In honor of the birthday of Orville Wright today is National Aviation Day. Wright was of course brother of Wilbur Wright and together they invented the airplane. That bit of technology has come a long way since 1903’s flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Dreaming to fly has driven many men and women into careers around airplanes.
Two of my characters, Eric and Elena Tanner, met while working at the same airline, following their own dreams of flying. This was many years before the events of my novel We Three. They share some of that history with Jess when they are all trying to get to know one another.
To be able to know how the couple would condense the story in conversation, I went ahead and wrote out that first encounter (it may yet become available as a short story in the future, not sure yet).
FYI, this is Eric’s point of view so the brown eyed brunette is Elena. He learns her name by the end of the excerpt.
“So, fellas, ladies…which will it be tonight?” The brown gaze trailed over each of them, lingering, the brunette trading smirks and the lift of an eyebrow as she stroked her hands up and down the bottle. “A kiss, a cuddle, a cocktea-”
“El-,” Britt interrupted. Eric was surprised to hear a note of warning from the head flight attendant and Eric’s longest friend in the company. She sounded like she knew the brunette pretty well, too. He examined the tiny Latina again. How was it he hadn’t met her before?
“Britt, behave, I know what you want,” the brunette teased back. “A simple kiss, then,” she promised. She then dropped the bottle to the floor and Eric’s gaze riveted to it, finding himself wanting the offered kiss. The glass moving over the tile scraped and squeaked; Eric winced at the high-pitched sound. But then the fast spin finally began to slow. The open mouth of the bottle pointed to the brunette’s dare partner. Garrett wolf-whistled. The bottle mouth pointed to Talin.
Every one of the men in the cockpit had expressed a desire to dive into the muff of the hot Norwegian who looked like she had walked off a fashion runway in New York. Talin dipped her head and her right hand stroked up her left arm bracing her as she leaned into the circle. The curtain of blond hair parted around her shoulders, skin almost as pale as the white towel she had tucked around her chest.
The brunette reached across the space, cupped and lifted Talin’s hand from her arm and kissed the knuckles, all the while never letting her gaze or smile break from Talin’s ice-blue eyes. Her lips moved, sensuous yet innocent, the hazelnut brown a contrast to Talin’s faint peach. Eric’s cock twitched with arousal. Damn, the Latina was an accomplished seductress.
When she let go, letting the long fingers slip gradually from her grip, the brunette turned to Eric then back to Talin. “It’s your turn, Tal.”
“I just spin the bottle?” Talin asked, looking to Eric and Garrett, then Britt, for confirmation. “And I will kiss one of you?”
“If that’s what do you want to do,” the brunette explained.
“I thought you said the point of a layover party was to get laid,” Talin said. “Why the game?”
Eric put his hand on Talin’s now, aware he was following the brunette’s lead. The glass of the bottle was hard and smooth beneath their intertwined fingers. “It’s all about having fun,” he said. “Letting our hair down with each other.”
“My hair is already down.”
He laughed at that. “Yeah, it is.” He let go of her hand and reached for the pale yellow tresses. “May I?” he asked. She nodded; he filtered the ends of her hair through his fingertips and then cupped her cheek.
“You wish to kiss me?” Talin asked. “Should I not spin the bottle first?”
Garrett chuckled. “Shot down, Cap.”
Eric felt his ears getting heated, undoubtedly reddening visibly. He dropped his hand. “Of course.”
The brunette beside him covered her mouth, but he could still hear her snicker. Talin glanced from Eric to the brunette. “Elena, I told you I am not a fan of face-hair,” she admitted. Garrett guffawed and Eric sat back. So the brunette’s name was Elena?
He asked Talin, “OK. So, what do you like?”
Britt put her hand on Talin’s arm just as the blonde started to open her mouth. There was a brief shake of her head and Talin eased backward then shrugged. “Smooth faces,” she said.
Garrett slapped Eric’s back and rubbed his clean-shaven jaw. “That’s probably the best opening I’m going to get all night. So..Talin, you wanna sit in the hot tub for a while?”
Eric sat, now left with Britt and the finally named Elena. He shook his head and chuckled, laughing a bit at himself as Garrett stood, helped Talin to her feet, and the two went to the hot tub deck outside.
“You took that remarkably well,” Elena said.
Eric looked at Britt. “You haven’t introduced us.”
Britt rolled her eyes. “Elena, this is Eric Tanner. Eric, this is Elena Suarez. She filled in for Bev for cabin duty on short notice.”
“You’ve been with Diligent Air for a while?”
Elena nodded. She rubbed her bent knee but made no move to adjust her slipping towel.
Pick up a copy of We Three to read more of Elena and Eric’s relationship and how they meet Jess.
Lara Zielinsky 