Page 24 of The Kiss Keeper
He threw another mental punch at his brain. He was not Jake number seven. He would not be Jake number anything to anybody.
He pulled the mask over her head, careful not to mess up her hair, then pulled the material over her eyes and…
And he stared at her. With the mask in place and half her face covered, he couldn’t peel his gaze away.
“Am I good?” she asked as that weird déjà vu sensation took hold again.
“Yeah, you’re good,” he answered as she leaned back.
She sighed. “Do you have a pillow?”
He glanced around. No dice. “I can ask the flight attendant for one when he passes by.”
“That’s okay,” she yawned and rested her head on his shoulder.
He didn’t move. He only listened as her breaths grew slow and even as she drifted off to sleep, and surprisingly, he relaxed. It was only then that he realized how tense he’d been since he’d agreed to Charlie’s proposition.
He glanced at his slumbering, possibly champagne addicted seatmate, then carefully picked up his glass of Jameson and sipped the smooth spirit. But just as he set his glass down, Natalie swayed forward, and he caught her and brought her back to him.
Fuck it!
He wrapped his arm around her, and she nuzzled into him.
“Thanks, Jake,” she said in a sleepy sigh.
Which Jake? He could almost laugh. There were seven to choose from, right? He stared down at the giant mask covering her face, then closed his eyes, and tilted his head to rest against hers.
He could always go back to being an asshole when they landed.
4
Natalie
Half-awake, Natalie twisted what she thought was a bedsheet around her hand, melting into the warmth around her until a tap at her shoulder pulled her out of that cozy space sandwiched between sleep and wakefulness.
She opened her eyes only to find complete darkness, then remembered the sleep mask. She peeled up the fabric covering one eye and was met with the smiling face of their First-Class flight attendant.
“You two look so cute. I hate to have to wake you.”
Slightly disoriented, thanks to all that champagne, Nat pushed the mask to her forehead. “Where are we?”
Her warm pillow shifted as a hand now rested on her breast.
She was not in bed with Jake number six back in Denver. She was cozied up to a completely different Jake on her flight to Portland.
The safe, comfy feeling disintegrated.
She’d made it, and now she’d have to contend with her cousins—all by herself.
She tried to edge her way out of Jake’s embrace, but underneath that suit, the man had some serious muscles, and she couldn’t get him to budge.
Nat glanced around. There wasn’t a passenger in sight. “Where is everyone?”
“They’ve all deplaned,” the man answered.
“Oh! Wow.”
It was pretty creepy being the last one on a plane.
