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Jared, this one is for you, light of my life, with thanks for the inspiration and unwavering belief.
Dear Reader,
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer. Even as a child, I spun fantastical tales, an outlet for a very creative imagination. Along the way, several special people encouraged me in ways I’ll never forget.
In elementary school, the librarian actually gave the books I wrote their own shelf and glued checkout cards on the inside covers. In junior high, a teacher gave me a full year’s credit of science projects for writing a book. I can’t forget my mother, either, for always encouraging me to believe I could be anything I dreamed.
A lot of things have changed over the years, but not my love of the written word and the power it holds.
The call from Karen Taylor Richman at Silhouette changed my life, helping me realize a lifelong dream.
It’s my sincere hope that I can capture your heart and engage your emotions, taking you away to the imaginary world I create. Just for a minute, I want you to take time out of your busy schedule for yourself, relax and enjoy.
All my very best wishes to you,
Christine Pacheco
Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Epilogue
One
Ace Lawson glanced up from where he crouched on the airplane wing. The taxicab pulled to a halt, and he checked the scarred surface of his watch, not surprised to note it was already ten minutes past the hour.
As the woman opened the back door, he lifted his aviator glasses for a closer look.
Maybe it had been worth the wait.
Ankles, then calves emerged. He swore he heard the whisper of silk as she slipped from the car. But that was impossible—the taxi’s engine hummed loudly. Obviously it had been too long since he’d been with a woman.
She paid the driver, leaning over to do so.
Ace allowed a long, low whistle.
If only he’d known this was a reward, he would have given up the boardroom five years earlier than he had.
The taxi sped off in a cloud of dust, leaving silence between him and the woman. She walked toward him. With one hand she carried a suitcase, with the other she clutched a tooled leather briefcase. In the wink of the morning sun, he noted the bright red of her sculptured nails.
Auburn hair flirted with her shoulders, a few wisps playing across her face in the desert heat. A skirt clung to her thighs, outlining the length of leg. A blazer hugged her shoulders, thankfully minus any scary linebacker padding.
She exuded professionalism, from her spiked heels to silk blouse. Yet none of the armor hid her obviously dormant sensuality.
Ace jumped from the wing, then leaned back against it, dropping his glasses into place, determined to enjoy the show. He told himself she was a client, that her money paid his bills and bought medical supplies he needed to help the underprivileged. But none of that prevented him from watching the soft sway of her hips.
He allowed a quick grin. Her dress-for-success uniform might look good now, but he’d bet dollars to plane tickets she would be wilted in under an hour. Maybe less. And on Cabo de Bello, where artillery had been flying as often as pesky gulls, the rebels would likely find her an amusing diversion.
Oh well, if she wanted to act as though she were going on the Love Boat, he wouldn’t stop her.
“Ace Lawson?” she asked, her voice slightly lilting, oddly intoxicating.
“Yep,” he said, accepting her outstretched hand. Warm. Smooth. Healthy. A hell of a contradiction to some of the women’s hands he’d seen lately. “And you’re late,” he added. Just like his ex had always been.
“Sorry.” Her smile remained firmly in place, although she pulled back her hand.
He wondered if his calluses bothered her. Wondered if the dirt under his nails bothered her. But he’d just finished a run. He wanted a cool shower, a colder beer and a soft pillow, but they were luxuries that had to wait.
“I didn’t realize you meant to take off promptly at ten.”
He ignored the apology. “Are you going to fly dressed like that? Or do you want five minutes to change?”
“Change?” Her smile vanished and she looked at her sheath-style skirt and spike-heeled leather pumps.
He took in the slick package of her chic appearance. Hell, the lady probably spent more each month on clothes than he’d made in the past ten years. What things he could do for others with that kind of money.
“Honey, you look like a million bucks, but your stockings are going to be glued to your legs and my seats eat stockings for lunch.” He shrugged elaborately. “And them heels...”
“My heels? What’s wrong with them?”
He didn’t even try to hide his amusement as she tried to pull the sunken heel from the tar.
“They’re stuck,” he said unnecessarily.
She grimaced.
He grinned, then rubbed his forefinger across the stubble shading his chin. “Tell you what. I’ll give you into something more comfortable.”
Nicole Jackson arched a tweezed eyebrow at him. He could well imagine an unfortunate underling receiving that harsh, wordless gesture. It might have terrorized some; it entertained him. “Besides, Cessie here isn’t a Learjet.”
She cut a glance to the side, taking in the single-engine plane that sported faded paint.
“I noticed.”
Her tone irritated him. His Cessna was his only worldly possession, and he loved it as if it were the child he always wanted but never had. Heck, he and Cessie had been around the world several times in the past few years. And she’d never failed him. Unlike the women he’d known.
“So what do you say? You want to take me up on my offer? You’re down to four minutes.”
She stared at him—nearly eye to eye, he noticed.
“Where do you suggest I change?”
“Over there.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
“But that’s an outhouse,” she protested.
“No attendant on duty, either.”
She didn’t laugh. Didn’t smile. But her brows narrowed into a single, slim line.
“Look,” he said, patience waning. “We need to get in the air. If you don’t want to change, I’ll help you into the plane.”
“You’ll what?”
“That skirt won’t give an inch. You’ll have to lift it up or accept my help.” Ace hoped she decided not to change.
Indecision warred on her face. Finally, with obvious reluctance, she nodded. “I’ll need about ten minutes.”
Ace sighed.
“I’ll try to cut it short.”
She offered a tentative smile and his aggravation began to fade. Then she tried to yank her shoe free. And failed. With another sigh, he bent, capturing her ankle with his hand. The curve of her bone slid perfectly into the cup of his palm. Suddenly a breath threatened to choke him.
“Really, Mr. Lawson—”
“Ace.”
“There’s no need to...”
She trailed off as he looked up. Their gazes mingled for a flash of a second. A look, one he hesitated to name, passed between them.
“That is...”
“Yes?” He raised a brow.
“I’d appreciate the help.”
“Put your hand on my shoulder,” he instructed.
She nodded, setting down her briefcase.
Nothing prepared Ace for the feel of her fingers penetrating his whisper-thin T-shirt. Soft. Warm.
He jerked the reluctant heel from the black ooze, leaving several thin strips of leather behind.
“Thanks,” she said, pulling her foot away from his hand.
Pushing to a standing position, Ace watched her slip stocking-clad toes into the ruined pump. Without another word, she picked up her briefcase and headed toward the rest room—outhouse, he mentally amended—once again with that seductive sway.
Hell, maybe this trip wouldn’t be so bad after all. For the first time in days, Ace Lawson actually smiled.
Just as quickly, though, his smile disappeared. He had a job to do, then needed to take another hop into Central America.
To kill the minutes, he climbed aboard Cessie and started a second preflight instrument check—anything to keep his mind off what Nicole might look like beneath the tough exterior. Would her undergarments be serviceable cotton, or would they be silk, satin and lace? Did her bra have an underwire or an eighteen-hour support system? Did she even wear a bra?
Ace shook his head. He needed sleep. And a stop at Rosie’s in Cartagena. He definitely didn’t need a woman reminiscent of his wife.
The heat built inside the small compartment as the California desert sun blasted through the windshield. Hardly a breeze stirred and only a few Joshua trees fought for survival in the hostile environment.
She returned in under ten minutes, white athletic shoes a marked contrast to the black tar. Supple denim snuggled her thighs and hips, conforming to her curves like a good male friend. Or a lover.
His gut tightened.
Ace reached across the cockpit and opened the door. His muscles tightened as he grabbed the briefcase. “What have you got in here?” It was hard to believe she hadn’t even struggled under the forty or so pounds.
“Notebook computer, power supply, cellular phone, calculator, modem, files. Why?”
Saying nothing, he reached for her suitcase. The luggage made the briefcase seem light. While she climbed aboard, he secured everything in the small area behind the seats.
Several minutes later, he taxied down the abandoned runway. The plane picked up speed. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the woman next to him.
“Fasten your belt,” he instructed, not believing she hadn’t thought to do that.
Without checking to see if she’d obeyed, he continued down the rutted, weed-choked runway, easing back on the yoke.
Urging the plane’s nose into the air, Ace reveled in the freedom of flight. The engine throbbed steadily beneath him, just like a hot, willing and undemanding woman. The sound of wind rushed past the fuselage, reminding him of the whisper of damp, musky sheets sliding to the floor.
He checked his instruments, then looked at his passenger. She hadn’t followed orders. The ends of the safety belt rested at the side of the seat.
Her chest rose and fell in shallow motions and her vivid green eyes stared at nothing, unblinking. The tips of her manicured fingernails dug into her palms, and streaks of artificial color painted her cheeks. Her lips were tightly pursed. Obviously, the grip of fear held her paralyzed.
Ace groaned. He’d been hired to shuttle an uptight businesswoman who got airsick before the land lay even three thousand feet beneath them. “Ms. Jackson?”
A sound emerged from her throat that was part whimper, part moan.
A knot twisted in his gut. The feeling was familiar, but something he’d thought he’d gotten rid of when Elana fled. Evidently not. Unfortunately, he no longer carried a bottle of mint-flavored antacid in his duffel to help tame the wild ulcer. Right now, his passenger could use it every bit as much as he.
“Are you okay?” he asked, hoping he would get the answer he wanted, not the one he feared.
She didn’t respond.
A burning in his stomach painfully reminded him of the ulcer’s existence.
Taking a hand from the yoke, he frantically dug through the map compartment for an airsick bag. There had to be one. Didn’t there?
A bead of sweat trickled down her patrician nose.
“Hang in there,” he urged. Ace prided himself on the ability to deal with anything life tossed his way. He’d flown through blazing fires, been shot at, tossed into jail for a crime he hadn’t committed, and another he had. And yet, he couldn’t deal with something so elemental, so natural.
Or maybe it was the woman herself who unsettled him.
The whimper in her voice became urgent.
“Damn.” While keeping one eye on the controls, he reached again and again into the compartment.
She flinched.
And surprisingly, Ace experienced a twinge of sympathy. Digging under the maps, he searched for the waxy-feeling paper. To no avail.
The woman’s shoulders drooped, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
Since there were no bags, he had only one option: try to keep her from needing one.
“Open your eyes, Ms. Jackson,” he said softly, barely above the lulling hum of the engines. Fighting back impatience, he kept his tone even and cajoling. “You’re making matters worse.” For both of them.
She blinked.
“Take five deep breaths. Hold each for at least three seconds.”
She followed his instructions, drawing in a drink of air. With each breath, his corresponding pain lessened.
“That’s it,” he added when she gulped again. “Exhale slowly.”
She did.
“Now look out the window.”
“The window?” The words were hardly above a croak.
“Try and fix your gaze in the distance. Don’t look up, and definitely don’t look down.”
He surveyed the plane’s gauges, though in reality he could fly unconsciously...and had done so on more than one occasion.
He noticed her hands had stopped trembling. “Take another couple of breaths, and whatever you do, don’t close your eyes, since that makes you more dizzy and disoriented.”
A few minutes later, she looked in his direction. A hint of color started to blend with her blusher.
“You okay?”
She nodded weakly. “I think so.”
Ace prayed so.
“How did you do that?”
“Learned that handy tip a few years ago. Dated a dancer.”
“What does dancing have to do with it?”
“She did ballet—you know all those spins. She said she always tried to focus on an object every time she spun around, said it stopped her from getting dizzy.”
“Evidently it works.”
“Next time, remember to take your motion sickness pills before you get on the plane.”
“I did.”
He silently pleaded with the sky gods for smooth sailing, sans turbulence. “Are you always such a poor passenger?” Ace had a hard time believing he wasn’t completely irritated by her—with her. Logic said he should have been. She was a painful reminder of his ex-wife and the hurt he’d run—flown—away from. Yet there was something vulnerable about Nicole Jackson, despite the way she dressed and acted. As if there was something more to the picture, something she didn’t want anyone to uncover...
Absently he wondered what it would be like to unlock the secrets. Her secrets.
She wiped back a wisp of escaped auburn hair and looked at him. “I do better in bigger aircraft.”
Dragged from his wayward thoughts by the sound of her voice, he responded, “Then why do you fly?”
“It’s more convenient.”
“For who?”
She shifted, squaring her shoulders. He saw her struggle to regain composure, hide the vulnerability he’d witnessed. With her looks, money and title of President, she was obviously accustomed to being in control. Which ought to make things interesting, because he had no intention of relinquishing half an ounce of his control to any woman.
“Fasten your belt,” he instructed, the words a little rough, as he tried not to notice how alluring she looked with the gleaming sun accenting the highlights in her hair.
Nicole Jackson was business, and in a few days she would be history. Noticing personal things—and wanting to discover them—wouldn’t make the trip any easier. And right now he needed easy.
Needed it bad.
* * *
Nicole fingered back the stands of hair that refused to cooperate. Her fingers no longer shook, but an uneasy sensation remained in her stomach. She recognized the feeling, and it had nothing to do with flying and everything to do with being out of control. She detested the feeling, knowing it was a sign of weakness. Nicole didn’t want to be out of control, especially when she was at the mercy of a man who didn’t appear to have an ounce of mercy in his soul.
To give him credit though, he hadn’t turned the plane around and gone back in for a landing. And judging by the expression on his face, the thought had obviously crossed his mind.
Cognizant of his gaze and the fact he’d glanced suggestively, more than once, at the belt, she forced her fingers to relax, then grabbed both ends and snapped them together.
Then he looked away, as if she weren’t even there.
While he was deep in thought, or just plain ignoring her, she surveyed the man sitting next to her.
Deep lines were etched beside his haunted gray eyes, indicating that he’d seen more of life than some men twice his age. His dark blond hair was brushed back severely from his furrowed forehead. She knew, without a doubt, that the valleys grooved in his face were formed from experience, not laughter.
A masculine shading of stubble covered his jaw, leaving her to wonder if he’d been up all night or whether the look was typical of his personality. Either way, it was different than what she was accustomed to seeing.
Nicole noticed the way his hands curved around the yoke and remembered the sensual feel of his calluses. The feeling had been unique. And tantalizingly thrilling.
Evidently aware of her less-than-subtle scrutiny, he glanced in her direction. His lips curved into something she thought might be considered a smile in less than polite circles. Momentarily, his harsh features had been transformed, until they weren’t quite as brooding. In fact, he was quite attractive. Ruggedly so. Teasingly so. If one went for that type of man, which she definitely didn’t. She had enough worries trying to save the account for her client, without adding Ace Lawson to the list of her problems.
“Are you still doing okay?”
Did she detect a slight hint of concern in his tone? “I think you and your plane are both safe.”
“Good.” There was no mistaking his relief. Nor her own. Obviously, the concern had been a figment of her imagination.
Without another word, he checked a map, glancing at the dials and gauges. He piloted the plane with confidence, almost arrogance. As much as he unsettled her, though, she knew she was in safe hands.
Ace Lawson’s firm, Risky Business, specialized in flying people to areas no one else would. She was aware of the recent rebel activity on Cabo de Bello, and knew that was why the last commercial airline had canceled flights to the island. Two months ago, following a hurricane that decimated the runways, the smaller airlines had followed suit. Which left her with Ace Lawson.
Their legs brushed. Worn, nearly threadbare jeans melded to his thighs like a second skin. A jolt of awareness pierced her. His masculine scent—that of adventure spiced with danger—surrounded her, making the cockpit intimate.
He grinned wolfishly; he didn’t apologize.
She scooted away, pressing her right shoulder against the cold glass window. She could survive anything for two days, she told herself. Including Ace Lawson.
After all, she was paying his wages.
And that made him just another employee.
Vaguely she wondered why that thought gave her absolutely no comfort.
Two
Several hours later, a pocket of turbulence jolted the plane. Nicole wanted to squeeze her eyes shut, desperate to keep the consuming panic at bay. But remembering Ace’s previous instructions, she forced herself to focus in the distance.
“That’s a girl,” he said.
She found the deep resonance of his voice oddly reassuring. Nicole clung to the lifeline of his calmness, and decided not to be ruffled by his patronizing manner.
Flying was the worst part of her job. Even though she’d logged nearly one hundred thousand air miles for the company her father started and she fought to save, Nicole had been unable to overcome the constant terror.
And this flight was worse than many of the others. Despite Ace’s earlier remarks, she hadn’t expected the comfort of a Learjet, but neither had she been prepared for the Cessna’s cramped confines.
Each sensation was magnified tenfold, from the loudness of the creaking fuselage and constant drone of the engine, to the shudder of the seat and roll of dash instruments.
She hadn’t thought she would have to sit so close to the pilot. His muscular thigh, wrapped in faded-to-white denim, pressed against her own, much softer leg. Sensually.
Each time he reached to check an instrument or map, his motions rippled through her. The faint scent of the tropical after-shave clinging to his neck seemed much more potent to her neglected senses than the hundred-dollar-an-ounce cologne she was accustomed to on her male colleagues and rare dates.
He shifted, his hip bone brushing her thigh. She sucked in a huge gulp of air. The man was dangerous, more unnerving than flying, and the aura of power he possessed told her that for the first time ever, she was way out of her league.
Since she’d grown up and learned to deal with the crisscrossing of scars left by an uncomfortable childhood, that of never fitting in or belonging, never being quite good enough, Nicole had allowed no man close enough to bother her.
And she wouldn’t start with Ace Lawson.
Straightening, she inched away from the close contact of their bodies.
“I have to stop to refuel before the last stint that’ll take us over water.”
The unease in Nicole’s stomach became acid. Needing another dose of Dramamine, she shifted as much as the restricting belt allowed. She grappled behind the seat for her suitcase. When her fingers were unable to locate anything except the coarseness of canvas and layers of maps, she asked, “Where’s my suitcase?”
“Under my duffel bag.” He turned to her. “You’re not sick again, are you?”
“I’m nervous about the landing,” she admitted.
“I’ll take it easy and steady,” he promised.
She wondered if he was only talking about the plane.
“But if you need more medicine right away, there’s probably some in the first-aid kit.”
She glanced around. “Where’s that?”
“My duffel.”
The idea of rifling through his personal effects bothered her...more than the thought of the landing. “I’ll be okay.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself. But there’s no need for heroics. In fact, I’d much prefer you didn’t attempt it.”
He guided the plane through puffy clouds. Nicole focused on a spot in the distance.
“Almost there.”
The plane rocked and bounced as the runway rose to meet them. She gripped the bottom of the seat until numbness froze her hands.
“You can wake up now, Sleeping Beauty.”
Nicole emerged from her self-imposed trance like a caterpillar transformed into a butterfly. She blinked, relieved to discover Ace taxiing to the tie-down area.
“You’re still alive,” he said.
“Tell that to my stomach.”
Ace laughed softly, then shook his head. He maneuvered the plane into the spot indicated by an attendant. When he shut down the engine, he turned to Nicole. “You hungry?”
“Couldn’t eat a thing.”
“You should try something light. This’ll be your last opportunity for a decent meal until tonight.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
He lifted a broad shoulder in a hint of a shrug, then dropped it again just as quickly. “We’ll be leaving in about fifteen minutes.”