Page 28 of Lady and the Hitman
“I don’t know,” I said. “I think I just wasn’t ready to be looked at.”
His gaze dragged over me then—purposeful, measured, thorough.
“You’re ready now.”
I didn’t answer.
Because we both knew he was right.
He held my gaze for a moment longer. Then he nodded once, turned, and walked past me—disappearing through a door at the back of the cabin.
Private quarters, maybe. Or a galley. I didn’t know.
I just sat there, vibrating with unsaid things.
I looked down at the blindfold still in my lap.
My fingers curled around it without thinking.
It was soft. Warm from my skin. It didn’t look like much—just fabric. But it might as well have been an electric current.
He came back a few minutes later holding something in his hand.
A small velvet pouch.
My stomach dipped.
He dropped it into my palm.
“For later,” he said.
“What is it?”
He didn’t answer.
Just returned to his seat and looked out the window again like we weren’t flying toward something neither of us was ready to name.
I didn’t open it.
Not yet.
Instead, I set it beside the blindfold. Let them sittogether on the armrest between us like some kind of offering.
And then I did something that surprised even me.
I pulled my legs up onto the seat.
Curled into myself, quietly.
Not afraid.
Just waiting.
And for the first time, I let myself enjoy the waiting.
Because I had a feeling that once we landed …
The waiting would be over.
