His hands found the side of my stomach, and he used the other one to turn me toward him. Kroven’s eyes swirled to life, the deep and rich red color filling his irises and ridding themselves of the fog that had migrated there earlier. When they stopped swirling and he blinked them solid a few times, a smile crept against his lips.
“There’s my man.” He purred, leaning forward to capture my lips with his.
I melted into the kiss, a moan leaping out of me because 1. He’d just called me his man and that washot as fuckand 2. I was desperately wanting him to pound me into one of these exquisite seats.
“As much as I want to addplane sexto our growing repertoire of intimacy, we really should take our seats.” Kroven sighed with a smirk. “Xoah’s a good pilot, but he’s always over zealous to prove so on takeoff.”
I feigned annoyance. “Fine. But you owe me hotel sex then.”
“Deal.” He laughed, leading me to two seats next to eachother on the right side of the plane. Kroven offered me the window seat and I took it with delight, wanting to see everything I could. I’d never been on a regular plane and this would potentially spoil me for commercial flights in the future. “It’s only about a thirty minute ride to D.C. from here, and we’ll be staying overnight for fueling purposes. That’s not going to interfere with your work, is it?”
“No, that sounds great.” I patted one of the hands he had on his armrest. “We’re all good.”
“Wonderful.”
We buckled up as Xoah came over the intercom and said that we were about to take off. All too quickly, I understood what Kroven had meant earlier about Xoah’s excitement to prove his piloting skills. We lurched into the air at way too awkward an angle, though not dangerous enough to cause us or the plane any harm. Just enough to scare the shit out of me. Luckily, Kroven put a comforting hand on my thigh to steady me. Which was a dual edged sword because while it was keeping me calm, it was also giving me a raging boner that I wanted to take care of. But the fear overtook me and I closed my eyes until we were safely in the air.
“That was rougher than usual,” Kroven grunted in annoyance, quickly replacing it with a scoff. “I believe he’s trying to impress you.”
“I’d be much more impressed if I wasn’t scared shitless.”
Kroven nodded, his hand swirling over my thigh. “I’ll talk to him.”
“No, it’s okay. I don’t wanna cause problems between you and your friend.”
“You won’t be.” He assured me, lifting his hand to connect with my chin, swiveling it toward his handsome face. “We’ll be safely tucked away in our hotel before you know it.”
“Before you distract me with your sexual advances,” Krovenshook his head, but laughed anyway. “What is it you do for work? There’s gotta be some sort of solution for how you have this plane at the ready.”
Kroven looked uncomfortable all of the sudden, shuddering his limbs away from connecting with me in any way. I hated feeling like I had overstepped somehow, so I shook my head.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that, Bas. I just feel…guilty.” Guilty? That was a curveball I hadn’t braced for. “I don’t…do anything for work. I have a decent amount of wealth…from the past, but the plane actually belonged to Grey. The human who left me the house.” When I nodded, he went on. “Grey became quite the writer, and he garnered enough attention and money to need his own plane to fly out for events and things of that nature. He left it to me in addition to the house. Admittedly, I did upgrade to our current plane a few years ago, just like I made the additions to the house.”
“You shouldn’t feel guilty. You used some of that money to honor Grey, I think that’s awesome.”
“Trust me,” Kroven said, turning away from me and looking across the aisle at the empty seats. “That’s not why I feel guilty.”
A cloud of sorrow formed between us then, and I could feel the terror sliding along Kroven’s brows as much as I could see the contorting his body was doing to seem comfortable. Patting his hand, I amused myself with the touchscreen on the back of the leather barrier before me, since we were sitting in the first seats the plane offered, and I browsed the library of things to watch. Turning on an episode of Sailor Moon, I distracted myself with the opening credits as I felt Kroven’s head leaning against my shoulder. With our height difference, it must have been terribly uncomfortable but I could sense that he just wanted to be close to me after his thoughts had soured. I wasn’t going to pry, knowing that he’d tell me whatever it was when hewas ready. So I folded my hand over his on the armrest, and we watched the opening scene of the anime as Piper faded from view below us.
Chapter 19
We spentthe remainder of the flight in silence, watching Sailor Moon and enjoying being close. My brain was plagued by intentions to drag what harbored Kroven’s guilt out of him, but my intention to be patient thankfully won out and allowed me to stay quiet. I didn’t want Kroven to feel like he couldn’t come to me with things that bothered him in his own time.
Xoah descended the plane down on a private landing strip, one that Kroven told me was reserved for Exo and his invited guests. How the hell Exo, despite being an Orb that was clearly well connected, had managed to claim victory on this without the humans protesting was beyond my scope, so I just nodded along and waited until we were clear to deboard the plane.
Kroven retrieved his rolling suitcase (which was, of course, blood red in color) and offered me my denim duffle, which I took with a smile and used the long strap to heave it over my shoulder. Hand in hand, Kroven and I flitted down the steps of the plane. I could hear Xoah getting ready to follow us as we touched down on the tarmac.
“Are we meeting with them straight away?” I asked, pullingmy phone out of my jeans pocket. It really had only taken us a little over half an hour to touch down in D.C.
“Not exactly.” Kroven told me. “We have time to check into the hotel, and then I’ll check with Exo to see when exactly he and Watson will be available to have a meeting.”
I nodded, biting my tongue as more questions bubbled to the surface, refusing to let them boil over. Kroven then distracted himself by ordering us a car on his phone while Xoah descended the steps of the plane and joined us, clapping a hand on Kroven’s shoulder.
“Well, I’m off for some sleep before I hit the town,” He wagged his eyebrows, and Kroven rolled his eyes.
“You’re not going to join us at the hotel? I’ll pay for your room, of course.”
