Incognito. Kate Hoffmann

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      LILY FUMBLED with her seat belt, the clip refusing to fasten properly. Her heart pounded in her chest and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. The bumps were so bad that she was bouncing in her seat. For a moment, she thought she might pass out, but then Aidan sat down beside her.

      They’d managed to get their clothes back on, though it was a struggle with the turbulence and the close quarters. Lily had sneaked out of the bathroom first and he’d followed her a minute later.

      Seeing her dilemma, he quickly fastened her seat belt then took care of his own. “Don’t worry,” he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “We’ll be fine.”

      “The plane feels like it’s falling,” Lily said. She peered out the window. “It’s raining. And there’s lightning. What if we get hit by lightning? I heard about a plane that got hit by lightning.”

      “What happened?”

      “I don’t remember. Maybe I’ve blocked it out. It must have been bad.” Her stomach churned and she felt as if she might throw up. Lily searched through the pocket of the seat in front of her for the airsick bag. When she found it, she clutched it to her chest. “I should have taken the train.”

      “But then you wouldn’t have met me.”

      “I hate this, I hate this, I hate this,” she said. “Last year, I was flying to Paris and we lost an engine.”

      “A plane can fly with just one engine.”

      “You don’t understand. It fell off the plane, into the ocean.” Lily stopped short. She’d been so careful not to reveal too much. But the fear of dying made her babble.

      She tried to calm herself, to think of other things—like what had just happened in the bathroom. Her skin prickled with goose bumps as she recalled the feel of him, hot and hard against her body, the thoughts making her even more light-headed.

      And then her reaction. She’d experienced release with men before, but never with so little prompting. If it hadn’t been for the turbulence, they might have continued with the seduction and she would have enjoyed those pleasures again.

      “You were on that flight? I heard about that. Man, that must have been scary.” Aidan pressed a kiss to her temple. “What are the odds of that happening again? Microscopically small, I’d say. In fact, you should be happy that happened. Now it’s over with. There’s no way it can happen to you again.”

      She glanced over at him. He really was a nice guy. It would have been much simpler to seduce a man who wasn’t so sweet, some guy with a macho attitude and an overinflated opinion of himself. At least he’d be easier to leave behind. But Aidan—he’d be hard to forget.

      “Maybe that book of yours would help,” he suggested. “Would you like me to read to you?”

      “Sure,” she murmured. She pointed to her bag tucked beneath his seat. The sound of his voice had already calmed her down. And if she could focus on that, then she wouldn’t be nearly as scared.

      “You must think I’m such a baby,” Lily said.

      “We all have our fears.”

      “What are you afraid of?”

      He grinned. “I’m not going to tell you. I’ve worked too hard to make you think I was a stud.”

      “Tell me,” Lily insisted.

      “Snakes,” he admitted. “And bats. And I’m not real fond of spiders or centipedes, either. In fact, anything that can kill you with its bite is something I try to avoid.”

      “A brown bat can catch and eat over six hundred mosquitoes in an hour,” she said. The moment the words left her mouth, she knew she’d made a mistake. “I—I did a report on bats when I was a kid. Funny how you remember things like that when you’re about to die.” Lily groaned inwardly. Maybe she ought to just give up. Playing the part of a seductress wasn’t that easy. Still, some men found intelligence a turn-on, didn’t they?

      Aidan reached down and opened her bag, then pulled out her stack of flying books. “Conquer Your Fear of Flying,” he read.

      “That one didn’t work,” Lily said.

      “Here’s the one with the big title.”

      “Pteromerhanophobia,” Lily said. “That’s the fear of flying.”

      “And what’s the fear of really big words?” he muttered.

      “Logophobia,” Lily said. “Actually, that’s just the fear of words in general. Not necessarily big words. Arithmophobia is the fear of numbers. Graphophobia is the fear of writing.” He stared at her for a long moment. Too much knowledge was never a good thing. “Sometimes these facts just fly out of my mouth,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t know why I remember them, but I do.”

      “How about this one? Have Fun Flying? Flying with No Fear?” He picked up another book. “How about—” Aidan went silent and Lily turned to look at him. He was holding the copy of—

      “The Ten-Minute Seduction,” he read. “This looks interesting.” He flipped through the pages.

      “It—it’s not what you think,” Lily said. Frowning, she reached out and took the book from him. “What do you think?”

      “That this wasn’t all just a spontaneous experience? That you got on this plane determined to seduce someone and СКАЧАТЬ