Her eyes glisten before she blinks the tears away, and I can’t help myself. Cupping her cheek, I stroke my thumb across her cheekbone.
“This may not end the way you think it will.” Her words are heavy with anxiety.
“How about we don’t worry about what’s supposed to happen, and just have some fun along the way?”
She stares at me, trying to judge my sincerity. Whatever she sees must satisfy her because she nods. “When we get back to Atlanta.”
I smile back at her, keeping my thoughts to myself.
We aren’t waiting.
“We need to get some sleep.”
“Yeah, god only knows what Her Highness will want tomorrow.” She tucks her hand under her cheek.
“Seraphina.”
She opens her eyes, and then she giggles when she sees my middle finger extended.
“Goodnight,malyshka.”
She pulls one hand from under her head and returns the gesture with a smile. “Night, Gangster.”
17
SERA
“Unbelievable,” Keke snaps from a few rows ahead. “You’re telling me no one in New York could get to the hotel in time?”
Marco’s voice stays even. “It was six in the morning, Keke.”
A pause. There’s a soft clink of something being set down.
“I’ve already booked someone in Chicago,” Marco soothes. “They’ll be at the hotel. Deep tissue. As long as you want.”
The engine’s sound deepens as the plane begins its takeoff roll, the pressure pushing me back into my seat. Liev’s hand slips into mine under the armrest. His thumb brushes slowly over my knuckles, and my shoulders ease. His long fingers curl around my hand, tracing a lazy line across my palm, and heat rolls low in my stomach.
He leans closer, just enough that his shoulder touches mine. “No makeup this morning?” His voice is barely audible over the noise of the plane.
“Didn’t feel like I needed it.”
His dark eyes blaze at me. “Definitely don’t.”
Frankly, my hand had hovered over the makeup sponge for a long time this morning as I debated. We were going straight to the plane and then to the hotel. If Keke wanted to go out tonight, then I could reconsider. Everyone in this room has already seenme without the makeup covering the scars when I woke up. No one seemed to notice. However, I wasn’t feeling brave enough to pull my hair up, too. But… baby steps.
Liev leans closer, my nose filling with the smell of his spicy cologne. “You look beautiful, Seraphina.”
Butterflies attack my belly when his lips brush my jaw as he pulls away. It is a quick, light movement that could pass as accidental if anyone saw.
I know I should tell him to stop—that we shouldn’t do this while we’re working. But I can’t. I want him so badly. But the fear of what I might do when the moment comes, of what happens when he goes back to his normal life, has me hesitating.
I know Elite isn’t a career for him. He’ll go back to his bratva when this job is over, and I’ll still be here. I don’t want to let my brother down, but being so close to Liev makes me forget all the rules.
From the front, a seat shifts, fabric rustles. Liev’s fingers tighten briefly around mine, then loosen, his thumb giving one last slow stroke before he lets go.
A moment later, Marco drops into the empty seat across the aisle from us with a long sigh. “If I hear the word massage one more time today, I might lose my mind,” he mutters.
Liev lifts a brow. “Rough morning?”
