Finding Paradise

by Barbara Dunlop

  She was extraordinarily decorative, but that wasn’t what he meant. “I’m calling you entertaining.”

  “That’s just as bad.”

  “You want the coveralls or not?”

  Her outfit was making him nervous, and not just because he wanted to drag her into his arms like he’d done the last time. There were endless other sources of stains in the hangar. A thousand things she could brush up against.

  “Yes,” she said.

  He nodded to where she’d pointed. “Storage closet.”

  She grinned and all but hop-stepped that way.

  He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Observation only,” he warned.

  “Don’t be silly,” she called back over her shoulder. “I’m an able-bodied assistant, and you’re on a hard deadline.”

  Marnie suited up faster than he’d expected. She’d had to roll up both the legs and the sleeves of the dark green coveralls, and they were still miles too big. She ducked under the belly of the plane with a ratchet handle, checked out the panel he was loosening up, sized up the bolts and selected a socket.

  “You really did grow up in a shop,” he said as she started on a bolt.

  “You think I’d make that up? I mean, ‘I’m secretly an Icelandic princess’ is something you might make up. But ‘I secretly know the difference between a slotted and a Phillips-head screwdriver’? Who’s that going to impress?”

  “Me.”

  She nudged him with her elbow. “You’re weird.”

  “And you’re not?”

  “I suppose,” she said, moving to the next bolt. “Is this what your dad did?”

  It was hard for Cobra not to laugh at the question. “You mean, was he an AME?”

  “Yes. Did he inspire you to go into the trade?”

  “Not in the least. My dad’s an accountant, and my mom’s an engineer. If they could have picked, I’d be a lawyer.”

  Marnie surprised him with a smile. “Well, my dad would have loved another tradesman in the family.”

  “He must be proud of you.”

  “Not so much. But he’d sure have been proud of you.” She took in the entirety of Cobra from his head to his toes, ending on his hands.

  “That’s ridiculous.” Who wouldn’t be bursting with pride over Marnie?

  “What about your brothers?” She paused. “You said Barrick was the oldest?”

  “Barrick works in the state senator’s office. Miles is a doctor, a dermatologist.”

  She seemed to consider the answer, continuing to twist off the bolts and plunk them into the tray. “So, you’re the only one who’s—”

  “Disappointing?” He’d heard it a thousand times, but it still wasn’t fun to hear it from her.

  “I was going to say useful.” She paused in her work, looking quite sincere.

  “Miles is a doctor.”

  “A dermatologist. He’s not exactly out there saving babies.”

  “Like I am,” Cobra scoffed.

  “You never know. If a plane falls out of the sky, it could have a baby on it.”

  “Are you mocking me?” He paused now too.

  She twisted her body toward him. “Not in the least. You do important work. Do they make you feel like you don’t?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t see any point in lying. His family’s disappointment in him was acute and mentioned often.

  She reached out and touched his arm, wrapping her hand over his biceps. “Their loss.”

  “I don’t see how.” He glanced down at her hand, feeling its warmth, feeling the blood pulse under his skin.

  “You moved to Alaska. That’s how.” Her eyes were dark in the shadow of the plane, like evening in an evergreen forest.

  He covered her hand with his, linking their fingers together. “You’re . . .” He didn’t know what to say.

  “An equal disappointment to my own family.”

  “They have zero right to be disappointed.” Cobra wished her father were here right now so he could tell him so. “And that’s an entirely different scenario. They’re jealous of your success.”

  She extracted her hand from his and went back to work. “I doubt very much they’d see it that way.”

  He wanted to grab her hand back, to hold it tight against his chest, pull her into his arms, forget about the repair, forget about anything and everything except Marnie.

  “Last one on this side,” she said, and he quickly braced his hands against the large panel of sheet metal to stabilize it.

  Chapter Nine

  “Everyone will be perfectly safe, right?” Marnie asked as she scrubbed her hands at the big sink next to the hangar’s workbench. She was exhausted but satisfied with what they’d accomplished over the past long hours.

  “Perfectly safe,” Cobra answered as he wiped down his tools and placed them back in his rolling toolbox.

  “So, you know for sure the blockage was the problem.”

  “I know it for sure,” he said. “Plus, we’ll test the engine.”

  “That seems prudent.”

  He smiled as he came her way. “I’m nothing if not prudent.”

  She shifted to make room for him at the sink, propping herself back against the workbench while he washed his hands. She looked around but didn’t see any chairs near the workbench.

  “You want a beer?” he asked, opening a battered fridge beside the sink.

  “Depends,” she said, amused that they had a shortage of chairs but a handy beer supply.

  He looked up from the open door. “On?”

  “Is it late, late night, or early, early morning?”

  He grinned at her joke. “For the purpose of my being thirsty, it’s late, late night.”

  “Then yes.”

  He pulled two cans from the fridge and pushed the door shut behind himself, crossing to where she was leaning. He pulled the tab on one of the cans and handed it to her.

  “Why no chairs in here?” she asked.

  “You want to sit down?”

  “You don’t?”

  He set his beer down on the workbench then bracketed her hips with his hands.

  She reacted to his touch with an instant rush of heat and desire.

  He lifted her straight up and sat her on the workbench. “There.” He retrieved his can of beer and popped it open with a hiss.

  They were closer to eye level now, and the hum of attraction eddied through her body. She lifted her can in a toast. “I believe you saved the day.”

  “Clearing a fuel line isn’t exactly leaping tall buildings.”

  “Thirteen women can catch their flights home because of you.”

  His deep gray eyes crinkled in the corners as he lightly touched his can to hers. “I guess I am pretty amazing.”

  “Pretty amazing,” she said, surprised at how deeply she meant it.

  They each took a drink.

  “I guess this is it,” she said.

  “It really shouldn’t have ended this way.”

  Her chest tightened and her heart thudded hard at the potential implication of his words. Was he saying something more should have happened between them, something passionate, something sexual?

  “You should have enjoyed the party and gotten a decent night’s sleep tonight. Not gotten stuck with this.” He gestured around them.

  She swallowed her disappointment. “It’s too late for sleep.” She’d have time to drive back to her room and pack up her few things, and that was about it. “Maybe I’ll upgrade to first class, get one of those pods and sleep on the way home.”

  “Let me do it. I’ll upgrade your ticket.”

  “Oh no you won’t. That blouse you bought me cost more than an upgrade.”

  He tilted his head. “I don’t see the connection.”

  “The connection is you
paying for things. You shouldn’t have bought me the blouse.”

  He gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head and his gaze softened and dropped to her chest. “At least your clothes are safe this time, fully protected from grease and grime.”

  “I feel fully protected.” She did, from grease and from grime and from anything else with Cobra standing so close.

  He eased in, bracing his hands against the lip of the bench, one on each side of her. “I want you to feel safe.”

  “I do.” She took in his face, trying to imprint it in her brain so she could save it for later, his dark eyes and straight nose, his full lips, his square chin now covered in a whisker shadow.

  She caught a glimpse of his tattoo, captivating and sexy, like a secret glimpse inside him. Before she could check the impulse, she was reaching out, stroking her fingertip over the black ink.

  He sucked in a quick breath and dropped his shoulder to give her better access.

  His skin was hot and smooth. His energy pulsed through her fingers and along her arm, enveloping her shoulder, her neck, her breasts.

  He eased forward, and she let her knees drop apart so he could get closer still.

  His hand cupped her cheek, thumb smoothing slowly back, his fingers cradling her neck, giving the slightest pressure to pull her forward.

  She went along, leaning in as his mouth slanted over hers in a hot, sizzling, freewheeling kiss. His arm went around her waist, pulling her close, wedging his body against hers.

  She dragged down the zipper of his coveralls, and he shrugged them away. She explored his shoulder through the thin T-shirt, his powerful arms, the definition of his chest.

  He stripped off his shirt and kissed her harder, devouring her mouth, sending shock waves of pleasure and need down her spine. She traced the ridge of his scar as he unzipped her coveralls.

  Her arms tangled in her sleeves, and he chuckled low, getting her loose.

  They stilled then, staring at each other in awe and amazement. His hands slipped under her tank top, caressing her stomach, deliberately circling higher and higher. Eyes darkening, he peeled the top off over her head, and they met skin to skin.

  Their kisses started slowly, growing longer and deeper, passion building while they struggled out of their clothes. They wrapped their bodies together, meshing tightly, waves of pleasure ebbing and flowing with every kiss and every caress.

  Their passion rose higher, and higher again, until her every nerve zinged to life, pleasure pulsating faster and faster through her chest, her limbs, her mind. She teetered on forever before bursting with release and slowly going limp in his arms.

  Cobra rubbed his palms along her bare back, stroking her hair, kissing her temple, her lips, her neck. Then he tucked her head into the crook of his shoulder and gathered her against his slick body.

  “I don’t know what to—” He froze as a pair of lights flashed across the high ceiling of the hangar.

  “What’s that?” Marnie asked, a burst of panic seizing her chest.

  “Silas,” Cobra said. He was already moving, tugging down her skirt, handing over her tank top and panties, organizing his own clothes back around him.

  She struggled into her tank top, yanked it down over her waist then stuffed her arms into the sleeves of the coveralls and zipped them up to her chin.

  He stepped back, inhaling deeply, taking in every inch of her where she still sat on the workbench.

  He leaned forward and smoothed her hair and stroked the pad of his thumb over her tingling lips before drawing back. “I look okay?” he asked.

  She checked him out and nodded.

  “You look perfect.”

  The side door opened, and Cobra took a step sideways, turning on the water at the sink and pretending to be busy.

  Silas stopped short when he spotted Marnie.

  “Hi,” she said.

  His gaze narrowed as he walked forward, clearly curious about what she was doing in the hangar at five thirty in the morning.

  She pretended his surprise was at the coveralls and gestured to her outfit. “I know. I helped Cobra fix the plane.”

  “She did,” Cobra said, his voice surprisingly calm and chill. “Bet you wouldn’t have guessed that.” He shook his wet hands and turned to Silas, his expression as impressively unflustered as his voice.

  A tense knot loosened inside Marnie’s stomach.

  Silas looked back and forth between them one more time. “You got it fixed?” he asked Cobra.

  “I was about to text you,” Cobra answered. “Blockage in a fuel line to the number one engine. It’s cleared. We’re ready to do an engine run-up.”

  * * *

  * * *

  Cobra passed the luggage a bag at a time to Brodie, who was inside the tail of the twin otter packing it in while T and T-Two climbed into the cockpit. Clusters of women stood on the gravel lot, seeming remarkably upset at leaving their new Paradise friends.

  Xavier was holding Scarlett in his arms, rocking her like he didn’t want to let her go.

  “They seem to have hit it off,” Cobra said to Brodie.

  “She’s coming back,” Brodie said with an amused grin.

  “Seriously?” Cobra would have bet money against any long-term relationships coming out of this.

  “Didn’t you hear the news?”

  “News?” Surely there hadn’t been an engagement in such a short time. Cobra hoped not for Xavier’s sake. People didn’t fall for each other in a heartbeat. Not so fast. Not like that.

  His gaze shifted to where Marnie was talking to Raven, taking a lingering look.

  “They’re making a movie,” Brodie said.

  Cobra felt Marnie’s sunny smile all the way to his toes. “Who’s making a movie?”

  “Scarlett knows a script writer, and Willow’s doing stunts, there’s river rafting and hang gliding and superheroes, and Mia’s investing money in it.”

  “You mean here?” Cobra couldn’t believe the film idea had turned real.

  “They cooked it up yesterday, finalized something at the party last night. You missed one hell of a party.”

  “You think?”

  Through the cargo door, Brodie looked half guilty, half amused. “Sorry you had to miss the fun.”

  Cobra’s gaze strayed to Marnie again. He couldn’t say he was one bit sorry he’d missed the party. He’d give up a dinner dance for a night with Marnie under an airplane any day of the week. And that was before their lovemaking. He’d give up just about anything to make love with Marnie.

  She caught him staring at her and gave him a hesitant smile.

  He tried to guess what she was thinking. Was it satisfaction? Was it regret?

  “Is that the lot of them?” Brodie prompted, coming out through the small door.

  Cobra quickly lifted one of the remaining three bags and slid it inside. “Last three.”

  They finished packing them in, and Brodie secured the compartment door.

  As he walked away, Cobra looked for Marnie again. They hadn’t had a chance for a proper goodbye, not that they could have a private one here, not that he knew what he’d say to her if he could get her in private. One thing was for sure, he’d hug her every bit as hard as Xavier was hugging Scarlett.

  He spotted Willow then. She seemed to be debating with Riley about something.

  It hit Cobra then that Riley was here; so was Nicholas, so was practically every living, breathing male in Paradise—the single ones, anyway. Silas was here too, but he was with Mia, who was still making the rounds of goodbyes.

  Cobra saw Marnie then. She was talking to Willow, laughing, looking happy and excited about going home. With gold leaves scattered over the airstrip and snow dusting the tops of the mountains, he couldn’t really blame her for that.

  She looked incredibly fresh and astonishingly beaut
iful for someone who’d stayed up all night. He wondered if she’d had a chance to upgrade her ticket. He wondered if there was any way for him to do it from here. He didn’t have her ticket or flight number, or even her airline for that matter. But there were only so many airlines flying Anchorage to LA. He’d bet he could take care of it with her name alone.

  She saw him looking, said something to Willow, then came his way.

  “Hi,” she said, her pretty hair lifting in the breeze.

  “Hi,” he said back, his hands itching to reach for her.

  “I guess this is it,” she said.

  “Looks like it is.”

  “Well.” She glanced around, seeming like she was at a loss for words.

  “It was great meeting you, Marnie.”

  She looked back at him, seeming relieved at his casual farewell. “It was great meeting you too.”

  Women began boarding the plane, climbing the narrow steps and waving as they ducked through the door.

  Cobra didn’t want to make Marnie uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to stand here and pretend they were merely acquaintances. “I hope you’re . . . okay with what happened this morning.”

  She glanced to her toes for a second, but she also smiled, and a cute pink flush came into her cheeks. She stepped a little closer. “I’m absolutely okay with what happened this morning.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief, tension he hadn’t known he’d been holding rushing out of his body. “It’s probably obvious, but so am I.”

  Her smile turned to a smirk. “It was a little bit obvious.”

  He shook his head at her teasing.

  They both went silent.

  He cleared his throat, desperately wishing he could ask her to stay. But that was miles away from ever being in the cards.

  “I hope you enjoy the blouse,” he said to fill the silence.

  “I’m sure I will. It’s really beautiful.”

  “Will you send me a picture?”

  Her expression faltered, and he could have kicked himself for asking.

  “Sure,” she said quietly.

  He wanted to apologize, but he couldn’t come up with the right words.

  They fell silent again.