A few minutes later, I sped out of Atherton like a bat fleeing Hell.
“Jack?” Ray’s quiet voice barely penetrated the tumultuous rage whipping within me.
I shook my head. I didn’t want to talk about what just happened. “We have a date to keep.” I could feel her worried stare and hoped she’d just let me be for now.
“Okay.”
Her soft voice was a balm to my bleeding soul. Later…later, when I could deal, I’d tell her my shit. She deserved to know what she was getting into.
20
Ray
When Jack saidwe had a date to keep, I didn’t mind, knowing he badly needed a distraction from his awful grandmother. Then he’d taken the route toward Monterey airport, and I assumed he was meeting someone else before our date.
Until we boarded the Gulfstream jet waiting on a private runway.
After a brief introduction to the two pilots and two cabin crew, Jack had buried himself in his laptop with open files on the small gleaming bronze inlaid table in front of him. He wasn’t ready to talk, and I had no idea where we were going.
Sighing, I glanced out through the plane window at the billowing clouds swirling past, my heart in my mouth. We were thousands—thousandsof miles above ground!
Hastily, I looked away, taking in the beautiful interior. I hadn’t gone anywhere on a plane before, let alone on a private jet. With Mom’s illness and accumulating bills, flying wasn’t something I thought about. And I had no comparison for this extreme luxury. The bulkhead was crafted in lustrous bronze wood paneling. Sumptuous seats in cream leather clustered in three groups of four, with duo seats facing each other. A sea of pearl-gray carpet ran the length of the plane. Everything screamed elegance.
But I was too worried to enjoy the experience. Jack had yet to speak to me. Only his firm grip on my hand as we boarded let me know that he was aware of my presence.
Now, two hours later, the hard, intractable set of his expression remained. My heart hurt for him, remembering what Margo Blackstone had said. She’d intended to wound, and she had.
Bad blood? Spawn?
Why would she say such things?
No matter the insults she hurled at him, thinking they were alone, he’d instantly defended me, deflecting her deprecating remarks. My chest compressed then expanded with the depths of my feelings for him.
Inhaling deeply, I swallowed some of the orange juice, Troy, the flight attendant had given us once we were airborne. Jack’s coffee remained untouched. Cold.
I set the glass down on the bronze panel running along the sides of the jet and stared out through the window again at the thick white clouds cocooning us. Now I couldn’t see anything.
God, I so badly wanted Jack to talk to me, but not with the flight attendant about. Plus, we could be landing anytime soon.
“Where are we going?” I finally asked him, unable to bear the silence. “You said a date?”
The document he was reading lowered, and those ice-gray eyes met mine. Amusement flickered briefly in them, and my chest squeezed with tenderness.
“Yes.” He set the paper on the table. “But I didn’t say where.”
Yep, he was ace at covering up his emotions. Finally, I understood him. He’d used the persona I saw at the bar, the player one, for God knew how long. And I, in all my righteousness, thought that was him, doing his reckless shit. But it was only a façade to bury the immense pain I’d witnessed in him today, the burden of having to deal with mother who used liquor to handle her problems, her heartaches. And probably to hide from the evil force that was her very own mother—a woman who treated her son like crap.
Jack was trying for normal, so I let things be for now.
He unbuckled the seatbelt and crouched in front of me, easing my fingers from the armrest I had no idea I’d gripped like a vise. “Relax. Enjoy the trip,” he said softly. “They’re experienced pilots with impeccable flight records.”
His mouth quirked with a hint of a smile, one that tugged at my heart. And I forgot my wariness. Would it be wrong to dive in and kiss the daylights out of him?
“It’s the only way to get to our destination faster,” he said. “I wanted to surprise you—”
“But I’m not dressed for any kind of surprise!” He, as usual, looked incredibly hot in a gray suit.
His brow creased. “You’ll be fine. I asked Marcy to pack you a bag when you were with Pops. Before you say anything, it’s how surprises work.”
