Nonstop (Open Skies #3) - Becca Jameson Page 0,11

She loved it when he kissed her. A lot.

He slid his hand up to her neck and eased her closer. She parted her lips before closing the distance, and she was certain she moaned into his mouth within moments of making contact.

For the first time since she first agreed to go out with him, she felt decidedly more relaxed. He wasn’t going to pressure her to do something she wasn’t ready for. Kissing him was no hardship. In fact, it was amazing. If his kisses were anything to judge by, maybe he was right. Maybe sex wasn’t something she should dismiss so flippantly.

In fact, as she angled her head to one side and let him deepen the kiss, she felt her body coming to life against him. Her breasts felt heavier and butterflies started to dance in her stomach.

Maybe she had finally met someone who would give her the time she needed to let her guard down and remove her clothes.

When he ended the kiss and leaned back, she rested her head against his shoulder, her thoughts running rampant.

A sliver of panic rose inside her, but she tamped it down. It had no place in Bracken’s home. He’d done nothing to warrant her unwelcome reaction.

There were complications to getting involved with a man. There were reasons why she never did. She had no intention of ever sharing her rationale, however. Never.

Yeah, she was treading in uncharted territory. When she’d agreed to go out with Bracken, she’d done so because he was sexy and confident—two very attractive qualities. She’d had some strange notion that perhaps she could finally unload her V-card. What she hadn’t anticipated was falling for him.

He was so much fun to be with. He made her feel comfortable and relaxed. She thought it might be easy to also have sex with him. Now, things had taken a turn in a different direction. As much as she was attracted to him, she wasn’t really prepared to have an actual relationship.

There was no way she could actually sleep with him for example. Sex she could probably manage in the not-too-distant future, but not actual sleeping. That was out of the question.

She had secrets that prevented her from opening up to people. Men in particular. Her reasons needed to remain buried, and the only way to do that was to avoid putting herself in any situation that threatened exposure.

She pursed her lips and gave herself a small pep talk. Bracken was a wonderful man. She wanted to date him more than she’d ever wanted to date anyone before. She would not deny herself this experience. She just needed to be careful. Set some boundaries. Make sure it didn’t get too serious.

And pray it didn’t hurt too badly when he could no longer tolerate her idiosyncrasies and broke up with her.

Chapter 5

“So, how are you feeling?” Dr. Rawlins asked as soon as Bex sat down for her mandatory weekly counseling session on Friday.

She shrugged. “Not too bad, I guess.” She picked on a thread on her jeans, not making direct eye contact with Jane, as the counselor had insisted she call her even though Bex found that impossible.

“You look tired. Are you sleeping?”

Another shrug.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

Bex lifted her gaze and sighed. “I usually sleep about two hours at a time before I wake up in a cold sweat, gasping.”

Jane nodded. “It’s not unusual, but we need to get you past that.”

Bex wasn’t sure she’d ever get past it. What Jane didn’t know was that Bex had had insomnia for years, extending back far longer than the airline incident three weeks ago. Granted, it had gotten worse in the last few weeks, but it was the same old thing.

Bex was here to work through her issues from the hostage situation she experienced with Christa, not to discuss some previous trauma, and she intended to stick with that plan. Jane didn’t need to know about old wounds. Her job was to get Bex through this particular event and back on the job.

The problem was, Bex couldn’t imagine returning to her job as a flight attendant. Not now and probably not in three more weeks of therapy either. That fact scared her to death.

Maybe other people would say what needed to be said to the counselor in order to pass some sort of mental fitness test and get back to work as fast as possible, but Bex didn’t really hold back about her issues because she couldn’t fathom returning anyway. She just