Alex’s soft voice pulled him back to her. He noted the slight hurt in her expression that she tried very hard to hide. “I don’t talk about Mia to anyone,” he explained gently. “In my line of work, she’d be the first person that someone would go after to hurt me.”
“Makes sense.”
But it still hurt her. He saw that.
The aroma of brewing coffee filled the cabin when she finally looked his way again. “How are your parents doing? Are they still living in Vermont?”
It surprised him that he had mentioned them to her in Paris. He couldn’t recall that conversation, and as much as he didn’t talk about Mia, he also usually didn’t talk about his parents, but it only reminded him how different Alex had been to him. He shared things he never shared with anyone. “Sailing the Pacific at the moment.”
Alex smiled. “That’s good to hear.” Then her smile faded. “Do they know Mia is missing?”
He shook his head. “One perk of being in the CIA. I’ve gotten her name kept out of the media and bought some time with the Feds before they reach out to them. I don’t want to worry them. I’ll find her.” He had to find her. He couldn’t fathom any other outcome.
Silence filled the space between them as Rowan stared into Alex’s warm eyes. The level of comfort with her had not changed. Intimacy was such a foreign thing. Through all the girlfriends he had in the past, none made him feel so at ease and turned on as Alex. In Paris, he thought Alex’s draw was her wit, her
strength, and her abilities. Now, five years later, he knew it had to be something more. Something that only she possessed, whatever that may be. At some point, he needed to find out exactly what had such a grip on him. But it occurred to him that unlike five years ago, this awareness didn’t shake him. She made him curious.
“You’re right—we will find her.”
Rowan blinked out of his thoughts and found she’d come to sit next to him. “Mia,” Alex continued. “We’ll find her before it’s too late. I promise.”
Warmth touched his chest. He reached for Alex’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “You’ll find her, luv.”
A slow, dangerous smile filled Alex’s face. “And you’ll kill him.”
Rowan let the silence be his answer. He glanced past her, out the window. The kind thing would be a quick kill for the man who took so many innocent lives for his twisted sadistic games.
Kindness was not Rowan’s strong suit.
He was so deep in his thoughts that he hadn’t realized the flight attendant had delivered their coffees, and only blinked back into awareness when Alex rose.
“Be back in a few,” she said before heading down the aisle to the bathroom.
Rowan sipped his coffee, knowing the six-hour flight would feel long. The bitter coffee hit his taste buds, providing just the bite he needed. Though the more he sat there, watching the flight attendant busying herself with preparing their food, the more he realized he wanted to taste something more than coffee.
He took one final sip of his coffee, leaving it on the small table next to his seat, then he followed to where Alex had gone. For this one moment, he let Mia go from his mind, and allowed himself to dip into something good. He stopped outside the door and knocked. The door slowly opened.
Alex grinned. “You took way too long.” She grabbed his shirt and pulled him in and quickly locked the door behind him.
She looked hot, eager, and turned on when he grasped her hips, placing her against the sink. The toilet was behind him. The shower to his left. And the amount of space in the bathroom was comparable to the bathroom in Alex’s hotel room. He caught her licking her lips as he lifted the front of her shirt enough to unbutton her jeans. Her gaze heated beautifully when he tucked his fingers into the rim of her panties, and pulled those, along with her jeans, down until she was stepping out of her shoes, then her pants. Only when he had her bottom half bared did he cup her neck, lifting her chin up with his thumb, and sealed his mouth across hers. He gave her long, slow kisses, savoring each and every one. She moaned against his lips when he kicked open her legs and slid his fingers between her thighs, finding her already wet. He loved that about her. How ready she always was for him.
It made them even. He was always hard.
“You feel so damn good, luv,” he murmured against her lips.
She moaned in return. He stroked the silkiness of her arousal and drew it up over her clit, while he swirled the bud, feeling the tremble of her leg against his thigh.
“Rowan,” she breathed.
“Say that again.” He leaned away, threaded his fingers into her hair, staring into her hooded eyes.
“Rowan.”
“Christ, I love how that sounds coming from your mouth.” Heat consumed him, pulling him deeper under her spell when he pressed his mouth against hers again and kissed her roughly, swirling her into pleasure with every hard press of his fingers, until she moaned louder. Then, and only then, did he drop to one knee. He kissed her thigh and heard her sharp intake of breath as he draped her thigh over his shoulder. Teasing her, he gently licked her soft folds. She slid her hands into his hair, tipped her head back, and moaned deeply.
He played, tickled, teased, until she began trembling.
After that, he gave her what she wanted from him. A body-quivering orgasm that had her standing up on her tiptoes and screaming his name.