Push the Envelope Read online

  Push the Envelope

  Rochelle Paige

  Copyright © 2013 Rochelle Paige

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Mickey Reed at Imabookshark.com

  Cover designed by Kari Ayasha at Covertocoverdesigns.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons or living or dead, events or locals are entirely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/ Use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owner.

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1494392690

  ISBN-13: 978-1494392697

  DEDICATION

  Mitchell & Max –

  Dream big.

  Fight hard.

  Make it happen.

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  7

  Chapter 1

  12

  Chapter 2

  19

  Chapter 3

  27

  Chapter 4

  38

  Chapter 5

  48

  Chapter 6

  60

  Chapter 7

  75

  Chapter 8

  93

  Chapter 9

  112

  Chapter 10

  139

  Chapter 11

  157

  Chapter 12

  166

  Chapter 13

  189

  Chapter 14

  206

  Chapter 15

  246

  Epilogue

  247

  Acknowledgments

  251

  About the Author

  252

  Hit The Wall Excerpt

  253

  prologue

  Flowers…check.

  Chocolates…check.

  Champagne chilled and ready to go…check.

  Noise-canceling headphones so I didn’t have to listen to whatever noises were going to float up from the rear cabin…check.

  This was so totally not the normal pilot’s checklist. When I talked to Dad over the summer about offering Mile High Club charter flights so we had some extra money coming in to cover my room and board at college, I had no idea how the idea would take off. I’d figured I would take a couple flights out each month so Dad wouldn’t have to scrimp on anything so that I could live on campus. He really wanted me to get the whole college experience, especially since I had chosen to stay in town for school.

  Who knew there were so many middle-aged housewives looking to spice up their marriages? I usually had three to four flights booked each week now. At a cool grand per booking, we made enough to cover my room and board and maintenance on the planes, and we even had money left over to pay off my student loans and to cover my tuition for my next two years. I guess they’re right when the say sex sells!

  Since the flights were offered in the evening, they didn’t interfere with my classes. Dad wanted as little to do with this venture as possible. He had told me that this was my idea, and he expected me to run with it. Talking about anything connected to sex with his daughter wasn’t really high on his list of things to do. I figured I was lucky that he was willing to let me use the Cherokee for the flights. I just had to make sure I booked them when I was able to be in the pilot’s seat. The last thing I wanted to do was screw my grade point average over because I was skipping too many classes to pilot the flights I was only offering so I could pay for school in the first place.

  Today’s flight was due to depart in about thirty minutes, so the lucky couple should be here any minute now. I needed to get my butt in gear so I would be ready when they arrived. The plane was set up for their romantic rendezvous. I was dressed in my charter pilot gear of loose khaki pants and a Hewett Charters polo shirt. I’d pulled my long brown hair back in a low ponytail. This appearance seemed to help the wives feel more comfortable with the idea that their pilot was a twenty year-old girl. Add into the equation that I am passably attractive and I could have a problem on my hands with my paying customers. So I did what I could to make sure I presented myself as a capable pilot and nothing else.

  I know it’s crazy for some people to picture me piloting a plane, but I started flying with my dad before I ever got behind the wheel of a car. He lived to fly and taught me to love it as well. I had my permit when I was sixteen, earned my private license when I was seventeen, and got my professional license when I turned eighteen. Some days it felt like I spent more time during my life up in the air than I did on the ground.

  Yet another reason Dad wanted me to live on campus this year—so I could hang out with girls and act my age. Dad and I had been two peas in a pod forever, and now he worried that I needed to have a normal life with girlfriends, parties, and boys. I admit that my upbringing wasn’t exactly orthodox, but I was happy with the way things were. I just wished Dad would understand that.

  Damn, it sounded to me like my housewife of the day had gone all out for this trip based on the click of her stilettos hitting the tarmac. I didn’t understand how women could walk on shoes that looked like skyscrapers to me. Guess that was just the tomboy in me, much to my best friend’s dismay. Time to get my head in the game so I didn’t scare off the paying customers.

  “Welcome to Hewett Charters,” I greeted the middle-aged couple as they made their way towards me. “You must be Mr. and Mrs. Williams?”

  “Yes, that’s us,” tittered the platinum-blond woman as her husband looked at me quizzically. I guessed that she hadn’t used their real name in the hope that they could keep their trip private. She needn’t have had that concern since I offered complete confidentiality.

  “Thank you for booking your flight with us today,” I said. “Everything is all set, and we can be in flight as soon as you are ready to go. Did you have any questions before we board?”

  “Ummmm, are you our pilot?” asked Mr. Williams.

  “Yes, I’m Alexa Hewett. Don’t worry. You’re safe with me. I’ve been doing private sightseeing tours for a couple years and have had my pilot’s license for almost three years. I might be a little young, but I grew up with my dad in the cockpit of a plane. I can assure you that I am fully qualified to take you up,” I answered.

  “And how does this work exactly?” he questioned.

  I couldn’t help but smile at the question. It seemed that the wives always booked these flights, and the husbands always seemed uncertain once they got here. I even had flights where the husband had no idea that his wife had booked the tour with the sole purpose of getting it on mid-flight. The expressions on their faces when they saw the bed in the cabin were priceless. It kind of cracked me up since I always figured guys were less shy about sex. Which may still prove to be true since I hadn’t seen a single guy yet turn down the opportunity offered by my special charter flights.

  “If you will follow me this way, you can see how we’ve set the Cherokee up so that you will have plenty of room in the rear cabin. Once we are in flight, I will draw the privacy curtain and wear noise-canceling headphones during the flight. I will be able to communicate with the tower but won’t be able to hear anything from the cabin. Any of your activities while on board will be as private as possible.” They both nodded and looked at each other while blushing.


  I walked the couple towards the plane, showed them the bed area we had fashioned by removing four of the seats, and asked them to sit in the rear-facing seats during takeoff for their safety. If the hot looks they were flashing each other as they buckled up were any indication, they were ready to go.

  “Enjoy the refreshments, and I will let you know when it is safe to move about the cabin,” I said as I got settled into the cockpit.

  As I prepared for takeoff, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself about the irony of me helping couples to spice up their sex lives. I wasn’t exactly qualified to do so except for piloting the plane. I couldn’t really be described as very experienced in the bedroom. Yet, I have turned my beloved Cherokee into the equivalent of a by-the-hour hotel room.

  chapter 1

  “Honey, I’m home,” I yelled out to my best friend Aubrey as I entered our suite. I was thrilled that she and I could be roomies when I made the switch to living on campus this year. The upside to the extra cash that came in with the mile high flights was that I could afford the brand new dorm that offered suites on campus. Blythe College had built the dorm in an effort to compete with the off-campus apartments. Our suite offered us our own bathroom, a common area, and two double bedrooms that my best friend and I shared with two other roommates. There were six suites on our floor, and we all shared a kitchen and entertainment area where we could hang out and watch television if we wanted.

  I was excited to get into this dorm. It meant we could share a room without my dad harassing me about us living in each other’s pockets. He wanted me to make new friends at school, and I was happy to have the compromise of two more roommates in the suite so he wouldn’t try talking me into rooming with someone else. I couldn’t begin to imagine living on campus without Aubrey at my side. We met on the first day of kindergarten and have been besties ever since.

  I hadn’t been excited about my first day of school and being away from my dad. I was a total mess when I got to the school that first morning, clinging to him like I would never see him again. It was crazy when you considered that I didn’t usually spend all day with him anyway, but I was terrified of what would happen when he was away while I was at school. Separation anxiety didn’t even begin to describe how I had felt that day.

  Aubrey’s mom was with her and quickly realized that my dad wasn’t handling the situation very well. Luckily, Mrs. Silver stepped in to help us out by introducing me to her daughter, who glommed on to me instantly. Aubrey was the youngest of four with three older brothers and was thrilled to see another girl at school. She had been afraid that she would be stuck with boys all day long since her brothers’ friends from school were boys.

  She was a great distraction for me as she chattered away about what to expect since her brothers had all filled her in on the school experience. She was dressed up in a frilly dress, with ribbons pulling up her curly blond hair and shiny, buckled shoes on her feet. I didn’t really know how to react to her and found myself swept away by her enthusiasm.

  Sometimes I wonder if I hadn’t been the first girl she met that day if our friendship would be the same. It was like I became her favorite pet, with her dragging me everywhere and trying to dress me up. Now that I think about it, things haven’t really changed that much between us over the years.

  It was great living with Aubrey, but I didn’t think we had won the roommate lottery this time around. I hadn’t taken much time to get to know the other duo that well. Faith and Natalie were way too high maintenance for my taste, and it seemed like they had only come to school to chase boys. We’d only lived together for less than three weeks and they had already hit six parties and skipped classes several mornings to sleep in. Only time would tell if we would be able to get along. Luckily, they were a good match with each other and seemed happy to hang out together. Aubrey got along with them fairly well. She definitely had more in common with them than I did. She could talk to them about fashion and boys, but I wasn’t big on either topic.

  “Lex! You’re back just in time to get ready,” Aubrey screamed, rushing towards me with her hair rolled up in curlers and makeup halfway done. It was a Friday night, so she was busy getting ready to head out for the night. Dance music was blaring to help her get into the right frame of mind. It looked like Faith and Natalie had already headed out for the night. Ugh… I wasn’t really in the mood to head to a party tonight, but I knew Aubrey would have my ass if I said no. I had been able to duck out the last two weekends, but it looked like my time was up.

  The downside to having one bathroom—Friday and Saturday nights featured a mad rush as everyone fought for mirror space in the bathroom. Flat and curling irons hung from the outlets, hair products littered every surface, and makeup was scattered around. Four girls to one bathroom could cause some serious catfights around here.

  “Here, put this on.” Aubrey tossed a dress at me. A very small dress. A dress that should be a couple sizes smaller than mine, yet the tag matched my size. “I don’t want to hear it. You are going out with us tonight, and you are going to look hot while doing it,” Aubrey continued before I could even get a word in.

  I held the dress up to my body as I glanced at the mirror. It couldn’t be that bad, right? Shit, there was no way this was going to cover my ass all night long. “Really? This is what you want me to wear tonight? Are we going to a strip club?” I asked sarcastically.

  “Nope. I am not taking any attitude from you tonight, Lex. I love you like my sister, so hear me when I say that you had better get your ass in gear so we can go party. We can sit here and argue about what you are going to wear tonight, but you know you’ll just be wasting your breath because I’m going to win anyway. I would never let you go out looking like a total skank, so don’t act like you think that I would.” Aubrey glared at me from her startling blue eyes.

  I recognized that look—the one that said, You will do what I say, when I say it, if you know what’s good for you. She was right. It wasn’t worth arguing over since she would win. She always did when she put her mind to it.

  “Geesh, okay. I’ll go get dressed. As long as you’re styling me tonight, pick out shoes for me too. And you are also doing my hair and makeup,” I answered.

  “Duh,” she snapped back at me. “Like I would trust you to do it yourself. Left to your own devices, you’d probably waste that gorgeous dress with a pair of flip flops, a ponytail, a swipe of mascara, and some chapstick. I think not!”

  “Okay, okay. I surrender. It’s not like I can argue with you when you’re right. Snap to it, fairy godmother.”

  By the time we headed out the door, I didn’t look like my usual self at all. The dress Aubrey had picked did cover my ass, hitting my legs mid-thigh. The rich purple color was one of my favorites, and the dress had a deep cowl neck that hinted at my cleavage without shoving it in everyone’s faces. The girl certainly knew her stuff.

  She let me out the door in ballet flats since she knew we’d end up in the emergency room if she made me wear heels. My hair was swept off my face and pulled into a barrette to one side with soft curls flowing down my back. I might be a bit of a tomboy, but I did love to keep my hair long. Dad always said that my hair reminded him of my mom, so I didn’t have the heart to cut it too short.

  My makeup was lightly done, but it accented my green eyes so they would draw attention. They were slightly slanted at the edges, kind of like cat’s eyes. Aubrey always raved over them, often lamenting that it wasn’t fair that my eyes were so cool when she had boring blue ones. I thought she was crazy since she had the whole blue-eyed blonde thing going on. Her Barbie-doll looks always drove the boys crazy, and I was sure tonight wasn’t going to be any different.

  Even though she went a little conservative on my look for tonight, Aubrey had gone the opposite direction with her own. Her bright red dress would draw attention by its color alone. Add in the fact that it clung to her like a second skin and was a couple inches shorter on her than mine and we were in for a riot tonight when
the guys got a load of her. She’d picked out a pair of silver stilettos with rhinestones on them that added several inches to her height. She had topped it all off with smoky eyes and shiny red lipstick that I knew from experience wouldn’t smudge all night long.

  “What the hell, Aubrey? Are you on a mission to pick up a guy tonight or what? Aren’t we way overdressed for a college party?

  “Lex, sweetie. Trust me on this. We will fit right in tonight. I swung us an invite to the hottest party on campus, courtesy of my big bro. The Sig Chi’s are throwing a ‘welcome back to campus’ party that is supposed to be epic. From what Faith and Natalie have said, the guys there are super hot. You know that means that the chicks are going to be dressed to impress tonight. There is no way I am going to this party without looking my best.”

  “A frat party? Really, Aubrey? I let you get me all dressed up so we could go to a frickin’ frat party?” I was not happy. I didn’t feel like partying tonight, and now I had to deal with a bunch of drunk frat boys trying to get in my panties all night long. “You are so lucky I love you right now. Or else I would be kicking your ass for putting me through this.”