Page 38 of Come Fly with Me

“Where?” Carrie asks, a confused look on her face.

I chuckle. “Oz, Australia,” I tell her. “We went surfing together.”

Carrie’s brows raise even higher as she glances quickly at her husband, a small smile on her face as she turns back to us, her eyes now flicking between Taylor and me. “Is that so?” she murmurs.

Dinner passes with a lot of chatting and laughter. Both Carrie and Charlie are great fun and really easy to be around. It’s not hard to see why Taylor is friends with them or why she’d choose these two to operate her flying program with her.

By the end of the night, though, we may have all had a few too many margaritas, and while Charlie and Carrie elect to leave their car, I turn to Taylor and say, “Fancy a walk?”

I watch as she bites her bottom lip again, a habit I now know stems from nervousness. It’s fucking adorable, though, and I can’t help but grin as I once again tug it from her teeth.

“Taylor?” I prompt when she doesn’t answer me.

She glances over at Carrie, but I don’t turn around, instead watching her face as she silently communicates with her friend over whether this is a good idea. Eventually, she turns back to me, her eyes dark as they look up at me in the muted lights of the pier.

“Sure,” she whispers.

We say our goodbyes to Charlie and Carrie, and then I grab her hand and we walk along the still-busy pier. When we come across an ice cream shop, I pull her inside.

“Want one?” I ask, turning to her.

She looks over the tubs of ice cream, licking her lips as she takes in the different flavors. I squeeze her hand, which is still in mine, and she turns to me.

“Okay.”

I smile and place my order before gesturing to Taylor to do the same. We both watch silently as the young girl scoops our ice cream into cones before I pay her, and we head back outside.

“Let’s go down to the beach,” I suggest.

Taylor follows me down, neither of us saying anything as we both enjoy our ice cream. When we reach the sand, we walk a couple of meters down toward the water before turning and now walking parallel to the shoreline.

“How’s the salted caramel?” I ask.

“Good,” she nods, licking her ice cream in a way that makes my mouth dry. “How’s your triple chocolate?”

“Ugh, so good, it’s almost orgasmic,” I tell her. “Here, try some.”

I hold my cone out to her, watching as her eyes flick to it and then to my face. I cock a brow, holding it closer in encouragement as I whisper, “Go on, you know you want a taste.”

Even in the darkness, I can see the blush on her cheeks as that bottom lip once again gets pulled between her teeth. Eventually though, she leans in, and I watch, riveted as she licks my ice cream. I have to swallow hard just to stop the groan from falling from my mouth.

“God,” she moans, her eyes closing. “That is so good.”

I slip my hand onto her hip, leaning closer so my mouth is against her ear. “Told you, orgasmic, right?”

She giggles and I swear her blush darkens. I move my hand up her back, draping my arm across her shoulders as we keep walking. I’m grateful it is dark, actually, considering the growing hard-on I’ve got going on down below.

“Tell me about your time at the academy,” she suddenly says.

I glance down at her, grinning. “You mean the learning to fly part or all the shit we got up to?” I ask, remembering our conversation that last night in Sydney.

She smiles. “The shit you got into.”

I chuckle. “God, where to start,” I say, my mind flashing back to all the stuff we did to our fellow cadets. It was a great time in my life, even being so far away from my home and family and everything I knew. I made friends for life during those years, guys I still catch up with now, whenever I can.

“Okay,” I reluctantly say. “So obviously nights off were a big deal, right?” I start, seeing Taylor nod from the corner of my eye. “And they usually meant we’d head into town to hit up a couple of bars.”

“Let me guess, in uniform?”

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