With measuredtrepidation, Gwen once again, did what she was asked. When he satdown beside her, he turned to her and smiled. “Relax, sweetheart.You and I are going to get along famously.”
“You’re not mad at me anymore?”
“Oh, I’m furious,” he said pensively. “Just a tad less.” Hethen plunked the folder on her lap.
“My itinerary!” She clapped with glee.
“I figured since you’re here, I might as well make the most ofyour company. You want to play tour guide? Let’s rock it. I loveroleplaying games.”
Gwen blushed profusely at his suggestive phrasing and stareddown at her lap. Quirking an eyebrow at her adorable reaction, heplaced a finger under her chin and drew her attention back to himfor a moment. Perhaps, he’d been looking at this the wrong way. Shemight not be into having a fling but he had a feeling, she’d be upfor a sweet calculated seduction of the Crispin variety.Oh, yes, now that he could deal with.Just as long as he kept the upper hand and not lethimself get too close. Resolved to the task, he then winked at herbefore reaching for his notebook in the pocket in front of herchair.
“Right then, get to work on that.” He tapped the folder withhis pen. “While I work on this.”
Chapter 7
After havinggone over her itinerary as if reacquainting herself with an oldfriend, Gwen shuffled it around, placing the page which includedgetting to the airport and onto the plane to the back of thefolder, so that the first page was now the very next stage of thetrip. She re-read that part over again, committing it to memory.This would be a true test of her courage. Getting from the airportto the Lemon Tree Inn where they were to stay the first few nightsof their trip was definitely going to be interesting, to say theleast. A huge part of her wished she had taken Stacy’s advice toget a taxi or a shuttle, but a bigger part of her wanted toexperience the real London. And what better way to do that thantake the underground transit system known as The Tube?
At least, shecould take comfort in the fact that Crispin wasn’t planning onabandoning her the moment they landed in Heathrow. At first, he’dseemed quite upset with her and rightly so, but he’d made it clearhe was looking forward to having her play tour guide. Now as longas everything went to plan, she was pretty sure she could lookafter that part of the deal. Besides all that, she was very much inlove with the idea of spending her time in England with such animpressive character as Crispin.
Watching fromthe corner of her eye, she could see him writing in his notebook orrather a songbook, she guessed, by the way he would write then tapout a few notes with his pen. At such close range, she couldn’thelp but notice his beautiful hands. His fingers were long andelegant, his manicured nails painted shiny black. He wore allblack. A crisp black shirt, a tailored vest overtop with a subtleblack on black jacquard pattern. He was long and lean of limb, hiswavy dark hair flowed midway down his chest. He smelled wonderfultoo. Every once in a while when she turned her nose just so, hiscool, citrusy masculine scent invaded her lungs.
In every way,so far, he was everything she had ever wanted. She couldn’t evenfault his abrasiveness since he’d had every right to be upset withher. And to be honest, she quite liked his standoffishness.
Yes, indeed, hevery much reminded her of a character from her books. In fact, sheimagined he was exactly that. And what could be more exciting thana trip to England with her real life fictional book boyfriend?
Then, ofcourse, there was no denying the physical attraction between them.At least, for her, anyway. When he had suggested they join the MileHigh Club earlier, she was quite taken aback. But only because shehad believed he was being rude at the time. Yet, since returning toher seat, she had thought of little else. The idea had her quitetitillated, to be honest, and to have him in such close proximitywas proving to be a seriously intoxicating experience. Plus, theendorphins released from all the excitement of her trip so far hadher on the edge of wanting to do things she wasn’t quite sure sheshould be contemplating, especially with a man she hardly knew.
For this reasonalone, she had to keep reminding herself that he was not acharacter from a book but a very real man. But for now, while theystill had hours to go on the flight, Gwen rested her head back,taking comfort in his presence. With the warmth radiating from hisnearness, she closed her eyes and let her imagination run wild.
***
Oddly enough,Crispin had lost himself in his latest song. He wouldn’t havethought it possible to concentrate with all the sounds anddistractions around him but the opposite was true. In fact, hehadn’t been this inspired since before Christmas.
He knew whyhe’d been unable to write. He’d been too preoccupied with thegoings on around the House of Goths. Then there was his failedrelationship with Gracie. His pathetic existence had left himlistless and rather depressed. He hadn’t been able to write asingle lyric that hadn’t made him want to throw himself off thenearest bridge.
Yet suddenly hewas overwhelmed with inspiration and he wasn’t quite sure where itwas coming from. They hadn’t even left Canadian airspace, or hadthey? How long had they been flying? Checking his watch, herealized it had been three hours already. In fact, the flightattendants were now making their way through the aisles with thefood carts.
At his side,Gwen was fast asleep, her head resting against the window. She wasexhausted and it was no wonder, thought Crispin. She’d been a bagof nerves earlier. Look at her, clinging to that precious folder asif it were a lifeline.
For whateverreason, he felt the need to take it from her hands. Without wakingher, he gently took it