He took one hand away from her ear and leaned in close. Her scent, warm apricots and vanilla, made him wish he could get even closer.
He gestured to the sleek aircraft in front of him and smiled. “Do you like her?”
Although the smile she returned was gracious, her eyes flicked around, seeming to take in every detail of his beloved private plane. Something was bothering her and he needed to find out what it was.
After a few moments, when it was quieter, she jerked her chin at him. “I like her, but I’d rather drive.”
Was she kidding? Baker’s Falls was only an hour away by plane. In his mind, the only way to travel was by plane.
He stepped back with a mock look of chagrin. “Then I guess you don’t want the bottle of Dom Pérignon I have on ice.”
She pointed to the cap on top of his head. “You know I think they have laws against pilots drinking while flying, or at least they should!” she exclaimed.
He reached for her arm and gave it a gentle squeeze to reassure her.
“Take it easy. I was just kidding. I would never put my passengers in harm’s way.”
She visibly relaxed, but only a little, and he wondered why she seemed so uptight. Nervous even. Was she regretting the decision to help him?
“But I will give you a rain check on that Dom, if you promise not to look at me cross-eyed.” He winked.
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.