“Over my dead body.” He said this so evenly it took a moment for her to process the words.
“Hey,” Shayne said through the door. “You going to stay in there all night, because we’re getting tired of trying to eavesdrop from out here. Can’t hear a damn thing.”
Noah never took his gaze off Bailey. “Go away,” he called out.
“Yeah. Can’t do that.”
It was hard to think with his body pressed against hers, with his hands…oh Lord, those hands. One was still on her breast, the other cupping her bottom, pressing her against the hard ridge in his jeans. “Noah,” she whispered.
“Right.” He pushed away, waiting while she straightened her clothes, the ones he’d just been trying to get her out of, then opened the door.
Shayne was propping up the wall, arms casually crossed, all laid-back and easy-going stance, but nothing about his eyes was laid-back and easy-going.
“Where’s the ‘we’?” Noah asked him.
Shayne lifted a shoulder. “Lied. I sent Brody on my last charter; he’s gone until morning. You can thank me later. Maddie needs you to sign something ASAP. She’s waiting at her desk.”
“Fine.” Noah turned to Bailey. “I’ll be right back.”
Shayne waited until Noah was out of range before he looked at Bailey. “So.”
“I’m so sorry about the visitors.”
“Yeah. Bad-Breath and Shit-For-Brains said you were a dangerous and crazy thief.”
Bailey lifted her chin. “I realize that you have no reason to believe anything I say, but I’m not a thief.”
“Well then, it’s a good thing I don’t listen to people whose necks are wider than their brains, isn’t it. Look, I make up my own mind on people. And my mind says you’re in over your head, but you’re not a thief. In any case, Noah believes in you, and that’s good enough for us.”
Bailey stared at him, a little stunned at the blind trust. Before Noah had come along, she’d have said she didn’t believe such a thing even existed. And now…and now she only wished she could bring herself to experience it firsthand instead of simply witnessing the beauty. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“Don’t thank me yet.”
Her heart, warmed only seconds before, chilled.
“Because while I’m not locking up the silver, I do think you’re dangerous.” He looked pointedly past Bailey, where beyond the reception area, Noah was bent over Maddie’s desk, pen in hand.
Bailey looked at him, too. Hell, she couldn’t stop looking at him. Long, built, gorgeous, he was nodding at something Maddie was saying. His hair had fallen over his forehead, and he carelessly shoved it back. Maddie reached up and squeezed his arm, and he tugged at a strand of her hair.
Easy affection.
Easy camaraderie.
God, to have people in her life like that. She had Kenny, she knew that no matter what Noah thought, but Kenny had been gone a long time, and nothing about that was going to change.
“Bailey.”
Bracing herself, she met Shayne’s sharp eyes.
“Be careful with him.”
Even standing as casual and at ease as he was, the worry sat heavily in every line of his face, and her immediate reaction of defensiveness softened. “Noah is in no danger from me, Shayne.”
“Isn’t he?”
If anyone was going to get hurt when this was over, Bailey was fairly certain it would be her. She was already nursing a broken heart. “No.”
He looked at her for a long moment, then nodded.
“Thank you for what you did today,” she said. “For everything. Please tell Brody, too. I can never thank any of you enough-”
“Yes, you can.” He glanced at Noah, then back at her. “You can thank us by not hurting him.”
And then he walked away.
Bailey watched him go, drawing in a deep breath, then slowly letting it out.
Noah was a wanderlust, a man who lived gleefully on the edge of danger and adventure, and had the scars to prove it, both inside and out.
She couldn’t hurt a man like that…
Could she?
Or had she already, by not trusting him? The truth was, it was herself she hadn’t trusted, not him. And she needed to tell him that.
“Hey.”
Whipping around at the hand on her shoulder, she stared into his face.
“Let’s go,” he said.
In spite of what she’d done-and not done-he was taking her to Cabo. Now. Her heart squeezed. “Noah-”
“Look, I don’t want to argue about this.”
Male code for, I’m done with this conversation. “Same plane?” she asked.
“Yes.” But he didn’t look at her, and in fact, led her to the front door of Sky High Air, not to the tarmac. Pulling her outside, he kept a watchful eye on everything around them as he lead her to a sports car. Night had fallen, though as was typical for Southern California, the temperature had not.
“This isn’t a plane,” she said, eyeing the BMW.
“Nope.” He unlocked the door and waited for her to get in, which she didn’t.
“Aren’t you going to ask me about the men?” she asked.
“I’m done asking. I want you to tell of your own free will.”
Blind trust. “I’d…like to do that, but I also really need to get to Cabo. Are we driving there?”
He sighed, and scrubbed a hand over his jaw, making the two-day growth there rasp in the quiet air. “You need some sleep. Hell, I need some sleep.”
“But-”
“Whatever we’re going to face down there, we can face in the morning.”
She looked into his face and saw exhaustion, and knew it was mirrored on her own as well. “I can get another pilot-”
“I said I’d fly you there, and I meant it. Just come home with me for tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll take you where you need to go, I promise.”
He was tense, braced for battle, but even she wasn’t that selfish. He’d done everything she’d asked and more, so much more. It was her turn. She nodded, and going up on tiptoe, pressed her mouth to his jaw. “Thank you,” she whispered against his skin. “Thank you for doing this.”
With a low sound, he banded his arms around her and squeezed tight, burying his face in her hair. “Cabo,” she heard him whisper, and then shudder. “Jesus, it figures.”
She lifted her head to look into his eyes. “What do you mean?”
He stared at her for a long moment, then shook his head. “Nothing. Let’s go.”
He made a quick stop at a local pizza joint for a large pizza and a six-pack of sodas, and when she looked at him, he sighed and added a salad as well.
Not used to having her mind read, or having someone even care what she thought for that matter, she found herself smiling.
He didn’t smile back, but took her hand. He drove about ten minutes into the Burbank Hills, up a winding road where at the apex of every turn she caught a breathtaking view of the city below. Finally, he pulled into a long driveway and stopped outside a house with more of the breathtaking view.
He turned off the engine, let out a breath.
“Pretty house,” she said.
“I rent it.” He looked at the place as if still half surprised to find himself living there. “I’ve never lived in a house before.”
“Never? Not growing up?”
“Definitely not while growing up. When I came to the States, I got shuffled around a lot. That kind of stuck with
