Midnight Kiss (Men of Midnight #7) - Lisa Marie Rice Page 0,34

even seem to notice it.

Luke drove them onto the airfield, right up to a small business jet. She didn’t know if it was the same one. Its number was painted on the tail but she hadn’t had enough bandwidth to notice the number of the plane that took her from Boston to Portland.

Luke parked with the passenger side right up against the moveable steps. She didn’t even get a drop of rain on her as she exited the vehicle and climbed the stairs. No one could see her, not even with binoculars. And if someone were checking using IR, all they’d see was a red blob that could possibly be a woman, possibly a small man. But certainly nothing that could identify her.

Luke drove past the steps and exited the driver’s side, grabbed both their wheelies and his duffle bag, head down in the rain, and ducked into the steps, coming up right behind her.

She had a whiff of jet fuel then crossed the threshold into the climate-controlled cabin that smelled of expensive leather and, incongruously, lemon. She sat and Luke sat down right next to her.

He’d morphed instantly, from super vigilant warrior to travelling companion, in the time it took to climb up the steps into the jet. From the moment they stepped out of the hotel room, she could sense the tension in him. Not anxiety. He was preternaturally calm. But he also seemed attuned to everything going on around him. His walk even changed — a deliberate heel-to-toe step that looked like he could spring into a run at a second’s notice.

A gunslinger’s walk, actually. Wildly sexy. Blue eyes cautious, scanning the environment, a gun a microsecond away, ready to draw — yep. An Old West gunslinger. He even had that old-timey sheriff vibe and damned if that wasn’t wildly sexy, too.

He oozed pheromones and testosterone without even thinking about it. Hope felt he was ready and willing, and to a certain extent even eager, to engage with the enemy. Gunfight at the OK Corral, coming right up. Though in this case the enemy wasn’t the Clanton gang but shadowy entities that shot from the darkness. No matter, Luke was willing to face them.

That taut suspicious look was gone from his face as he sat down beside her with a slight sigh. His face relaxed into easier lines that were just as attractive as before, when he’d been ready for a gunfight at any moment.

He leaned his head back for a moment and closed his eyes.

A suspicion crossed her mind. “Did you sleep last night?” she asked, her voice more harsh than she intended.

“Some,” he said without opening his eyes.

He was lying but she didn’t call him on it. Had he stayed awake on overwatch, to keep her safe?

With his eyes closed, she could study his face without it seeming skeevy. He had a fascinating face. It was so classically handsome, enough for him to be a male model. Beautifully shaped head, ice blue eyes — when they were open — arrow-straight nose, high cheekbones, sculpted jaw softened by light-colored stubble.

But it was more than a pretty face. It was a face that showed character and determination without a shred of vanity. He had lines in his face that looked brand new.

While they’d been making their way from the hotel to the airplane, Luke had seemed to occupy more space than usual, projecting himself outward. Now he was relaxed.

There was no danger in a seat on a private jet that was now revving up to taxi. Arguably there was no possible danger within hundreds of miles. Someone used to physical danger would be able to let down that shield of vigilance.

Hope didn’t know how to do that. Unlike Luke, she wasn’t used to physical danger at all. Danger for her came over fiber-optic cable and through the screen of a monitor, and from black hats who at times were halfway around the world. Ever since she’d heard Kyle being killed, seen the men entering her building and on their way to her apartment, the adrenaline had been coursing through her veins and she didn’t know how to turn it off.

Work. Work would do it. Work always helped. No matter what she was feeling, no matter how lonely she got, work helped. Work would help her now.

She’d seen on the tail end of Felicity’s work request another issue, one more in her field of data analysis than security. It took her half an hour but she resolved it