Beautiful Heist

9. I'm New At This. What's Your Excuse?

Nine

I'm New At This. What's Your Excuse?

I was far too comfortable to be sitting plane seat. Then again, anywhere would be comfortable to me at this point when I was as tired as I was.

John said we couldn't fall asleep, no matter how many times I yawned or my eye started to close. "We'll be landing around midnight in New York," he said once he caught me yawning for the hundredth time. He was actually speaking to me in a normal tone, unlike before. Maybe he really did get the point I was trying to make. "We'll go straight to the hotel and you can sleep there."

Well, I didn't listen to him. Apparently, he didn't listen to his own instructions either, because he was falling asleep not a half an hour later. I didn't care if I had one heck of a case of jetlag. I needed sleep.

I woke up at the sound of the captain over the intercom saying we were going to be making our descent into JFK Airport. My eye slowly opened, but I didn't make a move. Why? Because I didn't know what my head was leaning against, only that I was being pinned down by something on my left side. It certainly wasn't the armrest. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes for a moment before I lifted my head.

I'll admit, it kind of took me by surprise to see just what was weighing me down...or rather who. It was the top of John's head I had been leaning against. He was sleeping, leaned up against me with his face pressed against the side of my neck. His warm breath tickled my skin as my heart started to pick up.

Too bad he couldn't be this affectionate when he was conscious.

One of the flight attendants, an older woman who had to be in her late fifties, walked by then, making sure everyone was awake and had their seatbelts on. When she got to me and John, she looked at him sleeping against me and smiled. "You might want to wake him up. We're almost ready to start our descent," she said kindly.

I nodded, looking down at the top of his head again. "I will."

She smiled again before moving on to the next row.

I tried to shift under John, but I didn't want to move so much to make him fall sideways. Instead, I did the only thing I could think of – poke the sleeping giant and prepare for the wrath cast down upon me.

Maybe poking him in the side wasn't the best thing to do when he'd been pissed at me before, but hey, I'll take my chances.

It took a few times before he started waking up. He didn't move at first, but I could tell he was because his breathing changed and he shifted slightly a moment later. The movement caused him to press his face closer to my neck. I'm sure he could feel my pulse jumping under my skin.

Realization hit him quick the next minute. He bolted up, back stiff as a board as he looked at the seat in front of him. His eyebrows pulled together and his lips pressed into a hard line.

"We're getting ready to land," I mumbled awkwardly. "You'd better buckle up."

He swallowed once before nodding, glancing over at me quickly. I sighed and shook my head, buckling up before I leaned my head back against the seat, looking out the window.

The New York City skyline was in view and I could feel the plane dropping lower and lower until I could see JFK. It was only a few minutes later we were touching down.

When we were docked and able to get up, John stood first and reached up to get our bags from the overhead compartment. He didn't say a word as he handed mine to me. It took me a moment to take it, because I wasn't used to this sort of nice John. I mean, handing me my stuff without throwing it? Yeah, a total shocker.