April exited the plane quickly, getting up with her stuff before Cole. She got off the plane, passing the annoyed flight attendant who gave her a scathing look.
I’ll never see him again, she reassured herself. What happened on the plane to Vegas, stayed on the plane to Vegas, right?
She threw on a jacket from her carryon to cover her ruined blouse, then headed down the escalator towards baggage claim. She didn’t bring a lot, packing relatively lightly for a trip that was only a few days, so she only had to worry about carrying a single large bag besides her carryon.
As she waited for the luggage from her flight to drop onto the moving carousel, she glanced at her watch. The flight was about ten minutes early, which meant that she probably beat Claudia there. Meaning she had enough time to compose herself and clear her head from her little encounter in the airplane bathroom.
She groaned. She couldn’t believe she actually did that. Who let a stranger press his mouth against her nether lips until she came hard against him...?
It aroused her again just thinking about it and she pressed her legs closer together as she stood waiting at the baggage claim. That was when she realized it. The wetness between her legs was making her thighs slick—because she had no panties.
Sometime between when he was ripping open her blouse and shucking off her underwear, she had lost her panties and forgotten in her rush to find them.
Her cheeks flooded with heat as she realized she was going to be walking around with no underwear and a wrecked blouse until she got her luggage and found a place to change. Just as the thought raced through her mind she saw Cole. He was grabbing his suitcase off the moving belt. He caught her eye and a slow smirk spread across his face.
––––––––
She narrowed her eyes at him and was about to look away, when she noticed something besides his luggage gripped in his hands.
Her panties.
His grin widened as her jaw went slack. He gave her a wink before heading off towards the exit where it looked like a taxi was waiting. She watched him as he got into the car, grin still in place.
“Oh, God,” she said, slightly mortified. That just happened.
Her cell phone rang then, a welcome distraction. It was Claudia. April answered the phone just as her baggage came around on the carousel.
“Hello?” she said, reaching for her bag and pulling it off with effort.
“Hey! I called over to make sure when your flight was getting in and they said that you were arriving a little early.” Claudia sounded chipper, as she had since finding her ‘true love’ in the wealthy entrepreneur Maxwell Strauss.
Taking a deep breath, April kept her voice calm and collected. “Oh good. I was worried you were going to make me wait in the airport for hours while you practiced for your wedding night or something.”
Claudia laughed into the phone. “I would never do that to you,” she admonished lightly. “Anyway, I’m parking right now, so I’ll be there in a few.”
“Okay,” April responded. “I’m at baggage claim picking up my luggage, so I’ll meet you there?”
“Sounds good.”
They hung up and April dragged her luggage towards a row of seats. There, she sat and opened up her bag. Digging through it she managed to find a shirt—and a pair of panties. Annoyed, she shook her head. She couldn’t believe he kept her panties like that.
What a creep.
Even as she thought it, her cheeks burned and she found herself turned on by the memory of their little adventure on the plane.
Taking a breath, she got up and dragged her luggage towards the bathroom. She locked one of the stalls, then stripped off her shirt, replacing it with one that was still intact. Next, she slipped on a clean pair of underwear and straightened her skirt.
––––––––
Feeling far more civilized, April walked out of the restroom and found Claudia as she was entering the baggage claim. A smile found its way onto April’s face at the sight of her friend.
Claudia squealed in excitement and threw her arms around April’s neck to give her a big bear hug. “I’m so glad you made it!”
April laughed, hugging her friend back. “Like I would miss your wedding?”
Pulling back, Claudia smiled sheepishly. “Well, I was just a little worried that you might think it was stupid or something and veto attending altogether.”
April rolled her eyes, setting her suitcase down and pulling out the handle so that she could roll it as they walked towards Claudia’s car. “I do think it’s stupid,” April confirmed pointedly. “But I would never veto such a huge day in your life. If it is important to you, it is important to me. Period.”
Claudia smiled as she playfully punched April in the arm. “It’s not stupid. It’s love.”
“Exactly,” April agreed. “That’s what I said: stupid.”
Claudia just shook her head, looping her hand through her friend’s and leading her towards the car. They threw April’s luggage in the back and got in. “You just don’t understand yet,” Claudia argued. “You haven’t found that all-consuming feeling that is impossible to ignore, but you will.”
April snorted. “Doubtful,” she countered. “I still remember the pact we made freshman year of college.”
Claudia let out an exaggerated sigh, shaking her head as she pulled out onto the main street, heading towards the hotel. Las Vegas wasn’t nearly as exciting during the day, April decided, and she found she couldn’t wait until that evening when she would get to see the lights in all their glory.
“That pact was made by a couple of kids who were still trying to find themselves,” Claudia argued. “We didn’t even know what we were talking about.”
April gave her best friend a withering glare. “Of course we did. We had it all figured out, even then. We even confirmed it over the next four years, watching friend after friend get their heart torn out of their chest whenever they thought they found ‘the one.’ There’s no such thing as ‘the one.’ It’s just some gimmick sold to us by romance novels and chick flicks, telling us that we’re unhappy with our lives because we don’t have some man there holding our hands.”
Claudia glanced over at her friend, raising her eyebrows. “Jeez, not that you’re bitter or anything.”
April shrugged her shoulders, letting the bitter comment roll off her back without much care or worry. “I’m not bitter, I’m realistic.”
“You say tomato,” Claudia countered pointedly. She flicked on her blinker and turned off the main road to pull into the parking lot of the Bellagio, a huge and elegant looking resort hotel.
“Wow,” April said, truly impressed with the huge curved hotel with the large fountain in front. “This is where we’re staying?”
Claudia grinned at April’s expression. “Yep.”
It wasn’t just that the hotel was impressive that made April’s jaw drop. It was that Claudia’s husband to be was paying for her room, just like he had paid for the airfare. It didn’t take a genius to realize that the hotel room for even several days wasn’t cheap at a place like this and April knew for a fact that the first class ticket had been expensive.
“How much money does your man have exactly?”
Claudia laughed aloud, taking the car up to the front of hotel. The women got out and were greeting by both a valet and a bellhop.
“Any bags, ma’am?” asked the bellhop with a bright, charming smile. He was talking to Claudia, clearly recognizing her, but he gave a quick wink at April.
“Yeah, just the two, Simon,” Claudia answered sweetly. Then she turned to the valet and offered him the keys. He smiled at her politely and took them, offering her a ticket instead. She accepted with a smile.
The bellhop put April’s two bags onto his cart and escorted them inside.
Leaning close to April so that she could whisper into her ear, Claudia admitted, “He’s loaded. Started up his own tech business, computer chips or something like that, and got some government contracts early on. After making some quick money there, he picked up private contracts as well, and now his company is huge. He’s practically rolling in it.”
Ah, April thought cynically. The real reason she was tying the knot. It wasn’t that she necessarily considered her best friend a gold digger—she didn’t need a man to make enough money to meet her relatively expensive tastes—but at least if the marriage had to do with money and stability, April could forgive her friend’s rash behavior.
After all, this love malarkey was just ridiculous. Claudia always had a good head on her shoulders, and April refused to think that she was just swept away by some man with a charming smile and a bouquet of roses.
Of course, that was exactly what Claudia had told her happened. While traveling for the annual ‘Best Vacation Destinations for Women’ piece for the television network she worked for, Claudia had met the charming and gorgeous Maxwell. They ended up spending the week together, him showing her around and taking her on surprise cruises and popping in at her hotel to leave dozens of red roses. By the end of the week, they were practically inseparable and he even traveled back with her. Within three months they were hitched and April had been asked to be maid of honor.
The bellhop escorted the women to their room—they were sharing a suite until the wedding night—and dropped off April’s luggage. Then Simon gave them a smile, and sent April another wink, telling them both that if they needed anything at all, to give him a ring.
Claudia thanked him generously with a tip. As the door closed behind him, Claudia rounded on her friend. “Alright,” she said enthusiastically. “Spill. I want to know all the sordid details of your devious love life, my darling friend.”
April couldn’t help but laugh, shaking her head. “Living vicariously already?” she teased.
Claudia waved a dismissive hand at her. “Don’t be ridiculous. I just want to make sure that you’re living a healthy, sexually active life. It’s alright for me to be concerned for my best and loveliest friend, isn’t it?”
Still smiling, April sat down on the long plush couch that was positioned in front of a teardrop shaped glass table. A bottle of champagne was set atop it in a silver dish filled with ice.
Talk about ritzy.
“Well?” Claudia prompted impatiently, sitting down next to April.
April hesitated. Her love life had been relatively boring lately. Well, until today. She had been working so hard that she hadn’t had a lot of time for men and their ticking clocks. It had been her experience that guys her around her age—late twenties to early thirties—were all obsessed with settling down and starting families. Which happened to be the furthest thing from April’s mind.
What happened to all the men who were just interested in being young and having fun?
Claudia nudged her, “Alright. You’re hesitating. What’s been going on?”
With a sigh, April gave in and admitted to her most recent encounter.
“Oh my God!” Claudia exclaimed. “On an airplane?!”
April groaned. “I know, I know! In the bathroom, even.”
Claudia laughed, and shoved at April’s shoulder. “I told you not to drink too much or you’d end up in the bathroom!”
––––––––
“Shut up,” April said, though she was laughing, too. Who knew their conversation would have been prophetic? “I did not drink that much.”
Giving April a look, Claudia responded, “Oh, so you normally find it okay to have at it on an airplane?”
April groaned, letting her head fall back onto the couch. “No.”
After a moment of more teasing and laughing, Claudia asked the question April had been waiting for: “Was he hot?”
“Was he ever.”
They broke down into giggles as April recounted her steamy encounter with the gorgeous asshole.