Fuck. That was hot and also bad news for Cash, lusting after them both.
“Yeah. Maybe. Who knows?” Sola looked out the window as they began to taxi for takeoff. “We can talk about it when we get home.”
“Don’t let your guard down,” Jordan warned his operatives. “Until we know for sure, keep him under watch and bound. See you soon.”
He hesitated before disconnecting the call. “For the record, Sola, I would never fire you for making that kind of call.” He grew quieter then, but not softer. “If I’d listened to Johnny’s premonition that something was off all those years ago, he might still be here today. You did good.”
Sola blinked a few times and gave Jordan a curt nod. Then he was gone, the screen blank.
But that didn’t clear the air between her and Aarav, which was still dense enough to risk bringing the plane down even as they began to soar and climb through the clouds. Cash attributed the squirmy sensation in his stomach to their ascent instead of watching their dynamics and trying to keep from imagining them in bed together.
Thankfully he was freezing or it might have gotten embarrassing.
“Does that mean you forgive me too?” Sola asked Aarav.
“Absolutely not.” He whipped off his seat belt and began pacing before it was probably wise to be unrestrained. Then again it wasn’t even the tenth most hazardous thing Cash had seen them do in the brief time he’d known them. “What were you thinking stepping in front of him right then? I could easily have blown your head off!”
So she literally had saved Cash’s life. Damn. He wasn’t sure if he should be outraged they’d kidnapped him or grateful she’d intervened when he hadn’t even known he was at risk.
“Nah. I knew you wouldn’t.” Sola unclipped too and rose. She crossed to Aarav and laid her hand on his shoulder, massaging the knotted muscles there. “He’s a foot taller than me at least and you would have hit him between the eyes. You never miss.”
“I was a mile away! If a butterfly farted, I could easily have missed by that much. Besides, even if I’d hit you first it wouldn’t have stopped the bullet. I’d just have taken you both out.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“But you didn’t,” Sola reminded him.
“I’m going to see that moment in my nightmares for the rest of my life. Your face in my sights.” He shuddered then, as if he was the one sopping wet.
“Aarav, it’s fine.I’mfine.” Sola slipped around to his front and Aarav’s arms instantly went around her, hugging her tight to his chest despite the wet spot she was undoubtedly leaving all along his front.
They stood there for long enough, rocking slightly with the motions of the jet, that Cash figured he should look away. But he couldn’t. They were brave, loyal, and obviously in love.
He was instantaneously jealous. Of a pair of assassins sent to off him.
That was fucked up.
After what seemed like minutes, Aarav release a ragged sigh. “You were right to stop me. Thank you for keeping me from doing something unforgivable.”
Sola looked up at him with misty eyes. They leaned closer as if they might kiss, but at the last second, she looked over at Cash instead. “He doesn’t deserve to be miserable for the next ten hours. We should let him take a shower and find some dry clothes or give him one of the robes in the bathroom at least.”
Aarav cleared his throat and let his hand fall away from her slowly, as if he hated every inch of separation. “Yeah. Okay. Let’s get you cleaned up and warm, too.”
6
Cash admitted a hot shower sounded like heaven right then. “Thanks. But you’re going to have to let my hands free for that. Unless you two plan to join me.”
He wouldn’t complain if they did. Something good might as well come of all this.
Sola snorted. “Not happening. And you’ll have to live with getting naked in front of us. No way am I taking my eyes off you for one second until we figure out what the full story is here. Especially not on a plane over an ocean. Putting myself at risk is one thing, but now you’re a wild card for my whole team. If something goes sideways, it’s on me.”
“Fair enough, I suppose.” Cash stood wincing at the squish of his socks.
“That way.” Aarav pointed toward the rear of the plane, the only doorway off the main cabin other than the cockpit.
So Cash went. He wasn’t surprised to find a luxurious—if compact—owner’s suite, most of which was taken up by a big-ass bed trimmed in some sort of exotic wood. It reminded him a little of his home on his boat, which he was starting to think he might not see again for a while.
He turned away from the sight, almost certain Sola and Aarav had made good use of it on their voyage out to get him and faced the bright white bathroom. He’d never had a problem with baring himself. So when Sola freed his hands, he began to strip.
“Where are your tan lines?” Sola’s gaze scanned him from head to toe. Part of her job? Or maybe his attraction to her wasn’t exactly one-sided.