Not easy when that dark, silky hair of his called to her fingers, and then there was that lean, angular face she wanted to touch, or that tough, muscular body she wanted to lick from top to bottom.
Damn it, she’d told herself she was over her little schoolgirl crush, over whatever it was about him that melted her brain cells, not to mention her bones, leaving her a ridiculously vulnerable puddle of longing every time he so much as looked at her.
She was tougher than this.
But not with him.
That thought came out of nowhere, and she beat it back, along with the knowledge that he, unlike any other man she’d ever met, had somehow sneaked past her defenses, past her carefully erected brick walls, and saw the woman beneath.
He stopped walking. Stopped and tilted his dark head up to the second story window, and then seemed to look right into her eyes.
Oh, God.
Unprepared for the reaction that barreled through her, she actually sat there, still, rooted to the spot for one long heartbeat.
“Who is that?”
Maddie jumped as her sister came into the room. Tiptoed, as if someone was still on her trail, in the jerky, self-conscious movement of someone used to being pushed around.
Goddamnit. “No one, Leena. It’s okay.”
Leena leaned over Maddie’s shoulder, gnawing her lower lip between her teeth as she took in the man on the walk below. “My God,” she murmured and shivered.
Yes, Maddie thought. My God. Brody induced that reaction from her, too.
“That’s not no one.”
True enough. She took another quick peek and felt a shiver herself, not of fear of that impressive size and height, but because she knew what that impressive size and height felt like full frontal and plastered up against her. “It’s okay. He’s my boss.”
Leena let out a low breath as she stared at Brody. “You work for him?”
“And two others. Three pilots.”
“You work for three men like that?”
No use telling her that not all men were manipulative jerks who ruled with their superior size or fist. That was something she’d have to learn on her own.
After all, Maddie had.
“You can’t let him in,” Leena said, a growing panic in her voice, a panic Maddie felt as her own.
Because Leena was right. She couldn’t let him in. Couldn’t because there was far too much at stake here.
No matter that she and Brody had unresolved issues, mostly hers. There were other more pressing issues, issues that had nothing to do with him.
Serious issues.
Like those life and death issues…
If she let him in, he’d take one look at her and know something was wrong because brooding and edgy as he might be, he had the intuition and instincts of a panther-sharp and unwavering.
In Brody’s world, things were black and white. Right and wrong. When something was broken, he fixed it. If someone needed him, he moved heaven and earth to do whatever needed to be done, and he would do so for a perfect stranger.
Maddie was no stranger, perfect or otherwise.
Yeah, he’d want to help.
Only he couldn’t.
No one could.
Staring down at Brody, her pulse raced with a horrible mixture of yearning and wariness. Him showing up was the worst thing that could have happened, for the both of them.
Not that he could know that or the fact that she was in over her head in a way she hadn’t been since he’d hired her and unknowingly given her a much needed security that she valued above all else.
But apparently unable to read her mind, he headed straight for the front door, his long-limbed stride filled with a casual ease that said even if he’d known about any potential danger, it wouldn’t have stopped him.
God, she loved that about him.
Beside her, Leena made a sound of distress and wrung her hands together.
Maddie’s reaction wasn’t much different. Her heart took another hard knock against her ribs. She had no idea what it was about Brody’s attitude that went straight to her gut-and several other good spots as well-but with that scowl on his face, he looked every inch the wild, bad boy rebel pilot that she knew him to be.
And from deep within her came a new emotion, one she hadn’t thought still existed inside her.
Hope.
It made absolutely no sense, no sense at all, and she quickly squashed it flat because that particular emotion, or anything close to it, had no place here, and she’d do well to remember it.
That was the hard part. Remembering it.
“Maddie,” Leena whispered.
“I know.”
For all of their sakes, she had to get rid of him.
Fast.
Chapter 2
Brody knocked on the door of the cabin as if he was Avon calling, but in truth, he felt much more like the big, bad wolf standing outside Maddie’s house of straw.
Or at least a big oaf.
He had no idea why, but around her, he felt clumsy and off kilter. Oh, wait. He knew exactly why. She was smart and amazing and hot and funny and hot, and so far out of his league he couldn’t even see the league.
He knocked again, glancing at Maddie’s Jeep in the driveway and the car next to it, wondering if she was alone, wondering why she was here, in the mountains, miles from the nearest high-end clothing store. Maddie was a sophisticated, elegant, big city lover who considered anything less than a four-star hotel roughing it.
She wasn’t exactly roughing it, not in this big, beautiful rustic cabin, built with a rather staggering view of majestic mountains and valleys as far as the eye could see. The front yard was a homage to The Ponderosa era, with a wagon wheel on either side of the walkway and railroad ties lining the path, all of it rather beautiful really, in a very Wild West sort of way.
But this was definitely a distant world for Maddie. So what the hell was she doing out here, far from the work she loved, apparently unconcerned about earning money?
The thought was alien to him.
Give him the stability of work, and the money earned for that work, and he was good. Not worrying about the roof over his head or his next meal was pretty much all he required from life.
And flying.
Flying was a close second to eating. Flying made him whole, flying made him happy. Flying was everything.
Maddie was an enigma because she didn’t seem to need any one thing, or anyone, for that matter. Maybe that’s what made her so good at her job. She was a freak of nature who could work a keyboard, a cell phone, and a scheduling board and run Sky High Air at the same time, all without seeming to care what anyone thought.
She was his employee. His responsibility, and she drove him batshit crazy. He’d told himself it was her persona. She looked like a punk rocker superhero. Her hair could be spiky platinum one day, straight jet black with magenta streaks the next. She had several visible body piercings, and wondering about the ones not visible had kept him up on more than one long night. She wore leather and silk with equal élan, and her exotic footwear alone had given him more fantasies than he cared to admit.
He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted a woman. Hell, more than he’d ever wanted a plane, and that was saying something.
She walked as if she’d been born the Queen of the Free World, which only further confused him because usually, he was drawn to sweet and easy. And, okay, maybe just a little bit naughty.
There was nothing sweet or easy about Maddie, and he doubted that she was only a little bit naughty. Everything about her, from her baby blues to the tip of her manicured toes, everything screamed look-but-don’t-touch, and in her presence, he was always swamped with conflicting emotions-the urge to rumple her up and the need to put his hands in his pockets to keep them off her.
Yeah. She really got to him. It was the equal mix of quick wit and trouble in her eyes. It was the sharp humor she revealed in her smile, which was so damn contagious he often found himself smiling back with or without being in on the joke. It was how she cared so deeply about the people around her, people like Noah and Shayne, and also him.