her.
Many times.
Yeah, as a stress reliever, Noah Fisher was pretty amazing.
Thinking it, she glanced at him, sitting next to her, his eyes watchful as they rose to altitude and the seat belt signs went off, his body prepared for whatever came his way.
He caught her staring at him and gave her a what’s-up look. Everything about him was focused on her, and in his eyes was the capacity to handle whatever she dished out. Whatever life dished out. Just looking at him made her feel incredibly alive, and shockingly…happy.
When she didn’t say anything, he cocked a brow. He was so inherently male, so unintentionally sexy, she could have laughed, could have thrown her arms around him, could have opened her mouth and told him she was falling, and falling hard, and any of those reactions, or all of them, were real. Utterly and one-hundred-percent real, as nothing else was in her life at the moment.
Oh, boy. The surprising depth of her feelings for this man after what-two days?-completely and totally unnerved her.
How am I going to let him go?
It was going to hurt, more than anything else. Suddenly she needed a moment for her own private little pity party, and she scrambled to unbuckle her seat belt.
“Bailey?”
“Bathroom,” she choked out. “I need the bathroom.” She stumbled over his long, folded legs to get out of the row.
In the bathroom, she stared at herself in the mirror. She was in the midst of the biggest nightmare of her life. So what did it say about her that she could fall for him?
Had fallen for him?
The knock at the door nearly startled her right out of her own skin. “Bailey,” came Noah’s low voice. “Open up.”
Before she could tell him to go away, another voice, a female one, came through the door. “Sir, there’s another bathroom-”
“Yes, thank you, but I’m with her. Bailey, let me in.” This he said directly to the door, not quite as politely.
He was losing his patience.
“Sir,” came the flight attendant’s voice, also losing patience. “I’m afraid that’s against policy. You can’t both go in there.”
Bailey stared at the door, stifling the shocking urge to giggle.
Giggle, in the middle of her personal hell.
But evidently, Noah was not going to give up, because he tried a different tactic. “I know it’s against policy, ma’am, but my wife’s had an incredibly rough day.”
Wait a minute. Wife? Had he just said…wife? Bailey turned from the mirror and gaped at the locked door.
“She just lost her father,” Noah was saying. “And her brother, and-”
“Oh, dear,” whispered the attendant. “The poor thing!”
“She’s upset-”
“Of course.” This from the attendant, in a low, commiserating voice. “Does she need anything? A drink, anything?”
“Frankly?” Noah said. “Me. She needs me. In there.”
The attendant apparently agreed because after a short silence, Noah’s voice was back, a low whisper this time, and much closer to the door, almost as if he were kissing it. “Bailey? Let me in before she changes her mind.”
Bailey once again glanced at herself. Her eyes were just a bit wild, as if she was a woman on the run for her life, as if she had a man whose mere voice made her just a little weak, trying to coax her into letting him in-“Noah-”
“Do it.”
She’d no more than pulled back the occupied lever than he’d slipped inside and locked the door again.
She braced herself, but he smiled. “Hi,” he said.
“Hi back.” And then she couldn’t help it; she let out a helpless laugh that sounded so close to a sob she had to clap her hand over her mouth again.
With a finger, he stroked a strand of hair off her face, while never taking his eyes off hers. “How’s it going?”
“Terrific.”
“Uh huh. You going to ever talk to me?”
His hair was falling into his eyes. His shoulders were so broad they blocked out the harsh light. All she could see was his face, a face she’d come to rely on, need, want…
“Bailey?”
Love. She loved him so much.
“Is this about Kenny?”
No, but as that was also on her mind, it was a fine diversion. “He said it’s not what I think. I don’t’ know what he meant by that.”
He grimaced. “He’ll say whatever he needs to-”
Bailey didn’t say anything to that. She realized he didn’t want to add to her misery by agreeing that Kenny had to be guilty as hell.
“He said it’s not there,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“How would he know that unless he’d been in contact with the men who’ve been following me?”
“It’s possible he went himself,” Noah said. “Maybe he already got the money, and then outran the others.”
“And kept it?” She paled at that thought even as her heart started a slow, heavy beat. “If they catch him…” Oh, God. Didn’t bear thinking about. Kenny. God, Kenny, what have you done?
Noah squeezed her hand. “Then there’s the other possibility…”
“Which is?”
“That he doesn’t know where the money is, that he hasn’t found it yet.”
“Then why warn me off?”
He looked at her, and she let out a long breath. “Because he wanted it all for himself,” she whispered, and felt her eyes fill.
Noah looked at her, muttered, “Fuck it,” and pulled her close.
“He won’t be that far behind us,” she said against his chest, voicing her fears out loud as adrenaline kicked into her system. “It won’t take him, or the others, that long to find another flight.”
“No,” he agreed grimly, holding her tight. “We’ll definitely have company. Look, it’s not too late. We can get Brody to come get us, and get Shayne’s brother involved. Get restraining orders, and-”
“And what?” she asked. “The fact is, Alan screwed those guys. Unscrupulous or not, he owes them that money.”
“Fine. The money is theirs. Let them find it.”
“Noah-”
“Look, you can’t really believe that even if you manage to find it and hand it over, this whole thing is just going to go away? That they’re going to just let you go?”
She stared at him, then squeezed her eyes shut and covered her face.
He gently lowered her hands, and when she found the courage to open her eyes, he was watching her with that deep, penetrating look that never failed to catch her breath.
“You’re not alone,” he said.
Was it wrong to want to melt into him at that? She was a strong woman who wanted to handle herself and her problems by herself, but…but she ached for him. Needed him in some fundamental way that felt right. Definitely not a concept she was used to. No, she wasn’t alone. She was with a man who’d, so far at least, never let her down.
Never would.
The marvel of that was enough to drop her to her knees, but he was standing so close she couldn’t have
