Page 39 of Mountain Target

13

Valentina

It was still dark when the helicopter picked them up. She scrambled up after Alex, hyper-aware of Beau’s solid presence behind her, glad not to end up on her face.

She was introduced briefly to the pilot, a competent-looking woman with long, curly red hair, and to a handsome man with windswept blond hair and a picture-perfect smile who was already sitting down inside.

Alex picked up two headsets, handing one to her. She put it on quickly, amazed as the throbbing mechanical sound all but disappeared.

“Ryland Harrison. My friends call me Ry,” the blond man said, smiling engagingly at her.

Although the man spoke quietly, Val heard him easily through the headset.

“Pleased to meet you,” Val replied.

“Don’t be fooled,” Alex muttered testily. “Everybody calls him Ry. Not just his friends.”

The blond man gave him the finger, followed by an even larger smile.

“Please forgive Alex. He’s irritable because he hasn’t had his coffee yet.”

“It’s good you chose to be a medic, rather than a comedian,” Alex replied.

Val smiled at the quiet, easy friendship between them. Something about it reminded her of interactions with her own colleagues at work. People who’d worked together so long, they didn’t just know how each other’s minds worked, but could almost read them.

Leaning back, she settled quietly in the seat Alex had pointed her to, not wanting to draw attention to herself before take-off for fear Beau would change his mind and kick her out.

Speak of the devil.

He’d been having a conversation with the pilot but was now striding towards her, his large frame making the helicopter look smaller than it was.

She expected him to keep walking, but he chose the seat right next to her. As he sat, his right knee pressed against hers. There was plenty of room on her other side—enough that she could have moved her leg, but something kept her still.

Not something.

A delicious feeling kept her still.

Pleasure radiated from her knee, heating her up inside in a way that none of her few-and-far-between sexual encounters had managed.

If this was the way it felt, when it was just their knees touching …

What would it feel like to be lying naked against him?

We would combust.

Her body tingled, and she wriggled in her seat, physically pushing the inappropriate thought away. She turned to look at the window, surprised to see she’d zoned out long enough to miss take-off.

He touched something on her headset.

“Are you okay?” he asked gruffly. Nobody else reacted or even looked their way, making her realize he’d switched them to another channel.

She nodded quickly, not trusting herself to speak, glad when he didn’t say anything else.

By the time the helicopter began its descent a short while later, the sky was beginning to lighten, as if they were the ones flying out of the darkness and into a blue sky tinged with bronze and orange.

The men jumped off the helicopter like it was nothing. Val held on to the side, estimating the distance to the ground, when Beau reached back and plucked her by the waist, dropping her onto the ground as if she didn’t weigh a thing.

Again, she shivered at his touch. She clutched her bag of medical supplies to her as she willed her breathing back to normal—trying to convince herself it was the altitude, rather than his touch, that had affected her so.