A Werewolf in Manhattan (8 page)

He bought coffee and sipped it as he paced the gate area and cast frequent glances down the concourse. Nothing. He should have followed his first impulse and insisted on picking her up in the town car to guarantee she’d be on time.

They’d exchanged a couple of brief e-mails in which he’d suggested exactly that, and she’d refused the offer. Not surprising, considering the way he’d rejected her invitation on Wednesday night. She’d want to keep her distance, and that was all for the better, especially considering the plan he’d devised to make sure Theo backed off.

Posing as her media escort wouldn’t be enough. Aidan had decided to present himself as her fiancé, but he had to make sure the masquerade didn’t tempt him to get too chummy with her. If she remained aloof, that would help.

When the gate attendant announced boarding for first-class passengers, he pulled out his BlackBerry and called her. No answer. Damn it, this was not a good way to start out.

He caught her scent before he saw her, but then, there she was, striding toward the gate in three-inch black heels and pulling a wheeled computer case. Her blond hair bounced around her shoulders, and her black trench coat was unbuttoned. It flapped back to reveal a turquoise suit that hugged her curves in a way that made his mouth go dry. She wore a white lace camisole under the jacket, and the shadow of her cleavage was visible through the delicate lace. This would be a very long two days.

“They’re calling for us to board,” he said as she approached. In the thirty-six hours they’d been apart, he’d kidded himself that he’d overreacted to her on Wednesday night.
Wrong.

“You switched me to first class!” Her blue eyes flashed with indignation. “I’ve been down at the ticket counter trying to change back to coach, but they’d already sold my original seat.”

She smelled absolutely wonderful. “Jenny didn’t tell you she rebooked?”

“No, she did not, and for good reason. She knows I’d have a fit.”

He had to work hard not to laugh. Leave it to Emma to complain about an upgrade. “What’s wrong with first class?”

“Everything! It’s elitist and overpriced and a waste of resources because fewer people fit in that space.”

Jenny had clearly wimped out and left him to deal with Emma’s objections. So he would. Going first-class was in his blood, and besides, booking at the last minute meant he wouldn’t have been able to sit with her in coach. Instead he would have been squashed into a middle seat in the tail section. Not his idea of fun, and inefficient, to boot. He needed to be right beside her when they deplaned. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight until he’d made sure Theo Henderson wouldn’t do something stupid. Buying two new tickets had seemed like the way to go. With Wallace Enterprises footing the bill, Jenny had agreed, although she’d mentioned Emma might not be happy about it.

Emma was definitely not happy. She stood in front of him, throwing off sparks of irritation. But unless she wanted to give up on the Chicago part of her tour, she was stuck with him in first class.

“I’m sorry you’re upset about the seats,” he said. “But they can’t be changed at this point.”

“I suppose not. Most people would be grateful, wouldn’t they?”

“I would say so.”

“It just goes against my principles.”

“Sorry. At least we’re taking public transportation.”

She stared at him. “Don’t tell me you considered taking the Wallace corporate
jet
?”

“Jenny said you’d never go for it.”

“That’s a colossal understatement.” She shook her head in obvious dismay. “The corporate jet. So you’re actually slumming by taking this flight.”

“Well, I wouldn’t quite put it that way.”

She heaved the sigh of someone whose burdens were too much to bear. “I suppose I’ll have to consider this research. Shall we go?”

He swept a hand toward the gate. “After you.”

She was all smiles for the woman taking tickets, but she remained cool toward Aidan as they made their way down the Jetway to the plane. Because Aidan and Emma hadn’t boarded with the rest of first class, coach passengers were lined up ahead of them waiting to get on. That meant standing together in the Jetway as an awkward silence developed between them.

Aidan decided to break it before it became a solid block of ill will. “You’ll only have to endure this for one leg of your tour,” he said. “When you leave Chicago on Sunday, you’ll be in the seat Jenny reserved in the first place.”

She glanced at him. “I didn’t mean to be a brat about it, but I don’t like having someone manipulate my life without telling me. Jenny should have told me, but she didn’t. I was wrong to take it out on you. I apologize.”

“Apology accepted. And I confess that if I can’t take the corporate jet, I’m all about first class. I don’t fit into the coach seats very well.”

“I guess you wouldn’t. And considering how bogus the whole trip is for you, I can’t expect you to make it crammed into coach, which would only add insult to injury.”

“Who said it was bogus?”

As the line began moving again, he and Emma moved with it.

Looking over her shoulder at him, she rolled her eyes. “Come on, Aidan. Jenny told me he’s
nineteen.
He read one of my books, and now he’s enjoying a vicarious thrill by sending me e-mails pretending that he has special powers.”

His senses sharpened. “Did you mean to say
e-mails
, as in more than one?”

“He’s sent a couple more, both early this morning. Now that I know he’s a kid, they don’t worry me. I think your father and my publisher are making way too much of this, and now they’ve included you in the insanity.” She walked toward the doorway of the plane.

“You didn’t delete the e-mails, did you?”

“I thought about it, but no, I haven’t.” She walked onto the plane.

Thank God for small favors.
He followed her. “Window or aisle?”

“Window. I love looking out.”

That worked nicely for him. Even in first class, his legs felt cramped if he ended up by the window, so he always chose the aisle.

The flight attendant took Emma’s coat and hung it up. For a moment, Aidan thought Emma would insist on hanging up her own coat, but then she relinquished it, thanked the attendant, and took her seat. She tucked her computer case under the seat in front of her and sat back.

Aidan’s finely tuned hearing picked up a little sigh of pleasure, and he turned away so she wouldn’t hear him chuckle. She might disapprove of first-class seats on principle, but her body loved being cushioned in that comfy leather.

Then he groaned inwardly as his hormone-soaked brain focused on that sensuous little body of hers nestled in the seat next to his. Hours ago, he’d convinced himself he could do this without danger of sprouting fur, and yet the backs of his hands were already starting to prickle.

He handed off his topcoat and tucked his own computer case under the seat in front of them. “Mind if I take a look at those two e-mails?”

“Be my guest.” She called them up and handed her BlackBerry over as the flight attendant came by asking about coffee.

He smiled at the attendant and shook his head before going back to the screen and Theo’s messages.

“Regular with just a tiny bit of cream, please,” Emma said.

He glanced up. She’d been taking two creams for the past three months. “Why only a tiny bit?”

“Because cream is fattening, and I’m cutting back.”

“You’re dieting?”

“I always do after turning in a book. I tend to eat more when I’m on deadline, so this is how I balance it out.” She fastened her seat belt.

He hadn’t meant to watch her do that, but he couldn’t seem to keep himself from observing how the belt rode low and tight over her hips, exactly as the flight attendant would instruct them to fasten them during takeoff.

Emma had terrific hips, in his estimation. She had terrific everything. He’d hate to see even an ounce disappear from that curvy figure. Then he heard himself say, against all good judgment, “But you’re perfect.”

Her eyes rounded. “Excuse me?”

“I ... meant that you’re perfectly okay now. I don’t get the dieting thing.”

“Thank you.” She took a breath. “You confuse the hell out of me, Aidan.”

“I’m not surprised. I confuse myself sometimes.”

“The other night I thought you were interested in me, but then I decided you weren’t. Now you seem interested again. I’m getting whiplash.”

Aidan grabbed the first lifeline he could think of. “You said you had a boyfriend.”

“So that’s why you didn’t come up the other night?”

When he looked into those blue eyes of hers, he had a hard time lying. “No, not really.”

“I didn’t think so.”

He could tell her some of the truth, at least. “The fact is, I tend to have a one-track mind, and I was focused on tracing that e-mail. I knew if I came up to your loft, I’d lose focus.”

“You’re quite the dedicated guy, aren’t you?”

“Guess so.”

“I admire that, Aidan.” She looked past him toward the aisle. “Thank God. My coffee’s here.”

“Your first cup?” He helped the flight attendant pass the steaming cup over to her.

“ ’Fraid so. I was a little rushed this morning.”

He started to say that explained a lot about her quick temper, but stopped himself.

“Ah, manna from heaven.” She closed her eyes and breathed in the vapors before taking a long, slow sip. “I think I’ll live now.”

He couldn’t resist. “In coach they won’t get coffee until we reach altitude and level off.”

“Smart-ass.” She smiled. “I understand the appeal of sitting up here. Maybe I’m afraid I’ll get used to it. You know, get spoiled.”

“Would that be so terrible?”

She studied him. “I think so. The money’s coming in now, but I’m a self-employed writer. There’s no guarantee the money will always be there. At this point, I haven’t made enough to keep me in first-class seats for the rest of my life.”

He stated what she had to be thinking. “Whereas I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.”

“Pretty much.”

He nodded. “I’ll own that. I’m probably spoiled.” He thought about the house where he’d grown up, a ten-bedroom mansion filled with original art. Maids, cooks, chauffeurs. His father was an investment genius, and the family had weathered a couple of recessions without suffering.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “I’ve noticed that the people you employ are treated with respect and consideration. I’ve heard that the Wallace family supports a whole raft of charities. I’m not dissing your situation. But it’s different from mine.”

She had no idea how different.

“My dad abandoned my mom when I was a baby, and she managed to raise me and keep a roof over our heads, but it was never easy.”

“I met your mom at the signing. She seems like an intelligent woman.”

Emma’s eyes lit up. “She is. She mentioned that she’d stopped to say hello. Listen, about Doug, my boyfriend, I—”

The plane’s engines revved up, cutting off the rest of what she’d been about to say. Knowing he’d have to shut down her BlackBerry any second, Aidan quickly glanced over Theo’s two e-mails.

Aidan scrolled to the next one.

Aidan ground some enamel off his back molars. Sure, Theo was just a kid, but even a kid could get himself and his fellow Weres into deep trouble. That was Aidan’s intellectual evaluation.

But the e-mails affected him at a deeper level. Emma was not his mate, would never be his mate. And yet any sexual interest from another male aroused every possessive instinct he had. Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing for the short term.

Theo might not cower before someone sent as Em-ma’s bodyguard. But he would cringe in fear if Aidan presented himself as Emma’s mate, a Were ready to defend her to the death. Aidan wasn’t certain he could play that role and then abandon it again on Sunday. Doing so could end the problem with Theo, though. He’d have to think about it.

“Sir,” the flight attendant said, “I’ll have to ask you to turn off your phone.”

“Right.” He quickly put his cell number in a vacant speed dial position. Then he powered down the BlackBerry and handed it back to Emma as the attendant went through the seat-belt-and-flotation-device spiel. “You now have me on speed dial, letter z.”

“Oh.” She looked annoyed. “I guess that’s okay.”

“You can change it on Sunday afternoon.”

“Don’t worry. I will.”

He settled back in his seat and tried to imagine himself running through the forest. Flying made him uneasy, which was another reason for choosing first class. Wolves weren’t meant to be suspended thirty thousand feet in the air. Flying made his ears hurt and dried out his sinuses. When he flew alone, he drowned out the engine noise by wearing top-grade earphones tuned to a medley of forest sounds, but that wouldn’t be happening today.

As they taxied down the runway, he gripped the armrests and swallowed. Visualization wasn’t working for him this morning.

Emma must have noticed, because she glanced at him with undisguised curiosity. “Aidan, are you afraid of flying?”

“No.”

“You are so! It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Lots of people are spooked by the idea of being up in the air with no visible means of support.”

“Thanks for that description.” Aidan closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. Each time he did this, he promised himself he’d try hypnosis next time. But he never remembered until it was too late and he was headed for the airport.

“I’ve found the best remedy is distraction,” Emma said. “So let’s talk about something unrelated to flying. How about the weather?”