Page 107 of Come Fly with Me

I lick a path up to her jaw, kissing my way across to her mouth. “Baby,” I murmur, brushing my lips against hers. “We’ll find a way to make this work, I promise.”

“Yeah?”

I pull back a little. “Yes,” I say, kissing her lips as I brush my fingers against her cheek. “I want to be with you, Taylor, always. We’ll find a way to fly together as much as possible, but even when we can’t,” I add, sliding my fingers down her neck and between her breasts to her heart, flattening my palm against her skin. “I’ll always be with you, wherever I am. I’m yours, Taylor, you own me.”

She stares up at me, her eyes shining as they search my face, her hand cupping my jaw. “How the hell did I get so lucky with you?” she whispers.

I grin, leaning down to kiss her as I murmur, “Well, you’re sexy as hell and I’ve always loved a woman in uniform.”

“You cheeky shit,” she says, laughing as she pinches my side.

“Whatever,” I say, sliding a hand down her leg to her knee and hitching it around my hips. “You love me though.”

“God, I do,” she moans as I sink into her again, and then neither of us has anything more to say.

Thirty-Seven

Taylor

I wake the next morning to my phone vibrating on the nightstand next to me, my body wrapped around Jake’s and I hate to roll over and interrupt this peacefulness between us. Jake’s arms tighten around me and the phone stops, my eyes falling closed just as his phone starts chiming out.

“Someone knows we’re together,” he murmurs against my hair and I smile. He reaches behind him, grabbing his phone, shifting away from me slightly to read his text message. “It’s Charlie. He wants to know if we can get to the hangar a little early today.”

“Doesn’t he know we have things to do this morning?” I tease, my hand slipping down Jake’s stomach, my fingers wrapping around him.

“We’ve always got time for that,” Jake groans, his head falling back and at this moment I don’t care if we’re late.

An hour later, we’re pulling into Santa Monica Airport, but it’s far busier than it usually is on a Sunday morning. I look over at Jake. He knows something and I can tell he’s playing coy.

“What’s going on?” I glare at Jake, my brows furrowed.

“Maybe you should’ve answered your phone when Charlie called,” he responds, a cheeky smile on his face.

“Well, what did he tell you?”

“Just that he needed us here early, and I’m assuming this crowd is because of that.”

“So,” I start, turning to face him as he parks the car, “who told you about my quest to change the pay practices?”

Jake pauses a moment, his finger tapping his lips as if he’s trying to remember something so insignificant that he can’t possibly recall the details. But then he says, “It was one of those times that the gossip about Taylor Patterson proved far more helpful than harmful.” He winks at me, opening the car door and exiting without waiting for me to say anything.

I jog to catch up with him, but I’m completely caught off guard when I shuffle up to the hangar and find Charlie and Carrie waiting for me.

Both of them have ridiculous smiles on their faces, and I know I’m in for something very interesting.

“What is going on?” I demand, my hands on my hips, but oddly enjoying the secrecy of what’s happening. It’s been a long time since a surprise has made me feel a surge of excitement rather than fear, and as I stand in front of Carrie and Charlie, I suddenly want to shout out loud, dance for joy, even if the surprise is something as simple as a cake wishing me congratulations.

“Okay, now we had no idea that it was going to go this far…”

“Seriously, what’s going on?” I ask, quickly looking around. “And where’s Jake?”

“Just look,” Charlie says, as he walks into the hangar where our Girls in the Sky classes take place.

And right below the banner with the company name stands Jake and the girls, news reporters and cameras surrounding them.

I’m not even sure what to say, especially after I see all the girls are wearing T-shirts that say “#equalpay” and they’re talking to the news reporters.

I’m not certain I can speak right now without crying, and I stand back and take it all in as Jake walks over and stands beside me.

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