When he said we were going up into the sky, I didn’t guess that he’d be the one flying us. It was only when he climbed into the front and nodded for me to take the seat next to him that I realized I was in for one heck of a wild ride.
I reach across and smooth a wayward thread of charcoal hair from his forehead. Because the last thing he needs is hair obscuring his vision up here …notbecause I’m looking for an excuse to touch him, no way.
We’re hovering high up over the helicopter site, the New York skyline in the distance laid out like a screensaver. The shadows the clouds make from up here are like giant black monsters creeping across the sunlit landscape.
“I don’t think kissing up here is the best idea, playboy,” I laugh, slowing my breathing with an effort.
“No,” he says, easily guiding us forward, the helicopter tipping as we surge through the sky and the blades gochop-chop-chopabove us. “That’ll have to wait until later.”
As I watch him, his triceps standing out like thick vines against a solid tree trunk as he reaches forward for the controls, I scream in my mind that this is all part of the plan.
But being up here is like being in a different fricking realm or something.
It’s getting harder to remember how much I’m supposed to hate him. From up here, everything seems tiny, and not just the city.
My problems fall away beneath us and I find myself wishing that I could just let go of the past.
It seems so simple, floating high in the sky. I don’t want to trust him, put my heart in his hands like I did in high school. If that had never happened, if I didn’t know how he could be, I could so easily get drawn in to his charms, letting him take control like he’s doing with the helicopter, guiding it smoothly along, looking like he knows exactly what he’s doing.
Just like before.I was so sure that he was really in love with me, that we had something really special. I guess I was just taking things more seriously than he was.
Well, I’ve learned that lesson.
Play the game, but keep in mind that nothing is as it seems. Like the horoscope said, blaze forward bravely and do what I came here to do. I’ve got this.
“Where the heck are we going?” I ask as he surges us away from the helicopter site, the blades chopping at the sky like angry karate genies as he heads toward New York City. “I mean, you have permission to be flying over the city, right?”
He grins over to me, his eyebrow arched, looking oh-so-controlled as he pushes the helicopter toward a skyscraper.
I squint through the sunlight as we break the clouds, staring in disbelief at how far we’ve gotten so fast.
“I bought the deluxe package, Grace,” he says, voice upbeat with his smile. “An air-pass is included in the budget. Not thatair-passis the official term.”
“Okay,” I say, somehow keeping my voice level despite how close we’re hovering to the skyscraper.
For some reason, the closer we get to the helipad, the fiercer my fear of heights blares in my mind.
It’s as though the building makes what we’re doing real, the idea of a collision causing me to suck in frantic breaths that stampede on big old anxiety horses around my body.
“Grace, I’m here,” Harry whispers, lowering the helicopter inch by controlled inch.
The helicopter rocks slightly as we land.
I look across at him, letting out a manic-sounding giggle.
He grins and sits back, waiting for the blades to stop goingchuk-chuk-chukabove us.
Then he hops out, walking confidently around to my side of the helicopter. He opens the door and offers me his hand. I want to keep my head, to stay calm, to stay in control.
But my heart is telling me I almost died, even if I know that’s not true.
My heart is telling me that Harry saved me.
I leap from the helicopter and land in a short crouch in front of him, falling against his rock-hard chest as he wraps his arms around me, pulling me close to him.
“It’s a damn shame I couldn’t kiss youinthe helicopter,” he whispers, smoothing his hand down from my hair to my back, holding me firmly. “So I guess the top of the world’ll have to do, hmm?”
I laugh, grabbing his hair in clawing bunches and standing on my tiptoes, finding his lips.
