by Lisa Childs
The young red-haired woman behind the front desk jumped, and a soft cry of surprise slipped out of her lips. “Oh my!”
“I’m Matteo Rinaldi,” he said.
“I know.” She didn’t introduce herself, though, and there was no nameplate on her desk.
“I’m here to meet with Miranda Fox.”
She emitted a soft, almost pitying sigh and repeated, “I know.”
But she didn’t stand up; she didn’t show him to an office.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
“Right here,” a husky female voice replied.
He recognized that voice all too well; he’d spoken to her more than enough times but without ever getting the answers he’d wanted. He turned and was surprised to see a woman who looked almost eerily similar to Blair, just on a smaller, paler scale. “You’re Miranda...”
“And I’m her younger sister, Tabitha,” the red-haired woman behind the desk finally spoke up.
“You look more like Blair’s sister,” he remarked.
The younger woman snorted. “Everybody says that about them.”
Miranda just arched a pale blond brow. “Blair? So you know. She did tell you.”
“That’s something you should have—before I even went out with her!” he yelled, his rage exploding out of him. “You lied to me! You said all the members were honest—that nobody would play games...”
And Blair had played the ultimate game with him, and she’d beaten him like nobody else ever had.
Miranda didn’t even blink an eye, as if she were used to having disgruntled clients screaming at her in the reception area. Given the way she’d done business with him, he wasn’t surprised.
She just calmly told him, “Come into my office,” as she pushed open a door and stepped back for him to join her.
So maybe she didn’t want everyone to overhear how she’d misled him. Not that there was anyone else in the reception area but her sister, though.
He strode past her into an office that was small but beautiful appointed with brocade wallpaper and luxuriously thick carpet. Kind of like Miranda herself, small but dressed in a designer business suit. She liked nice things. How the hell had she afforded them?
How many men had she personally hoodwinked like her friend had hoodwinked him? Not that Blair had benefited financially from her subterfuge. He wasn’t certain how she’d intended to benefit at all, actually.
“You have opened yourself up for a lawsuit,” he warned her. “You made all these promises about how well you’ve vetted your members, how trustworthy everyone is, and then you help your friend deceive me.”
“How?” she asked.
Her calmness disarmed and confused him, so that he had to blink and ask, “What?”
She walked around her small antique desk and settled onto a small brocade chair behind it. Her voice mild yet, she asked, “How did I help her?”
“You didn’t tell me her real name,” he said. “You didn’t give me her contact information.”
“And I made it clear up front that I wouldn’t do that,” she said. “My members expect privacy. They don’t want to be stalked, especially the women.”
He’d been stalked himself—usually by the women with whom his sister had set him up. They had refused to take his no as an answer...until he’d brought Savannah along with him. Then they’d understood that they hadn’t had a chance. Neither had he, though. She was so damn beautiful.
So beautiful that men might not have taken no as her answer, either. Anger coursed through him at the horrific thought of anyone harassing her.
“Is that why she lied to me?” he asked. “She thought I was going to stalk her?”
“I can’t speak for Blair,” Miranda said. “When she told you her name, didn’t she explain everything to you?”
She’d wanted to but he’d been so damn mad that he’d refused. But then would she have explained anything—even if he’d given her the chance? She’d had many opportunities to tell him the truth before that day, and she hadn’t.
“She didn’t volunteer any information to me,” he said. “I figured it out when she walked into the offices of Private Flights wearing her pilot’s uniform.” Which had been a smaller, more tailored version of Bill’s.
How had he not realized that Bill wasn’t a man? Because Savannah had already had him too distracted.
“I doubt she ever would have told me who she really is if I hadn’t stumbled upon the truth,” he said.
“She was always going to tell you,” Miranda insisted. “She tried to tell you many times.”
He snorted derisively. “When? When she was dressing up as a man and flying my plane?”
“She told me about that, that when you requested a male pilot, you came across as a chauvinist,” she said. “And as a fighter pilot, Blair has dealt with more than her share of discrimination and harassment.”
He tensed with outrage against those who had dared to harass her.
His anger at her was beginning to fade as he considered how hard her life must have been. She’d fought for her country, but she’d probably had to fight her fellow officers as much for the right to do that as she’d had to fight their enemies.
“I know you’re just learning all this about her, but you need to know what she’s been through to understand her.” Miranda persisted. Her voice wasn’t mild anymore but sharp with indignation as she defended her friend. “She’s had to work so hard to become the accomplished pilot and former soldier that she is. The odds were against her. And that’s not even including the challenges of having that family she has.”
“I met her brother.” Despite losing money to him, he actually liked Grant Snyder.
Miranda’s mouth twisted into a grimace of disgust. “Then you know,” she said. “He’s a class A jerk, and the A is for asshole.”
“He speaks fondly of you, too,” Teo shared, amused that the cultured-looking woman could speak so crassly.
Her lips curved into a slight smile. “He’s actually not the worst of them. Their dad was MIA most of their lives, so much so that they probably barely noticed when he died. And their mom was constantly trying to get the father’s attention by playing the part of a Stepford wife their entire marriage. That’s why Blair is so against getting married, which is probably why she didn’t tell you who she really is. She didn’t want you trying to change her like her family and every man she’s ever dated has tried to change her.”
“I don’t understand what anyone would want to change about her,” he said. She was perfect just as she was—but, his aching heart and wounded pride reminded him, for one thing. “Except for her dishonesty.”
Miranda sighed. “She’s not a liar. I know you don’t want to believe me, but that’s why I set up the two of you. Blair is such an honest and straightforward person.”
He really wanted to believe her—so damn badly. But that wasn’t the person he’d met. He’d met Savannah. And then Bill.
“I don’t know why she wasn’t that way with you,” Miranda said. “Except that I think she was scared.” She released a shaky sigh. “And if you knew Blair as well as I do, you’d be shocked as hell that anything could scare her. She’s flown in combat, after all.”
The thought of that—of her being in that kind of danger—scared the hell out of him. But she’d survived it; she was fine. Except now he understood why she’d had that odd reaction to his sister’s pieces of twisted metal Francesca called art. To Blair that wouldn’t have been art; it would have been bad memories.
“Then why would she be scared of me?”
Miranda shook her head. “She wasn’t afraid of you. She was afraid of what she might become with you.”
His head was pounding with confusion. “Who? Savannah?”
“Exactly,” Miranda said, and she slapped her forehead as if she’d been given sudden cla
rification. “That’s exactly who she was afraid of becoming. Her mother.”
“But I didn’t want her to change.”
“You said you didn’t want a female pilot,” she reminded him.
And he groaned. “Not because I was discriminating. It was because of the way her brother talked about her—like she was some kind of warrior princess.”
“And you were afraid you were going to fall for her when you were already falling for Savannah.”
“What a mess,” he murmured. “She’s never going to believe that.”
“I do,” Miranda assured him. “And Blair knows you much better than I do.”
“Yes, she does,” he said. “Because I was open and honest with her.” He’d even told her about his childhood, about how hard it had been. But she’d shared nothing of her life. That ache in his chest continued to gnaw at him. “Because she knows me and knows how I feel about honesty, she shouldn’t have lied to me.”
“She realized her mistake about that right away,” she said. “And I didn’t know about the Bill the pilot thing until yesterday. But I understand it, after everything she went through in order to become a fighter pilot. You struck a nerve with her, brought back all the bad memories.”
Like his sister’s artwork probably had. He could only imagine that it hadn’t been easy for her. It sounded as if nothing had been easy for her, though. Maybe that was why he’d fallen so fast for her—because they’d had far more in common than he’d realized. If he’d only known more about her, maybe he would have handled finding out the truth with a little more sensitivity and less anger. But he should have at least let her explain. Instead he’d acted like an ass.
He groaned and admitted, “I really screwed this up.”
“Go. Talk to her,” Miranda urged him. “She will understand, and she will forgive you. She’s forgiven me for all the times I got her into trouble over the years.”
“She might have, but her brother hasn’t,” Teo warned her. “He’s also not happy that you were involved in this whole mess, either.”
“Of course he isn’t,” she said. But that little smile was lifting the corners of her mouth again. Pissing off Grant Snyder seemed to amuse her.
“I might have to use that,” Teo warned her. “If I need Grant’s help to get Blair to talk to me again.”
“You really screwed up,” she mused.
“I overreacted,” he admitted. But it was only because he had been more vulnerable with Savannah than he’d ever been with anyone else.
And to find out that wasn’t even her name...
He’d been devastated. Now he was even more fascinated. Savannah was Blair Snyder, and Blair Snyder was so much more than Savannah.
She was an incredible woman. A woman he wanted another chance with...if it wasn’t already too late.
He was afraid that it might be, though. That he might have hurt her as badly as he’d been hurting. And that she wouldn’t want to risk that kind of pain again—not even for the pleasure they’d given each other.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
LOUD CLAPPING IN front of her face snapped Blair out of her daydream. She sat up so quickly from where she’d been slumped over her desk that her chair bounced back nearly a foot.
“Wake up!” Grant yelled at her.
She flipped him off. “I’m awake.”
She was always awake—even when she tried to sleep. Because every time she closed her eyes, she saw Teo...naked, moving over her as he eased inside her. But she never lost that hollow feeling she’d had since he walked out on her. And she suspected that she never would.
“You look like you could use some sleep,” Grant said sympathetically.
She shook her head. “What I could use is some work. I need to fly.” Flying was the only thing that made her feel alive yet—that gave her purpose.
She needed that. No. She needed Teo. But he must not have been ready to listen to her yet. She’d tried leaving a message for him with Miranda, but her friend had reminded her that he was no longer a member. And per the rules of Liaisons International, neither of them was allowed to contact him again. She could have ignored her friend’s warning. She could have tried tracking him down herself.
But the last thing she wanted was for him to think that she was stalking him like those other women had, that she was just after his money, too.
“Do I have to clap my hands to get your attention again?” Grant asked.
Heat rushed to her face. “I’m sorry. Were you talking?”
He sighed. “Yes, I was offering you a flight.”
She jumped up. “Great. I’ll take it.”
“You don’t even know where you’re going.”
Anywhere was better than where she was—wallowing in misery. She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Well, if you don’t care, maybe I should take this trip,” Grant mused. “It would be a damn shame to waste Athens on you.”
“Athens? Greece?” Her pulse quickened. It was one of her favorite cities, which her brother damn well knew. She narrowed her eyes and studied his face. “Is this for real?”
“Of course.”
“For a real client?” she persisted. “You’re not just trying to cheer me up?”
He snorted. “Me? Trying to do something nice? Who do you think I am?”
The best brother a girl could have, but she wasn’t about to admit that to him. She couldn’t keep the smile from curving her lips, though. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” he said. “It wasn’t my idea. Client booked the trip himself—needs to get there ASAP, so you don’t have time to pack.”
She glanced down at her wrinkled uniform. “I haven’t done laundry. I don’t even have my overnight bag in my locker.”
“Buy stuff once you get there,” Grant said. “Business is good. You don’t have to worry about money.”
“One of us does,” she teased.
He chuckled. “It’s true I never have. I always come up with some when I need it.”
She suspected it was usually someone else’s. But then if the person was stupid enough to gamble with Grant, he or she probably deserved to lose his or her money.
Her smile slipped away. Teo had played cards with him—despite his hatred of games. Why wouldn’t he give her a chance?
“Don’t,” Grant said, and using the crook of his finger, he lifted her chin. “Don’t keep going there.”
“Where?”
“Wherever you go to beat yourself up for what happened,” he said. “There’s no sense in dwelling in the past. You’ve got to let it go.”
She couldn’t—not when that meant letting Teo go as well. But he was already gone.
And Grant was right. She had to stop dwelling in the past, on what might have been had she been honest with him from the beginning.
She expelled a long sigh and shook off her maudlin thoughts. “Okay, I’m going to Greece.”
“I already got the plane ready for you,” Grant said. “And the client is already on board.”
“What?” she asked. “You okayed this without asking me?”
He shrugged. “I figured you’d be happy to get the hell out of here.”
She was—as happy as she could be. “But you know I always go over the plane myself.”
“You go over all the planes all the damn time,” he said. “You know it’s ready for takeoff.”
But was she? She hadn’t had as much rest as she usually required their pilots to have. But then she’d had several sleepless nights when she’d been flying combat missions, and lack of rest hadn’t affected her flying abilities then. She was fine.
“I’m still going to check it,” she warned him.
“Of course you are.”
She headed out of the office. But Grant stopped her, his hand on her arm. She turned back. “What?
Is there something else?”
He shook his head. “No. Just...”
Her brother rarely lost his words. “What?” she asked again.
He shook his head. “Nothing. I’ve just been worried about you.”
“Now you know how I feel,” she said with a teasing smile. “I worry about you all the damn time.”
He snorted. “Me? Why? I live a boring life.”
“Yeah, right.” Maybe not being totally honest ran her in her family; it just hadn’t affected her until she’d met Matteo Rinaldi.
She turned and walked away, and this time Grant didn’t stop her. It wasn’t until after she’d checked the plane and boarded that she realized he hadn’t told her who the client was who’d booked the wonderful trip to Athens.
But when she saw him already sitting in one of the comfy seats in the back of the Cessna, she wasn’t surprised—although her pulse did quicken. Apparently Grant was trying to take over Miranda’s role as matchmaker.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “You were probably expecting Bill or Grant...” With as angry as he’d been when he’d left, she doubted Teo would have booked this flight himself like Grant had claimed he had.
“Your brother can fly?” Teo asked.
She nodded. “Probably better than I can.” Although he would never admit it, just as he would never admit to whatever he’d done in the navy.
“I doubt that,” Teo said as he stood up and approached where she stood just inside the door. “You’re the best pilot who’s ever flown me anywhere.”
He seemed sincere, but Blair hesitated to believe him—to believe any of what was happening. “But still,” she murmured. “I’m sure you don’t want me flying you anywhere.”
“I want you flying me everywhere,” he said.
She wanted to clap her own hands in front of her face to wake up. She must have finally fallen asleep. Because there was no way that this was really happening...
No way.
“I never had a problem with a female pilot,” Teo said. “I hope you know that I’m not a chauvinist.”
“I know that now,” she said. “But when you told Grant you didn’t want me to fly you anywhere, I had only met you the one time. I didn’t really know you yet. And when you said that, you touched a nerve.”
