I shook my head and my lips shook too as I spoke. “No, I don’t want to.”
Dad scooped me in his arms as he stood. A man had come into the room.
“Mr. and Mrs. King, this is Dr. Payne. He’s a psychologist and our school counselor. I thought, given the situation, he could help your son make the transition easier.”
I buried my face in my dad’s neck. “I don’t want to stay here.”
He patted my back before setting me on my feet. “You’ll see. A few days and you won’t want to come home.”
The man they’d called Payne came over and took my hand in his firm grip. “Let me show you where you’ll be sleeping. You’re going to make lots of friends.”
The man might have smiled, but I saw the monster behind those eyes. But it was too late. He led me through a door. Though I called for Dad, he stood there as the door closed between us.
“You might want to be nicer to me,” Payne said when we were alone.
I pulled free and ran back toward the door. Just as I was about to reach it, the man caught me. I kicked and tried to scream, but he had a hand over my mouth. When I bit him, he dropped me. I got to my feet, and he pinched my cheeks hard.
“You shouldn’t have done that, boy.”
I kicked his shin. It didn’t hurt him. I only made him madder. He yanked my arm and marched me down a long hall until we reached double doors near the end. He shoved me in a room full of beds and boys.
“Meet James,” he said in a not-so-nice way.
Everyone looked at me before pointing and laughing. I looked down and saw that I’d had an accident. That wouldn’t be the worst thing that happened to me that day.
Five
Connor
A hand on my arm broke me out of the dream that had me in a choke hold. I jerked away from the hand, blinking several times to clear my vision. A blonde—not mine—dipped her head into view and I quickly let go.
“I wanted you to know we are due to land soon,” she said.
I nodded because I hadn’t fully come to myself. A few heartbeats later, I got to my feet and scooped up my bag.
Before I passed through to the next compartment, I said to Lizzy, “You need to change.”
I didn’t wait for one of her signature one-liners. I opened the door and slipped into the back compartment. I dropped my bag on a small sofa and was shrugging out of my jacket when Lizzy followed me in.
“If you think I’m going to join the mile-high club with you, you’re delusional,” she said.
I pulled my shirt over my head and smirked as her thirsty eyes drank me in. I had my hand at the hemline of my pants when I said, “No, princess. Delusion would imply crazy, and a crazy man wouldn’t have a chip he’s yet to call.”
She put a hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side. Damn, she was sexy as fuck. “What chip would that be?”
“A twenty-four-hour pass.” Her eyes widened in remembrance before narrowing, and I added, “Not that I’d have to use it to get you in my bed.”
She huffed. “Where’s the bathroom?”
Her tone was so sickly sweet, I felt a toothache coming on. I pointed at the door and shrugged—it was a guess. This wasn’t my plane. When she opened the door, that guess turned out to be a good one.
By the time she emerged, I’d changed into khaki shorts and a Hawaiian shirt to look like a real tourist. She, on the other hand, wore next to nothing. It was a struggle not to swallow my tongue as we took in each other’s metamorphosis.
She circled her pointed finger in the general direction of my abs. “You did the reverse from a butterfly to a caterpillar, but the dad vibe is working for you, especially with the open shirt.”
“I was going for tourist,” I admitted.
Her eyes dropped to check herself out. “I really didn’t have a lot of options. Griff and I will have words later.”
The bikini top she wore did a damn good job at drawing the eye. Though I’d seen what was under the triangle-shaped fabric, I wanted to see it again. Then there was the printed but see-through fabric that covered her long, gorgeous legs.
My gazed trekked to her naked finger. “We’ll have to stop and get rings.”
“Why?” she asked.
“We’ll blend better as a married couple.”
“But you told those guys I’m your wife already.”
“Yes, and if they believed me, they won’t be following us. If they are, they didn’t buy it.”
She put her hands on her hips. “Well, how do we know they are?”
“We don’t know anything concrete yet. That’s the problem.”
She stewed on that before it appeared she made up her mind and opened her hand. In it was a small pouch. “We don’t need to buy rings. I brought these to the wedding to give them back to you.”
“But you didn’t?”
“There wasn’t time.”
I decided not to point out we’d had a handful of encounters, including those when we were close enough to speak, but didn’t.
“I’ll wear these now and when this is over, you can have them back,” she said.
“And do what with them? You think Harry Winston has a return policy?”
“You’re the one who convinced me they had sales,” she said, stepping toward me. Her finger aimed at my cheek.
I took her wrist and slid her rings on her fourth finger. “You wouldn’t have let me buy them otherwise.”
Her breath caught as I brought her finger closer to my lips.
“I’ll need you to take your seats.”
We jerked and glanced at the flight attendant in the door. Her eyes landed on Lizzy’s hand that I held. The sparkler I’d gotten her was doing its job and grabbing attention.
Lizzy snatched her hand from mine and pivoted. The woman who’d destroyed our moment had to backtrack to let Lizzy through the door. I took the time to move my band from my right hand to my left ring finger before following them. Nothing was said as we strapped in for landing, though I wanted to curse the moment that had been interrupted.
When the plane finally came to a full stop, I waited for the door to be opened before I got up from my seat. When it was, the sun brightened the space as the heat slammed inside. Far different from the chilly days in New York.
The pilot came from the cockpit and I realized he was around my age. It shouldn’t have struck me, but it did. When someone held your life in their hands, you’d like to know they had years and years of experience.
“Mr. Black, I’m Grant King, your pilot.” I blinked several times, thrown by his name, and almost didn’t catch what he said next. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to greet you before the flight. It was a bit of a rush with the last-minute booking.”
“No problem,” I said as my mind scrambled. I might have said more, but I felt more than heard Lizzy’s approach.
She stopped beside me. “Nice flying.”
When I glanced back, her eyes were all for him. I had to begrudgingly admit Grant was a good-looking guy.
“I’m glad you enjoyed the flight,” he said, shaking the hand she’d extended.
“Like I said, the flying was great. The inflight service, on the other hand, was a little over the top. I don’t think I’ve ever had a woman blatantly offer my husband a happy ending in front of me.”