Chapter 10

Amira couldn't believe she slept an extra half-hour after she'd set her alarm for two in the morning. Actually, scratch that, she could! Why anyone would want to wake up before the sun—on purpose—was beyond her.

Good thing she'd set a backup alarm. She unequivocally despised mornings.

She was still groggy by the time she arrived at the airport and parked in long-term parking. On the shuttle to the terminal, she suddenly couldn't remember if she'd packed her passport.

Amira sifted through her purse, which had three compartments on the inside and one pouch on the outside, all pretty much full. She had two romance novels in one compartment—she never left home without a book, especially a PNR from the greats. Sure, she'd been striking out herself in the romance department—and could probably chalk Richard up as another failure—but at least she could hold on to hope with a Vulcan death grip as she devoured the two books on the flight.

She located her passport—thank goodness—and had no problem checking in or going through security. Before she knew it, Amira was in her seat on the airplane, her earbuds glued to her ears with her K-pop tunes playing. She was just about to crack open her novel when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

She pulled out an earbud without taking her eyes off the page and was shocked when she heard a familiar voice speak to her.

"Is this seat taken?" He said with a chuckle.

"Richard?" Amira's heart practically jumped into her throat when she looked up. "What are you doing here?"

A palm instantly went to the back of his neck as he slid into the seat next to her. "Stan sent me."

A smile spread across Amira's face. "Looks like we'll be working together for a little longer." She pressed her palm onto his nervously twitching thigh.

"Stop that. Are you okay?" She visibly watched his Adam's apple roll from swallowing hard. "I wanted to talk to you after Zagan's attack, but I had to stay with Harriet and Gregor. They needed protection, and I had to just trust that Stan was taking care of you… and that you can take care of yourself."

"I appreciate that," she said in an unconvincingly announcement to him. She liked the fact that Richard believed she could take care of herself, but a part of her had hoped he would have figured out where she lived and busted through her door last night to see for himself that she was okay.

"That's not the only reason I didn't find you yesterday," Richard said with a sigh. "I was worried you were upset with me about what happened in the bathroom at The Joint the other night. I wanted to get your number from Stan and call you, but I didn't want you to think that was too pushy. I think I also didn't want to give you the chance to ask me not to travel to Skyros with you."

She gave his thigh a reassuring squeeze. "I'm glad you're here."

More thoughts about the other night flooded her mind. She remembered sex but honestly thought it was a dream. Did he know more?

"And I'm glad you're okay." His eyes looked her over with fierce intensity. "When I couldn't move for a moment, and Zagan had his hands on you… It was one of the worst moments of my life."

"I'm okay. I'm just fine. Not a scratch from Zagan," she assured him.

"But now we need to know what happened between us when we were there the other night… Well, if we were drugged yesterday, we can assume that the reason everything is a little fuzzy is because we were drugged two nights ago, too."

"Yeah, that's probably true." Amira lowered her gaze.

Richard raised Amira's chin with his forefinger. His gaze heated her core. "Even so, I'm not upset that whatever happened, happened. It's just I'd rather remember every detail of our first whatever it was--time together. I feel like Zagan took that from us. I keep having foggy memories of taking you into the men's room. If that was the case, please understand I would have never done it if?—"

"If you weren't attracted to me?" she let out a breath before continuing. "I'm not upset either." Her hand glided up his chest before resting comfortably on his pectoral muscle. A comfortingly warm heat overcame her palm. She rubbed her hand back and forth while looking into the depths of his eyes. Minutes seemed to pass before she found her voice again. "I want a do-over. It seems only fair, since neither of us can remember how good it was—whatever happened anyway."

His lips curved up into a cocky grin. "So, you're saying I was good?"

Amira quirked a brow and gave him a half-smile in retort. "Like I said, I'll need a do-over to be certain with everything."

His thumb rubbed over her bottom lip. "I so want to kiss you right now."

"Then why don't you?"

"Because I won't want to stop, and as much as I'd love to join the mile-high club with you, I'd rather our next time be in a luxurious bed that we share. I keep seeing things that happened between us from the other night and I can't tell if they are real or a dream. Either way, I want to make them happen and possibly at the place where we're both booked."

She groaned in protest. "That's too far away! Just one little kiss? Please?"

His smile was full this time, and he met her eyes. "I can't seem to say no to you."

He pressed his forehead to hers first before caressing her cheek and then placing his thumb at the dimple on her chin. "I need to kiss you." She let out a whispered moan. He drew her lips to his. The kiss was soft, but as he licked the seam of her mouth, it grew more urgent. She opened her mouth to welcome him, and their tongues intertwined in a violent deliciousness as he assaulted her mouth. He let out a hushed moan before placing his hands on both of her shoulders. In a gentle nudge, placing distance between the two of them, he broke the kiss. Amira mourned the heat of his touch as she let out a whimper.

"It's best to stop before I take you to that bathroom. You drive me crazy, woman, And I would rather we be with each other somewhere besides a bathroom counter or skinny-dipping in a lake as I dreamed. I want our encounter as sensual as you are. So, let's go over the brief Stan gave me before I left. I need some work to keep my mind off of the things I want to do to that gorgeous body of yours," Richard said as he pulled a thick folder out of his attaché case.

"I wondered why he didn't give me anything. He told me Quinn would brief me about the mission once I touched down."

"I think Stan was giving you some time to decompress after all the excitement."

She nodded. It was another way of being coddled, but she tried not to mind. Stan had still let her stay on the mission, and that was what mattered.

Richard seemed to sense that it did bother her some, because he reached for her hand with both of his and placed it on his upper thigh.

"I want you to know that you really impressed me yesterday. You are an awesome FUC. You, my dear, held your own with Zagan and his cronies. I've never seen an agent perform so well on the first assignment."

"An assignment I failed, considering Zagan got away."

"No. Not at all. Your assignment was to keep Gregor safe, and guess what? Zagan didn"t lay a hand on him. You succeeded."

She shook her head, unconvinced. It still felt like a failure to have let Zagan escape.

"I'm serious, Amira. I can't fathom what you or Quinn went through while you were human pincushions for Zagan. It must have been awful. But you faced him yesterday with no hesitation. Hell, you were about to fly off after him on your own."

"I'm not afraid of him," she said, meaning it to the depths of her soul. "He's pathetic. He has minions working for him. He can't do anything on his own. That's why he left so fast. Because he's the one who's scared."

"Right." Richard placed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close. "But if I recall correctly, you said your fears were swimming and snakes, yet you dove head-first to grab Sam even though he was a snake."

"Hmmm, I guess I didn't think about it. I guess my owl form helped me overcome that fear."

But it wasn't just her owl form. She thought Richard might have had a little something to do with it, too. Having him by her side made her feel braver than she ever thought possible.

"I'm glad you're here with me," she said again before resting her head on his shoulder and falling asleep.