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But pining over a man I didn’t even particularly like was absolutely not going to be my MO on this mission.
Abso-fucking-lutely not.
“Now, now, sweetheart. No need to get grouchy.” A slow and slightly evil grin spread across Jack’s face, and before he evenopened his mouth, I knew I wasn’t going to like whatever he said next. “I could help you take the edge off a bit.”
“No edge to take off unless you’re going to stop being an epic douchebag.”
He slapped a hand over his heart. “You wound me.”
“Been there, done that. Pretty sure you still have the scar.”
Jack’s eyes went hot. “So do you.”
I tried to hide the shudder that raced down my spine, but my cock didn’t get the memo, twitching to life behind the zipper of my jeans. Again.
Jack’s gaze dropped to my crotch like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
Luckily, the plane hit another patch of turbulence just as Jack licked his lips and my resolve threatened to crumble, and the jerking of the plane caused him to bite his tongue.
“Fuck.” He looked away quickly, fumbling for his seat belt.
As a general rule, aquatic shifters weren’t all that comfortable in the air, and Jack’s white-knuckled grip on the armrests told me he definitely wasn’t happy.
“Please fasten your seat belts. I anticipate a bit of a bumpy ride for the next hour. I’m going to try to get us above it, but I assure you it’s nothing to worry about.” The pilot’s lightly accented voice did nothing to calm Jack’s nerves despite her assurances that everything would be fine.
It took all my willpower not to reach out a hand for him to hold, but I knew if I opened that door, I’d give him the power to break my heart, and there was no way in hell I wanted Jack Grayson to have that kind of hold on me.
Instead, I tried to focus his attention on our destination. “Tell me about Reuben.” We’d talked to him on the phone after we’d figured out what was in the file Felix had been kidnapped over, and he’d agreed with Nero that it would be best to share any intelhe had with Jack and me directly and in person. Which was how we’d ended up on a plane bound for Australia.
“What?” He shook his head, then processing my question, he looked my way. “What do you want to know?”
I shrugged. “I dunno. What’s he like? I only met him once, I think. A long time ago. I was, like, ten, maybe. He came to visit my grandmother. I remember him being pretty… colorful.”
Jack smirked. “That’s one way to say it. I think Reuben lives by the idea that overt is covert.”
That tracked with what I remembered of the jaguar shifter. “Which is why it’s so weird to me that he wouldn’t tell us what he knows via a video conference. Hopefully, whatever information he has is worth flying halfway around the world.”
It was Jack’s turn to shrug. “He’s gotten a little paranoid in his old age. He doesn’t trust technology. I told you he barely, if ever, leaves his compound. But so far, all his intel has been good. If anyone is going to have a lead on the painting, it’s Reuben.”
“I really thought my grandmother would know more.” Nero had called her when we saw documents with her name all over them in Felix’s file. DespiteThe Evolution of Man,the most controversial and stolen piece of shifter art in the world, being her holy grail, she’d been unhelpfully tight-lipped, rushing Nero off the phone because she was going on a monthlong glaciers-and-volcanoes cruise with a group of her friends, and they’d been about to board the ship. While she’d been less than helpful, at least we knew she’d be safe for the next month if shit hit the fan, and something in my gut told me that was exactly what was going to happen. It felt inevitable. Felix’s kidnapping had been the very tip of the iceberg.
Hopefully, meeting with Reuben would give us a little more to go on.
The plane bounced again, and Jack clenched his jaw tight, the muscles in his neck tense.
“You need to relax.”
“Yeah, right.” His words were ground out through clenched teeth.
“I’m serious. You’re going to crack a molar if you keep tensing up like that every time we hit a little bump.”
“I don’t love flying.”
“You don’t say.” Then, because I was a little bit of an asshole and I couldn’t resist needling him, I continued. “Kind of odd in our line of work since world travel is kind of the name of the game.”
Jack unclenched his fingers from around the armrest just enough to shoot a middle finger in my direction, and something in my chest loosened. I didn’t like seeing him scared. In fact, his reaction to a little mild turbulence was the first time I’d seen him anything less than one hundred percent confident and in control since we’d met. Unless he was buried balls-deep in my ass, then all bets were off.
“I’m just saying. You have to have been on a thousand planes in your life.”
