Once inside the airplane the male attendant acknowledged Brandon with a nod and small smile and the captain greeted him when we headed in the direction of our seats. “Good evening Mr. Charles, I received your text and the jet is ready. We should arrive in the state of Maine about ten p.m.
“Very good Captain.” Brandon although polite, kept a distance between him and the hired help. The attendant showed us to a luxurious seating area. Beige leather seats wide enough to seat two people on one of its chairs. To my surprise and delight, it swiveled, and when I pressed a button the seat became a lounge chair.
Brandon sat next to me and he glanced my way with a large smile. “What’s in the rear of the plane? I mean is there another seating area because there are only eight seats and this plane is huge.”
“That area is for sleeping or…” he paused a moment. “It’s for resting,” he said with a wink and a smile.
Was he trying to do a good deed for the year by taking up with me and making my dream come true for one night? Or did he have other things in mind. Who am I fooling? He’s a young man.
“See that wasn’t so bad,” he said to me with a small smile of accomplishment. Turning looking up at the steward he said, “We’ll have two glasses of the very best champagne in the fridge.”
“But I don’t drink,” I said to him.
“But of course you will. It’s your birthday.” I opened my mouth and he interrupted.
“If you’re going to be with me, you will have to learn to drink.” Did he mean something more? But how could he? He was getting married soon. Maybe through all his drinking it had slipped his mind, and I thought it was time to remind him.
“I can’t be with you because you’re getting married, and we’re not friends. I don’t travel in your circles.”
“Well we will have to do something about that.” I glanced at him and his smile never changed. It was as though he had a secret that he was enjoying and he couldn’t tell anyone.
“I don’t have many friends. When you’re as rich as I am, you never know who your friends are. But I know we’ll be friends because you could have gone somewhere else with someone else but instead you spent your time waiting for me to sober up. Only a friend would do that.” To my surprise, he passed his thumb across my chin and held my face as he kissed my cheek. The warmth from his hands filled me to my core and took me on a journey of bliss.
I looked at his impossible handsome drop dead gorgeous face and I shook my head. I was just a young woman with desires who wanted someone to love and love me. I didn’t care whether he was rich, I didn’t care that he was Brandon Charles, but I cared that he ignited something in me that had never been, and now he was officially my one and only desire.
Oh no, I didn’t want to be his friend, I wanted to be his lover.
He took my hand and placed it around the glass. “Please drink with me.” The male flight attendant whose name is Gary anticipated Brandon’s wants. Brandon glanced up and gave a slight tilt of his head and he obediently poured the Champagne into two crystal glasses and turned and left immediately. Whenever Brandon’s glass was low he would show up and fill it.
I stared at the glass. “Don’t tell me you’ve never had a glass of Champagne,” Brandon stated with a wide closed smile knowing the answer before he asked.
I bit my lip and said, “No. Never had any before.”
“Where have you been?” I knew he didn’t expect an answer and I would have explained that I had been buried in books all my life. “You’re in for a treat. I’m going to be your mentor for a day.” He smiled taking in a large gulp.
“But I have to be home early tomorrow morning.”
“So do I, but you don’t see me complaining.” His gaze never left me and he stared at me with those heavenly eyes and long dark lashes. I felt hypnotized, and I knew if he wanted me in any way, I would be in trouble and it would be the death of me. “Now drink because we have a lot to cover in a short period of time.”
I reached for my glass and drank hurriedly. Then I looked to Brandon for acknowledgment for a job well done. His eyes followed me and a smile crept on his lips slowly, and when I had finished the wine, he called for another.
Finally I had to tell him I had had enough to drink and that I didn’t know whether I could walk off the plane. He said he would carry me and that was when sobriety took hold and I declared that I would walk from the plane on my own. There was only a few moments for a nap and I leaned on his shoulder and took a snooze.
When we arrived in Maine a limo parked waiting to take us to a restaurant. We were drunk, at least I felt drunk, hungry, and sleepy. We arrived at a small specialty restaurant. The outside of it appeared rustic. An old replica of a small schooner set in front of it, but in the inside the décor was old European glamor. “This is beautiful,” I said. The waiter showed us to our table with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I swore I saw a whale in a distance.
“Do you like it? Now wasn’t it worth it?” Brandon said to me standing until I was seated.
He was worth it. But I didn’t say that.
“It was worth it,” I confessed.
“How do you feel?”
“I feel like a princess,” I said to him. I picked up the folded napkins and set it on my head. He looked at me smiling one of his secret smiles.
“Then that does it. You are a princess. My princess. When does a man find a girl like you? Only once in a lifetime. You have made me as happy as I am trying to make you.” He reached for my nervous hand. I wasn’t use to compliments except from my parents and you can’t count them because they would say anything to make me feel good about myself. I needed to hear someone else tell me.
“I’m attracted to you in the worst way,” he said and my heart jerked and my heart stopped. “I may sound disingenuous but if you knew me you would know that my word is my bond, and I don’t say things lightly.”
“I don’t know you Brandon Charles. Maybe it’s the drinks that’s causing you to say this.” I pulled my hand from his hand and he claimed it once more and this time he placed both hands over mine.
“Not only are you beautiful on the outside you have inner beauty.” He paused searching for my eyes. “Three drinks of Champaign is nothing for me, I can down ten shots of Tequila and still stand. Trust me I’m completely sober.”
The waiter brought out the Lobsters. “How did he know what we wanted?”
“It’s a Lobster restaurant. I don’t think you can order Chinese food here,” he said gazing into my eyes, and then braking into laughter, “besides it’s my family’s restaurant. We have a cottage on the beach. Would you like to see it?”
“Only if I have enough time to make it home by sunrise.”
“I’ll try to get you there by then, princess.” I noticed that he didn’t promise me. But I didn’t protest because I loved the way his voice called me princess and the way his eyes sparkled each time he did. I didn’t want the night to end. I wanted it to go on and on and on.