She glares at me for that, but her eyes are too wide to make the effect convincing.
I take the water from her hand, set it aside, and reach for her wrist instead. Two fingers over the pulse. Too fast.
Her attention drops to my hand on her skin. “You do this often?” she asks, and even through the nerves I can hear the attempt at humor.
“Calm frightened women in the sky?”
She nods.
“No.”
That stills her.
I hold her gaze. “Just you.”
Something in her face shifts at that. The fear doesn’t go away, but it changes shape. Softer now. More aware. She looks at me as if she can’t decide whether I’m helping or making this worse.
Possibly both.
I keep my fingers at her wrist until her pulse starts to settle.
Then she says, “You really upgraded to an entire suite because I looked nervous.”
“You looked like you were about to climb out of your own skin.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one you’re getting.”
She gives me a long look and then, despite herself, she smiles again. Small. Uncertain. Beautiful enough to make me lose interest in every other woman in the air.
I should have known then that the flight would not end well for me.
Present Day
I hear the commotion before I reach the hallway.
Raised voices. A startled gasp. Then silence, the bad kind, the kind that tells me something has already happened.
By the time I turn the corner, Sienna is stumbling backward.
One of the house staff catches her under the arms before she can hit the floor properly, another grabbing for her elbow as her knees buckle. It all happens in a flash. Camille is standing a few feet away, flushed and rigid, and Ethan is staring at Sienna with a look on his face I do not like at all.
Everything in me goes cold. “What the fuck is going on here?”
Every face in the hallway turns toward me.
Sienna looks up. She’s pale, breathing too fast, still half held by the staff. Even now, with everyone staring at her, she tries to straighten and says, “I’m fine.”
I don’t listen.
I close the distance between us at once and crouch in front of her. “Are you hurt?”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“Is anything hurting?”
“No.”