Page 48 of Good Girls Like it Dirty
“Yes.” Monique handed her the passport and the ticket.
The carefully coiffed woman nodded and typed quickly on her keyboard without taking her eyes off the screen.
Monique put the large suitcase on the scale, then clenched the handle of her carry-on bag. A shiver rolled down her spine, and she had to repeat the mantra she’d been telling herself all the way from her home. You’ll be okay. This is what you want.
She didn’t need Zaine or anyone to make her happy. She was just fine, thank you, without him—she’d had a life before him, and she sure would have one after him. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, like she had ants in her socks.
Damn it. She chewed her lower lip so hard, like she needed the pain to know this was really happening. In order to make one dream come true, she had to crush another.
Leaving felt so…final.
“Ms. Drummond?” the agent called her, giving her passport back. “It seems you’ve been upgraded to first class.”
“Huh?”
“Yes. You may take advantage of our VIP room on the third floor,” the woman continued quickly, circling the information on her boarding pass. “Here’s your flight and gate number. Please head to security and enjoy your flight.”
Monique tilted her head to the side, repeating to herself what the agent had said, making sure she had heard her correctly. Was there a misunderstanding? She hadn’t paid for an upgrade, yet she found herself following the flow of people lining up to security. Maybe the airline had empty seats and chose her, an adult traveling alone, to occupy one of them. Still…in the era of hard-earned miles and expensive upgraded seats, scoring an upgrade without any effort was too good to be true.
With my luck, they’ll kick me back to coach when they realize I didn’t pay for it.
“Next in line,” the TSA agent yelled, and she shook her head, brushing her second guesses aside.
For the next hour, she went through the motions, found her gate, and boarded the plane. Only one seat in the back was occupied, by a man or a woman, she couldn’t tell, reading a newspaper.
No wonder she’d been handed first class. No one else could afford it, right?
She looked outside the window and started to play with the buttons to her right. Her seat reclined all the way back, flattening like a freaking bed. Then, after the plane took off, the flight attendant brought her some champagne and warm appetizers.
She fumbled with the entertainment system in front of her, and memories from her flight to Hawaii with Zaine automatically inundated her mind. They’d also flown first class then, and he’d helped her use all this over-the-top crazy shit she never even knew existed. Who needed eighty-nine different movies?
Zaine…
She swallowed, her shoulders sagging into the seat.
“Monique.” She heard his voice, heard it so freaking close. Was this the last stage of their broken affair?
“Monique,” the masculine voice called her again, and she turned around to find him, the very same man of her dreams, sliding in the seat next to her.
Her jaw dropped. “Zaine?” she asked, barely getting his name out.
What’s he doing on this flight?Was he traveling to France for business? Some fancy conference or—
A golden gleam touched his gorgeous, soulful eyes. Moisture completely vanished from her throat, and her heart drummed a rhythm so fast, she hoped she wouldn’t pass out. That’d be beyond embarrassing.
“I waited until the plane took off because I didn’t want to take the chance of you trying to get off without listening to me.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I came for you,” he said, taking her hand in his. A current of anticipation shot up her wrist and at a maddening pace continued its fast-track mission through her body. Her nipples hardened like diamond tips, her body recognizing his before she even had a chance to rationalize.
“Why?” If he thought she’d be his side piece of ass while he stayed married to Ashley, he had another thing coming. Sure, Emma had told her he didn’t want to patch things up with his ex, but how could she know for sure?
“Because I love you. I learned today Ashley lied, and she isn’t pregnant. She used the idea to get back with me, though I wonder if what she really wanted was to think she’d won.”
Wow. The idea had crossed her mind once, but she’d pushed it aside. After all, at some point Ashley had to come through with the pregnancy. For how long could she pull off a fake one? “How did you know my flight number?”
He shifted in his seat, angling closer, his leg dangerously near hers.
