Chapter 56 Chapter 56
Violet
I ran out of excuses to keep her around and finally said, "No thanks"
"Hope you have a pleasant experience" She smiled at me and turned away to ask the same question to Elijah. He shook his head and she left shortly thereafter.
Her voice faded as she disappeared behind the partition, leaving only a hushed, awkward silence between us.
I glanced toward Elijah, waiting for some indication that he had noticed me.
But there was nothing. Not even a flicker of recognition.
Fine, I thought, reminding myself that I was the one who had drawn this boundary, who had told him to behave as if I were nothing more than his sister’s friend, and nothing beyond that. He was respecting what I had demanded.
Then why did it feel so brutally cold?
I cleared my throat softly. “Hello.”
He turned one page of the file.
Then, in a clipped voice that sounded deliberately neutral, he said, “Violet.” No warmth, no hostility either, simply acknowledgement, restrained and contained.
His gaze did not leave the document.
I swallowed. “Cassie was supposed to fly with me.”
“She took an earlier jet,” he replied, still not looking at me, his tone efficient, almost managerial. “She mentioned she had a few errands in Westbrook before lunch.”
“Right,” I murmured. “Of course she did.”
Another silence settled.
I shifted in my seat and reached for the seatbelt, but the mechanism resisted my first attempt. The metal tongue slipped, scraping clumsily against the buckle.
I tried again, more carefully, but my fingers were suddenly clumsy and too tense, awareness prickling sharply beneath my skin because he was still right there, saying nothing, pretending not to see me fumble.
On the third attempt, the buckle finally clicked.
I exhaled slowly, willing my shoulders to relax.
“You don’t have to be uncomfortable,” I said after a moment, attempting casualness that didn’t quite land. “I’m not going to bite you.”
His expression remained unreadable, and his reply came after a delayed beat. “We are simply traveling to the same destination.”
Which, unfortunately, was the exact boundary I had set… repeated back to me like a verdict. Only now was not the time I wanted him to be aloof. Not with the threat of the past flight experience over me.
I wondered how to open up to him all of a sudden after dismissing him earlier.
The words tightened something low in my chest.
He closed the folder, set it aside and opened his laptop. The glow of the screen illuminated the lines of his jaw and the faint crease between his brows that appeared when he was concentrating. He typed something, read through mails probably and after a while, he closed that as well.
Without a single glance in my direction, he reached for a sleek black eye mask, slipped it over his eyes, adjusted it once, and leaned back as if the matter of my presence had already been settled.
Conversation had been dismissed and interaction deemed unnecessary.
I sat rigid and still, trying not to feel exposed in that silence as th engines began humming beneath the floor.
The cabin vibrated and the air changed in that way it always did before takeoff, becoming heavier somehow, reminding me that soon there would be nothing below us except open sky.
I wrapped my fingers around the armrest, pressing my nails gently into the smooth leather as the ground outside began to move in a blur. The jet rolled forward and the acceleration pressed a faint pressure into my ribs.
It was fine. I had taken flights before so I knew the sensation.
I didn’t tell people I hated it, because I didn’t want to sound fragile or pathetic, because wolves were not supposed to fear things like height and helplessness and losing control of the ground beneath their feet.
The wheels thundered over the runway.
The nose tilted upward.
My stomach dropped sharply and my breath stalled in my lungs.
The familiar panic and that tight, suffocating pressure began to bloom in my chest.
I tightened my grip on the armrest, knuckles turning white, and lowered my head slightly as if that would convince my heartbeat to slow.
It didn’t.
The cabin tilted higher.
My breathing turned shallow without my permission, short, uneven draws of air that refused to fill my lungs properly.
Calm down, I told myself. This is normal. Planes do this every day. You are fine. Nothing is wrong. You are fine.
But the reassurance sounded hollow and thin.
A faint, broken sound escaped my throat before I could swallow it back.
I shut my eyes, whispering quiet words to myself, not even aware of what I was saying, simply trying to cling to any sense of grounding.
But then the mask shifted across that sleepy face.
I didn’t see it, but I felt the attention on me, sharp and sudden, like a weight settling over my skin.
“Violet,” Elijah said quietly, his voice still low but now fully awake, the softness edged with concern that he tried, and failed, to restrain.
I did not answer. I couldn’t.
I could barely breathe.
The plane gave a small, uneven tremor as it continued its ascent. My body jerked in response, a reflexive flinch, and before I could process the movement, momentum pulled me sideways and forward.
The seatbelt tugged against my hips, but my balance slipped.
My hands shot out for support, and I felt certain I was going to smack my face against the cold floor of the airplane.
But Elijah had gotten up from his seat and was in front of me in an instant. |My hands landed against him, and I grabbed him like he was the last piece of straw that would keep me from drowning.
My palms pressed against the firm warmth of his chest, and I felt his hands travel up to cup my face, to look at me.
Those stormy eyes weren’t looking at me with rage but confusion. And concern.
It oddly reminded me of our first meeting, of the attack in the Salt & Smoke restaurant. Of the way he held me against his chest, his hands pulling me closer.
He tried to gently push me back into my seat but my body wouldn’t. I wasn’t sure what was causing this inexplicable terror but I was feeling it deep inside me.
As if I was going to die. My body didn’t want to let go of him. So I pushed myself further onto him and he stumbled back, landing on his seat, my body half-spilled into his lap.
Heat rushed across my face, humiliation mixing with raw panic, my breath shuddering uncontrollably as another wave of fear surged up my spine.