“It is first class.”
“So that’s it. I help take down a dirty agent and I get a plane ticket home. Awesome.” Anger flushed her cheeks and again she was awash in the rage of being used then compensated. She wanted to punch him but he’d probably press charges.
Gemma took a deep breath. David had his reasons. And she probably shouldn’t punch a gift horse in the mouth. She was walking out of here a free woman and her best friend was safe. Lots of women were safe because David had found her in a bar.
“Fine. Please tell David goodbye.”
She grabbed her ticket from him and her suitcase at his feet and headed for the door.
When the book she was reading in the terminal mentioned the romantic lead had red hair, she tossed it in the nearest trash can. When she passed police officers in the terminal, she had to refrain from glaring at them. She just wanted to go home. There was so much to do. Throw away her frumpy wardrobe that wouldn’t do for New York. Quit her horrible job. Pack up her tiny apartment so that she could move in with her best friend.
As she strolled down the aisle of the plane, she was ready for something new. She’d just taken on the FBI. She wasn’t the same girl who had arrived days ago.
And even if she never saw Agent Hadley again, he was proof that heroes didn’t live solely in her head.
She saw the hair before anything else. He was sitting in 5A and the ticket in her hand was for 5B. Right next to each other in first class. Her stomach turned over itself and her palms began to sweat.
When she looked back at her seat, David stood. “Please Gemma.” Even though they were too far apart for her to actually hear the words, she felt them, as if he’d already buried himself in her brain.
For a moment, she thought she should be mad, but then she realized she’d been angry far too long at her life, at herself. Perhaps Agent Hadley wasn’t done being a hero quite yet.
The attendant took her bag, leaving her to stare down at David, crossing her arms over her chest. Though she didn’t mean it. She just wanted something to do with her hands that wasn’t running them through his hair.
“I am not amused.”
“Only you would quote the queen.” A smile played along his lips.
“Was this Renner’s plan or yours?” she asked as she sat down. She’d never been in first class. The seats were comfortable and there was plenty of legroom. Maybe being the FBI’s pet wasn’t too bad.
“His, actually. Seems he’s got a talent for romance stories and saving me from myself.”
“Why’s that?” she asked as she belted in.
“He didn’t want me to get in trouble for jumping you in the office. He figured you fell in love with me in the three hours before, that maybe we could make another go of it on the plane ride.”
Icy fear rippled over her skin, but was quickly followed by a flush of blood that warmed her entire being and sent goose bumps up her arms. She just looked blankly at him. She couldn’t believe this was really happening, or was it that she’d never had the chance?
She searched his so familiar face. The tawny color of his eyes. Looking for the thing that would wake her up from the dream. She was obviously still in the holding cell, telling herself fairy tales.
Nothing came to her.
David licked his lips as he set his seat belt. He swallowed and took a deep breath. “Here’s the thing. I forgot. For a few brief hours you made me forget I was Agent Hadley. I was just David, who reads too much. It wasn’t an act. I felt it too.”
She focused on his broken nose and it was possibly the best-looking broken nose that she had ever seen.
“Your ears are really red. Are you okay?” he asked.
“Fine,” she said automatically, but shook the lie away. “No. I’m not fine. I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
“You’re saying all these amazing things, which probably means this plane is going to crash.” Gemma looked away from him and at the navy headrest. She forced a deep breath before her head began to spin with her heartbeat so fast.
“If it goes down, then we go down together.”
It was as if a light bulb exploded in her head, a sharp pop. And then her heart stopped pounding and her ears cooled down. She looked at him. “You’re not scared?”
“Petrified because the plane might crash and I’ll only know what you confessed to Annie on the phone.”
Gemma bit her lower lip to stop the smile that had come out of someplace deep down and was threatening to make her cheeks ache with its intensity.
He was right. They needed time. Time to figure out if this was going to last or if it really was just the hottest sex that the FBI ever got on record. She needed time to figure out who this new, sexy and smart, Gemma was.
She stuck her right hand out between them. “Gemma Howard, bookseller and accidental prostitute.”
He smiled that wide, goofy grin but didn’t hide it this time. “David Hadley, FBI agent and bibliophile.”
When he slipped his smooth hand into hers, she knew the plane wasn’t going to crash. Her luggage wasn’t going to get lost and there would be little to no turbulence on the flight home.
Well, nothing that Mother Nature threw at them at least.
About Penelope St. James
After growing up all over the world, Penelope noticed two things were constant: her spiral notebooks full of stories and her unabashed boy-craziness. So she put the two together and BAM, here we are. Penelope now lives in a bustling metropolis that fuels her need to write about strangers falling in love or maybe just in lust. When she’s not curled up with a book and a puppy, she enjoys watching people in coffee shops. So if you ever see a woman with a large coffee, a laptop, and a devilish look, smile because you could just end up in her next book.
Penelope welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Pride and Prostitution
ISBN 9781419946196
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Pride and Prostitution Copyright © 2013 Penelope St. James
Edited by Elizabeth London
Cover design by Syneca
Cover photography by Zimand, maximult and Studio10Artur/Shutterstock.com
Electronic book publication August 2013
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Pride and Prostitution Page 11