Wolf Creek Pack 12
Coming April 16th
Eddie Jacks is on the
run. He just wants to make it back home so he can pack his stuff before his
ex-boyfriends comes after him. When he reaches his seat on the airplane, it’s
occupied by a striking man with a broken nose. But there’s an air of mystery around
the ruggedly handsome man that makes Eddie wish for things best forgotten.
Virgil Brown just wanted
to make it back to Wolf Creek. After a particularly long and dangerous mission,
he’s a little banged up and in need of some serious sleep. When a cutest guy
he’s ever seen takes the seat next to him, Virgil is confused by the instant
interest he has in the klutzy man.
Deciding to see where
things go, Virgil discovers that there is more to Eddie than meets the eye. Not
only is Eddie his mate, but the man has secrets even Eddie wasn’t aware of.
When his ex comes for him, Virgil and Eddie have to trust that fate won’t tear
them apart when they just found each other.
http://www.stormyglenn.com/flightoffancy.htm
STORY EXCERPT
Eddie Jacks glanced down at his airplane ticket. Seat
3C. He glanced up at the big blue numbers on the overhead. Seats 3C and 3D were
right next to each other. The only problem was that his assigned seat—3C—was
taken.
“Um, excuse me,” Eddie said. He wanted to be polite as
possible because the guy was huge and looked like he ate trucks for breakfast
and he was in Eddie’s seat and Eddie wasn’t a truck. He didn’t want to take the
chance. “I think you have my seat.”
Baby blue eyes the color of a robin’s egg looked up and
pinned on him, piercing like the guy could see right into his soul. Eddie
swallowed the sudden bout of fear that tried to crawl up his spine. He held up
his ticket. “I’m 3C.”
His eyes rounded when the man’s large hands tightened
on the arms rests until they crackled. “I could take the window seat if you
preferred.” He didn’t like it, but arguing with this guy did not seem to be in
his best interest.
The man just stared at him.
Yeah…“I’ll just put my bag away and—” He stifled his
squeak just in time as the bag in his hand was taken and stuffed into the
overhead compartment before the compartment door was slammed closed. “Thank
you.”
The man stood back, a clear indication that Eddie was
supposed to move past him and sit in the window seat. Eddie scooted into the
narrow space between their seats and the row in front of them to the one by the
window. By the time he sat down, the large man was taking the aisle seat once
again.
Eddie snapped his seatbelt in place. He went to rest
his hand on the armrest only to jerk back when he realized the man next to him
was holding the armrest in an iron grip. Again. His knuckles were turning
white. Again.
“Not a flier?”
Eddie pressed his lips and glanced away when those
intense blue eyes turned on him once again. They were a little nerve-racking.
Powerful. Eddie wondered if the man could read his mind? He sure stared hard
enough.
Eddie raised the blind to look out the small oval
window. His eyes rounded when the man reached over and pulled the blind back
down in a hard jerky gesture.
Okay then.
He glanced at the guy next to him again. “Going on
vacation?”
Okay, not a conversationalist. The sour glare he
received could have scorched the hair off his toes. This was going to be a very
long flight.
Eddie twisted his lips together. Waiting. He hated
waiting. He especially hated waiting when there was nothing to do. He was
almost thankful when the engines came to life with a roar and the airplane
began to vibrate. He knew in a moment the airplane would taxi out to the
runway.
As much as he didn’t mind flying, those few minutes
when he was stuck practically vertical and slammed back in his seat as the
airplane flew up into the air, scared the crap out of him. He held his breath
the entire time, not beginning to breathe again until they leveled out.
As he drew life giving oxygen back into his lungs,
Eddie noticed the death grip his fellow passenger had on the armrest. He
reached over and settled his hand on the man’s arm. “Hey, it’s okay, we’re
leveling out. We’ll be fine.”
When the man turned and looked at him, Eddie almost
expected to receive another angry glare. He even started to lift his hand,
cringing back in his seat so he made a smaller target.
Eddie was all about being a smaller target.
“Man was not meant to fly.”
Eddie blinked in bewilderment at the man’s words. His
lips twisted at the corners before the laughter he was trying to hold in
escaped in a giggle. He slapped his hand over his mouth when robin blue eyes
narrowed at him.
“Sorry,” he whispered through his hand. “I didn’t mean
to laugh. Honest. You just surprised me, is all.”
“Uh uh.” The man did not look convinced.
“What happened to your nose?” Eddie asked as he
gestured to the white tape the man had over the bridge of his nose. “Did you
trip? I trip all the time. My boy—” Eddie flushed equal parts embarrassment and
shame—“My ex-boyfriend says I could get tangled up in air.”
The guy reached up and gingerly touched the bridge of
his nose. The grunt of pain seemed to surprise the man as if he was shocked
that it hurt when he touched it.
Very odd.
“I broke it,” he finally replied.
“Did you trip?” Eddie asked.
One very fine cinnamon brown eyebrow arched. “Yes,
something like that.”
“Duke—he’s my ex—he says I need to pay more attention
to where I’m going, although…” Eddie frowned as he slowly turned to look toward
the front of the plane, “I guess he won’t be saying a whole about that
anymore.”
Eddie still hadn’t decided how he felt about that. He
was terrified of being under Duke’s thumb again, and terrified not to be. Duke
had been his first kiss. His first boyfriend. His first lover.
His first everything.
Unfortunately, Duke had also been behind Eddie’s first
beating, which was why he was on an airplane flying home by himself instead of
in Paris on his honeymoon. Duke was probably still in Paris enjoying the
honeymoon they were supposed to spend together with whatever new boy toy he had
found to spend the night with. Eddie knew it sure as hell wasn’t going to be
him. He might have put up with a lot of shit from Duke but he refused to be
anyone’s punching bag.
“Why is he an ex?”
Eddie turned, a little astonished that the man sitting
next to him was even speaking to him. He didn’t seem like the friendliest of
types. “I thought we had flown to Paris to get married.” Eddie inhaled slowly,
his breath shaky. “As I found out the hard way, Duke had no plans to marry me.”
“Then why take you to Paris?”
“I’m still trying to piece it all together but I’m
pretty sure he was using me to smuggle something into the country.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I lost one of my travel bags. When Duke found out, he
went ballistic. When the men he was meeting with found out that Duke didn’t
have what they wanted, they…” Eddie pressed his lips together, unable to say
what they did. He just couldn’t put it into words. “I decided to leave after
that.”
“Did they hurt you?” There was enough of a growl in the
man’s voice that it took Eddie by surprise and he found himself nodding,
admitting to a stranger what he could barely admit to himself. “Want me to kill
them?”
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