Kiss Me Katie! & Hug Me Holly! Read online

  But today he looked at her differently. With a good amount of hunger still, yes, but she had a feeling that look just might match her own. There was more though, there was—

  “Mmm-mmm good,” Holly said over Katie’s shoulder, staring at Bryan and licking her chops.

  Katie’s mood shattered. “What are you doing out here?”

  “Tracking down a stubborn vice president who forgot to pick up his messages.” She smiled at Matt who was a plane length away. He had a stack of files in his hand, his glasses on his nose and his deep-in-work expression on his face, until he caught Holly’s smile.

  Flustered, he smiled back and…dropped his files.

  Katie stared at him. Why was it whenever she saw Holly, Matt wasn’t far behind? Or was it whenever she saw Matt, Holly wasn’t far behind?

  Before she could digest this, a beefy trucker lumbered into the hangar.

  “Delivery,” the man said gruffly, consulting his clipboard which had seen better days and had a sticker across the top of it that said Bite Me.

  Holly gave the man the once-over as she walked toward him. “Sugar, don’t you guys usually deliver parts to the back of the hangar?”

  “Um…yeah.” He swallowed hard, clearly rendered an idiot by Holly’s wide, welcoming smile. “I don’t have parts today, it’s a truckload of office supplies. Ordered by—” he referred to his clipboard “—Katie Wilkins.”

  “A truckload?” Katie frowned. “But I only ordered the usual. Pencils, paper, stuff like that.” She’d been distracted lately, sure, but could she have been that distracted? She glanced at Bryan, felt her pulse race, and admitted the truth. “It couldn’t be more than a box or so,” she said with one last hopeful protest.

  “Not according to the order slip, lady. You’ve got an entire truckload of paper here.”

  Everyone looked out the front window, where the delivery truck had been parked. The back door opened with a loud clang and two more beefy men prepared to unload.

  “I don’t need that much computer paper,” Katie protested.

  “You ordered it, lady, not me. And it’s not computer paper, it’s toilet paper. A truckload of toilet paper.”

  BY THE END of the day Katie had heard every single toilet paper joke she could take.

  Needing…something, she waited until everyone had gone, then made her way to hangar two where the overnight clients had tied down their planes.

  The hangar was huge, and since the walls were metal, every little sound echoed. Dark had long ago fallen so she should have been nervous, would have been nervous in the past, but for some reason tonight, she wasn’t.

  She flipped on one low light and stepped inside to be immediately swamped by her senses. The hazy perceptions from the low light, the scent of aviation fuel, the chilly breeze that always raced through because of the high ceilings, she experienced them all.

  If anyone could see her right now they’d wonder at her strange urge to come stare into the darkness at airplanes. But she didn’t care what anyone thought—a first for her. She simply wanted to please herself, and the heck with all the others.

  Another first.

  At least five silent planes greeted her, maybe more. She couldn’t see into the far stretches of the yawning hangar. They drew her, these sleek, fast aircraft. Strange, given it had been a plane that once upon a time had destroyed her entire life.

  But irrational and terrifying as it was, she did indeed harbor a secret passion for airplanes. Bryan had seen that passion in her and that had terrified her too. He’d seen past her guard, had been able to read her so well when no one else ever had.

  Scary stuff, indeed.

  She realized she stood in front of Bryan’s plane, her hand on the metal like a lover’s touch as she was gazing up, wondering what it felt like to sit inside, what it felt like to be high in the sky, soaring wild and free without a thought or care.

  “It takes both,” came a deep, familiar voice behind her, assuring her that she’d spoken out loud. “Thought and care.”

  8

  “SORRY,” Bryan murmured, looking anything but.

  Katie had been so wrapped up in her thoughts she hadn’t heard him come up behind her.

  His dark gaze settled on hers, full of a whole host of things that made her heart race. “I’d pay big bucks for whatever you’re thinking right now,” he said.

  “Me? I’m just thinking…” What? That he was the most startlingly beautiful man she’d ever seen? Most definitely. That she was beginning to be sorry he wasn’t the type to settle down? Yep, that too. That she wished with a sudden shocking urge she could kiss him again, without the white beard and fake belly? Oh, yeah. “I’m just thinking it’s probably past time I get on home. I—”

  Bryan laughed and moved even closer, his broad shoulders blocking out the one low light. “Just thinking about home, huh?”

  Yeah. Home. Which had a bed. Which she could imagine Bryan in, the sheets twisted around his naked body. He would have a beautiful physique to match that beautiful face, she thought, and given his personality, and how he attacked life with full gusto, she could only imagine what a fabulous, giving, earthy, uninhibited lover he’d be.

  He let out another low, sexy laugh. “You sure that’s all?”

  “Yes.”

  “The way you’re stroking my plane, Katie, makes me think you’re not telling the truth.”

  With horror, she glanced down at her hand, which was indeed still moving over the side of the plane with slow, methodical, loving strokes. With a small, choked sound, she jerked her hand back, but Bryan took it in his and brought it up to his mouth.

  “Tell me,” he whispered against her skin.

  “M-my thoughts?”

  He nodded, and nibbled at her knuckles, then soothed the spot with a soft, surprisingly tender, openmouthed kiss.

  She let out a shaky breath, but it ended in an uncontainable moan when his tongue darted out and drew her finger into his mouth, which he slowly sucked while holding her gaze captive in his.

  Her knees, which she’d firmly locked at his first touch, turned into jelly.

  “Your thoughts,” he reminded her.

  “Bryan, when you put your hands and mouth on me, I can’t think at all.”

  She’d expected a flare of triumph at that, but he simply closed his eyes, slipped an arm around her waist and dropped his forehead to hers. “So honest,” he murmured. “So sweet. I want to taste you, Katie.”

  Quickly losing touch with her rational side, she searched her brain for something to slow down the moment, to give her some breathing room. “You seem to feel that way right here a lot. I’ve seen you in action.”

  “What?”

  “Holly. Remember that? Her lips locked on yours? Not to mention her legs wrapped—”

  “I remember.” He dropped his hand from her side. His eyes went curiously flat. “I didn’t kiss Holly.”

  “No, she kissed you.”

  “You trust me that much at least.”

  “I understand there’s a difference between kissing and being kissed.”

  “Do you?” he murmured. “I wonder.”

  The sudden flicker of amusement in his gaze confused her.

  “Come here,” he said abruptly, and shouldered open the plane. He tugged her along behind him, until they stood inside.

  “I’m going to tell you something I wouldn’t admit to anyone else.” He lowered his voice as if he were parting with a state secret, his voice husky with mirth. “I’ve never kissed a woman here.” He still held her hand tightly, as if he thought she’d bolt at the first opportunity. “Never.”

  “But you’ve been kissed by a woman here. Is that it?”

  “As you said, there’s a big difference between the two.” He leaned back against the wall, put his hands down at his sides, open-palmed against the wall. He should have looked helpless and vulnerable in that position, but he looked about as helpless as a lion out for a hunt. He spread his legs a bit so he and she were the