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“Okay, okay,” he said with a grimace.
Reese closed his eyes and tried to see it. He really did. But he could conjure up no mountain pass. No car. No ski lodge.
A curvy snow-bunny wearing a fluffy hat, skimpy shorts and skis … that was about as close as he could get.
He sighed. Not necessarily because it was a bad thing, but because the vision was so damn hot, it had him a little dizzy.
“Don’t use your imagination much, I guess. I should have known.”
His eyes flew open. “I have an imagination.”
“Uh-huh. Let me guess, most of the time what you imagine is getting through the next sales meeting or closing some big business deal.”
Reese shifted a little, not answering. Up until he’d walked up to her on the tarmac, that had been pretty accurate. Since then, though, he’d been imagining a few other things. But to tell her she was wrong meant to spill those thoughts, which he wasn’t about to do—again, at least not after a one-hour acquaintance.
Though, two was looking better all the time.
The plane bounced again, quickly, up and down. Reese’s stomach bounced with it—at least, on the way up. It didn’t go all the way down and settle back into place.
He felt the blood drain from his cheeks. “I think we just ran over a moose. Or a lost skier.”
“There’s a small fridge between the seats. You look like you could use a drink.” She chuckled. “Or a Valium.”
“Wow. That is first-class service.”
“Kidding.”
“Yeah. I figured that,” he said, ignoring the offer. He didn’t need a drink. He just needed a distraction.
Fortunately, one of the sexiest ones he had ever seen was sitting just a few feet away. As long as he didn’t humiliate himself by losing his lunch on the floor of her pristine jet, he fully intended to enjoy spending this flight in her company.
And maybe more than that.
After all, why shouldn’t he? He already liked her sense of humor, the competent way she handled the controls, the low laughter. There was a lot to like about this woman beyond her killer legs. Not to mention the rest of the physical package. She was quick and witty, sharp, smart. Lots to like. Lots to want.
And he could like her, want her … maybe even have her, without any of the complications that would arise if he were within fifty miles of home. There, he never felt free to do something for no other reason than the fact that he wanted to. The idea of heaving aside all that responsibility for a little while, of grabbing on to a good thing and enjoying the hell out of it just because he could, was incredibly appealing.
“Is this your first time chartering?” she asked.
The plane jiggled the tiniest bit and he instinctively clutched the armrests. “That obvious, huh?”
“You have that first-timers glow.”
Huh. Did vampires glow? Because he figured his face was probably as white as one.
“Must be a pretty important trip.”
He shook his head. “You’d think so, right? But I’m actually headed to a Halloween party.”
She glanced over her shoulder in surprise. Reese waved toward the front, “Keep your eyes on the road, please.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not about to drive into the back of a slow-moving semi doing fifty during rush hour.”
He’d just be happy if she didn’t drive into the back of a slow-flying goose. A big Canadian one.
Oh, God, one of those had brought down a huge airliner, hadn’t it?
Stop thinking about it.
Right. He had much better things to think about. The way his family business was booming under his management, even in this bad economy. The success of their first nationwide marketing campaign. The house he’d just finished remodeling and considered his private fortress in the middle of his crazy world. The sexy pilot in hot pants whom he now kept picturing on skis, and whose downhill slopes he would very much like to explore. Much better things.
“So, Halloween party, huh?” she said. “If this is you dressing up, what do you regularly look like? I mean, in your real life, are you a biker-dude who usually wears black leather and chains? Only for the occasion, you’re dressing up as a boring businessman?”
Reese leaned forward, dropping his elbows onto his knees, and stared at the back of her silky-haired head. “Ahem. Boring?”
“It was a joke. I was just trying to distract you.”
Maybe. Or maybe she really did think he looked boring.
He should have felt a little insulted. Reese had been fending off most of the single women in his small hometown since his high school days. Most of them. He definitely hadn’t fended off all, at least not before two years ago when his life had gotten so out of whack. And he had enjoyed his share of discreet flings through the years. Could’ve had enough to qualify as a half-dozen guys’ shares if he’d felt like it. His sisters were forever cackling over some of the ways in which the hungry local females tried to get his attention.
True, the females in question were no longer the twentysomething party girls who’d gone through his revolving bedroom door a few years ago. They were now career women who saw the steady businessman with a nice income and a reputation as being a great guy who stepped up for his family. But there were still quite a few of them and they definitely wouldn’t say no if he ever started asking again.
He wasn’t the hottest dude in the known universe, and he suspected the money that flowed from his family’s successful brewery was partially responsible for the attention. But nobody had ever called him boring before, that was for sure.
Damn, that was harsh.
And damn, she was right. To hell with all the mental pumping about how great business was, and how many women had made plays for him. His personal life was exactly what this beautiful woman imagined it to be.
Boring.
Boiled in mediocrity and steeped in sameness, he’d allowed himself to disappear into a daily life that wasn’t ever what he’d imagined for himself. Ennui had grabbed him by the lapels of his stuffy suit and forced him to remain in his small box of family, business, responsibility. He hadn’t even tried to step outside that box in a long time.
Maybe it was time. Maybe he should heed his great-aunt Jean’s advice: live, go a little wild, have an adventure.
It had sounded crazy, impossible a few weeks ago when she’d burst into his office. Now? Not so much. Especially because he’d suddenly found someone he wanted to go a little wild with.
There was, of course, one obstacle.
“Are you single?” he asked, direct and to the point.
Her shoulders stiffened the tiniest bit and she hesitated. Then, with a small, shaky exhalation he could hear from back here—as if she’d made some decision—she nodded once.
“Yes. Completely unattached. You?”
“The same.”
He didn’t give it any more thought. She might have thrown the word boring at him, but he had seen the look of interest in her eyes before they’d gotten aboard the plane. The tiny hitch in her breath just now, and the sudden tension that had her curvy body sitting so stiffly in her seat told him her thoughts had gone in the same direction as his.
Have an adventure.
Sounded like a good idea to him.
“So how do you like Halloween parties?”
AMANDA HAD TO ADMIT IT … Reese Campbell made one hot-as-blazes 1970s-era airline pilot. Eyeing him from the other side of the backseat of the taxicab, she wondered what strange whim of fortune had sent such a sexy, charming, single man across her path right when she needed one most.
And she definitely needed one. It had been a long time since she’d felt so sure of herself as a woman, so in tune to the sensations coursing through her body. All the late-night blue movies that had played in her mind lately, replacing any semblance of a real love life, had been mere placeholders, no substitute for the great sex she wasn’t having.
Those mental movies were going to have a new leading man in them after tonight. Because she had the feeling that before the night was over, she was going to be saying, “Welcome aboard,” and “Fly me,” and meaning exactly what those old ad execs had wanted passengers to think the sexy stewardesses meant.
She wanted Reese. He wanted her. It was a wild, reckless Halloween night and they were both single and interested.
So why not?
Okay, so she’d never done the one-night-stand-with-an-utter-stranger thing. But her best friend, Jazz, had. She hadn’t ended up with a scarlet A branded on her chest or any nasty diseases, nor had she needed therapy to get rid of some nonexistent guilt.
Considering she sometimes thought Jazz was the only woman her age in the world who was the least bit like her, or who completely understood her, she didn’t figure the example was a bad one to follow.
Besides, Amanda had indulged in short-term affairs before. In fact, considering how badly her last few relationships had ended, a one-night stand sounded just about perfect.
She liked sex. She liked it a lot. This time, she’d just be having it without the two requisite dates—drinks, then dinner—first. Or the worrying about a phone call the next day. Reese would go back to his life in Pittsburgh, she’d stay here, and they’d both smile whenever they thought of the night they’d gotten a little down-and-dirty with a stranger in Chicago.
Best of all … there’d be no crazy fake suicide attempts. No drunk-dialing complaints that she was a feckless bitch who enjoyed breaking guys’ hearts. And Reese wouldn’t become the newest member of the Facebook group “Dumped by Amanda Bauer,” which had actually been set up by a guy she’d dated during her junior year of college.
God, men could be such fricking babies.
Back to the subject: one-night stand.
Okay. Sounded good. She just had to feel her way around to make sure Reese was on board with it. Judging by the way he’d been devouring her with his eyes since the minute they’d met, she had a feeling that was a big, fat yeah.
“How in God’s name did they breathe in these things?” he muttered as he tugged at the too-tight collar of his shirt. “I can’t believe there weren’t crashes due to lack of oxygen in the pilots’ brains.”
“It’s only a suit, for heaven’s sake,” she said, rolling her eyes at the typical male grumbling. “It just happens to be too small for you.”
They’d found the antique uniform Reese was using as a costume at the airport after landing in Chicago. It hadn’t been difficult. Lots of the companies at O’Hare had been around for decades, and Amanda had friends at just about all of them. A few inquiries had put her in the office of a guy who’d worked as a baggage handler since the days when there’d been a Pan in front of American. He’d known where lots of interesting old stuff was kept and had put an only-slightly-musty uniform, complete with jaunty pilot’s cap, in her hands within an hour of landing.
It was too tight across Reese Campbell’s broad shoulders, but loose around the lean hips and tight buns. Whoever Captain Reliable from the 1970s had been, he definitely hadn’t had Reese’s mouthwatering build.
“You’re going to rip it,” she said as he continued to tug. “The thing is flimsy enough.”
Brushing his hands away, Amanda reached up to his strong throat, her fingers brushing against the warm, supple skin. A low, deep breath eased in through her nearly closed lips and she suddenly felt a little light-headed. There was such unexpected strength in him, tone and musculature more suited to an athlete than to the boring businessman she’d accused him of being.
Not that she’d meant it. Not at all. The clothes he’d been wearing might have been conservative, but the look in those eyes, the sexy twist to his lips, the suggestive tone of his conversation … none of those things had indicated anything but exciting, intriguing male.
A thin sheen of sweat moistened the throat where the shirt had cut into the cords of muscle. She had to suck her bottom lip into her mouth just to make sure she didn’t do something crazy like lean closer and taste that moisture, sample that skin. She ignored the sudden mental command to just do it, focusing instead on unfastening the top button and loosening his tie.
Reese said nothing, just stared at her, his expression hard to read in the low lighting of the cab.
When she was finished, she dropped her hands to her lap, twisting her fingers together on top of her long winter coat. It didn’t quite match the costume, but despite the mild autumn they’d been having, it had become freaking cold out when the sun went down. She honestly didn’t know how the hippest 1970s chicks had stood it.
“So, this client of yours, he’s not going to mind you showing up with a …” She considered her words, decided against saying date and concluded, “… guest?”
“It’s a pub,” Reese replied, his sensual lips curving up a little at the corners. “I think they can handle one extra.”
“That’s some job you’ve got, having to go to pubs for Halloween parties,” she said, trying to think about something other than his mouth. How much she wanted that mouth. And where she wanted that mouth.
“I don’t think it quite stacks up to yours—having to jet off to the Caribbean to ferry the rich around to their sinfully expensive vacations.”
“I usually ferry obnoxious, spoiled executives to their sinfully expensive corporate retreats.”
He tsked. “I’m sure they consider it bailout money well spent.” He hesitated for a split second, then added, “So I guess I should be glad you called me boring rather than obnoxious and spoiled?”
“Not obnoxious,” she immediately replied.
A brow went up. “Spoiled?”
Amanda tapped her fingertip on her chin, pretending to think about it. She didn’t suspect this man was spoiled in the way some of her clients were. He didn’t come off as rich, used to everyone bowing down before him at the first request. And he definitely wasn’t the kind of guy who expected a woman to spread her legs at the first mention of something sparkly.
Yeah, she’d met a bunch of those guys. Amanda had always been left wondering what kind of woman would trade a night beneath a sweating, out-of-shape, pasty old man for a pair of diamond earrings.
Reese wasn’t like those men, not physically, not mentally. She had the feeling he was successful but he was not financially spoiled.
Spoiled in other ways? Maybe. Something about his self-confidence, his half smile when he’d asked if she was single, told her he was used to getting what he wanted when it came to women. The way he sat just a few inches away—casual and comfortable when she, herself, was tingling with excitement at his nearness—said he was sure of what he wanted to happen and his ability to make it happen.
Sexually confident, yeah. But spoiled? No. The guy who’d looked like he was going to lose his lunch during the flight had been adorably sexy and vulnerable. Not one creepy, jerky, I’m-good-and-I-know-it thing about him.
“Not spoiled,” she admitted.
“I should hope not. As the oldest of six kids, I learned at a very young age not to count on anything I owned remaining unbroken, unborrowed or unlost.”
“Six kids!” The very idea horrified her. One sibling—one perfect, good, just-like-their-parents sibling who did exactly what was expected of her and never stepped off the approved path—was quite enough for Amanda, thank you very much.
“My God. Six. I can’t even imagine it,” she muttered.
“Oh yeah.” A small chuckle emerged from his mouth as he added, “It was never boring.”
Amanda nibbled her bottom lip before replying, a bit sheepishly, “Sorry I said that earlier. I was just trying to get you to relax.”
Reese might dress the part of executive, but no man with those looks, that mouth and that gleam of interest in his eyes could possibly be called boring.
“So how’s that strategy work for you?”
Confused, she asked, “What strategy?”
“Throwing insults at guys to relax them. Working out okay?”
Hearing the laughter in his tone—knowing he was laughing at himself, too—she had to admit, she liked Reese Campbell.
