“Thank you, but no. I’m fine.”
“Just let me know if there’s anything you need.”
Nikki resisted a snicker. And the urge to steal a full-on glance at the stranger beside her.
As the flow resumed, he leaned ever-so-slightly her way and murmured, “Must be fascinating reading.”
“It’s work,” she said, undeterred.
“I should probably dive into mine as well.” His accent was more Portuguese than Spanish, a lush sound that was warm and textured. Scintillating. “Though I also brought a book with me. One you might enjoy… A Tale of Two Cities…”
Her gaze snapped up from her phone and landed on the back of the seat of the row before her. Her heart nearly stopped.
Slowly, Nikki turned her head.
Stared into the deepest, most mesmeric cerulean eyes she’d ever seen and whispered, “Nico.”
Excerpt from Dare Me, Book 2 in the Take Me Series
“Actually, it’s Damen. If you don’t mind…”
His hair was different—more neatly trimmed, but the longish bangs remained, curving around his temples. Beckoning her to sweep them back with her fingertips. As she’d secretly done a few times in the hospital.
He still had the bandage on his forehead and a bruise on his squared jaw.
He’d been Nico Valdiviesio a week ago.
Now, he was Damen Castillo?
And he was sitting right next to her.
Nikki’s pulse jumped.
Fuck. Me.
Who was this hotter-than-hell guy, really?
Jude’s voice instantly resonated in her mind: When someone vanishes the way Nico did and then people who surrounded him vanish, too… It can get very dangerous for anyone asking too many questions. Do you understand?
Yeah, she did.
And ominously wondered if she’d already crossed that line…
“How the hell are you sitting next to me on an airplane?” Nikki slowly, cautiously asked.
Damen tore his penetrating gaze from her and took a long drink from his glass, draining it.
“You do know who I am, right?” she quietly demanded.
He held the tumbler in his hand, twisting his wrist as he examined the spectrum of light the cut-crystal created as sunrays filtered in from the window, hitting the glass at various angles.
Nikki’s hand shot out and she jerked the shade down, cutting off the spectacle that momentarily held him spellbound.
His gaze returned to her. He grinned.
“You have a lot of questions. I’m prepared to answer…some of them. Once we’re in the air.”
“Oh, no,” she said as she leaned forward and snatched her laptop bag from under the seat in front of her. “I’m not flying back to the States with you. Whatever the fuck you’re involved with, I don’t want to be misconstrued as an accomplice. In fact…I don’t want to know a damn thing about you.”