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His laugh was hollow, but his return embrace was tight. “You’re a gentle soul, Eleanor Wentworth. Very much like your mother,” he said, echoing her thoughts. “I didn’t deserve her and I don’t deserve you.”
“Maybe,” she allowed with a small smile as she returned to her seat beside Sandor, leaning against him slightly and drawing on his strength. “But you’re stuck with me regardless.”
“We’ll fly to California to see Helen Taylor tomorrow,” her dad decided.
Sandor’s arm returned to her shoulder and squeezed. “I am going with you.”
Ellie didn’t even consider arguing. She craved his support. She turned to meet his dark gaze. “I would appreciate that.”
He kissed her, his lips tender, his expression unfathomable. “Then it is settled.”
They flew in Sandor’s private jet to a small airport near the town that Helen Taylor called home. She wasn’t sure why they’d taken Sandor’s plane instead of her father’s. But when Ellie asked, her father said only that Sandor preferred to do so. He and her dad worked while Ellie fretted, but hid it behind a facade of relaxed boredom while flipping through one of the fashion magazines that featured shots of her sister.
Hawk had provided a wealth of information on Amber’s career. Ellie had spent countless sleeping hours looking at pictures of her sister in “model mode” and wondering what went on behind her beautiful aqua gaze. Funny how the same color of eyes on Ellie felt like nothing special, but on her model sister, they looked exotic and mysterious.
She rubbed at her own eyes, wishing she could take a nap, but knowing sleep would be ever elusive. She simply could not turn her brain off. She’d done a good job of keeping up the stoic front she’d spent a lifetime cultivating, but underneath, she wanted to crumple.
But a Wentworth did not crumple and even if they did, she couldn’t. Her father and her sister needed her right now.
They were less than an hour into the flight and Ellie was yawning for the fifth time when, without the slightest warning, she felt herself bodily lifted from her seat.
Gasping, she clutched at Sandor, the magazine fluttering to the floor of the cabin. “What are you doing?”
“You need rest.” She wasn’t having any trouble reading his expression now. He looked angry. “Have you slept a full night since the day you returned from Spain?”
“No,” she admitted and let her head drop to lie in the curve of his neck. “But I’m not going to sleep now, either.”
“We shall see.”
She found herself smiling against his chest at his arrogance. “I can’t. Honestly, Sandor. Too many things are whirling inside my head.”
He ignored her words and carried her to the tiny bedroom in the back of the plane, kicking the door shut behind him once they were inside.
“This is pretty nice. My father’s jet doesn’t have a bedroom,” Ellie remarked.
“I know. That is why we took mine.”
“For the bedroom?”
“Yes. You are not sleeping. That is obvious to anyone with eyes. I was determined you would rest comfortably during the flight.”
Unused to being cosseted, Ellie found herself swallowing a suspicious lump in her throat. Even if she couldn’t sleep, she appreciated the gesture. A lot.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“You are welcome.” He laid her down on the bed, arranging her so that her head rested on a nice fluffy pillow. “Comfortable?”
“Mmm…hmmm.”
“Good.” He sat on the end of the bed and took her shoes and thin socks off.
She wiggled her toes. “Um…thanks.”
“Again…you are welcome.”
But he did not stop there. Before she knew what he was doing, he’d unbuttoned her dark silk slacks and had them halfway down her hips.
She grabbed his wrists. “What are you doing? You can’t undress me,” she hissed in a fierce whisper, not wanting her father to hear.
Though it was highly unlikely, even in the well insulated cabin, flying created a lot of white noise that masked conversations even between people seated near one another.
“You cannot sleep with your clothes on. Relax,pethi mou. I will take care of you.”
“I’m not going to sleep anyway,” she protested. “There’s no reason for me to get undressed.”
“You will be more comfortable.” With a deft move of his hands, he broke her hold on his wrists and had her slacks down her legs and off before she could do more than gasp. He folded them on a neat crease and hung them in the miniscule closet before turning back to face her. “Is that not better?”
