Jordan Summers (3 page)

Jeremy peeked over her shoulder. “I could just eat him up.” His jaw snapped shut and he smacked his lips for emphasis.

Delaney chuckled, and turned to look at Jeremy. “I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t think he’s gay.”

Jeremy arched one perfectly sculpted brow and tugged at his crisp navy uniform. “Who cares? Give me an hour and I’ll turn him.”

It took a second for Delaney to register what he’d said, then she burst out laughing. Jeremy certainly made the job entertaining, and she was beyond grateful after the hellish week she’d spent in Dallas training. She glanced around the corner of the galley wall once again.

Jack Gordon stared directly at her, amusement dancing over his provocative features. Her heart moshed against her ribs. She took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “He’s merely an assignment,” she murmured to herself.
Expendable…
Delaney choked, then quickly ducked back into the galley.

“Do I look okay?” Jeremy asked as he combed his receding hair and straightened his tie.

“You look fine,” she told him, reaching out to stop him in his tracks.

“What’s the matter?” He frowned. “Does my breath stink?” He blew into his cupped hand and sniffed.

“No, it’s fine.”

“Then let me go, my prince is waiting.”

“Sorry to do this to you, buddy, but this one’s all mine.”

D
ELANEY STROLLED
down the aisle, shutting overhead bins. Her mind accepted then rejected various ideas of how to approach Jack Gordon. Time was running out. There was barely a week left for her to get the information she needed and stop the shipment from being sold. She also needed to get close enough to plant the bug McMillan had given her. Delaney reached Jack’s row and glanced down at his lap. He held a Zero Halliburton aluminum briefcase in his hands.

“Would you like me to stow that for you, sir?” she asked, hoping he gave it to her so she could search the contents.

“That won’t be necessary.” His fingers flexed and he clutched the case tighter.

Delaney’s eyes narrowed. What was so important inside the case that he didn’t want to give it up? “FAA regulations state that all carry-on items must be stowed for taxi, takeoff and landing. If you can’t fit the bag under the seat in front of you, I’ll have to find a spot in an overhead bin or check it.”

He smiled, but his grip tightened almost imperceptibly. “I’ll make it fit,” he said, carefully sliding the briefcase forward under the seat in front of him.

Delaney opened her mouth to say more, but the captain took that moment to announce that the aircraft had been cleared for departure. “Flying time from Phoenix to Los Angeles will be one hour and twenty minutes. Flight attendants take your seats.”

She returned to her jumpseat and began to strap in. Her fingers trembled as she slipped the flat ends into the buckles and pulled the shoulder straps tight. The engines roared and the plane readied for takeoff. Delaney felt the color leech from her skin as they picked up speed.

She started to whisper the mantra she’d created in class as the front end lifted, slowly followed by the tail section.

“We’re all going to die.”

“We’re all going to die.”

“We’re all going to die.”

There was something perversely helpful about it.

They hit an air pocket and Delaney braced. The plane rocked back and forth like a seesaw, while the pilots struggled to steady it. Delaney followed every movement in her mind, knowing it could be her last.

“What’s happening?” she asked Jeremy as full-blown panic set in.

“A little turbulence.”

“I can feel that, but why isn’t it stopping?” Delaney shushed him, before he could answer. “I think I heard something. Was that an engine stalling? Aren’t they supposed to hum?”

Jeremy blinked, then furrowed his brow. “When did you say you finished training?”

“Two days ago.”

“I suppose that explains it,” he said.

“What?”

“The engines are fine. I think the pilots would’ve notified us if we needed to prepare the cabin for an emergency landing. They’re funny that way.”

The aircraft gave one final jerk, then calmed. A ding sounded a moment later followed by an announcement from the cockpit.

“We’re finally out of the rough air, folks, so we’ve turned off the fasten seat belt sign. You’re free to move about the cabin, but we ask that while you’re seated please keep your seat belts at least loosely fastened.”

Jeremy leaned in close to her ear. “Next time, you might want to keep your expression calm and try not to say ‘we’re all going to die’ quite so loud. You’re scaring the passengers.” He shook his head and unfastened his seat belt, muttering something about rookie flight attendants under his breath.

J
ACK
G
ORDON
covertly watched the female flight attendant at the front of the cabin. Light brown hair and chocolate-colored eyes dominated her girl-next-door features. There was nothing special about her appearance, but Jack could still feel the scalding impression her round bottom had left on the front of his jeans.

His entire body had tensed in awareness and he hadn’t relaxed yet. For that reason alone, she fascinated him. Long pale fingers pulled at the seat belts, pressing her small breasts together, until she managed to free herself. He followed the delicate rise and fall of her chest, trying to imagine what he’d find if he peeled back her uniform shirt. Lacy material, pale globes, taunt peaks. He swallowed hard, his throat suddenly constricted.

Her brown eyes widened with each bump of the aircraft. At one point, she’d actually clutched her heart and paled. It was as if she’d never flown before. Her actions screamed
newbie
, but he noticed something else that he’d never witnessed in an airline attendant: fear.

She was doing her best to hide it, but the emotion remained. Jack had the overwhelming urge to go to the front of the plane and hold her, reassure her that everything was going to be all right. He had no idea where these protective urges came from, but there was no denying they were there. He forced himself to stay put.

An airline attendant who was afraid to fly? Jack shook his head at the crazy thought. He was probably reading too much into her expression.

She rose and walked into the galley, head held high and shoulders back, leaving no indication that the fear had ever been there. The gentle sway of her lean hips accented her bottom. The material of her uniform cupped the soft arc lovingly. Jack gripped the armrest, his thumbs stroking the sides as if he longed to touch the attendant.

He shook himself. Why was he acting like this when he had women on speed dial available? He wasn’t hard up or desperate. Maybe he’d grown tired of the same ol’ same ol’.

Lately, Jack’s thoughts had turned to settling down. It wasn’t as if his biological clock was ticking. He had plenty of time to find the right woman. He needed someone who could look beyond his money. Someone he didn’t have to lie to about his past.

Jack had grown tired of the lies a long time ago, but he’d learned the hard way not to tell the whole truth. Women of quality did not want to date ex-arms dealers. He’d retired and moved onto a safer profession of buying and selling exquisite art, but his present occupation didn’t eliminate his past or diminish the restlessness he felt.

Not that he had any plans to date this flight attendant. He was too busy moving his art collection from his California home to his new Phoenix digs to get involved. Maybe once that was taken care of, he’d reconsider.

Despite those reasons, Jack couldn’t deny his interest in this particular woman. She made him burn, when others couldn’t produce a spark.

D
ELANEY STOCKED
the beverage cart. The plane continued to climb, but if she didn’t start now she wouldn’t finish her drink service in time to plant a bug in Jack Gordon’s suit coat.

From his earlier behavior with his luggage, she was convinced he was up to something. The question was what? It wasn’t as if he’d walked on with a bag full of weapons. Security would’ve frowned upon that.

She glanced around the corner of the galley wall. He was still staring in her direction. The man hadn’t taken his eyes from her since she’d strapped into her jumpseat. His attention made Delaney’s skin itch and her nerves tingle.
Was it hot in here?
She wiped her brow. She couldn’t allow him to rattle her. She’d get caught if she did.

Delaney didn’t want to think about how his gaze made her body ache, her senses more alert. At one point, she’d known he was staring at her breasts. She could still feel the heat his look generated.

Feelings have no room on this mission, she reminded herself.

She shut the beverage cart door and pushed it into the aisle. It was like trying to steer a possessed grocery cart with four bum wheels. Delaney swore the metal contraption would be the death of her, if the plane didn’t take care of her first. The cart shimmied and squeaked row by row as she worked her way down the aisle, pouring drinks for the first-class passengers.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Delaney asked.

“What do you have?” the man in row four countered.

The cart jiggled. “Not a lot of time, sir,” she said, glancing down the aisle at Jeremy, who was slowly working his way toward her. She’d never get her drinks done at this rate.

The man’s eyebrows rose to his hairline, before he eventually asked for a soda.

Delaney had made it two more rows into her service when a call button went off behind her. She turned to see a woman raise her glass in the air. “I’d like another,” the woman called out.

“I’ll be right with you, ma’am,” she said, turning back to finish her service.

The woman swirled the ice in her glass, then shook it like a pair of dice in a Yahtzee cup. Delaney gripped the cart until her knuckles turned white.
Don’t do it, lady.
“Yes?” She swung around to the woman again, a smile painted on her face.

“I said I’d like another drink.”

Delaney took a deep breath and silently counted to ten. “I heard you, ma’am, but I have to serve the rest of my section before I hand out seconds.”

“I want another drink now!” The woman reached for the call button and pressed it repeatedly like a clockwork monkey. Delaney set the brake on her cart. It threatened to roll down the aisle. She stepped harder until she heard a faint click. The cart stayed put.

Delaney strode toward the woman, picturing how she planned to rip her fingernails off, then pluck her nose hairs out one by one.

Undoubtedly sensing the woman’s impending demise, Jeremy rushed forward past Delaney before she could reach the woman. He stepped in front of her, blocking Delaney from her destination. “Watch and learn,” he said, then faced the disgruntled passenger. “Is there a problem here?”

“She won’t give me another drink.” The woman pointed at Delaney with her middle finger, using the hand that gripped her cup.

“Ma’am, you’d better put that finger away.” Delaney stepped forward.

“I said I’d handle this.” Jeremy shot Delaney a warning glance. “I believe she’s still serving her first round, ma’am.”

The woman quickly jerked sideways to glare at them. “I don’t care what in the hell she’s doing. I said I want a drink and I want it now.”

Jeremy’s demeanor changed subtly. He straightened his shoulders and stared down at the woman over his generous nose. “Honey, let me tell you something. I want a lot of things, but I don’t always get them.”

“But—”

“I’m not finished,” he said, cutting her off. “There’s only room for one queen on this aircraft and it ain’t you.” Jeremy slapped the call button off, and then proceeded down the aisle to finish his beverage service.

The woman gaped at his retreating back in stunned disbelief, before turning forward in her seat. The passengers around her snickered behind their in-flight magazines.

Hands sticky from soda, Delaney proceeded with her beverage service. She reached Jack Gordon’s row and paused, locking the cart in place. “Can I get you something to drink, sir?”

Jack smiled. “Tomato juice, please.”

Her heart kicked up a notch as she tore her gaze away from his face. She grabbed a plastic cup and plunged it into the ice bag sitting on top of her cart with a little too much gusto. The cart shook and moved forward an inch.

“Stay,” she said, daring the trolley to move—which was a mistake.

Light turbulence bounced the occupants of the cabin.
Please make it stop.
Her heart thudded wildly and her palms started to sweat. The captain made an unintelligible announcement and the seat belt sign came back on. Fingers trembling, Delaney poured some of the tomato juice into the cup, using her wrist to brace herself on the handle of the beverage cart.

The plane climbed steadily toward a higher altitude. She turned to hand the drink to Jack Gordon. He reached for it, but couldn’t quite grasp it. Delaney stretched sideways, accidentally bumping the cart with her hip. The beverage trolley began to roll…and roll…and roll.

With an open can of tomato juice in one hand and a full glass in the other, Delaney watched in horror as the beverage cart picked up speed, rumbling down the aisle like an avalanche of steel. She dropped the juice onto what she thought was the tray table. It landed with a thick
ker-plunk
in Jack’s lap, covering his jeans in red goo.

He yelped. “What the—”

“Look out,” she screamed, ignoring the man beside her.

Jeremy leapt out of the way, but somehow managed to land in the lap of a hunky California surfer dude. The cart roared past him, but he didn’t appear to be in any hurry to stand. He’d thrown his arms around the man’s neck, brushing his sun-bleached shoulder-length hair away from his tie-dyed T-shirt.

“Barbie, look out!” That wasn’t her given name, but since Delaney couldn’t bring herself to call the doll-like woman Barbara, Barbie would have to do.

With the grace of a ninja, the blond flight attendant spun, sticking her high-heeled foot out in front of her to stop the cart dead. She glanced up, brushing a stray hair away from her flawless face. The cabin erupted in applause, before quieting to stare at Delaney.

Delaney raised her hand in apology. The blonde shrugged before continuing to serve drinks as if nothing happened. Heat infused Delaney’s face as she glanced at Jack.

“I’m sorry, sir. I have a cleaning slip in the closet. If you come with me to the front of the aircraft, I’ll try to get that stain out. I don’t suppose you brought a change of clothing aboard.”

He shook his head and laughed. “I’ve never seen a runaway beverage cart. What do you do for an encore?”

“Stick around and find out.”

“Somehow I think it would be worth it.” He grinned then. “I guess I should have ordered water,” he said, glancing down. He dabbed at the tomato juice ineffectively with his napkin.

“Let me get that cleaning slip. If you want to make your way to the front of the cabin, I’ll be right with you,” Delaney repeated, moving to the closet where Jeremy had stored the jacket.

She plucked a cleaning slip from the stack situated at the top of the closet on a small shelf, then began to search the clothing for seat numbers. Jeremy, the flirt, had been busy. There were at least nine jackets hanging in the closet. Despite that fact, it only took her a second to find Jack’s suit coat. She glanced down the aisle to ensure he wasn’t watching, then stuck a pinlike tracking device into the lining of his jacket.