CHAPTER 3 #3
Jannie knew Adam was always in need of pilots. “Are you happy there?”
“Yeah. They keep me on my toes, but I still get plenty of time off. They’re closing on a Challenger next week, and they’re sending me to Simcom to get typed on that one, just to keep me humble.”
Jannie couldn’t help it: she laughed. Nothing, but nothing, seemed humble about this version of Nick Kent.
His rakish grin was a captivating answer to her laugh. “What about you?”
“I practice near Orlando.”
“Orlando? That’s quite the distance from Fargo.”
“I went to UF and never wanted to leave Florida.”
Or Blake. He’d quit his job at LarsAir, her brother’s airline, to fly for JetBlue, just to be near her. And he’d pursued her until he’d gotten what he wanted.
“I see.” Nick scrutinized her face, looking puzzled.
“What’s that look for?” she asked.
“What look?”
“You look … perplexed.”
He refilled both their glasses. “Do I?”
She nodded. “Tell me why.”
“Well …” He took a sip of water. “You were fifteen in our senior class. I would have thought someone as smart as you would go into academics. Or research.”
“Ah.” She sat back. “Those weren’t for me.
I wanted to deliver babies and work with patients.
I wanted the challenges, the variety, all of it.
When you do what I do, you never know what’s going to come through that door.
I can’t imagine being stuck in a classroom or a lab.
Kind of like you wanting to go up in the sky instead of studying it through a telescope. ”
He nodded. “Put that way, it makes sense. I’m glad you’re doing what you love. Being fulfilled at work is important.”
Her stomach clenched. Oh, if he only knew. She had a lot to say, but she wasn’t about to sit here and unload her problems on him.
For a few moments, they fell silent, but it was a comfortable silence. A smile played about his lips as he sipped his coffee.
“How’s your mom?” she asked.
His smile instantly faded.
Oh no.
“I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s OK.” A muscle in his jaw flexed. “She passed away.”
“Oh.” She watched his eyes fill with pain and wanted to kick herself. “I’m so sorry.”
She knew he’d been very close to his mother, a sweet woman from Alabama, whose Southern accent Nick had picked up. Though his was barely noticeable, they’d teased him at school for the way he tended to drop his “ing”s. That, and the way he sometimes talked too fast when he got nervous.
“Thank you.” Nick didn’t elaborate. Apparently, the subject was off limits.
A few moments went by with his gaze fixed across the lobby. Jannie sipped her water, searching for something else to say to fill the silence.
“Are you staying long?” she finally asked.
“Only through Sunday. I have some people I’m meeting up with this afternoon.”
Something stirred in her stomach as she remembered Blake’s activities.
“Buddies of mine,” he said. “We don’t have a chance to get together often; it just so happens it worked out this time.”
“Pilots?” she asked.
The smile was back. And, oh, what a smile it was, making her insides do strange, warm, fluttery things.
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
Nick smirked. “They’re businessmen. We met in school. They’re rich enough to afford a jet and dangerous as hell when they fly it.”
“Ah, yes.” Jannie laughed softly. “My brothers love those types.”
“Don’t we all.”
“If only all of them had someone like you to keep them out of trouble.”
Yes, she was flirting and didn’t care.
The shadow that had briefly occupied his face was gone now, replaced by an expression she didn’t dare name. She could feel the weight of his stare as surely as if he were physically pinning her with those hands.
“There’s something to be said for skill and experience,” he said.
Oh yes, there is.
Something passed over her breasts, like a caress of sliding silk.
What would it be like to experience Nick Kent?
He nodded. “All that power can be dangerous in the wrong hands.”
Unbidden, her gaze flicked to his hands.
Jannie mentally shook her head. She couldn’t reconcile this man with the teenager she’d known. What had caused this shift, this complete change in attitude and demeanor? Her friend Sarah’s therapist would have plenty to analyze, she bet.
This was a new version of Nicholas Sebastian Kent, and she liked him.
His watch pinged. He glanced at it, and she thought she saw him mutter a curse with a nearly imperceptible shake of his head.
Jannie looked at him questioningly.
His lips curved into an uneasy little smile. He finished his coffee and moved to stand but paused.
His eyes were dark and fathomless as they stared her down. “Are you staying here?”
His tone and expression made it impossible to misunderstand his intent. Apparently, her belly was of no concern to him. Maybe Nick had a pregnancy fetish? She’d heard of men who got off on that.
An image of him, naked, pumping away on top of someone, flashed through her mind, and she was mortified to realize that the someone she pictured was herself.
She wanted to go up to Nick’s room, strip that hot bod of his, fuck his brains out, and maybe in the process, drive Blake out of hers, once and for all.
God … she was tingling and throbbing and felt like a fallen woman for being so turned on by someone else so soon.
But Blake was probably balls-deep in an escort by now. Maybe more than one.
So, she pushed the guilt aside and focused on Nick’s muscular chest.
“Jannie?”
She blinked. “Hmm?”
“I asked you if you are staying at this hotel.” His eyes bore into hers.
“Yes,” she found herself saying.
“That makes it easier,” he said, flashing that perfect, white-toothed grin.
“Makes what easier?”
“Easier to meet up again.”
“Um …” For a long moment, she stood there, caught in the force of his penetrating gaze. “I’m going to … head on upstairs now.”
Disappointment flickered in his eyes, but just as quickly, it was gone. “OK.”
Jannie swallowed back a nervous little laugh. She, usually full of sass and comebacks, seemed to have misplaced her tongue around Nick 2.0.
His dark eyes held hers, and again, she marveled at how the iris was nearly indistinguishable from the pupil. It didn’t help that his pupils were now dilated as he regarded her with a focus she’d never seen from any man.