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Hee! Never thought I'd use this dorky banner again. This is a bonus chapter of The Best Laid Plans, based off a detail in the sequel about Tom and Erika breaking an airplane toilet. I meant to post this for Smut Saturday, but that didn't work out because my mom was here and blah blah. I have a gazillion projects going, all of which I should work on rather than random smut, but whatever, when inspiration hits, it hits hard.
Title: The Best Laid Plans - Bonus Chapter: Who'd Have Known
Pairing: Tom/OFC
Rating: NC17
Summary: ...And even though it's moving forward/It's just the right amount of awkward/And today you accidentally/Called me baby.
A/N: Title from the Lily Allen song, which I love, especially for this story :)
It had been an okay trip - no delays, no turbulence, no onboard menu mix-ups that had Tom end up with Gustav’s disgusting steak - but after ten hours in the air, even the most comfortable flight tended to become boring. Tom shifted restlessly in his business class seat, trying to stretch out his long limbs without bumping into the ceiling or the seat in front of him, in which Georg had been snoring for the past six hours, preventing anyone else from sleeping.
It was a good thing they had this part of the plane almost to themselves. They’d shrunk down their entourage over the previous months, but there’d been promo to do in Asia, press conferences to hold, TV interviews to give, and they didn’t feel comfortable yet doing any of that without David, Bill had of course needed Natalie, and together with a few assistants and their security team, they were quite the travelling circus.
Trips like this were hardly unusual to Tom, but something was new. He glanced to his right, where his girlfriend was reclining in her window seat, the cheap airplane blanket tucked up to her chin, dozing behind a curtain of her long blonde hair. The lights were dimmed in the cabin for the night flight, but behind the small window, it was slowly getting lighter outside. It seemed like it had been night for a long time, but soon it would be morning where they were going, and then they’d finally land. Tom could hardly wait.
He reached out from under his own blanket and laid his hand over Erika’s on her armrest, touching her gently so as not to startle her. She stirred sleepily, eyelids fluttering, and he leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Good morning.”
“Hey.” Her voice was raspy. “Are we there yet?”
“Soon.” He glanced at his watch. They had about an hour and a half left to fly. “Sleep okay?”
“Hmm.” She closed her eyes again and snuggled up to him as much as their multifunctional recliners would allow.
He angled his body so he could curl up around her, his back to the aisle, and tucked her blanket over them both. Half-sitting like this wasn’t exactly comfortable, but in the past two months, there’d only been a handful of mornings he hadn’t spent with her in his arms. It was quickly becoming a tradition that was too good to break with.
This had been their first trip as a couple, and it had been nice - she’d never been to Tokyo either, it had been fun to discover that together - but the band’s tight schedule had been stressful too and hadn’t allowed for a lot of quality time together. Tom found he was looking forward to the relative normalcy of their life at home, where he could sleep in his own bed, eat his girlfriend’s home-cooked meals and make love to her whenever he pleased, not when it fit into David’d meticulous plans.
The thought alone of having her under him in a bed that wasn’t too short or too narrow, touching her at leisure, made his blood stir. He laid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, burying his face in her hair. She smelled nice as always, like home even though they were still far from it. It was nice to have her with him.
Tom hadn’t been sure if he would enjoy it; they’d been together for two amazing months, but those had been spent quietly at home, in a bubble of peace and serenity. Everyday life was different, especially on the road, and he had wondered if the magic of their togetherness would hold up even under the stress of the bands’ daily demands.
But, as it turned out, taking her with him had increased his enjoyment of the trip, not lessened it. Boring days doing the ever-same interviews and posing for pictures had been more bearable with the thought of seeing her afterwards; exploring a new city, as much as they could anyway, had been more thrilling for being able to share his impressions with her. Tom’s approach to new experiences had always been a dialectical one, and he found it easier than he had thought to open up to her and exchange thoughts, opinions, ideas. He couldn’t have wordless conversations with her like he could with Bill, but he didn’t have to. He found he actually enjoyed talking to her, now that all secrets and deceptions had been cleared up and there was nothing between them to get hung up on.
“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” he teased. “You’ll miss the Sky Chef’s delicious breakfast.”
Erika let her tongue peek out between her lips and blew a raspberry, eyes still closed. “They can keep it.”
Tom laughed quietly. Under the blanket, he let his hands sneak up past the hem of her oversized sweater and tickled her sides. The top she wore underneath had ridden up, and his fingertips brushed warm, bare skin. He inhaled deeply, loving the scent of her hair, the feel of her skin, a tactile dream. He could get lost in touching her; already, the sterile, uncomforable environment of the plane seemed lightyears away.
She wiggled in his arms, trying to get away from his teasing fingers. “Stooooop,” she yawned. “I’m up.”
Tom was up too, in a wholly different sense of the word. He stopped tickling her obligingly, but only to slide one hand up along the curve of her waist to her chest, where he paused, giving her a moment to protest, before he brushed his thumb over the swell of one breast.
Erika didn’t move, didn’t speak, but her eyes finally fluttered open and caught his. They glittered with wicked amusement, and Tom took a moment to marvel at the fact that she could pick up on his mood and match it like this. “Looking for something in particular?” she murmured in a sultry voice. “Because I’m pretty sure whatever it is, it’s not under there.”
No; in fact, there was nothing underneath her tank top except naked skin, heat, and a pert nipple that drew taut when he flicked it with his fingertip as if by accident. Her bra had magically disappeared. Sometimes, he really thought she was a witch, right out of his own personal fairy tale.
“I don’t know,” he drawled, “I might have something here.” He rolled her nipple between thumb and index finger, applying just enough pressure for the slight burn to last even after she pushed his hand away.
She pursed her lips in a show of annoyance that might have worried him if he hadn’t become so attuned to her every expression, every slight inflection in her tone. “Great. Thanks for that.”
Tom just laughed. “For what, baby?”
“Making me suffer.” Under the blankets, he could feel her clench her legs, close as they were.
Smiling, he leaned in and whispered into her hair, “Why should you have it better than I?”
“It’s not my fault you’re always horny,” she retorted.
“Yes, it is,” he leered playfully. “It’s all you.”
Her lips twitched. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You’re here,” he shrugged.
Chortling, she shoved his hand out from under her sweater, but Tom wasn’t deterred. He rested his palm on her belly, over her clothes, waiting for a minute or two until she thought he’d given up, then he sneaked one finger past the drawstring waistband of her sweatpants, under the elastic of her panties, and stroked the soft fuzz there.
Startled, Erika let out a small gasp. Her hand flew to cover his and hold it in place, her eyes piercing on his, willing him to stop.
Tom wiggled a second finger past her waistband, touching bare skin that felt so unbelievably soft that he wanted to sink to his knees right then, right there, peel the layers of fabric between them away and touch with his lips what his fingers were caressing so gently.
“Just let me,” he breathed. “Don’t make a fuss and no one will know.”
She looked around furtively, but the flight attendants were all busy readying breakfast in the onboard kitchen, most of their fellow travellers were still asleep, and Tom was shielding her with his body from any curious glances. Under their blankets, it was beginning to get very hot very fast, and he only intended for it to become hotter. Her grip on his hand loosened slightly, and Tom took full advantage, pushing past the barrier of her sweats and sliding his whole hand under the lacy front of her panties.
Erika barely bit back a moan as his fingers reached their destination and began to stroke gently back and forth. She was moist already, moreso than he had expected, her whole body humming with the thrill of what they were doing, coupled with the natural desire that sparked so readily between them.
Pleased, he teased at her slit with light, gentle strokes for a moment before delving deeper, spreading her open so he could dip his fingers into her heat and draw small, wet circles on the inside of her thighs. Her clit was hard and swollen, and when he brushed his thumb over it, she shuddered like she’d been waiting from him to do that all the while. Her body opened for him, easily accommodating the two fingers he slipped inside. She needed this, just like he did, always, always, and it drove Tom to near insanity in the very best way.
His own arousal was rapidly becoming painful. He had chosen comfortable travelling clothes, and his baggy pants weren’t restrictive, but he had acted on a whim when he began to touch her and only now did it occur to him what he had gotten himself into. There was nowhere this could go, at least not for another two or three hours, and the thought might have been more frustrating than not having touched her in the first place.
It was too late now, though: Erika was moving her hips under the blanket, clenching rhythmically around his fingers, too far gone to even care where she was now, and he knew he had to finish this, one way or another, or he’d spontaneously combust, and then he’d probably go down into history as the rockstar terrorist who’d brought down a plane with the explosive force of his sexual frustration. He bit his lip, trying to get a hold of himself and think. There was only one option, but he had to be subtle about it, because the last thing they needed was a big scandal.
Carefully, he let the motion of his hand slow down and withdrew until he was barely touching her anymore, his fingertips hovering over her slick skin. “We need to stop,” he whispered in her ear.
Her eyelids fluttered, confused. “Wh-what?”
“We can’t do this here,” he murmured apologetically.
“Oh,” she sighed, disappointed. “Right.” She shifted slightly, and his hand slipped out of her pants.
He pulled back from under her blanket, feeling the moisture on his fingers cool in the soft breeze from the air inlet. He shivered, and had to restrain himself from diving under that blanket completely and finishing with his tongue what his fingers had started.
“I should go freshen up,” Erika said, her voice dreamy and faraway as if she’d just woken from a dream. She stood on shaky legs and began to dig through the overhead compartment for her bag of toiletries.
Tom nodded, barely able to contain himself when her rummaging around brought her round ass into his direct line of vision. Her sweatpants were hanging low on her hips, and when she raised her arms, her sweater rode up to reveal the bright pink, lacy elastic of the very panties he so longed to peel off her. He glanced around jealously, but no one was paying them any attention. In the seats in front, Georg was snoring, Gustav had his headphones on and was reading a magazine, David was dozing under an airline-provided baby blue sleeping mask, and next to him, Bill was inspecting his reflection in a compact mirror, too self-absorbed to notice anything just now. Everyone else was still asleep.
“Could you just…?” Erika’s soft voice brought his attention back to her. She was motioning with her washbag to let her through.
Tom moved his legs so she could step past him, but he couldn’t resist the urge to lay his hands on her hips for a moment, steadying her as the plane shook slightly. He looked up at her; their eyes met, and she licked her lips instinctively, an unconscious gesture that was more alluring than any overt display of sexuality he’d ever seen.
“I’ll just be a minute,” she said, and bent down to kiss him on the cheek before she sashayed off to the bathroom.
The moment he heard the lock click, Tom stood, smoothed down his hoodie so it covered his front, grabbed his wallet from the luggage compartment and shuffled across the aisle to his brother’s seat.
“Good morning,” Bill smiled without taking his eyes off his own reflection in the mirror. “Sleep well? David snored again. I used my phone to record it so we’d have proof this time.”
“Great,” Tom said. He touched Bill’s shoulder firmly, giving his twin a meaningful look when Bill glanced up. Tom tilted his head towards the bathroom. “Do me a favor?”
“Huh? Oh.” Bill looked back in the direction of the lavatory, where Erika had just disappeared, then at the flight attendant who was serving drinks a few rows ahead. He raised his pierced eyebrow. “Really, Tom? Gross.”
Tom shrugged. Hygiene was a concern, but it was secondary at the moment to getting off. “It’s on my list of things to do before I die.”
For all his objections to frivolous sexual encounters, Bill was never one to stand in the way of a good opportunity. He tilted his head from side to side, thinking it over. “Fine,” he said then. “Go.”
Tom went without looking back, hearing Bill flag down the flight attendant and rattle off a long, complicated order of drinks and snacks. Tom strode down the aisle purposefully and made it to the lavatory door just as the latch slid back and Erika tried to step out. Glancing around at the flight attendant, who was busy fussing over Bill, Tom backed his girlfriend into the bathroom and swung the door shut behind them noiselessly.
“What are you--”
He was kissing her. He was kissing her and there was no room to talk, to think, to do anything but feel as his tongue tangled with hers at last. She tasted like toothpaste, fresh and spicy. Tom couldn’t get enough of her.
“What, did you think I’d just stop?” he gasped when they broke apart. He grabbed her hips and hoisted her up to perch on the tiny sink. There wasn’t enough room for her to sit comfortably, but they’d manage. He crowded her against the mirrored wall, swooping in for another deep kiss that forced her back over the narrow expanse of the sink. She flailed around, trying to hold on to him, and with a dry crack, the plastic soap dispenser came off the wall and clattered on the floor.
“Tom--”
“Shh.” The bathroom in business class was a little roomier than the tiny cubicles in economy, but it could hardly be called spacious. When he tried to put his arms around his girlfriend, Tom bumped his elbows on the walls. The plane wobbled a little, rattling the toilet lid and making him sway unsteadily like he was onboard a ship instead of up in the air, but he was determined. He held her tightly at the waist, trying to maneuver his limbs into the right position so they’d both fit into the puzzle box of the lavatory together.
“You can’t be serious,” she gasped out in between sloppy, wet kisses.
“Why not?” he smirked.
“Because…because… It’s gross in here!”
Tom considered this and decided that he didn’t care. In the position she was in, he could push up between Erika’s legs and rub himself against her, and the feeling was too good to stop. Maybe he was imagining things, but he thought he could feel how wet she was, how hot for him, even through the layers of their clothes.
Clumsily, he tugged at her waistband until she lifted her hips and let him slide her pants down. He pulled them off one leg, letting the garment dangle from the other as he did the same to her panties. When he touched her this time, there was no constraining fabric between them, and Tom took full advantage of that, working his fingers inside her until she rolled her hips, moaning, all protest forgotten.
“Yes,” she breathed, “Yes!”
He touched his forehead to hers, feeling the feverish heat of her brow. “Do you like that, baby?”
She squirmed impatiently. “Get in me.”
He patted his pockets with his free hand, fishing out his wallet. Going through it required two-hand action though, so he had to stop touching her reluctantly, pulling away with a wet smacking noise.
Erika reached down and started fingering herself, her legs spread at an obscene angle. She was flushed and looked thoroughly debauched, slouching against the wall with her tangled, golden hair framing her face wildly like a lion’s mane and a hand between her thighs.
He shot her a heated look before ducking down to sort through the contents of his wallet in the flickering light of the overhead lamp. The hidden compartment behind his Euro bills where he always kept a condom was empty, as well as the slit behind his credit card and the coin pocket. Tom squinted irritably, thumbing through the wallet once more. They’d used up a lot of his stash on this trip, but he always had condoms on him, always. This couldn’t be true.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding,” Erika moaned. “All this, and no one’s even going to come?”
If she left this lavatory without having orgasmed, it’d be a death blow to Tom’s pride. He dropped his wallet in the sink and grabbed her legs, hooking one over his arm while he angled the other outward so he could touch her with nimble fingers. “Who said you weren’t?”
She tried to wiggle away from his hand, which was impossible in the cramped space. “It’s going to - ah! - take too long like this, people will…will…”
He smirked. He’d had two months to memorize her sweet spots, and the one he was currently stroking was definitely the best of them. “Relax, or it will take too long.”
“We should stop,” she sighed, but she didn’t sound very convincing. Her teeth dug deeply into her lower lip, and her head lolled back on her shoulders, bumping into the paper towel dispenser. Her face scrunched up. “Ow! God, this is so unsexy.”
“Stop complaining, I can tell you’re enjoying it.”
She cracked one eye open to glare at him. “Next time, I want candles and flowers and silk sheets.”
“Boring,” he teased.
She smiled. “Nah, it’s never boring with you.”
He leaned in and kissed her hungrily, rubbing up against her thigh again. He was almost painfully hard; the need to replace his hand with his cock and get inside her was overwhelming. He pressed down hard on her clit with his thumb, clumsy and uncoordinated with barely controlled desire.
“I want to…” He hesitated, wanting her so badly he ached with it.
They’d both gotten tested right before they left for Japan, and when they got home, the results would be waiting for them, results that Tom was sure would be just fine, because he’d always been careful. It was so tempting to throw caution to the wind just this once, push inside her warm, willing body without protection and be done with it, but he knew he could never forgive himself if he did and something happened.
“Fuck,” he hissed, his jaw setting tightly when he felt small, sticky hands push down his pants and touch him. “Fuck, I, I want to.”
“I know, me too,” she breathed. “But--”
“Yeah.” With an enormous effort, Tom pulled himself together and away from the brink of losing control. Brusquely, he batted her hand away and set about touching her with renewed purpose. If they couldn’t have what they really wanted, at least he’d give her what she needed.
She writhed against him as he plunged his fingers inside her over and over again, rubbing tight circles around her clit with rough, jerky motions. She would be sore later, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t that which made her shiver and tremble in his arms; it was the words he breathed over her skin, Fuck! and Damn, baby, yes! and So beautiful, a jumbled mess of curses and endearments, only for her to hear.
When she came, clenching around his fingers, he sealed her lips with his, catching every little cry and moan, taking them inside where they stoked the fire in his belly. Later, he breathed into her, later. This was only foreplay, and all the more thrilling for it, knowing what would come when they got home and he could finally have her, over and over again. He held her against him, savoring this moment, this glimpse of her that only he ever got to see: eyes shut, her head thrown back, exposing the long line of her neck for him to kiss, her mouth moving soundlessly, working up to the final, strangled cry. Her hands fisted in his sweatshirt, her body went rigid with the jolt of electric bliss zigzagging through her, and her leg that was braced on the toilet jerked hard and broke the lid off the toilet bowl. With a loud clanking noise, it came loose and fell to the floor, where the plastic broke neatly into two pieces.
“Oh,” she gasped, eyes snapping open at the noise. “Oh, oh, fuck!”
Outside the cubicle, there were footfalls, and a moment later, someone knocked on the door. “Sir? We’ll be landing shortly. The pilot has switched on the seatbelt signs.”
Tom cleared his throat. “I’ll, uh, I’ll be out in a minute.” When he turned back to his girlfriend, her face was a bright shade of pink.
“I can’t believe I let you do this,” she sputtered.
“You loved it.” After the orgasm she’d just had, Tom thought he deserved to be a little cocky.
“I did.” An impish look stole over her face. “We’re both perverts. We deserve each other.”
He wasn’t so sure he deserved her, but he had her now and he was going to keep her. He pushed her back against the wall and kissed her with a fierce surge of affection, until the plane dipping down abruptly broke them apart.
Tom knocked his head on the ceiling trying to keep his balance and swore. Blue sanitizing liquid sloshed over the edge of the toilet bowl in the absence of the lid and mixed with the hand wash soap that was still leaking out slowly from the broken dispenser on the floor to make a slippery mass. Quickly, he bent down to retrieve his pants, which were bunched around his ankles on the wet floor. His sneakers squelching, he slithered around as the plane bounced in mid-air again, grappling to hold on to something and finding only Erika’s boobs.
Every single time they’d been intimate had been great, until now. This was just awkward and, if Tom thought about it, not just a little gross. His pants were soaked with chemicals, he was using his girlfriend’s breast as a safety handle, his head hurt, the plane shook nauseatingly, and Tom was still half hard in spite of his frustration and embarrassment.
Erika took one long look at him and burst out laughing.
Tom had had lots of sex in his life, good sex and bad alike. This qualified as disastrous sex, and yet, it was probably one of the funniest things that had ever happened to him.
“Shut up,” he snorted, but the tremor in his voice rendered the command ineffectual; she only giggled more.
“You should see yourself!” she laughed gleefully.
“You’re not so much better!” he claimed, but one look at her half-naked, thoroughly ravaged body and he couldn’t keep up any pretense: she was fucking spectacular.
“This is all your fault anyway,” she grinned, hopping off the sink to right her clothes. She moved around gingerly as she pulled on her pants, and Tom couldn’t hold back a small, self-satisfied smirk.
Even when he was at his most ridiculous, he could still give a woman a great orgasm.
Pleased with himself, he strode down the aisle to his seat a minute later, Erika having left the cubicle first. In passing, he whispered to David, “The toilet’s broken.”
“Do I look like a plumber… Oh.” David’s face folded up into deep frown lines. He sighed. “Tom, seriously?”
Tom shrugged, grinning.
David fussily unbuckled his seatbelt. “I’ll take care of it.” He shuffled along the aisle, passing the bathroom door, from under which a blue, gelatinous mass was slowly trickling out to soak the grey, easy-clean carpet. The flight attendant was already waiting for him by the curtain that separated business class from economy, scowling and wringing a rug in her hands in lieu of someone’s neck.
Tom plopped down in his seat next to his girlfriend, fastened his seatbelt and put an arm around her shoulders, getting ready for landing.
Erika had pulled back her hair into a tidy ponytail and was now applying a little make-up. She looked rumpled and sexy, much more relaxed than any of the other passengers after a twelve-hour flight.
“Nice,” Tom commented appreciatively. “I’ve always wanted to have sex on a plane.”
“Well, it’s too bad you still haven’t,” she said dryly.
“We’ll have to try again then,” he grinned.
Erika shook her head. “No chance. Too messy.”
“Aw, baby.” He squeezed her shoulders. “Next time, I’ll plan it better.”
“Uh-hu.” She peered up at him, amused. “You’d think with how much you’ve travelled, on some flight you’d have bumped into a groupie who was willing to--”
“No.”
“What, no interesting stories?” she teased.
“None that were good enough to remember.”
“You can tell me,” she smiled. “It won’t hurt my feelings, promise.”
“There are no airplane stories,” Tom said honestly. “Too risky. Groupies aren’t supposed to see the things that can go wrong. Those are all yours.”
She giggled. “Ooh, I feel so honored.”
It was in moments like this that he felt how lucky he truly was to have her; she just got him, and never held any of his blunders against him. Not those of the past, and not the ones he made when he was trying to show her a good time in an airplane bathroom. He squeezed her hip in silent gratitude. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “Because, y’know, it was kind of awkward.”
“Just the right amount of awkward,” she nodded, smiling. “We’ll laugh about it for years. I like that.”
It was true; Tom could easily imagine them laughing at this particular memory for a long time. It was nothing short of amazing to him. For the first time in his life, he could see a glimpse of his future ahead of him, dependable and constant. Not so long ago, he would have thought it a dull existance to know so surely where his life was going, but now, laughing with her, he realized that this, right here, could never be boring. There were a million things he wanted to do with her, all of which could go wrong, but that was okay: Tom was looking forward to every single one of them like an adventure.
Love, he thought as he held his girlfriend close, didn’t need perfection; it was good just the way it was.
Title: The Best Laid Plans - Bonus Chapter: Who'd Have Known
Pairing: Tom/OFC
Rating: NC17
Summary: ...And even though it's moving forward/It's just the right amount of awkward/And today you accidentally/Called me baby.
A/N: Title from the Lily Allen song, which I love, especially for this story :)
It had been an okay trip - no delays, no turbulence, no onboard menu mix-ups that had Tom end up with Gustav’s disgusting steak - but after ten hours in the air, even the most comfortable flight tended to become boring. Tom shifted restlessly in his business class seat, trying to stretch out his long limbs without bumping into the ceiling or the seat in front of him, in which Georg had been snoring for the past six hours, preventing anyone else from sleeping.
It was a good thing they had this part of the plane almost to themselves. They’d shrunk down their entourage over the previous months, but there’d been promo to do in Asia, press conferences to hold, TV interviews to give, and they didn’t feel comfortable yet doing any of that without David, Bill had of course needed Natalie, and together with a few assistants and their security team, they were quite the travelling circus.
Trips like this were hardly unusual to Tom, but something was new. He glanced to his right, where his girlfriend was reclining in her window seat, the cheap airplane blanket tucked up to her chin, dozing behind a curtain of her long blonde hair. The lights were dimmed in the cabin for the night flight, but behind the small window, it was slowly getting lighter outside. It seemed like it had been night for a long time, but soon it would be morning where they were going, and then they’d finally land. Tom could hardly wait.
He reached out from under his own blanket and laid his hand over Erika’s on her armrest, touching her gently so as not to startle her. She stirred sleepily, eyelids fluttering, and he leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Good morning.”
“Hey.” Her voice was raspy. “Are we there yet?”
“Soon.” He glanced at his watch. They had about an hour and a half left to fly. “Sleep okay?”
“Hmm.” She closed her eyes again and snuggled up to him as much as their multifunctional recliners would allow.
He angled his body so he could curl up around her, his back to the aisle, and tucked her blanket over them both. Half-sitting like this wasn’t exactly comfortable, but in the past two months, there’d only been a handful of mornings he hadn’t spent with her in his arms. It was quickly becoming a tradition that was too good to break with.
This had been their first trip as a couple, and it had been nice - she’d never been to Tokyo either, it had been fun to discover that together - but the band’s tight schedule had been stressful too and hadn’t allowed for a lot of quality time together. Tom found he was looking forward to the relative normalcy of their life at home, where he could sleep in his own bed, eat his girlfriend’s home-cooked meals and make love to her whenever he pleased, not when it fit into David’d meticulous plans.
The thought alone of having her under him in a bed that wasn’t too short or too narrow, touching her at leisure, made his blood stir. He laid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, burying his face in her hair. She smelled nice as always, like home even though they were still far from it. It was nice to have her with him.
Tom hadn’t been sure if he would enjoy it; they’d been together for two amazing months, but those had been spent quietly at home, in a bubble of peace and serenity. Everyday life was different, especially on the road, and he had wondered if the magic of their togetherness would hold up even under the stress of the bands’ daily demands.
But, as it turned out, taking her with him had increased his enjoyment of the trip, not lessened it. Boring days doing the ever-same interviews and posing for pictures had been more bearable with the thought of seeing her afterwards; exploring a new city, as much as they could anyway, had been more thrilling for being able to share his impressions with her. Tom’s approach to new experiences had always been a dialectical one, and he found it easier than he had thought to open up to her and exchange thoughts, opinions, ideas. He couldn’t have wordless conversations with her like he could with Bill, but he didn’t have to. He found he actually enjoyed talking to her, now that all secrets and deceptions had been cleared up and there was nothing between them to get hung up on.
“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” he teased. “You’ll miss the Sky Chef’s delicious breakfast.”
Erika let her tongue peek out between her lips and blew a raspberry, eyes still closed. “They can keep it.”
Tom laughed quietly. Under the blanket, he let his hands sneak up past the hem of her oversized sweater and tickled her sides. The top she wore underneath had ridden up, and his fingertips brushed warm, bare skin. He inhaled deeply, loving the scent of her hair, the feel of her skin, a tactile dream. He could get lost in touching her; already, the sterile, uncomforable environment of the plane seemed lightyears away.
She wiggled in his arms, trying to get away from his teasing fingers. “Stooooop,” she yawned. “I’m up.”
Tom was up too, in a wholly different sense of the word. He stopped tickling her obligingly, but only to slide one hand up along the curve of her waist to her chest, where he paused, giving her a moment to protest, before he brushed his thumb over the swell of one breast.
Erika didn’t move, didn’t speak, but her eyes finally fluttered open and caught his. They glittered with wicked amusement, and Tom took a moment to marvel at the fact that she could pick up on his mood and match it like this. “Looking for something in particular?” she murmured in a sultry voice. “Because I’m pretty sure whatever it is, it’s not under there.”
No; in fact, there was nothing underneath her tank top except naked skin, heat, and a pert nipple that drew taut when he flicked it with his fingertip as if by accident. Her bra had magically disappeared. Sometimes, he really thought she was a witch, right out of his own personal fairy tale.
“I don’t know,” he drawled, “I might have something here.” He rolled her nipple between thumb and index finger, applying just enough pressure for the slight burn to last even after she pushed his hand away.
She pursed her lips in a show of annoyance that might have worried him if he hadn’t become so attuned to her every expression, every slight inflection in her tone. “Great. Thanks for that.”
Tom just laughed. “For what, baby?”
“Making me suffer.” Under the blankets, he could feel her clench her legs, close as they were.
Smiling, he leaned in and whispered into her hair, “Why should you have it better than I?”
“It’s not my fault you’re always horny,” she retorted.
“Yes, it is,” he leered playfully. “It’s all you.”
Her lips twitched. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You’re here,” he shrugged.
Chortling, she shoved his hand out from under her sweater, but Tom wasn’t deterred. He rested his palm on her belly, over her clothes, waiting for a minute or two until she thought he’d given up, then he sneaked one finger past the drawstring waistband of her sweatpants, under the elastic of her panties, and stroked the soft fuzz there.
Startled, Erika let out a small gasp. Her hand flew to cover his and hold it in place, her eyes piercing on his, willing him to stop.
Tom wiggled a second finger past her waistband, touching bare skin that felt so unbelievably soft that he wanted to sink to his knees right then, right there, peel the layers of fabric between them away and touch with his lips what his fingers were caressing so gently.
“Just let me,” he breathed. “Don’t make a fuss and no one will know.”
She looked around furtively, but the flight attendants were all busy readying breakfast in the onboard kitchen, most of their fellow travellers were still asleep, and Tom was shielding her with his body from any curious glances. Under their blankets, it was beginning to get very hot very fast, and he only intended for it to become hotter. Her grip on his hand loosened slightly, and Tom took full advantage, pushing past the barrier of her sweats and sliding his whole hand under the lacy front of her panties.
Erika barely bit back a moan as his fingers reached their destination and began to stroke gently back and forth. She was moist already, moreso than he had expected, her whole body humming with the thrill of what they were doing, coupled with the natural desire that sparked so readily between them.
Pleased, he teased at her slit with light, gentle strokes for a moment before delving deeper, spreading her open so he could dip his fingers into her heat and draw small, wet circles on the inside of her thighs. Her clit was hard and swollen, and when he brushed his thumb over it, she shuddered like she’d been waiting from him to do that all the while. Her body opened for him, easily accommodating the two fingers he slipped inside. She needed this, just like he did, always, always, and it drove Tom to near insanity in the very best way.
His own arousal was rapidly becoming painful. He had chosen comfortable travelling clothes, and his baggy pants weren’t restrictive, but he had acted on a whim when he began to touch her and only now did it occur to him what he had gotten himself into. There was nowhere this could go, at least not for another two or three hours, and the thought might have been more frustrating than not having touched her in the first place.
It was too late now, though: Erika was moving her hips under the blanket, clenching rhythmically around his fingers, too far gone to even care where she was now, and he knew he had to finish this, one way or another, or he’d spontaneously combust, and then he’d probably go down into history as the rockstar terrorist who’d brought down a plane with the explosive force of his sexual frustration. He bit his lip, trying to get a hold of himself and think. There was only one option, but he had to be subtle about it, because the last thing they needed was a big scandal.
Carefully, he let the motion of his hand slow down and withdrew until he was barely touching her anymore, his fingertips hovering over her slick skin. “We need to stop,” he whispered in her ear.
Her eyelids fluttered, confused. “Wh-what?”
“We can’t do this here,” he murmured apologetically.
“Oh,” she sighed, disappointed. “Right.” She shifted slightly, and his hand slipped out of her pants.
He pulled back from under her blanket, feeling the moisture on his fingers cool in the soft breeze from the air inlet. He shivered, and had to restrain himself from diving under that blanket completely and finishing with his tongue what his fingers had started.
“I should go freshen up,” Erika said, her voice dreamy and faraway as if she’d just woken from a dream. She stood on shaky legs and began to dig through the overhead compartment for her bag of toiletries.
Tom nodded, barely able to contain himself when her rummaging around brought her round ass into his direct line of vision. Her sweatpants were hanging low on her hips, and when she raised her arms, her sweater rode up to reveal the bright pink, lacy elastic of the very panties he so longed to peel off her. He glanced around jealously, but no one was paying them any attention. In the seats in front, Georg was snoring, Gustav had his headphones on and was reading a magazine, David was dozing under an airline-provided baby blue sleeping mask, and next to him, Bill was inspecting his reflection in a compact mirror, too self-absorbed to notice anything just now. Everyone else was still asleep.
“Could you just…?” Erika’s soft voice brought his attention back to her. She was motioning with her washbag to let her through.
Tom moved his legs so she could step past him, but he couldn’t resist the urge to lay his hands on her hips for a moment, steadying her as the plane shook slightly. He looked up at her; their eyes met, and she licked her lips instinctively, an unconscious gesture that was more alluring than any overt display of sexuality he’d ever seen.
“I’ll just be a minute,” she said, and bent down to kiss him on the cheek before she sashayed off to the bathroom.
The moment he heard the lock click, Tom stood, smoothed down his hoodie so it covered his front, grabbed his wallet from the luggage compartment and shuffled across the aisle to his brother’s seat.
“Good morning,” Bill smiled without taking his eyes off his own reflection in the mirror. “Sleep well? David snored again. I used my phone to record it so we’d have proof this time.”
“Great,” Tom said. He touched Bill’s shoulder firmly, giving his twin a meaningful look when Bill glanced up. Tom tilted his head towards the bathroom. “Do me a favor?”
“Huh? Oh.” Bill looked back in the direction of the lavatory, where Erika had just disappeared, then at the flight attendant who was serving drinks a few rows ahead. He raised his pierced eyebrow. “Really, Tom? Gross.”
Tom shrugged. Hygiene was a concern, but it was secondary at the moment to getting off. “It’s on my list of things to do before I die.”
For all his objections to frivolous sexual encounters, Bill was never one to stand in the way of a good opportunity. He tilted his head from side to side, thinking it over. “Fine,” he said then. “Go.”
Tom went without looking back, hearing Bill flag down the flight attendant and rattle off a long, complicated order of drinks and snacks. Tom strode down the aisle purposefully and made it to the lavatory door just as the latch slid back and Erika tried to step out. Glancing around at the flight attendant, who was busy fussing over Bill, Tom backed his girlfriend into the bathroom and swung the door shut behind them noiselessly.
“What are you--”
He was kissing her. He was kissing her and there was no room to talk, to think, to do anything but feel as his tongue tangled with hers at last. She tasted like toothpaste, fresh and spicy. Tom couldn’t get enough of her.
“What, did you think I’d just stop?” he gasped when they broke apart. He grabbed her hips and hoisted her up to perch on the tiny sink. There wasn’t enough room for her to sit comfortably, but they’d manage. He crowded her against the mirrored wall, swooping in for another deep kiss that forced her back over the narrow expanse of the sink. She flailed around, trying to hold on to him, and with a dry crack, the plastic soap dispenser came off the wall and clattered on the floor.
“Tom--”
“Shh.” The bathroom in business class was a little roomier than the tiny cubicles in economy, but it could hardly be called spacious. When he tried to put his arms around his girlfriend, Tom bumped his elbows on the walls. The plane wobbled a little, rattling the toilet lid and making him sway unsteadily like he was onboard a ship instead of up in the air, but he was determined. He held her tightly at the waist, trying to maneuver his limbs into the right position so they’d both fit into the puzzle box of the lavatory together.
“You can’t be serious,” she gasped out in between sloppy, wet kisses.
“Why not?” he smirked.
“Because…because… It’s gross in here!”
Tom considered this and decided that he didn’t care. In the position she was in, he could push up between Erika’s legs and rub himself against her, and the feeling was too good to stop. Maybe he was imagining things, but he thought he could feel how wet she was, how hot for him, even through the layers of their clothes.
Clumsily, he tugged at her waistband until she lifted her hips and let him slide her pants down. He pulled them off one leg, letting the garment dangle from the other as he did the same to her panties. When he touched her this time, there was no constraining fabric between them, and Tom took full advantage of that, working his fingers inside her until she rolled her hips, moaning, all protest forgotten.
“Yes,” she breathed, “Yes!”
He touched his forehead to hers, feeling the feverish heat of her brow. “Do you like that, baby?”
She squirmed impatiently. “Get in me.”
He patted his pockets with his free hand, fishing out his wallet. Going through it required two-hand action though, so he had to stop touching her reluctantly, pulling away with a wet smacking noise.
Erika reached down and started fingering herself, her legs spread at an obscene angle. She was flushed and looked thoroughly debauched, slouching against the wall with her tangled, golden hair framing her face wildly like a lion’s mane and a hand between her thighs.
He shot her a heated look before ducking down to sort through the contents of his wallet in the flickering light of the overhead lamp. The hidden compartment behind his Euro bills where he always kept a condom was empty, as well as the slit behind his credit card and the coin pocket. Tom squinted irritably, thumbing through the wallet once more. They’d used up a lot of his stash on this trip, but he always had condoms on him, always. This couldn’t be true.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding,” Erika moaned. “All this, and no one’s even going to come?”
If she left this lavatory without having orgasmed, it’d be a death blow to Tom’s pride. He dropped his wallet in the sink and grabbed her legs, hooking one over his arm while he angled the other outward so he could touch her with nimble fingers. “Who said you weren’t?”
She tried to wiggle away from his hand, which was impossible in the cramped space. “It’s going to - ah! - take too long like this, people will…will…”
He smirked. He’d had two months to memorize her sweet spots, and the one he was currently stroking was definitely the best of them. “Relax, or it will take too long.”
“We should stop,” she sighed, but she didn’t sound very convincing. Her teeth dug deeply into her lower lip, and her head lolled back on her shoulders, bumping into the paper towel dispenser. Her face scrunched up. “Ow! God, this is so unsexy.”
“Stop complaining, I can tell you’re enjoying it.”
She cracked one eye open to glare at him. “Next time, I want candles and flowers and silk sheets.”
“Boring,” he teased.
She smiled. “Nah, it’s never boring with you.”
He leaned in and kissed her hungrily, rubbing up against her thigh again. He was almost painfully hard; the need to replace his hand with his cock and get inside her was overwhelming. He pressed down hard on her clit with his thumb, clumsy and uncoordinated with barely controlled desire.
“I want to…” He hesitated, wanting her so badly he ached with it.
They’d both gotten tested right before they left for Japan, and when they got home, the results would be waiting for them, results that Tom was sure would be just fine, because he’d always been careful. It was so tempting to throw caution to the wind just this once, push inside her warm, willing body without protection and be done with it, but he knew he could never forgive himself if he did and something happened.
“Fuck,” he hissed, his jaw setting tightly when he felt small, sticky hands push down his pants and touch him. “Fuck, I, I want to.”
“I know, me too,” she breathed. “But--”
“Yeah.” With an enormous effort, Tom pulled himself together and away from the brink of losing control. Brusquely, he batted her hand away and set about touching her with renewed purpose. If they couldn’t have what they really wanted, at least he’d give her what she needed.
She writhed against him as he plunged his fingers inside her over and over again, rubbing tight circles around her clit with rough, jerky motions. She would be sore later, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t that which made her shiver and tremble in his arms; it was the words he breathed over her skin, Fuck! and Damn, baby, yes! and So beautiful, a jumbled mess of curses and endearments, only for her to hear.
When she came, clenching around his fingers, he sealed her lips with his, catching every little cry and moan, taking them inside where they stoked the fire in his belly. Later, he breathed into her, later. This was only foreplay, and all the more thrilling for it, knowing what would come when they got home and he could finally have her, over and over again. He held her against him, savoring this moment, this glimpse of her that only he ever got to see: eyes shut, her head thrown back, exposing the long line of her neck for him to kiss, her mouth moving soundlessly, working up to the final, strangled cry. Her hands fisted in his sweatshirt, her body went rigid with the jolt of electric bliss zigzagging through her, and her leg that was braced on the toilet jerked hard and broke the lid off the toilet bowl. With a loud clanking noise, it came loose and fell to the floor, where the plastic broke neatly into two pieces.
“Oh,” she gasped, eyes snapping open at the noise. “Oh, oh, fuck!”
Outside the cubicle, there were footfalls, and a moment later, someone knocked on the door. “Sir? We’ll be landing shortly. The pilot has switched on the seatbelt signs.”
Tom cleared his throat. “I’ll, uh, I’ll be out in a minute.” When he turned back to his girlfriend, her face was a bright shade of pink.
“I can’t believe I let you do this,” she sputtered.
“You loved it.” After the orgasm she’d just had, Tom thought he deserved to be a little cocky.
“I did.” An impish look stole over her face. “We’re both perverts. We deserve each other.”
He wasn’t so sure he deserved her, but he had her now and he was going to keep her. He pushed her back against the wall and kissed her with a fierce surge of affection, until the plane dipping down abruptly broke them apart.
Tom knocked his head on the ceiling trying to keep his balance and swore. Blue sanitizing liquid sloshed over the edge of the toilet bowl in the absence of the lid and mixed with the hand wash soap that was still leaking out slowly from the broken dispenser on the floor to make a slippery mass. Quickly, he bent down to retrieve his pants, which were bunched around his ankles on the wet floor. His sneakers squelching, he slithered around as the plane bounced in mid-air again, grappling to hold on to something and finding only Erika’s boobs.
Every single time they’d been intimate had been great, until now. This was just awkward and, if Tom thought about it, not just a little gross. His pants were soaked with chemicals, he was using his girlfriend’s breast as a safety handle, his head hurt, the plane shook nauseatingly, and Tom was still half hard in spite of his frustration and embarrassment.
Erika took one long look at him and burst out laughing.
Tom had had lots of sex in his life, good sex and bad alike. This qualified as disastrous sex, and yet, it was probably one of the funniest things that had ever happened to him.
“Shut up,” he snorted, but the tremor in his voice rendered the command ineffectual; she only giggled more.
“You should see yourself!” she laughed gleefully.
“You’re not so much better!” he claimed, but one look at her half-naked, thoroughly ravaged body and he couldn’t keep up any pretense: she was fucking spectacular.
“This is all your fault anyway,” she grinned, hopping off the sink to right her clothes. She moved around gingerly as she pulled on her pants, and Tom couldn’t hold back a small, self-satisfied smirk.
Even when he was at his most ridiculous, he could still give a woman a great orgasm.
Pleased with himself, he strode down the aisle to his seat a minute later, Erika having left the cubicle first. In passing, he whispered to David, “The toilet’s broken.”
“Do I look like a plumber… Oh.” David’s face folded up into deep frown lines. He sighed. “Tom, seriously?”
Tom shrugged, grinning.
David fussily unbuckled his seatbelt. “I’ll take care of it.” He shuffled along the aisle, passing the bathroom door, from under which a blue, gelatinous mass was slowly trickling out to soak the grey, easy-clean carpet. The flight attendant was already waiting for him by the curtain that separated business class from economy, scowling and wringing a rug in her hands in lieu of someone’s neck.
Tom plopped down in his seat next to his girlfriend, fastened his seatbelt and put an arm around her shoulders, getting ready for landing.
Erika had pulled back her hair into a tidy ponytail and was now applying a little make-up. She looked rumpled and sexy, much more relaxed than any of the other passengers after a twelve-hour flight.
“Nice,” Tom commented appreciatively. “I’ve always wanted to have sex on a plane.”
“Well, it’s too bad you still haven’t,” she said dryly.
“We’ll have to try again then,” he grinned.
Erika shook her head. “No chance. Too messy.”
“Aw, baby.” He squeezed her shoulders. “Next time, I’ll plan it better.”
“Uh-hu.” She peered up at him, amused. “You’d think with how much you’ve travelled, on some flight you’d have bumped into a groupie who was willing to--”
“No.”
“What, no interesting stories?” she teased.
“None that were good enough to remember.”
“You can tell me,” she smiled. “It won’t hurt my feelings, promise.”
“There are no airplane stories,” Tom said honestly. “Too risky. Groupies aren’t supposed to see the things that can go wrong. Those are all yours.”
She giggled. “Ooh, I feel so honored.”
It was in moments like this that he felt how lucky he truly was to have her; she just got him, and never held any of his blunders against him. Not those of the past, and not the ones he made when he was trying to show her a good time in an airplane bathroom. He squeezed her hip in silent gratitude. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “Because, y’know, it was kind of awkward.”
“Just the right amount of awkward,” she nodded, smiling. “We’ll laugh about it for years. I like that.”
It was true; Tom could easily imagine them laughing at this particular memory for a long time. It was nothing short of amazing to him. For the first time in his life, he could see a glimpse of his future ahead of him, dependable and constant. Not so long ago, he would have thought it a dull existance to know so surely where his life was going, but now, laughing with her, he realized that this, right here, could never be boring. There were a million things he wanted to do with her, all of which could go wrong, but that was okay: Tom was looking forward to every single one of them like an adventure.
Love, he thought as he held his girlfriend close, didn’t need perfection; it was good just the way it was.