Page 38 of Blushing Bride

I’d traveled before in planes like it, so the layout was familiar to me. I walked through the rear storage to the front of the room. I led her up the stairs and through a metal door where there was a section that was more suitable to passengers. There were a few seats against the wall, as well as a more private room that was usually used for upper class passengers. I guided Naomi into one of those, relieved that there wasn’t room for the entire entourage that was our new security team.

Hopefully, it would just end up being me and her in that room.

“Why don’t you settle in by the window? I think you’ll like the view when we get up into the air,” I offered.

“Thanks! I think I will,” she exclaimed enthusiastically. She settled in and clicked her seat belt into place. In this room, the seats were bigger than in the rest of the plane, with room to spare on either side. I took the seat next to her, placing a few things on the table between us. There was a fridge in the front of the room. I got up and grabbed us each a bottle of water before settling in. I heard the engines power up and I knew that the plane was soon going to be preparing for takeoff.

“Is it going to be a long flight?” she asked and there was a jittery undertone to her voice that hadn’t been there before. She was nervous, but she was trying to do her best to hide it.

“Six or seven hours, by my estimate. A plane like this flies a little on the slower side,” I answered. Her fingers grasped the handles of the seat hard enough to turn her knuckles white. “Don’t worry. It’ll be over before you know it,” I grinned.

She looked a bit less wary, but not as relaxed as I wanted her to be. I got up and walked over to the entertainment compartment and opened the latch. There were several books inside and I picked out one that I thought she might enjoy. I came back to my seat and passed it over to her. Her eyes opened wide when she saw the couple on the cover.

“Why don’t you read for a little while?” I instructed gently and a look of nervous excitement passed over her face.

“What if they see?” she asked quickly, glancing in the direction of the door. There were voices not far off, probably just the security team getting settled in their seats before takeoff.

“They won’t. I’ll make certain. You just worry about enjoying yourself,” I directed.

She turned to the door and back to the book in her hands. When that wasn’t enough, I got up and locked the door to our cabin. I pulled the curtain over the window shut, giving us complete privacy.

“Okay,” she smiled, still a bit anxious.

“Good girl,” I praised. Her expression softened immediately. She almost melted right before my eyes.

Fuck. This girl was dangerous.

I leaned back against my seat, buckling myself into place as she settled in to read the book that I’d chosen for her. The engines rumbled a bit louder, building up power so that they could propel us down the runway and up into the air.

When we finally started to move, Naomi reached for my hand. I closed my fingers around hers as the plane took off, letting her squeeze me as tightly as she wanted as she flew for the very first time. When the wheels left the ground, her eyes opened wide, first with fear and then glee. She stared down at the ground, watching it get smaller and smaller with every second until at long last, we were several thousand feet up.

I hated the moment she pulled her hand away from mine. I had wanted to hold it forever.

CHAPTER8

Naomi

Later that evening, we landed somewhere in the desert of the southwest section of North America. I held Ryker’s hand again when the plane descended. He had warned me the landing might be rough and he had been right.

The old derelict airstrip was overgrown with brush and much of the pavement was broken and crumbling in places. The wheels bounced several times and the rush of movement had been terrifying as the pilot hit the brakes.

I was more relieved when we finally came to a halt.

“Takeoff is far better,” I breathed. Ryker chuckled and I remembered to let go of his hand. Even though I’d been holding him pretty tight, he didn’t rub his hand or anything.

The book he’d picked out for me had kept me distracted for much of the flight. Occasionally, I would look out the window and marvel at the Earth down far below, but the storyline about a girl being abducted by a tall, handsome alien had kept my attention. I didn’t tell Ryker, but there was even a scene between the two where he put her over his knee and spanked her to tears when she questioned his love for her, after which he held her and kissed her tears away. I blushed thinking about what he did with his fingers, his tail, and his cock after that. All of it had been so impossibly romantic that I knew I wouldn’t ever forget it.

I’d put it back where he found it before we deplaned.

With a wary look, Ryker left me with one of the security team members while he went back on the plane. He drove one of the smaller off-road vehicles off the gangway. Seth and Vince returned with two extra vehicles that would follow. Without a second thought, I climbed into Ryker’s car. When one of the security members made a move to join us, he drove off before their fingers even brushed the door.

“I loaded all the supplies we may need to find Cressida Labs. Maps. The books you collected and referenced. Anything you said you might need is in the trunk,” he explained.

“That’s perfect. I’ll make sure to catalogue them all when we stop for the day,” I grinned.

He glanced up into the rearview mirror. The other two vehicles were following closely behind us. His eyes narrowed with distrust for the briefest moment, but then it was gone. A harsh bump jostled the car, and I looked out the window, finally fully taking in my first view of the wastelands from the ground.

I’d appreciated it from far above during the flight. There had been many times that I glanced out the window to see the remains of a large crater, evidence of a bombing long ago. The land was scarred in places, dead in some and flourishing with nature in others. So much of it was uninhabited.

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