It should have bothered me more than it did. It wasn’t without annoyance, but again, I knew the payoff.
A minute before eight, another black car approached the plane. I didn’t need X-ray vision to know Cassius was inside that vehicle, arriving on the dot for when he said he would come. The only question was whether anyone else might be in that vehicle. If any of his brothers had joined, it would have made things uncomfortable.
The vehicle parked, and Cassius emerged, wearing sunglasses, a quarter-zip gray jacket, and black slacks. Somehow, he looked taller than I remembered him being despite having seen him less than two days ago; maybe the sunrise made him appear bigger than he was. Or maybe his presence was such that I could not help but view him in a literal bigger light than before.
“Sarah Carpenter,” Cassius said, doing something I never imagined—he grinned.
He fucking grinned?
It wasn’t a goofy, out-of-control grin. It was a little subdued. Cassius was never going to be confused for a thespian. But a smile?
“Glad you could join me,” he said, putting his arm around me—around my lower back—as he went forward. I shivered despitethe moderate temperature outside. Cassius surely recognized the involuntary reaction. “Come. Not a moment to waste.”
“Of course not,” I said, trying to steady my legs.
This unusual warmth from Cassius had not been a curveball I’d been expecting. To be forced to wait? To be given the cold shoulder? To be surprised unannounced? All expected.
Warmth, a smile, and physical touch like this? I would have sooner expected my art career to have taken off with no outside help.
It would have made me suspicious if I had had the wherewithal to ponder. But the way goosebumps were taking over my skin, the way my heart was thudding in my chest, the way I had to take every step consciously lest I tumble and look like an absolute fool…
There was no rational thinking. Not in the presence of Cassius Vale. Not in the presence of a warm and friendly Cassius Vale.
I eventually found my seat on the jet and sat down, fumbling with the seat belt as I buckled myself in. Cassius sat across from me, buckling his with ease. He removed his sunglasses and affixed that powerful gaze upon me, this time matched with a smile. It was still a smile of power, a smile of control, but it no longer seemed to be hiding the wicked sense of dominance from before.
Or, no, that was just me wanting to think that. Maybe? Maybe the morning without coffee? Who the hell knew—I was spinning mentally, but in a way that wasn’t terrible.
“Do you have any idea where we are going?” Cassius said. He folded his leg over the other, brushing mine in the process. It didn’t matter that we both had pants on; I felt the erotic shiver go through me all the same.
“No,” I admitted. Pretending otherwise was putting myself in a deeper and deeper trap.
“And how does that make you feel, Sarah?” He still had a smile on, but now he leaned forward. In a plane this compact, that didn’t leave much breathing room. He wasn’t so close that he might accidentally kiss me, but if not for his hands on his laps, they might be resting on my knees.
“Curious,” I said, not wanting to admit a little bit of a fear. “It’s not anything within driving distance. If it’s tonight, and it’s eight a.m. now, we probably wouldn’t be departing to Phoenix or Los Angeles. So, maybe something east coast?”
The words simmered in the air for a second before Cassius leaned forward. And, sure enough, he put his hands on my knees.
Then they slid up my thighs.
Not all the way up my thighs; not even to the halfway point. But just enough to leave my whole body quivering and wanting to melt into the seat. God, I had to fight to keep control of my mind, lest I fantasize about those hands running up my thighs, between my legs, controlling my pleasure like…
“Your intuition is very good, Sarah,” Cassius said, giving a gentle squeeze. “I wonder what else you might be intuiting.”
I gulped. Cassius raised his eyes, one of the few times he’d given an indication of his awareness.
“That this plane is pretty tight.”
“By design,” Cassius said. “Commercial airplanes are of course too tight, but they get something wrong that trains get very right. You should want to face the people you are traveling with. It’s the only way totrulyget to know them. Wouldn’t you agree… Sarah?”
I gulped again. I looked around; there was one bathroom behind us, and what looked like space for the flight attendant and maybe a small kitchen up front, but there were only four other seats. None of them were out of sight of Cassius, and none of them were occupied.
So naturally, my mind went straight to us doing terribly inappropriate things on those seats. Why? Why was I letting myself indulge these dangerous thoughts?
“Now,” Cassius said as the engine roared to life, “buckle up. It might be a bit of a bumpy ride.”
“Because of turbulence?”
Cassius licked his lips. God help me…
