can be your Benson twins.

  “It’s a long story.” I sip at my wine until the glass is nearly dry.

  Not seeing the waitress, Hugh excuses himself and goes to the bar to get us another drink.

  He returns minutes later with beverage reinforcements. “We’ve got time. Tell me about these Benson boys. They are boys, right?”

  I shrug. I’ve never known my sister to be interested in anything but cock. Then again, a recent “Cosmo” article said that most women are two strong drinks away from a bisexual experience. “I’ve never met them, but I guess the best way to describe them is a regret.”

  “The ones who got away?”

  I tilt my head back and forth. “Oh heck. We’ll never see each other again, and I did tell my sister I’d open up a little. Be more careless.” I draw in a long drink from my glass of white wine. “Won’t it be funny when she finds out I’m opening up about her.”

  He takes a drink of beer and smiles like he’s enjoying the tingle and pop of the carbonation as it slides down his throat.

  I look at my empty wine glass. Two drinks on an empty stomach is not the best decision, but there are worse things than being soused and stranded in the airport with a sexy man.

  “Hold that thought.” He races to the bar to get us another drink.

  “You’re going to get me drunk.” I dip my finger into the wine and swirl it around the rim until the glass hums.

  “I’m tying to get you to catch up with me.” He holds up his beer. “Here’s to being careless.” We tap glasses and he pins me with a questioning look. “The Benson twins?”

  I lean against the table and my breasts flop onto the top like I’ve served them up for his pleasure. His eyes are fixated on the colorful band like it’s the wrapping to a delicious treat. Feeling giddy and not quite like my shy, reserved self, I grab my breasts and jiggle them. “These girls are not the Benson twins.”

  “Two bad, I would have loved to meet them.”

  I take another gulp for fortification. I’m totally out of my element here, but I’m having too much fun to turn back. So… back on the table I lean. Hugh leans to within inches of me like we’re going to share top-secret information.

  “I’m a bit reserved, and my sister says that I need to let loose more.”

  He sits back and takes me in. “That’s not the outfit of a reserved woman. It says, I am woman, hear me roar.”

  “I knew it. I told my sister when she did my makeover that I was a mouse pretending to be a lion.”

  He leans in closer and brushes his lips against mine. “I think you’re more lion than you want to believe.”

  I lick his touch off my lips and take several deep breaths. Heat from that quick touch moves like a wildfire down to my core, and I find myself clenching my thighs trying to hold on to that fleeting feeling of desire.

  “We’re not talking about me. We were talking about the Benson twins.”

  He looks longingly down at my breasts, and a surge of burning hot desire courses through me again.

  “Tell me about the twins.”

  His tongue rings his lips, and I lean closer as if drawn to them by some magical force called wine and poor judgment. But Lisa’s words continue to repeat in my head. Step out of your comfort zone. Try something new. Be carefree and a little careless. Maybe for just a day I could be the lion instead of the mouse.

  I push my lips to his and say, “Her biggest regret is that she never slept with the twins.”

  His eyes open wide. “Together?”

  I nod. “So she says.”

  Our lips brush back and forth against each others. Not really a kiss but something teasing and tantalizing. It's like a bite of cake that makes you want to devour the whole thing in one sitting.

  His words are a whisper against my lips. “And the lesson you’re supposed to take away from her regrets?” He nips at my lips and I moan.

  “I don’t know, maybe it’s live in the moment. Maybe it’s don’t be so cautious. Maybe it’s as simple as every girl should know what an orgasm feels like before she’s twenty five.”

  I consumed too much wine to feel embarrassed, even though I know I should be, but Hugh doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable with our frank talk. I'm not sure if it's him or the alcohol, but I'm not ashamed. Maybe it's as simple as dressing differently that gives me the permission to act different.

  “How old are you, Katy?” He threads his fingers through my hair and pulls me to him. His cologne washes over me. Sandalwood and sex with a hint of citrus. His lips crush into mine and his tongue is like a hot iron pressing my inhibitions away with each soft stroke. I'm lost in the kiss and completely bereft when he pulls away. “How old, Katy?”

  I run my tongue over my kiss-swollen lips. “Twenty-four.”

  “Do you feel this attraction between us?” He points back and forth.

  I nod. “It’s intense.” I feel something all right. I am a moth trapped outside the window and he is the light.

  “So you want to live in this moment?" He strokes my lip with the pad of his thumb. "Do you want to explore this attraction?”

  I lean in wanting his lips against mine again.

  “You want to know what that orgasm feels like?”

  My whole body vibrates. Too much wine? The man? The moment? I don’t care what it is, all I know is that it’s time. I have this moment. I don’t want missing this experience with Hugh to be my big regret.

  I look around the restaurant where people are packed against each other like fish in a can. “You want to give me an orgasm here in the restaurant?” Heat races down my spine to dampen my panties.

  “I’d love to do that, but I actually have to get to Denver tomorrow. It would be hard to explain to my boss why I need to be bailed out of jail for indecent exposure.”

  “Where do you have in mind?” He nips at my lower lip and trails a finger down my arm. The motion stops at my elbow, but the sensation travels down to my core and causes a deep seated ache between my legs. I want to be bold, but I don’t want my first orgasm to happen in a booth at a restaurant or inside the stall of a public bathroom.

  “I’ve got a room,” he says. He pulls out his wallet and fishes between foreign bills to grab several twenties. He tosses them to the table and rises from his chair. “What do you say, shall we get reckless?”

  Could I? I take another look at him. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Tall and sexy with an accent that turns my insides to goo. How can I not want this? I glance at my sister’s last message. He could be your Benson twins.

  I toss back the remainder of my wine and let out a roar like the lion I want to be. “I’m all in. Let’s get reckless.”

  Four

  Hugh

  She follows me to the hotel at the airport. While I check in, she walks around the massive floral arrangement in the center of the room. Her nose dips in on occasion to smell a flower. She stops at the yellow roses several times.

  As the desk clerk hands me a key, I ask myself, what the hell am I doing? This is completely out of character for me. I don’t pick up women in airports and take them back to my hotel room, but this girl… she’s something special. She describes herself perfectly when she mentions a mouse and a lion.

  Her clothes scream confident with the amount of skin she shows. Her body language yells something different with the way she folded herself in the corner booth out of sight. She’s a paradox to me. Her opposing forces of meek and assertive are driving me to make unlikely choices.

  “Ready?” I lean in to smell the same rose and our noses touch. We turn toward each other and our lips touch. It’s not enough. “Let’s go.”

  She looks at the bank of elevators and back to the front door. “I want you to know that I don’t do this kind of thing.”

  I pluck the flower from the vase and hand it to her. “Me either, but then again, I came to this country for a change. You
can change your mind and I’ll walk you to wherever you're staying the night or…” I lean in and breathe her in. The smell of her perfume is like dessert. I want a piece of her so bad, but something tells me a taste of Katy won’t be enough.

  She chews her plump lower lip until the gloss is gone and only the shine from her tongue remains. “I’m trying to break out of my normal routine.” Her voice starts as a whisper. “I don’t know why, but I think I need to be with you right now.” She pulls the flower to her nose and inhales. A shudder shakes her body. “Let’s go”

  She walks to the bank of elevators and I follow. That ass of hers sways back and forth like a pendulum, and I mark the time to being inside her with every swing of those fabulous hips.

  I press nine when we enter the elevator. The ride is filled with the silence of two strangers. That’s exactly what we are, but in a few minutes, we’ll be intimate strangers. I wait until she exits and then lead her to the room 911 which seems appropriate because if she’s made it to twenty-four without an orgasm, she is in desperate need of a rescue.

  With a swipe of the keycard, the door clicks, and I swing it wide open. The hotel is decorated in blues and yellows. Smack dab in the center of the room is a king-sized bed just waiting for our bodies to be naked.

  “It’s nice.” She walks into the room and sets her bag on the corner chair before she walks to the window and looks out at the airport parking lot.

  If she’s as nervous as me, she’s shaking inside. I toss my briefcase to the ground and join her. My body presses against hers. Not in a sexual way, although my dick jumps at first contact with her ample ass. I fucking love women with curves.

  “Don’t be nervous.” My hands rest on her hips. My lips trace the shell of her ear while I talk to her. “We’re just two people who desire each other. There’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing.” She tilts her head to give me better access and when my tongue darts out to taste the column of her neck, she hums.