She nodded as he vaulted down, noticing he wasn’t slowed by the weight he was carrying. Kaylie had been charged extra for overweight bags when she’d left Seattle, but apparently they weren’t heavy for Cort.
He strode across the tarmac, his body lithe and lean, like a wild animal gliding through his territory. The storm clouds were getting darker and thicker in the sky behind him. The wind had picked up, and the air was heavy with the scent of moisture and ice. The weather felt ominous, like a predator lurking in the shadows.
“Let’s go.” Cort reached Kaylie and began to stride past her.
“Wait.” She grabbed his arm, and she could feel the hard curve of his biceps even beneath his heavy jacket. Awareness jolted through her, and she jerked her hand back at his sharp look. “Maybe we should wait out the storm?”
He stopped in place and gave her a long look. Considering.
“I’ll pay you for your time, though. For the waiting.” Someone in his line of business no doubt scraped the bottom for cash every month. It was the nature of his work, but a man like him wouldn’t care about being strapped financially. Laughing in the face of death was all the compensation he needed.
Unlike Kaylie. She’d found that a high-paying job as a senior accountant and a deluxe apartment with double-paned windows went a long way toward giving her the security she needed so badly. No, her life wasn’t that exciting, and her work was hardly inspiring, but it was safe and predictable. It was the lifestyle she’d been planning since she was sixteen, and she’d achieved exactly what she wanted. Maybe her heart didn’t sing for joy every morning when she woke up, but that was a fair trade-off for the fact she didn’t have to worry about death every minute of her life. It was a good deal, and she was happy enough in her world—a protected, predictable existence that a man like Cort would probably say went against the laws of nature.
And he would be wrong.
Kaylie set her hands on her hips as Cort eyed her silently. Her body sizzled under his intense scrutiny, even though she couldn’t see where he was looking. She felt his gaze on her, her skin burning from the heat of his stare.
Then he turned away, opened the door of the Cessna, and tossed her bags inside.
“Wait—”
He turned back to her and set his hands on her shoulders, tightening his grip when she tried to pull back. His touch was unyielding, but the subtle caress of his thumbs was meant to reassure. She felt herself yield to the contact.
He nodded slightly at her response. “I assure you, you’ll be safe with me. I’ve got over ten thousand hours, and I’ve never lost a passenger.” He rubbed her shoulders, his thumb drifting over her collarbone in a soothing gesture that eased some of her tension. “Just relax and leave it to me. You’ll be with Sara before you know it, and you’ll catch some great scenery on the way. Might even see a few grizzlies.”
His voice was a deep rumble of quiet confidence and arrogance. With Cort, she would be safe, and safe was all she wanted….
He smiled. “There we go. Now—”
“No.” Kaylie forced herself to pull back. Safe? God, what was she thinking? A man like Cort would sooner die than do anything safely. For a moment, his grip tightened, keeping her close. She realized suddenly that he could toss her into his plane, and she would be powerless to stop him.
Then he released her, and she stumbled back. “It’s not that I’m afraid of the plane,” she explained hastily, hugging herself. “I’m not. I just can’t go.” Not with him. Not with the storm approaching. There were too many things wrong. Getting into the plane…just felt wrong.
And the last time something had felt this wrong, people had died.
His smile faded, and she realized he wasn’t just a pilot, but a consummate expert in people. It was his job to fly anyone who needed a ride and to keep them happy. She clenched her hands, preparing to resist his attempt to woo her into the plane with his charms.
But after a moment, he shrugged, pulled her bags out of the Cessna, and dropped them at her feet, making absolutely no effort to change her mind. “I don’t have time to wait, but you can stay here if you want. I’ll give you five minutes to reconsider, and then I’m taking off. No need to pay me anything.” He shot another assessing look at the sky off to the north, then ducked under the plane and started fiddling with the wing on the far side, completely dismissing her.
The tension immediately eased from Kaylie’s body, and she knew she’d made the right choice not to fly with him. “Um, sorry for the inconvenience.” She decided not to look too closely at the fact he’d let her go so easily, a capitulation that had to be against his nature. She’d take the gift and run.
He shot her a look she couldn’t read behind the sunglasses. “No inconvenience, ma’am. Have a nice day.”
“You too.” Kaylie grabbed her bags, staggering under the weight as she arranged them on her shoulders. As she walked across the tarmac toward the hanger, she resisted the urge to turn around and look at him. Instead, she opened her phone and tried to call Sara one more time.
Voice mail again.
Kaylie frowned and hung up without leaving another message. She’d promised to call when she landed, and Sara had been expecting her. So why wasn’t she answering? Kaylie thought of the unplayed voice mail on her phone and brightened. Had Sara left her a message? Maybe saying she was meeting Kaylie at the airport instead? Please, yes.
Kaylie punched up her voice mail to listen to the message, turning as she heard the Cessna’s propeller roar to life after what had to be the shortest five minutes on record.
She watched Cort get organized and saw the large mud tires begin to roll. He wasn’t wasting any time getting airborne, not even looking her way to see if she’d changed her mind.
The message began to play, and Kaylie jumped when she heard Sara’s frantic voice. “Oh, my God, Kaylie! Don’t come to my cabin! Do you hear me? Don’t come! God, I didn’t know! Your mom—” There was a pause. “Oh, shit. I think he’s here. I’ll call you la—”
Sara screamed, there was a gurgling sound and a crash, and then the message went dead.
CHAPTER THREE
Cort swung the Cessna toward the runway, then swore as Kaylie ran right in front of the plane, waving her arms and shouting. He slammed on the brakes, grimacing at the protest from the Cessna, but he’d been going slowly enough to allow for the sharp stop. He threw open his door. “What the hell—?”
“Something happened to Sara!” Kaylie’s face was ashen as she lunged for him and tried to pull herself into the Cessna.
Cort caught her arms as she tried to scramble into his seat. Her body was shaking violently beneath his hands, and he instinctively pulled her against him. “Kaylie. Calm down.” He was used to passengers panicking on him, but something about the way she was reacting sent a chill down his spine. “What happened?”
She shook her head, her eyes hidden behind those damn sunglasses. “I don’t know, but we have to go—”
“Kaylie!” He sharpened his voice, and it penetrated her panic enough to get her to stop trying to climb onto his lap. It had been a long time since he’d felt a woman with her curves crawling over his body, and he was responding in a way that made him wish he’d gotten airborne before she’d been able to stop him.
Kaylie Fletcher was a woman he couldn’t afford to notice.
And if she weren’t so damn terrified, he’d dump her right out of the plane and get the hell out of there.
But there was no way he could turn his back on that level of fear. Not even from her. “What happened?” he repeated. He kept his voice calm, even with his pulse elevating in response to her apparent terror.
“This!” She punched a couple buttons on her phone and held it out to him.
He frowned as he took her phone, wondering what a woman with jeweled shoes from the Lower 48 was doing with a satellite phone with GPS. Then he heard Sara’s frantic voice, and his adrenaline kicked in as he listened to the message. “Shit!”
“Wha
t happened? Can you tell?”
“No.” He tossed her the phone and grabbed his headset. He made a quick call to see if any planes were near Sara and Jackson’s cabin that could take a look. When Kaylie heard what he was asking, she slid off him, then ran across the tarmac to her bags.
No one was flying in or out of the area near Jackson’s place, since the weather was going south fast in that vicinity. Cort realized that if he wanted to know what was going on at the cabin, he was going to have to go himself. His only chance to beat the storm was to take the shortcut through Devil’s Pass, but Devil’s Pass was not an option for Cort. Ever.
He’d have to take the long route, but the weather front was approaching too quickly to make that a sane choice. The control tower gave Cort a no-go on taking off in that direction. He assessed the sky again, thought about Sara’s message, then told them he was going anyway.
He hopped out of the Cessna and strode across the tarmac to where Kaylie was rifling through her bags. “I’m going out there to check it out.”
“I’m going with you.” She pulled out a pair of microfiber pants lined with something thick.
“No. I don’t like the weather. I’ll go alone for a quick look.”
“Three minutes ago, you were willing to fly me.” She kicked off her shoes, her peach-colored toenails looking so…endangered…on the harsh tarmac. Dammit, Kaylie didn’t belong out here.
She never would.
She yanked the outdoor pants on over her cotton ones, then sat her cute little ass right down on the tarmac and tugged on a pair of thick socks.
He narrowed his eyes as he watched her transform from a piece of decoration into something hard-core. Who the hell was this woman? “The weather has changed.”
Kaylie tugged a pair of thermal waterproof boots out of her bag and shoved her feet into them. Then she threw on a thick wool turtleneck over that damned cotton sweater he liked, pulled a parka out of her bag, and stood up. “So have I.”
He surveyed her carefully. Her clothes were brand-new, but they were appropriate. She wore her outdoor gear with as much comfort as she’d worn her little blue shoes and her lowcut sweater. And damn if that didn’t just make him get even more of a hard-on for her. Sexy and Lower 48 was one thing. Also able to carry off outdoor gear as if she were born to it?
Hot damn.
Maybe he wouldn’t be so quick to send her packing. Maybe a long, slow night of Alaskan loving would go a long way toward getting her and what she represented finally cleansed from his system. Her cheeks were flushed, her sunglasses were on the ground, and she had fantastically dark eyes that were focused and determined.
And scared shitless.
He stared into those brown eyes for a long moment, unable to look away from the plea in them. Kaylie didn’t turn away either, holding his gaze. Something deep in his gut reacted to the terror haunting her face and the way she clutched the parka to her chest so desperately.
“Sara’s my best friend.” Kaylie’s voice cracked, and he sensed a commitment and loyalty he seldom ran across.
His respect for Kaylie Fletcher bounced up a couple notches, and he made his decision. He grabbed her bags off the tarmac. “Let’s go.”
“Oh, God, thank you.” She touched his arm, and his awareness sparked at the contact. Her eyes widened as if she too had felt it. Then she pulled her hand back and turned away to retrieve her blue shoes.
She shoved them into her handbag and fell in beside him, jogging to keep up as he strode back to the Cessna. He didn’t wait for her, almost hoping that she wouldn’t follow.
She did.
No surprise. He had a feeling Kaylie Fletcher always did whatever the hell she felt like doing. And she looked damn good doing it, too.
He tossed the bags into the back, hesitating only a split second before he palmed Kaylie’s waist and hoisted her up. Her hips were curvy and soft beneath his hands, reminding him of how her V-necked sweater had dipped low between her breasts. His thumb slipped beneath the bottom edge of her sweater and caught bare flesh. Hot and smooth.
Kaylie shot a startled look at him. The tension between them jacked up, and her gaze flickered to his mouth. Heat spiked straight to his groin.
She pulled out of his grasp, and he released her. She scrambled over his seat and settled on the passenger side. She tried to do the buckle, but it slipped out of her hand.
“I’ll do that.” Cort climbed in next to her and took over the buckles. Her hands were icy beneath his, and they were trembling violently. He cupped them, steadying them in his grasp. “It’s going to be fine,” he said quietly, using his best “client” voice. He caught a whiff of her tantalizing scent, and he was assaulted by a sudden urge to press his face into the curve of her long neck and inhale. Instead, he cracked a casual smile. “I’m the best there is. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”
She shot him a look of disbelief. “Enjoy it? Are you serious?”
“Hell, yeah.” He realized how close she was to him. That luscious mouth of hers was only inches away, her breasts rising as she tried to catch her breath, her hands caught in his grasp. Trapped.
“Let’s just go.” She pulled her hands free of his, shoving her small fists into her jacket pockets. Her breath was too shallow, and she had little lines of tension around the corners of her mouth.
Cort pulled himself together and finished strapping her in, giving the harness an extra tug to make sure it was secure. The back of his hand brushed against her breast, and she stiffened.
“Accident.” But he wasn’t complaining, and neither was she.
He stifled a small smile, shaking his head at his reaction to her. He needed to ditch her as soon as possible. If he didn’t, he’d regret it later.
Once Kaylie was snugged down, he took a moment to study her as a client and not as a woman who was making his blood boil. She was a passenger on the edge, and he needed to deal with that before getting airborne. “You okay with flying?”
She nodded, but her face was pale. “I’m worried about Sara.”
Hah. There was a hell of lot more going on than Kaylie’s concern for her friend. She looked as if she were going to pass out.
“Kaylie.” He caught her chin and forced her to look at him, using the voice he pulled out when he had a panicking passenger on his hands. Shit, her skin was soft. He’d have bet a tank of fuel that her mouth tasted incredible.
Her gaze settled on his, and she didn’t look away, searching his face desperately. He realized she had grizzly-bear eyes, dark and bottomless. Beautiful and captivating, with a heavy dose of “stay the hell away.”
“If there’s something I need to know before I get us at two thousand feet in bad weather, you better tell me.”
She grabbed his wrist, but didn’t try to pull his hand away from her face. She held tightly, as though she was afraid he’d release her. Her fingers were pale and slender around his arm, but her grip was strong enough to make him smile.
She lifted her chin, and he saw her summon her composure. “I’m not going to freak on you. Let’s go.”
He hesitated a moment longer. Couldn’t stop himself from brushing his thumb over the corner of her mouth. So damned delicate. Flawless. No years of exposure to harsh weather for Kaylie Fletcher, no matter how comfortable she seemed in her gear. She was a groundie, for sure. Someone who lived with two feet on the ground and had storm windows keeping out the cold.
Not his kind of woman.
Not anymore.
“Cort.” His name was a desperate whisper on her lips, and it struck a spot inside him that made him shudder.
He forced himself to release her. “Then let’s do it.” He strapped himself in and kicked the Cessna into gear, heading out toward the runway—not that he needed more than a couple hundred feet to take off with an unloaded plane and a runway that was actually paved.
“Cort?”
“Yeah?” He checked with the control tower for clearance to take off, and got the affirmative. He didn’t bother
to tell them he’d be circling back toward Jackson’s.
“Do you think Sara—?” Her voice broke again, and she didn’t finish.
He glanced over at Kaylie and saw she was hugging herself. Her feet were up on the dash, as if she were trying to curl into a protective ball. “I’m sure she’s fine,” he lied.
“Are you?” She turned her gaze onto him, and he saw in her a need for honesty.
He respected that need and gave her the truth. “I don’t take off into weather like I think we’re going to hit unless I believe someone’s life is at stake and I’m the only one who can do anything about it.”
Her face drained of what little color it had, and for a second he regretted being so blunt.
Then she nodded and fisted the straps of the harness, her face hardening with determination. “Okay, then.”
He grinned at the ferocity on her face. Yeah, like he’d thought. The woman with rubies on her toes had some grizzly bear in her. Get too close to a grizzly, and you were dead meat. Those females would rip your damn heart out and have it for breakfast.
Cort rubbed his thumb over the scar on the back of his left hand. He’d gotten it the last time he’d let a grizzly get too close. He’d learned his lesson. From now on, Kaylie Fletcher was nothing but a client.
A favor for a friend.
Nothing more.
And it was his damned problem that he couldn’t stop thinking about how good she’d feel beneath him.
The plane lurched again, and Kaylie clamped down on her seat belt. She scrunched her eyes shut even tighter, so she couldn’t see the snowy whiteout blinding them or the treetops right below the wings. All the feelings of wrongness were back, and it was too late to do anything about it.
“If you look out the window to the right, you’ll see Pink Creek, named after the color of the water when the salmon are running so thick that the water looks pink from the air.”
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