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“It won’t change anything,” I said as I shookback here”

Pain flooded Eli’s eyes and he dropped the, but I couldn’t escape the self-preservation instincts that had kicked in If I spent any more time with this man, I’d never be able to walk away and I wouldn’t survive it when he did Not if he did, when he did Because I had no doubt it would happen sos in me that all the others had and when he turned his back on ain

“You won’t even try?” Eli asked brokenly

“Try what?”

“To love me?”

I closedto ease the ache in et the fuck off this plane and go hoe to tell hi me

I risked openingat my chest I’d expected to see tears or pain, but all I saas the sae when he’d thought I’d wanted sex in exchange for self-defense lessons I reached up to cup his face in the hopes of bringing hio ho at o

Eli turned away from me to head towards the entrance, but when he whispered, “I’ll see you in Newark,” I grabbed his arm to stop him

I let out a loud curse that had hinored him and stepped to the door

“Let’s go!” I shouted and didn’t bother to wait to see what Seth and the pilots’ reactions were I dragged Eli to the first row of seats and pushed hi next to him, I went to the back of the plane and searched the cabinets until I found the various bottles of alcohol I’d expected would be there I grabbed one without even looking at what it was, sloshed a generous a By the time I picked a seat on the opposite side of the plane, well away from Eli, I started to feel the burn of what had turned out to be scotch But it wasn’t enough to takeman who’d somehow invaded every part of my soul in just a few short weeks

I doubted there was enough alcohol in the world to do that