It was probably the ass grab that did it.

Ok, it was definitely the ass grab, and the hip thrust, and the cheek stroke, and the ohmygod hotness of his lips, because I swore I'd never consider hooking up in a tiny airplane bathroom. And yet that was all I could think of, because there is nowhere else in a plane that one can do what I wanted Danny to do to me right then and there.

Wait. Rewind a minute. Before the sucking of face commenced, I had just spent the better part of an hour writing a fantastic, heartfelt love letter. Ok, transcribing, because it wasn't my heartfelt love that was pouring out in that email. Of course I didn't know it at the time, so that totally excuses it.

I was feeling really good about that letter. In my dream scenario, Cliff would instantly forgive me and meet me at the airport with a sign that said "My Girlfriend Mindy." We would slow motion run towards each other and kiss and Cliff would have one perfect tear rolling down his cheek. It was beautiful. I just had to get through the last few hours of the flight home and our love story would begin again.

What a cool thing it was for Danny to be so helpful! All of a sudden he was coming up with these lovely emotional, even romantic, things to say, and I ate it up with a spoon. So when I wandered to the back to find him some water, his damn "tiniest bit sweet" tonic water, I didn't expect him to join me.

And I sure as hell didn't expect him to kiss me.

Now, I will admit, the thought had crossed my mind a time or ten. Danny has given me a few mixed signals, but in the end I really never thought there was real interest from him. Attraction, sure, I mean I'm pretty irresistible, but you know. It's Danny. Man of stone. It was hard enough to break through to become his friend.

So there I was with my mind in the clouds and fizzy water in my hands when he comes up behind me and I turn around and he's storming towards me. He has that face, and he grabs me, and that's all she wrote. We're kissing, or more accurately, he is softly kissing me and I'm slack jawed and staring. It took like three seconds to even sink in, and by then he had stopped, probably due to my unresponsive fish lips, but I didn't want him to stop. The second kiss was not as gentle, and this time, I was ready for it. Admittedly a little tentative at first but what the hell, someone hands you chocolate cake, you dig in. Holy shit, it was good cake.

If not for the rattle of turbulence and the ping of the seatbelt sign, there's no telling what might have happened, because things escalated very quickly. Lust will do that to you. But that air pocket nearly knocked us off our feet and called a halt to the madness, at least momentarily. The smooth voice over the intercom apologized for the disturbance and directed us to lock it down, so we shakily made our way to our seats.

"You go ahead of me." Danny murmured into my hair as he slipped behind me, and I didn't understand why till he bumped into me.

"OH. Ok..." So we were groping in public but he still had a little modesty. I bit my lip to keep from laughing, as that reaction is rarely appreciated.

Back to the real world. I sat, he sat, we buckled in and rode out the little storm. My heart rate retuned to normal and apparently, so did... everything... with Danny. Yeah, I looked.

In the silence I thought about the entirety of what had just happened. I realized that I had spent so much time sharing with Danny all my feelings about Cliff, as well as some pretty embarrassing stories. All that time I subjected him to that without realizing what I was doing. And I called him mean and selfish. Yikes!

But maybe I was overthinking this. Maybe he just had gotten himself a little worked up and over emotional because of what happened with his father. Yeah, that totally made sense, and I really didn't need to jump to conclusions.

We shot glances back and forth for a few minutes before we were released from our seatbelt restriction. Then he finally spoke.

"Look, I don't... I mean, we aren't... I just..."

Quite the silver tongued devil, that Danny Castellano.

I tried to give him my best supportive face. I had a lot of practice over the last couple of days.

"I don't have any expectations from this, okay?" He could finally form a sentence, and that's what he came up with?

I nodded, more of a "go on" than "I agree," but I guess it was open to interpretation.

"I know that you want to be with Cliff." He wasn't looking at me anymore. "I realized that once this plane landed, everything would change." He exhaled heavily and turned to meet my gaze. "I just needed to know, just once..."

He was giving me an easy out We got caught up in the moment, and neither of us had been thinking clearly, and we could just go back and pretend that nothing had happened.

Yeah, right.

My head was pretty much spinning right off my neck and I had no idea what to do. On the one hand I had Cliff, and who knows how he would react to that letter, but we had a really great relationship up until now. On the other hand, Danny.

"Danny, I... This is sudden."

"For you, yeah. Me, not so much." He smiled a wry half smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"So, it's not just residual emotion from the whole dad thing, then? Because, it's okay if that's what's going on."

Danny looked down and shook his head.

"How long?"

"A while..." He smiled again ruefully. "But look, I'm not blind. I know you don't feel the same, and Cliff is great."

"Yeah, Danny. He freaked out when I just saw Casey. How do you think he's going to feel when he finds out about this? Oh, babe, it's great you didn't cheat with Casey, I'm totally fine with Danny's tongue in your mouth, pressing his boner against you."

"Well don't tell him that!" Danny replied in a strangled tone.

"I can't not tell him, Danny. He already doesn't trust me." Suddenly, I was mad again. Stupid Danny!

"What do you want me to say, Min? You didn't seem too upset at the time. You want me to apologize?"

"No!"

"Then what?" His eyes were glittering, pupils black, and his breath seemed hitched. "What do you want from me?"

Well, shit. I guess that time I was to blame. I just grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to me. He did this cool little move where he undid his seatbelt and lifted up the armrest all in one motion while his face was all up in my face. It was very sexy. Then both his arms were winding their way around me and hands, hands were everywhere, and I almost climbed in his lap. The cabin was dark and people were resuming their sleep and most of them didn't hear the noises we were trying to make as quietly as possible, which made it even more hot.

So I guess I complicated things a little more.

"Okay. Danny. We have to stop." He just muttered something against my neck, his fingers moving ultra slowly against my skin just above my waistband. "Really, Danny." His response was to gently sink his teeth into my shoulder with a growl before pulling away. I put my hands on either side of his face.

"Can we just slow down here?" I asked him softly. "This is... amazing." And it was, overwhelmingly so, which freaked me out more than a little. I've kissed a fella or two in my day but this was just beyond anything else. Intoxicating. Mind bending. Life ruining.

"It is, huh?" He asked in an oddly shy way for a man whose erection was still digging into my thigh.

"It's more than I can handle right now, Danny. I have a big problem on my hands. Get that grin off your face, that is not what I meant."

"Okay." He grinned.

"I think we should sleep right now and just... wait. I need to rest my brain. We can talk once we've had some time to think."

He nodded and we moved apart. I rested my head on his shoulder and fell asleep till the announcements of our upcoming landing woke me. I couldn't help but smile when I looked down and saw Danny was tightly holding my hand. It was an uneventful landing and we barely spoke, even when deboarding and finding our luggage. We did seem to brush against and bump each other quite a lot.

I planned to go home, regroup mentally, let an afternoon of work take my mind off this strange turn of events. Maybe have a meal with Danny and see where his head was at once we had spent some time out of the heat of the moment. It was a perfectly valid plan.

Until we stepped out of the terminal doors and there he was. No plaintive sign declaring his love, but there just the same, stood Cliff.

Shit.