Secrets of Mine

Chapter One

Freya's POV

I stare at the sleek white jet in front of me. "You know, if you'd told me you had a private plane I might not have kept running away."

Jude snorts but River just stares at me, his face all serious and official.

I hold up my hands. "Joking."

Jude slides my rucksack off my shoulder and follows Oz and Eli up the steps to the aircraft, leaving me to fend for myself with Mr All-Business-No-Play.

Now no one's watching, River rakes his eyes over me. His gaze caresses my body. My new, dress code appropriate, black slacks and silk shirt may as well be lingerie. "Think of it as a warning," he says, closing in on me until I have to crane my neck to look at him. "If you ever run again, I've got the entire FBI at my disposal, and I will chase you to the ends of the earth."

I place my palm to his chest and rub my thumb back and forth until his jaw loses its tension. "I'm not going to run again. I promise."

River buries his hand in my hair and pulls me in for a demanding kiss. "Damn right you're not," he grumbles when we come apart.

I hold his gaze. "No more secrets, no more running. We do this together." I'm no longer a criminal asset, I'm a fully-fledged FBI profiler and what better declaration of love than teaming up to catch a serial killer who also happens to be my father? Talk about meeting the parents...

I haven't told River that I love him yet. I haven't told any of them but I'm pretty sure that's what's happening here and I'm only slightly terrified. I've gone from having a grand total of one healthy relationship in my entire life to dating four guys at once. It's...a lot and if I think about it too much, breathing becomes a challenge. Before I can start panicking River takes my hand and leads me up the steps to the plane.

It's like I took a detour and walked into the life of a billionaire. The plane is open plan with four seating areas. Oz is already setting up his laptop on one of the shiny wooden tables and Eli is kicked back across the longer row of seats running along the right side of the plane. He picks his Stetson up off his face and winks at me before replacing the hat, presumably to go back to his nap because I'm discovering Eli, when not full of hatred for me, is pretty much just a cat. He's flirty and playful and he thinks he has nine lives. River calls him reckless, but I get it. Sometimes the only way to dull the pain is to chase the adrenaline high.

River ushers me further down the aisle. I don't want to get in Oz's way, so I sit down at the table near the back of the plane. River stows his bag overhead and makes sure I'm settled before going back up front to talk to the pilot.

Jude ducks round the curtains at the end of the aisle, a couple of mini-coke cans in his hands. He sits down opposite me and offers me one of the cans.

"Thanks," I say. The coke hisses as I open it.

"No problem." He leans back against the cream leather seats. "So, you want to join the mile high club?"

I splutter, choking on the sip of coke I just took. "Seriously?" I ask, wiping my face.

Jude shrugs. "It would be fun."

I glare at him. "It would be unprofessional."

He groans like a diva. "It's official, you've been spending too much time with River. I'm kidnapping you for the whole flight."

"So you've got, what, five hours to corrupt me?"

Jude smirks. "Closer to six but if you come sit over here, I can have you squirming in minutes."