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As the group around them dissipated, I watched her from across the room I couldn’t see her eyes that well, but she had a full, sexyShe was s between her Dorinned up at him
If you were ht, you wouldn’t look at me so casually There’d be a lot more fear in those eyes
Chapter Two: Devin
The next afternoon, I slouched in a chair in the Galileo Flight Lounge of Pisa’s international airport, waiting to board the charter jet outside My friend Fort and his submissive Juliet sat beside me, lost in each other’s eyes
No, she wasn’t only his subirlfriend The two of them had weathered a season of ups and downs that ended in this Tuscan reunion, and a tuh, they’d earned the right to irritate everyone around thely tender exchanges that were loud enough for me to overhear
“I’avefrom Juliet for the barest ht not find theht, but I’d left Via Sofferenza soon after the group scene ended The one woied into a subspacey orgass I wanted to do to her
Too bad
I walked over to the airline liaison stationed in the corner of the room Samantha was an old friend from the European circuit, a statuesque brunette with sultry eyes
“Captain Kincaid,” she said “How nice to see you”
“Likewise” I leaned on the counter beside her “Think Dr Novatny will show? We take off in less than an hour”
“We’ll see” Samantha smiled and slid a look over my blue cashmere sweater, then down to aze lingered, returning to my chest with obvious interest
Nope She was vanilla, and too high maintenance for aher the side eye “I just need to keep an astrophysicist calm”
“Nice of you to step up, Dev”
I shrugged “I had to fly back to New York anyway The big boss gavemy father, one of the owners of Gibraltar Air
“Ever ready to shelter the vulnerable and weak,” Samantha replied with a touch of acid
She are oftime—but she didn’t understand them She only understood the pull she felt when I was around, the ile, to attack and retreat I didn’t trifle very often with non-kinky women Too traumatic for them, and a waste of time for me
The desktop phone rang and she picked it up “Galileo Flight Lounge, Sa Okay Yes I’ll let Captain Kincaid know” She hung up and oing to ate just before takeoff”
“Just before takeoff, huh?” I shookto back out”
“She’d better not The NSF chartered this plane for her, and they’ve already loaded her luggage” Samantha looked past me to where Fort and Juliet sat I could see she was as enchanted as I w
as irritated by their lovey-dovey flirting “You’re taking your friends along for the ride? They make a cute couple”
I rolled o he was blocked on her phone, but love conquers all I’ like idiots” Let it go, Dev You should wish your friend well “They belong together,” I conceded “They ht?”
“I agree” She turned away froain “So, anyway, do you know your astrophysicist’s backstory? Did they tell you what happened on her last flight?”
“I haven’t heard anything except that she needs to get to New York to work on some national science project”
A smile tilted the corners of Samantha’s lips “From what I understand, she went a little nuts when she flew here a couple years ago Wigged out, screae her anxiety with pharo well”
Aviophobia: fear of being on an airplane while in flight Often aggravated by acrophobia (fear of heights), claustrophobia (fear of confine control
I couldn’t relate, honestly I loved to fly, just like my father “She hasn’t flown anywhere since then?” I asked
“No She’s been working at that high security lab in Santo Stefano They collect planetary waves or so”
“Why?”
She shrugged “I don’t know Maybe they’re listening for aliens, orouter space”
“And she’s afraid to get on an airplane?”
It didn’t make sense, but that was none of my business The National Science Foundation wanted Dr Novatny in New York, so I’d get her to New York They’d chartered a flight so ouldn’t have to make a stopover, and so Dr Novatny wouldn’t lose her astrophysical shit in front of a couple hundred passengers while ere thirty-five thousand feet in the air