Audrey watched the puddle form and had the strangest sensation that she’d have been better off with that ice dumped inside her T-shirt. “Blake Marshall, this is not some game.”
“Isn’t it?”
Maybe it was, but if so, the rules were all new to her. She thought she’d be safer playing Monopoly, but she doubted if Blake would sit still for a competition over a mythical Park Place or Boardwalk. Buying up property had become commonplace to him. He’d added hundreds of acres to the vineyard since he first purchased it. She, on the other hand, represented a challenge.
Audrey knew a few things about men and challenges. They often lost interest, once they’d gotten what they wanted. And the more you fought them, the higher you made the stakes, the more determined they became to get what they wanted. It had something to do with that ridiculous macho stubbornness.
Knowing that was all very nice, but it didn’t solve her problem. There would be a huge risk in giving in to Blake. If she took away the challenge and hoped that he’d vanish once the thrill of the chase was gone, she’d probably be head over heels in love with the man before the game ended. He was already clambering over walls she’d thought were too high to be breached.
Perhaps that was the only choice she had. She could give in and then try very hard to show Blake that she wasn’t the woman for him. She was no adventurer who would thrill to taking risks, and he would grow quickly bored with the simple life she’d chosen for herself. It was a risk she was going to have to consider.
But not now. Now she was going to savor what was left of their day together, accept whatever it had to offer. The memories would be something she could recall on cold winter nights when she was fighting loneliness and boredom.
“Hungry?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts. “There’s some cold chicken in the cooler.”
“No, thanks. This is no time for a picnic.”
“Why not?”
“Because picnics are supposed to be on the ground, maybe in a park or at the beach.”
“Who made up that rule?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said stubbornly. “It’s just one of those things that sensible people know.”
“I see,” he said. He nodded sagely, but she saw the tiny suggestion of a smirk on his face before he added persuasively, “I’m sure there’s a park down there somewhere.”
“But we’re not in it. In fact, do you have any idea where we are now?”
“Oh, I’d say we’re about halfway to Glenwood Springs.”
“Any sign of Larry Hammond?”
“Nope.” He didn’t sound particularly distressed.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. This has turned into more fun than any race I’ve been in before.”
“But you’re going to lose.”
“You can prevent that,” he retorted with a look that was pure invitation.
“I meant the race.”
He grinned at her. “What did you think I meant?”
She squirmed uncomfortably. “Never mind.”
“It won’t matter so much, if you console me.”
She shot him an indignant look. “I have no intention of consoling you,” she warned, then taunted deliberately, “Frankly, you deserve to lose. You haven’t been paying one bit of attention to what you were supposed to be doing. Seems to me like all this media hype about what a hotshot competitor you are was pure hokum.”
“Hokum?” Blake’s voice rose ominously.
She ignored his tone and doubled the implied dare. “That’s right. You get some woman up here with you, your libido takes over and it’s goodbye race. It must not have meant as much to you as I thought. The media will have a field day when they discover that you lost not only to Larry Hammond, but to half a dozen others, just because you couldn’t keep your mind on what you were doing.”
Blake sputtered indignantly, but she kept right on. “Of course, it will fit right in with that image of yours as a womanizer. Just try to keep my name out of it.”
“Are you trying to egg me on? Do you actually care whether I win this race?”
“Not for myself,” she said blithely, leaning back staring up at the inside of the huge balloon. She didn’t dare look him in the eyes. “I just want to get back on the ground.”
He grinned at her and nodded. “I see. Very clever.” He paused, then asked, “Are you sure you’re not just the least bit concerned about my feelings?”
“Don’t go getting any ideas, Marshall. I’ll admit I thought it was important to you, but obviously that’s not the case.” She allowed the charge to hang in the air, then prodded quietly, “What about John Harley and this Jenkins, though? Don’t you owe it to them to at least try?”
“Why are you so worried about them? You don’t even know Harley and Jenkins.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t have a sense of honor. From what I gathered, John Harley has done a lot for you. He seems to think you’re pretty special. And you said Jenkins put up part of the money for your entry. Of course, if that doesn’t matter to you...”
“It matters,” he muttered, studying her curiously, as though not quite sure what to make of her change in attitude. “I don’t know, though. It’s probably too late.”
“So you’re a quitter, too?” She shrugged. “Of course, you won’t know that it’s too late until you’ve given it your best shot. I don’t want you blaming me later for breaking your winning streak.”
His gaze roved over her thoughtfully, then he grinned and jumped to his feet. The look of the adventurer was back and something in Audrey thrilled to that look. “Okay, lady,” he said finally. “Let’s go for it.”
Audrey moved to his side, gazing around at the other balloons in the vicinity, and watched with a sense of awe as they fell back one by one. For the first time all day, she was truly caught up in the excitement. She hardly noticed that they’d climbed higher than ever before or that the land below was passing by at a faster and faster clip. With Blake next to her, she felt astonishingly safe.
Perhaps it was because he’d brought them through that potential crisis without a scratch. More likely it was simply because she was coming to trust him. He’d kept his word all day. he hadn’t pushed her beyond what she’d been willing to accept, though she knew the restraint had cost him, just as it had cost her.
“Blake!” John’s voice crackled over the radio again. “Where are you headed? I’m losing sight of you.”
“I’m going over the ridge to check out the currents over there. Don’t worry about it. I’ll maintain radio contact.”
“Don’t do it.”
“I have to. It may be the only way I’ll ever catch up to Hammond.”
“Come on, man. It’s not worth it. You know what the roads are like. If anything happens over there, we won’t be able to get to you. We’ll have to come in on foot or call out one of the helicopters.”
“Nothing is going to happen,” he said, draping an arm around Audrey’s shoulders. “I’ve got my good luck charm with me.” To her amazement, she accepted the reassurance as fact. John’s fears didn’t faze her. If anything, they only added to an astonishing sense of giddiness, an exciting edge of anticipation.
She was actually taking a daredevil’s risk and enjoying it. She’d probably come unglued later when she realized what she’d done, but right now, she only wanted Blake to have his chance at winning and she was thrilled at the prospect of being by his side when it happened.
“John, give me a reading on Hammond’s location,” Blake said patiently. He understood the man’s hesitation, but he was determined to have his way on this.
John, still muttering indignantly, gave him a rough idea of how far ahead his chief rival was. There were others ahead as well, but they didn’t worry him nearly as much. Blake heaved a sigh of relief. It wasn’t quite as bad as he’d feared. This shortcut should give him a chance of passing the others and catching Hammond.
In fact, the only thing between him and a victory now were
the dark clouds gathering on the horizon. He figured he had less than an hour before the storm broke. If the race wasn’t over by then, the rain would force him down.
Speeding along on the far side of the ridge out of sight of the others gave him an often longed-for sense of isolation. Having Audrey standing so bravely next to him brought him utter contentment.
There was so much they had to learn about each other, but for the first time he had a feeling she was going to give them the time to make such discoveries. Her unexpected shift in attitude opened up limitless possibilities for the two of them.
He gazed down at her upturned face and caught the excitement sparkling in her eyes.
“Having fun?”
“Yes,” she said and he chuckled at the note of surprise in her voice.
“You’re not afraid anymore?”
“No,” she admitted and grinned back at him. “Astonishing, isn’t it? You must have worked some magic on me.”
“Maybe you’re just learning to test your own limits.”
She hesitated as she apparently considered what he said thoughtfully, then nodded. “Maybe so. I just hope you don’t have any more tests in store for this afternoon.”
Blake’s gaze shifted uneasily to the horizon, where the clouds were turning blacker and more ominous. “I hope not,” he murmured.
She clearly caught the caution in his voice. “Hope? You can’t do any better than that?”
“Now, look,” he began. “I don’t want you to panic or anything, but I want to be honest with you.”
She stiffened beside him. “I don’t think I’m going to like this.”
“You told me to stop treating you like a child. That’s what I’m doing. I want you to be prepared.”
“Prepared? Prepared for what?” Her voice rose and that spark of delight in her eyes faded.
A bolt of lightning split the sky ahead, followed by the distant rumble of thunder.
“Oh, dear heaven,” she murmured unsteadily. She grabbed his arm and held on so tightly, he was sure he’d have little half-moon scars where her nails were digging in. “What happens now?”
“Nothing if we can outrun the storm and land.” Another crash of thunder punctuated his response.
Audrey’s eyes blinked wide. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“It’s still way off in the distance. We have plenty of time.”
“I’m not talking about the thunder. I’m talking about what you said...if we can outrun the storm. Is there some reason we might not be able to?”
He took a deep breath and tried to ignore the pain in his arm where she was still clinging to him. “I’ll be honest with you. The winds could shift before we find a suitable place to land. If it starts raining very hard, we’ll have to go down wherever we are. It’s risky being up here in a storm.”
“How risky?”
“The wind can knock us into a power line. Then there’s the lightning....”
Audrey groaned. “Never mind about the lightning. I get the idea. Is there some reason you decided to pick now to be honest with me?” she grumbled. “For once, it might have been nice to hear one of those vague, but upbeat reassurances of yours. Maybe it’s time you blindfolded me. Isn’t that what kidnappers are supposed to do with their victims?”
“You’re no victim and you know it.” The breeze was ruffling her black curls and he brushed them back from her face. “We’ll be fine. Even if we have to take the balloon down sooner than I’d like, John will come after us.”
“Don’t try to kid me. I heard what he said. He can’t bring the truck on this side of the ridge. They’ll have to come in on foot. It could take days, maybe even weeks. Do you know anything about what berries we can eat?”
He grinned at her. “I doubt we’ll need to hunt for berries to keep from starving. That creek down there is probably loaded with fish.”
“And I suppose you brought along a fishing pole?”
His face fell. “Well, no. But we can improvise. I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Would it be so awful spending a night under the stars with me?”
“In the pouring rain?” she responded incredulously. “Do you even have to ask?”
“These storms never last. We can make a campfire. We have food and wine.”
“For tonight. What about tomorrow?”
“Hush,” he whispered. He ran a finger across her lips and added provocatively, “It would be very romantic.”
“And cold,” she reminded him. “It would also be very cold.”
“We could keep each other warm.”
The notion didn’t seem to appease her. If anything, she looked as though she was beginning to suspect that this was some devious scheme he’d had in mind from the first.
“Audrey, don’t even think it.”
“Think what?”
“I did not mean for us to get stranded out here. If this is anybody’s fault, it’s nature’s.”
“We aren’t stranded yet,” she reminded him. “And if you’re very smart, Blake Marshall, you’ll see that we aren’t.”
That was the precise moment when a sudden gust of wind blew the first huge drops of very cold rain in their faces.
Seven
“Are you splashing water around again to test the air currents?” Audrey asked hopefully.
“No.” Blake’s tone was disturbingly curt and his tight-lipped expression was not one bit reassuring.
Her mind made a deft leap to a terrifying conclusion. “We’re going to crash, aren’t we?” Her voice was amazingly calm for a woman who’d just gone into panic. She was clearly tapping inner resources she’d never known she possessed.
“No.” He apparently caught the disbelief in her eyes, because he tilted her face up until their gazes clashed. “I promise. We’re going to land perfectly safely...as soon as I find an open field away from the power lines.”
He picked up the radio. “John, are you there?”
“I’ve been here all day, boss. You just haven’t been listening. Ain’t it about time for you to bring that sucker down?”
“I was just thinking the same thing. Any ideas?”
“You’re the one with the view. Where are you?”
“You mean you can’t see me?”
Blake’s question was greeted with an extraordinary variety of muffled curses before John finally calmed down and said, “I’ve been telling you that for the past hour, but you had to go and get yourself behind a mountain range. What the hell have you been doing up there?”
Audrey’s heart raced anxiously and she shot him a warning look. “I hope you don’t plan on answering that question.”
He grinned at her. Covering the radio with his hand, he said in a low voice, “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I never kiss and tell.”
Audrey regarded him skeptically, but her pulse readjusted to something close to normal.
“Blake, where did you go?” John interrupted impatiently. “Answer me.”
Blake winked at her. “I’m trying to come up with a plan. Give me a minute.”
“How about I try to reach some of the other pilots and see if they can spot you?”
“Try it, but I don’t think it’ll do any good. I can’t see any of the others. They must be up ahead or on the other side of the ridge. I’m just going to look for a spot to land. There’s a clearing to my left that looks okay. I’ll let you know after I check it out.”
“How’s Audrey doing?”
Blake glanced at her with something that looked like admiration in his eyes. “She’s great.”
“Good. You tell that pretty little thing not to worry. You two just sit tight and we’ll be in after you. Once the storm lets up, we can get a copter to fly over. You have some of those flares with you?”
“Sure, but we shouldn’t need them. This storm should break while there’s still plenty of daylight.”
“Not according to the weather bureau. There’s one of them fronts passing through. This could go on all night.”
“Then start the search in the morning. There’s no point in taking foolish risks. We’ll be fine overnight. I’ve got emergency supplies.”
“Let’s just wait and see, then.”
Now that she had accepted the fact that they were actually being forced down, Audrey found that she wasn’t the least bit frightened, not even by the prospect of being stranded overnight. Obviously, that was because Blake and John were treating it so matter-of-factly and, admittedly, because Blake would be with her. He might stir a restless excitement in her that bore watching, but he would never knowingly cause her any harm. She knew that as certainly as she knew that the rain was splattering down a bit harder with every second that passed.
“What can I do to help?” she asked, still basking in Blake’s praise and wanting to do everything she could to deserve it.
Blake gave her one of those encouraging, heart-stopping smiles. “Not a thing. Just sit back and relax. We should be on the ground in no time.”
Even though she was facing the forced landing calmly, Audrey wasn’t quite prepared to sit back and relax, not with dark clouds rolling toward them and lightning splitting the sky every few seconds. She wanted to know what was going on every minute. Standing to one side of the gondola out of Blake’s way, she watched as they drifted down, catching various currents that pulled them back and forth to keep them headed straight toward the center of the clearing.
“I hope I do as well as this on Sunday,” Blake muttered as he maneuvered down.
“What are you talking about?”
“One part of the competition is a target hit, exactly like this, only without the rain and wind gusts. One balloonist drops a target and the rest of us have to try to come in as close to it as we can get.”
“I’m so glad you have this wonderful opportunity to get in some practice,” Audrey said dryly. Then her stomach rolled over as a particularly strong wind gust dragged them wildly off course and the skies opened up to dump rain down in torrents.
“Blake, are we going to land on top of those aspens?” Brushing her rain-soaked hair out of her face, she asked as though it were merely a matter of mild curiosity.
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