The Aviator Read Free Page B

directly for the Royal Navy, thus undermining Sinclair’s position as their chief shipping contractor.”
    “Do you honestly believe that is his plan? A bit Machiavellian for someone with so few social graces, is it not?”
    “He builds airships. That’s what he does.”
    “But surely—”
    “I’ve thought it all through. Leaving Sinclair would only make sense if he were planning to destroy us, to build his airships for someone else and put us out of business altogether.”
    “Rather exhausting.”
    “He’s inexhaustible, I assure you.”
    “I wasn’t actually referring to him.”
    “Unless the Royal Navy wants Sinclair and all of its support flights to stop running immediately, they need to leave Nathan with me. They can find a designer of their own.”
    “So this is a fight you expect to win?”
    “Yes.”
    “I do so admire ambition in a woman of means. It demonstrates an ability to ignore the usefulness of having everything one could ever want.”
    “I’m not the only person of means on this ship, your grace.”
    He conceded that with a resigned noise, something between a sigh and a groan. “True, but I have a rather vested interest in keeping the Sultans in their own hemisphere.”
    “Which is?”
    “Oh, dear girl, don’t you know? They cheat at cards. And I’m deathly allergic to tassels. They look terrible on me.”
    They shared a warm look, a thinly disguised understanding that the danger was far more serious than either of them truly wanted to admit.
    Gilda pursed her lips. “I’ll settle the matter of Nathan’s contract in no time at all. A few days, at the most. We’ll be flying as usual, ship shape at Sinclair, keeping everything in check. This will all be sorted out quickly.”
    “What lovely resolve.” The Duke signaled the attendant. “We should christen such a bold battle plan with something far stronger than this watery champagne, don’t you agree?”
    Gilda smiled and leaned forward against the table, catching Nathan’s disapproving scowl from across the room. “The stronger, the better, your grace. You, of all people, know how much I enjoy testing my constitution with expensive vices.”

    The Duke. The goddamn Duke and that half-wit, girlish look she gave him that shut out the rest of the world, acknowledging only the two of them as a pair of famous aristocrats in a room full of lesser beings.
    Nathan glared at the shadows cast along the ceiling, knowing that he had to stop this, pull the image from his mind, the way he had so many times before. After all, this is exactly what she wanted, what she’d come for. She’d be delighted to know he couldn’t sleep, tortured not by the memory of the shuttle hurtling to its own destruction, or the thought that she might have gone with it, but by the image of the Duke’s slithering caresses on her skin, his thin, pale lips sucking on her breasts.
    Nathan shut his eyes, reaching up to press his palms against them in frustration. Stop. Stop. Stop. After this, you’re free. No more teasing. No more insults. No more petty manipulations. She’ll be on her own. Daddy’s spoiled little girl left to fend for herself.
    He begged forgiveness, yet again, of Sinclair’s ghost for that, knowing full well how he’d failed the old man. Though it had never been said outright, he’d understood the obligation that had been passed to him along with the controlling share of Sinclair Airship.
    Save the company from Gilda. Save Gilda from herself.
    When he was younger, and completely besotted with her, he’d imagined himself doing just that, becoming the new visionary, the pillar that both father and daughter seemed to yearn for. But that was before he’d compromised himself, and Gilda, in ways poor Sinclair had never discovered. And before he knew how completely ruthless she could be.
    He hissed through his teeth, wondering if he’d ever really be rid of her, no matter how much time or distance he put between them. She was part of him now, the