20. Chapter 20
Queen Adanna
The heavy chop of the blades echoed through the cabin as I kept my hands on the controls, guiding us through the dark night sky.
Silence hung thick between us for a long time before Quan finally shifted in the passenger seat, peering out the thick glass window into the pitch-black void.
"How do you even know we're going the right way?" he asked, his voice cutting through the hum of the engine.
"Because I know this route by heart. Been taking it for years."
Quan raised an eyebrow, adjusting his jacket. "Every time?"
"Whenever I needed a clean flight without eyes on me, yeah," I replied smoothly. "I'd take the flight myself."
He nodded, leaning back against the headrest. "Well... I appreciate you coming to get me."
I kept my mouth shut, keeping my eyes fixed on the horizon as the silence settled back over us.
"How is your husband gonna feel about this?" Quan asked softly.
My jaw tightened. I stared straight ahead into the dark. "I don't know. I guess we'll figure it out when we see him."
Quan chuckled. "He's just as crazy as you are?"
"No," I countered. "I think he'll be cool."
Quan shook his head, looking at me sideways. "I don't believe you."
“I don’t believe me either.”
He lapsed back into quiet for a minute before his voice dropped. "I missed you, Danni."
I rolled my eyes. "I know."
"How?"
A faint smirk touched the corner of my mouth. "Cause it's me."
Quan smirked back, resting his chin in his hand as he watched me fly. "Well... I'll figure out a way to pay you back for saving my ass."
"No, you won't," I said flatly.
"I promise I will," Quan pressed. "If there's anything I can do… I mean anything… I'll be your bitch if you told me to."
I turned my head for a fraction of a second, catching his eyes. He was serious. The submission in his voice turned me on, simple as that.
"Don't talk to me like that," I snapped, keeping my voice cold.
Quan smirked, a knowing glint in his eyes. "You know you look good."
I switched the subject. "How's your girlfriend?"
Quan looked out the side window into the dark clouds, his tone flat. "She was cool... until she wasn't."
My lip twitched. "She was talking too much, wasn't she?"
He kept staring out the window, muttering under his breath, "Something like that."
Silence stretched between us again.
"Everything okay with you?" Quan asked quietly.
"It will be," I replied.
"Well... you know you can always talk to me."
"I know that."
Out of nowhere, Quan leaned over the center console and pressing a soft kiss against the side of my cheek. A tingle shot up my body, making my pulse jump.
Normally, I would have ripped his lips off his face for touching me without permission, but instead, I felt... funny.
Oh, shit... I still liked this man.
Oh, shit.
I forced my face to stay blank, locking the panic deep inside my chest. I didn't flinch, didn't smile, and didn't acknowledge the feeling for a single second. I just kept my hands locked tight on the flight controls, staring straight into the dark void.
When the chopper finally descended onto the private pad behind the Okoye compound, Quan’s mouth literally dropped open. His jaw stayed unhinged on the way to my house, all the way until we stepped up to the grand front doors of my palace.
I stopped at the threshold, glancing back at him over my shoulder. "Pick your jaw up."
Quan swallowed hard, quickly snapping his mouth shut as he fell into step right behind me when I pushed the double doors open.
I took him through the east wing, showing him the restricted boundaries of the compound—the specific areas he was allowed to walk around in without my security detail putting a bullet through his chest.
"My husband should be back by today or tomorrow," I told him, turning around to face him. I put him in the guest suite that was on the other side of the house, away from me and my man. "But I gotta go somewhere in the morning."
Quan crossed his arms, leaning against the doorframe. "Where?"
"That's my business," I said, keeping my tone sharp. "You just stay in this house."
Quan gave me a long look as he locked his eyes onto mine. "Yes, ma'am."
My thighs locked together. But before I could turn on my heel, Quan stepped close.
"Can I thank you with a hug?" he asked quietly. "I mean... you saved my life."
I swallowed down the spike in my pulse, keeping my guard up. "I might have put you in danger, Quan."
He squinted, shaking his head. "Knowing Brooklyn, I'm sure whatever you did, you were pushed."
I nodded slowly, unable to argue with that.
"So... can I?" he asked again, his voice dropping an octave, thick with unspoken history.
"Okay," I muttered, offering a quick, distant embrace just to satisfy him.
The second I tried to step back, Quan wrapped both of his thick arms around me, pulling my body against his chest. He hugged me deep, holding me close as he breathed me in.
He buried his face against the side of my neck.
Then, he pressed a lingering kiss right to my temple, holding me so deeply that a rush of warm, tempting tingle surged down into my stomach.
For a terrifying second, the heat swirled in my gut, making me almost forget what we were, who I was, and the ring sitting on my finger.
I quickly reached up and tapped my hand against his back, trying to speed it up.
Quan caught the hint, letting his arms slowly slide off my waist. He let out a long sigh, looking down at me for one last quiet beat before stepping back into his guest suite and pulling the door shut behind him.
I stood alone in the hallway with my clit aching and my stomach fluttering with a mess of unwanted feelings I had no business entertaining.
Yeah, I need to rub this one out before I did anything stupid.