Zack Wallace handed his lone passenger over to Gabe Rossi and watched the black SUV drive away from Page Field. He'd been more than happy to do a favor for his friend Grey Holden, head of The Omega Team, a security agency that did a little bit of everything and most of it dark. Like this."I need you to do a little favor for me," Grey told him when he called."I know you and your little favors," Zack laughed. "But okay, lay it on me.""I have a passenger I need you to give a ride to, and it all has to stay under the radar.""Oh? Should I expect to be arrested at some point?"Grey laughed. "Nothing like that." Then his voice had turned serious. "She's a witness in a murder trial, and the killer would do anything to wipe her off the face of the earth.""Does that mean I need to be armed?" Zack wanted to know. With Grey, anything was possible."Only if you want to. She's in Atlanta. I need someone to fly her to Fort Myers, Florida. Gabe Rossi runs an operation there for situations
Thirty minutes later, Zack's car was parked in the lot and he was in a luxurious suite with Moroccan décor and the biggest bed he'd ever seen. And then there was the view. When he looked out the window, he saw a long stretch of beach bordering the Gulf, smooth waves rippling the surface of the teal water. There were people on the beach, some sitting, some walking. A young boy ran down the beach with a dog following. And, right below him, he could see others on a patio enjoying drinks and conversation.He stashed his gear, wondering what to do next. He wasn't used to having time to do nothing. When he had any free time, he spent it deep sea fishing or getting his exercise doing sexual calisthenics with the female of the moment.Female of the moment. Doesn't that just make me sound like the biggest jackass in the world.The problem was, in twenty-three, no almost twenty-four years, he hadn't found a woman he cared to spend more than two days with. After all these years, he still had a
Bailey was afraid she was going to throw up. Or pass out. Or scream. Or maybe melt into a puddle or something. What on earth was Zack Elliot, the man she'd walked away from despite the pain it caused her, doing here on Mimosa Key? And at the Casa Blanca? Why wasn't he in Nowhere, Alaska, immersed in his dream of a life of flying? And just like that, a truckload of memories slammed into her. She wondered if it would cause too much of a commotion if she just turned and ran from the lobby as fast as she could. Back to the villa. Back to...where? Naples?Don't be ridiculous.She drew in a deep breath in an effort to calm her skittering nerves, and wet her lips."What a surprise to see you here. Aren't you a long way from Alaska?" There. She sounded calm, didn't she? Not as if her entire life had just been turned upside down and sideways.He just stood there for a long moment, staring at her, apparently having as much trouble getting himself under control as she was."I, uh, flew a cli
Bailey was desperate to say something to break the silence, so she blurted out the first thing that came to mind."So how do you like Alaska?"When he took a moment to answer her, she wondered if there was something wrong."I left Alaska," he said at last."Oh?" Smart answer, Bailey. Duh! "But I thought it was everything you wanted"He nodded. "It was, for a long time. Uncle Nate had bought a small charter company and steadily built it into one of the premier charter services in the state. God, Bailey." His smile said it all. "You wouldn't believe the places I've flown. Most of Alaska is accessible only by plane, so we were flying people and supplies into places so desolate, sometimes I thought I'd reached the end of the world." His eyes got a faraway look. "It was like being as close to heaven as you could get. Sunrise on all that pristine snow was incredible.""So why did you leave?" Maybe she could just keep him talking about himself and not about the two of them.He was quie
"Bailey?"Bailey turned to Neil Rothbart seated to her left. "Yes, Neil?""Nothing, really. You just looked like you were deep in thought." He studied her with keen eyes. "Everything okay? Any problems at the firm I should know about?""No." She shook her head. "None at all. In fact, everything's great.""We were pleased to see you'd snagged Hyerdahl Industries as a client." Neil's voice broke into her mental conversation with herself. "That's a big one."She certainly knew that. She'd worked for a year to get Evan Hyerdahl to agree to switch to Blake, Rothbart and Padilla as his corporate counsel. She'd spent a lot of hours on his boat when he came to Naples, chatting with him and members of his board. She knew they figured in every major decision he made, so it was worth the investment of time. She also was aware he'd checked with two other conglomerates she handled and had done an intense study of the firm itself. That was okay. A man didn't grow a billion dollar enterprise wit
When Bailey opened the door and saw Zack standing there, the outdoor light shining on him, the blue shirt he now wore the exact color of his eyes, for a moment, she simply could not breathe. Her pulse ratcheted up so much she was sure she could hear it pounding in her head. She was afraid she'd actually lick her lips.Big mistake, Bailey. The last thing you need is to be alone with him."Okay if I come in?" he teased."Oh. Of course. Yes." Idiot.She opened the door wider and stepped back to let him inside. He stopped right in front of her and dipped his head, inhaling."Still wearing the same scent of jasmine that always knocked me out.""I can't believe you remember it after all this time."He cupped her chin and tilted her face up so he could look directly into her eyes."There's not a damn thing I've forgotten about you, Bailey. Not one single thing." He dropped his hand and looked around the living room. "Quite a place, this resort. Must have cost them a bundle to build."
"Well, what do you expect when you didn't take it seriously enough to tell me something this enormously important?"She had to remember this was the hurt talking."I was thinking of you." She twisted the wine glass. "You had this wonderful opportunity to do the thing you loved more than anything in the world, and I knew you had to focus on just that. A wife would have been a distraction to you.""A wife would have been wonderful to come home to after every flight. Especially if that wife was you. And who said I loved it more than anything in the world? More than you?"Bailey distracted herself with another sip of wine and tried to deflect the conversation. "Are you telling me that, in all these years, you never met someone else you wanted to marry? Not one single person?"He leaned forward. "I told you that on the beach. You were it for me, Bailey. No one else ever came close. You have no idea how insane I was when I couldn't get in touch with you. Especially when I couldn't even
It was still there, the magic she'd never felt with anyone else. Not that she'd tried to, of course. Whenever she looked at another man, all she ever saw was Zack-his masculine body, his square-jawed face, the dark curly hair, and blue eyes the color of the morning sky. The curve of his lips when he smiled.Oh god!The walls of her sex throbbed, and she knew her panties had to be soaked, just from this contact. She pressed herself against him as hard as she could, every nerve and particle throbbing with hunger for him, a hunger that had never faded in all these years. Someone moaned softly. And she didn't know which one of them it was.How had she ever thought she could walk away from him, shut him out of her life, and never want to be with him again? He owned her heart, and it was time she admitted it to herself. She realized she'd done a terrible thing, something she'd have to finally admit to him. But not right now.She broke the kiss but not his hold on her. "I-I thought we wer