Chapter 127 VIPs
“And this…” Kade laced his arm through mine, “is one great perk of having women friends.” Two concierges in tailored charcoal suits and polished dress shoes walked in front of us in the glass service passage.
“Dedicated Airport Escorts? That’s beyond most men.” he finished in a fierce whisper.
“You sound like a pimp, darling.” Caroline, hanging to his other arm, patted his shoulder with a resigned sigh. I caught sight of Tamar then, standing with the small crowd of ballerinas and crew at the regular gate line.
Her brows were knitted as her lips moved rapidly. She must have sensed me watching her because she turned, spotted us behind the glass wall and waved.
Then she gestured to Kathy and Lucy, and started to walk towards us with her assistants trailing behind her. She halted by the service door, looking every bit like the President’s own aide. And after a nod from me, one of the concierges moved to open the door.
“I had to…” Tamar was saying when Kathy made a strangled sound. Everyone in the passage froze, and then followed her gaze to the connecting corridor.
“Moon goddess,” Carolina gasped, but hurriedly clapped her hand over her mouth as she seemed to remember the stern Tamar was standing right in front of us. But Tamar was still a woman after all, and right now her eyes were hot pools of interests, ogling as hard as her assistants, and my best friend.
They starred unblinking at the pilot who walked in our direction with quick strides ahead of his co-pilots and stunning flight attendants. They looked more like runway models than airline staff.
A hot surge of jealousy seized me as my heart slammed in my chest. My hands were fists by my side, as I accepted that this emotion might just be a new personality trait after all. A permanent fixture in my new world.
“Goodness Lys, you're usually the level-headed one.” Kade met my gaze and sneered. “He's not even that handsome.”
And every single woman in the corridor whipped their heads to glare at him as one. He backed away, hands up in surrender. “OK. Maybe he is. But come on, guys like him cover magazines all the time. What’s the big deal?”
“Jealousy looks ugly on you.” Caroline tugged his arm to resume walking. Tamar turned, walking between us and the concierges.
Mordaine and his flight crew walked past us, just four meters away. He did not glance in my direction even once. In his immaculate uniform with his hat tucked under his arm, he looked like a military man, straight back, perfect gait.
We had a closer exchange by the aircraft. As protocol, he and his crew lined up by the aircraft to shake hands with first-class passengers. I got in line, pulling his jacket closer around me as my friends stepped to the side to wait.
My body was shivering like I had not ridden to the airport with him, debated Napoleon on the interstate 405, and sunk my fingers into that lustrous hair, that was now pinned in a man-bun under his hat, as early sunlight spilled in through our bedroom window.
I had to pretend like we had never met, act like my normal self, but I suddenly could not remember how normal Lys behaved anymore.
The short queue moved quickly. The flight attendants were all bright smiles as I walked past them, but my eyes lingered a little longer on the woman with a muted pink lipstick. Her smile carried a hint of falseness that was deeper than professionalism.
My opinions could also be biased, stemming from my jealousy that she would not stop glancing at Mordaine.
“Good morning, welcome aboard.” I smiled as I exchanged a handshake with the copilot and said a quiet “Thank You”.
And then Mordiane finally took my hand, my heart stopped. Staring into those silver eyes, I felt the brief second stretch into an eternity.
His face was neutral, professional, but there was something about his temperature that seized my attention. He made his hand a little warmer for me.
“Good morning, please enjoy your flight,” he said with an even tone.
“Thank you,” my response came out a breathless whisper. Just as he released my hand, he added. “Nice jacket.”
His copilot drew in a sharp breath. Was that unprofessional? I smiled brightly at him because I wanted to, but also because I did not want his colleagues coming to the wrong conclusion that his friendly comment bothered me.
The dragon, however, did not return my smile. I faced forward and hurried up the airstairs.
I was settling into my enclosed suite when Caroline tugged Kade with her into my suite. “Lys. He waved at me. Our eyes met as he turned for the plane. I smiled, and he waved.”
“No, he didn’t.” Kade sank into the seat beside me.
“He did.” Caroline insisted wide-eyed. Although I made no comments, I believed her. Mordaine called them my friends once, and from his tone of voice, I suspected he had a soft spot for them.
With her face schooled in concentration, she found an image of him on the airline’s website, and googled him. But there was no result about him. And finally, they left before take off.
I pouted at the ensuing silence, remembering why I had mostly avoided first class up to this point even though I could afford it. The isolation from my friends.
But exhaustion from the past few days with Mordaine was starting to catch up with me, and as soon as the seatbelt lights went off, I watched a flight attendant make the bed and went right to sleep.
When I jerked awake again, it was to chaos. The seatbelt light was on, there was a metallic beep that made me seat up, a woman was crying, and Mordaine was reading out instructions over the mic.
“Moon above.” I stared out the window at the wing bending upward, flexing like a real bird. Below us was a wide stretch of water.
Beneath my ribs, Rhea was shifting, taut with an anxiety I knew she only ever showed in the face of supernatural disturbance.
This is not natural weather turbulence. We would need a literal god to steady the weather.
And that was the moment I felt it. Internal claustrophobia. That inward tightness I had come to recognize as the micro symptoms before my skin lit up and Rhea became bipolar.
I clenched my teeth as my body bucked, struggling to master my form as Mordaine had taught me to, wrestle control with this mass that was now filling me up, large and heavy.
Wherever this was, it was bigger than Rhea.