They watched the stars roll by for about an hour before Emily finally stretched and stood up. She had enjoyed her time with Sam tonight. It had been altogether unexpected and completely captivating. She had to be careful, lest she fall completely under his spell.
That meant she had better leave before she forgot all her sensibilities and jumped the man. No, that would never do. Not if she wanted him to respect her in the morning. No, she had to leave. Now.
The first part was getting her legs to cooperate. Finally, after a few minutes of sternly lecturing herself, she had managed to rise from the comfortable chaise. Now came the hard part—actually leaving.
“I really should be going.” Darnit. Even to her own ears, she sounded reluctant to leave.
Sam stood up and she realized how tall he was all over again. The man was a giant compared to her more petite stature. She should be used to it, having been towered over by her brothers all her life, but Sam was imposing in a new, very male, very sexy way. She liked the feeling of it, even as it scared her a little. He was raw power. A caged tiger that could come out to bite her at any time. Dangerous yet alluring.
And there went her temperature, skyrocketing toward the stars. She had all too vivid an imagination around Sam Archer. Pilot or not, she was about to break all her rules when it came to getting involved and she didn’t care a bit. Sam was worth the risk. She had a feeling being with him might very well ruin her for any other man but the little daredevil voice inside her was cheering her on, saying ruin away!
“I understand.”
Wait. What did he understand? For a minute there, confusion reigned. Had she somehow said something out loud?
He began escorting her toward the patio door, back inside the house. When he didn’t touch her or head toward the nearest bedroom, she began to relax. She hadn’t given herself away. Not yet, at least. She’d better make good her getaway before she succumbed to temptation.
“Thanks for dinner and the stargazing,” she said as they neared the door. She’d picked up her purse from the couch and tucked the strap over her arm. “I really enjoyed meeting your friend.”
A frown marred his brow. “Forget him.” He took her by the hand and drew her closer, his head dipping so that his lips were a breath away from hers.
His kiss this time was designed to imprint him on her senses. At least, that’s what it accomplished and the possessive way his arms came around her made her feel claimed in a very basic way. Protected too, come to think of it. Sam had a way of making her feel safe. It wasn’t something she’d thought out. It was intuitive.
His big hands roamed over her back and down to cup her rear, drawing her into his hard body. Yeah, that felt really good. Dangerous, but really good. She wanted to stay like this, pressed against his hardness, yet she craved more. And feared it.
That thought was the only thing that gave her strength to pull away.
Sam let her go by slow degrees, releasing her lips last of all. Then his hands dropped away from her body and they stood facing each other for a timeless moment, both breathing hard. “What were we talking about again?” she only half joked. Sam gave her the grin that she was coming to recognize as the one that made her stomach flip. One of his hands squeezed her hip as if in approval.
“That’s my girl.”
“We’re flying to Omaha and back tomorrow,” she reminded him for lack of anything more coherent to say.
“I remember.” He released her but didn’t step out of her personal space. He simply leaned against the doorjamb and looked at her. That look spoke volumes and invited her to throw away common sense and jump his bones.
But that would never do.
“Can you be at the hangar a little early?” she asked, clearing her throat and trying to hold on to her sanity. The man was too handsome for his own good—or hers.
“Sure. Why?”
“I’d like to go over the schedule and give you some charts to study.”
“Sounds good.”
“Yeah, it does.” Man, that sounded inane. She had to get out of there before she managed to embarrass herself even more. “So I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Count on it.”
Emily’s request allowed Sam the perfect excuse—and the perfect time—to do a little sneak and peek around the Praxis Air hangar and office. If asked, he could truthfully say she’d asked him to come in early and his curiosity could be passed off as boredom, as long as he didn’t get caught doing anything too suspicious.
He had to take the risk, though. His mission, and his nature, demanded action. He’d spent a lot of time cooling his jets so far and not enough time working on the issue of killer zombies and the fact that this airline could be unknowingly—or worse yet, with full knowledge—transporting the deadly technology. Either way, if it was passing through Praxis Air, Sam had to find out, and soon. It had been too long between outbreaks. The situation was ripe for another and Sam didn’t want to be caught short with nothing to show for his efforts if, and when, the shit hit the fan again and the creatures started killing people.
Sam started his recon in the office, paging through cargo manifests and flight plans. He began to see a pattern and headed out into the hangar to see if he could confirm his suspicions by taking a look at some of the cargo that was stored for flights later that day. Of course, the moment he opened one of the heavy duty packing cases tagged to be shipped to a small airport on the Oregon-Idaho border, Emily caught him.
“Um…what are you doing, Sam?”
Caught red handed Sam couldn’t do anything other than cop to being caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He held up his hands and turned around to face her. She’d snuck up behind him without even trying, her rubber soled shoes making little sound on the concrete floor. He decided to try to brazen it out.
“I’m sorry. I got here a little earlier than I expected and got bored, so I thought I’d take a look around.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Taking a look around includes opening up cargo crates?”
“I was always too curious for my own good.” He gave her a smile and a sheepish shrug. He wasn’t sure if she was buying it.
“Look, Sam. Curiosity isn’t a good thing to have around here lately. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep your nose out of the cargo boxes and not ask too many questions.”
Oh, he didn’t like the sound of that. Was she warning him off? Was she involved in the illegal activity? Covering for someone else? Part of the conspiracy? He hoped to hell she wasn’t. It would destroy him to have to kill her.
“Why? Is it against the rules?” He did his best to keep his tone light.
She folded her arms over her chest. She’d probably meant it as an aggressive pose, but it looked more protective to him. Not much to go on, but it gave him hope that she wasn’t as deep in this as he feared.
“Let’s just say that asking too many questions could get you fired. Or worse.” Those last two words were mumbled almost under her breath, but Sam heard them. He was paying close attention to every move she made, every word she spoke. This was too important to let anything go unobserved.
“Consider me warned then.” He deliberately brightened his smile and tried to be as charming as possible. “I’ll do my best not to let curiosity get the best of me again. Of course, once I have the commute time figured out so that I can get here with more accuracy, I probably won’t have time to spin my wheels waiting. Idle hands always got the better of me, even when I was a kid.”
She tilted her head as if still unsure how to take his words and incriminating actions. He’d messed up. Whatever trust they’d been building was in doubt now. He’d just set himself back a bit both personally and with his investigation. He’d have to figure a way to get them back to where they were as quickly as possible. This mission—and this woman—were too important.
And that thought stopped him dead in his tracks. When had Emily begun to rank right up there in his priorities with his mission? Saving the world from the zombie contagion had to come first. Nothing was more important than that.
Then there was Emily, who suddenly had become just as important to him. If not more so. And he wasn’t sure that she was on the right side yet.
Man, he was so screwed.
“Let’s go to the office. There’s some paperwork we need to finish before we can get going.”
Her expression said she was reserving judgment about his presence here and his lame excuse for snooping around. That would have to do for now. It would take time and some maneuvering to repair the damage he’d just inflicted to his own cause.
Sam followed her into the office and did as she requested. He’d done his homework in here already and his pocket held a tiny digital camera with which he’d photographed the flight plans and manifests he’d found questionable. He’d upload them to the team later, when he was back at his condo, or sooner if he could find a secure connection and a couple of moments free from observation.
He’d noticed what he thought was a pattern in the flights to the Pacific Northwest. He’d ask the team to confirm his initial suspicions with further research, but he had a hunch that’s where the rogue scientists were holed up—or perhaps that’s where they planned to be in the near future. Someone who went to pains to remain anonymous had certainly had a lot of boxes of mysterious equipment delivered to that area in the past few weeks.
Only a small portion of the contents were listed on the cargo manifests. That raised questions in his mind. The airline hadn’t transported that much scientific equipment in the past. At least not to such remote locations and for such mysterious clients. Every other cargo list from prior years that contained anything remotely scientific was usually destined for a reasonably big city airport being shipped either to or from a legitimate scientific business, laboratory, or hospital.
The more recent manifests that had caught his eye had obscure senders and receivers in backwater locations. One or two like that could be put up to random coincidence, but the quantity he’d been able to locate in a quick, covert search made him think there was a fire somewhere beneath all that proverbial smoke. Something was up in the Pacific Northwest.
They used different airports, but all the questionable invoices went to that region. He hoped the team could help him discern a pattern in the shipments that might help narrow down the target area a little more. That region was vast and sparsely populated except for a few big cities here and there. The rest of the area was mountainous and held many ranches and farms as well as miles and miles of forest. It was a good place to hide.
Also a good place to carry on with highly dangerous research. In fact, it was a near perfect hiding place. No wonder the team had lost track of their quarry.
Not for long, if Sam had anything to say about it. This was the information Sam had been sent to find and the reason they’d needed someone on the inside to begin with. He’d gathered enough to start the more analytical-minded folks back at base on the hunt. All in all, it had been a good morning.
Sam still had a full day of work ahead, during which he could further his relationship with Emily. While not strictly an essential part of the mission, getting in Emily’s good graces could be quite useful to the successful completion of his goal. It was also something he wanted on a personal level. He wanted to get to know her. He wanted to be able to vindicate her if she wasn’t involved. And he wanted to be near enough to be able to protect her in case the shit hit the fan and she was in the line of fire.
Emily wasn’t immune to the zombie contagion. Hell, she probably didn’t even know such horrors existed. Sam hoped like he’d never hoped before that she had no idea what dark things existed out there in the night.
If it turned out that she knew and was helping spread the research by transporting it around the country, he’d have to take her down. The thought turned his expression grim. He knew his duty and would perform it to the best of his ability, but he wouldn’t enjoy it. In fact, he began to wonder if he would ever recover from such an eventuality where Emily was concerned.
But he’d cross that bridge when they got to it—if they got to it. Today was for flying and getting to know her better. It was a good day.
There was an uneasiness between them at first as they headed toward Omaha. They went through the various checklists quietly and efficiently. Finally Sam had had enough.
“Bad weather ahead. We’re on IFR into Omaha,” she stated almost mechanically, not looking at him.
“Sure thing, boss. I Follow River.”
There. That got a rise out of her. Emily looked up from her clipboard and shot him a suspicious look.
“You do know what IFR means, right Sam?”
“What? We’re back to testing again? I thought I’d already proven to you that I am fully qualified to fly this jet.” The clipped tone in his voice couldn’t be helped. He was disappointed both in himself for getting caught snooping and in her for being so suspicious of him all the time. “Give me a little credit there, captain.”
Okay, now disgust was creeping into his tone. He tried to throttle back on the emo, as his twelve-year-old niece would say, but found it difficult. Emily had a way of getting on his last nerve and making him vulnerable in a way he hadn’t expected.
“Humor me.”
Sam liked the challenge in her voice. Finally, he was getting an honest response from her. Too bad he’d had to piss her off to get it.
“Let’s see. I’ve also heard it as I Follow Road. But I don’t see any roads around here to follow.”
“Cute.” Her expression said it was anything but. “If you’re trying to get on my nerves, it’s working.”
“Never let it be said I annoyed the queen of precision.”
“Do you want to lose your job?”
“Not necessarily,” he countered, glad to finally have some spark in their conversation even if it did skate very close to the edge of ruining his mission. “What I want…” His voice pitched lower, seeking a more intimate tone. “I want us to go back to where we were yesterday, when I was kissing the breath out of you at my front door. I want the Emily who fisted my shirt in her hands so hard your nails left little indentations in the cotton long after you were gone.”
That gave her pause. He could tell by the way her breath caught and her eyes sparkled.
“She’s not here. You’re stuck with me. Get over it.”
He laughed at her flippant comeback.
“Touché, captain. You have wounded me to the core.” He sighed dramatically and let the silence stretch in the tiny cockpit as the jet hurtled through the cloudy skies toward their destination.
“It’s a shame really.” He finally spoke when she started fidgeting. He’d let her stew long enough. “I liked that Emily. I think I could have fallen for her, given half a chance. And I do know that IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules. I just like teasing you. You rise to the bait every single time.”
He sent her a smug grin that took the edge off the serious words he’d spoken prior to his last teasing remarks. Let her think about that for a while. Let her come to terms with the issue he too was struggling with—their undeniable attraction.
“If you were one of my brothers, I’d be trying to strangle you right now.”
She seemed to recover quickly now that he’d established a lighter tone. He’d managed to say a few things he thought had needed saying between them and still end it on a teasing note. Not bad, if he did say so himself.
“I’m not your brother, Em.” He made sure to catch her eye and hold her gaze a few, significant moments before turning back to the controls. When she swallowed nervously, he knew he’d gotten his point across. He didn’t want her thinking of him as one of her brothers. No, sir. That wouldn’t do at all.
“I bet they gave you a hell of a time growing up though. I would’ve thought you had grown a thicker skin having a twin brother and all.”
“Are you kidding? He was the worst offender. Shotgun teased me all the time. And I mean all the time.” She rolled her eyes in memory.
“No wonder, if you’re so easily engaged.” He chuckled at the way her lips pursed.
“It’s not nearly as bad as it once was, but he still manages to yank my chain every once in a while.” She grew somewhat contemplative. “I don’t know why you manage to bring out the shrew in me too, Sam. Sorry I snapped at you.”
“And I apologize for baiting you. It wasn’t very professional of me and I’m sorry.”
“Truce?” She looked at him sideways as if both relieved and still a bit suspicious.
“Truce,” he agreed readily. Anything to get them back on better footing. He thought he’d jumped a hurdle and was glad to see her smile again. He hadn’t liked the hurt suspicion in her eyes.
“Red alert,” he teased lightly as the radio crackled to life. It was air traffic control.
Any further deep conversation ceased as they came closer to their destination and had to begin landing clearances and checklists. Sam communicated with air traffic control and then the tower as Emily brought the jet in for a landing.
They were transporting passengers today and Emily was glad to see the back of them as they piled into a waiting limo headed for a business meeting. Emily and Sam had to hang by the airport. They were on call for the next few hours, until the businessmen were done with their meeting and ready to leave.
“How about some lunch?” she asked Sam as he joined her inside the terminal.
“What did you have in mind?”
“There’s a couple of choices. Pizza, deli, fast food, fried chicken.”
“Let’s check out the deli, if that’s okay with you.”
“Fine with me.” She led the way to the deli. They had a decent selection and she’d eaten there a couple of times.
Sam ordered a giant meat filled sandwich, as she expected, while Emily got a salad.
“That’s all you’re eating?” Sam didn’t look impressed with her plate as they sat down to eat. Come to think of it, she wasn’t too impressed with it either. Sam’s sandwich looked a whole lot more appetizing but those last few pounds she was trying to shed were stubborn.
“I’m on a diet.” She tried to end it there. It was embarrassing talking about her weight with a man she was attracted to. She hoped he’d leave it alone as she dug into her tasteless lettuce, keeping her eyes lowered to her plate.
A big hand came into her field of view and half of Sam’s sandwich landed on top of her plate of wilted lettuce. She looked up at him in shock.
“You don’t need a diet, Emily. You’re perfect just the way you are. Now eat up. We have a long day ahead of us and you need your nourishment.”
He seemed genuinely upset by the idea that she’d deprive herself to lose a few pounds. Emily didn’t know what to make of it. Not only had he given her a compliment but he’d given up half of his monster sandwich for her. She was oddly touched. Especially when he opened his bag of chips and shook out a portion of them on her plate. He kept the rest for himself, but he was definitely splitting his lunch with her. Providing for her. Nobody had ever done that before.
It was the act of a caveman. A thoughtful caveman, but a caveman nonetheless. Somehow, instead of being offended, Emily was deeply moved by his actions.
She’d sat in stunned silence while he filled her plate. She knew she had to say something, but she wasn’t sure how to react.
“Thank you,” she said finally. It didn’t seem to fit the situation, but it would have to do. Emily took hold of the sandwich half and bit into it. It was absolutely delicious. She thought maybe she’d made a sound and looked up to catch the amused gleam in Sam’s eyes. Yeah, she’d made a noise. How could she help it? The sandwich was that good. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. That little moan was sexy, Em.” He winked at her and she felt her cheeks heat with a blush as she returned her attention strictly to the sandwich.
Damn the man. He really knew how to get to her.
“You shouldn’t have given up half your lunch to me,” she protested, even as she took another bite of sandwich heaven.
“Don’t worry so much. If it makes you feel better, I’ll let you buy dessert.”
“Dessert?” She gulped. “If I hadn’t planned a big lunch, what makes you think I intended to have dessert?” She took a sip of her diet soda, meeting his amused gaze.
“You were operating under the erroneous conclusion that you need to lose weight. I disagree and, after all, I’d be in position to know whether or not you need to shed a few pounds. I had my hands all over your curvy hips and tight tush last night. Believe me, they’re perfect.”
Her mouth went dry as his voice dropped to that intimate, rumbly purr. How could he get her all hot and bothered sitting in an airport deli, for goodness sake? The guy ought to come with a warning label.
“Well…” She had to clear her throat and take another sip of soda. “Thank you for that endorsement but the scale says otherwise. I don’t plan on dessert today but you’re more than welcome to get something for yourself. I shouldn’t be eating this sandwich.” She shook her head as she took another bite. “But it’s so good,” she said in between mouthfuls.
“I like it when you give into temptation, Em.” There was that sexy tone again. It made her want to squirm in her seat. “You should do it more often.”
With him around? Emily was afraid she’d be doing it more than was good for her.
She was saved from answering when her cell phone rang. She looked at the number and answered. It was one of their charter passengers.
“Eat up. We have to be back at the hangar in half an hour. Our passengers concluded their business sooner than they expected.”
Sam didn’t have to be told twice. He practically inhaled the rest of his lunch and was finished well before Emily. He cleaned up while she ate the last bite and they headed back to the hangar together moments later.
“Guess our FOWs got lucky today,” she said as they went through the terminal to the pilot’s entrance. “They’ll probably be in a good mood on the way home.”
“FOWs?” Sam asked, as she’d expected.
“Friends of Warren. This is Omaha. Who did you think they were going to visit? Their meeting was at Berkshire Hathaway.”
Sam looked amused at her little joke. Omaha was the headquarters of one of the most famous investors and businessmen in the country, if not the world. Emily had flown more than one charter of folks eager to meet with the man himself.
“No kidding.” He seemed impressed.
“Try not to listen if any of them give you stock tips. Praxis Air officially frowns on insider trading.”
She felt surprisingly lighthearted after their meal. Enough to joke around with him, though she still wanted to know why he had been peeking in the cargo crates this morning. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure he was telling the truth about that, but she also found it hard to distrust him. Everything she learned about him made her like him more. She hoped she wasn’t that bad a judge of character.