Affairs of the Heart (5 page)

“
Okay, I get
the picture. I may just have the person you’re looking for.” Scott
ran his hands through his short, dark hair, hesitation flashing
through his face.

“
Great! Who
is he?”

“
It’s not a
he.” Scott smirked. “It’s a she. There’s no real formal training or
experience. Just the drive and desire to write. Her name’s Khristen
Roberts, but she’s on a long-deserved vacation.”

“
Perfect. Put
her on the assignment as soon as you can reach her.” Shadoe stepped
toward the door. “I’ve got a plane to catch. I’ll be in touch with
the details soon.”

“
What’s your
connection, Donovan? What makes you think you’ve got the inside
track to this ‘secret’ society?”

Shadoe turned just as he
reached for the door. Pausing, he looked Ric Scott straight in the
eye, deciding quickly to tell him just how connected he
was.

“
Ever hear of
‘The Flame’?”

Khristen Roberts cleared
her throat. “Excuse me, but you’re sitting in my seat.”

“
Oh?” The
casually dressed man made no effort to move from the seat he boldly
sprawled his body across. He sat as if he owned this entire section
of the plane, especially the two seats he now occupied.

“
Listen, if
you want the window seat, that’s just fine with me. There’ll be
nothing to see but water, anyway.” Khristen Roberts forced a polite
smile. She stood waiting for the man to remove his legs from the
only empty set left in first class. She wasn’t about to sit in
coach. She’d worked too hard and too long for this vacation and
particularly that seat.

Not even off
the ground yet. Who does this guy think he is, anyway?

Perturbed, Khristen
glimpsed her reflection in his mirrored glasses. Not only was the
obnoxious, handsome man sitting in her seat, but his large legs
swung over onto her now-inherited seat, as well.

Khristen took matters in
her own hands and pushed the bare, hairy, tanned, muscular legs out
of her way.

“
What the—”
The soft, deep voice rang out in surprise as he tore the sunglasses
away from his eyes—eyes the color of clear seawater, brilliant and
dangerous.

A woman could
drown in eyes like that
.

She felt herself slipping
into their deep waters without a life jacket.

“
What’s going
on here?”

Confusion and disbelief
were very much evident in those sea-green eyes, as well as in his
voice. Even the muscles in his biceps seemed to twitch with
surprise. Or was it aggravation?

Serves him
right.

“
You, sir,
are in my seat.” Khristen fought to control the building irritation
as she sat down. “I paid good money for it and don’t intend to
share it with you or your legs.”

She snatched a magazine
out from the back of the seat and flipped through it. Not really
seeing the contents of each page, she wondered what lucky star she
had wished on to be stuck next to this despicable hunk all the way
to Hawaii. Despicable was the nicest word she could think of to
describe him at the moment. He was the type who thought muscles and
a nice body got him his way. She had dealt with his kind before.
She’d successfully kicked each one to the gutter each and every
time. Well, almost each and every time… but she wasn’t going to
dwell on that mistake.

Khristen ignored the
confusion as the final passengers boarded the plane. She figured it
would be ten minutes or so before they would even begin to taxi out
onto the Los Angeles airport runway.

Khristen fastened her
seat belt and prayed sleep would come for the remainder of her
flight to her long-awaited tropical vacation. As soon as they were
in the air, she would locate a station on the radio and let her
mind tune in to some good, hard ‘80s rock music. Maybe some Van
Halen, or Journey, or better yet, David Lee Roth, anything to make
the four-hour trip go faster. She hoped it would keep her mind from
wandering over to the guy who sat next to her—a man who smelled as
good as he looked—all spice and dangerous as hell.

“
You know,
you were pretty rude.” The deep, smooth-as-silk, masculine voice
pierced the silence she’d tried to plant between them.

So much for
solitude.

“
Me!” The
anger in her eyes reflected off the mirrored sunglasses on her
unwelcome travel companion. “You should talk, Mister
My-Future’s-So-Bright-I–Gotta-Wear-Shades. I’m not the seat-stealer
here.” Khristen’s nerves snapped with aggravation.

In a desperate attempt to
calm down before her mouth got her thrown off the plane, Khristen
rested her head against the back of her seat. She closed her eyes,
hoping to put an end to the unwanted conversation. As entertaining
as it may end up, she didn’t want to tempt fate.

Been there
and done that, as the saying goes, in another place and time. No
need to repeat the same mistake.

“
That still
doesn’t give you the right—”

“
Listen. It’s
going to be a long flight, and if you don’t mind, I’d rather not
spend my time bickering with you. You can have the seat, and let’s
just pretend that neither one of us is sitting next to the other.
Okay? Okay,” she said, clutching the magazine.

While the stewardess
instructed them all on safety procedures, Khristen couldn’t help
notice her fellow traveler kept the silver-framed mirrored
sunglasses perched on his nose. An unquenchable curiosity surged
its way to the surface, causing an all-too-familiar
feeling.

Damn
hormones, anyway!

She felt them start their
rampage through her body, and thoughts of the mysterious stranger
mingled with a desire to figure out what he had to hide.

His body fueled her
imagination as she tried to seek out his facial features—the ones
she could see, anyway.

Daddy always
warned me about being too curious. It only gets a girl going down
the wrong path.

Too bad she hadn’t taken
those words to heart the last time she had taken a trip.

A little hidden
inspection couldn’t hurt, could it? Not if she was careful, and he
didn’t notice her giving him the once-over. She was only looking,
not touching, after all. And he’d never know; if he fell asleep
with those damn glasses on.

On his head sat a
well-worn Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap, covering curly,
dark-brown hair that barely peeked out from under the brim.
Khristen’s gaze passed over his partially hidden face from the
eyebrows to a somewhat crooked nose. His mouth seemed to carry a
sense of seriousness at the corners of a pair of full lips—the kind
that Khristen imagined could kiss a woman with fiery passion as
easily as lash out a thousand whipping strokes.

A quick and unnerving
surge passed through her body when her gaze followed the outline of
his strong, squared jaw. With the plane ascending, her inspection
rested at the end of his determined chin. A smile played across his
lips.

“
Like what
you see?” His deep, silky voice challenged with a touch of conceit.
Her eyes revealed everything she was feeling at that moment, if her
mirrored reflection was true.

“
Don’t
flatter yourself!” She was scarcely aware of her own voice or the
warm glow touching her cheeks, but she was fully aware that he had
messed up her ecosystem without as much as a touch.

He smiled fully, showing
each and every pearl-white tooth. “Thanks, babe.” He nonchalantly
removed the baseball cap, the tucked-up hair spilling down around
his shoulders.

Despite her obvious lame
protest, she barely muffled the squeak of pleasure when her
continued inspection took in the massive chest with the hair that
peeked out the top of his black tank shirt. A mischievous smile
threatened her lips as curiosity took hold of her again.

Mmmm, wonder
where that leads?

She felt herself nearly
reaching an uncontrollable level. Her warning bell should have been
gonging a thousand times by now but wasn’t.

Her body filled with
natural female desire as Khristen focused on muscular tanned thighs
hidden snugly in a pair of wild-colored spandex shorts. Her heart
skipped a beat when his well-toned thigh muscle
twitched.

A nervous sigh escaped
her. She tried with all her might to subdue the unwanted longing
and curiosity that could spell trouble.

Why do I
always seem to go after a challenge?

She rested her head
against the seat and tried in vain to suppress the smile crossing
her face.

Because,
that’s what makes life interesting, and it’s also what gets me in
so much trouble.

Khristen pushed the
thought of herself and the stranger out of her mind until restless
sleep finally fell upon her.

* * * *

It was all Shadoe could
do to keep from laughing. For the first time in years, here was a
woman who didn’t recognize him, or for that matter, even try to be
civil toward him. He knew from the way her body pinked with
embarrassment when she’d been checking him out that she was hot for
him. Her gaze shot boiling lust over him and made him feel as if
his clothing had melted from this body, leaving him naked and
vulnerable.

The last thing he had
expected from her was a flare-up. He had always gotten his way with
women before.

Ha, maybe it
was the women who got their way with me.

Rachel, his ex-wife, had
been a prime example. Regardless, this woman was a regular
spitfire.

It had been so long since
he’d met a woman who did not crawl all over him that he was not
sure what to do. Being a professional wrestler offered “companion”
opportunities nightly; all he had to do was look around as he left
an arena.

He longed for more than
being on the road, and it gnawed at him more as the years passed.
He’d watched his fellow wrestlers leave the business for one reason
or another. One might say his biological clock was
ticking.

He would have retired,
quit the business years ago, before the deaths and injuries to some
of his buddies woke him to the fact that the public needed to be
educated about the game. He felt the only way to guarantee the
truth was told to his satisfaction was to have it printed in his
own magazine. He owed it to those fallen and to himself before it
all ended for him.

Shadoe slipped off his
glasses and listened to the even breathing from the woman beside
him. Her breath gently raised her breasts. He wondered whether they
were as firm as they appeared.

Good heavens,
man, why can’t they all be as challenging as this one?
He wanted to trace the outline of
her full lips with his fingertips, and he ached to calm the storm
that had brewed between them moments ago. The feeling was unlike
any he had ever experienced in his professional or personal life in
quite a while.

Shadoe slid the glasses
back on and turned to gaze out the window—her window—and wondered
whether her hair felt as soft as the passing puffs of clouds
looked.

* * * *

“
Please
return your trays to their upright...”

The words echoed softly
in Khristen’s mind, bringing her back through the sleepiness of the
last three hours. Stretching to pull her cramped muscles from their
stiffness, she opened her eyes and realized she’d fallen asleep
with her head against her neighbor’s shoulder.

“
Well, she’s
back in the world, ready to grace me with her outstanding wit
again.”

“
Sorry,
forgot you were there.” She set her seat in the upright position.
“Out of sight, out of mind.”

Who am I
kidding? Maybe out of sight, but he firmly planted himself in my
dream.

“
Are you
sure? That was a pretty sensual moan coming from you just before
you stretched,” he whispered, leaning toward her so close, she felt
the warmth of his breath on her skin.

The sensual smirk on his
face irritated her. He was ever more pompous than she’d first
thought. “If it was, which I highly doubt…” She watched the Maui
landscape come into view over his shoulder. “Rest assured the cause
wasn’t you.”

“
Or maybe you
just didn’t realize it was me,” he said.

The plane’s landing gear
bumped the ground. “I think it was you dreaming, not me. After all,
you’re the one with the fixation on yourself.”

“
Maybe so,
only I’m never alone in my dreams.” The sharp and assessing look he
gave her sent hot shivers down her spine.

What is it
about this guy? Why do I even give him the time of day?

As the plane taxied into
its arrival gate, their gazes met briefly, causing her blood to
race through her veins. Heat flashed through her face, and she felt
he had read her thoughts—wanton thoughts that surprised even
her.

Khristen shook her head
as if to put the marbles back in place. She reached into the
overhead compartment for her overnight bag with him standing next
to her as the plane taxied into the terminal.