Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Elaine

Istared at the plane ticket. Seat 29C. Flight 181. NYC to London Heathrow.

I was still in shock that I’d made it through security and check-in with nobody saying a word, but I had. Praise God, it seemed Lucian had, too. My whole body flooded with relief when he stepped into the lounge and took a seat at the other end of the room from me. We were both there. Together, though it seemed apart.

I’d never been so happy in my life.

Other travelers came and filled up the lounge around us, busy with their own business and without giving us too much interest. There was chatter, and excitement, and people busy on their cell phones, while I just stared at the plane ticket in my hands, truly trying to believe this was happening.

Seat 29C of Flight 181. NYC to London Heathrow.

I was now Penelope Anne Jackson and I was going to London. We were going to London.

The voices of a couple sitting next to me were enough to pull me out of my trance. My stomach dropped right down to the pits when I heard their words.

Can you believe it? Lionel Constantine is really dead! Shot on a golf course. It’s just crazy. CRAZY.

First Elaine Constantine gets kidnapped and then her uncle gets murdered!

Yeah, and you know what they’re saying, right? They’re saying it’s Lucian Morelli who kidnapped Elaine!

Madness. It’s fucking madness.

Holy shit, it hit me hard, but I just kept on staring and praying, barely risking a breath since I was sitting right next to them.

I kept my attention on my plane ticket. My thoughts trying to be a mantra.

Seat 29C of Flight 181. NYC to London Heathrow.

Penelope Anne Jackson.

The mantra didn’t last long as the couple carried on talking.

You don’t really think Lucian Morelli kidnapped and murdered Elaine Constantine, do you?

I dunno. I’ve heard people saying that he was fucking her. That they were dating or something.

Fuck knows, then. Whole thing seems crazy.

What seemed even crazier was that the both of us were sitting in the same damn room and nobody had noticed.

I risked a glance at Lucian and he was sitting mute, staring ahead of him. He didn’t look like a Jason Ryan Reynolds. He also didn’t look like a man who was wanted for murder.

I heard someone on the news saying that Lucian Morelli was chasing Elaine down so hard at a club that he kneed some security guy in the stomach and threatened to kill him if he didn’t let him through.

Maybe he really is the one who kidnapped her. They think she’s dead.

I was so relieved when the attendants called us for our flight that I leapt up out of my seat and dashed straight over to the doorway. I was right at the front of the line with a big, fake smile on my face as the attendant started letting us through.

“Enjoy your flight,” she told me, and I thanked her with another big smile.

I went straight onto the plane and up the aisle. Seat 29C. 29C. 29C.

It was on the right-hand side of the aisle, next to the window. I sat myself down and stared out, heart racing so fast I could feel the thump in my ears.

I could sense Lucian walking up the aisle between other passengers. I twisted in my seat just enough to see him walk right on up to row 37.

Yes.

He’d made it.

I couldn’t believe it when the same damn couple from the lounge came along to sit in the seats next to me. They got themselves ready for the flight, loading up their baggage into the overhead compartments. This time the woman actually looked at me and smiled as she sat herself down.

“Hey,” she said, and I smiled back.

“Hey.”

Then I did it. I tried it out for the first time. “I’m Penelope.”

“Carrie-Ann,” she said back. “You off to London on vacation?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m off on vacation. Got family over there.”

“Cool,” she said. “We’re off on vacation, too. Been wanting to go since I was a kid.”

She got herself comfortable and then she started up a conversation with her boyfriend. I let out a long slow breath of relief when her attention was gone from me.

We could do this. We really could.

In the face of two people literally talking about my abduction, I could introduce myself as Penelope Jackson and get away with it. That was one hell of a blessing I was grateful to receive.

The attendants did their safety demonstration and we got buckled in ready to fly. The takeoff was a brilliant rumble up the runway and soon we were up there, high in the sky and leaving NYC behind in the distance.

Under normal circumstances I’d be enjoying myself, but every second felt like a year as I begged the universe that we’d make it across the Atlantic and off at the other side.

The flight was long as we flew into the night. The sky was dark. Sleep was anywhere but with me as the lights dimmed down around me.

The couple next to me were pretty good at snoozing. They had eye masks and those neck pillows to help them sleep, and drifted off just fine. Eye masks and neck pillows would have done jack shit to help me. I was well and truly wired.

I tried watching bland movies on the back of the seat in front, but nothing held my interest. The only thing on my mind was my beautiful monster a few rows back. Being away from him, even just for a few long hours, felt like hell. That and the pain in my chest that was still hurting raw.

At least I’d survived it. Lucian had made sure of it.

The flight attendant came up and down the aisle offering hot drinks. I took a black coffee and sipped at the caffeine like it was some sacred fountain of life. That was my main addiction now—caffeine.

The thought of alcohol and cocaine abuse felt so removed it was alien. Insane. The thought of anything to do with my previous life felt so removed it was alien, even though in reality it was just a few short weeks ago that I was holed up in my hellhole of a world.

Mom. Harriet. Silas. Tinsley. Tristan. Jemma. I wondered if I’d ever speak to any of them again, let alone ever see them. It gave me a surprising lump in my throat when I thought of my mother. Harriet and Tristan and Jemma, sure, I’d be prepared to cry over, but my mom? I never expected to cry over her, but I couldn’t deny it. There was a tear in my eye as I pictured the smile I rarely saw from her.

Somehow I doubted she’d be crying over me anytime soon. That was the thought that truly made my tears fall.

Mom wouldn’t be crying over me. She’d be glad I was gone.

I think I must have finally managed to drift off to sleep in the very early hours of the morning. The sun was up and the morning was bright when I squirmed into life after a few hours of unconsciousness, and the couple next to me were already awake watching movies with headphones on. I stared right out of the window and I saw the land under us, cities and roads mapping out the veins of the country.

We’d done it. We had crossed the Atlantic.

The attendants did one more pass through the aisle and I took one more cup of coffee before asking the couple next to me to get up from their seats so I could take a pee in the bathroom.

I had tickles running through me as I walked up toward the rear of the plane. I held my breath as I passed right by him. Lucian. Only he wasn’t Lucian anymore, he was Jason Ryan Reynolds.

His smile was calm, but his eyes were anything but stoic behind his glasses when they met mine.

It sent my heart racing to see the truth in them, because there was no denying it. Lucian was as desperate for me as I was desperate for him. Both of us. Hungry. Needy. Horny.

Both of us happy, too.

Happy we’d made it.

I really, really wasn’t expecting his desperation to overload him enough to catch up with me outside the bathroom. I was just stepping into the lavatory when he grabbed hold of me from behind and shunted himself in after me.

“I’ve been missing you,” he told me, then locked the door behind us.

I barely let out a squeak before his mouth was on mine.

His hands were frantic as they tugged my sweater and t-shirt up and over my tits. There was no doubt about it, he sure had been missing me as badly as I’d been missing him, but it wasn’t what he was looking for. He was checking my wound all over again.

“This is crazy,” I whispered. “Lucian, this is crazy. I thought you said to stay away from each other at all costs.”

“I did,” he growled. “But I can’t stay the fuck away from you, Elaine. You drive me too fucking wild, and not only that, I’m too fucking worried about you.”

His cock was hard through his joggers and I squeezed him tight, working my fingers up and down him as he pressed me even tighter against the side of the cubicle.

It was him who came to his senses before I did. He took hold of my wrists and gathered his breaths and there was at least some kind of rationality in his eyes this time as he stared at me through his glasses.

I tried to gather my own.

“I’m Penelope Jackson,” I reminded myself. “I have to be Penelope Jackson from here on.”

“You’ll never be Penelope Jackson to me,” he said, and there was a whole fresh burst of fire in his eyes. “You’re Elaine Constantine and I love you for it.”

With that he opened the bathroom door just a crack to check the aisle. “Just a few more hours to go, little doll,” he whispered, and then he was gone.