Hot Under Pressure. Kathleen O'Reilly

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СКАЧАТЬ Couldn’t they have done it earlier, when he was playing pin-the-sippy-cup on Ashley’s butt? No.

      Pointedly, Ashley stared out the window because she wasn’t normally a rude person, but air travel brought out one hundred and one demons in her, none of them Emily Post-like. Valerie said that the buying trips were good for her. That the only way to conquer a fear was to tackle it head-on. Valerie could be a total pain, and one day Ashley was going to stop listening to her sister’s advice. But not today. Today she needed the ritual.

      A hard thigh brushed against hers, and she jumped.

      “Sorry.” The voice was deep, husky and appropriately apologetic. Okay, there was another reasonable, sane human being on this flight. Ashley turned and the polite smile froze.

       Hello, hot man.

      His trousers were an off-the-shelf-khaki, his shirt, a nicely mussed crisp white, which, on most men would scream copier repairman, but here…it was like newsprint veiling a diamond. Yes, sometimes clothes made the man, but sometimes, the man made the clothes.

      After logging thousands of air miles, she’d traveled next to perfumed matrons decked in crystal-encrusted fleece, overly large seat huggers, squeegee businessmen who thought she looked lonely and, yes, a veritable cornucopia of families from hell, but never, never, had she actually sat next to a man with a nice smile, wonderfully wicked hazel eyes and a lovely, lovely body that begged to be unwrapped.

      Ashley swallowed.

      “Not a problem,” she said, and then promptly looked away.

       Come on, Ashley. Flirt a little. Pep up your game. Give him the goofy smile. Guys like that.

      It was Valerie’s voice. The first time in three years that Ashley had felt heat between her legs and she was listening to an imaginary lecture from her younger sister. Not anymore, no way, no how.

      “I didn’t think I was going to make it,” said hot man, continuing to converse with her.

      Ashley was torn between wanting to converse with hot man and sinking farther down into her seat and hiding her bunny slippers, but alas, it was impossible in the sardine-like conditions. “And you made it,” she said, giving him the goofy smile until she realized what she was doing and promptly stopped.

      “After running the four-forty through Terminal two. The next flight to L.A. isn’t until tomorrow at six, and I just want to get this over with. You ever feel like that?”

      “Always.”

      He smiled, then immediately frowned, the wicked hazel eyes glancing politely to the aisle.

      Married. Must be. Or attached.

      Subtly—unconsciously—Ashley’s eyes drifted, which she hated, to his left hand. She wasn’t on the make, she wasn’t interested, she didn’t need a man. She wasn’t even thinking about being on the make, no matter how much Valerie nagged her. But that didn’t explain the little heart-thud when she noticed there was no ring.

       You’re a wimp, Ashley.

      As she contemplated her own human needfulness, the stewardess pulled out the life vest to demonstrate the life-saving effects of the floatation device. Ashley imagined the floatation device bobbling alone in the ocean, her hands aching with cold from the water of the Great Lakes, her face dimming to a pale blue, her lungs weakening ever so slightly. Her hand locked onto the armrest because she knew that Lake Michigan had an ambient temperature of fifty-nine degrees Fahrenheit in April, which didn’t sound too bad, but she’d seen that damn Titanic movie. She didn’t want to live it.

      “First flight?” asked hot man, the nice smile returning, which did have the unexpected effect of calming her fears…somewhat.

      “No, sadly, I became a platinum passenger last year. I’m merely a coward at heart.”

      “I’m sorry,” he said, the hazel eyes flickering more toward green—a warm, earthy green that did more to distract her than a muscle relaxant ever could, and reminded her that she hadn’t had sex in a long time.

      “Don’t be. It’s a family trait. Yellow-bellied, lily-livered Larsens, that’s us.”

      He smiled again, and she felt the tell-tale heart-thud again. She unlocked her gaze from the captivating green of his eyes, and drifted to where Junior was most likely planning his latest nihilistic techniques.

       Ask his name.

       No.

       It’s only a name, a polite introduction. Not an invitation to the mile-high club.

       I don’t care. Shut up, Valerie.

       I’m not even here.

       I know. I swear when I get back on land, I’m going to see a therapist. It’s the only answer.

       Don’t be a wimp, Ashley.

       I’m very self-aware. I’m a wimp.

       Why do I even try?

       Because you’re sadistic, and you revel in my pain. It makes you feel superior.

       I’m not even here.

      “Don’t talk to me,” muttered Ashley, wondering if hearing her sister’s nagging meant that she was a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The wind was certainly blowing in that direction.

      “I’m sorry?” asked hot-guy.

      “Oh, not you. I hear voices.”

      His brows rose—charmingly, of course. He really had a great smile. It wasn’t a full-bodied smile, just a quick rise on the right side of his mouth where his mouth smashed headlong into a tiny dimple. “Part of the phobia?”

      “No, my psychotic sister. Do you have a psychotic sister?” she asked, firmly believing that everyone should have a psychotic sister.

      “No.”

      “You are so lucky. I always thought a brother would be cool. As long as he doesn’t nag.”

      “Your sister nags?”

      Ashley nodded. “Like a mother.”

      “I’m sorry,” he said, apologizing again, and she noted how rare it was to hear a man apologize. Jacob had never apologized. Not once.

      Right at that precise moment, Junior stabbed hot man in the hand with a particularly lethal twisty straw, and he yelped, his hand diving toward the armrest, trapping hers in a death grip of pain.

      Ashley yelped, too, Junior laughed hysterically and Mom politely looked in the opposite direction, as if all were right with her world. Muscle relaxants could do that to a person.

      Hot man’s hand lifted from hers, and Ashley’s normal blood flow resumed. He looked at her, the hazel eyes no longer СКАЧАТЬ