High Octane Read Free Page A

response with a laugh. It was a sexy, smoky sound that did nothing to take the edge off Ryan’s growing desire or the bulge beneath his zipper.
    Jennifer’s hands went to her hips, her back to Ryan, her body irritatingly blocking his view of Sabrina. “We both know your tardiness means you almost pulled a no-show.”
    Jennifer stepped a bit to her right, her arms still planted on those hips, and Ryan could see the flushspread across Sabrina’s ivory-perfect skin before she asked, “Was there a specific time I was supposed to be here? I thought you said Saturday…as in anytime today.”
    â€œDon’t play coy with me,” Jennifer scolded instantly. “I said before two o’clock and you know it.”
    Sabrina laughed, skipping any attempt at denial. “Okay, I almost talked myself out of coming,” she admitted. “I know I’m late.”
    â€œAh-huh,” Jennifer said. “That’s what I thought. And you secretly hoped it would be too late to jump. Well, you got your wish. Caleb is booked all afternoon.”
    Ryan leaned one elbow on the counter and crossed his dusty, booted feet. To hell with house-hunting. “I’ll take her up,” he said in a lazy drawl that defied the outright molten heat charging through his body.
    Sabrina glanced around Jennifer, her pale green eyes glinting like crystals as they slid down his body in a long, lingering inspection, before her gaze popped to his. “And you would be?” she inquired.
    â€œA better choice than Caleb,” he assured her.
    â€œNot for Sabrina,” Jennifer countered and gave him her back. “Ryan is a wild ride you don’t want any part of. Trust me. You want Caleb.”
    Â 
    F ROM WHAT SHE’D SEEN of Ryan, Sabrina was pretty certain he was the man she wanted. But she also had a feeling this “wild ride” equaled a plate of poisoned food to a starving man—pleasure with a lethal endgame. Jumping out of a plane was enough of a dare, thankyou very much. She didn’t need to add a hot cowboy with a rock-hard body and sultry, brown, bedroom eyes. Besides, it wasn’t as if she was chomping at the bit to jump to her death anyway.
    â€œI can wait for Caleb,” she said. “No rush, anyway. I can always come back next weekend.”
    A slow smile filled Ryan’s too-handsome face. “I’ll be easy with you, darlin’. I promise.”
    He promises. Said the cat to the mouse, she thought cynically, but that didn’t stop her imagination from conjuring an image of her strapped to a parachute, with his front attached to her…er…backside. Oh, yeah, he was dangerous. In all kinds of ways.
    â€œNo, Ryan,” Jennifer said urgently, and shifted her attention to Sabrina. “Caleb is calm and controlled. He’ll be a pillar if you get scared.”
    â€œI’m calm and controlled,” Ryan said.
    Jennifer took a long glance at Ryan. “There is a reason you take up the experienced jumpers, and you know it.”
    â€œYeah,” he agreed. “Because I teach them that calm control doesn’t have to be boring. I push them to the edge rather than pull them back. I show them how to expand their limits.”
    The words resonated through Sabrina and spoke to her deep beneath the surface. She already knew how to be calm and controlled. She’d spent a lifetime living just that. What she didn’t know how to do was be calm, controlled and daring at the same time. To live outside her safety zone. Ryan was more than the manshe wanted. Ryan was the man she needed. “I’ll jump with Ryan.”
    Jennifer started to object. “Sabrina—”
    Sabrina gently touched her arm. “It’s okay,” she said in a low voice. “Really. I’m here, and honestly, if I leave, I may never do this. And it’s a good idea. It’s a good thing.”
    â€œYou’re sure?”
    â€œAm I