Come Fly with Me
Authors: Sherryl Woods
Don't miss this irresistible reader favorite about what happens when you combine work with play from
New York Times
bestseller Sherryl Woods
He was everywhere she turned: the candy counter, the cafeteriaâ¦even next to her on the airplane! At first, entertainment lawyer Lindsay Tabor thought the handsome stranger was trailing her. But it turned out he was none other than Mark Channingâthe elusive screenwriter Lindsay had been sent to track down and sign up.
Mark wouldn't even consider Lindsay's offer unless she accompanied him to his mountaintop ski retreat. Ever the professional, Lindsay didn't know what to make of Mark's persistent attention. And although she hated anything to do with the cold, Lindsay soon found her resistance meltingâand her temperature rapidly rising!
SHERRYL WOODS
Sherryl Woods Booklist
The Sweet Magnolias
Chesapeake Shores
The Devaney Brothers
The Devaney Brothers: Ryan & Sean
The Devaney Brothers: Michael & Patrick
The Calamity Janes
The Calamity Janes: Cassie & Karen
The Calamity Janes: Gina & Emma
The Adams Dynasty
The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter
The Cowgirl and the Unexpected Wedding
The Cowboy and His Wayward Bride
The Cowboy and the New Year's Baby
CHAPTER ONE
L
indsay's hand hesitated in midair, right between the candy bars and the more expensive, but sinfully tempting, gold foil bag of chocolate-covered almonds. Guilty emerald-green eyes glanced at the healthy selection of trail mix, raisins and dried sunflower seeds hanging on a nearby rack, then looked longingly back at the candy. For a woman used to making quick decisions, this simple one seemed to be beyond her tonight.
She'd had a perfectly rotten week of nonstop,
pointless traveling, a full day of endless, mind-numbing meetings, and to top it off she'd been given this lousy out-of-town, weekend assignment that held all the appeal of being asked to tiptoe over quicksand. She deserved a salary increase for this one, and she'd told Trent Langston just that. She deserved a huge, mind-boggling raise, maybe even a promotion. She certainly deserved the candy.
“Go on,” a husky voice, filled with apparent amusement at her indecision, urged in a seductive murmur just over her left shoulder. “Take the candy. In fact, take both of them.”
To strengthen the taunt, a very masculine hand, sprinkled with crisply curling dark hairs, picked up the candy bar and the bag of chocolates and dangled them in front of her.
“It's easy for you,” she retorted, not taking her eyes off the candy and the blunt, well-manicured fingers holding it. “You're not the one who'll have to diet the rest of the weekend.”
A low, disbelieving, sexy-as-hell chuckle greeted the comment.
“It would take more than a little chocolate
to ruin a figure like yours,” the seductive voice replied boldly.
The sincere and decidedly masculine appreciation in that voice at last drew Lindsay's gaze away from the candy. She looked up into dark eyes that danced with the light of a million twinkling stars, eyes that seemed to caress her, even as they teased. Her breath promptly caught in her throat, and the quick retort she'd planned died on her lips, as her gaze traveled over broad shoulders covered in a soft wool shirt of bright-blue plaid and on to narrow hips emphasized by snug-fitting, well-worn jeans. A soft, unspoken “wow” sizzled through her senses and sent them reeling.
He looked exactly like a blatantly sensual advertisement for the rugged outdoorsâcraggy features that spoke of strength and character and fascinating hard living, straight black hair that gleamed like silk and caressed the collar of his shirt, and a tanned complexion that at this time of year hinted at long hours on the beaches of Hawaii or the ski slopes of the Rockies.
She surveyed his attire again, trying not to notice that the muscular body it covered was
sending little laser beams of excitement straight into her. Those clothesâwith this man in themâdefinitely belonged on the ski slopes. With a mountain range behind him and a huge stallion under him, he could lure the most timid female alive into heading directly for the wilderness with a whole knapsack of candy bars on her back. Lindsay, who'd absolutely hated the outdoors until about ten seconds ago, could practically smell the alluring fresh scent of pine and the aroma of coffee brewing over an open fire. If the Colorado scenery were landscaped with more men like this, the weekend might not be quite so bad after all.
Stunned by the impact of his obvious virility on her unusually responsive senses, she drew in a sharp breath, blinked and looked nervously away. Simultaneously she was struck by the oddest sensation that if this incredibly gorgeous man, with his whipcord lean body and intense, discerning eyes, approved of her petite, rounded figure, she certainly had no right to complain or worry about it...even if she had always wanted to be a more intimidating, more alluring five
feet-nine with long, sleek legs and a model's slenderness.
Silently she held out her hand for the candy. The almost instinctive gesture was greeted by a lazy, satisfied smile that created dimples deeper than any crater Lindsay had ever seen. She had a feeling women would do extraordinary, otherwise inexplicable things for a glimpse of those dimples.
The man nodded approvingly. He put the candy into her waiting hand with a slow, lingering, electric touch, then winkedâincredibly long, dark-as-soot lashes sweeping against tanned skin like the soft fluttering of a bird's wing.
And then he simply walked away. Just like that, in a blink of her eyes, he was gone. Vanished, almost as if she'd conjured him up.
But a lingering scent of cologne proved he'd been no figment of her imagination, and suddenly Lindsay experienced the keenest sense of loss she'd felt in years, a reaction that both confused and puzzled her. They had exchanged only a few intimate glances and even fewer words, and yet she was struck by the onset of a totally unfamiliar loneliness. She was torn between standing in line to buy
the chocolate, which she now craved more than ever, and impulsively following the handsome stranger through the airport terminal, as though he were some sort of magical Pied Piper who held the seductive promise of romance in his eyes.
“Ridiculous,” she muttered under her breath, decisively forcing her gaze back to the newsstand clerk who was waiting impatiently for her to pay for her purchases:
The Wall Street Journal
, three weekly news and business magazines, one candy bar
and
one bag of chocolate-covered almonds.
As Lindsay walked slowly through the terminal to the departure lounge for her flight from Los Angeles to Denver, she thought about the startling and certainly unexpected impact of that brief encounter. The image of those dancing black eyes taunted her in a way no other man's had. Those laughing eyes had been filled with such intelligence, such intuition and such a teasing promise of simple, old-fashioned fun, the sort she rarely had and repeatedly told herself she didn't miss.
Mentally she shook herself, irritated by her totally irrational, wayward thoughts. This was par for the course in her emotional life. In her
work as an attorney for a major entertainment studio, she was surrounded by men with sharp minds and even sharper wits. Many of them were even more handsome than the stranger, in a more sophisticated, polished way. But many of them were also egocentric jerks, children in need of constant attention and a steady stream of unquestioning adulation. Not a one of them had ever sparked the sort of sharp sense of sexual awareness that this rugged stranger had. For just a moment there had been this aching tug, this acute yearning deep inside her, as though her body were encouraging her to make a fated match after twenty-nine years of carefully planned, very successful and well-ordered independence.
Of course, when it finally struck, such lightning bolt attraction had to be toward a man she'd never see again, she thought with a sigh. Definitely par for the course.
“Tabor, you've obviously taken one too many late-night flights,” she admonished dryly. “You're suffering from a severe shortage of sleep. Why else would you suddenly want to follow a total stranger to the ends of the earth and back again?”
Perhaps all those coast-to-coast flights had
simply robbed her brain of sufficient oxygen to think rationally any longer. Perhaps she would spend the rest of her days responding only to such sensory stimuli as dark-as-midnight eyes and sexy dimples. Not altogether such a bad fate, she thought with a momentary pang of longing. It was certainly better than going off to Denver and chasing around in the snow and cold after some nut, who obviously didn't want to be found. Unfortunately, though, she was being paid to stalk one incredibly elusive, terribly talented David Morrow, not some apparent vagabond in a blue plaid shirt and jeans, whose lean, muscular build and attractively rugged appearance suggested he probably worked on a construction crew or rounded up cattle whenever he was short of cash.
“Too bad,” she murmured aloud, before forcing her hands to spread open
The Wall Street Journal
.
She had finished the almonds and was halfway through her candy bar and the front page of the paper, when they announced that her flight had been delayed due to a heavy blanket of fog over Denver.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are anticipating
that Stapleton Airport will open again shortly, and as soon as we have word on the opening, the new departure time will be announced. Please remain in the gate area or check back with the agent in approximately one hour. Thank you and we apologize for the inconvenience.”
Lindsay groaned. Not again. Flight delays were a way of life when you flew as much as she did, but she'd never been able to take them in stride. They only added to her anxiety level and they were especially infuriating on nights like tonight when she didn't want to make the trip in the first place. She was dead tired. She hated cold weather. She abhorred snow. And she absolutely despised being sent after some eccentric man, who liked to hide away in the mountains and who'd already made it perfectly clear that he wasn't interested in any offer her company had to make. He'd canceled every meeting they'd scheduled, and his own agent hadn't been able to talk any sense into him. Why on earth did Trent Langston think she'd have any better luck simply by tackling him on his home turf? If anything, he'd have an even greater advantage there.