That had to be it.
Yeah, it has nothing to do with the spark between you two,my mind said sarcastically and rolled its eyes. Or its amygdala, because a straight shot of fear seemed to turn in my stomach like bad food.
I took a deep breath, settling it in place.It’s only attraction, you sarcastic bitch,I thought back.One night, or day, with him in the sack…I’d wash that man right out of my hair.
My heart stopped like hands had a chokehold on it.
Was this what my sister had been talking about when she said I’d regret what I’d said? Did she have a feeling this was going to happen? I was going to crash?
No…she would have warned me.
Damn!This was why no one should ever say shit like that! The wordregretshould be erased out of the dictionary and cleansed out of people’smemories. No other word had the power to haunt like that one, besides maybegoodbye, orhello, depending on who that person became toyou.
After a few more minutes of this line of panicked internal dialogue, I started to breathe better, my grip on the seat releasing the claws some, when the plane felt like it was in smooth motion again. The three molds were unbuckling and getting back to business.
One of them informed me that we would be landing a few minutes after that.
“Is this Rome?” I asked her. I’d expected more lights and less water.
“No,” she said.
My eyes opened wide, and I waited a beat before I asked, “Where then?”
“Please buckle in,” she said in a polite voice. It was accented but I couldn’t exactly place it. Swiss, maybe? “We are about to land.”
She took her seat and buckled in, and I did the same, since it was my ass on the line. My stomach dipped at the first drop in pressure, and after a little time, we were hitting the runway and then coming to a complete stop.
Two men came running toward us with flashlights. They looked like guards with the same lion insignias on their uniforms as the crew of this plane. But their uniforms looked more like fatigues, and they wore matching hats which covered most of their eyes. Rain drops slid off the brims and soaked them.
The flight attendants unbuckled, and I did the same. A minute or two later, Naz exited the cockpit, and I took my seat again.
Right.
The man was breathtaking in that uniform, and he had the power to knock me on my ass.
No, backspace that and replace it with a word that meant more than breathtaking.
Maybe it took two: soul stealing.
My eyes devoured him like he was water after a long trek in the desert and had saved my life by just existing.
He stopped when he came to my seat and took a knee, getting really close to my face. His masculine scent washed over me, and I wanted to bathe in it.
I caught Beni’s back as he left the plane to talk to the two men. I wasn’t even that curious about where he was going or why he was showing them some kind of badge. Or what they were saying in a language I should have learned years ago in preparation for these moments.
Not with the man in front of me.
“I have business to take care of,” Naz said. “You will stay on the plane with Beniamino while I am gone.”
It was clear to see the internal war going on inside of his head about that. He didn’t want to leave me. Probably because he couldn’t trust me, and he sensed how much of a wriggler I was. I’d gotten myself out of many sticky situations with the ability.
“I’ll stay put.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You say this, but you make it sound like there is a but.”
“There’s always a but,” I said. “What if someone charges the plane? Or I have to pee? Or…anything happens that makes me move. I can’t stay put in those situations.”
His hand gripped my arm, hard enough to make me take notice. His skin was hot, burning through the fabric. “This is no joke,” he said seriously. “This is not New York. This is an actual jungle compared, with actual animals that are starving and will eat you. Even if they are not starving when you meet them, they will still kill you and save you for later.”
