The fact that she was the only thing to grant me peace didn’t offer me comfort but fear.
Because I was taking her home...
And if she ever betrayed me—
Firesurged.
“Lucien,” she hissed under her breath. “I really need you to calm down so you don’t start steaming on the runway, okay?”Flicking a look at the masked men waiting behind us by the black vans, she kneaded my forearm with her other hand, reminding me of the night she’d massaged me in my quarters. How I’d jerked her over the back of the couch and kissed her.
How I’d wanted to do so much more than just steal a kiss—
“Don’t touch me.” Pulling out of her grip, I did my best to ignore her pained inhale.
Fresh anger arrowed through me.
I didn’t want to be cruel but...I was starting totrustthis girl.
And that made everything so much worse.
“If you’re concerned that the plane won’t make it in one flight,” the extraction leader said. “Rest assured, you’re travelling in a Gulfstream G800. It will get you home in one leap.”
I nodded tersely as ifthatwas what I was concerned about. “Fine. You can go.”
Rook blinked beside me, looking small and fragile in her bulletproof vest. She also looked cold. Her teeth chattered as a particularly icy breeze kicked around the hangar.
Without thinking, I tapped Whisper’s head as he leaned against me. “Go to her.”
The panther shot me a look before pressing protectively against her side.
Rook smiled in gratitude as Whisper shared his heat, even as his gaze locked onto the horizon. A soft grumble echoed, no doubt thanks to the wide-open space triggering his need to run.
Pity I didn’t have a gazelle for him to hunt.
“Bet you’d love to race down there, huh?” Rook asked quietly, mirroring my thoughts as she tugged his ear. “I bet you could fly as fast as a plane.”
Another gush of heat crippled me.
These two kept putting me in a highly vulnerable position because how was I supposed to keep my guard up when I kept melting around her?
Behind us, the company who’d been hired by my father all those years ago vanished into the night, pulling away with silent tyres.
I breathed a little easier with less people, but my skin crawled at the thought of spending the next long hours in a claustrophobic tin can.
What if I overheated?
What if I set it on fire like I had with the wall and the tap and the carpet?
The night ticked past until Rook finally asked, “Are we going to board...or just stare at it?”
Not answering her, I gritted my teeth and strode toward the plane.
Chapter Twenty-Four
DESPITE MY WEALTH, I’D NEVER SPLURGED for a private plane. However, I had to admit, this might’ve spoiled me for public travel forever. And it wasn’t because of the creamy interior, muted gold accents, or plush carpets. Nor was it the ability to drive right to the door and stumble on with a pet panther and no questions asked.
It was thesilence.
The steady drone of powerful engines and the fact that we’d been able to skip all the stressful nonsense like immigration, check-in, and security.
