He took the cup away while there was still some left, and I whimpered at the loss, and tried to reach for it again. A masculine hand wound around my reach, palming my fist in his.
“Save it. You should go slow.” The rumble in his chest through my back sent a shiver crawling up my spine. “We’ve still got an hour left of this flight.”
“I can’t do it,” I cried, shaking my head against his shoulder. “I can’t.”
And he surprised me by saying, “I know.”
He cupped both of my hands in his, rough calluses brushing oddly soothing strokes over the back of my hands. He placed them back on his knees, giving me something to grab onto and stabilize myself. “I can give you two more sleeping pills that will put you out for the rest of the flight if you want,” he spoke, tone devoid of feeling.
“Four.”
He bit back a pause. “Three.”
“Okay,” I quickly agreed, knowing I wouldn’t get a better offer than that. “I want them. Now. Put me out of my fucking misery.”
Reyes' sigh moved our bodies as one again before he shifted slightly and pulled a tiny orange bottle from his jeans. He shook two, and then a third white pill into the palm of his hand, and I snatched them out before he could hand them over.
I threw them back, gulped them down with water, and waited.
“Should take ten or fifteen minutes before they kick in.”
“Fuck, that’s too long.” Panic began to worm its way back up my throat, my breathing faltering into choppy intakes already. “You have to distract me.”
“How?”
“A story. A fucking song. I don’t care, j-just distract me. You owe me that.”
“Scarlett…” Remorse pushed out of him in a sigh that I swallowed down, wanting his shame and his sickly guilt to spit out at him whenever he deserved it. “I never would have-I… If I had known—”
“You shouldn’t have needed to know my sob story in order to not be a fucking dick,” I spat.
Behind me, regret radiated out of him. “You’re right.”
“Yeah, I know I’m fucking right.” I choked back another sob that strangled my throat so thin, my voice could barely make a whisper. “I never wanted to be on another plane again…”
“Were you on the one he…?”
“No.” I wished I was though. So many times, I wished I had been sitting next to him so that I could have perished right alongside him like I deserved. “He was coming to see me because I was a fucking baby and asked him to.”
“You couldn’t have—”
“Don’t,” I snapped. “Don’t tell me it wasn’t my fault. Don’t tell me I couldn’t have known what would happen. Don’t tell me any pretty words of pity, because I don’t fucking want them.”
“Okay, okay.” He ducked his head into my neck, lips hovering the naked skin of my shoulder. Goosebumps blew into existence as he heaved an exhale and mumbled in my neck. “What kind of story do you want?”
“Anything. I don’t care. Just start fucking talking, Agent.”
The tickle of breath across my skin pulled short.
“My name is James,” he revealed, his voice deep.
“James.” I rolled his name around my tongue, tasting the flavors of the syllables.
“It was my grandfather’s name.”
“Tell me about him.”
Being so close to him, I heard him swallow, felt his throat pull up and down. “He was a war Vet. Served in World War II. He’s the reason I went into the force.”