“Are you listening to me, Captain Weston?” His question snapped me out of my thoughts. “Captain Weston?”

“Yes?”

“I said you can leave the airport as soon as you sign the non-fraternization policy again.” He gestured around the now empty room. “You’re the only one still sitting here.”

I looked down at the paper, noticing the red lined change: I, Jake Weston, have never, and will never engage in a relationship with any employee of Elite Airways, in any department or extension of Elite Airways. I also am in compliance with the original non-fraternization policy below.

Picking up a pen, I signed my name and he took the paper from me. I stood up and headed for the door, but he called after me.

“Yes?” I looked over my shoulder.

“Um, you left something in your chair.” He pointed to a crumpled pair of black, lace panties.

“Thank you.” I picked them up and returned them to my pocket, not letting him ask whatever the hell he was tempted to ask. I stepped out of the room and into the terminal at Honolulu International, in no rush to spend my next four off days on the island.

Years ago, I would’ve relished the idea of spending countless hours near the beaches and fucking as many women as possible, but for some reason, that idea wasn’t as appealing right now.

I pulled out my phone and looked over Gillian’s line. She was currently in Orlando en route via a red eye flight to Seattle. From there she had a trip to Los Angeles with a three day stopover.

I calculated the math in my head: Los Angeles was only a five hour flight away from Hawaii, with a three hour time zone difference. Seattle was six hours away from Orlando, so she’d land there within the next couple of hours for a short flight to Los—

I immediately stopped my train of thought.

What the fuck am I doing?

I shook my head and headed down to the ground transportation dock, hailing the first available cab. I needed to get to the hotel ASAP before I could entertain that reckless thought any further.

GATE B21

GILLIAN

Orlando (MCO)—> Seattle (SEA)—> Los Angeles (LAX)

I winced as I made another pot of coffee for the first class cabin. The muscles in my arms were weak and heavy—worn out from holding onto a closet doorframe while Jake bent low on his knees and pleasured my pussy with his mouth.

I was still waiting for a time when the sex wouldn’t be so spectacular, an instance where it would only be ‘good,’ or maybe even average, but it was getting more intense every time.

Making sure the coffee was hot enough, I turned it on low, ready to start breakfast service. I opened the compartment where we kept the placemats, but Miss Connors stepped in front of me and slammed it shut.

“How are you on this lovely day today, Miss Taylor?” She asked, smiling.

“I’m fine. How are you?”

“I’m amazing.” Her smile didn’t waver. “I didn’t see you on the crew shuttle this morning, so I was quite surprised that you beat me to the airport for a change. Imagine my surprise when I arrived this morning and saw you already waiting patiently at the gate.”

“Yes, well...” I wasn’t sure where she was going with this. “On time is late, and early is on time. I caught the shuttle right before yours.”

“Oh, really?” She crossed her arms and leaned against the counter. “You know, that’s quite interesting because there was no shuttle before mine. Even if there was, I would’ve seen you catch it because I was in the lobby having coffee and a book at five this morning. If you came down, there’s no way I would’ve missed you.”

I said nothing.

“Furthermore,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me. “I actually went to your room at seven to make sure you were coming, so imagine how shocked I was when a housekeeping associate told me you never actually checked into your room the other day.”

I felt my face turning red, but I still didn’t say anything.

“So, I started thinking to myself. Well, Miss Taylor is definitely incompetent at times, and although I did see her argue with someone familiar at the gala weeks ago, there’s no way this young woman would risk her career over a pilot’s cock.” She shook her head. “There’s no way the front desk agent had the same girl in mind when he told me you turned in your room key shortly after checking in and was picked up by some ‘pilot guy.’ There’s no way, is there, Miss Taylor?”

I swallowed, unable to meet her gaze anymore.

“End it.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “End it today. I don’t care what type of stupid system of lust the two of you have going on, but if it continues past today, I’ll have you fired.”

“Miss Connors, I’m—”

She held up her hand. “I expected more from you. You can do much better than a goddamn pilot,” She rolled her eyes and walked away without another word, leaving me completely embarrassed.

***

Seconds after checking into my Los Angeles hotel, I got the hell away from Miss Connors and locked myself in my room. I plugged my laptop into the wall and sat at the desk, forcing myself to temporarily forget about her threats.

I googled “Flight Attendants Fired for Breaking Employee Fraternization Policy,” and several pages of results popped up. I clicked on each of the links, my heart sinking with each and every article. Of the twenty I read, eighteen of the incidents were from Elite Airways, but they were several years old. The more current articles were all quotes from executives, all of them saying a variation of, “That’s why our safety record is so high. Our flight employees are pure professionals. No other airline in the world has a policy like ours, but the proof is in the policy.”

Shit...

I closed all the browser windows and leaned back in my chair. I was going to have to find a way to end this; losing my job over sex wasn’t worth it, no matter how amazing it was.

Sighing, I got up and took a long shower—thinking through the past few months, tallying up all of our meet-ups. No matter how badly I wanted to believe that this could turn into something more, the only thing that improved between us was the sex. Our conversations were still on his terms, still unbalanced and tilted in favor of my reveals and his conceals. And the longer I continued to deny the fact that deep down, I did want more, the longer I would drag this out and potentially get hurt.

I stepped out of the shower and immediately scrolled down to Jake’s name in my phone. I typed my email and hastily hit send, not giving myself a chance to change my mind.

Gillian: We need to end this. Now. I’m sorry...

He didn’t respond.

And entire hour passed before I stopped staring at the screen and realized he wasn’t going to. Figuring silence was his easy way of accepting things, I opened my laptop once more and opened up a few new tabs.

Since I’d managed to go several weeks without giving in to my curiosity about Jake’s family, and we were now practically over, I had to know what he meant by Evan being his brother. Why he said it in a way that looked as if he hated to admit the fact.

I typed in “Evan Pearson” in one tab and “Elite Airways CEO Nathaniel Pearson” in another.

I clicked on the best picture of Nathaniel and enlarged it, raising my eyebrow as I noticed the similarities between him and his son, Evan. Then I pulled up a picture of Jake.