The flight attendant came around serving drinks and snacks, but Gemma declined everything. Callum took a pack of peanuts and ordered a beer. Gemma had asked for a pillow earlier and adjusted it against her neck as she reclined comfortably in her seat. She had to admit that the first-class seats on this international flight were spacious. And Callum had booked a double-seat row for just the two of them.
Gemma noticed that the attendant had given Callum one or two smiles more than was necessary. The attendant’s obvious interest in her passenger made Gemma think of something. “Is it true that your parents met on a flight to Australia?”
He inclined his head to look at her. “Yes, that’s true. Dad was actually engaged to someone else at the time and was returning home to Australia to help plan his wedding.”
“And he fell for someone else when he was already engaged?”
Callum heard the shock in her voice. Considering what she thought about men deliberately breaking women’s hearts, he decided to explain. “From what I was told, he had asked this woman to marry him and it was to be a marriage of convenience.”
She lifted a brow. “A marriage of convenience for whom?”
“The both of them. She wanted a rich husband and he wanted a wife to start a family. They saw it as the perfect union.”
Gemma nodded. “So love had nothing to do with it?”
“No. He didn’t think such a thing could exist for him until he saw my mother. He was hit between the eyes with a ton of bricks.” Callum chuckled. “Those are his words, not mine.”
“And what happened to the other woman? The one he’d been engaged to at the time?”
He could hear pity in her voice. “Not sure. But I know what didn’t happen to her.”
Gemma lifted a curious brow. “What?”
A smile touched his lips. “She didn’t get the wedding she planned.”
“And you find that amusing?”
“Actually, yes, because it was discovered months later that she was pregnant with another man’s child.”
Gemma gasped sharply and leaned her head closer to Callum’s. “Are you serious?”
“Very much so.”
“The same thing almost happened to Ramsey, but Danielle stopped the wedding,” Gemma said.
“So I heard.”
“And I liked her.”
“I heard that, too. I understand that your entire family did. But then that goes to show.”
She looked over at him. “What?”
“Men aren’t the only ones who can be heartbreakers.”
Surprise swept across her face at his remark. Gemma leaned back against her seat and released her breath in a slow sigh. “I never said they were.”
“You didn’t?” he asked smiling.
“No, of course not.”
Callum decided not to argue with her about it. Instead, he just smiled. “It’s time for that nap. You’re beginning to sound a bit grouchy.”
To Callum’s surprise, she took one, which gave him the opportunity to watch her while she slept. As he gazed at her, he experienced the same intense desire that he’d always felt whenever he was close to her. At the moment, he was close, but not close enough. He couldn’t help but study her features and thought her moments of peaceful bliss had transformed her already beautiful face into one that was even more striking.
He would be the first to admit that she no longer looked like the young girl he’d seen that first day. In three years, her features had changed from that of a girl to a woman and it all started with the shape of her mouth, which was nothing short of sensuous. How could lips be that full and inviting, he wondered, as his gaze moved from one corner of her mouth to the other.