A Dangerous Leap Read Free

really, Joe was a damn good hoist operator and flight mechanic. Besides, Ian had reasoned, any chick that made it out of swimmer’s school probably weighed two hundred pounds and could bench-press the likes of Joe. He eyed the female swimmer again. Nope, he doubted she’d tip the scale at a hundred pounds soaking wet.
    The swimmer’s gentle but firm movements calmed the girl, while her less patient gestures to him were obviously commands meant to be followed. Hell, he didn’t mind playing Nancy-nurse under the circumstances. Her short cap of mink-dark hair, slicked back from the water, exposed the delicate bones of her face.
    He narrowed his eyes. Something about her looked familiar.
    The pilot announced their approach to a local medical facility and Ian retreated to one of the bulkhead seats again and strapped in, his mind spinning. Could they have met outside of the Coast Guard?
    Like a one-two knockout punch from a ringer in a fight, air escaped his lungs. He turned his attention back to the efficient fluid movements of the swimmer as she settled into the seat beside him. With an absent motion he’d seen before, she tunneled her fingers through her closely cropped hair.
    Oh yeah, he’d seen her before all right. Hell, he’d been lusting after her.
    She’d been drunker than a skunk. Kelly. That was the name she’d given him. No last name, and he hadn’t asked. He assessed her actions more closely.
    Nothing in her demeanor gave any hint of the incapacitated state he’d last seen her in. Lines of tension around her eyes could be caused as much by a world-class hangover as stress from the rescue.
    He’d spent half the night wondering why she’d looked so damn sad. And drank enough to be fried in short order.
    Ian had a hard time meshing the two very different images of her. The woman who moved with utter control sitting next to him now, to the one who’d had tears swimming in her eyes when he’d bundled her into a cab after refusing her blatant invitation to go home with her.
    Hell, and now they’d be working together. Thank God he hadn’t given in to pure male instinct.
    * * *
    Kelly rolled her shoulders and sipped the last of the slightly burnt coffee, sitting in the mostly empty break room near the air station’s hangar. She was dead on her feet but still jumpy. Maybe a couple ibuprofen would ease the drive to the marina where she lived.
    The familiar sound of aircraft taking off and landing made her feel at home. She’d grown up on and around naval airbases all around the world. And she’d been working on Coast Guard air stations for the last four years.
    A glance at her dive watch made her wince. Not even seven o’clock and she wanted nothing more exciting than to curl up in the stateroom of her boat and fall asleep. An unwanted memory of a smaller fur-lined V-berth, littered with obscene-looking sex toys, surfaced in her weary brain. If that boat had broken up when it hit the rocks, the girl could have drowned—
    “Hey Bishop, no frowning. You done good out there.”
    The deep voice made Kelly jump, knocking over the empty foam cup. A large hand grabbed for the cup when she did, completely smothering hers and making her jump again. But the shock was of a more basic origin. Heat spiraled through her before climbing her neck. She snatched her hand out of his obvious hold.
    Kelly found some consolation in his sudden look of discomfort. Maybe the touch had been as confusing to him as it had been to her? She blinked and sanity returned. Ha, not likely. From his dark good looks he was probably used to charming anything that wore a bra. More likely her blush had surprised him. After all, most guys didn’t see her as a woman—just a buddy they could talk to about their girlfriend problems.
    “You okay?” His voice softened and he settled onto the chair across the table from her.
    Dark eyebrows arched over Caribbean-blue eyes—a color unexpected with his olive skin tone and almost black hair. A color