Page 27 of Past and Present

“You’ve been working on this since before you asked me about Phoenix. Sneaky bastard.”

He chuckled. “Guilty. After we talked last Sunday night, I decided to see if I could pull something off for a Christmas wedding.”

“God, he’s so damn smooth,” Bethany said shaking her head in disbelief. “How do you handle it, Marissa?”

Lance settled into his seat near the front of the cabin and pulled out his headphones before Marissa could answer.

As he was setting up his tablet, she plopped down next to him.

“Hey,” she said, picking up his hand.

He lifted his headphones off his ears and rested them around his neck. “Hey.”

“Thank you for this. You’re ridiculous and I love you for it.”

He trailed a finger down her cheek. “I just want to see you happy, Kitten.”

“I’m very happy,” she whispered and leaned in for a kiss.

“Go hang out with your friends. Flight attendant has breakfast for us after we take off. I’m just going to get into something for David.”

Lance half listened to Marissa talking to Lana and Bethany while he pulled up a preliminary digital profile for a man named Martin Terry. According to David, they needed to have something to use against him by the time he and Emily and Tamara flew back to California on Sunday.

Eventually he would pull Marissa in if he needed to, but he hoped to just let her enjoy the weekend before they made the mad dash to Phoenix where he already had a team working on wedding plans. It would be a small affair, but he was doing his best to make it worthy of the woman he was marrying.

He was halfway through financial records he’d hacked into when Marissa sat next to him.

He closed his laptop and pulled his headphones off. “Everything OK?” he asked when he caught site of her concerned expression.

“If this is my bachelorette party, what are you going to do? It doesn’t seem fair for you to not have a bachelor party.”

Lance gave her a lopsided smile. “I’m sure once Patrick or Hunter catch wind of what our plans are they’ll try to do something ridiculous. At the very least, I’ll have a drink with all the fellas while the subs decorate tonight.”

He laughed when she wrinkled her nose.

“You’re the one who griped about my office not being decorated, kitten. What’s wrong with decorating the club?”

“Group projects. You know how I feel about those.”

He let his head fall back against the seat and laughed. “You’re adorable and I love you.”

She huffed and stood up. “Keep making fun. I’ll make sure Hunter and Patrick do the most ridiculous thing they can think of for your bachelor party, mister.”

He held up a finger and crooked it in a come-here motion. She inched toward him warily, and he had to fight to keep the smirk off his face.

When she leaned down so her ear was near his mouth he said, “Try it and see what happens, kitten. I think we both know I’ll win this little game.”

She poked her tongue out at him and he just shook his head. “You get a pass for now. I make no promises not to revoke it when we get to Solitaire.”

Like the smart girl she was, she backed away before Lance could make anymore threats. He turned and watched as she rejoined her friends near the back of the plane. Her gaze drifted to his and a pretty blush warmed her cheeks. She liked to fight her inner submissive, but their battle of wills turned her on and he enjoyed turning her on so he didn’t mind going a few rounds with her. They both knew in the end Marissa would wind up on her knees in submission to him, but Lance would hand her the world every chance he got because if anyone owned anyone in this relationship, he belonged to her completely.

13

Friday, December 21st

Marissa

“I’m so excited for you, girl,” Austin said as she stood on her tiptoes and put a tree topper on one of the last trees they had to decorate.

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