“Who did this to you?” he asked her.
Gloria frowned. “Did what to me?”
“Who decimated your self-worth? Your self-esteem?”
Gloria stared at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But Oz would not back down. “You know exactly what I’m talking about,” he said. “I’ve been with a lot of women in my time. That is the truth. Some give themselves all kinds of credit. Way too much, in my opinion. Others give themselves too little credit. Way too little, in my opinion. But you top them all. You don’t seem to give yourself any credit at all. Who decimated you like this?”
Gloria was stunned by his precision takedown of her inward devastation. Who was this man? How would he know her innermost turmoil? And before she realized it, tears were in her eyes. Why was she crying? Why was she such a basket case? In a way, all of her father’s children were varying degrees of basket cases. But she had never, not ever, met a man, or any other human being besides her siblings who suffered the damage too, to realize how deep it ran.
When Oz saw her tears, his heart sank. He knew he would hit a nerve, but not one that painful. “Come here, Gloria,” he said to her.
It was an odd thing for her to hear. Why should she come to him, the man who just exposed her so profoundly that even she didn’t see it coming. But when she looked into his eyes, and saw nothing but compassion there, she couldn’t help herself. She went to Oz. And Oz pulled her into his arms and lifted her onto his lap.
He held her there for the rest of the flight to Philly.
But thirty minutes later, Gloria woke up. She had fallen asleep within minutes of being in Oz’s arms. When she realized it, too, she was about to jump off of his lap but his strong hands held her down. “What happened?” she asked.
“You fell asleep,” he said.
“And you were holding me that entire time?”
Oz smiled. “Yes.”
“You poor man!”
Oz laughed. “I must admit, it wasn’t entirely unpleasant. In fact,” he said, his smile leaving, “not at all unpleasant.”
Gloria stared into his eyes, too, and before she realized what she was doing, she gave him a hug. “Thanks,” she said, and he held her closer to him. He could feel every inch of her breasts and the smooth skin of her face.
She felt him too. She felt his big arms around her and there was a safety there. She wanted to close her eyes and fall right aback asleep. But she knew she couldn’t. “I wasn’t snoring I hope,” she said to him.
“Not at all,” he said.
“Liar,” she said, and they both laughed.
“My hair looks okay?” She attempted to blindly smooth it down.
“It’s gone for itself, girl,” Oz said with a grin.
Gloria smiled. “All that time I was asleep on your lap, you could have fixed my hair.”
Oz looked mortified. “Me? I can barely fix mine!”
Gloria laughed. Then they were staring into each other’s eyes again, and all laughter ceased.
He wanted her. Desperately. There was no denying it. He wanted her in every way. And as he looked into her eyes with a look that could not possibly hide his motives, he knew if she didn’t let him, he was going to burst at the seams.
Gloria was feeling that feeling, too, but she knew it would be like parking her car on a dead-end street. It wasn’t going anywhere. With Oz, her heart would just take up temporary residence in his. But as he stared into her eyes, and as she stared into his eyes, she made a decision. Going down that road with Oz would lead nowhere. That she knew for a fact. But it would lead to a moment. Just one moment with this man she felt something for. And she wanted that moment with him.
That was why she didn’t object when they stood up and walked, hand in hand, along the corridor that led to his bedroom, and he closed and locked the door behind them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
And when he laid her on his bed, and began removing his clothes, she couldn’t say if she was making a good decision or not. It wasn’t that simple anymore. Because she knew she wanted to be with him, at that moment in time, despite all of their differences. And she wanted to be with him even more so when he got naked.
Oz had the kind of body that made her wet just looking at him. And when he began removing her pants, and then her panties, and opened her legs, reasons not to let him got harder to determine than she ever thought possible. And when he licked her there, and kept going down on her, deeper and deeper, she was squeezing the bedding as reasons flew out the window. And when he removed her blouse, and lifted her bra, and moved up kissing her there, too, she was his. No more inhibitions about this man. No more holding back. She let him have her.
And Oz felt her surrender. He felt it when he put on his condom that could barely contain him. He felt it when his rock-hard penis penetrated her and her wetness saturated him.
He sucked her breasts as he fucked her. Gloria had her legs around him, and her arms around him as the bed shook every time he stroked her.
For nearly half an hour they made love. Long, sweet, endearing love. Until Oz kept saying Oh, Gloria. Now Gloria. Now. I’m cumming now. And then he couldn’t help himself. He came. He poured into her with such a burst of heat that she began cumming too.
Even that took several minutes of pure pleasure too.
When it was all over, and both were well spent, Oz pulled Gloria into his arms and moved onto his back, taking her with him. He was still lodged inside of her, and as she laid down on top of him, he wasn’t about to love.
And like two very satisfied lovers, they both fell fast asleep.
When Oz woke up, the plane was landing in Philly.
Gloria was still on top of Oz, still asleep in his arms, when he woke up. Oz smiled. Why did she make him feel so good, he wondered? But there was no denying it. She absolutely turned him on in ways that went well beyond his ability to understand.
And making love to her was monumental to him. She was great in bed! She made him feel like a lion on a mountain. She made him feel like a cub in a nest. Strong and vulnerable all at the same time.
And it wasn’t just the sex with this girl. Unlike any other woman he knew, he liked talking with Gloria and being around her more than any woman in he’d ever been with. Because he could get a release with any woman. But with Gloria, for some weird reason, he got so much more.
Which was strange and crazy to him.
What was it about her that had him following some damn Uber to the airport and all but begging her to ride on his plane? That wasn’t the fun-loving, womanizing Oz everybody knew and loved! What was wrong with him? What was it about her?
He didn’t know. But he knew this much for sure: he wanted more of what she gave to him.
In the meantime, he stared at her, and rubbed her soft, brown skin, and smiled at her for several more minutes, until she, too, woke up.
When she looked at him, and smiled back at him, too, he kissed her. She loved the taste so much, that she kissed him back.
“We’ve landed?” Gloria asked.
“Several minutes ago, yes,” Oz said.
“I’d better take a quick shower and get off of this plane,” Gloria said, about to get off of Oz. “I can’t be late.”