Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

GEMMA

M ariam and I sat in the business center at the airport, our laptops open in front of us and pens and papers scattered across our workstations. We were headed to an event in New York, a charity gala in a museum, and while we were usually the ones hosting the events, this time, we had been invited as guests.

All the top artists and event planners would be there, and I was excited for a mini girls’ trip with Mariam. We were missing Laurel, but this would also probably be our last business trip together and I planned on making the best of it.

Ending our time as business partners with a bang.

My heart gave a pang at the thought of taking these trips by myself from now on. Of doing everything by myself from now on, actually.

I glanced at all the papers in front of me, wondering how I was ever going to get through it all when Mariam left and this heap doubled. But I would manage somehow.

I always did, and I was excited for the challenge. Just like I was excited for my friend to start this new chapter of her life.

“We have five minutes before our Zoom call with Laurel,” she said, glancing at me with a nervous smile touching only the corners of her lips. “I need another coffee for this. There’s no way I’m opening that box if I’m not caffeinated enough.”

I chuckled. “It won’t be that bad, but go ahead and grab your fix. I’ll hold the fort here.”

We had lots of time on our hands. Mariam always liked to be four to five hours early for our flights, and while we only had about an hour left, we also still had an hour left . Which was why we’d made ourselves so comfortable at our workstations. There was no way we could waste four to five hours that we could’ve spent working just hanging around.

Hard work and a little bit of luck had made ours one of the most successful event-planning companies in Austin. We always had a ton of work to get done, which was a blessing, but it also meant that indulging Mariam’s obsession with being half a workday early for our flights meant carrying our offices around with us.

She smiled and stood up, nodding as she jerked her thumb toward a coffee shop across the way. “I’ll be right over there, so the fort should be fine.”

I laughed. “Either way, I’ll hold it down. Go get your caffeine, slow poke.”

The alarm I’d set on my phone to remind me about the Zoom call went off just as she got back, and I silenced it before turning back to my laptop. “I’ll be on in a minute. I just need to send off this email I’ve been obsessing over before I rewrite it for the fifth time.”

“What’s it for?” she asked. “Can I help?”

“Just some final stuff for the Diamond Festival. I’m fine. I’m just letting the magnitude of the event intimidate me, which I know I shouldn’t do, but I’m done with the email. I just need to hit the damn button.”

She grinned at me. “Well, do it already. I’ll join the call with Laurel and you can join as soon as you hit send.”

As she opened Zoom and started chatting to our friend, I said a mental “dang it” to the consequences of potentially having forgotten to add something to the email and sent it. Quickly joining the chat after, I found myself staring at Laurel dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

“Hello, ladies. Mariam,” I said despite the fact that she was right next to me. “Dorothy.”

Laurel laughed, explaining her outfit for a Halloween party before we got down to business. Our call was about drawing the first items we had to complete from our Naughty Lists, and I wasn’t about to let them get out of it.

“We’re turning naughty tonight, remember?” I said. “Speaking of which, are you guys ready? I’m due somewhere in less than an hour, so we need to get this ball rolling.”

Technically, Mariam and I were both due at our gate in an hour max, but this really shouldn’t take that long. Laurel picked up the little wooden box she’d bought in Bar Harbor. “I’ve got mine right here.”

“So do I.” Mariam lifted her own little box toward her camera and shook it. “God help us.”

“Don’t be so nervous.” I laughed, withdrawing my box from my laptop bag and holding it in my lap. “This is meant to be fun. Laurel, you go first, then me, and by then Mariam should’ve had enough time to gather the courage to draw hers.”

Laurel blanched but nodded. “Sure. Okay, yeah. Do either of you remember if we made a rule about what would happen if we chose not to complete an item on our lists?”

Mariam’s eyes clouded over in thought. “I don’t think we did. Are we going to allow it?”

“No,” I said immediately, feeling a devilish smile on my face. “Come on, guys. We were babies when we wrote this. If our fourteen-year-old minds could’ve conjured up whatever is on here, then I’m sure our twenty-eight-year-old bodies can follow through.”

Laurel grimaced. “I wouldn’t be so sure, but okay. No skipping items. Are we agreed?”

“We’re agreed,” I said quickly.

Mariam sighed but nodded. “Fine. The motion carries.”

Laurel chuckled. “Thank you, Madam Speaker. Alright, let’s see what I got. Drumroll please.”

I grabbed two pens and started tapping them on the workstation in front of me while Mariam suddenly looked like she was going to be sick. Laurel opened her box slowly, sticking her hand inside and coming out with a slip of paper.

“Okay, I got it,” she murmured, glancing down before reading her first item to us out loud. “Kiss an old flame. Whether he’s married or not.” She lifted her gaze back to the screen. “Wow. We were hookers when we wrote this.”

I giggled as I nodded, but after a quick discussion about how kissing her old flame at the reunion didn’t count, it was my turn, and I was suddenly crazy nervous.

This was it, though. This was my chance to take the first step toward becoming a new and improved version of myself, and it was as exhilarating as it was intimidating.

Glancing at the box on my lap, I lifted the lid and quickly pulled my first item, reading it aloud before I lost my nerve.

“Make out with a stranger on an airplane in the bathroom.” I felt the blood draining from my cheeks. “Oh, lordy. I mean, I’m free-spirited, but this is a little much.”

As I considered it though, I realized that the fluttery feeling inside wasn’t just nerves. It was anticipation. I laughed, nodding as I looked back at my screen. “You know what? Challenge accepted. We’re about to get on a plane anyway. I might even complete my first item today. Who knows?”

Ever since my divorce had been finalized, I didn’t mind a little make-out session here and there. So far though, all my kisses had been pretty boring, the usual, run-of-the-mill sort that had failed to set me on fire.

A few had made me want to set myself on fire rather than continue them, but I’d never had one that really stoked the flames inside me. Even at the height of our courtship, my kisses with Dave had been lacking in the fiery category. I now knew why, but still.

Just once, I wanted a kiss that made time stand still. A kiss worthy of the spicy romance novels I loved reading. One that made the world fade and my heart race. A kiss that left my panties damp and my body ablaze.

That was what I was after, but I was starting to think those only existed in fantasy. Maybe, though. Maybe this challenge is exactly what I need to get a kiss like that. Just the thrill of it being a total stranger might help. If that doesn’t get my heart racing, nothing will.

“Do you really think you’ll complete your first item today?” Laurel asked as we waited for Mariam to gain the courage to open her box. “That’s so exciting, and how serendipitous that your first challenge involves an airplane when you’re just about to get on one.”

“I’m about to get on one too,” Mariam pointed out.

Laurel giggled. “Yeah, but I doubt we put more than one aviation-related item on the list. Feel free to kiss a stranger on the flight anyway if the mood strikes.”

“I’m definitely going to try to complete it today,” I said as Mariam pulled a face at Laurel. Determination flowed through me, as bright and hopeful as the morning sun. “I’m renaming my list to ‘the New Me’ list, and the new me doesn’t waste an opportunity.”

“I love that,” Laurel said, but Mariam had finally opened her box, and we both turned our attention to her.

After she’d drawn her first item too, it was time for Laurel to get off the phone and for us to start packing up before boarding. We said our goodbyes, and Mariam and I meticulously gathered our things as we prepared to leave the business center.

The Cattle Class boarding process was as painful as ever, but I kept myself entertained by looking around for potential kissees in the line with us. There wasn’t a single viable candidate as far as I could see, but what came up had to come down.

Maybe I’ll have better luck on the flight home from New York.

Putting it all out of my mind, I shuffled after the other passengers, finally making my way to my seat and sinking down into it. Mariam was a few rows away from me, our seats somehow not together even though we’d booked them that way.

I sighed as I sat down, absently reaching for my seatbelt and fastening it, but the clasp didn’t click. I frowned, glancing down as I lifted the latch and tried again, but nope. I groaned, immediately lifting my hand to press the call button.

Since the flight attendants were busy helping people get seated, it took them a moment to get to me, but when one did, he immediately grimaced. “I’m afraid we’ve been having trouble with this one. The good news for you is that you can’t sit here.”

“How is that good news?”

He winked at me. “The only available seat on this flight is in first class.”

My jaw dropped, my heart skipping. Stuff like this never happened to me. “Are you serious?”

“Come with me, 13C. Today is your lucky day.”

I was out of my seat like a shot, unable to believe I was getting a surprise upgrade. Mariam shot me a questioning look when I passed her, but I pumped my eyebrows and grinned, pointing at the partition at the front of the cabin.

This is a good sign. It’s like the universe is giving my New Me efforts a stamp of approval.

A stamp of approval that became even more unbelievable when the attendant showed me to a seat that happened to be situated next to the most attractive man I’d ever seen.

Seriously, the guy had those classic Superman looks—and as it happened, Superman had been the first superhero I’d ever fantasized about.

With strong, angular features and a well-defined jawline, my seat mate was a dead ringer for the superhero. He even had dark hair, but instead of being swept back, his was longer on top and slightly messy, as if he’d repeatedly combed his hands through it before he’d gotten lost in the book he was reading on his Kindle.

I bet his kisses would set me on fire, on a plane or otherwise.

I nodded at the attendant and sat down. Since my seat mate was staring intently at the device, I couldn’t see the color of his eyes, but if it turned out that they were bright blue, I was dragging him to the bathroom as soon as we were airborne.

A furrow appeared between his eyebrows as I buckled up, annoyance flickering across his handsome features before he sighed and glanced at me. Oh, my God. Bright blue! Ding. Ding. Ding.

As our gazes met, my heart rate spiked, but the guy seemed to be waiting for something, his head cocking and his full lips slightly pursed. I frowned. “Are you okay? Do you want me to call the flight attendant back for you?”

The guy’s eyes narrowed momentarily before his eyebrows swept up. A sexy smirk appeared on his lips as he shook his head. He was younger than I’d initially realized, but there was something in his eyes that spoke of him possessing a depth not usually found in guys in their early twenties.

A wisdom, perhaps.

“No,” he said, his voice sending a shiver of arousal down my spine as it washed over me. “Thank you for offering, though.”

Holy moly. He has the voice of a sexy angel.

I’d never heard anything like it. It was a rich, deep sound that combined a rugged, textured quality with smoothness and warmth. He had a raspy, gritty undertone that somehow also managed to sound lyrical and refined.

Maybe it wasn’t the voice of a sexy angel, but something better.

A devil.

I blinked rapidly, my heart positively racing as I felt the guy’s eyes still on me. It was then that I realized I still hadn’t responded to him. “Oh, no worries. You’re welcome, but it was nothing really. All I would’ve had to do was press a button and an attendant would’ve come.”

A soft, almost disbelieving chuckle rumbled in his chest. “Sort of like a genie, huh? You rub the lamp and it appears.”

I laughed. “I think I prefer pressing a button to rubbing a lamp. I know I prefer a flight attendant to a genie.”

Those gorgeous eyes sparkled with amusement. “Not a fan of big blue guys, huh?”

I’m a fan of big blue eyes. Like his.

I gave a shrug, wondering when on earth super hot guys like him had become easy to talk to. “Genie has always scared me. I’m all for the wishes, but the dude granting them? No thanks. I’d rather he stay in the bottle.”

“Poor genie. You’d have him locked up tight for another century of lonely nights?”

The words he’d chosen sparked a frisson of recognition deep inside, but it took me a moment to realize why. My eyes widened. “Aren’t you a little bit young to know that song?”

He snorted. “Christina Aguilera all the way for me, baby.”

I chuckled. “Right. Of course. She is gorgeous. I can’t say I blame you.”

“Well, I might not be a genie in a bottle, but I’d still let you rub me the right way,” he said, delivering the obvious line smoothly and without skipping a beat.

I burst out laughing, but heat flashed across my cheeks when I realized he was flirting with me. Superman was flirting with me. Gosh. What a day.

A flight attendant came past with a tray of champagne as if she’d been sent by the universe herself, and I grabbed two glasses, taking one for him as well. He accepted it gracefully and the flute looked tiny in his hand.

For just a second, I wondered what those fingers might feel like inside?—

The plane suddenly lurched backward, and thanks to the gutter my brain had found, I hadn’t been prepared for the movement at all. My body lurched with it, and my champagne?

It was like I watched in slow motion as the bubbly liquid flew out of my glass and splattered all over his lap.

“Oh, my gosh. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry. Let me get you a towel.”

He chuckled, blinking at his soaked crotch and shaking his head when I made to get up. “Don’t sweat it. I’ll clean up when we’re in the air. We’re about to start taxiing. They’re not going to let us go anywhere right now.”

To my surprise, he kept talking to me throughout takeoff despite the fact that he was now wearing my drink. Once the seatbelt signs were off, he gave me a sheepish smile. “I’ll be right back.”

As he started toward the bathroom, I motioned to a flight attendant and asked for a towel. I was completely intrigued by Superman, but if I had any hope of getting a kiss from him, I had to at least try to redeem myself.

After the attendant brought me a towel, I got up and headed over to the bathroom to give it to him. He’d left the door open and was dabbing at his crotch with wadded-up toilet paper. It was so thin, it wasn’t helping much. When he saw me with the towel, he looked at me with relief.

As I handed it over, the universe struck again—in the form of turbulence this time. The plane shuddered and dropped, and I fell into the bathroom with him. I let out a startled squeal as we pitched against the sink, which must have dug into his lower back. I landed right smack against his chest. He braced us with one hand on the wall while he wrapped his other arm smoothly around my waist.

Instead of pushing me away, Superman held me, his eyes locking on mine as he held me against him. I swore I saw the flicker of heat in his eyes. One of his large hands moved up into my hair and the other pressed at the small of my back.

The next thing I knew, his mouth descended, his lips claiming mine in a kiss that defied all logic and reason. I was suddenly flying and it had nothing to do with the plane. His lips didn’t only stoke the flames inside. It turned them into an inferno, a wildfire that would soon spiral out of my control.

After twenty-eight years on this planet, time finally stood still. The world around me faded away, and I got the kiss I’d been after.

Maybe I had gotten a wish from a secret genie. Or if this was a dream, I never wanted to wake up.