Page 85 of The Code of You

The escalator carried us up to the gates. Voices echoed off the walls, children laughed, luggage wheels rumbled across the floor. I kept my hood pulled low and felt his hand close around mine.

"Eat something. I need you at full strength for what I have planned.” His gaze was calm, but there was tension in his shoulders that I had learned to read, like current beneath the skin. "This way.”

The café was nearly empty. A counter of overpriced sandwiches, the smell of coffee, two staff members with eyes glazed from exhaustion. We took a table in the corner, half hidden behind a pillar. The lights above us hummed like they were listening in. I ordered tea and a cheese croissant. Neo ate nothing. I didn’t know if he could even taste anything. I bit into the croissant. It was dry, and my hands were shaking so much I barely registered the flavor. I forced myself to chew, to swallow. The tea was too hot and burned my tongue.

"Breathe,” Neo said quietly. "Or I’ll show you what it feels like when I take your breath away.”

A wave of heat shot through me. My thighs pressed together under the table. Damn. We were on the run, and all I could think about was his hand at my throat. I reached for the teacup to give my trembling hands something to do, but the heat between my legs kept pulsing.

He saw it. Of course he saw it. A smile played at his lips. "Your pulse is at a hundred and ten.”

I looked down and bit the inside of my cheek. How broken was I that his surveillance aroused me like this?

I flinched when a man stepped up to our table. Neo’s fingers closed around my hand hard enough to hurt. Hold it together, that was the message in his grip. I held my breath, pulse spiking, as the man stepped closer. He wore a roll-neck sweater and carried a sports bag. His forehead gleamed with sweat. "Excuse me,” he said. "I’m looking for Gate D23. Am I going the right way?”

My fingers cramped around the napkin. My whole body had locked up as if I’d been hit with a live current.

Neo nodded. "Second hall, then right.”

"Ah, thank you.” The man smiled and moved on.

I felt sweat tracking down the back of my neck. "I thought he was one of them.”

"I know.” Neo loosened his grip, then laid his hand over mine. It still felt like a vise, only gentler, and it calmed me more than it should have.

We waited. I drank my tea, ate slowly, forced myself toward something resembling normal. Neo was quiet, but I felt his gaze wrapped around me like a blanket.

I stood. "I need to use the bathroom.”

"No.” His voice cut through the air.

"Neo, I have to—”

He was up and around the table before I finished the sentence, his hand settling at the small of my back, steering me forward. "Then I’m coming with you.”

"You can’t come into the women’s bathroom.”

"I’ll wait directly outside the door.” His grip tightened. "Three minutes. Then I come in.”

Heat flooded my cheeks. "That’s—”

"Necessary.” He bent to my ear. "You’re too precious to let out of my sight for even a second.”

I walked faster than I needed to. He was directly behind me, his presence a dark shadow. Three minutes. I didn’t waste any of them. My hands were shaking as I splashed water on my face. He would really come in. I knew that. The thought sent a shiver through me. I looked at my reflection. The light was harsh, showing the tension in my face.

"Two minutes, forty seconds,” he said when I came out. "You splashed water on your face. Your pulse is elevated.” He stepped closer, his hand closing around my elbow. "You were thinking about me.”

"Neo . . .”

"Your body gives you away.” He pulled me closer. "You’re wet. I can smell it.”

My breath caught. Here, in the middle of an airport, he was saying this to me. Someone could walk past, could hear. The shame mixed with arousal into something unbearable.

"We need to get to the gate,” I forced out.

"Ten minutes.” His hand slid from my elbow to my wrist, his thumb finding my pulse. "Enough time to remind you who you belong to.” He pressed me against the wall beside the bathroom door, his other hand settling beside my head.

"Neo, not here.”