10
Jack
Watching Teo orgasm himself into a stupor had been intoxicating. The noises he’d made, the flush on his chest, and the way he’d clung to me had made me feel like some kind of sex god. He was so beautiful when he let go. I wanted to see it a million more times.
But when the phone woke us up, I knew we had a long day ahead of us that didn’t include more shared orgasms.
“Hello,” I croaked into the room’s headset.
“Morning, Jack,” Nate said. “I need to get the keys from you and head back to the airport. The mechanic and investigator are arriving soon, and I need to be there.”
Teo began to shift away from me, but I pulled him back to my side and pressed a quick kiss against his messy hair.
I glanced at the clock and noticed it was almost ten. We’d only managed about four hours of sleep. “Yeah. Give me five minutes to shave, and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
After I hung up, I put both arms around Teo and squeezed gently, wanting to imprint the feel of his body against mine on my memory.
“I have to go to the airport. Stay here and get some more sleep.” I kissed the top of his head again before letting go. He reached out to grab my hand.
“Wait. Um… will you… what should I…” He winced and looked everywhere but at me before continuing. “Do you need help? I mean, not that I would know how to help with an airplane or anything, but… never mind.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Never mind. That’s stupid.”
God, he was so vulnerable and sweet. Naive, almost. Or… something. Something that brought out an unexpected tenderness in me.
“Actually, yeah. You know what would be a huge help?” Teo’s face lit up when I spoke. “Find out where we can meet for lunch in a couple of hours and text me? I think there’s a restaurant here at the hotel, but I’m not positive. If Nate and Brenda come with us, we’ll need a table for four.”
He nodded and smiled in relief. “Got it. I can do that. Do you want me to pick something up and bring it to the airport?”
“Probably not, but I’ll text you if things change. I don’t want you to have to try and find a ride in this place. It’s not the kind of town you can hail a cab in.”
After making myself somewhat presentable in the bathroom, I raced to get dressed in the warmest clothes I had before meeting Nate in the lobby.
“How’s Mr. Banks?” he asked, handing me a paper cup of coffee and a granola bar.
I updated him on everything that had happened overnight, including the family’s decision to send him on home.
“Does the other gentleman still need to go to Frankfurt?”
I glanced at him as we hopped in the borrowed truck. “I… I don’t know. I mean, I assume not because he was traveling as Mr. Banks’s nurse, wasn’t he?”
It was only a couple of miles to the airport, but since the roads had patches of snow and ice on them and I was driving a borrowed vehicle, I was extra careful. I’d driven plenty growing up in Indiana, but once I’d moved to Newark, there’d been years where the most driving I’d done was on vacations and visits home.
“No. It was my understanding he’s a consultant for the company and they were headed to Germany to close a deal. If that’s the case, we may need to make arrangements to charter another plane. Either way, we can’t expect the guy to stick around here while we assess the engines.”
He was right, and I was an idiot. It had never occurred to me to make arrangements for him to fly home. I should have done that while I had the concierge on the phone the night before making the air ambulance plans.
“I’ll text him when we get to the airport,” I promised. “Meanwhile, what do you think the mechanic is going to say?”
It only took thirty minutes for the mechanic to explain what had malfunctioned in the portside engine and tell us it could be fixed relatively easily. “I can probably get the parts up here by noon tomorrow, and then… I’d say the work will be done maybe noon the following day? Unless, of course, something unexpected happens.”
The three of us met with the safety inspector, who went through the mechanic’s conclusions and seemed to agree with everything. We made the requisite calls to the home office to make arrangements for the repairs, and then Nate called Brenda to arrange to keep our hotel rooms a couple more nights.
I hadn’t heard back from Teo about whether he needed to continue on to Frankfurt or not, so I tried to keep from getting a little excited about the possibility of spending more time with him. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the next forty-eight hours than naked in bed with the sexy man.
When we were finally able to leave the airport and meet Teo and Brenda for lunch, I was starving. That had to have explained the odd feeling in my stomach when I walked into the hotel restaurant and saw Teo. He’d obviously showered and dressed in clean clothes. He looked handsome in a navy sweater and jeans. His smile was genuine and friendly as he spoke to Brenda, who already sat next to him at a four-top table. The hostess who led us to the table seemed unable to keep her eyes off Teo, and I couldn’t blame her. He was drop-dead fucking gorgeous, and I was honestly shocked he wasn’t already in a twelve-way relationship with a dozen of the most beautiful and generous gay men in the world whose sole purpose in life was to lavish him with attention and love.
“Um, Jack?” Teo said, jerking me out of that mental image. His bright eyes looked at me, unsure, which made me smile automatically in hopes of putting him at ease. His cheeks flushed.
There was an awkward moment when Nate leaned over to kiss Brenda hello. Suddenly, I was faced with the obvious reality of not being able to let on that Teo and I were anything other than acquaintances from the ill-fated flight. I was very new at the executive charter service that managed the Bankses’ Gulfstream, and the last thing I needed was for Nate to think I planned on sleeping with our passengers.
“Hi,” I said, clearing my throat. “We just heard that Mr. Banks’s plane landed and the transfer to Northwestern went smoothly.”
Teo nodded. “Chris called me. I’m so relieved to know he’s in good hands.”
I took the chair next to him so Nate could sit next to his wife. “Did you get my text about Frankfurt?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry. That’s actually why I called Chris in the first place. They don’t need me to go. The client went ahead and signed the papers remotely. It’s kind of a long story, but it was Grandpa Banks they wanted because of a family connection. We didn’t really need to have the papers signed in person.”
“Oh, good. Then…” I fiddled with my water glass. “You can head back to Chicago. We can help you find flights.”
Teo glanced between Nate and me. “Is the plane grounded for a while?”
Nate cut in. “Not at all. They think it’ll take about forty-eight hours for it to be ready. But we can probably get you back to Chicago on commercial flights sooner. I’ll warn you though, it’s a pretty long travel day. I think they stop in Halifax and Newark before O’Hare. Ten hours, maybe?”
Teo’s eyes widened. “But we were only in the air for a few hours before we got here.”