Page 183 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

“And so am I. You said that you were headed to Boston?”

His words were faintly accented, but she couldn’t quite place what the accent might be. He was… He was stunningly handsome. She’d never seen a man like him.

His skin was olive, his hair black. His eyes a crystalline blue. His jaw was square, and his nose a straight blade. His lips were… She couldn’t recall ever looking at a man’s lips before but she was captivated by his. He looked familiar. Vaguely. But she couldn’t quite place him. It wouldn’t surprise her to learn that he was famous. The black suit that he wore fit him exquisitely. And it looked like it cost more money than she had ever made her life.

“Yes. I’m going to Boston. I have a cargo plane.”

“I need to get to Boston.”

“Sorry, but don’t you have a private jet?”

“I do,” he said. “Did you think that I might fly commercial?”

“I don’t know. But I have a very short window to get out of here, and I need to take it.”

“And I will go with you.”

She stared at him. “You won’t.”

“Yes, I will. I will pay you handsomely.” He named a figure that just about knocked her back. She wouldn’t have to worry about money for a year if he paid her that much. It was… It was ridiculous. Obscene.

“You have to be kidding.”

“I’m not kidding.”

“How do I know?”

“What’s the worst that could happen? You have an extra passenger on your flight.”

“You might assault me.”

“Midair? That would turn out badly for me, I think.”

“Unless you’re a hijacker, and you know how to fly the plane.”

“If I could fly my own plane, then believe me when I tell you I would be flying a very different plane out of here.”

“Why do you need to get there so badly?”

“Trying to get to a wedding. It would be a bad look to miss it.”

He was certainly dressed smart enough to be attending a wedding. He could go in the back with her actual wedding delivery, and her other cargo.

“All right. Come with me. But I doubt you’re going to find the seating arrangements to your liking.”

“Well, sleeping rough is definitely not my first choice, but things happen. And I have lived a life filled with unpredictable turns of events. I think this will hardly feel like a singular event.”

“Not to me it won’t,” she said. “This is my day-to-day. You don’t have a parka?”

“No. Why?”

“You better brace yourself.”

She couldn’t help but laugh as she opened the door to the walkway, where it was already bitingly cold.

The glass corridor shielded them from the wind, and the other more aggressive part of the elements, but not from everything else. And when they stepped through the entryway that would take them out to the plane, the wind was like knives.

Though he did not react. Did not buckle.

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