Dorian’s head cocked. “I want to show you my life, Noa Sloane. I’m going to do that, and maybe I don’t care how you feel about it. Maybe I’m going to put myself out there regardless of what you’re giving me back.”
“Maybe I’m going to take a chance.”
His previous words in my head, my lips parted. “Your dad’s just cool with you taking his planes?”
He rolled his shoulders. “He wanted to know what for, and when I told him, he was cool.” His smile started slow. “I told him I wanted to impress a girl.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, watching as he put out his hand.
“Outside of football, flying is my life,” he said, his expression serious. “It’s something my dad shared with me, and I value that.”
His reasons came to mind when he said that, his notes. He was opening himself up. I eyed his hand. “This looks a lot like a date.”
“It’s whatever you want to call it.” He didn’t lower his hand. “And my notes said control was something I was working on.”
His wink that followed had me laughing. I took his hand, and as it turned out, that was a good thing in these stilettos. He helped me down to the sidelines, and with all that grass, I really wasn’t trying to sink into the ground with these heels.
I stepped down daintily, and he must have noticed my difficulty because he gave me his back. He like literally hunkered down, and when he physically put me on his back, I squealed like a motherfucker.
“Dorian!”
“Probably not the ride you thought you were getting tonight, huh?” he stated, chuckling, then proceeded to be an asshole and race across the field.
“Dorian, stop!”
He merely picked up pace, and I screamed for my damn life. The dickwad showboated too when he spun me around, and I grabbed on to him so tight he’d probably see the marks for days. He didn’t slow until we arrived at one of his dad’s helicopters.
He placed me down then, only appearing slightly out of breath, unlike me. I hadn’t run but my adrenaline was through the roof. I pointed at him. “I’m going to kill you. This is not how you impress a girl.”
“Like you’d have it any other way.” He crowded me again, his hands on the plane. “You say we don’t work, but this is how we work, Noa. We fuck around. We fuck with each other.”
He was right, of course. We were burning flames, wild and insane.
But those flames worked in the wrong way most often. We charred everything in sight most of the time. Especially each other.
Dorian’s smile fell away, and when he curled a finger over my cheek, I swallowed.
“Stop using this.” He touched my temple. His smile returning, he gave me space. “Just have fun with me. We’re going to have fun. I swear
.”
I didn’t trust him, and I definitely didn’t trust me. I didn’t trust what I’d do with him, but I allowed him to hop into his plane and take me with him.
Dorian took the pilot’s seat right away, helping me into mine. He happened to have a couple of headsets, and after he assisted me with mine, he put his own on.
“Now, I know this may disappoint you, but I’ve been strictly told we can’t leave the ground today,” he said, smirking. “Dad mentioned something about insurance or liability or some shit.”
I laughed, and he grinned.
“But this will give you the idea.” He sat back. “Imagine we’re in the sky. Limitless in the night, and there’s nothing but the lights of the city below us.”
It sounded amazing, yeah. “You fly with your dad?”
“When I can.” Threading his fingers, he propped them behind his head. “It’s been a while. Actually, not since Charlie died. My uncle didn’t fly, but he liked to come with us.”
He said this casually, but I knew how his uncle’s death had affected him. The lengths he’d gone to tell Charlie’s story showed me that. “Can you tell me about him? Charlie?”
A slight wince touched his eyes, his nostrils flaring. “Why do you want to hear about him?”