This did nothing but pique my curiosity even more, of course.
“What on earth happened?”
He grimaced. “I walked in on Melissa in the cockpit last week. She was, um, she was giving the captain, Peter, um, oral pleasure.”
I gasped, a hand flying to my mouth. He just nodded with a disgusted look on his face.
“Where was the co-pilot?” I asked, not sure why that was the first question that popped into my head.
“He was just sitting there, looking uncomfortable. I think Melissa thought he’d be into it, but he sure wasn’t. And then, after she saw your watch, I overheard her talking to Brenda and Jake as I approached the back galley. She had the nerve to tell them that she was planning to write you up for accepting gifts from passengers. She had the gall to actually imply that James had been paying you for something that you did for him in the bathroom of the aircraft.”
My jaw literally dropped.
“That lying skank,” I said in disgust, reacting quickly with temper.
He held up a hand. “I handled it. First of all, I confronted her in front of the others, making sure they knew that she was a flat-out liar. They had no trouble seeing that she was just jealous of your watch. Brenda and Jake both know me better, and they trust me, so they easily took my word over hers. And then I made sure they all knew what I had caught Melissa doing in the cockpit. She at least had the decency to look embarrassed about it. I even spoke to the first officer, and he agreed to back me up if I needed to write a report about it. Melissa knows I won’t hesitate to get her fired if she tries to hurt you. She’s lucky I didn’t get her fired for trying to spread nasty rumors about you. I still get furious just thinking about it.”
I patted his hand comfortingly, mulling over the drama that had unfolded around me while I had just been going about my work, oblivious.
“She’s a piece of work,” I commented, then dropped the subject.
“James is so crazy about you,” Stephan murmured to me quietly.
He’s crazy, all right, I thought, but I didn’t comment.
I considered sharing every scandalous detail about our relationship with Stephan, but decided against it. It would dispel his strange notion of James falling for me like some romantic hero, but it would also make him unnecessarily sad.
James was waiting just outside the door as we walked out of the jet bridge as a crew, finally done for the night turned morning.
“Drive with me,” he ordered as he fell into step beside me.
I slowed until the others passed us.
“I can’t,” I said to him quietly. “We’re supposed to drive with the crew, and I need to go check into the hotel to reserve my room.”
He flushed, his pretty mouth curling as he reached to pull my luggage for me. “That’s all unnecessary, Bianca. For the love of God, just stay at my place.”
I set my mouth. “We’re not going over this again.”
He walked beside me in silence until we were nearly at our pick-up location.
“Fine. A driver will come pick you up at the hotel,” he said finally, handing me my bag.
“When?” I asked, but he was already striding away.
It was an entertaining bus ride, with Murphy at his most amusing. I wondered, as he was telling a funny story, if Melissa would try to go down on Damien with Murphy looking on in the flight deck this week. Or would she go down on both? I didn’t know how that sort of thing worked.
I was just discovering my own kinky nature in full, but taking on two men just seemed too sordid to me. No matter what kind of spell James seemed to have me under, I knew I could never be talked into something like that.
Murphy interrupted my scandalous thoughts by addressing me directly. “You can’t tell me you’re not gonna be sorry to miss out on us tonight! Admit it, you love us!” Murphy had adopted his atrocious mockery of an Australian accent as he spoke. He did so often, claiming that it if it worked for Damien, it could work for him. Damien always winced when he heard the butchering of his accent, which just made it funnier.
I smiled. “I made plans before I knew about yours, Murphy. Don’t take it so hard.”
“Just have James join us. If he has a romantic evening planned, just tell him to save it for another night!”
I thought of how he was going out that night without me. I briefly considered meeting up with them after that. I knew, from other nights we’d gone out with these pilots, that they would have no problem staying out late and then getting up early.
“Maybe I’ll swing by the bar later,” I conceded. “I’ll have to play it by ear.”
Murphy whooped as though he’d won a victory. I met Damien’s eyes, and he was smiling warmly. I felt a little uncomfortable, and couldn’t place why. We’d gone out with these pilots many times and there was usually never an uncomfortable moment.
Am I just worried about what James would think? The thought troubled me.
We reached the hotel and got our room keys in short order. Everyone was lingering in the lobby, chatting with the hotel staff. Murphy was convincing them to join up at the bar after work. It sounded like he was succeeding. Murphy was nearly as charming as Stephan, in his own silly way.
“Ms. Karlsson.” A quiet voice spoke behind me.
I turned in surprise. It wasn’t the usual way I was addressed. I was a little surprised to see Clark standing there, both in New York and in our hotel. I hadn’t realized that he traveled with James outside of Las Vegas..
“Hi, Clark. How are you?” I asked, smiling.
“Great, Ms. Karlsson. The car is out front. Please, allow me to take your bag.” He did so without waiting for an answer.