Mr. Imperfect

chapter 21



Several thousand feet separated the bottoms of their feet from the earth beneath. Mike conceded it was a breathtaking view, but it was not without its distractions. There was the pilot, for one. Droning through his usual tour and putting minimal effort into making his words sound spontaneous. Then there was Luke, who had become obsessed with seeing how far he could lean over the basket before either the pilot or Rori pulled him back and scolded him. But most of all, there was Sydney, whose apparent reaction to being scared was to press her breasts into something. At the moment, that was Mike.

Not that he was complaining. They were a stellar pair of breasts, and if Rori hadn’t told him they were fake, he wouldn’t have guessed. Sydney’s dad was clearly a good plastic surgeon, although Mike was still trying to wrap his head around the kind of man would put breast implants in his own daughter. Part of Mike didn’t want to judge and the other part wanted to punch a man like that in the teeth.

As it was, imagining the surgery was enough to keep things quiet for Mike in the southern regions. Even when Sydney turned in his arms, aligned her rear to his crotch and leaned forward to peer over the edge of the balloon.

“So cute!” she squealed. “A deer! You see it? That’s a totally a deer!”

Damn, was all Mike could think as he was unable to drum up images of a surgery for the first time.

“Right there! See its rack?”

That earned a snicker from Mike’s left. When he looked over he saw both Luke and Rori looking at him. They looked quite cozy themselves, with Rori leaning up against Luke’s chest while Luke loosely wrapped his hands around her waist. There was an easy comfort between them.

“That’s actually a moose,” the pilot said. “Much larger than a deer. You’re probably not as tall as that bull moose’s leg.”

“No shit?” Sydney said, looking at the pilot in disbelief.

He nodded. “No shit.”

She blinked her doe eyes. “And he just looks small because we’re way up here and he’s way down there?”

“Yep. And trust me, you’d rather see him from up here than face to face.”

“I’ll bet,” she said, spinning in Mike’s arms. “I can’t believe I haven’t done this before. It’s so fun!” Then, without warning, she pressed a kiss to his mouth. Contrary to everything else she’d done, the kiss felt honest, unchoreographed. Thoughtless. Mike couldn’t help but smile when she pulled away.

“You’re welcome,” he said.

Then the old Sydney was back to being dramatic. “But it’s kind of freaky to think how high we are. We could totally die! I mean, what it a woodpecker landed on the balloon and drilled a hole in it. We’d be goners!”

Luke was the one who laughed at that one. “Can you imagine? Sitting helpless down here in the basket while some bird went to town on this thing? So. Helpless!”

“Woodpeckers don’t fly at this altitude,” the pilot said officiously.

“Oh, I’m sure,” Sydney said. “I’m just saying that there’s like 1,001 ways to die in this thing. I mean, one stiff breeze while that flame is going and poof! We fall to the ground in flames, screaming like children on a runaway school bus.”

This time Mike joined in on the laughing. Even Rori smiled, which had left the pilot as the only stern faced one in the bunch.

“Also not possible,” he snapped.

“What if I tried to take us to Oz?” Luke asked him. “Conked you out and pulled on that rope until we hit the stratosphere. Then would we drop like a rock?”

The pilot’s eyes narrowed. “Do I need to take us down?”

“Don’t worry,” Rori said, sending Luke a narrow look. “I’ll keep him under control.”

The pilot gave a gaming laugh, but Mike could tell he was still tense. Apparently plotting ways to crash a hot air balloon was not his idea of fun conversation. Behind him, Mike watched as Luke squeezed his arms more tightly around Rori.

“Are you seriously not even scared a little?” Luke asked her.

“No,” Rori said, glancing over the side. “Although I’m not entirely comforted by the fact that at present the only standing between me and death is wicker.”

“Seriously!” Sydney laughed. “That’s totally what’s weird about this whole thing, huh? F*cking wicker. That’s totally it.”

It hadn’t taken long to realize Sydney swore like a sailor. Women with foul mouths didn’t turn Mike on as a rule, but Sydney was just so perky with it. It was like listening to a British or Irish person swearing. Sometimes bad language just flowed so well that it didn’t even really count.

All in all, Sydney was just an easy girl to like. Or maybe she was just easy. Mike wasn’t sure which, but he was grateful that she wasn’t trying to turn the date into anything it wasn’t. She wasn’t trying to create some faux intimacy or insta-bond. She was just a girl who liked men and liked fun and was trying to have both at the same time.

How could a man hate a woman like that? How could he not want a woman like that? Why was Mike trying not to want her?

Mike shook his head when the answer came to him. Mostly because the answer was so stupid. He was pushing Sydney away because he didn’t want to ruin his chances with Rori.

What chances? Rori was engaged to Luke—his best friend. Basically his brother. On top of that, Mike hadn’t even known Rori seventy-two hours and they’d only spoken a handful of times. There was absolutely no reason to imagine the press of Rori’s body against his rather than Sydney’s. There was no reason to feel guilty for any chemistry he and Sydney had. And most of all, there was no reason for him not to have the time of his life on the date. He was paying for it, after all. And dammit, he deserved a little fun!

So when Sydney wrapped her arm around his waist, Mike returned the gesture. “You’re funny, you know that?” he said, smiling down at her.

She beamed. “Yeah?”

He nodded, glancing down to her lips. “Totally.”

The sly grin that curved her mouth was more invitation than he needed to lean in a plant a light kiss on her lips. Mike sent an apologetic look Luke’s way as he pulled apart and was about to tell his friend to avert his eyes when he saw that Luke was paying absolutely not attention to him and Sydney. Not if the solid liplock between Luke and Rori was any indication.

For a moment Mike couldn’t breathe as his eyes moved from where their mouths fused to where Rori’s hands threaded through his friend’s overgrown hair. Then his eyes were drawn to where Luke’s hands gripped Rori’s hips like a man holding onto a ledge for dear life before one of those hands moved up into her hair as Luke deepened the kiss.

“Damn. I’m jealous,” Sydney said, turning his chin so he was looking at her. “Want to make me unjealous?”

Given that Mike’s first instinct was to punch his friend out? Hell, yeah!

“Take in the view for a bit,” he said to the pilot before pulling Sydney against him. He wasn’t hard yet, but when he got there he wanted her to feel it. And like it. She’d been trying to turn him on for the past hour, and like a fool he’d been playing hard to get.

Well, not anymore.

If Sydney wanted to get laid, well then, she was going to get laid. By him.

“Mmmm. Yummy,” Sydney said against his mouth. “Where did that come from all of a sudden?”

“You,” he said, pulling away enough to look at her. “A guy can only resist so long, you know.”

“I was beginning to wonder,” she teased quietly, giving her hips a little wiggle against the part of him that was joining the party. “It’s nice to finally get a sense of what you’re packing. Very promising.”

He dropped a kiss on her neck, whispering, “Do that a few more times, and you’ll have an even better idea.”

Sydney threw her head back and laughed before planting a solid kiss on his mouth. “You are totally worth the plane ride,” she announced before turning in his arms and leaning against his chest with a satisfied sigh. Apparently she’d gotten what she wanted for the moment, and Mike decided not to ruin anything by glancing over at Luke and Rori to see what they might be thinking. If they were watching him and Sydney that was their own damn fault. There were plenty of places to look where they wouldn’t have to watch the foreplay that was starting between him and Sydney.

This was his date, too. And Mike was starting to enjoy it.