Bryan shook his head and grabbed the radio headset. “Katie,” he barked. “Come down. Now.”
“That’s not proper radio protocol,” Holly pointed out.
As if he cared. “Please,” he added into the headset while Holly just laughed at him.
KATIE WAS HAVING the time of her life when Bryan’s command came over the radio. She leaned back from where she’d had her nose pressed to the window, practically giddy with the thrill, and looked at Steve.
“Was that…a command?” she asked, shocked. “Was he commanding me to come back down?”
“I don’t think a command includes the word please.”
“He demanded, Steve.”
“But he said please. I heard him.”
She’d heard something else, too-an inexplicable quaver in that deep, familiar voice, one that instincts told her was fear.
For her.
“Steve, would you say I did well for my first lesson?”
“Well…”
“Okay, forget about that little tower problem on the takeoff.”
“We nearly hit it. Twice,” Steve reminded her. “I wouldn’t call that a little problem.”
“Other than that, how did I do?”
Steve’s lips quirked. “I suppose I should forget about that little dipping problem, as well.”
“Hey, nothing wrong with a little roll.”
“On your first lesson?”
Katie couldn’t help it, she laughed. She felt so incredible, so excited, and she was flying. Flying. Up in the air, with the wind beneath her wings, and loving every second.
“Katie.” It was Bryan again. “Now.”
She borrowed the headset from Steve. “No,” she said succinctly.
“We need to talk,” Bryan said in his sternest voice.
She wasn’t sure she liked his tone. “I don’t think so.”
“Yes, we do. Now, as a matter of fact.”
Katie sighed. “Look, you said something you didn’t mean. You said sorry. I accepted. If I can get over it, so can you.”
Total radio silence.
Then he spoke again, his voice not nearly as calm, “Come down, now.”
“You know, Katie, I really like you,” Steve said. “But I really, really like living, so…”
“Bryan wouldn’t hurt you! Well, probably not,” she amended.
“Steve.” Bryan again. Voice carefully controlled. Very tense. “Get her down here or-”
Steve flicked off the radio, but shot Katie a reluctant grin. “It’s time, sweetcakes, let’s take it home.”
Yeah, it was time, she’d done what she’d wanted. She’d proved to herself that there was more to life than fear. That she could indeed put it all on the line and take a risk.
But now there was a man down below, waiting for her, and he was the biggest risk of all. One she wanted with all her heart and could never have.
“Let’s go,” she said, determined not to let anything ruin her happiness.
She waited until Steve landed. “Oh, I can park it!” she cried.
“No, I think-”
“Please? Let me have my crowning glory.” With careful concentration she followed Steve’s terse directions and pulled straight in, toward the hangar and its opened doors. The small figures standing there gradually came into focus. One by one she made out each of the mechanics. Then Matt. Even Holly. She saw Bryan, standing in the open hangar door, his pilot’s uniform gracing his tall, leanly muscled body. He looked right at her, and though not one of his muscles seemed to relax, she would have sworn his eyes filled with relief.
Cocky now, she waved to him.
“Katie!” Steve yelled. “Keep both hands on the-”
Too late.
On the slight incline, the plane veered to the right. Three mechanics dove out of her way. Matt stood there a moment longer, his mouth hanging open in disbelief, terror in his eyes, before Holly tackled him and pulled him down to safety.
“Katie!”
“Steve, stop hollering, you’re distracting me.”
“But-”
“Hush!”
He only groaned and ducked.
She whizzed by without killing anyone.
That was her last thought as the plane’s wing clipped the steel hangar side wall, buckling it like a cheap toy as the plane skidded to an abrupt halt ten feet short of her tie-down spot.
When the plane shuddered still, Katie opened her eyes and risked a peek at Steve.
He straightened, looked out the window and grimaced. “Hey, remember last week when you almost killed our vice president and you didn’t get fired?”
“Yeah?”
“Hope your luck is still holding.”
13
HEART IN HIS THROAT, Bryan hauled Katie out of the plane. Before her toes could even touch the ground he had her buried in his arms and he was never going to let her go.
Never.
It shocked him, scared the hell out of him, but he could no longer deny the truth.
He loved her.
Because his legs were weak, he pressed his back against the other side of the hangar, the good side, on the steel wall that wasn’t buckled like a tin can, and sank to the ground with her in his lap.
“You’re shaking,” he whispered.
“No, that’s you,” Katie whispered back, holding him tighter. “Bryan…”
“No.” Fear and anguish and panic all rolled together into temper that overcame him now that he was sitting. “What the hell was that, Katie? What got into you?”
“Well, I-”
“What were you doing up there taking a flying lesson, and from someone else?”
“It’s-”
“Dammit, how could you risk yourself that way, in a plane that isn’t mine, and then that-that approach, though I use the term loosely! What the hell was that?”
“My life is my own, Bryan.”
“Yes, but I want in.”
“You…want in. My life?”
“I meant it,” he whispered. “I meant what I said in the hangar. I didn’t realize it, God who would have thought, but Katie, it’s true. I love you. Enough to give up stunting, enough to know that I’ll never want another woman, enough to promise forever. But please, please don’t ever fly again.”
He shouldn’t have asked it of her, he had no right to ask anything of her when she hadn’t asked anything of him. Misery and regret washed over him. “Wait. That didn’t come out right.”
“You don’t want me to ever fly again,” she repeated slowly. “Interesting.”
“Katie-”
“Whoops,” she said, covering his mouth again when he would have spoken. “Still my turn.” Ignoring the commotion around them as everyone picked themselves up and took inventory of the damage, she looked deep into his eyes. “I thought I wanted safety. Security. Stability.”
“The three S’s,” Holly said with disgust, dusting herself off. “Boring.”
Katie ignored both her and the baleful glance Matt shot her as he wiped at his filthy trousers. She looked only at Bryan. “I wanted everything I never got from my father as a child.”
When he softened with remorse, when his hands slid over her arms in a caress, she shook her head sharply and kept her hands firmly on his mouth. “Please. Let me say this, I have to get it out. I thought I wanted safe love. The quiet, reserved kind that isn’t really love at all, but just a teaser for it.” She sighed and smiled into his eyes. “I was wrong, Bryan, that’s not what I want at all. I want true, heart-pounding, butterflies-in-the-stomach, real love.”
He pulled her fingers away from his mouth. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear that. But dammit, you risked your life today!”
“Exactly.” She grinned at him proudly. “So now I know I’m capable of taking a risk. I know I can do this.”
“Do…what exactly?” Damn, was he always going to be clueless around her?