“You rushed all the way here so you could offer to personally drive me all the way back to D.C.?”
Eleven hours in a car alone with Jagger Brooks? The thought was both utterly terrifying and tempting as hell.
“Oh, I’m not offering to drive you anywhere.” Jagger snorted. “Nah, that would take far too long.”
“But you just said?—”
“I’m talking about flying, Talia.” His sexy grin widened with the use of her shortened name. “My team’s private jet has a hangar here, and it’s ready to roll. Just say the word, and I’ll have you up in the air and on your way back home in no time.”
The unexpected offer nearly left her speechless. “You’d…really do that?” She added a belated, “For me?”
“Of course.” A quick shrug.
The man acted as if he’d just agreed to buy her a pack of gum rather than fly her home on a multi-million-dollar plane.
“Hang on.” A thought struck her in that moment. “I may not be a pilot, but I do know that you can’t just decide to hop on a private jet and take off out of O’Hare without first submitting a flight plan and then getting prior approval.”
“In most cases, you’d be right.”
Most cases.
“Meaning it’s different where you’re concerned?”
“Let’s just say, when you play an intricate part in the locating and rescue of a beloved member of the FCC chairman’s family, you tend to have a few perks tossed your way.”
The man seemed to have an answer for everything. A trait she found both frustrating and endearing.
“Listen, Jagger. I truly appreciate the offer?—”
“But?”
Natalia released a soft exhale. “But I can’t ask you to drop everything just to fly me back home.”
“You didn’t ask, I offered.” There was that cocky grin again. “Besides, it’s seriously not a big deal. I have a slew of vacation days stacked up, and it’s been a while since I’ve been to the nation’s capital. Figured I’d get you home, then spend a couple of days to take in the sights before heading back here.”
Now he was planning onstayingin D.C.? She watched him closely, hating that she couldn’t tell if the man had ulterior motives.
“I never really pictured you as the sight-seeing type.”
“You kiddin’? I’m a total American history nerd. All those museums and monuments…” He sounded genuinely excited by the idea. “Plus, I thought I’d use the opportunity to swing by and check out Echo Team’s new office. You know, make sure it’s not better than ours and all that.”
She was pretty sure he was kidding about that last part. As for the rest, Natalia stopped trying to figure out the man’s true motives long enough to do some mental math.
Flight time from Chicago to D.C. was roughly two hours. Probably shorter on a state-of-the-art jet like Delta Team’s.
And since her flightwasstill showing cancelled…
“How soon could we leave?”
The smile on Jagger’s ruggedly handsome face lit up the browns of his eyes. “The jet’s ready whenever you are.”
Natalia glanced down at the two rolling suitcases she’d kept close by.
You need to get home. The man has a jet and knows how to fly. Is it really that hard of a decision to make?
Thanks to her position, she was familiar with Jagger’s past piloting experience back when he was still active-duty Air Force. His knowledge, skills, and experience were impressive to say the least and left her with zero qualms about how safe she’d be with him at the controls.
“Are you sure?” Natalia searched Jagger’s magnetic stare one final time.
