Who Needs Mistletoe?

by Kate Hoffmann

“Three islands,” Trey said, pulling a crumpled sheet of paper from his leather messenger bag. “Waruhatu, Pareaa and Suaneva.”

  “Those are all on my list,” she said. She glanced over at him, then reached up to close the cowling over the engine. “All done. I’ll just do the preflight and we’ll be ready to leave in about ten minutes. There are some cold drinks in the cooler over there if you want to grab one. You can stow the cooler behind the front seat, if you’d care to help.”

  She brushed by him as she returned the wrench to the tool cart and Trey caught the scent of her perfume, or maybe it was the flower in her hair. Whatever it was, he found the smell incredibly intoxicating. What was this beautiful girl doing in such a place? he wondered.

  True to her word, they were rolling down the runway ten minutes later, Trey strapped into the passenger seat and Sophie Madigan behind the controls. Though Trey had never been afraid of flying, something about this situation made him nervous. For the first time in his life, he’d placed himself in the hands of a beautiful woman. The most he’d ever surrendered to a woman in the past was his body and even then, it had never been complete surrender.

  The plane smoothly lifted off the runway and soared into a steeply banked turn over the water. As they continued to climb, Trey closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. She seemed to be a very competent pilot, at least so far.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  He opened his eyes to find her staring at him, her brow furrowed. “Yeah.”

  “If you’re going to be sick, there’s a bag under the seat.”

  “I’m not going to be sick,” he said. “I’m just not a big fan of small planes.”

  She shrugged again. “Don’t worry. I can put this plane down anywhere. That’s the benefit of an amphibious plane. Water or land.”

  “How about on the side of that mountain over there?” he said.

  “Why would I want to put it down there?” she asked.

  He’d never met a woman quite so unimpressed with him. Trey knew he was a handsome guy, and charming, quite the catch according to everything he’d read in the tabloids. Although he wasn’t sure how much of the attraction had to do with him, and how much with his money. But now that the trust fund he’d inherited from his grandfather’s estate was virtually gone, he’d had to make some changes.

  In less than a year, when he turned thirty, his father would decide whether to give him his share of the larger Shelton family trust, millions set aside for each Shelton heir, controlled by a man who thought Peter Shelton III had nothing substantial to offer the world.

  To prove himself, Trey had gone to work for Shelton Hotels, focusing on a new division that developed smaller, more exclusive resorts, the kind of properties that appealed to his celebrity friends.

  To Trey’s surprise, he enjoyed the work. He’d found himself building resorts in his head-from the basic architecture to the linens in the rooms. After living in hotels nearly his entire adult life, Trey knew what worked and what didn’t. And he was beginning to wonder if he might have something to offer the family business.

  It was still a rather revolutionary concept-Trey Shelton, giving up the fast life for a real job. He figured he’d decide what to do with his future once he convinced his father to release his share of the Shelton family trust. If he still found the job appealing, then maybe he’d stick around.

  He looked over at Sophie. She seemed quite relaxed behind the controls, as if she’d been a pilot for a long time. “Where did you learn how to fly?” he asked.

  “I just picked it up. I flew all the time with my father, and one day we were doing preflight together and he put me in the pilot’s seat and we took off. He taught me what I needed to know and I got my license.”

  “How old were you?” Trip asked.

  She smiled as she remembered. “I was twelve when I first got behind the controls.” Sophie laughed softly. “I think my dad always wanted a son. So, for a while, I was happy to become that son.”

  “I think you make a much better girl than a boy,” he teased.

  Trey watched her face as another smile curled the corners of her pretty mouth. Maybe she wasn’t immune to his charms, after all. He certainly found Sophie intriguing. He didn’t see a wedding band, so she probably wasn’t married, but beyond that, his radar wasn’t working. He couldn’t seem to read her reactions to him. Had she been flattered by the compliment or just amused at the attempt?

  He reached out, curious to push the issue a bit further. His movement startled her, causing her to draw away. “Sorry,” he said, pointing to her cheek. “You have a smudge of grease there and it’s been bothering me.”

  “Really?” She reached up and rubbed her cheek, missing it entirely. “There?”

  Trey shook his head. “Do you mind?”

  Sophie hesitated, then shook her head. “Not at all.”

  He gently rubbed a spot just above her jaw, the grease wiping away easily. Yet he didn’t stop. Instead, Trey continued to smooth his thumb over her soft skin, fascinated by the silken feel of it. “There,” he finally said. “Perfect.”

  She seemed to be as affected by his touch as he was, shifting uneasily in her seat and trying to focus her attention on the instruments in front of her. If she’d been driving a car, he might have asked her to pull over so they could explore his attraction in a little greater detail. But unfortunately, there weren’t any curbs in the sky and one couldn’t just park a plane in the middle of a flight.

  Trey slowly pulled his hand away. “When will we see our first island?” he asked.

  “I’m heading out to Suaneva first and then we’ll work our way back to Tahiti.”

  They flew for a long time in silence, Trey studying a report on power-generating windmills he’d brought with him in between watching her. He’d been right to call her exotic. Though she spoke like an American, she acted more like the French women he’d known-haughty, aloof, indifferent at times. And then there was a bit of Polynesian in her, as well, in her dress, in the careless addition of a flower behind her ear, in the sexy little tattoo above her ankle.

  She glanced over at him and caught him staring. Trey quickly turned his gaze back to the report.

  “What are you reading?” she asked.

  He held it up, showing her the cover. “Just researching an idea I had. It’s nothing.”

  “Windmills?”

  “They’re ecologically friendly,” he said.

  He’d been turning the idea over in his head ever since his father had put him on the payroll. Why not build an eco-friendly resort in the South Pacific? He’d have to deal with the problems of providing power and water to a small island anyway and there were now methods to do it without impacting the environment.

  “This is not really a good season to be seeing our islands,” Sophie said.

  “I’ve noticed it rains a lot.”

  “It’s the rainy season,” she said with a smile. “Sometimes, it rains for days.” She looked out the window of the plane. “Today is a good day. I can’t promise you that tomorrow you’ll even be able to see anything below us.”

  Trey grabbed his messenger bag from between his feet and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. “Tell me everything you know about Suaneva,” he demanded, anxious to keep her engaged in conversation.

  He listened, silently taking notes as she explained the physical topography of a Polynesian atoll in comparison with an island. But he was less interested in the facts than he was in the sound of her voice.

  “Suaneva is an atoll. An atoll begins with a volcano sticking out of the water,” she explained. She let go of the controls and turned to him to gesture with her hands. But when she saw the startled look on his face, she sent him an apologetic smile. “I set the autopilot.”

  Trey exhaled the breath he’d sucked in. “Oh. Well, fine then.”

  “Coral builds up around the base beneath the water’s surface,” she continued, “and over the years, the volcano top falls away until all that is lef
t is the coral ring and a huge lagoon in the center. Vegetation grows on the ring and beaches form and you have an atoll. They look like little rings in the sea.” She pointed out his window. “There. You see? This atoll is part of the Archipel des Tuamotu. The Tuamotu Archipelago. We are about 150 miles from Pape‘ete. Tahiti is part of les Îles du Vent. The Windward Islands. Mostly mountaintops that haven’t erupted or disintegrated. Although there are many atolls, too. Vous comprenez?”

  He stared at her hands, wondering what it might be like if she actually reached out and touched him. Trey wanted to capture her fingers and pull them to his lips, to kiss each neatly manicured tip until he got a reaction from her. How could such a simple gesture intrigue him so? “Yes,” he murmured.

  “In an atoll, there are often separate islands in the ring and these are called motu. A motu can be very large or quite small, but they are…lower. Flatter than an island like Bora Bora.”

  What he wanted right now didn’t have anything to do with islands or resorts or trust funds. Listening to her voice, watching her beautiful mouth, was pushing his thoughts in a very different direction. If he had his way, he’d demand she land the damn plane so he could drag her into his arms and kiss her. And once he sensed her surrender, he’d strip off all their clothes, lie in the warm sand and make love to her. It wasn’t just a fantasy. There was definitely an attraction between them. He could see it every time their eyes met.

  But as long as they were in the air, nothing could happen. Trey wondered how long it might take to make their tour before heading back to Pape‘ete. He could always just cut the trip short once he saw Suaneva. Hell, maybe it would suit his purposes perfectly and there would be no reason to continue. Or maybe they could simply continue tomorrow, after they’d spent the night together in his bed.

  “How long before we reach Suaneva?” he asked.

  S OPHIE GLANCED DOWN AT HER hands clutching the steering yoke of the plane. They were white-knuckled, frozen in place, the only part of her body that looked the way she felt.

  It all happened so quickly Sophie hadn’t found time to think. From the moment her gaze had focused on this gorgeous man, she hadn’t been able to breathe. And the instant Trey Shelton took her hand in his, she’d felt a current race through her body, setting every sense on edge.

  She couldn’t remember a man ever affecting her in such an intense and immediate way. Had she possessed any common sense at all, she would have refused to take him up. Flying with Trey was like flying drunk! Every nerve in her body had shifted into overdrive. The scent of his cologne filled her head and the feel of his warm hand still tingled on the tips of her fingers. His voice sent a shiver down her spine and she could barely stand to look at him without moaning.

  Of all the times for her to fall apart, this was the worst possible moment. A man as sexy as Trey didn’t just walk into her life every day. And if she had any intentions of seducing him, she couldn’t make it seem easy. Her mother had taught her a lot of valuable lessons about the opposite sex, and one of the most important was to let the man take up the chase. She wanted to be elusive and mysterious, but right now she just felt breathless, giddy-desperate. She’d vowed to have a man by New Year’s and she was a week ahead of schedule.

  Thank goodness they were flying over Suaneva, she mused. At least she had conversation to distract her from studying his handsome face and incredible body. Yes, she’d imagined him undressed more than once and as they’d flown northwest from Pape‘ete, she’d managed to catalog each perfect feature.

  He had an attitude that many American men possessed, an easy confidence that made his masculinity even more powerful. His smile was stunning, his features rugged yet refined, and his hazel eyes were so penetrating she thought he could see right through her flimsy facade.

  “Suaneva is one of the smaller atolls,” she said in a shaky voice. “Though the lagoon is small, there’s a fair amount of land to build on.”

  Trey peered out the window. “I was told someone already tried building a resort there.”

  “Yes, but I don’t know what’s left of it. Can you see anything down there?” She banked the plane steeply to the right to give him a better view, but the moment she eased into the turn, Sophie felt the engine hesitate.

  A few seconds later, it sputtered. “Merde,” she murmured. Maybe it was just moisture in the fuel line. That sometimes happened during the rainy season. The engine cut out and Sophie’s instincts immediately kicked in. She switched to the auxiliary tank and tried the ignition, but to her surprise, it wouldn’t turn over. The battery was dead and without it, there’d be no way to restart the engine.

  “What’s wrong?” Trey asked.

  She and her father had practiced dead-stick landings on several occasions and his words came back to her now. Keep the nose up, maintain airspeed and find a smooth place to land.

  “The engine cut out,” Sophie replied, attempting another start.

  “I can see that,” he said, his voice laced with concern. “Don’t you think you ought to start it up again?”

  “I’m trying. But I need to pull us out of this turn first.” She lined herself up with the tiny lagoon below, then pushed the ignition for the engine again. There was no response.

  “I’m going to have to put us down,” she said.

  “What?”

  She heard the panic in his tone. “Don’t worry. We’ll land, and I’ll radio for help. We’ll be fine. I’ve done this before.”

  “Run out of gas in midair?”

  Sophie shook her head. “We didn’t run out of gas. I think there’s moisture in the fuel. I drained the sumps, but sometimes this happens.”

  “Sometimes you crash?” he asked.

  “No. Usually, the engine will start up again. But the battery seems to be dead. Don’t worry. I can put us safely down on the lagoon.” She glanced over at him to see a dubious expression on his face. “You’re not going to die, Mr. Shelton. It might be a bumpy landing, so make sure you’re strapped in. If the plane flips in the water, kick open the window and get out as fast as you can.”

  “I knew I should have trusted my instincts,” he muttered. “The moment I saw the inside of that hangar, the moment I saw you fixing that engine, I should have just turned around and walked out. But no, I brushed my doubts aside. You were beautiful and I figured, why not spend the afternoon trying to seduce you? This is exactly what I deserve. I put my need to get laid in front of my need to keep breathing, and now I’m about to die.”

  “You’re not going to die,” Sophie repeated, a warm blush rising on her cheeks. He had wanted to seduce her? The thought made her dizzy with desire. She drew a shaky breath and pointed to the instrument panel. “I want you to watch this gauge. This is my airspeed. I need you to call it out to me.” She could keep an eye on the gauge herself, but this would give him something to do.

  She ran through the checklist in her head, her father’s voice speaking to her. Maintain your composure, fly the airplane, watch your glide speed. Sophie adjusted the flaps and lined the plane up with the near end of the lagoon. Landing the plane without power would be tricky, but she was more worried about coral heads in the lagoon tearing apart the plane’s floats or stopping their forward motion once they hit the water. If they hit coral, it might flip the plane. If they hit the beach too fast, they’d flip, as well. She banked slightly, determined to give herself as much water to work with as possible.

  She drew another deep breath, said a silent prayer and began her descent to the lagoon. If they died, she’d never get to enjoy sex again, much less sex with a man as beautiful as Trey Shelton. So, she’d just have to make sure she landed the damn plane safely.

  Trey called out her airspeed, but Sophie could feel the plane respond. Outside, the air rushed by and she was amazed by the silence that surrounded them. For a moment, she worried she might be coming in too fast and may overshoot her landing zone, but then the headwind picked up and the plane drifted lower.

  And then, to her relief
, they touched down on the water. The plane skimmed toward the water’s edge and she held her breath, ready to use the rudder to spin them around if it looked like they might be in trouble. But in the end, the plane gently slid to a stop twenty feet from the shore of the lagoon.

  With trembling hands, Sophie unhooked her seat belt and shoved her shoulder against the door of the plane. The door gave way and she tumbled out, falling into waist-deep water. Floundering, she struggled to the shore, her heart slamming in her chest.

  The adrenaline was pumping so fast she felt as if she could run a mile in ten seconds flat. When she reached the beach, she braced her hands on her knees and gulped in a deep breath, trying to slow her pounding heart.

  “Shit, that was incredible,” Trey shouted as he followed her to the shore. “You’d think that was the way we were supposed to land. I mean, you just set us down perfectly.” He stood in front of her, his khakis soaked, his hands braced on his hips. “How did you do that?”

  She looked up at him, taking in his awestruck expression, still gasping for breath. Then, with a burst of energy, Sophie lurched forward, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

  Trey stumbled back, grasping onto her waist to balance them both since Sophie’s knees had gone boneless beneath her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pushed his other hand through her hair, tossing her scarf aside. Sophie was aware of every detail of the kiss, the way his mouth opened beneath hers, the sweet taste of his tongue, the immediate rush of desire that seemed to propel them forward.

  Slowly, he pulled her down into the sand, never breaking contact. He stretched out beside her, his hand smoothing along her thigh until it reached her backside. Sophie moaned softly, rolling over on top of him, pressing her hips against his.

  His reaction to the kiss was immediate, his erection hard against her belly evidence of that fact. Sophie reached between them and touched him, slowly rubbing her palm against his desire. This was crazy, but yet, it seemed so right. Had they been over the ocean, they might be slowly sinking to the bottom right now, both of them drowned, never to be found.