Page 48 of The Passion

And there she is, my high-society girl.

We are flying home with Forrest, while Rem is staying for a few days to holiday with his family, and Nic is on his honeymoon, while Nic’s mum Sally and Broderick are visitingSydney. My brother and I will be holding down the fort until the others return. It was already about to be a busy time, but now we have just added a whole other layer of chaos.

“Flynn, Felisha.” Forrest greets us as we enter the jet. He is already seated in his normal single seat at the window on the left-hand side of the plane. I don’t know how it happens, but even though my brother and I were raised exactly the same way, we have grown up to be very different people. I am spontaneous, in no need for routine, fly by the seat of my pants kind of guy. Forrest, however, is the complete opposite. Needs to sit in the same seat every time, can only wear certain fabrics, loses his mind if he doesn’t have a plan or a routine. His day is usually planned out perfectly, and not that I want to think about it, but he probably schedules in his sex partners too. I shudder thinking about my big brother having sex. There are some things you just don’t need to have visuals of, and that’s one of them.

“Forrest, hard at it already,” I say, looking at him with his laptop open and typing away. I usually would have led with some smart comment about him being in my seat or anything to annoy him, but strangely enough, I kept it to myself this morning.

“Just checking on everything from yesterday. Plus, I told Nic I would look at a few things he wanted me to keep an eye on and send him a message before we take off.”

“Tori will kill you, you know. He is supposed to be on his honeymoon.” I start laughing at imagining Nic sneaking his phone out at the first opportunity he can, making sure everything is as it should be.

“Well, she doesn’t know the man she married very well then. There is no way that man can turn his brain off.” Forrest smirks as he hits the last key and looks up at us both as I’m guiding Felisha to the double seat across from him. I give her the window seat although it’s where I would usually sit. I love watching the takeoff and landing, and there is something special aboutlooking out at the skyline in the different time zones’ light across the sky.

Felisha stops, though, and sits in the seat on the aisle, not looking at me but already strapping herself in. If that’s what she wants, then I’m not going to argue with her.

“Like you boys would be any different. We are all workaholics. You have no idea what it’s been like the last two days having no access to my computer and relying on Harper to keep pretending to be me. I’m so anxious I feel like I want to jump out of my own skin.” Her fingers are fidgeting on her legs.

“Hang on to this one, Flynn, she gets it.” Forrest points his finger at Felisha. “But for you, my one piece of advice is run now, fast! This guy will drive you crazy. So don’t complain later that I didn’t warn you.” His attempt at being funny is actually what we needed for Felisha to be a bit distracted and stop thinking about feeling so isolated.

“Hey, I’m the perfect catch,” I sass, taking my seat and pulling my seatbelt on while I pretend to be offended.

“Maybe I need to do a bit more due diligence before I commit to this arrangement.” Winking at me, Felisha then turns to Forrest. “We have a long flight, plenty of time to tell me every embarrassing story about your brother that you can think of.”

“Don’t you dare.” I glare at my brother who has plenty of ammunition against me, at the same time as he replies, “A twenty-two-hour flight won’t be long enough for all the stories I have.” With the biggest smile on Forrest’s face, I’m starting to regret getting on the same flight as him. This could be dangerous.

The more Forrest brings up stupid things we did as kids, that of course I’m refuting, the more I see Felisha relax, and that’s all I care about at the moment. That and of course seeing her get to know my brother, because that is important for me. As much as I have felt like I was in his shadow all my life, his opinion is whatI crave. It won’t change what I do in life, but nevertheless, I want his approval, as crazy as that sounds.

After a few hours of talking and being served some food and drink, Forrest excused himself because he had work he needed to do. Putting his headphones on, we are now on our own, and as much as I wasn’t joking about Felisha joining the mile high club with me, now is not the time. Not with my brother on the flight too and Felisha still so edgy that I don’t want to upset her with even suggesting it.

I can tell, though, the moment we stopped talking, that her eyelids were looking heavy, and the exhaustion of the last few days is about to hit hard.

“Come on, I’ll show you the bedroom and you can lie down and sleep.”

Sitting up straighter in her seat, she snaps back at me, “I’m fine, I’m not tired.”

Man, this woman’s stubbornness is going to test me because I’m not known for my patience either.

“Mm-hmm. Well, I disagree. We are going to the bedroom anyway.” Standing and taking her hand, I pull her up off the seat and turn her, walking her to the back of the plane. The whole time she is mumbling under her breath, and I’m trying not to laugh.

As soon as the door is closed, she spins around, and with her determined face, whispers in a harsh tone, “We are not having sex with your brother right outside.” She steps back a few feet from me like it would help protect her from me.

I could string her along and get her worked up, but that defeats the purpose of getting her to rest and catch up on some sleep.

“True, we aren’t. You are sleeping, and I am resting too. Neither of us got much sleep last night.” Memories flood into my head of the early hours of this morning when she woke from hersleep crying and begged me to take away the pain in her heart. There is only so much a man’s restraint can take. What started as slow and sensual lovemaking quickly turned into hot, hard, and heavy sex that only had us thinking about our bodies and the connection they had. Everything else just slipped into the darkness.

“Don’t look at me like that was my fault.” She is still whispering, but there is a little bit of underlying sexiness to her words, and I tell myself to ignore what that voice does to me.

“I’m not, but I’m telling you the moment you start begging, I’ll always give you what you want.”

It’s like she is tucking that piece of information away for later as she smiles, steps forward, and goes up on her toes to kiss me on the cheek. “Noted.”

With that, she then crawls onto the bed next to her and snuggles under the blanket. Taking one look at her, I know it won’t take long before she won’t be able to fight it any longer.

“I just need to talk to Forrest about something, I won’t be long.” Leaning down, I kiss her on her forehead. “Just relax, and I’ll be back.”

Turning and walking out of the room, I close the door, and I know the hum of the plane’s engine will have her snoring in minutes. I might not have gotten much sleep either, but I’m used to surviving on very little from all my years of chef work.

Walking past Forrest and taking the seat opposite him, he takes off his headphones and looks at me like he is confused.

---