"I've been alone for so long, looking out for myself. Now, suddenly, I have a fairy godmother who wants to step in and take care of me, take care of everything, make my life, for the first time, only about the music, something I've wished for forever, and all I have to do is relinquish control, all I have to do is let him take care of me. Remember when I said you were right to call me a coward?"

He closed his eyes and nodded, a little line of pain appearing between his eyebrows.

I stroked his face and rubbed the line away with my thumb, waiting until he opened his eyes before continuing.

"So this is me, continuing to try to grow and be brave and not be a coward, okay? The thought of being stranded in London with little money and no way home is scary, even if it is unrealistic."

"Very unrealistic," Teddy said softly with a smile. "Any of the boys would charter a jet like that and be there in a heartbeat for the privilege of taking you back to LA and you know it."

I smiled. "That's true. I can just see Ronan riding through the streets of London on a horse, like a knight to the rescue of a damsel in distress. He is such a darling," I sighed.

"That he is," Teddy agreed.

"Can I ask something now?" Teddy asked, pulling me in, tucking my head under his chin.

"Mmm?" I was beyond happy. The champagne, the watch, the necklace, flying first class, these things were fabulous, but beyond these material things, I was with the person I loved most in the world, might as well admit it, my future was rosy, at least for the next six months, my life was wonderful, no other word for it.

"So here's the thing." He was tap dancing around something, I could tell, something he was embarrassed about, something he really wanted. "We're on a plane." I waited for him to continue, but I realized after a couple of minutes that he wasn't going to.

"Yes," I offered.

"It's pretty public," he said.

"Yes," I said again, since it seemed to work so well last time.

"There's no chance of anyone having sex here, you'd have to agree, right?"

I untucked my head from under his chin and looked into his eyes. Where on earth was he going with this?

"Yes, I would say it would be pretty impossible to have sex here," I agreed.

"Right, yes, impossible," he blinked. "Well, here's what I was thinking."

Ah, now we were getting to it. "We've kissed before, and it was marvelous, wasn't it? I mean, really a fantastic experience, wouldn't you agree? Hmm?" He rubbed noses with me, a very intimate and at the same time friendly gesture.

"Yes, I would definitely agree," I said, smiling at him. "It was wonderful, probably one of the best hours of my life."

"I think it was one of the best hours of my life too!" Teddy said with a gigantic smile, dimples on huge display. "So glad to know you feel that way as well. Wow. You can't imagine how happy that makes me.

"Anyway, what I was thinking was, since we've already done it, and there's no chance of things going any farther, and the plane is nice and dark, obviously they're wanting us to be sleeping right now so no one is going to be coming by to bother us, maybe we could kiss a little bit more, now." He touched my lip again, with his forefinger this time, producing similar results, just a little zingy feeling this time, in my stomach.

He looked at me, biting his lower lip. "I've thought of nothing but kissing you for days, Birdie, I swear. And kissing you at the party only made me want to kiss you more. I'm not trying to put pressure on you for sex, I swear I'm not going to put pressure on you after we get to London, I swear I meant what I said about never doing that, I swear it, but I feel like if I don't kiss you soon I'm just going to die.

"I feel like an idiot, I sound like an adolescent schoolboy, but honest to god, I've never felt like this. I just want to kiss you so badly..." He made a sound of frustration and ran his free hand through his hair.

"I want to kiss you too," I whispered, my lips very close to his. "And I think you're being very kind and patient with me about all this, considering how many millions of girls there are in the world who would kiss you and more without all this fuss and drama and emotional baggage about what would happen after. So thank you."

"Well that's just stupid," he whispered back. "I don't want to kiss those idiotic girls. I want to kiss you, with all your fuss and drama and emotional baggage; in fact, it's all that crap that makes you so worth kissing." He smiled.

"Really?" I smiled back. Our lips were nearly touching.

"Yeah." He nodded. Our lips brushed when he nodded, and that was all it took.

Again, his lips were so soft, his touch so gentle. We were already wrapped up in each other's arms, and our shoes were off, our legs entwined. Without breaking the kiss, Teddy reached behind him and pulled a blanket out of a side compartment and unfolded it over us so we were covered just in case someone did go by. With the console on one side and the wall on the other, we were almost completely cut off from the view of the other passengers, since most of them were fully reclined also. Like before, by the koi pond, time seemed to stop, nothing and no one existed but him.

For the first time in my life, I found myself in the presence of another person wishing we weren't wearing any clothes. They were in the way. I wanted to feel his skin on my skin, I wanted to feel his hands on me. These feelings startled me. We were in a plane full of people, for crying out loud. But that didn't matter to me. I kissed his ear, gently sucking on his earlobe, and I heard and felt his sudden intake of breath; he let his breath out, saying my name in a ragged whisper in my ear.

Under the blanket, I let my hands move freely, feeling his body, which was warm and hard, a combination which I found unbelievably sexy. I lifted his shirt so I could put my hands directly on his skin, again drawing a sharp intake of breath from him.

He did the same, lifting my shirt and sliding his hands under; unlike mine, his hands were cold, and the feeling of them on my warm skin was startling and stimulating. I let out a gasp against his mouth, and I could feel him smile.

He slid his hand over my bra, moaning gently as his fingers pressed into the softness of my plump breast through the fabric. Oh my god. He kissed me again, reaching for my willing mouth with his.

"Birdie?" he asked, breathing hard, looking into my eyes.

"Mmm?"

"This is much, much more than kissing."

"I know."

"What would we be doing if we were really alone?"

I sighed. "I don't know. Do you think I'm a hypocrite?"

"I think you're beautiful," he said, holding the back of my head and kissing me with a warm and open mouth, tracing my lips with his tongue. I kissed him back, touching his tongue with mine, moving closer to him, shifting my hips to bring more contact, surprising both of us, I think.

His hands went back under my shirt, going around to the back, feeling the smoothness of the outside of my bra.

I put my lips next to his ear, exhaling warm air first, knowing somehow that he'd like it. "It closes in the front," I whispered. "My bra, it closes in the front," I reiterated softly.

He stared at me, looking for confirmation. I looked back at him, nodding. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and he felt me do it, knowing how nervous I was.

"We can stop, any time you like," he said, looking at me intently.

I nodded. "Okay," I said. "And thank you. For understanding all this. For understanding me."

He smiled, and moved his hand to my front, where he popped first one, then the other hook that held my bra closed. Keeping his eyes on mine, he slowly spread the bra apart under the sweater. He moved his hand to cup the fullness, the softness, of my breast, and I could see his pupils dilate as his smile grew.

I drew a shaky breath. I literally couldn't remember anyone ever touching me there, and the feeling was amazing. All my life, my breasts had been mere appendages, too big, always in the way of my swimming, of my piano playing. As I grew older, they'd made me the recipient of unwanted attention from boys, men, salesmen, waiters; they'd created uncomfortable situations in the classroom, the pool, restaurants, stores. Here, on this plane, for the first time in my life, I was glad I wasn't flat chested, that my breasts were round and soft, that they were of a size and shape that would be found generally pleasing. For the first time in my life, I was glad I was a girl.

Teddy leaned forward to kiss me, reaching into my mouth with his tongue as he stroked my nipple with his thumb. He rose up off the seat, lifting his body over mine a little, caressing my breast, sending waves of pleasure I'd never felt before in my life shooting through my body.

He moaned again, pulling me closer, hand moving to my other breast. "Oh god, Birdie, your skin is so, so soft," he murmured into my mouth, stroking my flesh gently. "Feels incredible," he sighed, kissing me over and over, tongue touching mine as he stroked my nipple.

My breasts felt like they were on fire where he'd touched them, the nipples hard like tiny pebbles. When he took one between his thumb and forefinger, I arched my back again, grabbing his forearm and leaning into it, sighing.

I had my other hand buried in his hair, and almost without thinking, I pulled his head down toward my chest, wanting to feel his breath, his mouth, on me. He exhaled deep, warm air, which I could feel through my sweater, driving me out of my mind. Oh my god. I started to lift my sweater, and I felt him pulling it back down as he raised his head to look at me.

"Birdie?" His voice came to me from really far away, and I had to focus hard to hear him.

"Mm?" I looked at him, at his eyes, at his face, hazy with pleasure.

"You're so lovely, and you have no idea the effect you have on me." He sighed, regretfully. "We either have to stop, which I really don't want, or at least you have to close up your bra, okay?" He sighed again. "I'm enjoying this way too much, and I made promises to you which I intend to keep, so we need to keep this strictly on top of the clothes, yeah?"

I looked down, then back up at him. "Yes, on top of the clothes. On top of the clothes," I repeated, the meaning of the words finally sinking in. I reached under and quickly hooked up my bra. "And Teddy?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. For being so nice." I kissed his cheek. "For being such a gentleman."

He grinned, pulling me close. "Don't thank me too soon, Birdie," he whispered. "I didn't say we were stopping. There are lots of things we can do on top of the clothes, you know?"

And he reached for my mouth with his, murmuring an anticipatory "Yum," as he did so, smiling, putting his hand on my jaw, tracing my lips with his finger.

We kissed for a while, and I could feel his hand on my breast the entire time, even through my sweater, softly caressing, his gentle touch like a tiny thread of electricity constantly coursing through my body.

I moved my hands to his waist, enjoying the smooth feel of his skin. I slid my hands lower, over his pants; his thighs were like granite, partially from the sheer physical tension of the situation, partially from just being a fit twenty-three-year-old man.

I was nervous about this next part, but so curious, too, and what could it hurt, just to touch it? It was on top of the clothes, after all?