Chapter Twenty-Nine
Dristan
I couldn’t admit to Penelope that I’d been digging into her personal life. She would flay me alive and I didn’t know if I could deal with her being angry with me now that I knew how sweet it was to be on her good side.
Still, if I needed to divulge what I’d found, I would. I’d called Rudgar and my brother was coming to meet us at the private airport. He’d go with us to Penelope’s hometown. He could dig up more information on the way there.
I ran my palm over my female’s knee as I drove and she turned to give me a smile, but I could see the worry in her gaze. “It’ll be okay. We’ll figure it out,” I told her.
She turned to look at me, squeezing my hand with her tiny fingers. “I shouldn’t be asking you to help me this much.”
“You didn’t ask, I offered,” I argued. “There’s no backing out now.”
She smiled, leaning in to press a sweet kiss to my cheek. I felt heat rise to my face while I pretended I was unaffected.
I wasn’t used to gratitude from anyone—but especially females. Most found me gruff and unbending. At least that was the complaint I’d gotten the one time I’d tried a relationship, when I was just starting out at the business.
After that, I’d been too busy for any more entanglements. Until now. I slid my gaze to my female again, where she was looking out the window. Her fingers were still stroking my hand on her knee and a smile stretched across my face.
The ache of my cheeks told me how unused I was to the expression. Us facing this crisis together spoke volumes about how much she was learning to trust me, though. It wouldn’t have been too long ago that she would have decided to take this trip on her own.
You forced your way onto this trip, though.
I ignored the voice in my head, savoring the feel of her soft skin under mine instead as I turned into the private airport. I saw our plane already prepped, the pilot making his way around it and doing his checks.
“How rich are you ?” Penelope asked, shaking her head at the plane.
I shrugged, opening my mouth to answer, but my female released my hand to press her fingers to my lips to silence me. “Nope. Don’t tell me. I’d prefer to not know,” she said, gaping as we drew closer.
“You asked,” I mumbled, before pressing a kiss to her palm.
She sent a mischievous smile my way and I winked at her.
Keeping it professional, my ass. I’m going to seduce her.
If there was anything shady going on with this company trying to steal my female’s home, they’d face my wrath and then I’d get her in my bed. The thought of her spread out under me made my cock jerk in my pants.
“I can’t believe you own your own plane,” Penelope murmured, awe in her voice as we parked near it.
I spotted Teegan—an ogre from my security team—waiting nearby for me to hand over the keys, so I waved him over.
“We have three. But this one is my favorite,” I answered.
I made my way around to her door, satisfaction filling my chest when she waited for me to open it for her. I did, holding my hand out to help her down. She took it, still staring up at the plane. I nodded to the ogre who drove off with my car. He’d park it and get our bags loaded onto the plane.
“Why is it your favorite?” Penelope asked, not releasing my hand.
I fist-pumped the victory in my head while we moved forward, our hands connected between us in the universal symbol for coupledom. “It was my father’s,” I told her, willing to give her all of my secrets. “This was the first in our fleet and the one that we used to travel in when we were younger. The company was much smaller back then and this was his first big purchase.”
My chest ached as I remembered his big grin as he’d taken my mother, Rudgar, and I to see it for the first time. “Rud and I would play in the back while he and my mother would make kissy-face at the front,” I elaborated, leading her to the side of the plane and pointing to where Rudgar and I had scratched our names into the paint.
She ran her thumb over mine and I grunted my appreciation. Instead of becoming more sentimental, I led her up the staircase to enter the plane. I spotted my brother’s SUV pulling into the airport and gave him a quick wave before taking Penelope inside to get settled.
She oohed and aahed over the interior set-up and the seats. I’d refurbished everything since my parent’s death—modernizing, but aiming to keep everything close to what I remembered—and it resembled a lounging area at the front with a bedroom and office closed off at the back for when my father needed to work.
I gave her the full tour, never releasing my hold on her as I did. Her eyes gleamed as she saw the platter of fruits I’d instructed my crew to have on board for when we got there. When I opened the door to the bedroom, her eyes widened and she looked up at me, her lips parting. I didn’t have a moment to lean down and kiss her the way I wanted to—with the strong possibility in my mind of tossing her to the bed and locking the door behind me—before my brother slapped me on the back, the sneaky bastard.
“Hi Pen,” he called and her eyes were huge in her face as she stuttered a response.
I glared at him over my shoulder and he grinned at me, his fangs gleaming from the overhead lights. Shoving him out of the way, I took Penelope to the front of the plane again while he chuckled behind me.
I got her settled into a seat and when Rudgar went to sit next to her I released a warning growl, jostling him hard, the primal orc in my brain reacting viscerally to the joke. He was smothering a laugh as he took his seat opposite us.
Penelope looked between us with raised eyebrows. “I haven’t seen you in a while, Rudgar. How’ve you been?”
My brother shrugged, settling comfortably in his seat, and pulled out his phone. “Good. You?”
She mumbled something polite, but I watched as she bit her lower lip, glancing at her watch. I took her hand into mine, gently squeezing it.
“We’ll be on our way soon,” I told her, narrowing my eyes as the cabin crew member we kept on call hustled up the stairs. Bastian was a satyr that had also worked for my parents.
I was almost certain that he only kept us on as clients because of them. He’d been clear on the fact that he didn’t like me—plus he remembered the multiple times I’d tie string along the back of the cabin and trip him.
The male had the most magnificent brown hair on his legs with a gray down undercoat and Rudgar and I had been trying to pet him for years. We’d never been successful in pinning him to the floor long enough to fulfill our childhood dream, but our father had been livid when he’d found out what we’d been doing.
We’d been frisked every time we came into the plane after that. I don’t think our antics added any affection for us, but Bastian was always cordial—if just a little wary every time he moved around the cabin.
“Boys,” he called, sending a wave over his shoulder before freezing where he stood, his eyes widening as he noticed Penelope next to me. A wide smile spread across his face and he diverted from where he was heading toward the cockpit to move toward us instead—stepping lightly the entire time. “And who’s this beautiful human?”
He held out his hand and a scowl spread across my face. He might be an older male, but the bastard was still handsome and single—and I couldn’t forget that perfect fucking hair on his legs that I was sure was attractive to females.
“I’m Penelope,” my mate said with a smile, reaching out to shake his hand even as a growl ripped its way from my throat. She gave me a startled glance, pulling her hand back immediately, and I settled into my seat, pretending nothing had happened.
“Are you with these two hooligans?” Bastian asked her, as if I hadn’t threatened his existence.
She nodded, still eyeing me with wariness in her gaze. “Yes, I’m Dristan’s assistant.”
“Assistant,” the satyr echoed, grinning as he rocked back on his hooves. “I see. Well, it’s wonderful to meet you.”
He turned that grin toward me and trepidation curdled in my chest. There was payback in those eyes. Years and years of payback that I was sure we’d earned, but if it was going to involve Penelope, I’d rather my bare ass be dragged across tar and tacks.
“If you need anything at all,” the male told Penelope. “I’m at your service. My name’s Bastian but a female as beautiful as you can call me Bas.” His stupid perfect smile on his stupid smug face made my lip curl.
“Oh.” Penelope said, blinking up at him. “Thank you. You can call me Pen.”
My jaw clenched along with my fist.
I’m going to punch that smug prick until I break that handsome face of his.
“Pen,” he purred and I bared my fangs at him. He pretended to ignore me but I knew the fucker had the peripheral vision of a goddamn owl. He’d caught me sneaking behind him enough times that I knew it was a fact.
He trotted off with a jaunt in his step toward the cockpit and Penelope stared after him. I was pretty sure that humans were susceptible to their charms, and it was everything I could do to not murder him. After all, how difficult would it be to toss him out of the plane mid-flight and say he hadn’t shown up in the first place?
I pondered the thought for a moment before deciding against it. It would be a pain in the ass to find a replacement and I could admit to grudgingly liking the ornery bastard. Still, when he came back to give my female a drink and snacks, settling a tray next to her, I didn’t stop trying to incinerate him with my glare.