with her seeming departure. She watched him glance down at his wristwatch and fiddle with something on the side of it before he turned to stare out of the window by his seat. Even in profile, Aeros was gorgeous, not in the Hollywood too-glamorous-for-mere-mortals way, but in the fierce warrior way. Well, maybe he could give Gerald Butler a run. Naw, heck with the run, Aeros hands-down beat her favourite Scottish hottie.
He turned and stared right at her, a brooding expression pulling his brow downward into a V above his hawk-like nose. Did he really find her attractive? It seemed nearly impossible. A man like Aeros, strong, confident, ancient—he could have his pick of immortal and human women, for that matter.
She wished she could ask Sammie, but from what she knew of her friend, nothing got in the way of her hunt for her sister, nothing. Especially not men. The woman was driven with a capital D.
“Ha, Bethany says—”
“The little brat, tell her next time I’m going to sneak in and free all those poor little animals she traps and babies the hell out of.”
Laughter filled the line, and she heard little Bethany’s giggle, too. The girl child was adorable. Killer adorable and full of more mischief than even Trouble.
Sammie was too involved in finding her lost sister to wait for Tabithia to be done with this mission. For her part, Tabithia had scryed and scryed for Susanna but had found nothing. The world was a large place at times. And the immortal world even larger. The problem was they had no idea if Susanna lived, or if she’d already passed through the veil, or worse, if she was on another plane of existence. The immortal world stretched on, folding open into world upon world, upon world. It would take centuries to search them all. Scrying could only go so far. Worse, Tabithia had never met Susanna and had nothing to go on except for her own friendship with Sammie, Susanna’s twin, to aid in her search.
Eyeing Aeros’ impatient scowl, she resisted the sudden, bizarre urge to make him laugh. He’d crossed his arms over his deep chest, making his biceps swell wonderfully under his T-shirt. He was a lean man, not a body-builder muscleman, but tough as nails all the same. She was betting on an eight-pack under his shirt. And thick, muscled thighs.
She also guessed him to have a light dusting all over his legs with more than enough in the middle of that big chest to play with. The tattoo peeking out from under one of his T-shirt sleeves had surprised her at first. He just seemed too arrogant to adorn himself in any way. He hardly looked like he paid much attention to his looks. Short, serviceable hair. Dark BDUs. Boots. Weapons. That was Aeros. Well, not the other night. The other night he’d worn a sexy tailored blazer and dress slacks. He’d looked so hot she’d had a hard time meeting his eyes.
Swallowing, she jerked her gaze off the man and out of the side window. Goddess, she was losing her mind. What was going on with her? Why was she cataloguing all his hottie qualities?
“Hey, don’t go on that hunt without me, then, okay? I’ll be back in no time and then we can hit the trail.”
“Sure, Tabithia. You’re one busy witch. Jesus.”
“Hey, hey, no disrespecting the gods. Geesh, you’re going to jinx me.”
“Right, like you can’t fix that. Well, I gotta go, chica.”
She grinned at the attempt at humour. Sammie was cool, a wicked witch in her own right, but so damn focused she made Sorcha look like fun at times. Tabithia glanced back over at Aeros, a shock flowing through her at seeing him again. He had such dark lashes, she noticed. Why did men have such beautiful eyes? Hers were a watery imitation of Trouble’s bright jade and Sorcha’s brilliant sea-green.
“That’s cool. I hope you find something. Buzz me, and we’ll hit the clubs, right?”
A laugh and she could just see Sammie shaking her head and smiling. The smiles were rare. “Yeah, that sounds good. And Tabithia? Be