Emery heard noises. Voices. Somehow they lifted above the ringing in her ears. She shook her head and realized she sat up, lounged in a chair . . . or something.
Her eyes popped open and her heartbeat kicked up to a gallop as she glanced around the unfamiliar surroundings. Beige leather seats. The oval windows. She was on a plane, a private plane. That could only mean one thing.
She sat up straight. “Levi Wren!”
He stepped out from behind her but didn’t say a word. So much for hoping she’d gotten locked in a dream. No, this was very real. She remembered being in her apartment and the tie. Him talking about wine. Then that massage . . . The clouds cleared and reality snapped into place. She had to grab on to the armrests of the plush seat to keep from strangling him.
His need for control was annoying. This . . . well, she didn’t know what this was. She should be afraid and worried and demanding to see the pilot. She didn’t feel any of those things. Except confused. And pissed. She was really pissed.
“You’re awake.” He didn’t sound too happy about that.
Smart man. “What did you do?”
“Now, wait a second.” He sat in the seat in front of her. “I can explain.”
He’d likely take fifteen sentences and all sorts of fancy words to do it. She wanted the truth—now—so she started with the basic facts. “We’re on a plane.”
“Yes.”
“Yours?” She didn’t know why she bothered asking it as a question since that was the only explanation for how he got it so fast and had no trouble getting her limp body on board. That part was astonishing, really. A man in a suit carries a drugged woman to an airport and no one stops him, or at least that’s what she guessed since she was actually in the air and not in her apartment or at a police station.
“I share it with . . . okay, the specifics don’t matter.” He frowned at her. “There’s no need to make a growling noise.”
“Why?”
“Because I intended to answer you.”
That could only be a stall. No way was he that clueless. “I mean, why are we on a plane?”
He had the good sense to wince. To not pretend to misunderstand. “Oh, that.”
Amazing how he seemed to have lost a few IQ points now that they’d left the ground. “Yeah, that.”
“You were upset.” That’s it. He actually stopped talking. Sat there with his arms draped over the sides of his chair. All relaxed and natural in his big-money environment.
“You can’t possibly think that explains this.” She looked around, wondering what in the world could explain this.
He had the nerve to frown at her. “I just wanted you out of there, somewhere safe.”
“And you thought we should get on a plane instead of using a car? That you shouldn’t at least ask first before flying me across the country?” For some weird reason that didn’t surprise her. His reasoning made zero sense to her, but she imagined this made sense to him . . . somehow.
“We’re just circling DC.”
She hit him with sarcasm because that’s all she had at the moment. “Oh, okay, then.”
“It’s not a big deal.” He started to shrug but stopped.
“How old are you?”
He winced. “Uh, thirty-five.”
“So, old enough to know better.” By about twenty years.
“I wouldn’t have taken you out of the metro area without your permission.”
She saw him visibly swallow and took that as a sign that he realized he may have taken a wrong turn in his thinking on this one. “Because that would be outrageous, right?”
“I’m not sure if you’re still being sarcastic.”
Good Lord. “I am. I assure you.”
“I wanted to take you to Garrett’s place in upstate New York for a few days.” He stared at her as if he was saying something reasonable and obvious. “Until we could figure out the reason for these breakins.”
Who the hell was Garrett? She had so many questions. “But instead you . . . actually, I give up. What’s going on here?”
“I wanted your permission before we left the metro area. I needed for you to wake up for that.”
It was as if he wanted her to throw him out a window. “So we’re flying in circles.”
“Basically.”
Basically. Sure. “But you did drug me.”
“Of course not. That’s ridiculous.”
She pointed at him in warning. “Not the smartest word for you to use right now.”
“I wouldn’t drug you.” He sounded appalled at the idea.
She felt as if she’d stepped into a black hole. “As opposed to whatever this is?”
She settled back into the soft leather chair and studied him. His quick response qualified as a bit too much denial. He did something to get her on this plane without her remembering it, and she’d figure out what. She just needed a few minutes to adjust to the fact that he put her on a plane. An actual plane.
The real question is why her anger had already begun to fizzle. She wasn’t screaming and kicking. She didn’t have a response to that. Not one she understood. Despite the caveman behavior and messed-up people skills, Wren charmed her. She sensed he meant well. He just had absolutely no idea what he should be doing to impress her. But this wasn’t it.