“True, but you can warn us. You can get word to us when he’s up to something,” Wyatt pointed out. He was already walking to the door, following Trap.

Trap yanked open the door. “Pull yourself together, Senator, you’ve got bullshit speeches to make. Go ahead and tell the others Wyatt and I are in. That ought to buy you a lot of funding.”

He tightened his arm around Cayenne and swept through the door, taking her with him. Stalking across the room, he didn’t look right or left. His face was a mask of indifference. He appeared totally aloof. Cameras were on him, people greeted him, and he kept moving, never changing expression, never answering anyone.

Trap said nothing at all as the limousine took them through the darkened streets to the airport. Cayenne didn’t feel much like talking either. Being in close proximity to Violet left her shaken. She’d been surrounded, from the day she’d been born, with cruelty. Viciousness. There was an oily feel to the aura surrounding the person that made her sick to her stomach.

Violet wasn’t vicious, but she was deceitful and selfish, capable of great cruelty. She was capable of only accepting what she wanted as her reality. She couldn’t see anyone else’s point of view. She believed in her own greatness and believed that it was perfectly okay for her to remove anything or anyone that got in her way. Her aversion to Cayenne was deep-seated, as was her revulsion of Wyatt’s daughters and his wife.

They’d been in the city three days preparing for their meeting with the senator. Both she and Trap were used to spending long days alone. Although they’d stayed in the penthouse, the team was often with them. When they went out they were surrounded. Sometimes Cayenne felt as if she couldn’t breathe, and she knew it had to be the same for Trap.

They’d given his uncles several opportunities to make their try, appearing often in public. Those times, the underlying tension had been terrible, but the uncles hadn’t shown up. Trap’s mood had gone from bad to just plain foul. She couldn’t blame him. He’d geared himself up to face the men who had helped to destroy his entire family and in the end had taken his last happiness from him. They’d changed the entire course of his life, and still, they were somewhere, hidden by the very money he’d given them for his aunt’s safe release.

At the airport, Ryland’s team boarded their private plane for home. She liked them all, especially Flame and Gator, and actually hugged them before waving as the two teams split. She waited until they were in the air before she went into the large, well-appointed bathroom to change out of her evening dress. The silk slithered to the floor to pool at her feet, leaving her in nothing but her panties. Every time she’d moved in that silk, her body had come alive with need for Trap.

She stretched and reached back to braid the long thick hair, needing to get it out of her face. She pulled on her soft, vintage jeans, her favorite pair, the ones Trap had bought her that fit like a glove. It felt good to become her again. She loved the dress and even the one dance she’d had with Trap, but she much preferred the swamp and their enormous, ridiculous home.

She pulled a T-shirt over her head, going without a bra. She much preferred to be naked, but that wouldn’t do until they got home. In the meantime, she was going for comfortable. She would put her shoes on later – much later – after the flight. Right now, she wanted to sleep. To get her mind as far as possible from Violet and the things she’d admitted.

Cayenne began to make her way back to her seat where Trap waited. The plane hit turbulence, shifting in the air. Bumping. Her heart jumped. She wasn’t used to flying, and it was a little frightening to have the airplane, so high in the sky, jolting like it might go down any moment.

The next lurch sent her sprawling forward. Malichai caught her, grinning at her with his devilish smirk. “Falling into my arms again, woman? I know you find me pretty, but seriously, Cai, I’m not for sale.” He winked at her, his white teeth flashing even as his hands steadied her.

“You’re breaking my heart.”

He didn’t let her go and when the next bump came, it flung her forward so that she fell almost in his lap. He pulled her into his lap, holding her steady while the plane dipped and shuddered.

“You aren’t afraid, are you?” He kept his voice low.

She was grateful for the consideration, even though everyone on the plane had acute hearing and probably, now, all of them were aware her heart pounded like crazy. She swallowed hard and glanced across the plane where Trap sat. His eyes were on her, all that ice making her shiver. Glacier-cold. But beneath the ice she saw that blue flame, the one that burned so cold it was hot. He looked – furious.

“I’m a little afraid. I don’t like flying,” she admitted. She pushed out of his lap and stood in the wide aisle, holding on to the back of his chair. “I just want this over.”

She made her way to Trap, hanging on to each of the chairs as she went. When she neared him, his hand snaked out, settled around her wrist, and he all but yanked her into her seat.

Cai? Since when does he call you Cai?

She frowned at him and subtly moved her wrist in the hopes that he’d release her. He didn’t. He doesn’t call me that. At least he never has before.

She closed her eyes, determined to ignore his foul temper. She was tired. Exhausted. Sick to her stomach thanks to the turbulence and he wasn’t helping. She didn’t like the city any more than he did. More, she didn’t like being in public at all. She was trying to be friendly to his team members because they were his friends. She stopped trying to take her hand back and forced herself to relax.

You aren’t wearing a bra. You like rubbing your breasts all over him?

What are you talking about? Trap, it seemed, was spoiling for a fight. She was too exhausted to rise to the bait, so she pressed her lips together and kept her eyes closed.

“Hey, Cayenne.” Malichai made his way up the aisle to drop into the seat opposite her, next to his brother Mordichai. “Can you tie just anyone up with that silk of yours?”

Her heart jumped. She opened her eyes and regarded his teasing grin. It was open. Friendly. Genuinely interested, but more, something she couldn’t quite read at first – a kind of camaraderie – because she’d never had it directed at her before. The others moved closer as well, changing seats until the attention was directly on her. She hated that. She glanced up at Trap for some direction, but he gave her none, staring impassively straight ahead.