Read Online Higher Than Eagles (Donovans of the Delta) by Peggy Webb - Free Book Online Page B

plane.
    “Put me down. I can walk.”
    “I’m not taking any chances.”
    “Look, I’ve given in to this kidnapping graciously—”
    “Graciously! You call all that ranting and raving gracious?” He patted her bottom and kept on walking.
    “I never rant and rave. I merely express my opinions.”
    “The way you express your opinions is enough to make the United Nations sit up and take notice.”
    “You used to call it spirit. You used to love it.”
    He still did, but he wasn’t about to tell her. Things were already bad enough for him, with Rachel’s body pressed against him front and back and her fragrance drifting around him like an aphrodisiac. The sooner he got her off his shoulder, the better.
    When they were beside the plane, he lowered her to the ground, but he kept his arm around her waist, holding her close against his chest. The wind caught her hair and blew it back into his face. The soft scent of roses nearly drove him wild.
    “Rachel.” Her name was a sigh on his lips.
    She looked up at him with eyes filled with passion. From the moment he’d walked into her ballroom, she’d known they were fated to come together. Heated by the love song she’d sung to him, spurred by the flame in his eyes, melting from the contact of being flung over his shoulder, she laced her arms around his neck.
    “Kiss me, Jacob.”
    His expression was fierce, then his lips claimed hers. Holding nothing back, she let herself be vulnerable to him. He caught her hips and dragged her closer. Through his jeans, through the heavy satin of her skirt, she felt the heat of him, the size of him.
    “Jacob, Jacob,” she murmured.
    “Ahhh, Rachel. . . .” His mouth seared her skin. “I can’t resist.”
    “Don’t try.” Her head dropped back on her limp neck as he aimed his kisses lower. His tongue found the hollow where her breasts pushed up above the top of her strapless gown. The heat consumed her.
    She caught his shoulders, digging her fingers into the soft leather of his bomber jacket. She wanted him. She was bursting with the need to feel him, to know him once again.
    He kissed every inch of her exposed skin until even the pearls and diamonds at her throat burned her. When he took possession of her mouth, she leaned into him, as eager for him as she’d been six years ago -- before the fight, before her letter, before Bob.
    “Rachel. . . .” He tried to pull away, then found himself drawn back to the mindless madness of her kiss. She was a sorceress, a beautiful alchemist who was changing him, turning him from his purpose.
    With more than a little regret, he put his hand on her shoulders and gently separated them.
    “It’s the heat,” he said, “the damned Biloxi heat.”
    They both knew better. It was not the heat of the night that had them under a spell: It was the heat of passion.
    Rachel saw her advantage and took it.
    “You were never a coward, Jacob,” she taunted.
    “I was never a fool, either.” He jerked off his bomber jacket and slung it around her shoulders. “Here. Wear this. You’ll get cold.”
    “In this heat?”
    “We won’t be in this heat much longer. We’ll be there.” He swept his arm wide to encompass the starlit sky.
    The shock of his statement was enough to cool her ardor.
    “Are you mad?”
    “Yes.” His smile was rueful. “Totally without reason. Certifiably insane.” He opened the door to the cockpit. “You’d do well not to argue with me while I’m in this condition.”
    She balked. “I’m not getting in that airplane.”
    “Yes, you are.”
    “No! I hate to fly. You know that.”
    “Tonight you’ll show me exactly how much you hate the sky. You’ll explain to me precisely why.”
    Rachel glimpsed the personal demons that drove him. The plane rose up beside them, gleaming in the moonlight, a ghostly machine, a diabolical machine that had haunted her since her mother’s death. Her chin went up. She wouldn’t be defeated, not this time.
    “I’ll show you,