Page 71 of Princess For All

I focused on Kristof. “You did it. And you kept me from doing it when you knew I wanted it and didn’t have a real conversation. But I’m still having it with you instead of just doing what I want and fully am allowed to as a fucking adult and not your daughter.”

That took the rest of everything out of his attitude. He swallowed loudly and nodded. Kristof adjusting his neck before moving closer. “I’m practically indestructible at this point though, my love, and—”

“Bullshit. You fall from a jet at those speeds and that height and you’re just as dead as I am. That’s why they checked all the safety everything before you went up. I’m going up in the choppers—I want this. I’m doing it. Accept it and don’t make this a thing and I’ll try and not throw a fit you kept me from this. But you have to stop putting me in a fucking bubble!”

All of the emotions played over his face, and I saw the moment he debated just grabbing me and racing off. “Quickly. Please? Just not far or too high and quickly.”

“I said the same,” James assured him. “And I won’t mess with her like I do others. I promise.”

Kristof bobbed his head and met my gaze. “I’m sorry. I cannot lose you, and the risk isn’t worth it to me.”

I huffed and went to hug him. “I got that at first, but they’ve been flying all over the place and nothing has happened, you old fart. And I’ve been seriously pissed atthemfor not doing this for me. You are in deep shit. Totally deep shit.”

“Yes, My Princess,” he chuckled as he hugged me tightly. “Come back to me, Inez. Don’t leave me alone in this life.”

“Ten minutes tops and they can do the radios now.” I gave him a heated kiss and was excited to go.

Yeah, not yet since everyone demanded the full inspection just in case someone messed with the jet because people knew it was James’s jet now. Fear raced through me and I ordered someone always guard the jet and we had a dozen just for him that he rotated through. A locked hanger or something even.

I was glad when others agreed with me and took that threat seriously.

Theyreallytook it seriously when now I would be riding in the jets and it would be an easy way to take me out. One of Keres’s nobles and—Kristof became a beast of ideas, barking out how to fortify our jets after realizing that.

We should have done that already, but at least we were now.

It took a while as James and his team inspected everything. I saw he was nervous now that everyone knew and was watching. I sighed. It was always such a spectacle andthingwhen I was involved.

It made sense, but it got annoying at times.

Fine, all of the time.

I told everyone to give them an hour and we should go handle other things. The appreciative look James gave me made me chuckle. He did tell me not to eat even if he was going to go easy on me.

Fair.

I got some of my nervous and excited energy out putting some small things back online. It was so easy for me now that I’d really focused on growing my power and things had been going well. It wasn’t shocking how much damage stress could do to your body, but when you saw how well your body functioned when things got better… That was like a punch to the gut.

At least it was for me.

We came back and he was ready. He had me change into a flight suit for the full experience and walked me through the safety features, always the patient instructor. Mostly he wanted to make sure I understood how to pull the emergency release in case we had to eject.

Got it.

“Just do what you normally do and be my sexy pilot,” I told him when he started to get nervous again. “I’ve wanted this for so long that my head’s about to pop.”

“Yeah, I got you, spicy snack,” he chuckled, snagging another kiss. He helped me get in and belted up before he did his thing.

I had to bite back a squeal as the cover started lowering and the engines fired up. Finally. Like…Finally, it was happening.

I did squeal when we took off. It wasso muchbetter than the helicopter. It was un-fucking-real and something I would never forget. I let out a whoop as we turned so I could see them below.

“Okay, gonna get away a bit and a little higher before I punch it. I’m going to do everything safest with the winds and weather even, so we’re not just going to see this or that,” he said to me over the radio. “We can do that on the whims of the weather—even like commercial flights it’s better for the days to check on New Orleans or whatnot.”

“Yeah, someone suggested we do that more, but why when we have the old farts who can race there?” I said.

“I would still advise we get drones going and have that always as the option,” he replied. “We have the people now and—anything for more warning. We should train more and the humans—there were a lot who knew the system and just need the refresher and chance after so many years.”

“Do it,” I accepted after a moment. “Yeah, we can find a way to have a squad at every location or something—some guaranteed apartment orsomethingso they’re on location with drones going. Especially in Canada where there’s so much area and the settlements are smaller. Some of the vamps have talked about splitting up more.”

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