Page 2 of Shark’s Pride

“Hello?”

She answered as if she didn’t recognize the caller. I tightened my scowl. “Hi.” Not that my stupid stammer reflected that. “It’s…me.”

“Oh.” Her breathless spurt vibrated the line—and stirred my cock even more. “Sebastian. Hey.”

Hey?

“Hey yourself. What are you doing?”

“Working. It’s the start of my route. I’m on limited time. The BI security guys don’t like me to stay for too long.”

At once, my chest compressed and my blood boiled. “The BI Building?” I gritted. “You’re at Viktor Blake’s?”

I wasn’t expecting her light exasperated huff. I was still dealing with the surprise from that, instead of the fire and fury for which I was braced, when she chided, “You remember that Blake Industries is also my client, right?”

“Just not your most important client.”

“Bas.”

And just like that, her sigh was inflating my cock. “What?”

“I’m glad you called.”

I blew out rough air for myself. “Me too, beautiful.”

“But I really do need to go.”

“Okay.”

I issued the concession without much fight. She was telling the truth; the same limited-curb situation existed in front of my building. But after hanging up and looking at our call time in my log—only twenty-seven seconds—I gave in to my rising frustration and threw my cell phone across the small jet’s cabin. The device bounced off the interior fuselage wall and landed in the center aisle, face up.

Vela’s big toothless baby grin stared up at me, where she held the prized position of wallpaper on my lock screen. “Hell,” I uttered. Between the balls-deep longing for Abbi and the heart-deep craving for my family, my logic was lost.

Without overthinking the consequences, I grabbed the device and dialed my sister.

One ring. Two rings. Three.

“Hey, big brother.” Pia’s confident voice came over the line. “Apa khabar?”

“Such an overachiever, Dub. I’m fine, thank you for asking. But if I don’t hear another word of Malay ever again, I’ll be just fine with that, too.”

“Ah, well. When in Rome…or so the saying goes.”

“So it does.”

“Shouldn’t you be in the air by now?”

“On the ground in Hong Kong at the moment.”

“Delayed?”

“Just for a bit. We had to refuel, and Shane said he needed to file a new flight plan. I didn’t get into the details of why.” I raised the window shade and looked out. It was two forty-five in the morning local time, and the busy airport hummed with activity regardless.

“Did you call just to hear my voice, Bas? You miss your sister that much?” Her soft chuckle was her way of calling me out. I never called just to shoot the shit, and she knew it.

“Fine. I’ll just get to it, then. I— Well, I need some advice.”

“From me?”