Taken by Storm

by Heather MacAllister

  The murmuring of the crowd and the noises of the airport surrounded them again as Zoey stared at him, breathing quickly, her eyes huge. “Uh oh.”

  4

  SHE’D BEEN KISSED. She’d been kissed in a way that made women turn to their partners and ask longingly, “Why don’t you ever kiss me like that?” And enough people had certainly witnessed the kiss, as they were standing in a very crowded public area.

  This hadn’t been a first kiss or even second kiss. Probably not a third kiss, either. This kiss had been a no-holds-barred, possessive, passionate exploration. A you’re-my-woman kiss. And if that was the kind of kissing Cameron MacNeil did on such short acquaintance, then, wow, Zoey couldn’t wait for the second and third kisses and getting a room.

  Zoey had wanted proof of the chemistry and now she had it.

  “We can’t ignore that.” Cam spoke with quiet certainty. “Or we’ll always regret it.”

  She shivered because she felt exactly the same way. She’d tried walking away, but something had pulled her back, and it hadn’t been Casper. “Okay. As long as you understand that as soon as the planes start flying again, Casper gets all my attention.”

  He was nodding before she even finished. “I understand.” He said nothing more, but he didn’t have to. His eyes said it for him.

  Zoey blew out her breath and then smoothed her bangs. “So now what?”

  “Now we—” Cam broke off as something behind her drew his attention. “Sorry. Gotta go.” And then he took off, hurdling piles of luggage and people’s possessions and yelling, “Hey! Wait!”

  So much for chemistry. Zoey watched as he ran toward the start of the luggage conveyer belt loop. The baggage handler had stepped onto the platform and climbed beneath the opening that led to the storage area. As Cam sprinted toward him, the man stepped inside and started rolling down the metal door.

  The man either didn’t hear Cam, or ignored him because Cam hopped onto the platform and grabbed the door. There was a tug of war before the door flew back up and the man shouted something and angrily gestured to the floor.

  Zoey couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she could guess.

  Casper whined.

  “It’s bad, huh?” Sinking to the floor beside the dog, Zoey absently petted him. Casper huffed and didn’t turn over. “So Cam’s got the touch and I don’t, is that it?”

  Casper ignored her.

  As she watched, Cam talked earnestly to the man, who shook his head the entire time. Eventually, he slumped and ducked into the opening, followed by Cam.

  Zoey wasn’t surprised. “He just doesn’t give up, Casper.”

  Totally different from her J boyfriends. After an initial effort—and not much of one—those guys had settled in and were content to coast through the relationship and, as far as Zoey could tell, the rest of their lives. Zoey ended up abandoning her own goals as she tried to keep the relationships going. After a while, she realized she was the only one doing the work and when she stopped, the relationships coasted straight to a halt.

  As she scratched at Casper’s pink skin, she thought about all of Cam’s effort with her. The Js wouldn’t have bothered. She’d tried to help them improve their lives, but they hadn’t wanted her help; they’d wanted her to improve it for them. And she had, at the expense of Skin Garden. Why had she believed helping them was more important than helping herself?

  She glanced at the black opening where Cam had disappeared. Most of the people in the area were in line for baggage customer service. Cam hadn’t stood in line. Cam had gone to the source. Cam was not content to coast or drift.

  Casper whined again and licked at his front paw.

  He was bored. Phyllis at the kennel had cautioned Zoey about Casper licking himself raw when he was left alone with nothing to do. His paws had been sprayed with bitter apple to discourage him, but going out into the snow and the soggy booties must have worn off the spray. And the bottle was in her suitcase because its contents were over the liquid limit for carry-on luggage. Great. Was she going to have to stand in line to take possession of her suitcase?

  Zoey spent the next half hour trying to distract Casper with toys and lame attempts to put him through his show-dog paces. The ones she could remember, anyway. They attracted a small audience of bored people who applauded politely the first ten times Zoey paraded Casper in a circle, but when there were no new tricks—or actually any tricks—the crowd drifted away.

  Casper started giving her the I-need-to-go-outside look. With all the water he’d drunk, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

  Zoey decided to make a reconnaissance mission to see if it was still snowing as hard as before. This time she remembered to hoist her backpack into place before trotting Casper to the sliding glass doors.

  Outside, snow still fell heavily. Blown by the wind, it had begun to accumulate even beneath the covered areas.

  “Casper, you’re just going to have to hold it,” she murmured and turned to walk him back to the crate.

  It would be hours before the planes started flying again, and at that moment Zoey admitted she could use Cam’s help. Just the thought of him made her heart pick up speed. Okay, so she’d be spending a few hours with him. That didn’t mean she had to abandon her whole life and devote herself to his. She was smarter now. Hadn’t she told him she’d learned from her mistakes?

  That’s when she saw Cam approaching from the cargo area. The sight of him made her ridiculously happy, and she knew she was in trouble.

  He was carrying a large box and trailing plastic from his jeans pocket. After setting the box down by Casper’s crate, he scanned the area—searching for them, Zoey realized. Searching for her. Another little burst of happiness fizzed through her.

  Settle down. He’s just some hot guy you met in an airport.

  Then he spotted her and smiled, and she smiled back.

  “Success, I see.” She gestured to the box as Casper went right up to Cam and rolled over.

  Zoey had never thought she’d have so much in common with a dog.

  “In more ways than one.” He pulled at the plastic. “Drawstring garbage bag. We can make a poncho for Casper. I found a place to take him where he’ll be sheltered most of the way.”

  “That’s great,” Zoey said as Cam withdrew his car keys and poked holes for Casper’s legs in the bag.

  Then he knelt and fitted the bag to the dog. It was easy because Casper stayed on his back in hopes of a tummy rub.

  Zoey stared at Cam’s bent head, but instead of thinking how lucky she was, she looked for the catch. No guy was this perfect and still available. Something had to be wrong with him.

  “You sure you don’t have a girlfriend?”

  “No girlfriend.” He glanced up. “Why?”

  Yeah, why, Zoey? “Because you seem like a really good guy.”

  “I am a really good guy.” He patted Casper and urged the dog to stand. “But I’m a really bad boyfriend. No spare time.”

  “Oh.” At least he seemed to realize that relationships required some effort, unlike her string of J boyfriends. “Maybe you haven’t met anyone worth the time.”

  “Maybe you’re right.” He glanced up. “What about you?”

  “I haven’t met anyone worth the time, either. But I gave it to them anyway.”

  “Why?” Cam slipped the makeshift poncho over Casper’s legs and tightened the drawstring.

  A great question. “I guess I didn’t want to admit I’d made a mistake.”

  Cam loosely knotted the ties and stood. “I promise you, even if we never see each other after today, the hours we spend together won’t be a mistake.”

  He couldn’t make a promise like that, but he had, and Zoey wanted to believe him more than she’d ever wanted to believe a man’s promise before, so she nodded. Then s
he cleared her throat and gestured to Casper in his garbage-bag poncho. “That fits surprisingly well.”

  Cam held out his hand for the leash. “Wait until we test it outside.”

  “You don’t have to—”

  “It’ll be easier if I take him while you stay here.”

  Kate wouldn’t like that plan, Zoey cautioned herself as she handed over the leash. But Kate wasn’t here.

  Cam headed back to the baggage area and he and Casper hopped onto the platform. Cam knocked on the metal door; seconds later, it rolled up. Then he and Casper went inside.

  Okay. Zoey would not think dog-thief thoughts because that was just ridiculous. It was what Kate would assume and, as everyone was very aware, Zoey was no Kate.

  The thought of her sister prompted a guilty glance toward her backpack and the cell phone inside it that she hadn’t turned on. Maybe Kate and Ryan were too busy cavorting in the sand and surf and drinking fruity drinks with colorful umbrellas to watch the news. Maybe they’d called Phyllis at the kennel to check if Zoey had left with Casper, and when they’d been reassured, had relaxed and had fun with the rest of the wedding party. Yeah, as if that would happen.

  But what, exactly, was going to happen? Zoey glanced at the monitors. She couldn’t read them from this distance, but the pattern of identical lines told her that nothing had changed. From people’s conversations she’d overheard, there were no rooms in the airport hotels or any shuttles running to those nearby. It seemed she’d be sleeping on the floor next to Casper tonight. At least Cam would be with them. She studied the MacNeil’s Highland Beer label on the box he’d retrieved and smiled to herself. Normally safety wasn’t the reason she wanted to spend the night with a man.

  Zoey lost herself in a daydream starring Cam and the usual reason for spending the night with a man, and although it was a very pleasant way to spend the time, she realized it had become a very long daydream. Long enough for her bottom to become cold from sitting on the floor. Long enough to wonder where Cam and Casper were. Long enough to pace, and long enough to start composing an explanation for Kate, along with a repayment plan, assuming she could discover how much a not-quite-grand-champion Afghan hound was worth. Should she calculate the repayment based on current worth or on championship potential?

  * * *

  CAM WAVED TO ZOEY from the conveyor-belt platform before he and Casper hopped to the ground. They made their way over to her, and she greeted them with a big, fake smile.

  “Seriously?” He handed her the leash.

  “What?” she asked, still smiling.

  “You thought I’d stolen your dog.” Cam stooped and unknotted the yellow ties from Casper’s garbage-bag poncho.

  “No—you...you were gone so long I was beginning to worry,” she said from above him.

  Cam shook out the garbage bag and laid it over his box. “You were in full-fledged worry.”

  She stopped denying it. “You were gone a really long time! You could have frozen solid out there!” She swung her arms around. “Casper could have run off! You could have slipped and hit your head. You could have fallen into a ditch. You could have become disoriented and lost. A car could have slid into you leaving you squashed and bleeding—and I wouldn’t have been able to send help because I had no idea where you’d—”

  “Here.” He handed her a stack of paper towels. “All those scenarios and you never once believed I was stealing your dog?”

  “The idea may have crossed my mind.” She knelt and began drying Casper’s paws. “It was one of many.”

  Cam laughed. “Sorry. I was talking to my new buddy in cargo.”

  “You must have given your new buddy quite a tip.”

  “He might name a son after me.”

  Zoey’s head dropped and he could hear her laugh.

  “Yeah,” he continued. “I’ll have to hit up an ATM. It was a good investment, though. I got my beer samples, a way out the back for Casper and some insider info.”

  “So spill.” Zoey stood and looked around for a trash can for the paper towels.

  “Leave that for now,” Cam told her. “We need to talk.”

  “What’s up?” She wadded the towels and tossed the ball next to Casper’s crate.

  “Tony, the cargo guy, has been through airport closures before, but he said this is the worst he’s seen. They haven’t even started clearing the runways or the roads because of the wind, and there’s another storm coming in right behind this one. Nothing is getting through, including deliveries or staff for shift changes. Eventually, the restaurants will run out of food, vending machines will empty, the gift shops will sell out of supplies and people will get very, very irritable. And even when the airport reopens, it won’t be at a hundred percent for a few days. Worse, this is a big, sloppy storm, so truckers are dealing with closed highways all over. Even if the supply companies could get here, they don’t have anything to deliver.”

  Zoey gazed around them. “We should make our move now before others start realizing that.” She glanced back at him. “It’s nearly five o’clock. I haven’t eaten in hours and I bet I’m not the only one. People are going to start mobbing the food vendors.”

  Cam was hungry, too. “Exactly. So how about one of us watches the dog and our stuff while the other goes foraging? But first, we should stake out a spot for the night. Are you okay with us sleeping together?” He hoped he sounded casually matter-of-fact.

  She raised her eyebrows. “It depends on how you define ‘sleeping.’”

  He grinned. “Any way you want to.”

  Instead of laughing because they were teasing, they stared at each other. The light, just-kidding atmosphere turned serious. She knew he wasn’t expecting anything more than the two—three—of them spending the night in the same place, didn’t she? Of course she did.

  Awareness prickled his skin and his stupid man juices percolated toward his brain. If he didn’t shut them out, he’d do something dumb.

  Right. He drew a breath and gazed down the long corridor leading back to the ticketing counters. Focus. He should focus. On something else. “We need to stake out some real estate. My guess is that all the seats are claimed by now. A corner would be best, but security will probably make pets stay in this section.” He nodded toward the corridor. “There’s not much traffic coming through there, so let’s grab some space against the wall.”

  In the end, Cam did much better than that, if he did say so himself. The corridor leading to the cargo wing housed the administrative offices. To avoid having office doors open into the main passageway and risking people running into them, the doors were positioned off short hallways with emergency exits at the opposite end. Cam scored a spot in front of two dark, empty offices in an entryway that was maybe fifteen feet long and seven or eight feet wide. It would be like having their own private cave with their own private red exit sign beaming down on them.

  With privacy came possibilities. But he couldn’t let the possibilities distract him.

  “This is great!”

  Cam looked down at Zoey as she tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled at him with those lips he remembered kissing. For him, the memory was vivid and fresh, but he wasn’t sure if it was the same for her. Maybe she could use a reminder. Maybe she’d enjoy making some new memories.

  Maybe he should get a grip, or she was going to remember him as an opportunistic jerk.

  “I can’t believe nobody’s claimed this spot already.” Zoey gave him a thumbs up. “Way to go.”

  Cam set his box down and concentrated on not being a jerk. “The offices could have been occupied earlier. If someone wants to get in, we’ll move.”

  Zoey nodded. “Casper, sit.” Casper sat and she eyed the small, doorless entry. “If we block off this part from the main hall, Casper will have room to move around and won’t have to be tied up.”
>
  So much for sharing the long night with Zoey in their cozy little nook while Casper slept in his crate. But Zoey’s suggestion made sense, even if Cam didn’t like it.

  The dog whined and tried to bite at one of the bands bunching his coat, but Zoey pulled his head away. “Casper, no.”

  How could he resent a dog? Especially because he wouldn’t have met Zoey at all if it hadn’t been for Casper.

  Cam dragged the crate and box over to block the entryway, but there was still a gap. “He can jump that, can’t he?”

  Zoey ushered Casper into his makeshift pen and stood in the gap. “Sure. But he won’t. He’s too well trained.”

  Trained or not, he was still a dog. “We can find something to put there later,” Cam said. “Right now, we have to track down food and supplies. Do you want to make the first foray, or shall I?”

  “You go,” Zoey said and sighed. “I should call my sister.”

  “Has your phone been on all this time?” Cam asked her.

  Zoey shook her head.

  “Good because the charging stations have longer lines than the restaurants. Tell you what.” Cam withdrew his phone and switched it on. “Give me your cell number. I’ll text you so you’ll have mine, too.”

  Zoey did, and as he drafted a text to her, he said, “I’m going to turn this off again, but I’ll check it every half hour until I get back.”

  Zoey looked at him with concern. “You think you’ll be gone longer than a half hour?”

  “Definitely.” Cam slipped his phone back into his pocket. “I could see inside the terminal when I walked Casper, and people are packed from one end of the building to the other.”

  Zoey nodded. “Good luck.”

  “I’ll need it,” Cam told her.

  5

  “SO YOU’RE JUST hanging out with some random guy instead of trying to get your flight rescheduled?”

  The call to Kate was not going well, which Zoey could have predicted even without the fourteen texts and voice mails that made her phone buzz and chirp like a mad thing when she turned it on.