by Lyn Stone
"I'm just glad we found you alive!" Dani told him, feeling tears nearly choke off her words. She never cried, but she sure felt like it now.
Ben said nothing and refused to lean on her as the copilot ushered them into the half-full section of first class. "I'll go see if we can get the old girl on the ground. Chances are we can slide her in if we have to. These 767's are sturdy as hell, but a couple of prayers wouldn't hurt." With that, he rushed back to the cockpit door and disappeared inside.
Dani placed a hand on Ben's arm and felt him jerk away from her. She continued to observe him anyway, trying to check his pupils without being too obvious, wondering if he was concussed.
He didn't want her to touch him for some reason. He rubbed his chin in that same gesture he used often, as if he were feeling for something beneath the skin. Only now he pressed harder, so hard his fingertips turned white.
"Are you all right, Ben?" she asked.
He immediately dropped his hand to the armrest, gripped it and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." His eyes met hers. "You?"
Dani smiled wryly and cocked her head. "I'm still in one piece. Wouldn't have given you odds on that a little while ago. It was a damn close call."
She traced his sleeve lightly. "Ben, I know it was hard, watching LeFleur buy it. He was a brave agent, doing his job. If I had to go, that's how I'd want it."
He laughed bitterly. "Tell his family that. I'm sure they'll appreciate the sacrifice."
She clutched his forearm and shook it. "Think of the lives you and he saved today. There are at least a couple of hundred people on this plane. All alive because of the two of you."
He frowned at her and the muscle beneath her fingers flexed like bowing steel. "And he might be dead because you and I took this plane, ever thought of that?"
Dani nodded. "Yeah, I did think about it."
"Someone called ahead. Child's play to follow us to the gate, get in line, stick the bomb in a carry-on that's boarding."
Dani thought about that. "How did they get it through the security checkpoint? It should have been X-rayed."
Ben nodded. "Oh yes, and we all know exactly what a little DVD player is supposed to look like inside, don't we? Especially those of us who are hired for minimum wage with a couple of weeks training. Even with all your security classes, do you know? Unless there are little cartoon dynamite sticks with fuses, how would you know if it was rigged?"
She blew out a breath of frustration. "Point taken. So you think these people who are after us have a network large enough to cover all the major cities we might fly from?"
He sighed and closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "I don't know. I just don't know."
Dani reached inside her shoulder purse and retrieved her cell phone. "Time to call in backup. Mercier needs to give me a list of our assets in Switzerland and Amsterdam, in case we wind up there. We'll need ammo and safe houses, maybe even a couple more operatives. Assuming we get off this crippled plane alive in Iceland, we're going to need a good sized network of our own."
"Iceland?" Ben asked, then chuckled. "Well, if there's any trouble when we reach there, I think we have to assume this is a whole lot bigger than even I imagined."
Dani laughed a little. "They can't know where we're landing, which is good. We need a short breather. At least, I do."
"What we need is a way into Europe that won't leave a trail a mile wide," he said. "Any ideas?"
"Sextant can provide us with a private plane, but it will take about five or six hours to get it authorized and flown to Keflavik."
Ben smiled. "There's your breathing room, but I expect we'll be inundated with questions once we're safely down. Can you pull a few strings and get us off with a brief report?"
She handed him the small notebook from her pocket and a pen. "Start writing while I make the call. Let's have our reports ready." At least it would give them something to do besides worrying about the plane's landing.
Twenty minutes later, the pilot came on the intercom to advise everyone to take the precautions necessary for a crash landing. The atmosphere within Tourist had already escalated to barely controlled hysteria. First Class passengers were quieter, probably inebriated, she reckoned, on the house.
Ben took her hand in his. He didn't bother with a lie of reassurance.
"Are you afraid?" she asked him.
"Sure, but we've done all we can do. That's some consolation, right?"
"Yeah," she answered, giving his hand a squeeze. "All we could do."
Dani tried to concentrate on something other than the impending descent. She focused on the warmth and comfort of Ben's hand, the way it encompassed her smaller one, how his thumb caressed the back of her knuckles.
The gesture seemed very intimate, as if they had once been lovers and still needed this warm connection. Maybe in a former life���no, she didn't really believe in reincarnation. Still, there was something so familiar, so right, about the feel of his hand clasping hers.
They might very well crash and burn. Much would depend on the ground crews and whether the runway was properly prepared. Out of their control. All they could do was hope and pray conditions were right. And hold hands.
"Would you kiss me, Ben?" she asked, aghast the second the words left her mouth.
He smiled sweetly and looked directly into her eyes. "My pleasure." His mouth lowered to hers, his lips gentle. His free hand cupped the side of her face, his thumb grazing her cheek. Dani opened her lips and he deepened the kiss.
Turbulence rocked the plane, causing their teeth to graze, but he didn't break the kiss. Dani buried her mind in the warmth of his mouth, the caress of his tongue and the feel of his hands against her skin.
His groan reverberated inside her. She wished they were locked together in an embrace, but everything prevented that. Slowly he released her mouth. "Time to get ready," he said, handing her the pillow he had been leaning on as he slept. "Put this on your knees and lean forward." He did the same, facing her, his gaze holding hers.
She still saw no fear in his eyes. Maybe he had come to terms with death. "I'm glad I'm with you," she told him.
He grinned. "I just wish we were together somewhere else right now."
"Me, too." Her voice broke off with a sharp cry when the plane bounced off the ground. They listed rapidly to one side and a wing caught the ground. A huge ripping sound sent them spinning horizontally. And then they flipped.
Chapter 10
When Dani came to, she was hanging sideways in her seat. Screams assaulted her ears. Ben fought to release his seat belt then began working on hers. They fell onto the people across the aisle who were still strapped in.
Most of the passengers were in shock, but Dani noted no apparent fatal injuries in those she could see. It took sharp orders and a few harsh shakes to get some of them moving. The stronger ones recovered, panicked and began trampling the others to get out.
Ben's military training surfaced immediately and he started issuing commands, establishing what order he could.
"Release your seat belts and go that way!" he shouted above the din of panic surrounding them. "Be calm!" He was moving from seat to seat, repeating his orders, bracing his feet on the legs of the seats to stay upright in the slanted aisle.
Dani offered reassurance where she could, shamed several others into helping and generally did all she could to evacuate the plane, following Ben's lead. The attendants were working from the front, doing the same, unhooking passengers and ushering them toward the open door.
Getting to it necessitated a steep climb up a skewed aisle, a disorienting trip punctuated by passengers' fearful cries and the screams of sirens outside.
Ben had worked his way to the forward door. He and one of the male attendants were shoving individuals out the door, down an inflated chute to the runway.
Dani tried to see out the windows, but where one side showed only the littered surface of the runway, the other displayed only sky.
Ben grabbed her arms as she neared th
e door. "Get away from the plane quick as you can!" he warned. "Hit the ground running!"
"I'm not going without you!" she cried, but felt him lift her off her feet and toss her down the chute just as he had the others.
Dani got her feet under her after her rapid descent and stationed herself at the bottom of the inflated ramp. Passenger after passenger, she helped get people running for safety as smoke poured from the fuselage.
A terrible scent began filling her nostrils. Flames licked at the wing rising above them like an angry finger pointing to the sky. The other had broken off and lay torn, twisted and upside down well away from the main wreckage.
At last, Ben appeared beside her, grasped her arm and hauled her along beside him until they reached the crowd of rescued passengers. Crews from a half dozen ambulances tended to the injured while fire trucks hose down the wreckage with foam.
"They've got it under control, I think," Ben said. "Everybody's out." He turned to her, running his hands over her shoulders and arms. "Are you hurt?"
"No," Dani answered, reveling in his touch. She badly needed to be touched. "Were you?"
"Since we don't need aid, let's find whoever's in charge and get this over with."
She went to break off, but he didn't move. Instead he looked down at her. But first.
And as Dani's head swirled with feeling he pulled her close and kissed her as if his very life depended on it.
She threw her arms around his neck and took the life-affirming kiss for what it was. Adrenaline-induced euphoria. Make that ecstasy. God, the man could kiss!
When he drew away, he laughed, lifted her up and whirled her gently around as if she weighed nothing.
Dani braced her hands on his shoulders and looked down into his eyes. Beautiful eyes full of relief and happiness. The sexual tug on her senses was overpowering. He felt it, too. Didn't even try to hide it. His gray eyes softened and his lips quivered.
For a long moment, they simply admitted silently what they were feeling. They were unashamed and enjoyed it, even though she knew it could only be temporary.
Later, in the hotel room they'd taken to rest in, as he and Dani waited for her team's plane to Europe, Ben wished he had kept his mouth shut about his suspicions regarding the bank robbery. Maybe if he hadn't gotten Dani involved, he could have spared her the risk. And he was still feeling guilty over LeFleur's death.
"You're taking this too personally," Dani told him, as if reading his mind. "You can't do that."
She sat resting against the pillows of the queen-size bed. They had rooms at the Northern Lights hotel near the airport. Ben sat across her room in the chair, too antsy to relax; he had come to her room to discuss their plans once they arrived in Switzerland.
"You have to distance yourself, Ben. It's the only way."
"I know," he said, pretending to agree with her.
Unfortunately he was not able to do that. He had lost his objectivity a long time ago when he had witnessed lives snuffed out in an instant of unnecessary madness.
Now, at least for him, every act of violence was personal. Terrorism was personal. To hell with all that claptrap about holy wars and restructuring society. If someone wanted to kill you, for whatever reason, that was pretty damn personal in his book.
These people, these financiers who were clients of his own bank, were obviously all for the killing. They lived off the bounty available to them through their American-based businesses. Maybe using U.S. dollars to finance the destruction of the Western world appealed to their sense of irony, to their screwed-up tastes.
At any rate, he felt personally responsible for doing all he could to prevent that money from reaching the wrong hands.
Dani tossed a stray pillow at him. "Hey, we're supposed to be winding down."
Noticing her, Ben shook off the doom and gloom. Here he was with a beautiful woman, a courageous one who was using all her resources to accomplish the same ends as him. There was nothing either of them could do until they reached their destination, and the plane to take them there wasn't due for another three hours. He should unwind.
He got up and held out his hand to her. "Come on."
"Where are we going?" she asked, a tentative smile playing around her lips.
"Blue Lagoon. You want to relax, that's the place."
He stopped at one of the airport shops and purchased swimsuits with his credit card. A short cab ride later and they were there.
The enormous Lagoon was an otherworldly place, man-made, but you'd never guess it if you didn't know. The wide expanse of geothermically heated water was a soothing blue and crystal-clear. The sulfuric smell became less noticeable after you'd been in a while. The heavenly feel of it made that negligible.
"Man, I could get used to this," Dani said, floating on her back, sighing with contentment.
Ben found peace in just watching her, enjoyed the sight of her face and breasts just visible above the surface. She abandoned herself so naturally and completely to the pleasure, he wanted to do the same.
He lay back and closed his eyes, his fingers linked loosely with hers so they wouldn't drift apart. The air was cold, bracing to breathe in. The waters were warm, well above body temperature. Steam rose off the wavelets, creating a haze that blocked out the sight of other bathers.
He couldn't remember when he had ever felt this good, this alive. "Living in the moment," he muttered. "Wish we could always do that."
"I try," she admitted as she stood, the water lapping at her chin. She smoothed back her hair with her free hand. "I think after all that's happened, I might try a little harder."
Ben knew exactly what she meant. Difficult to take life for granted after almost losing it. And she had almost lost hers three times in the past twenty-four hours. The very thought of that gave him chills.
Unable to stop himself, Ben reached for her and enfolded her in his arms, wishing he could protect her from everything. He just needed to do that, more than he needed to breathe.
She allowed him to hold her for a while, then pushed away, smiling, when his hands slid over her slender curves and came to rest against her back just below her waist.
"Not exactly what I meant by living in the moment..." she said, looking a little nervous. He realized his groin had been pressing against her.
She raked her hair back again and looked toward the hotel. "We should go back and get dressed."
Ben didn't mind. He couldn't make love to her out here. He shouldn't at all, anywhere. But their coming together seemed fated to happen sooner or later. Later would probably be best, maybe just before they went their separate ways. Sooner, and he might get too used to it. Hell, he might get addicted. And he might not be able to let her go when the time came.
With a sigh of resignation, he led her out of the ethereal blue waters of the lagoon and back into the real world.
They found a taxi and soon reached the hotel, where he walked her to her room. "Here you are, back safe and sound," he said, pushing her wet hair back behind her ears. "We have a little time before we have to go."
She nodded, reaching up to run her hand down the side of his face. "A little time." Those amber eyes offered him a stunning invitation.
No sooner had the door closed than he had his arms around her and was pressing her against the wall. "I want you," he gasped between kisses so hot he felt flames.
She writhed so sensuously, fitting herself to him, answering him with her own need. No hesitation. No coy withdrawals. No denial. This was it, Ben thought. This was the instant he had survived for, his reason for being here. His reason for being, period.
He swept her over to the bed and crashed them down onto it. Ben abandoned himself to instinct, to her cues, to the needs that drove them. Dani did not want gentle, not the way she grasped and demanded.
Clothing flew this way and that as they clawed it away. He was desperate to feel her skin next to his. Her breasts were high and firm, dark nipples beaded in invitation. He laved and nipped, loving the sounds she mad
e, wordless demands. Not one to beg, his Danielle. She took. But she gave, as well. And then gave more. Ben slid his palms down her sides, around her firmly muscled thighs and raised her legs, cradling himself between them.
"Now!" she said, attempting to guide him into her by moving her hips. "Ben?"
"Not yet. Protection." He didn't have any. Damn.
"I'm okay, on the pill. Now!"
Still Ben held back. "You trust me, right? That I'm okay? I am."
"Me, too," she muttered, her frantic nodding all the encouragement he needed. "I'm good."
He entered her by degrees, fearing if he took her all at once, it would be over before he got started, and surely before she was ready. This needed to last.
He tried counting backward, tried thinking baseball scores, tried breathing exercises. But the sheer heat of her body closing around him, the sweet slide of sex, the pure scent of her, blocked his mind to everything else in the world.
She set the pace and he increased it, as unable to control the impulse as he had been unable to guide that rocketing plane to the ground. All he could do was abandon himself to flight and hope for the best.
Her fingers plowed through his hair. Her mouth grasped his, claiming it as he claimed hers. Her hips rose to meet his thrusts, a throw right over the edge of reason. "Come with me," he pleaded, hating her for ending it, loving her for ending it, wanting it again even before he finished with a soul-deep groan of fury.
She shuddered violently, clasping him so tight he thought she'd burrow into him and never let him go. Then her hands softened on his shoulders and slid down like silk along his arms. "Oh, my," she whispered.
Heaven had nothing on her. He felt empty and filled at the same time. Humbled and prideful. Saved and destroyed.
He knew in that moment, lying with her in his arms, that he would never be the same again. He didn't even contemplate whether that was a good or . a bad thing. It simply was.
Yeah. Ben closed his eyes, feeling little aftershocks ripple through him directly from her.
Chapter 11
Dani would have kicked her own behind if she could have reached it with her foot. At least she had been able to get him out, not that he had gone willingly. Damn, she'd had to invent an excuse to make him leave so to not hurt his feelings.