She frowned and seemed not to hear him.
Since his attempt at comedy to make her feel more at ease was a dismal failure, he decided to try a third alternative: being the perfect gentleman. Not that he wasn’t normally. He was just out of practice.
When he’d first started playing professional basketball, he’d tried the booty-call-in-every-state thing. It had been fun for a while and the sex was a welcome release, but the hassle and drama eventually cancelled out any pleasure.
So one day he’d decided to quit the scene—cold-turkey style. Despite the pressure from his teammates, he’d stopped going out after games and instead returned to his apartment or hotel room and watched television.
He’d been flying solo so long he’d forgotten what it was like to put someone else’s needs ahead of his own.
Now, his whole future depended on it.
Shame burned in his gut, but he ignored the pain and offered Natalie his hand.
“We’re almost ready to take off.”
Her fingers, slightly clammy, latched on to his a little tighter than he expected, but he didn’t complain. He liked the feel of her small hand in his and a part of him wanted to tug her closer.
He opened the passenger’s-side door of the single-engine plane.
“All aboard,” he called out, subtly watching her black designer jeans stretch like hands across the curves of her backside as he assisted her inside. The smooth and elegant way she slid into the passenger seat made him instantly hard.
The mundane task of stowing her luggage helped put the pause button on his libido. Afterward, he sat in the pilot’s seat and offered her a pair of headphones. When she refused, he put them on and began making the final preparations for takeoff.
He knew every button and dial on the instrument panel. Normally they calmed him, but today he was nervous. He wasn’t looking forward to this journey, and deep down he was afraid. He wasn’t sure what type of reaction he was going to receive when he returned to Baker’s Falls.
Natalie turned her heart-shaped face to his, and he was suddenly lost in her beauty and the memory of how he’d felt earlier that morning.
The moment the elevator doors had closed, a mix of emptiness and wonder had filled his heart. He wasn’t so out of touch that he didn’t recognize his feelings as loneliness...and lust.
Looking at Natalie now, he realized she could be the perfect antidote for both. She was the kind of woman who could change a man. Make him better than he was before, and that scared him more than anything.
Her eyes narrowed. “Derek, did you hear me? What time will we land?”
“Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “We’ll be there in about an hour or so.”
Back to good old Baker’s Falls. The town where he’d made the choice that changed the course of his life forever.
“Seat belt on, please,” commanded Derek as he buckled his own. “I’m about to put her in the air.”
Natalie held on to the right armrest so tightly Derek could see her veins, while her left hand was balled into a fist. She stared out the window and seemed ready to jump from the plane at any minute.
Yesterday, by stepping out on the court and playing ball with him, Natalie showed a kind of devilish moxie rarely displayed in any of the women he knew.
But right now, she seemed downright terrified.
He switched his headset to mute, so air traffic control wouldn’t be able to hear his conversation.
“Natalie, are you okay?”
She didn’t answer. He reached over and touched her chin, so she would face him.
“Have you ever flown in one of these before?”
Her lips quivered and her soft brown eyes were glazed with fear.
“No,” she whispered. “To tell you the truth, I’m afraid of flying.”
Whoa. He pressed his back against the leather seat. He nodded slowly to buy time, unsure of what to say to appease her fears. In all of his travels, he’d never met anyone who was afraid to fly.
He placed his hand over hers. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m a highly trained pilot. I’ve had my license for over five years now.”
She didn’t look convinced. “I see. Does the number of years of experience in flying translate the same as the number of years of experience in driving?”
“Not really,” he replied. “Pilots have to fly hundreds of hours more than drivers need to drive before they get their license,” he explained. “There are also a ton of tests and other stuff you have to do before you can even go up in the air.”
He watched her eyes sweep over the complex instrumentation on the plane’s dashboard. She seemed overly nervous and he held out his hand to comfort her. His heart squeezed in his chest when she kept her hands in her lap, bound together in a tight fist. A clear refusal of his advances.
“Flying is much safer than driving. You have nothing to worry about.”
Her shoulders sagged and it occurred to him that his response was insensitive. Once again, he’d proved he had a knack for saying the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time.
Right now though, as much as he wanted to, he didn’t have time to explore her fears. He had to get his plane up in the air before it was grounded and he was fined by the FAA.
“I’m sorry you’re afraid,” he said, trying again. “I’m afraid of hot tubs and—”
To his surprise, she started to laugh. “Are you serious?”
He nodded, and his body shuddered involuntarily from head to toe with disgust. “Do you know how many germs are in those things?”
Their laughter ebbed away and again he reached for her hand, so small in his own. He ran his thumb over her knuckles, calming her gently in the only way he knew how, as her eyes danced with his at the root of desire.
This time she didn’t pull away.
“Ready to touch the sky?”
She nodded, and her smile was braver now, and somehow it managed to make her even more beautiful.
“I’d keep holding your hand, but I think it’s better to keep both hands on the steering wheel.”
He forced himself to look away from Natalie and switched his microphone live. After a few instructions from air traffic control, he started to taxi the plane down the runway, his brow furrowed with concentration.
Outside the cockpit, the world blurred and his heart quickened in wild anticipation as the plane sped faster and faster until the nose lifted into the twilight and everything around them fell away.
He broke out in a light sweat, exhilarated by the rush that fueled what some considered a crazy hobby. Being up in the air was one of his favorite places to be. With Natalie at his side, it felt more right than ever before.
When it was safe to do so, he glanced over at her. Eyes tightly shut, her hands gripped the armrests, the crescent of her breasts hidden under her lace-trimmed tunic. He pressed his lips together. Something deeper and more potent than simple concern washed over him.
For a moment he imagined her eyes were shut due to overwhelming pleasure, not fear. The urgent feel of her hands anchored to him as his tongue traveled across the silk of her skin in the ultimate road trip.
“Open your eyes, Natalie,” he coaxed, his voice low with a need he knew was just beginning. “You’re missing the view.”
Her eyes flickered open and she stared ahead openmouthed. Wide stripes of burnished orange laced with muted pink encircled them. She dropped her hands from the armrests.
“Oh, Derek, it’s breathtaking!” she exclaimed. “I never thought flying could be this beautiful.”
I think she’s going to be okay.
His heart soared with joy and relief as he watched her gaze out the window.
She turned to him, her eyes shining with delight. “Is this why you like to fly?”
His eyes moved across her tawny
-brown skin, the color of fall acorns, glowing in the radiance of the sunset.
“I get to touch heaven,” he replied, nodding. “There’s nothing else like it.”
He didn’t bother mentioning the other reasons.
Up here he was away from the constant pressure to perform and the daily stress of maintaining his lifestyle. The sky was like a blank slate and he imagined that all his past mistakes were erased, or at least hidden among the clouds.
Until wheels touched ground and the cold reality hit hard.
Nothing about his life had changed.
She wouldn’t understand anyway.
The woman who made it her business to run other people’s lives probably ran her own with clocklike precision. On the other hand, he’d had no trouble making a mess out of his own.
Still he pushed aside the anguish that dogged his conscience, refusing to entertain any more doubts. This time, when he landed, things would be different. Not right away, he realized, but soon.
Natalie fluffed her hair. “I can imagine flying must be an expensive hobby.”
Her practical tone reminded him of his accountant. He’d warned Derek not to buy the plane, citing ongoing maintenance, fuel, storage and security costs, but he did it anyway.
“It is,” he admitted, trying not to sound defensive. “But you know every man has to have a few toys.”
As the words flew out of his mouth he realized how immature they sounded. He was living a life many dreamed of, but few achieved, yet what did he have to really show for it? Who did he have to share it all with?
“Where’d you grow up?” he asked.
Her voice was shy. “You’re not going to believe this,” she replied. “Park Avenue.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “My parents were both surgeons at Lenox Hill Hospital, and they were the first African-Americans to purchase an apartment in our co-op,” she said, her face beaming with pride.
“Well, my parents were one of the first to move out of Pinecrest. My brother Wes, my dad and I moved to Baker’s Falls at the beginning of my freshman year in high school.”
He paused a moment, waiting for her to ask about his mother, but she didn’t. He breathed a sigh of relief.
“So I guess we do have something in common.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Parents who cared enough to take a risk for the sake of their kids.”
She turned away, seeming to fold inside herself, and was quiet. Just like that, the easy camaraderie they’d shared was gone and he knew he’d said something wrong again.
He rubbed a hand down his face and swore inwardly. Flying a plane was so much easier than understanding a woman.
Suddenly there was a loss of elevation.
Natalie screamed and clutched the armrests. “What was that?”
The sound raked his ears and he gritted his teeth. “Air pocket,” he explained. “Nothing to worry about.”
“Tell that to my stomach,” she moaned, pointing to it.
He glanced at her quickly, and her eyes were lidded as she leaned her head against the tiny window.
Oh, man. He thought dealing with a fear of flying was bad, but a nauseated woman was much, much worse. If he was ever lucky enough to get married, he’d be a blubbering idiot when his wife got pregnant and started running to the bathroom every morning.
The image terrified him. He cleared his throat. “Barf bags are under the seat.”
She clucked her tongue at him. “Gross! I would never do that in front of a guy,” she insisted, her face ashen. “No matter how sick I felt.”
He breathed out a slow sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear it, but I thought I’d inform you, just to be on the safe side.”
“Thanks,” she replied. “But I won’t be needing them.”
Derek scanned the instrumentation panel and spoke with air traffic control, who informed him that the winds had shifted from south to northwest.
They bumped along for a few more minutes as Derek struggled to keep the plane steady and his image intact. He’d made it his mission in life to avoid showing weakness to anyone—his opponents, his teammates, but especially women.
He winced when Natalie squealed with fright so loudly the sound bounced off every surface of the cockpit.
“Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?” she screamed.
“Don’t worry,” he soothed, keeping his eyes on the horizon and wishing he could kiss her fears away instead. “I’ll take care of you. I promise.”
Just then, the ride smoothed out and he blew out a breath. He turned to Natalie and gave her a triumphant smile.
“You see? Nothing to worry about. My father taught me to never break a promise. I can’t let anything happen to all that beauty.”
A smile feathered across Natalie’s face, and Derek was thankful she took his compliment in stride. He figured that with her looks, she’d probably heard it all. A beautiful woman like her had to have a boyfriend.
Even so, she seemed like the type of woman who chose her man the way she did her diamonds—wisely and with much examination. Would he ever make the cut? Did he even want to?
Natalie crossed her arms and gave him a questioning look, as if she were trying to figure out if he really meant what he’d said and why.
“I’ll feel better when my feet are on solid ground.”
“I understand,” he said with a nod. He glanced over at her to make sure her seat belt was still fastened. “I’m in the process of making our descent now.”
The plane broke through the clouds. The landscape below was laid out like a patchwork quilt. Green countryside and open fields gave way to suburbia and strip malls.
“Touchdown,” he muttered as he made a perfect landing, likely the most important one in his life.
When the plane rolled to a stop, Natalie leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. Her soft lips were kindle for the fire he was starting to feel for her, and he resisted the urge to pull her onto his lap. He couldn’t remember the last time he was this hard. The woman was kicking it in all the right places.
He remembered how her breasts had moved as she’d tried to hustle him when they’d played ball. The beads of sweat on her forehead and in the small place at the base of her neck. Lifting her up to make that basket was like grasping a cloud that had a tornado at its root. She was soft and supple on the outside. Undeniably wild at the core.
He wanted to know more about her. And over the next few days she would get to know him—the real Derek. Not the guy who’d won MVP his first year in the NBA. Not the guy they loved to trash-talk on ESPN SportsCenter. Not the guy who became a millionaire several times over at age eighteen.
When this was all over, would she still look at him the same way she was now?
“Thank you for getting us here safely. I can see now that you are a man of your word.”
She had no way of knowing that the opposite was true.
He’d betrayed them all. His dad, his brother and, most of all, himself. All for the glory of the game.
And look where it got you, he thought.
Basketball was supposed to be his ticket to happiness, not to regret. He felt in his heart that God had given him a gift, a talent, but somehow on his way to greatness, he’d lost sight of his true purpose.
Natalie’s voice broke through his thoughts. “By the way, I booked a room at a cute bed-and-breakfast.”
She cleared her throat and seemed embarrassed. “I looked for other accommodations, but it was the only place to stay in town and I figured that would be best. Are you familiar with it?”
His stomach lurched, and for a moment he thought he was going to be sick. He was afraid she’d book that place. He needed more time!
“Derek, are you okay?”
He looked into her warm eyes, at the goodness he saw there, and he realized that only when he made peace with the past, could he even possibly think about a future...with anyone.
It was time to grow up and be the man he was created to be.
He forced a smile. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”
He opened the door and disembarked the plane. Fear ratcheted through his body and lodged there like an unwelcome guest. There was no turning back now. He was about to come face-to-face with the first person from his past—his brother.
Chapter 4
About twenty minutes later Derek slowed the car to a stop. Natalie sucked in a breath at the sight of the huge Victorian house that was to be their dwelling for the next few days.
Although it was nearly dark outside, she could see that the Belle Amour Bed & Breakfast was as beautiful as its name. The Queen Anne–style mansion had overhanging eaves, leaded windows, a wraparound porch and, to Natalie’s delight, a round, dome-shaped tower.
She shivered with anticipation, eager to help Derek restore his relationship with his family. Hopefully, this trip would be the start of a brand-new beginning.
Perhaps for both of us.
Although it saddened her that a relationship with him was out of the question, in the back of her mind, she hoped that he would think of her as more than his life coach. If anything else, she hoped they could at least be friends.
Derek cut the engine. “Home, sweet home,” he said quietly.
Her eyes widened. “You grew up here?”
He draped his arm over the steering wheel, tension lining his face, and stared past her.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t a B and B when we moved here. It was a dump.”
Natalie glanced back at the house and could hardly believe what he was saying.
“The structure was sound, but inside, the place was a wreck. It stood empty for years. My pops was crazy enough to buy it. He spent years fixing it up.”
The frown on his face was wistful and sad. “My brother and his wife own it now.”
Natalie was curious about Derek’s change in mood. Had he had the opportunity to purchase the home at one time? Derek didn’t seem like the white-picket-fence-and-vegetable-garden type of man. Or was there something else he regretted?
Stealing Kisses Page 4