Break the Sky

by Nina Lane

  I looked at Stan, adding, “If they do and Edison Power agrees, the Meteorology department will have a much bigger and fully upgraded synoptic lab.”

  Conversation rose again, papers shuffling. I met Stan’s gaze. His eyebrows rose, as if he were impressed. As well he should be, I thought. I’d be a hero in the Meteorology department, if I could pull this off.

  “Edison funds the Spiral Project and the lab, and becomes the primary sponsor of the Explorer Channel program,” I said. “And in return, King’s agrees to let me direct from the field during tornado season and participate in the filming.”

  “It’s an interesting proposition, Professor March,” Chancellor Radcliffe admitted. “Unorthodox, but interesting.”

  “And both expensive and risky,” added one of the Edison executives.

  “No risk, no reward,” Harold remarked.

  “I’m sure you’d like to discuss this amongst yourselves,” I said, gathering up my notes. “Thank you again for the opportunity to present the proposal to you.”

  I left the room and went toward the elevators.

  “Now we wait.” Harold Clement fell into step beside me, looking as relieved as I was to be out of that room. “It could take quite a—”

  “Professor March?”

  We turned to where Chancellor Radcliffe and Stan stood at the boardroom door. Radcliffe stepped aside and held the door open.

  “Would you please come back in?” he asked. “We’d like to discuss this in more detail.”

  Harold and I exchanged glances. We returned to the boardroom. As I passed Stan, he reached out to stop me. He shook his head with both disbelief and admiration.

  “Excellent work rocking the boat, Kelsey,” he said. “I think you just got everything you wanted.”

  A wave of relief and exhilaration flooded me so fast that I grabbed the doorjamb to steady myself. I took a breath and closed my eyes.

  Not everything I wanted, I thought. Not yet.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  ARCHER

  THE DESERT SUN BURNED A HOLE in the sky. Cacti and yucca plants peppered the sand dunes past the two-lane, black-ribbon highway stretching all the way to California. A mustard-yellow cloud streaked across the horizon.

  I wiped my hands on a greasy rag, pushing away from the old sedan. I shoved the rag into my back pocket and grabbed a can of soda resting on the car roof. An eighteen-wheeler rumbled past on the highway.

  I took a drink of soda, which had gotten warm and flat in the heat. I glanced at my watch. My shift was over.

  The station owner, Mick, was letting me stay in the room over the garage, though I couldn’t stand the thought of sitting there alone all evening. The other option, of course, was to hit the bars in town. Either option would lead to the same thing—a cold, tight feeling that not even the desert heat could melt.

  “You done?” Mick called, his bulky frame filling the doorway of the store.

  “Yeah. I can take the next shift, though, if you’ve got stuff to do.”

  “No, go on. I’ll close up.” He went back inside.

  I tossed the can into the trash. The smell of gas and oil hung in the dry air. A car appeared through the sunbaked haze and pulled up to the pumps.

  For lack of anything else to do, I approached the driver and offered to wash the windows while he filled the tank. A couple of college kids returning to LA after a weekend in Vegas.

  After getting gas, they stocked up on junk food and hit the road again. I walked toward the store. The sound of another engine drew closer. Must be rush hour with all the traffic.

  I turned. A heavy, dark blue VW XXL Amarok truck swerved into the lot, the tires kicking up clouds of dust and sand. The driver pulled into a space in front of the store and braked hard. Only when the door opened did I see the streak of bright blue that had wound around my heart like a ribbon.

  For a second, I couldn’t breathe.

  Kelsey jumped out of the truck, one hand closed around a brown paper bag. She walked toward me, beautiful as all hell in cargo pants and a white T-shirt, her blonde hair shining. Her expression was guarded, but her blue eyes were unwavering behind her glasses.

  She stopped in front of me, her hands on her hips, and tilted her head to look me in the eye. This close, I could see her uncertainty. I swallowed hard, fighting the urge to grab her and haul her against me, to kiss her senseless.

  “Hi,” I finally said.

  “Hi, yourself.”

  I couldn’t stop staring at her. “How… uh, how did you know where I was?”

  “Dean told me.”

  I blinked. Though Dean and I had exchanged emails and a few phone calls over the past couple of weeks, he’d never said anything about Kelsey. I hadn’t asked, either.

  Kelsey extended the wrinkled bag. “He also asked me to give you this.”

  I opened the bag and took out a manufacturer’s box. A Sega Genesis portable game player.

  “I didn’t know you were into video games,” Kelsey said.

  “I’m not.” I slipped the game back into the bag and set it on the ground. “Well, except for this one.”

  “Oh.” She looked confused.

  I reached out with my thumb to smooth away the crease between her eyebrows. I wanted to explain it to her, and I couldn’t help hoping that maybe later I’d have a chance to.

  “You look great,” I said. She looked more than great. She looked like heaven.

  She smiled. My heart slammed against my chest.

  “So do you,” she said, her gaze sliding over my grease-streaked T-shirt and jeans. “I missed you.”

  Something flared to life in me, though I tried to ignore it. I’d gotten used to the cold. My defenses were all back in place.

  I jerked my head toward the truck. “New wheels?”

  “Just got it last week,” she said. “I’m going to talk with some people at a weather research center in Texas. They’re interested in sending along a Doppler on Wheels when the Spiral Project goes out into the field next season.”

  “You got funding for it?”

  Kelsey nodded. “Edison Power Company is supporting the next phase.”

  I couldn’t stop a smile from breaking over my face. Though I had no right to be proud of her, I was. This woman could move mountains. I knew it.

  “En route to Houston, I’m meeting Colton and Tess in Amarillo,” Kelsey continued. “There’s a convergence of activity heading into northwest Texas that looks like it might become a supercell cluster.”

  She extended her fist toward me, her fingers wrapped around something. I held out my hand. She dropped a set of car keys into it.

  The spark of hope grew stronger. I tightened my hand around the keys.

  “I figured you would insist on driving,” Kelsey said.

  I looked at her. Though her gaze was steady, it still contained a hint of uncertainty. I opened my mouth to respond, but she held up her hand.

  “Wait,” she said. “I love you, Archer. Like… well, like crazy, okay? You’re beautiful, intense, and so perfect for me, and only when you left did I realize how desperately I need you. I feel like… like I’d spent my whole life waiting for you and didn’t even know it until you were actually there.”

  Her voice cracked. I grabbed her shoulders and crushed her against me as the spark flared into a full, raging wildfire. Her gasp was lost against the pressure of my mouth.

  I kissed her so hard. The almond-and-honey scent of her filled my head. I drove my tongue into her mouth, drinking in her sweet heat, wanting to possess her. She breathed my name, sliding her arms around my waist, her breasts pressing against my chest.

  “Never again,” I said, taking her face in my hands as I lifted my head. “I will never leave you again.”

  “Please don’t.” She rested her hand against my jaw, and her gaze searched mine. “Will you come with me? I… I need to stay in Mirror Lake and teach at King’s during the fall and winter, but for the rest of the year, I’m going to travel with the Spiral
Project.

  “We’ll have different units, at least fifty investigators and grad students involved, and we need someone to coordinate the equipment and vehicles, and work on repairs, not to mention all that driving…”

  Worry darkened her blue eyes. “I know it might be tough for you to live in Mirror Lake, but it’s only for part of the year and I was so hoping you—”

  I stopped her words with the pressure of my mouth. She leaned right into me, like we were two magnets pulled together by an invisible force. She was mine.

  “I love you, storm girl,” I said. “I’d love to live in Mirror Lake with you. I’d love to work on the Spiral Project with you. I’d love to chase storms, outrun tornados, fix trucks, drive all over the country. Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it. As long as I’m with you.”

  Her smile made my heart stop and start all over again. She eased away to look at her watch.

  “You have ten minutes to grab some clothes.”

  I did it in five. When I came down the stairs from the room above the garage, Mick stepped out of the store. He slanted his gaze to where Kelsey stood beside the truck. Then he looked back at me.

  I shrugged. “She’s my kotyenok.”

  Mick grinned. We shook hands. I went to toss my duffel in the truck.

  I approached Kelsey and slid my hand to the back of her neck. I pulled her in for another kiss. I couldn’t get enough of her. I never would.

  “One rule,” she whispered, her eyes darkening as she ran her hand down my chest.

  “What’s that?”

  “Your body belongs to me,” she said.

  “Pinkie swear.”

  She smiled and hooked her pinkie finger around mine. I pulled open the passenger-side door for her and climbed into the driver’s seat.

  In seconds, I reversed out of the lot and turned on to the highway heading east. We drove toward the storm, toward thunder, lightning, rain and dark clouds boiling up over the horizon. And we drove with the unbreakable knowledge that under it all, the sky would always be blue.

  EPILOGUE

  KELSEY

  MY MAN WAS SO DAMN SEXY. Especially when he was in the pouring rain with his shirt plastered to his chest and his jeans streaked with mud as he shoved his muscular body against the back of a car to dislodge the vehicle from a swampy ditch.

  Ah, yes. So sexy.

  From my position in the passenger seat of the truck, I zoomed the camcorder in on him and kept filming. He was my own personal, insanely hot action flick.

  He yelled something to Colton, who was in the driver’s seat of the car. Colton accelerated as Archer pushed at the car’s bumper again. His boots sank into the mud. The tires spun, splattering him with grime. He shoved harder, his jaw clenched.

  With a jolt, the car lurched back onto the road. Colton gave a whoop of victory.

  Archer climbed from the ditch, dragging his boots out of the heavy muck. His chest heaved with exertion, and water ran in rivulets over his hair and face. He went to talk to Colton, bracing one hand against the roof of the car.

  I tracked the camera down his body, over his powerful chest to his legs encased in wet jeans. When he pushed away from the car, Colton sped off through the rain.

  Archer turned, catching sight of me through the windshield of the truck. He frowned and stalked toward me.

  A little shiver of apprehension went down my spine. I quickly hit the stop button on the camcorder and shoved it back into the bag.

  “Nice work!” I called cheerfully through the open window. “Is he meeting us at the next pit stop?”

  Archer didn’t respond, his glower deepening. My apprehension grew stronger. He was soaked to the skin, filthy, and exhausted. With mud and rain streaking over his face and hair, he also looked more than a little menacing.

  He stopped outside my window. “Were you filming me?”

  “Um… maybe?”

  “What the—”

  “Not for commercial use,” I assured him quickly. “Just for… er, well…”

  A sudden blush fired over my skin.

  Archer frowned. “For what?”

  “For my own private use,” I admitted. “You’re just so sexy with your muscles straining and your shirt plastered to your body like that, and you know how much I love it when you’re dirty…”

  The scowl between his eyebrows eased a little, but he still didn’t look any too pleased. He shoved away from the window and strode around to the driver’s seat. He climbed inside, slamming the door shut behind him.

  Now in the confines of the truck, his irritation was tangible. I scooted away from him. He bent to unlace his mud-caked boots and yank them from his feet.

  “Are you thirsty?” I asked, still trying to keep my voice bright. “I have chocolate milk in the… oh!”

  Before I could finish, he’d grabbed me and hauled me against him. All the breath escaped my lungs as he brought his mouth down on mine in a hard, crushing kiss.

  I fell against him, parting my lips under his to accept the sweep of his tongue. Sparks flared through me, but too soon he was lifting his head, his dark eyes hot. He jerked his thumb toward the back of the truck.

  “Get back there,” he ordered. “Now.”

  My heart pounded. I hurried to scramble over the front seat to the cab, where we kept a few boxes of equipment. Archer shoved some of it aside to make room before hauling me down on the seat and climbing on top of me.

  The delicious shock of his weight combined with the rain still dripping off him fired me with lust. Cold water seeped through my shirt and pants. He took hold of my shirt and ripped it right off me, pulling my bra down to expose my breasts.

  I gasped, squirming against him, already sizzling with heat and urgency. I wiggled out of my jeans, struggling to help him off with his, and then we were both half-naked and he was pushing into me with an intense, powerful surge.

  I wrapped myself around him, gasps and moans streaming from my throat as he thrust again and again, his body still tense with strain and exertion, his breath hot on my neck. I came hard, arching up against him, thrilling in the force of our release, the sheer, uncontrollable power of him.

  When he rolled off me with a groan, I nestled up against his side. I splayed myself half over his long, muscular body, resting my head on his chest. He stroked his hand through my hair.

  “Next time, I get to film you being dirty,” he said.

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  He grinned. I spread my fingers over the tattoo on the left side of his chest—his own drawing of the superhero Blue with tornados spinning from her palms and her blue-streaked hair windblown by a storm.

  He’d agreed to get the tattoo without knowing what it was—after I’d decided to play my trump card and choose the new design for him. Since the tattoo was on his chest, though, I’d insisted he wear a blindfold until the artist had finished.

  “Exactly where my storm girl belongs,” Archer had said after seeing the design. “Right over my heart.”

  Even the tattoo artist had smiled.

  I eased closer to Archer, stroking my hand across his chest. A warm contentment filled me, along with the heady anticipation of not knowing what lay ahead for us.

  In the two weeks we’d been storm chasing, we had already faced down another tornado, gotten lost on country back roads, driven through rain and hail, and had more explosive sex than I’d ever dreamed possible.

  We were on our way back to Mirror Lake for the rest of the summer, where Archer had plans to look for construction or repair work over the winter as we prepared to launch the Spiral Project next spring.

  Though Archer had wanted to give some of his inheritance money to the project, I’d refused to let him. Instead he was going to talk to Dean about investments, and he’d mentioned taking art classes at the local community college and possibly even earning his GED one day. I loved that his talents were so focused on fixing, repairing, restoring, and creating.

  As we lay there in the back of the truck, the
rain pounding on the roof and thunder rumbling in the distance, I felt it again, like a bright, shiny balloon lifting my heart. Happiness.

  I was so happy with him, this man who had taken me once again into the beauty of storms. He was the man who loved all of me, even my worst flaws. He had proven that together we could challenge fear and win. He was my exhilaration and my peace.

  And he had shown me that letting go and surrendering was a measure of strength. No longer alone, no longer afraid, we had both given over to loving each other forever.

  Archer rubbed his hand across the front of my body, his touch warm and gentle. He lowered his mouth to mine. I sank into him, feeling the steady beat of his heart, the coiled strength of his body, the heat of his skin.

  Pleasure unfurled inside me as he pressed his hand between my breasts. He shifted, deepening our kiss. My heart flipped like a coin, flashing silver against the palm of his hand. And then I was caught, swept up and spinning into my own perfect storm.

  Thank you for reading Kelsey and Archer’s story!

  Reviews are always welcome! I’d so appreciate it if you would consider posting a review for Break the Sky.

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  I love hearing from readers and can be reached at nina@ninalane.com. Sign up for my newsletter for new releases and exclusives at www.ninalane.com, and join me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NinaLaneAuthor or Twitter at www.twitter.com/NinaLaneAuthor

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I OWE MY DEEPEST GRATITUDE TO Victoria Colotta of VMC Art & Design, who continues to elevate my books to a new level with her beautiful covers and interior design. Thank you, Victoria, for your endless patience, talent, understanding, and true friendship. You are a gem.

  I am so grateful to Cathy Yardley, whose guidance and razor-sharp knowledge of story structure always improves both my books and my writing. Karen Dale Harris, thank you a million times over for your comprehensive and insightful critique, which shaped Archer and Kelsey’s story in ways I never would have imagined. Lauren Blakely, thank you so much for your generosity, advice, and help in setting this book on the right path into the world.