Blackwing Dragon (Harper's Mountains 5) Read Free Page B

around and run for the exit, and made her way down the long ramp to the door of the plane.
    “It’s my first time,” she blurted to the flight attendant who greeted her. She’d said it too loud, and the woman’s dark eyebrows jumped up like Rowan had startled her. Reading her nametag, she murmured. “Sorry, Nancy.”
    The woman smiled and pushed a fallen strand of hair out of her face. “Are you the dragon?” she whispered with a worried moue to her lips.
    Rowan looked around at the passengers in first class. Two of them were staring intently at her.
    Rowan nodded.
    “No trouble on this flight, okay?” the attendant said in a barely audible murmur. “It’s been a long week, and I just need this flight to go okay. Please?”
    “Is there liquor on the flight?” Rowan winced at her own question. She wasn’t the best at social situations.
    “I’ll bring you something to take the edge off. Is a mimosa okay?” the woman asked.
    “Perfect. Can you make it strong?”
    “Sit down so we can take off,” a rude asscrack in seat 2A called out.
    “Go on, and I’ll bring your drink in a minute,” the nice stewardess said.
    “Great.” Rowan had almost made her way out of first class before she remembered her manners and called, “Thank you, Nancy!” too damn loud again.
    Asscrack shushed her.
    Inner dragon growled.
    Everyone was staring.
    She tripped on a purse strap in the aisle and knocked a guy in 3C on the head with her carry-on bag.
    He said the F-word and then called her the C-word.
    She was not getting Damon a birthday present next month.
    Why were planes so damn tiny? Everyone was mushed in here like a box of toothpicks, and the man in row five smelled like peanut butter.
    Rowan checked the seat number on her ticket again. Every seat looked full from here.
    “Hi,” she said to a little girl who was flopped sideways out in the aisle as though she was already bored. But then Rowan felt bad giving special treatment to her, so she said, “Hi,” to the next row, and the next, until someone sighed an annoyed sound from a window seat.
    She missed Damon’s Mountains already.
    Behind her, Nancy was already doing the plane safety lesson, and Rowan really needed to pay attention to this in case of imminent death. She double-timed it to the back of the plane, which was apparently where her seat was. But when she made it to the single empty aisle seat, she lurched to a stop. Tall Dark and Mysterious was slouched down in the seat next to hers, looking out the window, the wires of earbuds snaking from his phone to inside his hoodie. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, be cool!
    “Are you stalking me?” she joked.
    He rolled his head on the seat and frowned up at her. Slowly, he plucked the earbuds away from his face. “What?”
    “I said are you stalking me?” Rowan grinned, waiting, but he wasn’t smiling. Another grumpy human then. “Never mind.” She opened up an overhead bin and wrestled her small carry-on bag up there next to his black duffle bag. They looked cute together. Neon pink and black. She should take a picture for Willa.
    Rowan pulled out her phone and snapped a quick one, then nonchalantly pointed it at Tall Dark and Mysterious, too, but before she could push the button, he shoved the flat of his palm in front of the lens and blocked her shot.
    “What the hell,” he gritted out. “No pictures.”
    “Oh, are you famous?” she asked, sitting beside him. “Are you a singer? You have lots of tattoos. I’m nervous.” Rowan looked up front to see if Nancy had finished the safety lecture. Crap, now she was screwed if the plane went down. “Do you ride a motorcycle? You look like you would ride a motorcycle.”
    “Are you going to talk the entire time?” a man across the aisle asked. “I mean seriously. You’re worse than a crying baby right now.”
    She narrowed her eyes at him. To Tall Dark and Mysterious, she lowered her voice slightly and said, “I forget how fucking grumpy humans