She cocked a brow at him. Her blond hair shimmered in the sunlight, and those perfect tits sat up straighter. “More? Or bigger?”
“Define more and bigger.”
“I’ve never fired a cannon.”
“Cannon authorizations are above my pay grade.”
“Humph.” She swung her hips back into motion and turned around as though she were headed back to the physics building.
Where she could make a phone call that would landallof them in a hell of a lot of trouble.
Car theft almost certainly carried a higher penalty than boar theft.
And he hadn’t been able to convince Pony—or anyone else—that they’d be giving her the upper hand if they took her wheels.
He wanted the hell out of Georgia. Criminal charges would not only keep him here longer, he’d miss his deployment.
“Ever ride in a Cessna?” he heard himself ask.
She visibly shuddered but snapped her spine straight and tossed a coy smile over her shoulder. “Sugar, unless you’re getting me in the backseat of an F-15, I don’t have much use for talking about airplanes.”
“Give me two days.”
The blood drained from her face as though someone were sucking it out of her toes—forehead to chin, then her neck went pale as milk too. Her voice was still strong and sassy though. “Heard that one before.”
“My sister flies fifteens. She has a hookup for incentive rides.”
Kaci swayed. “Sure you got a sister. You kiss her before you go to bed every night?”
Her tone didn’t match the sass in her words.
And even Lance’s ego wasn’t big enough to convince himself that Kaci was bothered because he’d mentioned another woman.
No, she was—holy shit. “You’re afraid tofly.”
She sniffed. “You been sitting out here all afternoon? The sunshine’s gone to your brain.” But her knuckles were white while she held herself straight as a lightning rod.
He scooted to the edge of his own tailgate. “You know airflow. Lift. Drag. All that science shit. Statistically, you’re safer in an airplane than?—”
“I said I ain’t afraid to fly,” she snapped.
“But you’re lying.”
“No wonder even your own sister won’t kiss you if this is how you do your negotiating.”
“You ever been in an airplane?”
She had to have flown somewhere in her life.
Hadn’t she?
“This conversation is over. I want my car in its place at my apartment within an hour, or I’m calling the police.”
She marched away, and this time, he didn’t try to stop her.
As far as negotiations went, that had been an epic fail.
But as far as gathering useful intel went, he’d hit the gold mine. Dr. Kaci Boudreaux was afraid to fly. Hadn’t seen that coming.
