Endless Obsession

“Miss Lexington?” the man at the stairs inquires, holding out a hand.

“Yes.” I place my hand in his and he gives it two pumps before letting go.

“My name is Captain Hayes,” he says with a smile. “I’ll be the pilot for your trip today. If you’ll climb on board, Mr. Knight is already inside. We’ll be taking off momentarily.”

“Thank you. It was nice meeting you.”

I turn from him and eye the stairs warily. I don’t know what I’m more nervous about, getting on this jet or spending so much alone time with Asher.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” Captain Hayes asks when I make no move to climb the steps.

Swallowing through a thick throat, I murmur, “Yes.”

“Have you ever flown before?” he asks, coming to stand at my side.

I try my best to give him a smile, but I’m sure it looks warped or something.

“No. This will be my first,” I answer anxiously.

He lays a comforting hand on my arm and gives it a squeeze. “You have nothing to worry about. I’ve been flying these things for twenty years, and before that I was in the Air Force for ten.” He gives me a reassuring smile and it calms some of my nerves.

The next smile I give him is more natural.

“Don’t mind me. I’ll be fine, but thank you.”

With a pat to my arm, Captain Hayes lets go and I turn back to the stairs. I pull in a deep breath and grab t

he handrail before taking the first step. There are only seven steps, so it’s not long until I reach the top. Cool air whizzes past me as I stand in the doorway. It’s refreshing and cools my heated skin. I clutch my purse in a tight grip and move forward. My anxiety has now moved back from flying to seeing Asher. I round the small corner and am met with a decent size space that has several comfortable looking seats on either side of the aisle, and what looks like a small bar off to the left. In the back, I see a doorway straight ahead and two doors to the sides, one leading to the left and one to the right. There are cabinets along the walls right below the ceiling. Overall, it’s much bigger than I pictured from the outside. I shouldn’t expect anything less, though. It is, after all, owned by Silver Technologies.

I shift on my feet as my gaze meets Asher’s, who’s sitting in one of the seats talking on his phone. He’s wearing black slacks and a dark gray button-up with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. I always feel a little thrill run through my body when I see his tattoos, and now is no different. The eyebrow ring glints from the sun peeking in through the window. For a split second, I thought I saw something in his eyes when he first saw me, something dark and carnal. But when I blink and look back at him, it’s gone. It had to have been my mind playing tricks on me.

Or maybe it’s your mind conjuring up something that you desperately want, a small voice in my head whispers.

I shake the ridiculous thought away.

A beautiful young blonde in a knee-length gray skirt and white blouse walks up to me.

“Hello. My name is Seraphina, and I’ll be your flight attendant today. If you need anything at all, please let me know.”

She smiles at me, but there’s something about her that sets me off. Maybe it’s the way her smile looks fake. It could also be that she has her blouse unbuttoned just enough to give a small glimpse of her cleavage. Reluctantly, I have to admit her cleavage is nice, albeit probably fake.

When I don’t say anything back to her, her smile slips a bit and I feel like a bitch.

“Would you like for me to take your bag?” she asks, indicating my purse.

I grip it tighter and force a smile. “No, thank you. I’ll keep it with me.”

“Okay. If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to your seat.”

She turns on her black heels and leads me further into the cabin. Instead of taking me to a seat beside Asher like I figured she would, she takes me to one across the walkway.

“She sits over here, Seraphina. You already know this.” Asher’s clipped tone has both of us looking over at him. He’s still on his phone, but has one brow raised at Seraphina.

She blushes, and is clearly uncomfortable being reprimanded. “I-I’m sorry, sir,” she stammers.

I’d feel sorry for her if it wasn’t for the fact that she blatantly went against Asher’s wishes. I move my gaze from Asher and back to Seraphina. Although she still looks flushed from his sharp words, she can’t hide the desire flashing in her eyes. It’s there for all to see, and I feel an irrational need to scratch them out. She purposely went against him to keep me away from him. She doesn’t realize that there’s nothing going on between us, and I’m not particularly in the mood to enlighten her of anything different.

God, I am such a bitch!