Gage challenged her at every turn, making her mentally sharper and more focused and driven. She even kind of liked his confident swagger. Battling with him made her feel more alive than she had since her father’s death.
Unless he’d been honest when he said he didn’t tell Trent everything, taking their relationship to the next level could cost her her job. Did she dare trust him?
Her gaze fell to Gage’s mouth—the one she wanted on her. On her lips. On her br**sts. Everywhere.
A quiet breath whistled through his teeth, drawing her gaze back to his. He knew. She didn’t know how he’d read her thoughts, but he knew she wanted him. And the sexual promise expanding his pupils and adding a tinge of red to his skin said the feeling was mutual.
He gave her foot a squeeze then stroked up her shin to her knee and down her calf to her ankle. His thumbnail scraped a deliciously light circle around her anklebone, but his gaze fell to her breast. Her n**ples received the signal and hardened beneath her shirt. He flicked a fingertip over the point of the tiny bone, but she felt it in her br**sts, in her lap.
How could she possibly resist him? He was smart, gorgeous and ambitious—her big three.
Sleeping with Gage was one test flight she yearned to take. Admitting it sent a beehive buzzing through her. If she did this crazy thing, she wouldn’t fool herself into believing any intimacy between them would lead to forever. They had too much against them. His wealth. His friendship with Trent. Her loyalty to Falcon Air. Living in different states.
She looked at her half-full plate. How long before they could escape? She shoved a big bite into her mouth. The pepper, stuffed with creamy cheese and pork, was one of her favorite dishes, but it wasn’t what she craved tonight.
“What about you, Lauren?”
The young newlywed’s voice startled Lauren into swallowing in one big gulp. Her cheeks burned from an altogether different kind of heat than the rest of her body. “I’m sorry?”
“Where are you from?” the bubbly blonde asked.
“Daytona, Florida.”
“Is your family still there?”
The loss struck again, like a cloud obscuring the sun. “No. My father died recently.”
Gage released Lauren’s foot. She put it back on the floor and shoved both feet into her shoes.
“What about your mom?”
The inevitable question. “I was raised by my father and his partner.”
“Your daddy’s gay?” Blondie sounded shocked. Her husband tried to shush her.
Lauren winced. “Sorry. I meant his business partner.”
“No revolving door of girlfriends?”
“No. My father only loved one woman in his life, and since he couldn’t be with her, he chose to be alone.” Lauren felt Gage’s eyes on her, but didn’t turn.
“Why couldn’t he? Did she die, too?”
“Tracy,” her husband scolded in a whisper. “I apologize. We’re from a small town where everybody knows your business.”
Lauren waved away his concerns. “It’s okay. My mother was and still is married to someone else. Trust me, I didn’t miss what I didn’t have.”
That wasn’t completely true. She’d had friends in school who didn’t have fathers, but none who didn’t have mothers. She’d often wondered why she had to be different. But her father had always said, “Your momma can’t be with us, sugar,” and that had been all Lauren could get out of him until that day she’d turned eighteen and been enlightened. Too little, too late.
As an adolescent she’d concocted a complicated story about her mother’s tragic death in childbirth, but it turned out her girlish fantasies had been just that. The truth was her mother had chosen not to be with her except for a brief visit once each year. Jacqui had preferred her other children. That still stung.
“Are you two—” Sue, the other woman at the table pointed to Gage then Lauren “—together…like a couple?”
“No.”
“No,” Lauren replied hastily and simultaneously with Gage.
“What do you do, Lauren?” Sue persisted.
“I’m a pilot. Gage is a client of the company I work for.” Beneath the table Gage gave her knee a squeeze, then a tormenting caress, shattering her concentration. “I fly airplanes and sometimes helicopters.”
Brilliant, Lauren. What else would you fly? Kites?
She couldn’t think with Gage drawing circles on her thigh with his fingertip. She shot him a warning glare. He winked and her stomach swooped.
She swallowed and turned back toward the other woman. “Gage is the one with the exciting job. A top business magazine voted him as the man you most want on your side in an economic downturn.”
All eyes turned toward Gage. His caressing hand stilled, then withdrew. “I’m a business consultant.”
“What does a business consultant do?” Tracy asked.
Two can fight dirty, Lauren decided. She slid her hand to Gage’s thigh and lightly dug in her nails. His muscles went rock hard beneath her fingers.
“Consult. Owners. On. Improvement. Strategies.” His carefully enunciated words made her lips twitch.
“AACI.” She nudged him with her elbow, earning a narrow-eyed stare. Thanking heaven for the long tablecloth hiding her actions, she wiggled her fingers and batted her lashes like an innocent schoolgirl.
He covered her hand with his, flatting her palm against his leg. When she tried to pull free he laced his fingers through hers and anchored her.
“I assess the company’s needs, assimilate the data, communicate my findings and help them implement a plan to reach their desired goals—usually financial goals, but some of my consultants specialize in other areas of industrial and corporate management.”
“I got to see him in action earlier. He’s very good.” Lauren added the last tongue in cheek with a brief glance at his mouth.
Fire kindled in his eyes at her double entendre. He didn’t look away as he continued, “Lauren is also very…skilled. She’s impressed the hell out of me thus far. I can’t wait to see what else she has up her sleeves. Her passion…toward any project is quite extraordinary.”
He wasn’t talking about flying. Adrenaline rushed through her veins, making her almost light-headed. “Just remember what I told you at our initial meeting. Mastering new…equipment is something of an obsession with me. I’ll tackle anything you throw at me. In an airplane it’s simply a matter of lift and thrust, and knowing how far you can push your machine before you…break it.”
Gage’s nostrils flared. Gold glinted in his irises. Challenge issued and accepted.
She had to be out of her mind to contemplate becoming intimate with him. But she couldn’t seem to think about anything else. That kind of distraction in the cockpit could be disastrous.
The silence caught Lauren’s attention. She broke the simmering connection with Gage and scanned the table to find each occupant plus Esmé and Leon staring at them. From the flushed cheeks and parted lips, she’d bet they’d guessed neither she nor Gage were talking about flying.
Esmé dusted her hands on her frilly apron. “I’ll go finish the flan.”
Rob, the newlywed who’d been silent until now, cleared his throat. “I…Esmé, I think we’ll skip dessert. Right, angel?” He shot his wife a pleading look.
“Yes,” Sue piped up. “Dinner was great. Thank you so much. But I think we need to…rest. We have a big day planned for tomorrow.” They both rose and bolted from the room. Their giggles as they raced up the stairs echoed to the dining room. Nobody at the table could possibly doubt they were headed for something more active than sleep.
“Um, yes. Us, too,” Tracy added with a smoldering look at her husband. “We have an early flight to catch.”
Their departure left Gage and Lauren alone with their hosts. Leon shook his head. “Newlyweds. Always the same no matter where they’re from. I can barely get them to the table, and when I do they don’t stay long enough to finish a meal.”
Lauren wished the floor would open up and swallow her. “I’m sorry. I really know how to kill a party, don’t I? Folks usually don’t run until I start talking about hydraulics or compression ratios.”
Gage’s expression turned wry. “Run men off often, do you?”
She grimaced. “Let’s just say knowing more about a man’s car than he does tends to shorten my list of potential suitors.”
Leon chuckled as he gathered the other guests’ empty plates. “That’s all right, sweetie. If a man can be scared off, then you should let him go. Means he’s not the one for you.”
Esmé nodded. “I’ll leave the coffee on the counter and the flan in the fridge. You help yourselves to it whenever you’re ready.”
“Thank you, Esmé. Dinner was excellent,” Gage replied.
The kitchen door swung shut behind Esmé and Leon. It was clear her hosts expected them to dash off to bed, too. Worse, part of Lauren wanted exactly that, even though she was sure it would be a big mistake. Tension invaded her muscles and her pulse quickened.
“You like playing with fire.” Gage’s deep, quiet voice rumbled over her.
“Apparently so do you.”
He turned in his chair, his knee branding her thigh. “If we go upstairs now I’m going to strip you down, take you to bed and not let you out for flan or anything else before morning.”
She gulped at the image he painted with his candor. Should she go against wisdom and take a risk? Or play it safe? Either way, she was pretty certain she’d be damned if she did and damned if she didn’t.
Seven
Lauren’s heart rose to her throat and pounded as heavily as it had the day she’d stood in the open door of an airplane at ten thousand feet, waiting to make her first solo skydiving jump.Only the best pilots “flew by feel,” trusting their instincts no matter what the gauges told them. She was one of those few, and her sixth sense had never let her down. That same gut feeling told her not to hold back now. But still, going to bed with a near stranger wasn’t like her. This was risky business. But a risk she had to take.
Gage Faulkner. Her brother’s spy. Her former enemy. And soon to be her lover.
Looking at him, she gathered her courage and took that final step past the point of no return. “I always thought flan was overrated.”
Her words ignited a feral passion in Gage’s eyes. A shiver of awareness raced over her, then he blinked and the untamed look vanished. Had she imagined his brief reaction?
He pushed back his chair, steadily, deliberately, and stood then grasped the wooden back of hers and helped her scoot away from the table. She rose on trembling legs.
His palm skimmed down her spine as light as air and settled at her waist. His heat seeped through her clothing, a steaming prelude to what she could expect if she didn’t come to her senses in the next few moments.
No. Once she’d committed to a course she followed through. She wanted Gage, wanted to experience the powerful passion only he seemed to be able to summon from her. There was a reason why he’d come into her life now when she was grieving and confused. Her job was to figure out why. And she couldn’t do that by running away from what he made her feel.