“No doubt. Obviously, don’t mention it to her. Luna told me in confidence.” Priest gives me a look of warning. “I’m just telling you so that you know to be careful with her. Use your fucking kid gloves.”
I already did my part to heal her wounds, but I used my cock and my tongue. I don’t tell my brother that, however.
“Kid gloves.” I nod. “Got it.”
“Promise you’ll be there for her if she needs it? Luna’s a little worried, and I don’t want her spending the whole honeymoon waffling back and forth between staying here and heading home early.”
I do everything I can to keep my distaste for this request out of my expression.
“I promise. I’ll give her all my numbers so she knows how to reach me.”
“You can do it tomorrow on the plane,” Priest tells me. “She’s flying home with you and the boys.”
Fuck my life.
Chapter 10
ISLA
I fidget with my seat belt and stare out the window next to me as the cabin crew prepares, trying to stave off the anxiety that’s threatening to hit like a wave battering the shore in the middle of a hurricane. This private plane is a far cry from the modest, older Cessna model that was my father’s pride and joy up until the day it crashed in poor visibility, taking my dad, my mom, and my sister Lily down with it.
In the years since the accident, I’ve worked hard to get myself onto planes without the agonizing anxiety that once gripped me whenever I so much as thought about flying. Therapy was a godsend. But this is the first time I’ve been on a private plane since the last flight I took with my family before the wreck.
I told myself that it would be okay. That it’s no different from flying commercial. That I’m doing this as a favor to Luna, who is the only family I have left, and I can be strong for her. But with my eyes glued to the tarmac and my chest so tight it feels like I can barely breathe, I’m not so sure.
It doesn’t help that I’m flying with three mobsters. Or that I hooked up with one of them. Or that he’s basically been threatening me every step of the way since.
I should probably get out my e-reader. Try to take my mind off the present by immersing myself in another world. I have a new brother’s-best-friend, duke historical romance queued up and waiting for me to dive in. Or use the breathing techniques I’ve learned.
Priest’s brothers are huddled in the front of the plane around a table, quietly talking business as vaguely as possible. I’m not listening. I’m doing my best to pretend like none of them exist. Particularly Alessio, who hasn’t spoken a word to me since I boarded.
Which is fine. Preferable, even.
I’m not sure if I can handle him on top of everything else.
I take a deep breath, and pain wraps around me, anxiety like an iron spider web constricting my lungs. Shit. This isn’t going to be good. I don’t want to have a full-blown attack in front of him and his brothers.
Focusing on slow, deep breaths, I continue watching the ground crew out the window, so caught up in trying to control myself that I don’t notice Alessio moving my way until he’s folding his massive frame into the seat opposite mine.
I tense up and refuse to look at him. There are other seats in this damn plane. Why is he sitting so close to mine?
“Need anything?” he asks quietly.
His voice is almost pleasant, more reminiscent of the charming bartender I couldn’t wait to spend the night with and far less the dangerous criminal mastermind. Suspicious, I finally turn to look at him.
Bright-blue eyes sear into mine, his cheekbones so sharp they could cut me, his jaw shaded with a sexy five-o’clock shadow that’s a few days old.
I swallow hard. “I’m good,” I croak out.
I sound like shit. I’m a mess of nerves. Once we’re in the air, I’ll be fine. I’m sure of it. But it’s getting me there that’sthe problem. And the plane itself, the size. For some reason, commercial planes make me feel safer.
“Want a glass of wine to take the edge off?”
Damn him for seeing through me. I don’t like the way he’s looking at me, like I’m a specimen on display in a laboratory. Like I’m his to study, to dissect.
“No thanks.”
“You’re going to tear that seat belt apart if you don’t quit.”
