Along for the Ride by Michelle M. Pillow Page A

tea leaves said she should.’
    ‘Did she succeed?’ He leant closer.
    Her voice dropped to match his. ‘No. I went anyway and we won.’
    ‘So the leaves were wrong.’
    ‘They’re never wrong. Just ask Mom.’ Megan tilted her chin up. If only she had the power to freeze time. She’d keep him like this, his features shaded to perfection by the light coming in from outside. Tousled hair framed his face, just as it did when they worked late at a crime scene, and the brown of his eyes was sleepily seductive. Bedroom eyes. His lips parted and it would be so easy to slip her tongue along the edge, pushing them open wider. The man did know how to kiss. Airplane bathrooms weren’t her idea of a romantic time, but maybe the mile-highers had the right idea.
    ‘What happened?’ he asked.
    ‘I was drunk.’ Megan knew it was a lie and hated herself for resorting to it, but how else could she explain letting him take her like a back-alley whore?
    ‘At a state championship?’ Ryan pulled back, frowning.
    ‘What?’ Megan asked. Crap! He is still talking about tea leaves. Concentrate, Megan, concentrate.
    ‘You were drunk at state?’
    ‘Of course I wasn’t drunk at state,’ Megan snorted. ‘I was eighteen. That would have been illegal.’
    ‘But –’
    ‘I’m going to sleep now.’ She angled her back towards him and closed her eyes. Crap, crap, crap!
    It had to be lack of sleep. That was why she was so shaken. Resting her head against the wall, she tried not to smell him, as she willed the coolness of the plane to soak into her body.
    ‘Megan?’ Ryan asked softly.
    She didn’t move. Let him think she slept.
    ‘Megan?’
    Still, she didn’t move. All of a sudden, hands brushed her hips. She stiffened in surprise, instantly turning to join her mouth to Ryan’s. Her lips parted, inches from his, she stopped as the sound of her seatbelt clicking caught her attention.
    ‘We’re about to take off.’ Ryan adjusted himself in his seat and grabbed a magazine from the small pocket in front of him. Megan held her breath, waiting, but he didn’t look at her again. Leaning back in her seat, she closed her eyes, wishing for the plane ride to be over.
    By the time they finished their layover in Colorado and were in line to board the second plane, Megan had imagined Ryan naked in every possible place. There were a few times she would have pulled him into a bathroom stall at the Denver airport had her sisters’ banter not brought her back to reality. What was happening to her brain that suddenly all she could think about was ways to get Ryan alone and naked? The more she tried to concentrate on something else, the less she did.
    ‘I keep thinking about the other night,’ Ryan whispered into her ear from behind.
    Megan blinked, surprised to hear the confession. Her family had already passed by the ticket counter and were on their way to board. They couldn’t hear his words.
    A hand touched her hip and this time she was sure it wasn’t an accident – not like when he fastened her seatbelt, or when they stood in line at the fast-food restaurant for lunch, or when he and Vincent left to buy overpriced coffee from a kiosk.
    Ryan squeezed her hip lightly, before grazing his fingers along the side of her ass. ‘Do you think we might at least discuss our having sex?’
    The flight attendant saved Megan from responding, when she said, ‘Sorry, sir, we are not that kind of flight.’
    Ryan’s hand left Megan’s hip and she hurried to board the plane. She couldn’t get away from him fast enough. Wanting him was different to knowing he wanted her back and the information was almost too much for her to handle.
    Damn you, Ryan, she thought, cursing him in her mind even as her thighs ached for his attentions.
    Ryan watched Megan hurry away from him. Giving the flight attendant a sheepish grin, he shrugged as he moved to go after his sexy travelling partner. By the way his erection pressed against his jeans it was a wonder