Total pages in book: 183
Estimated words: 174715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
We talk back and forth, debating ways law enforcement might come at me, and how I go at them while, of course, stuffing our faces. During this brief process I’m struck by how well we bat ideas back and forth. By the way I can hit back, and Lori is right there, giving me what she’s got, undeterred by me downing an idea or placing a roadblock in front of her.
We’re cut off when the engines roar to life and Lori’s lips clamp shut while her empty box goes under her seat to allow her to buckle back up. The plane starts to move and I follow her lead. “Did I mention I don’t like to fly?” she asks, gripping the arms of her seat.
I cover her hand with my hand. “Any notable reason for that fear?”
“I didn’t say fear,” she corrects. “I simply said that I don’t like it.”
“Any notable reason not to like it?” I ask, trying not to laugh at that correction.
“Just the fear of crashing.” She laughs and looks at me. “I just admitted to being afraid.”
“Yes,” I say, and this time I laugh with her. “You did.” The plane starts to pick up speed.
“I really hate take-off,” she pants out, looking out of the window.
I squeeze her hand. “Look at me again.”
“Not right now,” she says.
“Now,” I say, reaching across her and pulling the shade.
“I need to see,” she says, reaching for the shade I hold in place.
“If you can’t see take-off, you can’t see what you can’t control. Trust me. It works. Leave it down. Try it for me.”
She inhales and lets it out. “Okay. But you better be right.”
“I am right,” I say, sinking back into my seat. “Now, look at me.”
She inhales again and turns her apprehensive, green-eyed stare on me. “You’re beautiful,” I say.
“You’re trying to distract me,” she accuses.
“Yes, but I’m doing it by telling you the truth. That’s exactly what I thought that day when you ran into me on the street. She’s beautiful. You’re beautiful.”
“You ran into me.”
“Did I?”
“Yes.”
“Okay well, I’m damn glad you ran into me.”
She laughs. “You’re impossible.”
“For everyone but you, apparently. How many times have you flown?”
“Three miserable times,” she says. “And I want to get over this. I do. I want to see the world, but this is a real problem for me.”
“I’ll teach you to fly,” I say. “You’ll get over your fear.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to learn to fly.”
“You’ll have to or how will I take you to see the world?”
“We can’t see the world together until I can pay my own way.”
“You can’t make that a rule, sweetheart. I was born into money. If I want to enjoy it with you, I want to enjoy it with you.”
“How do you know I don’t want you for your money?”
“Because you want me for my body,” I joke.
“I do like your body,” she teases, but her laugh becomes a choked sound when the plane lifts off and she looks away, squeezing my hand with all her might as she does. We hit turbulence and she yelps. I reach over, pull her close and when her mouth is almost on mine, we rumble about a bit in the clouds. “Oh God,” she pants.
I kiss her, a deep stroke of tongue that allows her no escape, and soon she has turned toward me, and is kissing me back. The plane starts to level off and I unhook her seatbelt. “What are you doing?” she asks, panicked.
“Bringing you to me,” I say unhooking my seatbelt as well, and hitting the button to lower the seat to a bed. “Where you belong.” I pull her close, those words on my mouth unfamiliar, but right. This is where she belongs. With me. And she is perhaps the best thing that could happen to me on this trip and the worst thing that can happen for Detective Waller. Because I will protect her at all costs.
Chapter thirty-five
Cole
“Can we even do this?” Lori whispers as we settle into the fully reclined seat facing each other.
“It’s a private flight,” I say, brushing hair from her eyes and catching her leg with mine. “We can do whatever we like.”
“I’m not very experienced with private jets, as in I’ve never been on one at all.”
“We can fix that,” I promise.
“Cole—”
I kiss her. “Don’t put limits on what we can do together. Consider that one of my rules.”
“I don’t want you to spend money on me.”
“Sweetheart, I have money and I share it with no one.”
“I don’t want to be your kept woman.”
I laugh. “My version of a kept woman is you naked, tied to my bed, with another spanking thrown in just for the pleasure of it.” I stroke her cheek and soften my voice. “We’ll figure it out. I promise.” I don’t give her time to argue. “Tell me something I don’t know about you. Why law school?”