Page 101 of Holiday Star
At his comment I had blushed, my face matching the dress, but I didn’t mind the heat.
Caleb is looking pretty good himself, in his navy suit jacket and pants. A trim black leather belt accentuates his narrow waist. His white button-down shirt is open at the top, exposing a sculpted throat and upper chest.
Lust simmered in my veins as I took in his broad shoulders and the curve of his collarbones. I had to stop from touching that divot at the bottom of his neck, right above his breastbone.Suprasternal notch.I repeated the medical name to myself, thinking it had never sounded so sexy before.
Now, the screech of a heavy metal door opening. A brisk wind hits along with a repetitive stuttering noise so loud it makes me want to cover my ears. Caleb tugs at my arm, jolting me to a stop. His breath is hot on my cheek as he shouts, “You mentioned during our last date that you wanted something fancy, so here we are.” With that, he whips off the blindfold and yells out, “Surprise!”
Rising before me is a gleaming midnight black helicopter. It’s so sleek it looks like it should belong to Batman. The twin propellers on top spin faster and faster until they blur into one.
Spring has passed the baton to summer. The wind generated by the propellers is humid hot. It sends my unbound hair flying, tangling into my round, shocked eyes.
Caleb’s laughing, his hands moving to catch my hair. He gathers it gently in his hand and holds it to the side. He leans in close. “You should see your face right now.” He laughs again, the sound low and rumbling. “Have you ever been in a helicopter before?”
I can’t speak, can only shake my head no.
Craning my neck, I find that we are on top of a skyscraper. One so big that it towers over all the other buildings. The wind whipping around me isn’t just from the helicopter, it’s from the fact that I’m up so high.
I take a few steps toward the building’s edge, and a wave of dizziness hits as I look down the vertical miles that separate me from the street below.
“Whoa.” I stumble slightly, off balance from vertigo. “What is all this?” I turn to Caleb, wonderstruck.
He keeps one hand on my arm, steadying me. “I’m taking you on a sunset flight over Manhattan. You said that you hadn’t seen as much of it as you wanted, so I thought this way I could show you all of it.”
Wow. Just wow.
Caleb pivots and heads to the helicopter, but I call to him, “Wait.”
He returns to me, eyebrows raised questioningly.
“This isn’tyourhelicopter, is it?”
No way he has a helicopter, right?
Caleb laughs like I’m being ridiculous, and I feel a sense of relief. Of course, he doesn’t own this beast of a machine. That would be crazy.
Shouting to be heard above the roar of the engine, he answers, “No, this isn’t mine. I just have the jet. It’s back in L.A.”
He grins merrily and waves at me, curling his fingers into his hand. A come-hither gesture. “Let’s go, Gwen.” There’s a single metal rung that he steps on to haul himself into the cockpit.
I’m left standing on the concrete circle of the helipad, my mouth unhinged.
Did I hear that right? Caleb owns ajet?
I bend low and rush under the rotating propellers to board. The pilot sits in the front seat. Caleb and I are in the back. Caleb helps me adjust heavy, padded earphones over my head. He points to the small microphone that sticks out in front of my mouth.
“You can talk into here, and we’ll be able to hear you, the pilot and I,” he says, his headset picking up the words and transmitting them to mine.
I press the microphone closer to my lips. “Like this?”
“Yes, that’s it.” He squeezes my thigh encouragingly. “Are you ready?” Static slightly distorts what he says.
My heart is a hummingbird’s wings, beating fast with nervous excitement. “Ready,” I answer, trying to keep the quaver out of my voice.
The helicopter tilts at an alarming angle, and I throw my hand out to brace myself against the bubble-like window to my right. Then we are lifting straight up into the sky. I give a startled yelp as the ground plummets away below us.
We hover, holding still for a minute, and then shoot forward. The motion presses my body into the cushion behind me. There’s a feeling of weightlessness as the helicopter flies, tilting and swaying as it enters the city.
It keeps low, with tall buildings rushing by on either side. Our reflection soars along with us, rippling in the mirrored windowpanes of the skyscrapers we pass. The pilot speaks over his microphone as he navigates, pointing out landmarks and offering interesting tidbits of history.
