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To his eye, the lake looked too far away. They weren’t going to reach it before they hit the ground. And even if they did, how did she know it was frozen enough to hold a plane’s weight? Maybe they wouldn’t die in a fiery crash only to drown in the icy depths of a forgotten lake. “Oh, man. This is a bad idea.”
“Got a better one?” she snapped. “Because it’s the lake or the trees and rocks.”
“Shit. Lake. Go for it.” He sucked in a breath through his nose and held it. The trees all but skimmed the bottom of the plane, but Bree remained cool, handling the controls like it was any other ho-hum landing. The whole time she spoke calmly into the radio, calling a mayday. No one answered, but she kept trying.
Calm. Cool. Collected.
And here he was shit-terrified and sure if he let go of the breath he was holding, it would come out in a sorority girl horror movie scream that would permanently revoke his man card.
They cleared the trees. The plane’s wheels kissed the frozen lake briefly, then skipped off, sending them bouncing into the air again.
“Hang on,” Bree said.
Like he wasn’t? If he hung on any tighter, he was going to rip the vinyl off the seat.
To distract himself, he checked on the dogs in the cargo hold. Most were crouched down, cowering, ears flattened, tails tucked.
Except Moonbeam. She stared out the window with a happy, “yay, ride!” expression—tongue out, blue eyes wild with excitement—and her tail whipped the air with enough force he was surprised she didn’t take flight. She kept hitting her brother Mozart in the face with the tip of her tail.
Oh, yeah. That was not the brightest pup in the litter.
Another touch down, another bounce off. But this time, the bounce was smaller.
Another bounce, smaller still, but they were running out of runway. The end of the lake loomed— a large snowbank edged thickly by trees.
And Bree was still unfazed. The arctic ice queen.
The next time the wheels touched the ice, they stayed. The plane skidded into a one-eighty and thumped tail-first into the snowbank at the end of the lake.
Ellis finally exhaled. The whole not breathing thing had made him lightheaded. He glanced over at Bree. She still gripped the yoke and stared straight out the windshield. The only sounds were his jagged breathing and the dogs’ whines. Someone had peed. The ammonia stench of it stung his nose. He checked the front of his pants just to make sure it wasn’t him.
Nope. All clear. That was a relief.
He realized Bree still hadn’t moved, hadn’t made a sound. He couldn’t even tell if she was breathing. “Hey, Bree? You—and I mean this in the best possible way—have the biggest titanium balls I’ve ever seen on a woman.”
“I’ve never understood that expression. Balls are sensitive and make a man weak. They always tell you to go for the balls in self-defense classes. But vaginas are designed to take a beating.” She looked at him then and the smile that broke across her face knocked him back in his seat. Scars and all, she was stunning when she smiled like that. Cheeks flushed, eyes sparkling. For the first time since he met her, he got a glimpse through the ice queen to the woman underneath and he liked what he saw.
She had enjoyed that landing.
And people called him crazy.
“Fine,” he said on a gasping laugh. “You have the biggest titanium vagina I’ve ever seen.”
Her grin faded. “And I’m sure you’ve seen more than your fair share.” She unbuckled herself and crawled into the back. “We need to unpack the dogs and gear. The ice is holding for now, but we don’t want to risk staying here any longer than necessary.”
Annnd the arctic queen returned.
He followed her into the back and tried not to shiver in the blast of cold when she opened the door. Maybe she was right, and his blood had thinned out too much in his years in the Lower Forty-Eight. He wasn’t cut out for this kind of weather anymore. Maybe he was the crazy one to follow her into the bush. At least she was used to this. Hell, she willingly went out into these subzero temps for fun while his idea of a good time was sun and sand and surfboard.
Man, he couldn’t wait to get back to his RV on the beach.
But he’d be damned before he let her know that.
He warmed up as he helped her unload her sled and gear, but that only made him colder as sweat dampened his under layer. The dogs seemed to be enjoying themselves, though, plowing through the snowbank like it was a giant pile of autumn leaves. He paused to watch them, grinning as Moonbeam took a flying leap off the bank, chasing a snowflake, and skidded across the frozen lake like she was on ice skates. It didn’t scare her. As soon as she stopped sliding, she loped up the bank and did it again.
“Your dog’s fearless.”
Bree straightened from securing the rigging to the sled. The half-cover ski mask she wore so often to hide her scars had been shoved down around her neck and he got a glimpse of that superstar smile of hers. “Because Moonbeam’s not smart enough to know when she should be afraid.”
