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“Revenge?” she asks.
“That’s where my head is.” My hand goes to her leg and I angle toward her. “Which is why I’m going to speak to you right now as both your boss and the man in your life. I need you to get off the plane.”
She blanches. “What? No. Why would I get off the plane?”
“I swore to you that I would protect you, sweetheart. That isn’t a statement restricted to our personal life bleeding into your career. It’s broad. I will protect you in all things and I have a target on my chest. I’m not putting one on yours.”
“That’s all the more reason why you need me. I’m a good researcher. I can find dirt on dirty cops if there is dirt to be found.”
“I just called in Walker Security to help.”
“You need personal protection?”
“No,” I say. “The name is deceiving. They do far more than security. They’re the best of the best at intel. They’ll get me the ammunition I need to protect myself should this become a real problem.”
“I’m not getting off this plane,” she insists, her jaw settling hard.
“For all the reasons you worried about us—your career and your mother—you need to stay here, woman. Let me repeat, I’m protecting you.”
“Outside of my unwillingness to desert you, my law career is just another reason I have to stay. You told me yourself, I can’t walk away from something because it’s hard. And I don’t want to walk away from corruption ever, most certainly not corruption that could hurt you.”
“Consider this an order: Get up and get off the plane.”
“Fire me, but there are two sides of our relationship now. That means what happens to you matters to me. Employer or not, I’m still going with you.”
“Holy fuck, woman,” I growl. “This is not—”
She presses her lips to mine and I tell myself to stand her up and walk her off of this plane, but damn it to hell, this woman makes me crazy. Proven by the fact that I don’t walk her off the plane. I cup her face, and kiss her, a punishing, hard kiss, that ends with the yelp of the flight attendant. “I’m so sorry,” she says. “I just—I need to let you know we’ve been delayed another fifteen minutes.”
Lori surprises me by showing zero remorse for being busted by twisting around to look at the flight attendant. “Thank you, Katy,” she says. “Is it possible to get food while we wait? I haven’t eaten all day and I can’t fight with this man and win without some energy.”
She laughs. “I think you’re winning.” She tries to straighten up her face. “I mean, of course. Coming right up.” She disappears, and Lori turns back to me. “You don’t get to declare us all in, and then be half out, Cole Brooks.”
I cup her face. “Sweetheart, I have never been all in with a woman like I am with you.”
“I can help,” she whispers. “I want to help, and we can—”
“If I let you stay on this plane, you will do what I say, when I say it. Agree or I swear to you that I will carry you off this plane right now.”
“As it relates to the job, I agree,” she says.
My lips curve. “You had to clarify that, right?”
“Yes. I did.” She shoves on my chest. “Now tell me what happened on those calls.”
“There’s not much to tell.” I kiss her and release her.
“There’s something to tell,” she insists, both of us settling back into our seats. “You just tried to kick me off the plane.”
“Sometimes it’s just a gut feeling.”
“But you think the detective is out to get you?”
“I don’t think he’s an ally, that’s for sure.”
The flight attendant reappears with two boxes in her hand. “Each has finger sandwiches, cookies and chips. I can do something fancier in the air.”
“You’re a goddess Katy,” Lori says, accepting her box. “Thank you. Do you have bottled water?”
