out, leaving the lights off so she can get some rest. I go all the way up front to the business end of the plane and take a seat at the table.
“Drink, sir?” Essie asks.
“Sure. Brandy, if you’ve got it. You the only one on staff tonight?”
“No, the other girls are chatting in the galley. But if you want them, I can get them.”
“No, let them chat. I’ve got everything I need and I can use the quiet time.”
“Very good, sir,” she says, placing a snifter with two fingers of brandy in front of me on the table. “Just call if you need anything.”
I need a lot of things. But nothing Essie can help with. So I won’t be calling for her. I just drink my brandy and think about Sasha. I think about picking her up again and carrying her to the car that will be waiting for us when we land. I hope she doesn’t wake up.
Mostly because I want to carry her again. I loved that feeling. Her soft body against my hard one. But also because I’m not taking her home. And when she figures that out, she’s gonna be pissed.
I wake up screaming.
“Sasha,” Jax says next to me.
“What the fuck?” I look around the room wildly. “Why are you in my bed?”
“Sasha, you’re fine.”
“Where am I?” It’s dark and I am in bed. But even in the dim light I can see I’m not in my bed. “Whose room is this?” And then I look down at my clothes. Which are not my clothes. “Whose clothes are these?” I jump up, slipping out of Jax’s firm grip on my arm, and bounce out of the bed, my feet hitting the floor.
“Sasha, please. Listen.” Jax gets out of the bed on his side, ready to come towards me, but my instincts kick in. My eyes find the door, and before I can even make a conscious decision, I’m through it—running down a hallway. It leads to a small living room and my socked feet slide on the polished hardwood floors.
Front door. Check.
I’m unlocking the chain and pulling it open before Jax even makes it to the living room behind me.
“Sasha!” he yells.
But I’m already out into the cold night air. Three’s a steady drizzle coming down and even though I’m in full-on get-the-fuck-out-of-here mode, all I can think of is why the fuck is it still raining in December?
“Sasha! You’re getting wet. Come back inside.”
I stop about a hundred feet from the house and look around. “Where the hell am I?”
“Just come inside and I’ll tell you.”
“No.” I whirl around. “No. You drugged me again!”
Jax laughs, just like he did the last time I accused him. “Where do you come up with that shit? I didn’t drug you. You were obviously exhausted. You fell asleep in the car, remember? After we left Madeline’s estate?”
I do remember that. “Why am I here when I should be home?”
“I can explain, OK? Just give me a chance. You’re gonna freeze out here. Come inside.”
I look down at my clothes. I’m wearing men’s black boxer briefs and a man-sized black t-shirt. “Where the fuck did these clothes come from?”
“You were sound asleep when we got here, Sasha. I swear. I woke you up as best I could and I told you to change.”
I stare at him dubiously.
“I swear to God, Sasha. I did not drug you. You’re just disoriented. And if you calm down and come back inside, I’m sure you’ll remember.”
I look around and take it all in. There’s a half-moon. Just enough light to see that there are no lights anywhere surrounding this house. I force myself to take deep, deep breaths to calm my racing heart. “Where are we?”
“Nebraska.”
Farmland. That’s all I see. Flat, fallow farmland. And a few dark splotches in the distance that might be trees. “Why the fuck am I still in Nebraska?”
“Will you come inside?” He’s wearing the same thing as me, I realize. And we were sleeping in the same bed. And I had sex with him in the car last night.
Jesus Christ. What the hell am I doing here?
“Sasha,” Jax says, reaching behind the door to grab something. My heart kicks it up another notch as I picture him grabbing a gun. But he comes back into view sliding an umbrella open. “Come on,” he says, taking a few slow steps outside towards me. “You’re getting wet. Let’s go inside and talk about this.”
“Take me home, Jax. Right now.” I eye