Finding Forever

2

Sadie's POV

"Is this seat taken?" asked a male voice, the distinctly New York accent catching my attention a half-second before I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I gasped, dropping my book as I reflexively flinched away from the unexpected contact, placing one hand over my pounding heart as I took a deep breath to calm myself and let it out slowly. Wide-eyed, I stared up at an extremely attractive man with chin-length chestnut brown hair, a well-trimmed beard and the most stunning blueish-gray eyes I'd ever seen leaning towards me.

"Sorry!" He flashed an apologetic smile. "I really didn't mean to scare you; I guess you didn't hear me trying to get your attention?"

"No, I most certainly did not." I leaned over to retrieve my book, setting it firmly on the tray table in front of me. "So now that you have it..."

He gestured at the seat beside me, his lips quirking slightly upwards at the edges in obvious amusement. "Is this seat taken?"

"Oh!" I broke eye contact for the first time to glance down, feeling my cheeks heat as I realized that was my bag and jacket in his assigned seat; apparently I'd managed to get so absorbed in my reading that I hadn't even remembered I'd left it there. No wonder he'd been trying to get my attention! "No, not yet."

"That's a relief."

"Sorry," I murmured, snatching my belongings from his seat. "I must've forgotten to stow my bag again after getting my book out."

"Must be some book," he observed as he slid a leather messenger bag off his shoulder and dropped it onto the floor in front of his seat.

"Yeah, it's pretty good." Setting my bag on the floor in front of me, I rolled up my jacket and tucked it securely inside before glancing curiously up at him, racking my brain to figure out what it was about him that seemed so damn familiar. "I was starting to think I was going to have this all to myself."

"To be fair, you almost did."

I forgot whatever I'd intended to ask him when his t-shirt rode up to reveal incredibly drool-worthy washboard abs as he stripped off his jacket and shoved it into the overhead compartment. I couldn't tear my eyes from the tantalizing strip of skin that had appeared again as he maneuvered his roller bag into place; it wasn't my fault that the low-rise dark-washed denim didn't cover more of his Calvin Klein's.

"I might have cut it a little closer timewise for boarding today than I probably should've." He shut the compartment firmly, the noise breaking the spell he'd cast over me.

"Accidentally or on purpose?"

"On purpose." He flashed me a strangely familiar eye-crinkling grin as he sat down beside me and my breath caught as I suddenly knew who he was. "I just don't like having to be stuck on planes any longer than I absolutely have to."

"I don't blame you. The travel company insisted our group all board together for head count the moment the gate opened, so we've been on here for a while already."

"Lucky you," he smirked, holding out his hand. "I'm Sebastian, by the way."

"Hello, Sebastian," I murmured, fighting to ignore the breathtaking intensity of the déjà vu that blindsided me the second our skin made contact. As his long, warm fingers wrapped all the way around my own significantly smaller hand to completely engulf it, it took me a second to shake off my stupor enough to be able to tell him my name. "I'm Sadie."

Sebastian's captivating eyes snapped to mine so fast that I wondered if he felt it too; I was no stranger to déjà vu, but I'd never had it hit me so powerfully that it practically stopped me in my tracks before.