Sparrow - L.J. Shen Page 0,58
quietly sank into my blue, first-class seat, chewing on my fingernails and hoping that the plane wouldn’t crash. Or maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea, after all. A whole life with Troy felt like a burden only convicted war criminals should serve.
“Before I fired him, Connor mentioned that you tried to run away. You think you can run away from me?”
I didn’t give him the satisfaction of turning to look at him in his seat. I watched him from my peripheral vision as I choked the armrest with my grip. His gaze was on his iPad, but his stone-cold-killer mask was on full display, his jaw hard. I half shrugged, pretending to stare out the window. I wanted to let him second-guess my next move. Be the one to keep him in the dark for once.
“It wouldn’t be a good idea to cross me, Sparrow.” He lifted his face, his menacing voice caressing my cheek. Every word echoed between my thighs.
I grimaced. This was not a good time to be turned on.
I licked my dry lips as the plane taxied down the runway, the wheels eating up the ground with incredible speed. Shit, it was fast.
His hand moved between us, hovering over my inner thigh but not touching.
I angled my hips away from him. “I’m a good runner.”
“And I’m an excellent chaser,” he whispered.
MIAMI TURNED ME into a sweaty mess of auburn curls, but it still stole my breath away. Like a first date with your high school crush, your first kiss underneath the bleachers and that very first cupcake from the overpriced bakery down the road.
Boston was a concrete jungle full of grungy-gray and staid-red brick buildings, whereas Miami was colorful, sunny and vivid. Boston was rainy, Miami, sunny. Boston was suited, Miami, bikini-clad.
It’s like I’d stepped into a parallel universe, where everything and everyone were more alive and vital. Well, other than the man who brought me here. He was much the same. All cold efficiency and barely contained fury. Troy was munching on a toothpick, as he always did. Toothpicks were his pacifiers, and he left them everywhere he went, like a fingerprint.
Our cab stopped in front of a resort-style hotel, two rows of tall palm trees leading to its entrance. I looked up and saw the vast, glassed-in balconies of each room, every patio boasting its own small, real-grass garden and swimming pool. The driver hopped out and ran to the trunk, yanking out our two suitcases. I got out, sucking in the humid air and fanning myself with my hand as I scanned the very foreign surroundings.
Brennan stayed in the car, rolling the toothpick between his teeth and tongue, his dark aviator shades hiding those eyes that pinned me every time they glanced my way. The suitcases sat between us on the walkway like bouncers trying to make sure we weren’t going to pounce instinctively and kill each other.
“Are your legs too precious to walk anymore? Do you need to be wheeled into the premises?” I mocked, venom dripping from each word. “Oh, I know, maybe I can give you a piggyback ride.”
“Funny.” He spat the toothpick to the sidewalk and leaned back into the seat of the cab. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“You’re leaving me here?” My voice prickled with edge.
He looked around us, like he wasn’t sure I was talking to him. “You don’t want me to touch you. You certainly don’t fucking want my conversation and you have my credit card. It’s your honeymoon. Check-in. Go have fun. I, myself, am planning to do the same.”
What? After everything he’d done, practically shoving me onto the plane against my will for this so-called honeymoon, he was going to just dump me in a hotel and abandon me like I was a stray cat?
I offered him a sly smile. “Aw, I’m hurt. Are you saying I’m no fun?”
“I’m saying that if I can’t eat it, fuck it or kill it I have no interest in it,” he answered dryly.
He was messing with me again, capitalizing on the fact everyone feared him. And let’s face it, he knew what I was ashamed to admit—his dangerous aura did appeal to me. People were like onions, made of lots of layers. The deeper you went, the rawer the layer. With Troy, I’d found a layer in myself that wanted to be scared. That got off on the adrenaline and rush of being with a savage.
I bit on my inner cheeks, tasting the metallic tang