Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 20:39:27 -0500
From: Writer Boy <writerboy69@hotmail.com>
Subject: rebound - part 23

Obligatory warnings and disclaimers:

1) If reading this is in any way illegal where you are or at your age, or
you don't want to read about male/male relationships, go away. You
shouldn't be here.

2) I don't know any of the celebrities in this story, and this story in no
way is meant to imply anything about their sexualities, personalities, or
anything else.  This is a work of pure fiction.

Questions and commentary can be sent to "writerboy69@hotmail.com". I enjoy
constructive criticism, praise, and rational discussion. I do not enjoy
flames, and will not tolerate them.

That said, we now continue.

***

Whatever good feelings Justin had been enjoying at the going away party
were completely crushed by the time we got in the limousine with Chris. To
say I was pissed was an understatement, and I wondered how much trouble I
would get in if I accidentally kicked Chris in the head on the way to the
airport. They'd probably just toss me out of the car, not even slowing down
in Chris had any say in it, and then Justin would go home with Chris
without me while I'd be nursing asphalt scrapes and rolling out of the way
of oncoming traffic. It might be worth it if the tradeoff was kicking Chris
in the face, though, because I wanted to take away his smug look just as
quickly and completely as he'd stolen Justin's smile.

"We should go," Justin said quietly, carefully putting the lid back on his
gift box. The others were all standing with their cake, glaring at Chris
and his hulking mass of a bodyguard, but Justin was already walking into
the storeroom.

"Justin? You ok?" I asked, watching him open the top bag to put the box
inside. When he turned to look at me I felt my heart tumbling down in my
chest, falling like an elevator with a broken cable. Justin's eyes were
wide, but his mouth was just a thin line, turned down.

"I'm not good at goodbyes," he said, swallowing, while I hit the button to
raise the back door. It would be easier to put our bags in the car if we
didn't have to carry them out one at a time through the little door. "And,
I."

"We're going to miss the plane if you don't hurry up," Chris said, striding
into the room behind us. His tone was clipped, sharp, much more so than it
needed to be.

"I'm sorry," Justin said, handing his bags to the driver waiting by the
open trunk. As he stowed them and looked expectantly at me Justin walked
around the side of the car and climbed in the open door, not looking back.

"Do you like being a dick? Do you enjoy it?" I asked Chris, ignoring the
bodyguard who was probably supposed to be intimidating me. Chris rolled his
eyes and walked over to the car, waiting by the open door for me to get in.

I handed my bags to the driver and turned around to see the others all
lined up in the storeroom, watching. Their somber faces were completely at
odds with the pointed foil paper party hats, and I wondered if Julie was
going to take another picture.  Instead she hugged me, squeezing me
tightly, her thick sweater (doubtlessly handcrafted by Peruvian natives to
help support their village, or some such sob story) brushing my cheek as
she whispered goodbye in my ear. Pete hugged me as well, a tight bear hug,
crushing me against him and pushing all of the air out of my lungs. Meg
followed him, looking a little sad, but also with that little touch of
mirthful amusement, as if she was thinking something really wittily biting
and had decided to hold it in. I finally hugged Michelle last, trusting
that the store was in good hands with her.

"Good luck, and be careful," she whispered. Be careful? Of pop stars?

When I pulled away my eyes were watering. It all felt so final, and in a
way, it was. I was leaving with Justin, and I'd come back alone.

"Shouldn't one of you be in working the register?" Chris asked as I walked
over to the door. The driver slammed the trunk closed and walked around to
stand by Chris, to close the door after we were inside.

"Go to hell," Michelle said eloquently, not bothering to think of a witty
comeback. Justin and I both looked out the back, sitting side by side on
the plush couch, and they waved as we pulled away, but were quickly lost to
us as we went around a turn.

I hadn't ridden in a limousine since my high school prom, and I hadn't paid
close attention to that one, since my friends and I had been drinking
pretty heavily and I'd been trying really hard to pretend to be interested
in my date. I looked around now, thinking about what a change this one was
from my usual transportation to the airport, which tended to be the
passenger seat of a friend's car as they dropped me at the front doors.
Chris was sitting across from us on another couch, sipping a bottled water
and making this glaring expression that probably would have looked
threatening on someone a little bigger, and without that stupid beard. The
bodyguard was sitting up front with the driver, so it was just the three of
us back here. Justin had laced his hand through mine, but he was looking
out the window, leaning on the side armrest instead of on me.

"So what the hell was that?" Chris asked finally. We were stuck in traffic,
waiting for a UPS truck to stop blocking one of Boston's many extremely
narrow streets, so Chris must have figured he'd pass the time by being a
jackass. It seemed to be one of his hobbies. "You keeping things low key?"

"It was a going away party, from my friends," Justin said, not turning to
look at him. He gave my hand a tight squeeze. "Chris, what's going on over
there? I saw it before, when we were out touring."

"The Big Dig," I answered, shrugging. Justin knew what that was, but I
figured he was trying to play disinterested in Chris, so I played along,
even though it was the same kind of thing we'd fought over last night. My
choice, apparently, was to play along, as long as Justin kept it fairly
innocent, or to contradict him in front of Chris, letting Chris put a wedge
between us. "It's supposed to help with traffic, when it's finally done,
but that won't be for years. They've been working on it longer than I've
been here."

"Hey, I'm talking to you," Chris said childishly. I fought the urge to
snicker. He bitched that Justin was manipulative, and yet Justin seemed to
know exactly how to push his buttons. "Your friends threw you a party?
You've been friends for what? A week? What the hell kind of friends are
those?"

"Better friends than the ones I've had for years," Justin said, letting go
of my hand. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and tugged me over to
him, still staring out the window, and I leaned against him.

"Point for Justin," I said, smirking at Chris.

"Shut up," he said crossly, turning to glare out his window. I'd count that
witty comeback as a point for me. Damn it. Now Justin had me doing it, too.

When we got to the airport I was surprised that we didn't go right through
the front, where I usually caught planes. Instead we drove a little further
on, and when I looked at Justin curiously he explained that we were on a
chartered flight. I remembered him coming in on a private plane, and he
explained that he hadn't flown on a commercial jet since September, because
it scared him. I hadn't ever been on a private plane, and only had the
vaguest impression of what they would be like inside based on nighttime
soap operas like "Dallas" and "Falcon Crest". I was a little surprised, and
almost disappointed, when we were finally aboard and I saw that there were
just rows of seats, like on a regular plane, and not couches or buckets of
ice with champagne chilling.  Justin snickered a little as we took seats in
the back.

"You thought it would be fancier, didn't you?" he asked, smiling as we
buckled ourselves in.

"Of course he did," Chris said from a couple rows up. The bodyguard, who
hadn't been introduced to me, sat in the first row, behind the little
galley thing.  "He's only in this for the money, Justin."

"Is that the best you can do?" I asked, laughing, before Justin could say
anything. I put a hand on his leg to settle him, since he started to
stand. The copilot had already closed the door, and the seatbelt lights
were on. "You can't convince me that Justin's this, like, diabolical
mastermind. Then you try to tell him that JC's going to give him hell, and
that doesn't work, so now you're resorting to me as a gold digger? Do you
realize how pathetic you sound?"

"I'm not the one chasing after some twenty year old," Chris said, not
turning around. "I mean, that's pretty pathetic. If Justin wasn't available
were you going to try the bag boy down at the grocery next?"

"No," I answered, looking away from his back, staring into the aisle. I
hadn't even wanted Justin to be available. Chris had no idea what he was
talking about, but suddenly he'd managed to dampen my spirits, too. Justin
sensed it, and squeezed my hand.

"Hey," he said softly, pulling it up to kiss the back. "Fuck him. I know
the truth."

"I hope you do," I said, leaning over to kiss his cheek. His skin was warm,
and he made a soft, contented little noise as my lips brushed over his
face.

Chris didn't say anything else, and I couldn't even be sure if he'd heard
Justin's last comment or not. The lights in the cabin flickered as the
engines came on, and then we heard the captain telling us that we would be
taking off momentarily, and that we should keep our seatbelts on until he
instructed otherwise. Justin whispered to me that there was no flight
attendant, but that we could get our own snacks from the galley once the
plane was in the air. The bodyguard, still ignoring us all, put on a pair
of headphones, and leaned back in his seat, prepared to block us out for
the whole flight the way he was blocking out the captain's instructions to
keep our seats in the upright position, and Chris opened a folder from his
carryon bag and began flipping through it.

"Justin?" I asked, surprised, as he wrapped my hand in both of his. He had
my hand in a white knuckled grip, his hands squeezing mine tightly. He was
whispering to himself, eyes closed, head down, as the plane began to taxi
down the runway, and I realized that he was praying.

"I, um, the takeoff scares me," he whispered, not opening his eyes. I
needed to distract him, quick. He was whitening like a shirt in bleach. His
hands were shaking, trembling, and he was taking alarmingly shallow
breaths. It was almost like when he'd cut himself, Justin graying out on me
like I was about to lose him. He needed a redirect.

"Shhh, baby," I whispered, leaning over. I nuzzled the side of his head
with mine, and he let out a little sighing whimper, leaning into me. "Don't
think about it, Justin. Don't think at all, ok? Just close your eyes."

"They're closed," he whispered, his hands still holding mine. I began to
softly kiss Justin's cheek, little pecks that traced up and down his
jawline, and I reached up with my free hand to run it over his hair,
brushing my fingers through it and rubbing his head soothingly. Justin let
out a long breath. "Oh, Chris."

I didn't think the other Chris could hear him, but when I glanced forward I
saw his face peering out between the line of seats. I watched him as I
continued to nuzzle at Justin, still kissing his cheek, moving up to nibble
at his ear a little. Chris made a little frown of distaste, his mouth
twisting a little, and then he turned around and I watched him fumble with
a pair of headphones. Good. I wanted to focus on Justin, not worrying about
whether or not we had an audience. I caught his earlobe in my mouth,
sucking on it a little, and he sighed appreciatively as I noted that the
plane was starting to pick up speed.

"Shhhh," I whispered again, letting my breath blow across Justin's ear. He
shivered a little, letting out a tiny whimper, and his hands squeezed mine,
but I was sure he didn't notice that we were about to go airborne. Before
he could do anything else, I turned his head, my hand still on the back of
it, and plastered my mouth over his, kissing him hard.  Justin groaned into
my mouth, and I sucked it out of him, inhaling his tongue. The plane left
the ground, and Justin let go of my hands to grab my head and hold me in
place as his tongue probed into me.

I know I started kissing Justin to distract him, but he was so into it now
that he was getting me going, too. I realized the plane was still climbing
when my ears popped, but I was only dimly aware of it as Justin bent me
back against the seat. His hands were forcing my head back, pulling my
mouth open, and we were both inhaling sharply through our noses and letting
out little moans and noises as he thrust his tongue into my mouth. Justin's
tongue was long and wet, and he swiped it over and around mine sinuously,
his firm lips pressed over my own. Both our eyes were closed, and I was
stroking the sides of his face, brushing my hands over his hair, while he
just held my head still. His grip wasn't painful, but it was kind of firm,
and it was actually turning me on to have him suddenly being so dominant.

"Justin," I whispered, urging him on.

"Want you," he grunted, pushing my head back. He burrowed under my chin,
biting at my neck hard, pinching my skin with his teeth. He grabbed a
handful of my hair and jerked it painfully, pulling my head all the way
back, and I gasped as he buried his mouth in the hollow of my throat like a
vampire. "Want you so bad."

He batted my hands away from his face, as they were getting in his way, and
he continued to suck and bite at my neck as he bent me back over the
armrest.  My head was out into the aisle now, and I was pretty twisted what
with my seatbelt still being on and the armrest digging into my back. At
the same time, though, I was as hard as steel in my pants, and when I
grabbed the front of Justin's I discovered the he was as well. He let out a
loud grunt, looking down at my hand, as I grabbed him, and then he attacked
my neck with new fervor. I pressed the heel of my hand against his hard
shaft, running it up and down as my fingers kneaded his balls, finding it
difficult through the folds of his pants.

Justin's hands slid down my neck, touching, digging in, and then they were
at the front of my shirt. Before I could stop him he undid the first few
buttons, and reached in to begin tweaking my nipples with both hands. I
gasped, letting out a sharp yelp as he twisted them, hard. I looked up, but
Chris and the bodyguard still had their heads down and their earphones on,
oblivious to what was going on in the back of the passenger compartment.  I
let go of Justin's balls and wrapped my hand around his shaft as best I
could through his pants and began jerking him off. He gasped sharply, at a
much higher pitch than mine, and his hips rose toward me. He leaned forward
and fastened his mouth around my nipple, which was throbbing from the
teasing his hand had been giving it.  The burning throb, now replaced by
hot sucking wetness, had me almost shooting in my pants, and my hand
tightened around him.

Justin was sucking at my chest now, mouthing my pecs, randomly nibbling at
whatever piece of skin was near, and I fought his pants open. It was
difficult with our seatbelts still on, unable to turn our pelvises toward
each other, and I could barely move as it was with Justin bending me
backward and doing his best to climb inside me, but I finally got his belt,
button, and fly undone. I jammed my hand inside, not bothering to tease
him, driven on by his urgency, and felt the velvet hot spike of his shaft
throb against my fingers.  Justin had a nice, substantial cock, not too
big, definitely not small, proportionate to the rest of him, and I loved
the way the skin moved a little as I stroked him.  Like the rest of him, it
was warm and soft but hard underneath, and now my hand was moving pretty
quickly because he had a leaking stream of precum sliding out of his head.

"I want you," Justin grunted, sliding back up my chest to run his tongue
around the curve of my ear. His hips were still moving, still pushing him
against my hand, and his hands were caressing my chest, letting his thumbs
brush over my nipples as his fingers curved around my sides. "Oh, God,
that's, God."

He gasped as I squeezed his head, pinching it, and I felt what seemed a
gallon of precum surge out, slick and hot. Smiling at him, the plane still
climbing, I let go of his cock and slid my hand down along the shaft and
over his balls. He gasped again as I felt behind them, letting my middle
finger lead as I ran it in a line right down the throbbing tube of his
erection, and then he let out a sharp yelp as the tip of my finger found
the tight pucker of his ass. We'd moved well beyond just distracting him
now, but I was as into it as he was, and wanted to make him feel good after
I hadn't delivered on my promise to last night. As I traced my finger in a
circle around his hole, feeling him flex and try to buck away, his hands
slid off of me and onto his armrests. I leaned over and pressed my mouth to
the side of his neck as I pushed the tip of my finger roughly inside him.

He let out another little yelp, throwing his head back, his hips jerking up
as his tight little pucker clenched around me. The cords in his neck stood
out as he fought to breathe, and I ignored his frantic tightening, pushing
my finger roughly inside. He was panting now, struggling to inhale, his ass
clenching rhythmically around my finger, and I began to jerk my finger back
and forth, curving it to find his prostate, pushing on it. He jerked
forward so hard I thought he would rip the seatbelt, and his knuckles were
white, his hands clenching around the armrests. I sucked at his earlobe
now, catching it in my teeth, and then went back to his neck, tasting a
little bit of salt as he began to get hotter. He was rocking back and
forth, impaled on my probing finger, but the look on his face and stream of
inarticulate high pitched noises told me it was far from painful.

"You're so hot, Justin," I whispered. "And so tight."

I added a second finger, no finesse, stretching him wider, knowing that the
friction from my almost dry hand had to be almost burning for him. Both
fingers jabbed at his prostate, and he was grinding the back of his head
into the seat, pushing his chest out. I was watching his face, looking at
the way his eyes tightened with each thrust, seeing him bite at his bottom
lip to keep from screaming. His nostrils were flaring, and little beads of
sweat broke out along his forehead. Abruptly he grabbed my wrist with both
hands, freezing me, and leaned over to kiss me again, hard, his teeth
pressing against mine through our lips, as he pulled my hand away from
him. He let out a little whimper as my fingers finally slid all the way out
of him, and I worried that I might have hurt him or done something he
wasn't comfortable with. His thick tongue, invading me again, kept me from
asking, and my eyebrows went up in surprise as he unfastened his seatbelt
and then mine.

"Justin," I gasped, managing to push him away enough to get a word in
before he attacked my mouth again. "What are you doing?"

"I need you," he groaned against my neck. "I need you so bad."

"We can't," I protested, not very convincingly. His hands were all over my
torso again, my shirt unbuttoned all the way down to where it was tucked
into my pants, and he was eating my neck like it was the in flight meal. My
hands were all over him as well, up and down his arms and shoulders,
rubbing at his hair. "Chris, and the bodyguard."

"They won't hear us," he whispered, pulling at my shirt. I grabbed his
hands. This was really hot, and I needed it as much as he did now, but we
couldn't just go at it.

"They could turn around," I said, staring into his bright eyes, the same
color as the sky outside the windows. His face looked so needy, but then it
shifted, almost as if a lightbulb had come on over it, the way they did in
old cartoons. He pushed me toward the aisle.

"Get up," he said quietly, kissing my cheek. He held my hands as I slid
into the aisle. "Go to the back."

His voice was low, but playful.

"Justin," I said, knowing where this was going. I don't know why I was so
concerned about doing this in the same small plane as Chris and the
bodyguard, since Justin seemed to think it was completely acceptable, but I
was also insanely curious about actually joining the Mile High
club. "Where?"

"The bathroom," he answered, pushing me down the aisle, one hand holding up
his pants and the other in the middle of my back.

"What if they have to go?" I asked, still not protesting as much as I
probably should have.

"We'll have to be quick," he answered, pushing me inside.

Before I could protest Justin was in the tiny closet of a bathroom with me,
pressing me back against the wall as he crushed his mouth down onto
mine. His tongue snaked in, rubbing against mine again, and we were back at
it just as hard as we had been in our seats. I knew this was irresponsible,
but I wanted him so bad, and I knew he felt the same.  It would be really
hard to miss his jutting cock rubbing against mine through the front of his
pants, which had fallen open now that he wasn't holding them any longer.
Instead, his hands were fully inside my shirt now, tugging it out of my
pants as he undid the last couple of buttons. He was tugging at my nipples,
cupping my chest, and running his hands up and down my abs, and then he
hooked his fingers into my belt loops and jerked me against him.

My hands were all over Justin as well. I ran them up his back, pulling up
his t-shirt to claw at his skin as he ground himself against me, and then I
dropped them down to his opened pants. I tugged lightly, and they dropped
to the floor with a soft clatter as his belt and phone hit the carpeting,
his pants having been barely hanging on his hips to begin with. I grabbed
his cotton covered ass, wondering if he owned anything besides white
briefs, but he was one of the rare guys who could wear them without making
their lover feel like a scary molester of some kind. His butt was like
kneading bricks almost, hard, round ones, and he had so much muscle there
that his cheeks actually dimpled pretty deeply when he clenched them, like
he was doing now as he thrust against me.  I slid my hands under the
waistband to feel his hot skin and tight ass unobstructed, and he buried
his mouth under my chin again, his head pushing mine aside. At this rate we
were going to land sporting some giant hickeys that weren't there before.

"God, Chris," Justin groaned against me, writhing. One of his hands was
groping my cock roughly through my pants, and the other was pinching my
nipple and tugging it away from my chest as his mouth sent sparks shooting
through me.

"Justin," I whimpered, my hands clenching hard as he bit at my earlobe.

"I need you," he panted. His voice was dripping with need, urgent as he
feverishly pressed me against the wall and pushed himself against me like
he wanted to try wearing my pants while I still had them on. "Want you so
bad."

"OK," I said, pushing him back a little, my hands on his chest.

He kept leaning forward, darting in for quick kisses as I pushed him away,
but he couldn't reach anymore as I slid down him, tugging his shirt up
again. I made a frustrated noise as it dropped back down again, and he
grabbed the bottom of it and pulled it up.  Rather than tugging it off, he
hooked the bottom of it on the back of his neck, and I stared up at him and
felt my mouth water as I saw his abs and chest framed above me, all hard
and toned and ready. I grabbed the front of his briefs and jerked them
down, not pausing to tease him like I did the last time, and his cock
sprang out, flying up to smack the bottom of my chin. He grunted as he
stared down at me, inhaling sharply, and I took his hands in mine and
brought them to the sides of my head. He looked at me questioningly as I
knelt before him, my hands on his thighs, my breath puffing out warmly over
his wet, dripping head.

"Fuck my mouth, Justin," I growled, licking my lips. His eyes widened, but
at the same time I could see that it turned him on. The minute I said it
his cock jerked, and a fat shiny drop of precum oozed out of the head. "Do
it."

"Oh, Chris," he began, biting his bottom lip. "I, uh."

"Fuck my mouth," I repeated, emphasizing the "fuck". I leaned forward with
my mouth open, close but not quite there, waiting for him to bridge the
gap. "Jam your big cock in there and ride my face hard."

I have no idea, even now, where that came from, but it was all Justin
needed. His hands tightened on the sides of my head, grabbing my hair to
get a grip, and then he pushed forward. I felt his slick, wet head parting
my lips and sliding saltily over my tongue, and then I was licking at his
shaft as he pushed relentlessly forward. The spongy knob of his crown
throbbed at the back of my mouth, against my throat, and I swallowed,
opening up and taking him all the way in. As soon as he had pushed all the
way forward, leaving my nose in his pubes and his balls scraping my chin,
he pulled back, almost all the way out, leaving just the head resting in my
mouth. I sucked at it as he looked down at me, nursing on him, and saw that
he was looking to see if I was ok. I went submissively limp in his hands,
letting my eyes slide closed, and he thrust forward again.

For the next few minutes the only sounds in the bathroom were me inhaling
sharply through my nose, gasping for air each time he pulled back, and
Justin letting out a high pitched mew of satisfaction each time his pelvis
slammed into my face. My hands were on his thighs, feeling them flex as he
bent his knees a little, tightening and loosening, his ass clenching hard
as he drove himself forward. Spit was running down my chin, leaking out the
sides of my mouth, and I could taste a virtual flood of hot precum each
time his cock slammed into me. I'd told him to fuck my mouth, and he wasn't
holding back, jerking my head back and forth by the hair as hard as he was
thrusting himself forward. I prayed that Chris and the bodyguard still had
their headphones on, because Justin was so loud that people on the ground
could probably hear him.

He began to go faster, thrusting in a fast staccato, and I opened my eyes
as I heard his sharp whimpers rising in pitch to become little soprano
yelps. Off to the sides of my vision the veins in his arms were standing
out in rigid relief against his tan skin as he gripped me, and in front of
me his abs were tightening, locking up into a ripped ladder of muscle. I
let my gaze climb higher, taking in the curving pecs and the pink nipples
full and hard, jutting out from his chest. His adam's apple was bobbing,
and his mouth was hanging open, wet, his tongue pressing against his bottom
teeth. As I looked up higher, covering the last inch or so, I met his eyes,
staring down at me. They were squinting, almost closing on each thrust in,
and when they met mine I felt him tense up, his whole body locking. He let
out a sharp, wordless cry, and then I felt jets of his hot cum shooting
into my throat. He pulled back a little, and I got a taste of him before he
pushed forward again and stayed there, holding me in place, until he
finished.

When he was done, his breathing returning to normal, his cock starting to
soften in my mouth, he pulled me up his body. I kissed as I went, his hip,
his abs, his chest, and then his mouth. His kisses were soft now, firm, but
not the urgent tongue jabbing tonsil lickers we'd started with, and when I
opened my eyes I found him staring dreamily into them. I carefully pulled
his shirt back over his head, and then bent to pull up his pants and briefs
again. It was hard to move in the closet, but he looked at me with languid
desire, mixed with confusion as I buckled his pants back up. He caught my
chin in his fingers, and I met his eyes again, looking up from his belt.

"What?" I asked, reaching down to start buttoning my shirt again. I'd have
to undo my pants to get the shirt tucked back in.

"What about you?" he asked, running his fingertips along my jaw. I
shivered, almost blinded by the desire I saw burning in him. I wondered if
I mirrored it. I was in lust with Justin, definitely, but there was more
than that tangled up in his gaze.  "You didn't, you know."

"Remember yesterday when it was all about me?" I asked. "When I promised to
take care of you later and then we never did?"

Justin nodded, but his face looked concerned at the same time.

"You didn't have to," he began, but I laid a finger over his lips.

"I wanted to," I said, doing my pants up again. I looked him over, and
watched him do the same to me. "Are we ok?"

"Better than ok," he answered, blushing.

"Let's go back to our seats, then," I said, kissing him.

I let Justin lead me down the aisle, hand in hand, back to our seats, and
we climbed back into them. He pulled on a pair of headphones, and I pulled
a book out of my bag to pass the time, but within five minutes Justin was
asleep, leaning against me with his head on my shoulder. I snickered,
thinking about how much I was going to tease him later for being a typical
guy, falling asleep right after sex, but really it was pretty damn cute to
look down and see his eyes closed and his mouth open a little as he leaned
against me, holding my arm like a pillow. It stopped being cute when I felt
him drooling through my sleeve, but I didn't want to disturb him after the
bad night we'd had, the long day dealing with Chris, and with the
possibility of us flying into something even worse.

I thought Chris and the bodyguard were ignoring us, but once when I looked
up I caught Chris staring between the seats again, his eyes narrowed. He
frowned when he saw me, so I gave him the finger, and he didn't turn around
again. I read for a while, and watched the scenery outside the windows
change as we flew south. When the captain announced that we were going to
start our descent, Justin stirred awake, rubbing at his eyes with his
hand. He blinked at me, smiling, and I leaned forward and kissed the tip of
his nose.

"Hi," he whispered.

"Hi," I answered, smiling.

In front of us, Chris was rolling his eyes again, shaking his head, but the
bodyguard seemed to think it was cute, smiling absently as he got his stuff
together.  Justin gripped my hands tightly as the plane landed, taking
shallow breaths and sitting rigid in his seat with his eyes closed, but he
did a lot better than he had on the takeoff, and I kept him distracted by
whispering in his ear that it would all be over soon, and that he was my
brave, sexy boyfriend, and could handle anything. He let out a sigh of
relief when we finally came to a stop, and leaned over to kiss me, his hand
cupping the side of my face.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"You ready?" Chris blurted from the front. "We have a lot to do."

"Like what?" I asked, as Justin folded his jacket over his arm and
collected his carryon bag. Justin looked up curiously, too.

"We're going straight to my house," Chris answered, smirking. "The guys are
waiting for us."

Damn. Outsmarted by the gremlin and ambushed by the ex-boyfriend and the
rest of the selfish bastards.

I smiled like there wasn't anywhere else I'd rather be.

***

To be continued.