My blood turns to ice.
He steps closer still, voice low and dangerous. “What are you hiding?”
“Nothing.”
The answer comes too fast.
He crouches in front of me, bringing us eye to eye, and somehow that’s worse than him looming overhead. Worse because it’s intimate.
“Elizabeth.”
I grip the edge of the seat so hard my fingers ache.
“If I have to take that dress off you myself,” he says, each word measured, “I’m not going to be gentle.”
A tremor runs through me.
“Please,” I say before I can stop myself.
His face stills, and I want to take back the words. He has always been most dangerous when he goes quiet.
“Please what?”
I hate that my voice shakes and I hate that I’m giving him this.
“Just... let me go change.”
His eyes search mine, catching on the panic I can’t quite hide. He knows there’s more here than defiance now. He just doesn’t know what.
Yet.
He straightens slowly and picks up the garment bag, tossing it onto the seat beside me.
“One minute,” he says. “Then I come back there myself.”
Humiliation and dread crawl up my throat together.
I snatch the bag before he can change his mind and stand. Clutching the bag, I force myself not to touch my stomach.
“I mean it,” he says as I edge past him into the aisle. “If you’re not out by then, I cut it off.”
I turn my head and glare at him, pouring every bit of hatred and fear I have into it. “I hope whatever part of you still thinks this is love rots.”
Something dark moves through his face. But when he answers, his voice is flat.
“Go.”
I hurry toward the back of the jet, silk whispering around my ankles, my heart pounding so hard I feel sick. The bathroom door slams behind me, and only then do I let myself breathe.
For one awful second, I just stare at my reflection and cry. I was so stupid thinking I was safe. And now I’m a hostage. And beneath the fitted lines of the dress, the slight curve no one at the church saw. No one but Dante knew to protect.
My fingers fumble at the back closures. I don’t have much time because out in the cabin, Lorenzo is waiting.
I finally get the dress off and tear open the garment bag. He grabbed clothes from my room. There are leggings, a t-shirt, and a hoodie. I almost sob in relief, because all of my hoodies are oversized.
A tap on the door has me freezing.
“Time’s up.”
