The Alpha in her Dreams

Flying with Shepherd

Light flickered through the curtains in her bedroom, alerting her that she was back in the real world whether she wanted to be or not. Blinking her eyes, everything from the previous night came back to her. She must have fallen asleep with Henry and slept through the night. Grabbing her phone from the nightstand, her eyes tried to focus on the time. Seven am? She slept for 12 hours! Henry’s side of the bed was cold; he had left sometime in the night. She wouldn’t have time to review the specs on the property or eat a good breakfast. Hell, she had just enough time to brush her hair and teeth and throw some things in a bag for the overnight trip.

Fifteen minutes later, she rushed out of the building, hailing a cab to take her to the air strip where the private plane would be waiting. Once she was in the car, thankfulness swept over her as she realized that sleeping in meant there would be less time to worry about being alone with Shepherd.

As the cab arrived at the airstrip, she saw a black sedan waiting. Grabbing her bag from the seat beside her, she watched as a tall woman stepped out of the back of the car. She was stunningly beautiful, with dark skin and shoulder-length curly black hair. Dressed in a smart gray pants suit and donning big sunglasses, she laughed as she looked behind her. Laurel watched as Shepherd climbed out after her and felt a pang in her chest. Was that Shepherd’s girlfriend?

She shook the thought from her mind and turned back to pay the taxi driver. Get it together, Laurel. You have no right to feel jealous. Remember Henry? Actually, this may make the trip more comfortable, she begrudgingly admitted to herself. Perhaps you misunderstood Shepherd’s intentions.

The group waited for her by the sedan. Shepherd and the mystery woman were joined by Matthius and another man that she’d never met. Where did these people find each other? A modeling agency? The man was tall and handsome, strong but not as broad as Matthius and Shepherd. He dressed in a blue suit with a white button-down shirt, the top few buttons left casually open. His expression wasn’t mean but couldn’t be described as open either. He appeared curious as he watched her walk towards them.

Shepherd stepped forward to meet her, his nostrils flaring as he came closer as if smelling her. His eyes grew instantly darker and angry. What’s his deal? I know I didn’t have time to shower this morning, but I don’t stink, Laurel thought nervously. He stared intensely at her for a moment as if he were trying to keep control of himself. Fear must have shown in her face, because she saw him take a deep breath before reaching for her hand and bringing her the last few steps to the rest of the party. Although his words were cordial, his voice was clipped and gruff, betraying his feelings.

“You already know my associate, Matthius. This is his wife, Charis. And this,” he gestured to the serious man beside him, still staring at her with an expression that made her think he was sizing her up for something, “is Beck, my right-hand man.”

“It’s nice to see you again, Matthius, and to meet you both,” Laurel said with a warm smile, genuinely feeling much better now that she knew the beautiful woman was with Matthius.

Charis immediately reached out to hug her, which surprised Laurel. “I’m so glad to have another girl on this trip!” she laughed as she intertwined their arms, leading her towards the plane.

“Oh, I need to grab my bag,” Laurel hesitated.

Charis kept walking and glancing behind her, yelled, “Boys, grab our bags, won’t you?” She looked back at Laurel with twinkling eyes. “That’s what we keep them around for, right?”

Laurel couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, I’m not sure it’s very professional for me to make a client carry my bag, but I guess it’s okay since you issued the order.”

“Damn straight! Besides, Shepherd would love to carry your bag…or you.”

Charis cast a side glance at Laurel to gauge her reaction, but she pretended not to hear.

As she stepped inside, Laurel was amazed. She’d flown once before for the company, but this plane was exceedingly nicer. This would only be her third time to fly. Once with her parents, and then not again until her business trip. Even when she moved to New York with Susu, they made a monumental road trip of it.

The plane looked like one that would be featured in Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Two tables were across from each other with white leather seats. Further down the plane were two couches facing one another. Laurel continued walking and opened the door at the end of the plane, revealing a small bedroom with a queen-size bed and a bathroom with a shower. She hadn’t been asked to oversee the travel accommodations and didn’t know why Jim would’ve splurged on this plane for the trip.

When she made her way back to the seats, she was unnerved to see that Charis and Matthius were on one of the couches, snuggled close to one another, while Beck lay across from them on the other couch, working on a laptop that rested on his chest. That only left the two tables with chairs on either side of them. Shepherd sat at one with his laptop open on the table. She knew it would be rude to sit at the other table alone, so she took the seat across from him and pulled out her file of the property to review. Shepherd leaned back and peered at her with a look of satisfaction on his face.

“Always working?”

“Eh, I put in a fair number of hours. But I mostly like what I do.”

“Mostly? What do you not like about your job?”

She knew she shouldn’t complain to a client about her job, but he made her feel comfortable, as though anything she said was acceptable. “I’d hoped to be further in my career at this point. I don’t want to be a glorified secretary,” she chuckled.

“What do you want to be?”

“Well, at the head of the table, of course! But I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. I guess everyone has to work from the ground up.”

“What do you generally handle at your job?”

“Anything that Jim needs done. I oversee several accounts, organize and prepare for meetings, do research on different projects, consult with teams, and of course anything extra that our clients need,” she paused here with a smile. “I usually book hotels and travel for our out-of-town clients. But I didn’t have to do that for you…”

“We travel enough to warrant having a plane at our disposal. Sometimes we need to go somewhere quickly, and it’s convenient to have a plane and a pilot we trust on the ready. As for hotels, we tend to only go to a handful of places and know the hotels we like in each location.” He shrugged.

Even his shrug was charming. Laurel felt her heart rate quicken.

“It’s just easier when we handle it ourselves, you know?”

“Yeah, I do.” She smiled, pulling the folder closer to her as she started to open it.

The engine of the plane started, making her pause. A man walked from the cockpit and said, “Welcome, Ms. Davis. Boss, we’re ready to take off. There may be some turbulence, but nothing to be concerned about.”

Shepherd nodded to him and glanced over at Laurel. “You fly much?”

“Very little. Once when I was a child and once on a business trip. It makes me a little nervous but my past experiences in planes have been good.”

“Your aunt didn’t like to travel?”

“No, she likes to stay at the cabin. My parents moved around a bit, but we mostly stayed near the west coast. We lived in Washington the most.” She paused, stealing a glance at Shepherd, who looked interested. “I mentioned the other day that my parents died when I was 13. We were taking a camping trip and there was an accident. I remember driving down a winding road. We had the windows down and Jim Croce was playing on the radio.” She smiled, remembering her parents singing along in the front seat. “It was ‘Bad, Bad Leroy Brown’. We made a turn on a hill, and I don’t remember anything else.”

She couldn’t recall the last time she had felt comfortable talking about this, especially with someone who was essentially a stranger to her. She tended to take her time getting to know someone before divulging much about herself, and even more time before she shared her most guarded memories. She certainly had never told anyone the song that was playing when the accident happened. She couldn’t even remember when the last time she thought of it was.

“When I woke up in the hospital, my Aunt Lucy was there in the room with me. I knew then that my folks hadn’t made it. We didn’t talk about it. She went to my parents’ apartment and packed up some clothes and pictures while I was still in the hospital, and then we made the trip to her cabin in Oregon. That first year I didn’t go back to school. I just spent a lot of time in the woods. Aunt Lucy taught me a lot about living in nature. Then, life just…. resumed.”

Laurel shrugged and smiled softly at Shepherd, making eye contact for the first time since she started talking. There was nothing in his gaze that made her feel awkward for having shared something so intimate.

“I stayed in Oregon the rest of the time growing up and didn’t leave again until graduation. I needed to push myself, you know? I needed to do something different to prove to myself that I could.”

“And do you miss Oregon?”

“Yeah, I do. And I really miss my aunt. She doesn’t leave the cabin too often, and I work a lot. I don’t see her nearly as much as I’d like to. She’s the best kind of person. Gentle, carefree, independent, accepting. She taught me so much about life.”

“I’d love to meet her sometime.”

Laurel didn’t know how to respond, so she changed the subject. “Tell me about yourself. I know you own a large corporation and that your employees seem to love and respect you. It’s almost as if you’re family instead of coworkers.”

Shepherd paused as if he wasn’t ready to stop talking about her but yielded. “Well, we’re all from a tight-knit town. Matthius, Beck, and I have known each other since we were kids. So, we really are more like family.” He glanced behind him at his friends and turned back, smiling. “Charis and Matty got together about five years ago, but it feels like she’s always been with us. She fits right in. She goes on most of our trips with us. We’re together a lot.”

“And what about your real family? Your childhood?”