“Yes, but-”
“If you already knew how you wanted these arranged, why didn’t you do it yourself?”
Char put her hands on her hips. “Because it’s the Southern way to simply boss you around.”
Al laughed. “Back off or else, woman.”
Back off or else…Mel blinked as once again an odd sense of déjà vu came over her. Another unfortunate choice of words?
Or something else.
“Fine, I’ll just back off,” Char said with a laugh, giving Al a smacking kiss on the cheek. She went for his other cheek as well but he turned so she kissed him right on the lips. He hugged her hard, then patted her ass.
Easy affection. No long, furtive looks, nothing to suggest their words were anything other than easy banter and Mel told herself to shake it off. “Hey, we’re having a staff meeting later, okay?”
“Oh?” Char smiled. “Raises?”
They all laughed, but Mel’s was hollow. She accepted a sandwich from Char, and though she’d been hungry, now it stuck in her throat.
So did her next bite when she caught sight of Bill Watkins coming in the front door, frown in place, eyes cold.
She’d written his check, it was on Dimi’s desk, but that didn’t mean she had to see him. She looked up into Char and Al’s knowing glances.
“Quick,” Char said, pulling Mel through the kitchen. “Out my back door.”
Al waggled his brow at Char and murmured in her ear, “I’ll take your back door, baby.”
Mel rolled her eyes but ducked beneath the counter and through the tiny kitchen toward the door that opened onto an alley behind the row of leased hangars. She blinked into the bright sunny day, running down the alley across the way and into the maintenance hangar, where she stopped to huff and puff for a moment. She really needed to exercise more.
“What are you doing?”
With a gasp, she whirled, and faced Ernest, who stood there with a scowl and a broom.
Great, now he was cleaning. “Nothing,” she said defensively.
“Ah, Jesus.” He took off his baseball cap and scratched his head. “You running from Bill again?”
“No, I-”
“Pathetic,” he grumbled, slamming his hat back on. “This never happened when Sally was here.”
“Really?” she answered a little hotly, but then again she was hot. “Because I remember lots of times having to wait for a paycheck, something you’ve never had to do with me in charge.”
He sighed. “I’m guessing you don’t want to be found.”
“No,” she admitted, expecting him to say “too bad” and call Bill in here, exposing her for the fun of it.
Instead he jerked his head behind him. “Go on.”
She blinked at him. “What?”
“You hard of hearing now? I said go.”
Didn’t need to tell her twice. She took off.
“And don’t run like a girl!” he called after her.
She kicked it into gear, heading back outside, straight for the next hangar, where they kept their overnight clients’ planes. With no one waiting on their plane, the hangar would be dark, cool, and blessedly empty except for boxes and boxes of old records they kept there, and probably lots of the spiders Ernest loved.
The door was locked. Fumbling with her key ring, she finally got the door open and slid inside, and then carefully locked herself in.
Then she turned to eye the space around her and crashed right into a hard, impenetrable chest.
Chapter 14
Mel opened her mouth to scream but a hand clamped over it. An arm held her immobile. And in that beat of time, she recognized the wall of lean, hard strength, and gritted her teeth.
Bo.
“Well, now, look at what I have here, all nice and breathless for already…”
She bit his palm, and with a hiss, he pulled his hand away from her mouth. But he didn’t let go of her. With both of the hangar’s big rolling doors closed and no lights on, she couldn’t see him clearly, couldn’t see anything but his tall, solid outline. In the still, musty air, she could smell oil and fuel, and something else. Something just as unfortunately pleasing.
Man. Her face was inches from his throat and she thought about biting him there as well but then he bent his head, putting their mouths a breath apart.
From deep inside her came a quiver, a little hopeful surge as her body said, Oh, please, let’s have him. “Let me go.”
“You sure say that a lot,” he noted.
“You have your hands on me a lot.”
“Know what I think? I think you like me. In fact, I know it. So let’s admit the rest. You want me. And as luck would have it, here I stand, ready and willing to let you take full advantage of my body.”
To go with that outrageous statement, he turned them both, pressing her back against the door, holding her there while his hands glided her up sides, grazing her ribs, the outside curves of her breasts, and just as she sputtered with his audacity, he slid his fingers in her hair, palming her head, holding her still as he lowered his mouth.
“Don’t,” she whispered, still panting, from her run-or so she told herself-grateful now for the dark because he couldn’t see her face, and the longing surely plastered all over it. She didn’t understand that about herself, how she could want him of all people. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Oh, I’m thinking,” he assured her in that honey of an Aussie voice, the voice that even now was coaxing her right out of her comfort zone.
“And more than thinking,” he warned her.
She shivered, then locked her knees. “Do anything, and you’ll be walking funny tomorrow.”
Cocky to the bone, he laughed, then pressed that long, rangy, tough body even closer. “You sound all whispery and needy. Why’s that, darlin’?”
“I was running!”
He gave a slight shake of his head and his nose grazed her jaw. “You want me. You want me bad.”
She went for a laugh but it sounded more like a moan. Damn it. She locked her weak knees. “You are so delusional.”
Now his lips actually skimmed her throat, and goose bumps rose over every inch of her body.
“Admit it,” he said.
“I have no idea how you fit inside any door with your big head.”
“You think that head is big…” He nudged his hips closer, rocking another part of him against her, right in the vee of her thighs.
Oh, God. Her knees wobbled again but she lifted her chin. “You are such a boy.”
“There is nothing boy about what I’ve got for you,” he assured her. “It’s all man.”
“And it’s all one-sided, you know.”
Another soft, knowing laugh. “Okay.” Another brush of his lips over her throat, then the spot where her neck met her shoulder. “You keep telling yourself that.” He stroked a hand up her ribs and cupped a breast. A thumb rasped over her nipple. A little sound escaped her lips before she could stop it, an unmistakable sound of desire that floated in the air between them.
Lifting his head, he met her gaze.
“I’m cold,” she lied.
“It’s ninety degrees in here, Mel.” His thumb continued to tease her nipple. His other hand glided down her back, cupped her butt, and then dipped between her legs.
Her shocked gasp reverberated in the charged air of the silent hangar.
Echoed.
His fingers pressed on just the right spot and she actually whimpered for more.
“Yeah, you’re just cold,” he rumbled softly in her ear. “Cold as ice. That’s why you’re melting into a little pool of longing at my touch.” Continuing to nibble along her collar bone, he murmured, “This is bound to happen, you know.”
Because she was afraid that was true, she got mad. “Back off.”
Still holding her with his hands…God, those hands…He smiled wickedly down at her. “I’m telling you, it’s a waste of time to fight it.” He stroked his fingers over the seam of her jeans, pressing in just…the…right…spot-