Page 92 of Pandora's Pleasure

“This is my first trip without an escort.Youdon’t count.”

“I’ll do everything I can to make it memorable.”

I started to turn away, but she grabbed my hand and held it. “When my brother gets defensive it’s because he’s hurting,” she said. “Tell me what’s hurt you. Tell me what made you angry last night. And don’t say it was just me.”

“This is beyond your scope of comprehension.”

“If the Vice President, who should hate me because I’m his opponent’s daughter, can see my value, then so can you.”

“I want to protect you from all that.”

“That should be my decision.”

I sighed. “They shut down the Fairfield Project.”

She looked horrified. “Damien…oh, my God—you should have told me. I’m so sorry.”

All that good had been suspended indefinitely. I stared straight ahead, feeling a sense of powerlessness that savaged my ego. No, it was more than that. It was about social justice and equality and about tackling corporate greed.

Her frown deepened. “Why would they shut it down?”

“Politics.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Just be you, okay? Let’s see if we can spend the weekend together and not kill each other in the process.” I gave a smirk. “Stick to your brand.”

“I’m not sure what that is.”

“Well, you have two and a half hours to think about it before we land.”

Pulling away from her, I headed up to the front of the plane, not wanting to admit to myself that I missed the touch of her hand.

My emotions were all over the place.

Perhaps all the times I’d endured loneliness had been worth it; a bleak prelude to me finding a life that had purpose, one that was filled with devotion. If only we could get there. If only we could get to a place where our relationship was authentic.

It was hard to deal with all these heart-wrenching ups and downs, trying to understand Damien’s complexity, to understand the man who’d been preordained as mine.

Or maybe never would be.

I sat there musing on what my “brand” actually was, and I realized I’d always gone for understated—always trying to go unnoticed. Maybe it was time to start reinventing myself, having fun with a future I finally saw opening up.

There came a jolt and then the scenery moved outside my oval window. Within a minute, we were jettisoning down the runway at full speed. I felt a sudden panic at the thought I was sitting alone, my fingers clutching the hand rests. A shudder went through me as the wheels lifted off, that familiar weightlessness of going airborne, then seeing the shrinking views of the city off in the distance.

In pure Damien fashion, he’d left me to endure my nervousness alone.

Pulling the console down in front of me, I selected the menu for the onscreen entertainment and scanned what TV shows or movies might be fun to watch, looking out for something I could recommend to Damien—perhaps a nice documentary about animals eating their prey while their victim was still alive…causing no end of suffering.

Something I could relate to.

It seemed like it was just me in the middle of this big plane, with Damien sitting up front somewhere, probably flirting with the flight attendant.

I sipped my wine, trying not gulp it down when the thought of him giving her his phone number sprang into my mind…or even her giving him a blowie.

A ping announced we’d reached cruising altitude. Unclipping my seatbelt, I pushed up and moved into the aisle.

If you’re going to dump your travel buddy,at least be courteous enough to excuse yourself first.