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My life was in New York, and Jack … well Jack had lots of secrets.Being in the CIA … secret arms dealer? Does Ryan even know about any of this?
I cleared my throat and angled my head to one side to glance at him again. The snoring man at Jack’s side leaned closer to Jack and rested his head on his shoulder.
Jack’s frown deepened, and the sour expression on his face made me press back a chuckle. “Sorry,” I said when he looked at me with wide eyes. “It’s just … It’s funny.”
“I knew I should have booked my tickets back home.”
“Why, couldn’t the CIA afford to book you first-class tickets and give you luxury?”
Jack’s eyes widened further, and I remembered this was supposed to be a secret. “Oh, right,” I said and pressed a hand over my mouth. “It’s a secret.”
“A top secret,” he said to me. “No one is supposed to know I work with them,” he added in a hushed tone.
“Right,” I said again, then sighed and turned away from Jack. I rested my hand on the chair’s arm, and Jack suddenly moved, then put his hand on mine. Feeling the heat of his touch made me draw in a sharp breath.
I shivered inside but stilled the sensation coursing through me before it went wild.
“Nina,” Jack murmured, and I turned to him.
“Jack …”
“When we get back to Denver, I’d like to …”
“Excuse me, sir, could you strap in your seatbelts please?” the flight attendant said, interrupting whatever Jack was about to say next. We both looked at her, and she smiled before pointing at the seat belt on Jack’s body. “Strapped, please.”
Jack groaned, and then he did as she asked before he looked at me again.
“Nina, when we get back to Denver, I don’t think …”
“It doesn’t matter,” I quickly said before Jack could go any further. My heart began a fast pang and I feared he would say he didn’t think we should continue this or keep seeing each other. I didn’t want to give Jack the chance to break me with his words again.
“We don’t have to keep seeing each other when we get back to Denver. My life is in New York and yours is in Denver, or wherever your secret service leads you.”
“Okay …” he drawled. “That’s not what I was going to say, but if that’s how you feel then …”
My head snapped in his direction again. “What were you going to say then?” I blurted.
He scoffed, and heat flushed my cheeks. “You really don’t want to see me when we get back to Denver?”
“You’re the one with the secrets, Jack. The one with the ‘I don’t want to hurt you’ line. I don’t know what you want to do, and I’m not going to let you hurt me as you did six years ago.”
I said the words before thinking about them. Jack probably wasn’t so surprised. I mean, he had to know that he hurt me six years ago, right?
And all of that was because I was off-limits.
“Nina,” he called again.
“I don’t think this is the right place for this conversation, Jack,” I stopped him, and sighed. “Let’s talk about this back in Denver.”
“Okay,” he agreed, and then he shifted his hand away from mine. I withdrew my hand and kept it on my thighs, then closed my eyes and willed my head to stop spinning.
The rest of the flight we barely said any words to each other, and once we landed, Jack had a chauffeur waiting with his car. He drove me to Ryan’s house, then drove off without coming in to say hello to Ryan or Rose.
“Hey, sis,” Ryan greeted me when he came out of his house to meet me. “How did Jeddah go?”
“Great!”
Ryan gave me a side hug, and Rose came out of the house wearing the same excited cheer on her face.Seems they finally made up.
