Without warning, Dominic leans down, putting his face nearly in my lap, and reaches under the seat in front of me to drag my backpack out.
My mouth opens to ask what he’s doing, but he’s already pulling open the front zipper and taking my phone out, proving he was paying attention when I switched everything over earlier.
Sitting back up, Dom turns the phone toward me. Not handing it to me, just letting the facial recognition unlock it.
I fight against the embarrassment of him seeing the generic background I have on my screen.
I thought the beach scene was pretty, and I didn’t have a photo of my own that was better, so I stuck with it.
Dominic doesn’t pause, though, unbothered by my choice of background.
I crane my neck to see what he’s doing, but he turns the phone away from me, tapping away at the screen.
It doesn’t take an expert to guess what he’s doing, and he confirms it when he sets my phone in his lap and removes his own from his pocket. He just glances at it, checking to make sure the message went through, then he puts it back in his pocket and hands me my own back.
I open my texts, and sure enough, at the top of the thread is an outgoing one from me to Big Guy.
I raise my brows, but Dom just plucks the phone from my hand and once again invades my space to return it to my backpack and push the bag back where it was.
“Well,” he says, settling back into his seat. “If you’d’ve given me a nickname to work with, I would’ve used it. But it appears that only one of us is feeling the endearments. And, wife”—he cuts me a look—“if you’re Shorty, then I’m Big Guy.”
Wife? Gah.
I’m saved from responding when the flight attendant rolls a cart to a stop at Dominic’s elbow, asking what we’d like to drink before dinner.
Being new to this whole first-class thing, I do my best to act unsurprised at the free Jack and Coke that Dom orders for both of us.
Keeping up the act of being together, Dom waits until the attendant moves on before asking me if I’m driving myself home from the airport.
Not going into detail—because explaining I have a family member who is into some bad stuff and therefore feels the need to have me escorted by an armed guard isn’t really something I can share—I just shake my head.
“Good. Me neither.” Dom lifts his glass, and I clink mine to his.
I take a sip. Then a second, letting the cold beverage warm me from the inside out.
I normally wouldn’t enjoy someone ordering for me, but I’m new to this free-drink thing, and I’m happy for the little bit of liquid courage.
“Okay.” Dom reaches up and turns on the screen on the back of the seat in front of him. “What movie should we watch?”
A wave of relief settles on my chest as I appreciate what he’s doing.
It’s not that I don’t want to talk to him, but several hours of talking to someone you just met, who happens to turn you on with everything they do, is kind of a lot.
I reach for my screen, but his big paw shoves my hand away.
“What?” I laugh.
“My screen, Valentine.”
I bite my lip before I mutter, “Bossy.”
“Better than lovely.” He says the word like it’s an insult as he selects the list of movie genres. “Action, thriller, war reenactment.”
I scrunch my nose. “Those are the options?”
“Uh-huh,” he says with a straight face.
“How about Disney?” I suggest it to be a pest.
“Absolutely not.”
I scoff. “What’s wrong with Disney?”
“Nothing. But my little asshole nieces and nephews make me watch animated movies every time I see them. And this is adult time, so I want an adult movie.”
“You probably shouldn’t call them assholes.” I try to keep a straight expression.
Dom tips his face down to mine. “Like I said, you haven’t met them.”
“Fine.” I sigh dramatically. “If those are my choices, then I choose thriller.”
“Interesting…” He drags the word out and starts to scroll through the list of options.
Dom pauses to look from his screen to mine, then to me, and back to his screen again.
“What?”
His big shoulders lift, then fall. “We’ll need to use yours.”
My eyes follow the same path his just did. “Why?”
Dom unfurls the headset he got from the flight attendant. “Because, Shorty, one of us is gonna need to lean over a bit to make this work. And I think it will be more comfortable for me to do it.”