Against the Wild Read Free

job, but she wasn’t going to let him push her into making a mistake. She hadn’t had sex in three years. She simply wasn’t ready to rush into a relationship, she told herself, as brief as this one would be.
    Dear God , she thought in near panic as the engine roared and the plane began to lift out of the sea, what on earth have I done?

Chapter Two
    Dylan eased the plane into a slow climb, then flattened out and settled at a comfortable altitude above the ocean and deep green forests below.
    He flicked a glance at the woman beside him, sitting rigidly in the copilot’s seat. She was wearing beige slacks, a peach-colored sweater, and low-heeled shoes. Gold earrings sparkled in her ears, and pale orange fingernail polish gleamed on her slender hands. Not exactly outdoor wear, but he liked it.
    He wondered if the tension she was feeling came from the plane ride or just sitting next to him.
    He was pretty sure it was the latter.
    She’d been wary of him since the moment he had introduced himself one sunny afternoon in California. Over the next few days, she had dodged every effort he had made to get her to go out with him, told him in no uncertain terms she just wasn’t interested.
    Not in him, or the job he offered.
    She owned an interior design firm in Beverly Hills, she’d told him, adding when he’d baited her that she was a damn good designer. Having checked her résumé and the references he found on the Internet, having done all the necessary homework, he knew she hadn’t been unjustly boasting. The woman knew interior design, and her credentials said she could handle the job.
    Still, she’d said no when he’d tried to get her to come north and take on the project. She’d said no half a dozen times, and it should have been enough.
    For reasons he had yet to fathom, he had called her again when he got back home and asked her one last time, offered her way more money than the job was worth.
    He’d called himself an idiot a hundred times, been thinking it right up to the moment he’d seen her standing in the terminal and felt that same punch in the gut he’d felt in L.A.
    Taller than average, about five-eight, she was twenty-seven years old, slender yet curvy in all the right places. She had wavy, just-below-the-shoulder red hair and eyes greener than a high meadow pine. She had bold yet feminine features, and her skin had a golden cast he didn’t think came from the sun. Just looking at her made him hard. God, she was a beauty.
    He reminded himself he had fallen for a beautiful woman before and it had ended in disaster. Marrying Mariah Douglas was the worst mistake he’d ever made. But he wasn’t interested in marrying Lane. And she sure as hell wasn’t interested in tying up with him.
    Not for any length of time, at least.
    Lane was a sensible woman, a businesswoman sophisticated enough to enjoy a brief, intense relationship and walk away unfazed when it was over.
    From the moment he had seen her, he had wanted her. More than wanted her. And though she was skittish and unsure of her feelings, he knew damn well she wanted him .
    He wouldn’t rush her. It wasn’t his way. If it worked, it worked. If it didn’t, it didn’t. But he was a man who went after what he wanted, and he wanted Lane Bishop in his bed.
    He thought of his daughter and wondered what Emily would think when he brought another woman into the house. He hadn’t told Lane about her. But then what was there to tell? Em lived in a world of her own. She never bothered anyone. And Lane was there to do a job. The two would rarely see each other.
    â€œYou were right,” Lane said, flashing him a grin, apparently forgetting her nervousness, at least for the moment. “It’s spectacular.” She went back to looking at the view of deep pine forests stretching endlessly beneath the plane, the landscape interspersed with blue ocean, quiet lakes, and rocky