She scrambled to her feet, but had to grip the dang chair behind her for balance. “Getting sloppier, Captain. If that’s how you fly a plane, I changed my mind. Hope you wear a parachute.”
And before she could do something stupid—more stupid than coming here in the first place—she darted past the kid and outthe door.
Maybe Lance was capable of helping her get over her fear of flying, but he wasn’t capable of helping her get over her fear of him.
Lance hadeight hundred million reasons why continuing his fascination with Kaci Boudreaux was a bad idea. It was a wide-ranging list, starting withshe’s two figs short of a fruitcakeand ending withshe’ll make your life hell.
Right in the middle of that list was the fact that she was a walking disaster.
But Wednesday morning, instead of hanging with Pony or the guys before their scheduled night flights, he hopped in his truck and drove over to James Robert College.
But unlike Kaci, when Lance wentsomewhere, he went with a plan.
Which was how he’d managed to get himself sitting in her office, feet propped on her desk, with a dozen red roses in hand when she unlocked the door and stepped inside.
“Holy sweet jumping jacks!” she screeched. “Who let you in here?”
He held out the flowers. “Gentlemen don’t kiss and tell. Hope you like red. Blood-colored struck me as something you’d go for.”
She was in jeans and a pink T-shirt with the speed of light equation stretched across her breasts. Her hair was tied back in some kind of knot. And she had a wild look in her blue eyes like she wanted to strap him to a catapult and see how far she could fling him.
He wanted to muss her hair, kiss her until neither of them could breathe, and learn every curve of that body.
Not because her body oozed sex appealand her craziness promised an unforgettable time between the sheets, but because she was a walking contradiction. Spunky. Smart. Headstrong. Impulsive.
Still a mystery, but less so by the day.
She talked tough, but she hadn’t ratted them out to the base commander. She was afraid to fly. She loved her students.
He wanted to know what other secrets she had.
She eyed the flowers but didn’t take them. “This college is private property.”
“I’m going.” He swung his feet off her desk and set the bouquet on her keyboard. “My offer’s in the card.” He crossed around toward the door, taking grim satisfaction in the way her eyes darted over his body and lingered on his lips before her expression settled into a scowl.
“Pretty sure you’ll like it,” he murmured.
“If that there’s got an offer of a striptease init, I’m gonna aim my catapult at your house next time I get a wild hair.”
“I’ll warn the neighbors.”
Did she realize she’d stomped her foot along with dialing up her glower? “Shouldn’t you be at work?” she said.
“I’m flying tonight.”
Her cheeks went the shade of her shirt.
He grinned. “Probably see me if you look out your window just after nine. I’ll wave.”
“I won’t be watching.”
“I’ll wave anyway.”
“You go on and do whatever you think you need to do. But you can do it outside of my office.”
He sauntered two more steps to the door and caught sight of a familiar figure lingering in the hallway. “Sitting okay today?” he asked her.
“Doing better’n you will be if you don’t get your rear end on out of here.”
