Page 93 of Wyatt

“I’m here,” he said quietly.

She drew in a breath, her heart stopping to measure the moment. York, his blue eyes holding hers, the grim set to his jaw, but the smallest tweak of a smile up his face. She gripped the edges of his jacket, not wanting to let go. Ever.

Then his gaze flickered over to her mother and he dropped his hand.

“That’s my mother,” she said.

“So that’s where she gets it,” he said. Offered her a quick smile. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

He turned back to RJ. “We’ll figure it out later. For now—let’s get out of here.”

He headed toward the door.

Her mother followed him. But on her way out, she glanced over her shoulder at RJ. “I definitely approve.”

Oh brother.

She followed James Bond and M out into the hallway and down the exit stairs.

They weren’t dead.

Coco hadn’t run away.

And, just maybe, they were going to live happily ever after.

If, that was, they lived through the next ten hours in the back of an Aeroflot cargo plane.

So maybe she shouldn’t start planning her wedding yet.

Not that Wyatt had proposed. And even if he had, she wouldn’t be able to hear him.

Not with the earphones muffling the engine noise.

Still, she tried, leaning over to shout at him, facing him so he could read her lips. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

It was only the fiftieth or so time she’d asked, but she was getting worried. Starting with this morning when Wyatt had practically turned a shade of chalk as he picked up his duffel bag and limped off the train.

The guy was hurting, and why not? He’d shoved his six-foot, three-inch body into a five-foot space and pretended to be comfortable.

All so he could hold her in his arms.

All so she could feel safe.I think somehow I got it in my head that you were in trouble. And…then you were.

She simply couldn’t get past the idea that he thought she’d abandoned him…and he still showed up to rescue her.

What kind of man did that?I swear to you that I’ve never loved anyone else. Physically or emotionally.

Her stomach was roiling, and not just because the plane had just survived a jostling of air pockets somewhere over Japan.

How could she have been so very wrong?

Because she’d only seen what her fears—and hurt—had allowed her to see. That he didn’t really want her. That nobody really wanted her.

She needed to stop translating everything through the lens of her greatest fears.

“I’m fine! Sit down!”

She didn’t actually hear him, but he had enunciated so clearly, it was comical.

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