Riley:
The engine hum should've been a lullaby; instead, it was a rasping reminder that we were trapped in a metal tube with nowhere to go and no one to witness what we were doing but each other. Every tiny vibration under my palms felt like a pulse through the plane and through me. Cade sat opposite, rigid as a statue, shoulders squared like armor. He had that look—tense, taut, like a wound about to split open.
Silence braided around us until it was hard and sharp.
"Say something." The words came out brittle. I hadn't planned to be that cold, but the heat under my ribs demanded release.
He looked at me as if I'd tossed a match into something dry. "What do you want me to say, Riley? That I want you? That I can't have you? You already know both." His voice was flat, like breaking ice. "
