At the sight of her he made that sound again, then again when he brought his face forward, nuzzling her bra aside. His mouth slid across the soft curve of her breast to a beaded nipple, and he sucked her hard into his mouth.

A buzzing sounded in her ears. Her head fell back against the wall with a loud thud and she gripped fistfuls of his hair to hold him to her. Pleasure was a hot wave that crashed over her from her still tingly lips to her curling toes to the aching spot between her legs.

Then he shifted to the other side and she nearly melted to the floor, would have if he hadn’t supported her with his arms. “Bryan,” she managed to gasp desperately. “I need…”

“I know.” He settled himself in the notch of her thighs, pressing a knee between them. The friction of his hard, powerful leg against the spot that was so hot and needy brought her one step closer to the edge, and she opened her eyes, shocked at how close to orgasm she was when he’d only kissed her, had barely yet touched her.

The buzzing she’d heard increased and from a haze of desire she saw Bryan jerk, then heard his soft, frustrated oath. “A plane. Katie, there’s a plane coming in.”

It wasn’t unheard of. Many mornings they’d open Wells Aviation to find one or more planes had landed after hours. Usually the pilots would call a taxi from the payphone and find a hotel for the night.

But sometimes they would sleep in their aircraft.

An aircraft which would be landing right outside this hangar any second, if the sudden roar of the touchdown was any indication.

Bryan shoved his fingers into his hair, then let out a growl. “Look at you.” His thumb slid over her mouth, which was still wet. His gaze took in her rumpled state, her obvious confusion, and his frustration dimmed, to be replaced by a tenderness that had her blinking. “Come on, sweetheart.” And he reached out to fix her bra, which had the backs of his fingers brushing over her still aching nipples.

Another whimper escaped her before she could stop it and Bryan groaned. “Cover up,” he whispered, brushing a kiss over her damp temple.

Cover up? But her hips were still moving, her legs tight and shaking, and she needed-

“Katie,” he breathed softly, and he reached for her hands, putting them on her own opened blouse. “Why are you making me be the grown-up?” he asked with a sexy grimace. “Button up, I’ll go stall whoever it is.”

Button up. Yes, she could do that. But be grown up about it? She didn’t know. Fumbling with the chore, she drew a deep breath and wondered at the insanity of what had just happened.

It was supposed to have been just one kiss. Simple, right?

Only it’d been anything but, and she had no doubt, if that plane hadn’t just interrupted them, they might have made love.

What had come over her? Unable to believe it, she made her way out of the dim hangar. Actually, staggered was more like it, as if she’d just polished off a glass of wine. Drunk on lust, she thought, and let out a laugh that sounded hysterical to her sensitive ears.

At the door, she realized the night had grown cold, icy cold, which she hadn’t noticed since she’d been steaming up the air with that kiss.

Kisses, she corrected. Definitely plural kisses.

Bryan was talking to someone. She stepped closer, then was very sorry. Standing in front of her were two of their staff members, both part-time mechanics. With them was Holly, who grinned when Katie showed herself.

“Well, well,” she said, her grin widening. “I suppose you were just…what, maybe catching up on some work?”

“Um…” Katie’s brain was still fogged with passion. “Yes. Work.”

She heard Bryan groan, saw him move toward her, blocking her from view, but she didn’t understand why until she heard Holly say, “Work. Yes, that explains why you’re buttoned wrong.”

Katie looked down at herself.

She’d mismatched not one, not two, but three buttons. “Oh, boy,” she whispered.

Holly just laughed. “Yeah. Oh, boy.”

9

ONE DAY LATER Katie found herself craning her neck for a better view of Bryan.

He flew by.

Then again.

And again.

In the long, torturous moments between those appearances, Katie knew exactly what he was doing, even if she couldn’t see him.

Stunts.

Dangerous ones.

Upside down, sideways, a roll, he would do them all. And even though she told herself he was free to do as he wanted, that she had no hold on him, and he no hold on her, she still felt like grabbing him right out of the sky and locking him in a safe dungeon somewhere.

She realized she stood at her office window with her nose pressed up against the glass. With effort, she forced herself to relax, even as he finished filming.

She’d known, hadn’t she, what he did for the thrill as well as the extra money? Somehow she’d forgotten that basic fact. That it was slammed home now when she stood quivering on the ground while he so foolishly risked his life, didn’t improve her temper.

He was so totally wrong for her.

All men had a long list of faults, but Bryan had more than his share. First, he gave her hot looks that fried her brain. Second, he gave her hot kisses that fried her brain. And third, everything he did or said fried her brain.

Oh, and he was passionate about everything, including her.

Wait. Those weren’t exactly faults, were they?

No problem, she could come up with others. He was startlingly tender and gentle, and he made her laugh at things, at work, at herself.

At life.

Darn. Those weren’t faults, either.

How had this happened? He brought out the worst in her. He did! She’d sent an entire truckload of toilet paper to the maintenance hangar, for God’s sake.

It had to stop.

She just didn’t know how. So she went back to what had become her own private spectator sport.

She plastered her face to her window and watched him fly.


AS WAS HIS PREFERENCE, Bryan tied down his own plane, only this time his mind was not on the job at hand.

He’d nearly lost it up there.

“Ace! That was fab, man, absolutely-”

Bryan lifted a hand to Ritchie to ward him off. He didn’t want to talk about his latest stunt, he didn’t want to talk at all.

He passed right by the film crew, who were still congratulating themselves on a job well-done, as if they’d risked their lives for a stupid beer commercial.

The fact was, Bryan was disgusted with himself. Hell, he was disgusted with the whole world at the moment, and needed to be alone to think.

One wrong move up there and he could have died. It was a thought that had rarely occurred to him before, even on hundreds of previous, more dangerous flights, and yet he couldn’t stop thinking about it now as his long stride churned up the tarmac. He entered the lobby and made a beeline for his office.

It wasn’t as though his plane had malfunctioned or failed him. No, it had been his own hands, when he’d held the spin for a fraction of a second too long.

He’d had control at all times, but still, for the first time in his life, he’d imagined the could have, the might have, the almost.

Then imagined himself dead.

And it wasn’t his own pain he thought of, but his family’s. He was the baby, the joy of his parents’ hearts. How would they take it?

And Katie. God, Katie.

It would kill her.

All for a stupid beer commercial.

He passed the women at the front desk, each of whom grinned and sent him the thumb’s-up sign.

He passed several clients milling around in the lobby, who wanted to comment on his expert flying.

He passed Holly in the hallway, who managed to annoy him with one easy smile. “Do you make love the way you fly?” she wondered, her eyes laughing. “Because if you do…wow.”

Bryan moved faster, needing solitude, needing, for some inexplicable reason, to touch base with his family and hear their voices.

Needing…

He moved by Katie’s door, which was ajar. She stood with her slim, straight back to him, staring out the window at the tarmac.

At his parked plane.

He stopped so fast he nearly tripped.

She’d watched.

“Katie.” He’d whispered it before he could stop himself and though she stiffened, she didn’t move. “I’m sorry…” Sorry for what exactly? “That you had to see that. That-”

She didn’t turn to him. “I’ve been watching you fly stunts for months, why would you apologize now?”

He wished he could see her face, wished she was in his arms, straining against him as she had last night…he wished for so much he didn’t know where to start.

“I’m really busy,” she said pointedly, still not looking at him.

“Yes, I can see that.”

“Then you’ll be sure to shut the door on your way out.”

Well. That couldn’t be any more clear, could it? No matter that he didn’t want to walk away, instead wanted to make her relax, even smile.

He was a man of action though, not of subtlety, and she wasn’t ready for action.

Or that’s what he told himself as he backed out of her office and shut the door.

Two minutes later he was in his own office with his oldest sister on the telephone, and just the sound of Mandy’s voice made him smile.

“What have you done now?” she asked. “You only call me when you’re feeling guilty about something.”

“I do not.”

“Uh-huh. When did you call me last, Bry?”

“Well…”

“Let me refresh your memory. You’d just forgotten Mom’s birthday and you wanted me to call her up and tell her you’d been held hostage on some remote island.”

“Hey, she would have believed it coming from you!”

“And the time before that,” she continued, undeterred, warmth and love and affection clear in her voice, “you called because you’d just beat up Cindy’s boyfriend and you didn’t know how to tell her.”