26. Spontaneous Combustion

After Hayes had to miss playing in the New Year"s Day game and the last regularly scheduled game of the year, I decided to make him come to work with me so he couldn"t sit at home and stew. He was making progress, but, of course, it wasn"t enough for him.

"You"re not allowed to watch those game tapes for one more minute, mister. Look," I pointed to Seven who was sleeping on the couch next to Hayes, with his paws covering his face. "Even the cat can"t stand to see the Bruins beat the Mustangs one more time."

"We might have won if I could have been there to help them out. One fucking game from having an undefeated season." He glanced over at me, noted my raised eyebrow, folded arms, and tapping foot. "Umm, but you"re right. I"ve basically got every play memorized now."

"C"mon. You"re coming to the coffee shop. I"ve got new tea lattes I need a guinea pig to test out." I didn"t, but I"d come up with some. I sat him down in the office to go over the coffee shop"s books. That was something he was good at, and he promised if he got a headache looking at the screen, he"d take a break.

I didn"t believe him for a second and brought him one of the tea lattes I was testing for the upcoming week"s menu at least once every half hour, just to have an excuse to check on him. He"d been at it for about two hours, making charts and graphs and all kinds of fancy things. He ran the numbers, his brow furrowed in concentration as he analyzed the data. But if I was honest, he actually looked like he was having fun.

"Huh," he said, tapping his pen against the table. "Looks like two things specifically are making you the most money."

"You can tell that from all this?" I waved my hands at the colorful charts that didn"t mean squat to me.

"Your POS system tracks the products you sell the most of, and it"s easy to extrapolate the food costs to see which food and drinks are the most profitable. Your bizarro, uh, new and interesting tea lattes are where the money is at, babe."

"Really?" Those had only been a whim since I didn"t like coffee.

"Look. It helps that your teas are coming from Heavenly Herbs over in Boulder. They"re local, which helps, but even if they weren"t, they"re a better food cost per drink, overall. Your coffees are imported, and you can see, the costs there are increasing month over month."

God, he was so fucking smart. I understood everything that he was saying, but I doubt I would have been able to look at the data and figure any of this out on my own. I kissed his head and gave it a couple of soft strokes. "We must do better at protecting your big brain, because I"m finding your smarts really freaking sexy right now."

He spun in the office chair and pulled me into his lap. "Are you now? Want me to start talking in algebra and calculus when we"re in bed?"

"Hey, big boy, is that a quadratic equation in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

Hayes snort-laughed and shook his head at me. "Nope. Doesn"t do it for me like it does for you."

"Boo. Fine." I stuck out my tongue at him. "You said two things are making us profitable. What"s the other one. It"s catpuccinos, isn"t it?"

"You"re not entirely wrong." He pointed to one of his charts. "The days you host the cat shelter events are by far the biggest income days. Like, by a lot."

I leaned over his shoulder, studying the figures. Then I blinked at them, because I had no idea what I was even looking for. But just thinking about how busy we were on those days, he had to be right. Even with the occasional feline-induced chaos, we were packed and often ran out of our specialties for that day before closing. Plus, who didn"t like cats? Besides my mother.

Hayes grinned, nudging me with his elbow. "Maybe you should just turn this place into a cat café. Embrace your true calling as a crazy, sexy cat lady."

I laughed, but his words triggered a memory. Back when the Guncles were getting ready to leave on their trip, we"d joked about how funny it would be if they came home to find I"d transformed their beloved coffee shop into a cat café.

An idea began to take shape in my mind, equal parts exciting and ridiculous. I grabbed my phone, typing out a series of messages while Hayes was distracted with the spreadsheets.

A few minutes later, my phone buzzed with a string of responses. I bit back a grin, excitement bubbling up inside me.

"Hey, sugar pie honey bunch?" I said, trying to keep my voice casual. "How do you feel about a little impromptu trip?"

He glanced up, his eyebrows raised. "A trip? But what about the coffee shop, and I"m still on concussion protocol, and we"ve got the playoffs coming up..."

I held up my phone, showing him the messages. "Already taken care of. I asked my dad and Javi to cover for a couple of days at the shop. Jules is going to watch Seven. I cleared traveling with your doctor, Chris cleared it with your coaches, you don"t have a game because the Mustangs are top seeded, so no wild card, and your brothers are letting us use the private jet. We leave in two hours."

Hayes stared at me, his mouth falling open. "What? How did you...? You have the team doctor"s number? And everyone in my family?"

I grinned, feeling a rush of the old exhilaration I used to get when planning my own next adventures. "I"ve got my ways. Now, go pack a bag. We"re going to Japan to check out cat cafés."

"Japan?" He said it with a look on his face like he"d thought he was getting a bite of chocolate, but it was lemon-lime. "There"s not, like, a Japan in Texas is there? I feel like there might be."

I gave him a side-eye but Googled it just for funsies. "Nope. I see a place called China, New York, and there"s are towns named Norway, Lebanon, Peru, Mexico, Sweden, and Poland in Maine. Oh, actually there are eight states with a city called Lebanon, and ten with a city named after Peru. Indiana has both, and also an Angola, Brazil, and Morocco. Ooh, Georgia has a Budapest."

He raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, so you"re saying we are leaving the United States. How do you know I even have a passport? I"ve never left the country before."

I stared at him like he"d just admitted he was from Middle Earth or Asgard. "Never? Not even to like... Mexico or Canada?"

"Not a lot of football games in Mexico." He shrugged. "Or, well, not American football."

"Oh, my sweet summer Hayes. I"m about to rock your world."

He did in fact have a passport, and it was so fresh and crisp, with no stamps or visas or pages that were even flipped through. Mine was battered enough for the both of us. The flight was gonna be hella long, but goodness gracious, I wasn"t going to miss ever having to fly coach again after this luxury. I didn"t even have to worry about the disappointed or upset looks from strangers when they saw they were seated next to a chubby girl in the middle seat.

If my machinations went according to plan, we weren"t even going to be seated for most of the flight anyway. I happened to notice the last time we were on their jet that it had a small bedroom in the back. I couldn"t keep the smile off my face.

We definitely hadn"t been having as much sex since his concussion. Not because he didn"t want to. He did. All the time. I was the one who insisted we not take any chances with his health. But I figured if the doctor okayed him for international flight, that had to include joining the mile high club.

"I can"t believe we"re doing this," Hayes murmured as we boarded with only our overnight bags in hand.

I traced my fingers along his jaw, loving the way he leaned into my touch, already anticipating dragging him into the bedroom once we reached our cruising altitude. "No plans, no expectations. Just you and me, exploring something new together. Like, for example, the mile high club?"

"I like the sound of that."He kissed me, deep and hungry, and I melted into him, as far as I could sitting in our seats buckled in for takeoff. But the moment the pilot's voice came over the intercom to say we could move about the cabin, we practically sprinted to the bedroom.

I made one quick stop for my bag along the way. Had to make sure Hayes was properly strapped in should there be any turbulence. And I was planning plenty of turbulence.

Hayes shut the bedroom door, and in an instant his hands slid under my shirt, his touch leaving trails of heat in their wake. I arched into him, needing to be closer, needing to feel his skin against mine. We undressed each other slowly, reverently, taking the time to explore each newly revealed inch of flesh.

When we were finally bare, his eyes darkened, his grip on my hips tightening, his eyes roaming over my body like he wanted to eat me up in the way that always made my heart go pitter with an extra pat. Nobody looked at me, or ever had, the way he did.

"Lay down on the bed," I whispered. "I brought a surprise."

His eyes crinkled with interest, and he crawled onto the bed, laying back against the pillows. He was so tall, his feet almost hung over the end. I unzipped my bag and pulled out three of his silk ties.

"Fuck, flower. Are you about to do what I think you are?" He spread his arms wide, palms up, and flashed me a big smile.

I suppressed my laugh at his delight. "You won"t be so excited when you"re blindfolded and tied to the bed, and I"m torturing you with my tongue."

He sat up, ripped one of the ties right out of my hand, and started wrapping it around his own wrist. "Oh the hell I won"t be. Just remember, however you torture me, I"m going to give it right back to you when it"s my turn. This is an awfully long flight."

After I gave him a leg trembling, begging, tied up, and blindfolded mile-high blow job, Hayes tied my hands over my head andmoved over me, his weight a comforting pressure, his dick pressing against my thigh. I was so ready to go, so turned on already.But instead of rushing to go down on me like I thought he would, Hayes took his time, at first just staring down at me.

"I want you to watch as I worship your body." He took his dick in his fist, spreading my saliva that still glistened on his skin up and down. "Watch how hard it gets me to love every inch of your body, how I have to keep myself from coming when I"m touching and tasting you."

I swear he kissed and licked and nibbled me from toes to nose and back again. And not just the parts that made me moan in pleasure. He spent a long time working his way from one of my hips across my stomach, dipping his tongue into my belly button, licking my stretch marks, and then made his way back, all the while slowly stroking his cock.

He worshipped me over and over with his hands and mouth until I was trembling, until I was gasping his name like a prayer.

When he finally put on the condom and slid inside me, it felt like coming home. We moved together, our bodies perfectly in sync. Hayes"s eyes never left mine, his gaze holding a depth of emotion that stole my breath. Stole my heart.

I felt cherished, adored, seen in a way I never had before. This man, this incredible, driven, loving man, had chosen me, even when I"d told him not to.

The knowledge was overwhelming, humbling, exhilarating. Hayes"s thrusts grew more urgent, and my legs tightened around his waist, cherishing that love.

We came together in a blinding rush of ecstasy, Hayes"s name falling from my lips like a reverent whisper. He collapsed against me, his face buried in the crook of my neck, his breath hot against my skin.

For a long moment, we just held each other, basking in the afterglow. When Hayes finally lifted his head, his eyes were shining with a mix of love and wonder.

"You"re so fucking amazing," he whispered, pressing a kiss to my collarbone. "I can"t believe I get to love you."

A laugh bubbled up in my throat, joy and love and absolute certainty flooding through me. Here, in Hayes"s arms, in this little cocoon of love we"d created at thirty-thousand feet.

When the plane touched down in Tokyo, the excitement to be somewhere new sang inside me like a kid who"d just rocked the junior high talent show. We"d finally arrived, and I couldn"t wait to explore this vibrant city with Hayes by my side.

We made our way through the private airfield"s passport control and customs and toward the exit. I noticed Hayes"s brow furrowing, his shoulders tensing. "Uh, Willa?" he said, his voice tinged with uncertainty. "Where exactly are we staying? And how are we getting there?"

I grinned, pulling out my phone. "That"s part of the adventure, isn"t it? We"ll find a place when we get into the city. And as for transportation, the trains here are supposed to be great. I know you"re probably not used to public transportation because A, Denver is the worst, and B, I don"t suppose you can just get on the light rail and not get mobbed by Mustangs fans, but I don"t think you"re as famous here. So it should be fine."

Hayes"s eyes widened, a flicker of panic crossing his face. "Wait, you mean we don"t have a hotel booked? Or any plans at all? Have you ever been to Tokyo before?"

I took his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Nope. That"s half the fun of it. We"ll figure it out as we go."

He took a deep breath, and I could see him struggling to wrap his mind around the concept. Hayes was a planner, a man who thrived on structure and certainty. This was so far outside his comfort zone, it might as well have been on another planet, and man, I loved him for trying. Freaking out a little but trying. For me.

"Okay," he said finally, his voice a little shaky. "Okay, I trust you. But please tell me you at least know where these cat cafés are that we"re supposed to be visiting."

I bit my lip, feeling a twinge of guilt. "Well, not exactly. But that"s what the internet is for, right? We"ll do some research on the train."

Hayes closed his eyes, and for a moment, I thought he might actually pass out. But then he surprised me by letting out a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Willa Rosemount, you are going to be the death of me," he said, pulling me into his arms. "But god, do I love you for it."

I gave him a big old kiss, my heart swelling with love and gratitude. "I know this is scary for you," I murmured, looking up at him. "And I can"t tell you how much it means to me that you"re willing to go a little crazy with me."

Hayes smiled, brushing a kiss across my forehead. "For you, Willa, I"d leap off a cliff and trust you to be my parachute."

I laughed, warmth spreading through my veins. "I don"t think it will come to that. But we might get lost a few times. But I promise not to lose you."

Hayes held my hand a little bit tighter as we made our way to the train station, ready to take on whatever adventures lay ahead. As we stood on the platform, waiting for our train, I couldn"t stop smiling.

Sure, we had no idea where we were staying tonight, or exactly where we were going. But we had each other and a whole city waiting to be explored, and for the first time in months, I felt like the real me.