Up in a Blaze Read Online Free PDF

thought. Well that was all fine and good, since she already owned his heart, even though she didn’t realize it yet.
    The steward returned a moment later with a bottle of water in his hand. “Is there anything else I can get for you, Miss?”
    “No, I’m good, thank you.”
    “Do you happen to have a pillow she can use?” Donte spoke up. He was determined to get his mate to rest, one way or another. Hopefully a pillow under her head would provide a measure of comfort.
    “Certainly,” the steward replied as he walked over to an overhead compartment and opened it up, producing both a pillow and thin blanket for her.
    Donte took the blanket and pillow from the steward and thanked him. Turning to his mate, he stated, “Hold on,” before he hit a button on the side of the loveseat that started reclining the seat. He stopped about half way back when he heard her gasp.
    “Damn ribs. Hurts every time I try to move,” she grumbled.
    “I know, babe, I’m sorry.” He hesitated, not wanting to cause her any more pain, but wanting her to rest comfortably at the same time. He gave her a minute, then continued to lower her side into a reclining position.
    The seats didn’t go completely vertical, but they were close. In the end, he dropped his own seat back part way so she could rest her head on the pillow propped up by his shoulder. He spread the lightweight blanket over her and gently ran his fingertips down her cheek in a ghostly caress.
    “Take a nap, hon. I’ll wake you when we arrive home.”
    Cassandra closed her eyes, her eyelids becoming too heavy to keep open. Home, she liked the sound of that word. She wondered what home meant for the gorgeous ranger who was her escort. Not that she would ever find out. Gorgeous men like him didn’t go for nobodies like her. If there was one thing she’d learned in her short life, was that people born into poverty rarely ever escaped it.
    Oh sure, she had tried. She had gotten away from her alcoholic parents at a young age. Went to school. Made good grades. Even went to college. But in the end, it didn’t matter. She was sitting with a business degree that was worth about as much as the paper it was written on.
    She felt his cool fingertips on her cheek, and wondered why he was doing that. Did he just feel sorry for her? That must be it , she thought. He already explained that he hated to see any man mistreat a woman. She let herself entertain the dream for just a moment of what it would be like to have someone like him all the time. Someone who loved her for who she was. Someone who saw the real Cassandra Vicors. Someone she could lean on in troubled times. Someone who would love her unconditionally.
    As long as Donte was touching her, he had access to her thoughts. As he sat in the background watching her thoughts play out like a movie to him, he grinned. It seemed the mating heat was already starting to affect her, she just didn’t understand it yet. Oh, but she would.
    He waited until she was completely asleep, then slipped further into her thoughts. Because he was the last thing on her mind when she fell asleep, it was rather easy to manipulate her thoughts into dreamland.
    They sat on the edge of a small pond, holding hands, the warm sun smiling down on the two of them.
    “ Tell me what you want most in life. If it is within my abilities, it will be yours ,” he whispered as he brought her hand up to his mouth and lightly brushed his lips across the back of it.
    Her look of despair cut through him like a knife.
    “ What is it, love ?”
    She shrugged her shoulders, trying to make it come across as not so important. Only he saw right through her. It was very important.
    “ I want to feel safe. I want to feel love for the first time. True love, not just lust. I want the chance to be able to live life a little, not just work sixty hours a week to barely keep a roof over my head.”
    He graced her with a tender smile. “ You’re safer than you realize, and I think you