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Always the joker, always laughing at her.

‘Why didn’t you say so?’ she wheezed, shrugging off his touch and groping behind herself until she found the extra buckle wedged in the back of her seat.

‘It wasn’t important.’

‘It is!’ she gasped, fully aware of how insane she sounded. Gripping the belt, she tossed it into his lap, like she was trying to get rid of a poisonous snake. After a couple of self-conscious wipes of her mouth, she straightened her spine and sat back in her seat with what she hoped was a bit more decorum.

Slowly, almost deliberately so, he buckled himself in and leaned back, stretching out as much of his big body as he could in the confined space, like a lion in a cage sharpening its claws against the bars. He must know how hot he is. ‘Thanks,’ he said, still chuckling to himself.

What a dick! With a huff she pulled out her headphones from her bag, making a great show of sticking them into her ears, and turned a little in her seat to stare out of the window.

It was going to be a really long flight, and she prayed he’d only be sat with her for the first leg of the journey.

Chapter Three

Hannah managed the first five hours of the first leg of the journey before needing to pee. As always, she’d planned every detail of her flight in advance, including her entertainment. The seven hours to Dubai would consist of reading for the first hour and a half, followed by a movie, pausing while she ate her meal. When the meals were cleared, she would get up for a loo break, combining some subtle stretches along the way to avoid DVT. She would then read again until the seatbelt signs came on for landing.

However, sitting next to Caleb was incredibly distracting. He was very talkative for a start, although not with her – the headphones were an effective deterrent – but he had chatted with the family beside them for a couple of hours. He even walked the baby up and down the aisle. She’d tried to ignore his conversations with them but had found herself lowering the volume on her music despite her earlier resolve to ignore him.

She knew everything there was to know (and plenty she didn’t care to know) about the family next to them. They were moving to Dubai for Kev’s work in hotel management, blah blah blah.

Caleb tried to draw her in once, telling them about how she’d also moved countries for work, and Hannah had to give a pained smile and a brief nod of encouraging agreement. ‘Yeah, best decision I’ve ever made,’ she’d said weakly, knowing full well from their faces that Jane and Kev had already branded her a complete weirdo – and who could blame them? After the ‘secret’ snap she’d taken of Caleb earlier, they were probably concerned for his safety.

‘What do you do for work?’ Kev asked Caleb, giving the baby on his lap a leftover breadstick to suck on while the hostess went by clearing their meals.

‘I’m a stunt man,’ said Caleb, and he must have been used to the reaction his job title caused, because he inclined his head with a clearly practised, self-deprecating chuckle at the enthusiastic exclamations from Kev and his family.

Hannah couldn’t help it; she must have made a sound too – a soft snort or something – because Caleb turned towards her with a raised brow, the corners of his mouth twitching.

Composing herself quickly, she tapped her e-reader as if she were still engrossed in her book, not daring to look at him until he turned away first. When he did, she was able to breathe a little easier. It wasn’t that she thought his career was funny or that she didn’t believe him. If anything, the job suited him so perfectly, it hadn’t surprised her in the slightest and she’d almost blurted out, Of course you are!

‘Wow, that’s amazing! What films have you been in?’ asked Kev, appearing genuinely impressed.

Caleb listed a series of action and horror movies, many of which she’d seen, and she peeked at him discreetly. Considering she only remembered him as a show-off, it was odd that he seemed almost embarrassed to admit his achievements. It was an unexpected change in an otherwise confident extrovert; she wondered what else had changed in the years since they’d last spoken.

‘Had any bad accidents?’ asked Kev with a weirdly gleeful expression.

Caleb’s body stiffened, but his genial smile remained fixed in place. ‘Oh, nothing major.’

‘How did you get into it?’ asked Jane, and Hannah was relieved that someone had steered the conversation away from something that obviously made Caleb uncomfortable.

Who on earth brings up past trauma as a conversation starter? Kev, apparently.

‘A friend of my mom’s was a TV exec. She was moaning to him about how wild I was – constantly trying to do tricks on my bike or jumping out of windows and trees. He said I might as well get paid for it and arranged for me to follow around one of his stunt men as work experience. I ended up being that stunt man’s assistant, and he taught me so much. Helped me get all the skills and qualifications I needed to work. Even got me my first film job.’

His stepfather worked in TV, didn’t he? Was that who he meant by his mom’s friend? They’d moved out of London quickly; perhaps the relationship had broken down? She’d only met his parents a couple of times. Even when she’d been helping Caleb with his studies, their flat had always seemed cold and empty, not like a family home at all. That was one of the reasons he’d become so popular so quickly – his place became the hangout and party spot. His parents never seemed to mind what he did, as long as it happened when they weren’t around, which was often.

‘Incredible!’ Kev said. ‘What you working on next?’

‘I’m doing a film based on a book called The Blood Crystal Wars. Have you heard of it?’

Jane nodded, and a few women’s heads turned curiously in the rows ahead of them. It was a huge best-selling romantasy series; Hannah even had it on her Kindle and planned to read it after her current book.

‘Never heard of it,’ snorted Kev. ‘I won’t have, will I? If it’s one of those trashy books.’ She was sure every woman within earshot curled their upper lip, including Jane.

‘Well, the studio has high hopes for it. We’re filming in Australia because of the biodiversity – desert, rainforests, mountains, that sort of thing. The film has loads of action and stunts too, it should be fun.’

To her utter shock, Caleb turned to face her as if he’d known she’d been listening. She flinched and fumbled with her Kindle, flustered that he’d caught her in the act – again.