**I apologize at how long this is. Also it does take a while before there is any sex. However, I hope everyone likes it. Please let me know by voting and/or emailing me. :)***
Luke glanced at the woman sitting beside him and found it hard to fight his grin. For the last 30 minutes, the woman had been doing deep-breathing exercises, apparently without much success.
From the moment she'd sat down beside him on the airplane headed to Jamaica, she'd had a death grip on the arm of her seat as if it were her last lifeline. And the truly sad thing was that the plane hadn't taken off yet. It had simply taxi'd out on the runaway and there they had sat waiting for the gods of aviation to grant them favor for the last 30 minutes.
Luke had to admit against his better judgment, he was enjoying the woman's mental angst. Sure, he knew it was wrong to feel joy at someone else's pain, but truthfully he didn't care. She had seemed to get underneath his skin from the minute she'd sat down. She had brushed by him, rubbing her body swiftly against his before plopping into her seat without even a small 'excuse me'.
Suddenly an eye popped open and he got a blast of wintergreen ice as she glared daggers at him.
"What?" she drawled in a sweet southern voice and just like that, he was smitten. Luke had one weakness. Very few people were aware of it, but nothing dropped his defenses like a southern girl. Didn't matter what age, or how she looked, he was putty in their hands. Yeah, he was easy. All the blame had to rest on the shoulders of his army recruiter who'd sent to him Basic in South Carolina.
All of a sudden he realized that he'd been starring at her for minutes, long, long minutes if the expression on her face was any clue.
"Huh?" he muttered, and barely suppressed a wince. Yeah, master of the spoken word was he.
"Do I have something on my face?"
"No, why?" Without meaning to his gaze fell to the full lips forming the words. And he felt his stomach drop out the plane. Full luscious lips that brought to mind lazy Sundays whiled away beneath the sheets, that unfortunately at the moment were snarled up at him.
"Uh, no, are you suppose to have something on your face?"
"I was wondering why you've been staring at me for the last 45 minutes," she said, turning fully to face him then.
"Uh," And Luke almost popped himself in the back of the head. This chick had the power to reduce him to mush in just a few milliseconds. "I was wondering if you were ok. Plus I was kinda hoping you weren't gonna upchuck. This flight is seriously gonna suck ass if something starts yacking."
Instead of smiling like he had intended her to, she glared at him. That in itself was unusual. Shit, Luke thought, woman had been doing whatever he'd wanted since the cradle. To have this....shrew....not respond to him as he had for her was in a word, disconcerting, if just not damn annoying.
"Listen, GI Joke, I'm gonna try to be nice here and not rip you a new one but you're really gonna have to work with me here, ok?"
"Really," he quirked an eyebrow at her in amusement. "And how do you plan to do that, baby cakes?"
Just like that, her brows dipped down in a perfect V and he knew that he might have overdone it a smidge.
"Listen, dickweed, today is not a day to play with me, ok? I'm trapped on a tin can, seated next to Captain Punk, flying, flying, FUCKING FLYING. So if you want to live to see your next birthday, hell, to see if this plane lands, DO. NOT. FUCK. WITH. ME."
Luke could almost see the steam flaming from her nostrils and felt nothing but amusement. This little slip of a woman expected to frighten him? He'd faced scarier hang nails than her. She, well, he thought he could handle her in his sleep. But he had to hand it to her, she was great for a laugh.
He glanced up and down her body, lingering on the good parts: lips, tits and hips. The three essentials in his own expert opinion. He wasn't ashamed to admit he paused longer on her tits than anything else though. But in his own defense, they were the nicest pair he'd seen in a while.
The unnamed shrew rolled her eyes before closing them to continue her deep breathing. This allowed her a chance to stare at her tits without feeling like a dirty ol' man. They were spectacular in his unbiased opinion. More than a handful and he had big hands.
At 6'5, 315 lbs, he was a man not to be reckoned with. His body had been honed by the military to be an elite fighting machine and Luke didn't mind bragging but he had been good at his job. However, after 20 years of living out of a knapsack, he was tired. That's why when an old army buddy had extended an invite to his lavish beach wedding in Kingston, Jamaica and hinted at the chance of a job in Blaine's private security firm, he'd packed his shit. Which is how he came to be seated next to the most ill-tempered woman of the century. And to tell you the truth, Luke hadn't had this much fun since he'd gotten to blow up that land mine in Fallujah.
"So, are you gonna ignore me the whole ride, 'cause I gotta warn ya, if ignored, I just get worse," Luke informed her.
Once again he was gifted with a one-eye salute. "Do you go around trying to deliberately piss people off or are you just gifting me with that special service today?"
"Mmm, must be just you. Most women love me." He couldn't stop the Cheshire cat grin that accompanied that statement.
She rolled her eyes before replying. "Of that I have no doubt. Just another clue that civilization as we know it is going to hell in a hand basket it."
He snorted and turned toward her. He couldn't keep his eyes from roaming over her lips before continuing to visually caress her body. She really wasn't that much to look at. She was large. He didn't even try to say chunky, phat with a ph, or any of those cutesy terms people use to make their friends or even themselves feel better nowadays. However there was something that drew him to her. Maybe it was the way she spit at him when no other woman had since...well, ever. Or maybe he'd been trapped in a humvee with 4 other guys with nothing to look at but camels and goats too long.
"So we're already found out that I don't crank your tractor. I guess I shouldn't ask this, but what does? Are you a lesbian? Like farm animals? Weird satanic rituals to appease your lord and master, Lucifer?"
She stared at him astonishment. "Ok, first of all, did you just say 'crank your tractor'? Who the hell says that anymore? Secondly, why the hell should it matter what gets my motor running? What business is it of yours?"
"None, but I'm naturally curious. That's why my friends call me whiskers," he joked, using the classic SNL joke.
Then the most amazing thing happened. The hell beast actually laughed. Luke was stunned at the beauty beside him who had taken the place of his hellacious travel partner. Her whole demeanor had transformed and left him gasping. But as quickly as she'd come, Beauty departed, leaving him mourning her loss as is he'd lost a limb.
"Plus," he said, his voice subdued and filled with long, "It's a long flight to Jamaica. Would you rather sit here and think about all the ways the plane could crash or..." He paused and wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Or spend that time making a new friend, a gorgeous, strong friend who would throw himself over you in the event of a crash."
She chuckled, "That's awfully gallant of you except then I'd be the one on the bottom so I'd hit the ground first."
At her words, thoughts of her underneath him filled his mind. And just that quick, he was lost. She didn't have to be beautiful in the traditional way. She did something to him that was unexplainable. But for the first time in his life he didn't want or need to explain it.
He thrust his hand out to her. "I'm Luke, by the way."
She just looked at his hand and burst into laughter. "Of course you are."
"What's that mean?"
"Of course you wouldn't have a name like Richard or Bob. It would have to be something manly like Luke. Bet you were named after some ancestor who wrestled cows or some shit like that," and she rolled her eyes. If she kept that up, he was afraid they'd roll so far back they would get stuck.
"Well for your information, Miss Smarty, I was actually named after a literary figure." Just seconds after the words emerged from his lips, he could only think please, please don't ask me which book.
