by Lori Wilde
The launch crew became the chase crew. They hopped in their vehicle and took off for the main road as the balloon climbed higher.
Abby laughed, a low, rich sound that overflowed his heart with joy.
He draped an arm over her shoulder and she snuggled against his chest and smiled over at him.
“This is incredible,” she whispered.
“I’m glad I’ve pleased you.”
“Just wait,” she said cryptically. “It’s my turn to please you.”
He wanted to tell her that she pleased him simply by being on the planet but that would have been too much, too soon. Instead, he concentrated on stoking the fire higher, heating the air, sending the balloon higher and higher into the sky.
When he reached the altitude that suited him, he broke into the picnic basket and fished out egg-and-ham crescent-roll sandwiches and made mimosas from orange juice and champagne.
“This is so romantic,” Abby said when he raised his champagne flute to hers for a toast.
“I’m glad you like.”
“Who wouldn’t?”
Their eyes met. “To passion,” he said, and clinked his glass to hers.
“To passion.”
They drank.
When they’d finished, Durango returned the used supplies to the picnic basket. The balloon had descended while they’d eaten and he fueled the hot flame higher again. It made a loud whooshing noise as the balloon rose.
Abby was gazing out over the mesas and Durango stood behind her, watching her watch the scenery. He’d brought a few women up for picnics but none of them had ever stirred him the way she did. No woman had ever even come close.
He studied the nape of her neck, exposed so fetchingly by her new short hairdo and her skimpy purple halter top. He couldn’t resist. Stepping forward, he kissed that lovely, beckoning nape.
“What are you up to?” she asked with interest as he nibbled her neck, smooth and fiery hot from the champagne, the overhead flame and the heat of his mouth.
She turned, clasped his shoulders in her hands and with newfound candor that suited her well, she earnestly fitted her moist, willing mouth against his.
It was as if they were kissing for the very first time. All heat and thrill and tentative exploration. Something was different about her. Something had changed last night.
But what?
And why?
Confused, Durango pulled back and stared into her eyes.
“We’re sinking again,” she said.
“Huh?” He blinked, his mind numb with want and confusion.
She gestured upward.
“Oh yeah.” He filled the balloon with more hot air.
Abby stepped to the edge again. “Up here, in the peace and quiet, drifting on the currents, it’s like we’re the only two people in the entire world.”
“There’s the chase crew.” He pointed out the orange Sunrise Tours Jeep cruising the road far below them.
“It looks like a toy. We’re so alone up here.”
He grinned. “Yeah, I guess we are. Why? What do you have in mind?”
“First take us as high as we can go.” Abby nodded at the sky. “So we’ll have lots of uninterrupted time to drift down.”
They rose up and up and up. He took the balloon as high as he dared. When he turned around, he discovered Abby was kneeling on the floor of the wicker gondola.
“What are you up to?” he asked, intrigued and excited.
“Face me, brace yourself against the edge of the basket and keep your legs apart.”
He obeyed, his gut churning with anticipation. The balloon bobbled against his movements. They sailed along on the smooth current, riding effortless among the clouds.
Abby reached for the fly of his jeans. Durango hissed in air as she slowly slid the zipper down.
He’d been ready for this for ten years. His cock was granite hard and came jutting out of his open fly without any enticement.
“You’re not wearing underwear.” She giggled with delight.
“I go commando.”
Lightly she stroked his head. “You’re so big and thick,” she whispered in awe and gripped his shaft in her hand. “I’m going to love having you inside me, filling me up.”
He just groaned.
“I’ll teach you to bring me to orgasm in a semi-private club,” she said, and then blew a stream of warm breath on the throbbing head.
He grit his teeth. A tiny droplet of his male essence leaked out. It glistened in the light. Gently she rubbed it away with the pad of her thumb.
A low, ferocious growl escaped his lips. There were so many things he wanted to tell her. How beautiful she was, how she made his heart thunder, how he’d eagerly give up everything he owned to have her.
But the words clogged his throat and he couldn’t speak. His brain was addled with the intense pleasure of her mouth coming down on him.
Abby smiled to herself. He hadn’t put up the least bit of resistance. Good. Very good. Let him see what she’d felt last night when he rubbed his gloved fingers around her hot, straining nub and sent her flying off into orbit.
In the beginning, she only placed her palms on his thighs and then lowered her head between his legs. She moved her face from side to side feeling the tickling velvet of his burgeoning shaft.
Then, she slipped her hands around his buttocks and tugged him toward her open, willing lips.
He filled her mouth. He swelled bigger, bigger and bigger still.
She moved her mouth around him, sliding back and forth, away and toward, away and toward.
Time stopped as she surrendered herself over to the most primal of life’s rhythms.
His breathing was raspy, punctuated only by the sound of the pilot light. He was coiled tight, his entire body tensed. The muscles in the tops of his thighs seemed carved from marble beneath her palms.
He made deep, guttural noises and she knew she was pleasing him, giving him the same sweet bliss he had given her.
His erection expanded, growing harder, fuller, stretching the skin to bursting. The tip engorged with blood and pulsed hot against her lips. Abby feared she was hurting him and she eased back.
“No.” He choked out the word, his fingers threading through her hair. “Don’t stop.”
His knees quivered. His hands shook. His trembling spoke of the deepest sensory delight.
In that moment, he belonged totally to her. Abby had never felt so empowered.
His fingers moved from her hair to her cheeks, his touch like the glide of air, like the wings of a bird. He threw back his head, let out a cry to the sky. It startled her and pleased her all at the same time.
His orgasm shook through him, an earthquake of release, and he spilled into Abby’s welcoming mouth, hot and metallic.
Give it to me, she thought. I want all of you.
Abby swallowed, delicately licked her lips and buried her face against him, while the sound of her pulse rushed loudly in her ears.
Durango sank to his knees beside her, gasping.
“That was…you are…I love…” he panted.
What? Was Durango about to tell her that he loved her? Panic flooded her. She didn’t want to hear this. It was one thing to have an illicit affair with a thrill seeker; it was quite another to be in love with one.
“I love what you did to me,” he finished.
Relief flooded her body at the same time she felt an odd sense of loss. What in the hell was the matter with her? Did she want him to be in love with her or not?
Not.
Unless…
Unless what?
He looked into her eyes, brushed his fingers over her cheek. She tucked her insecurities to the back of her mind and smiled at him. He kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips. Then he pulled her into his arms and held her tight as they drifted together, far above the earth.
ABSENTMINDEDLY, Durango guided a Jeep tour of elderly tourists out to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, his mind stuck on Abby. No matter how hard he
tried to focus on his memorized spiel, he kept stumbling over words he knew by heart. He simply could not get his thoughts off what had happened earlier in the hot-air balloon.
Or the way he’d almost slipped and told her that he loved her.
Durango winced. It was much too soon to tell her what he was feeling. He didn’t want to scare her off before his seduction was complete.
And what plans he had up his sleeve.
When he’d dropped her off at the Tranquility Spa, he’d stared into her eyes, stroked a finger along her collarbone and whispered, “Tonight, Angel, prepare to have your world rocked.”
Durango turned down Highway 179 and didn’t even realize the retired schoolteacher in the passenger seat beside him had asked a question, until she pointedly cleared her throat.
Sheepishly he had to ask her to repeat her question. Truth of the matter, he’d been thinking about Abby’s skin, how soft it was, like velvet and silk all rolled into one. He was remembering how her moist, hot mouth felt on his erection, the excited spark of passion in her eyes when she’d unzipped his fly and gotten her first good look at him.
He thought about the way she reacted to his touch. How he dissolved into a pool of quivering speechlessness at the slightest brush of her hand. Erotically, she’d manipulated him, making him feel like a king among men. Appealingly, she had surrendered all restraint and swallowed his essence.
His hand trembled in remembrance.
Abby had been radiant in her feminine glow and giddy with newfound power in her sexuality. He didn’t know where she had found the courage to express herself so vividly. He could only hope he was the catalyst for her growth, because she made him feel like the sexiest man in the world.
Tonight. Tonight. He could barely wait for tonight. It seemed a thousand years away instead of hours.
Tonight, he was taking Abby up to the Satan’s Bridge vortex and there, he was going to make her forget herself. Forget everything.
And then tomorrow, he’d supply her with the ultimate adventure guaranteed to stoke anyone’s passion to the next level.
A tandem skydive. Just the two of them, freefalling through space together.
He parked in the lower lot of the Chapel of the Holy Cross and helped his geriatric contingency out of the Jeep. He escorted them up the steep walkway and into the small triangle-shaped church built by Frank Lloyd Wright. While they visited the chapel, he went back to the Jeep to wait for them.
Slipping his sunglasses on, he leaned back in the seat.
“Durango?”
He jumped, sat up straight and ripped off his sunglasses. There was Tess, standing beside his door looking forlorn.
“Hi,” she said. “Can I sit with you for a while?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
She crawled up in the passenger seat beside him.
His pulse quickened at the thought of seeing Abby, and he glanced around the parking lot. “Where’s Abby?”
“At the spa getting her aura read or something.” Tess waved a hand and sighed deeply. “I needed to get away and think.”
“What’s the matter?”
Tess groaned and dropped her face in her hands. “It’s not your problem.”
“Why don’t you try me?” he asked sympathetically. It was the first time he’d ever seen Tess looking anything but sassy and on top of the world. “Maybe I can help.”
“It’s Jackson.”
He waited for her to continue, but when she didn’t, he nudged her gently. “What about Jackson?”
“I can’t get him to make love to me.”
“Maybe he’s thinking you’re too special to rush things with.”
“Ha. Yeah, right, what guy turns down a willing woman?”
“A guy who just wants to take things slow.”
Tess shook her head. “Oh no.”
“What?”
“There’s only one reason a guy would want to take things slow.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he’s falling in love with me.”
“Would that be so bad?”
“It would be horrible.”
“All right, maybe he’s not falling in love with you,” Durango said, searching for the right words to soothe her. “Maybe he just doesn’t want to hurt you.”
“He’s falling in love with me, I just know it.” She wrung her hands. “He can’t fall in love with me.”
“Why not?” Durango was confused. “I thought you liked him.”
“I do like him, but I don’t do love.”
“Why don’t you ‘do’ love?”
“I don’t believe in it,” she said staunchly.
“Why not?”
“It’s just too good to be true.”
“So you’re a cynic.”
“Come on, tell the truth, you’re not cynical about love?” Tess cocked her head.
“Hell no.”
“Hmm. That surprises me. I would have thought after everything that happened between you and Abby you’d be as down on love as I am.”
“Not the case. In fact, I’m a big believer in second chances.”
“I wish I could be so optimistic,” Tess sighed. “But life has shown me otherwise.”
Durango wondered why she wasn’t discussing this with Abby. It seemed like the sort of thing best friends would dissect at length. “So what happened?”
“I had too much to drink last night. I was sort of nervous because I really like Jackson and I’m afraid I don’t measure up to all those cute, sexy groupies he’s used to.”
“You underestimate yourself, Tess.”
She wrinkled her forehead. “That’s exactly what Jackson said.”
“So what happened?”
“Anyway, he takes me back to the Tranquility Spa, I invite him to my room. He comes in and then get this, he gives me an aspirin, makes me drink a gallon of water, tucks me into bed, kisses me on the forehead and leaves. I guess he just wasn’t interested.”
“If he wasn’t interested he wouldn’t have bothered taking care of you when you were drunk. And maybe he’s just not the kind of guy who takes advantage of a woman who’s had a little too much to drink.”
“Okay then, I need your point of view…as a male. How do I get him to take advantage of me?”
“I think you might be pushing too hard.”
“What do you mean?”
“Try dialing it down a notch,” Durango suggested. “Give the guy a chance to make the first move if he wants to.”
Tess considered his advice. “All right,” she said. “I’m willing to give it a try. Is this how Abby managed to snag your attention? With her cool reserve?”
Durango smiled. “Among other things.” Like the way her cool reserve hide a cauldron of seethingly hot emotional depth.
“But I’m scared. What if Jackson is falling in love with me? I just want sex from him. Not happily-ever-after.”
“How can you be so sure? Maybe if you let yourself, you could love him too.”
That brought her up short. Tess paused and then said, “Both my parents have been married and divorced several times. Abby’s parents’ marriage was a nightmare. Give me one good reason why I should take a chance on getting my heart ripped up.”
“Tess, even if things don’t work out, love is sometimes still worth the risk.”
She gazed at him for a long moment and then sucked in a deep breath. “Omigod, you’re in love with her, aren’t you.”
He couldn’t deny it. Ruefully he nodded.
“Does Abby know?”
“I’m trying to find a way to tell her.”
“See,” Tess challenged. “You might talk a good game, but you’re scared too! Because you know that if she broke your heart once, there’s no guarantee she won’t break it again.”
10
“I’VE NEVER SEEN anyone with such a red aura,” Inga, the Tranquility Spa aura specialist said to Abby as she photographed her with some odd-looking camera equipment. “Actually, your aura is more t
han just plain red. Literally, you’re flaming scarlet.”
“What does that mean?” Abby frowned. Sounded like a lot of bunk to her.
“The redness comes from the base chakra. It represents the physical emotions. Anger, passion, excitement.”
“Is that bad?”
“If you’re searching for tranquility, it can be disruptive.”
“But what if you’re not looking for tranquility?” Abby asked. “What if you like being wickedly red-hot?”
“Ah,” Inga said, “I understand. You are new in love with a very earthy man.”
Abby shook her head. “No, not in love.”
“The aura does not lie.”
“It’s more like lust. You know that crazy, illogical, gotta-have-him-or-I’ll-die sensation.”
Inga nodded. “Much trouble.”
“But I can change my aura, can’t I? Just because I’m red right this minute doesn’t mean I’ll always be swept away by passion.”
“Of course you can change it. In fact, I can clean your aura right now, help you get rid of your primal feelings.”
“No!” She’d worked too hard to find her passion. She wasn’t about to let some New Age aura cleaner sweep away all her hard work.
“You’re headed for a lot of emotional pain if you don’t tone down the red. You’re out of balance. Too much emphasis on the physical body.”
Well heck, she already knew that, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. So what if she crashed and burned. When she got back to Silverton Heights her aura could go all green or blue or purply or whatever color represented peace and tranquility. For the first time in her life, she was fully embracing her base, animal nature and she wasn’t going to apologize for it.
Abby thanked the woman, paid for her session and went back to her room to wait for Tess. They were supposed to go watch Jackson on the set of his movie.
Not fifteen minutes later, a knock sounded on the door.
Durango. Her heart leaped. She knew he was working, but she couldn’t help thinking maybe he’d swung by on his break. She was still thinking about what she’d done to him in the hot-air balloon. Abby grinned. No wonder her aura was flaming scarlet.
She flung open the door. Disappointment sent her smile switching from genuine to perfunctory when she saw it was Jackson.
“Hi,” she said. “Tess isn’t here.”
