“So I could walk right on out of here thisminute, and you’d never wonder what it would’ve been like to have me at your mercy in a—an airplane?”
In an airplane.
Thousands and thousands of feet above ground.
Oxygen so thin a gnat couldn’t survive.
Temperatures so cold a polar bear would freeze.
If a plane busted up there, she’d turn into a popsicle in four-point-three seconds.
And then there would be the descent.
All her blood rushed to her toes.
She’d be falling.
Down, down,down. No net. No hope.
Her head went woozy.
Her bones turned to fluff.
She knew everything there was to know about forces, about statics and dynamics, fluids and pressure and airflow, but the safety and security of physics only went sofar when the contraptions were built and flown by man and still subjected to Mother Nature’s whims.
Lance’s brows knitted together. “Okay there, Dr. Boudreaux?”
“You bet your britches,” she gritted out. “So. When we going flying?”
Lordy Jezebel.
Flying.
Her feet off the ground. A plane off the ground. Soaring at unnatural speeds. The world shrinking. Until the plane stalled out and went into a tailspin, hurtling faster and faster, the wind ripping her hair out, slicing her skin off her bones?—
His boots thumped to the ground while black spots danced in her vision. Her head felt funny, like someone was churning butter out of her brains, and she suddenly realized she couldn’t feel her fingertips.
Did she even have fingertips?
A solid, warm hand settled on her neck and pushed. “Head between your knees,” he said. “Breathe.”
Breathing.
That was what she was missing.
Once she found it again, she’d kick his ass for seeing her like this.
She couldn’t feel her lips either, but she thought she parted them. She could hear something that sounded like a dog panting. Heat flushed her skin. A rush of sensations swirled where his hand touched her neck.
“C’mon, Kaci,” he said. “Slow down. Close your mouth. Breathe in slowly.”
She latched onto his voice, and her body instinctively reacted to his orders. Her lips sealed. Her nose quivered. Fresh oxygen channeled to her lungs while the churning in her head slowed.
“There you go,” he murmured. His thumb brushed her hairline, and she gasped out amouthful of air.
She was sweating like a hog in August and her limbs were heavy as lead pipes, but the tingling in her fingers and toes receded. She squeezed her eyelids tight for three more long breaths.
It was time to go. Time to stand up, tuck her pride away, slink out, and never come back here again.
