Smart and Sexy

  In any case, she was done here for tonight. The doors were all locked, Shayne had taken a last minute client to Santa Barbara, and Brody…well, Brody was holed up in his office as usual, working himself into an early grave.

  She walked by his office door, shut of course, then nearly jumped out of her skin when he whipped the door open.

  Just over six feet of sexy-as-hell male stood there with a frown on his face, his dark hair in wild waves from frustrated fingers, his even darker eyes filled with secrets she’d never managed to plumb. Around his neck were his earphones, from which Linkin Park blasted out at decibel levels uncharted.

  How the man hadn’t gone deaf was beyond her, but that wasn’t what she wondered when her gaze ran up his body, which was built like the tough, leanly muscled athlete he was. Nope, what she wondered was why, if she was so damn attracted to him that her brain cells melted into a little pool of longing every time she looked at him, did they drive each other so crazy?

  Brody clearly wasn’t wondering any such thing. He had only one question, spoken tersely. “Has he called?”

  She knew he was worried about Noah, and she knew why. They’d all spent a considerable amount of time in the past six months worrying about Noah, the third Musketeer, the sexy Indiana Jones who had always been the most grounded of the three, the one most likely to hold them all together.

  But then had come the crash, and the death of a dear friend and client, and he hadn’t been the same ever since. She knew Noah blamed himself, just as she and everyone else knew how ridiculous that was. No one could have avoided that crash, and no one could have kept Sheila alive. “No, he hasn’t called. You said you talked to him after the landing and that he was fine.”

  “No, I said I talked to him and he was alive,” Brody corrected. “Fine? I don’t think so.”

  She didn’t question him. No one knew Noah as well as he and Shayne did. If he thought Noah had been more off today than usual, she believed him.

  And truthfully? She was worried, too. “I can get him on the phone for you if you’d like.”

  Hunching his broad-as-a-mountain shoulders, he shoved his hands into his pockets. At some point he’d changed from his pilot’s uniform back into a pair of beloved old Levi’s, washed to the point of buttery softness, and faded white in the stress points, of which there were tantalizingly many. “He said I was acting like a woman.”

  Maddie laughed.

  Brody’s frown deepened.

  “Sorry,” she said, anything but.

  “If you’re sorry, then why are you grinning from ear to ear?”

  Uh, because you, a walking, talking attitude, are the farthest thing from a woman I’ve ever seen. “You should see your face.”

  Standing there with his attitude blaring as loud as Linkin Park, with that scowl on his face, looking every bit the wild, rebel pilot that he was, he positively gave her shivers.

  Damn, but she had a thing for all boys bad, the badder the better. Yes, but you gave all that up, remember?

  And then she saw it, in Brody’s stormy gray eyes. He knew something and was holding back. “What is it?” she asked.

  “He’s got Bailey Sinclair with him.”

  “What?”

  “She didn’t just vanish on me. She vanished into Noah’s Piper. I think she hid out, or Noah would have said something before takeoff.”

  “You’re saying he took off without knowing she was on board?”

  “Yeah. And when I called, he evaded.”

  Maddie stared at him. They all knew about Noah’s not-so-secret crush. “Why would she stow away?”

  “I can think of several reasons, none good.”

  Oh, boy.

  “Call him,” he said, and turned to go back into his office. “Work your magic.”

  He thought she had magic? Well now, that was interesting. She thought he was magnificent. “What should I say?” she called out. “That his momma is worried?”

  She thought she heard him growl as he shut his office door, which made her smile. If she couldn’t have him drooling over her the way she secretly drooled all over him, she did enjoy irritating him. She pulled out her cell and called Noah, thinking he’d take one look at the ID and not pick up, but he surprised her.

  “Yo,” he said softly. “Everything okay?”

  “That’s my question to you,” she said.

  He didn’t respond to that.

  “Noah? Whatever’s going on, you’re not up for it. Get your ass back here.”

  He let out a quiet laugh. “What happened to talking to me with kid gloves?”

  “I’m not Shayne or Brody,” she said. “Put simply, I don’t have a penis and therefore can actually say what I mean. You are not fit to be doing this.”

  “And what am I doing?”

  “I wish to God I knew.”

  More silence.

  “Noah.”

  “Gotta go, Maddie. See you Monday.”

  “Noah.”

  Nothing.

  “Don’t you hang up on me—”

  But it was too late. She looked up and found Brody standing in his open doorway. “You’re right,” she agreed. “Something’s off.”

  He didn’t move so much as a muscle, but she could see the tension increase in his big, tough body. They just stared at each other, and for that one moment at least, they were united in their concern for Noah.

  They hadn’t lost their tail; the SUV’s lights were always back there.

  After them.

  Bailey gripped the Jeep’s dash as Noah drove the mountain passes like a man who knew what he was doing.

  But he didn’t. He couldn’t.

  Because she hadn’t told him what they were up against. Oh, God, if something happened to him, she’d never forgive herself.

  But then again, if something happened to him, she was going to be dead, too.

  How did they find her so soon?

  How was she going to lose them?

  The road narrowed, a sheer cliff on their left, a heart-stopping drop-off on their right. She closed her eyes. “Noah. I can’t let you do this.”

  “A little late now, Princess.” His long legs worked the clutch and accelerator as he handled the Jeep with easy precision. “You picked my plane, remember?”

  “Yes. And God. I’m sorry. I’m sorrier than I can tell you, but it’s not too late to get as far away from me as you can.”

  He slid her an assessing glance. “I can take care of myself.”

  Bailey didn’t doubt that, but he had no idea what she—they were up against. She eyed the dark evening sky, the mountains that were nothing more than inky shadows looming tall and large. “Can you go faster?”

  He had one hand on the wheel, the other on the stick shift, his long legs working the clutch and acceleration with a confidence she’d never mastered. “Sure,” he said. “If I want to careen off the road and down that cliff, plunging us to our certain deaths.”

  Good point. They’d been swallowed up by the darkness now, complete except for the two headlights spilling from the Jeep, highlighting the curvy two-lane road and the sharp fall off to their right. Couldn’t forget the drop-off. She tried to keep breathing.

  Noah downshifted and took a turn just hard enough to have her bumping up against the door. An oncoming vehicle briefly lit up the inside of the Jeep, slashing across Noah’s face, probably lighting up her face as well.

  His eyes met hers for one beat, his brow furrowed, mouth tight and grim. “What do they want?” he asked.

  “It’s complicated.”

  He swore beneath his breath. Shook his head. “Okay, let’s set aside this pointless argument for another. Who are they?”

  “I’m not exactly sure.”

  He used sheer strength to handle the car around a tight hairpin turn that nearly had them on two wheels. “How did they find us?”

  “I’m not—”

  “Exactly sure?” He shot her a scathing look across the console that might have withered her, exce
pt that she was still shaking and so beyond exhausted and terrified, she had nothing left.

  “Where are we going?” he asked tightly. “And don’t say you’re not sure, because—”

  “In two more miles, you’re going to turn left.”

  “There’s nothing left except an unfinished resort.”

  “That’s the one. It’s one of Sinclair’s Fun and Sun resorts. Alan’s.”

  “And that’s where you have to get your ‘something’?”

  It’s where she hoped to get her “something.” Something green. As in US dollars that she could then hand over to the men presumably following her.

  And then, hopefully, as in please God, she could live the rest of her life in peace, maybe even find some semblance of normality.

  Damn it, Alan, I can’t believe you did this to me…. She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to the cool glass window at her side. She should have believed it. Hell, she should have expected it. Her entire life she’d been manipulated by the men in her life, first her father, then Alan. Charming, elegant men, the both of them, but beneath their veneer had been an edgy danger she’d never guessed at.

  How had she not?

  But oblivious, she’d gone in search of the easy love she hadn’t found with her father, and had mistakenly believed Alan would offer it. In reality, she’d just exchanged one charming, wealthy, smooth-tongued man for another, like a meek little puppy searching for that elusive acceptance.

  Alan had treated her well enough, if not a little distantly, until the day he’d gotten himself killed.

  Now she was left to face the music. But even bankruptcy and social humiliation didn’t touch the fact that the very people that had once kissed Alan’s ass now expected her to lead them to the money she’d never even seen. It was beyond a nightmare at this point because she couldn’t wake up.

  The road opened up, and instead of a cliff on their left now, they were passing a vast, unending forest. Dark. Scary. On the next sharp turn, the Jeep slid on a patch of ice. She gasped, but Noah had the wheel in a firm grip and muscled the vehicle, keeping them on the road.

  She let out a low breath. “Close.”

  “What’s closer are the guys on our ass.”

  Whipping around, she saw the headlights behind them and chewed on her lower lip.

  “Who knows you’re here?”

  “Only apparently everyone at Sky High Air.”

  “No one there told a soul. Who else, Bailey?”

  “No one!”

  “Kenny.”

  “Kenny is my brother. He’s on my side.”

  He said nothing to that.

  “Turn left,” she reminded him when she saw the large hanging sign up ahead: Sinclair’s Fun and Sun.

  “With them right behind us? No way.” He went straight past the turnoff, speeding up until her blood pounded in all her pulse points.

  “Oh, my God,” she whispered, forcing her eyes open so she could see it when they plunged off the road.

  “Yeah, we’re not going to be so lucky as to get divine intervention tonight,” he said tersely, watching the rearview mirror instead of the road, which was giving her more than a few bad moments.

  “Noah—”

  “The cops would be pretty welcome about now—”

  “What are we going to tell them, that someone’s tailgating us?”

  “I don’t think that’s all they have in mind—Shit. Hold on.” In one sudden movement, he flicked off the headlights, whipped a U-turn at speeds that rolled the eyes in the back of her head, and yanked the Jeep to the side of the road and into the woods.

  Bailey thought maybe she screamed, but couldn’t be sure that wasn’t just her brain imploding. She had no idea how Noah could even see—she sure as hell couldn’t—but she could hear branches of trees slapping and scraping the sides of the Jeep as they drove into the woods.

  Then he hit the brakes and jerked up on the emergency brake at the same time, sending them into a careening, spinning stop. Bailey’s seat belt tightened painfully over her ribs, but before her momentum could take her forward enough to kiss the windshield, Noah thrust out an arm to hold her back.

  Her breasts pressed into his biceps, his hand flattened on her belly, and it seemed in slow motion that she settled back into her seat and turned her head to look at him.

  Unbelievably, her belly quivered. Her nipples hardened. She didn’t understand the reaction—or hell, maybe she did. She’d gone a long time without sex, maybe too long, and now her body was going to take whatever it could for pleasure.

  In the dark, he slid his big palms up her torso, pulling the seat belt loose. She thought for a second maybe he’d been taken over by aliens.

  Or maybe that was her, because suddenly she was leaning into him, her gaze glued to his lips, the lips she wanted back on hers.

  Crazy.

  They were in the Sierras, on the run from some big badasses who wanted her dead.

  And she wanted another kiss.

  His head was bent. He was trying to see her, and meanwhile his fingers—

  She actually closed her eyes to better absorb the sensation, which if she could think, would mortify her. It’d been too long, much too long, since she’d been touched in any pleasant way.

  And the truth was, she wanted his arms around her, wanted his mouth back on hers, and wanted him to never let go while he was at it.

  Insane.

  He lifted his head and in the dark met her gaze. “You okay?”

  “Yes.”

  He was quiet a moment. “How do I believe anything you say?”

  Not knowing how to respond to that, to the absolute truth, she just swallowed and looked at him.

  He shifted closer, a small movement that upped her pulse rate. “A beautiful liar,” he murmured, a mere breath away and getting closer with each passing heartbeat, which, granted, came fast enough to warrant a heart attack warning.

  He was looking at her mouth, his eyes sleepy and sexy enough to have her closing the gap herself, just shifting a little bit closer—

  “But still a liar,” he whispered, and then in direct opposition to those words, he kissed her.

  Chapter 7

  Noah’s mouth was warm, deliciously warm, against Bailey’s frozen one. All of her was frozen, and as she pressed close to him, she wished that they could stay like this forever.

  And for one glorious moment, he did stay, kissing her long and wet and deep, oh God, so deep. She could feel his arms around her, and nothing, nothing had ever felt so right. She slid her hand across his nape, through his silky hair, holding his head because she didn’t want this to end.

  Obviously her brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. But then Noah changed the angle of the kiss, and a sound of pure pleasure