Kade: Armed and Dangerous (2 page)

“You all right?”

Kelsey heard his voice but refused to open her eyes. Not until they were safely at
cruising altitude.

Kade Owen’s hand closed around hers, and he gave her fingers a comforting squeeze.
The stranger’s touch startled her, but not enough to make her look at him or speak
a word. It surprised her how his warm grasp calmed her nerves, if only for a few minutes.

As the craft lifted, her chest tightened, and her breath rasped out in shallow huffs.
The rumble of the plane, the roar of the engines, the smell of burning fuel, the pause
in the air-conditioning, the way pressure clamped down on her head... she hated it
all.

Ten morbid thoughts later, she felt the plane level out, and in a rush, she released
the breath she’d been holding. “I knew I should have driven,” she muttered.

The man gave a low laugh. “All the way to Tucson from San Francisco?”

Kelsey opened one eye and peeked at him. “Yes.”

“Don’t you know flying is safer than driving?” He smiled, and she opened her other
eye.

She sighed and allowed her muscles to relax. “Yeah. Right.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’m a pilot.”

“It doesn’t.” Sensation was coming back into Kelsey’s limbs, and she brushed a wisp
of hair behind her ear. “You can let go of my hand now.”

“Sure.” A spark of mischief lit his blue eyes. But he didn’t move.

“What’ll you two have to drink?” the flight attendant asked before Kelsey had a chance
to tell Kade exactly what she would do if he didn’t release her.

“I’ll have orange juice,” he said, and turned to Kelsey. “What’ll you have, darlin’?”

She’d darlin’ him in a minute.

Kelsey asked the attendant for a diet soda. After the woman had taken their drink
orders and moved to the next row, Kade said, “That stuff’ll kill you.”

“When I get my drink, it’s going in your lap if you don’t release my hand, cowboy.”
She gave him a dangerous smile. One that could leave no doubt she intended to follow
through with her threat.

“I give up.” He raised his hands in mock self-defense, coming within a breath of hitting
the woman on the other side of him. He was truly too big for the seat, his broad shoulders
and chest spanning the width.

“Excuse me,” he said to the elderly woman, who patted his knee and then returned to
showing a stack of photographs to the man across the aisle.

Kelsey reached up to open the air vent, then punched the button for the reading light.
Yes, the cowboy was definitely too handsome for his own good.

While she dug in her laptop bag, she felt the intensity of Kade’s presence but avoided
looking at him.
Where was it? Ah, there.
She withdrew the slim laptop computer and slipped on her gold-rimmed reading glasses.

Theresa had loved the idea of the immigration feature. It would be the most comprehensive
feature Kelsey had written, and she intended to make it the best series of articles
any reporter had done on the subject of illegal immigration along the Mexican border.

Kelsey was looking forward to the experience with desperate enthusiasm. What better
way to distance herself from Davis and all the bad memories?

“What’re you working on?” Kade asked as she began jotting down questions for her feature.
“If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I’m a journalist.” She shifted her attention from her notepad to the cowboy. “I’m
making a few notes for an article I’m writing.”

“For a newspaper?” He looked genuinely interested, and Kelsey found herself warming
to his friendliness.

“I write for ‘City by the Bay’.” She rustled in her bag, pulled out a copy, and handed
it to him. “It’s a San Francisco-based magazine that primarily carries local-interest
stories, but occasionally runs features on national topics.”

Kade’s fingers brushed hers as he took the magazine. Kelsey caught her breath at the
tingle that skittered within her at the contact. Her eyes cut to his, to see if he’d
noticed, but he seemed intent on flipping through the magazine.

“That’s the current issue.” She pulled off her glasses and slid them back into their
case. “I wrote a feature on single parenting. My pseudonym is Kale C. Nichols.”

He cocked an eyebrow and his gaze met hers. “You’re a single parent?”

“My editor assigned the story.” Her smile faltered. “I don’t have any children. But
I wish I did.”

Before Kade could ask her anything more personal, she said, “So, what do you do?”

“Law enforcement,” he replied with a shrug.

Surprised, Kelsey blinked. “And here I thought you were a cowboy.”

He smiled. “Grew up on a ranch, but following in my folks’ footsteps never appealed
to me. As a kid I always wanted to be the good guy tracking down the bad guys.”

“I’ll just bet.” Her mouth quirked as she imagined him on a white horse, tracking
down desperados.

Lightning flashed outside the plane and her heart dropped. She turned away from Kade
to glance out the window. Another flash illuminated the swirling mass of a thunderstorm.

The plane bucked and dropped, then leveled out, shooting her stomach straight to her
toes. She gasped and clutched the armrests, her heart pounding so fast she thought
it would jump out of her chest and the cowboy next to her could lasso it.

***

When Kelsey had looked to the window, Kade took the opportunity to study her. What
was it about the woman that interested him, more than anyone else he’d met?

Was it her velvety brown eyes? The way she blushed? When he’d embarrassed her, every
bit of bare skin that he could see had gone pink, from the V of her blouse to the
tips of her ears. He wondered if the rest of her turned that attractive color.

What would it be like to kiss those full lips?

As skittish as she seemed, he’d probably have better luck kissing the old lady on
his other side. Kade grimaced at the thought.

Lightning lit the sky outside and Kelsey gasped as the plane dropped and shuddered.
She turned from the window to face forward, her eyes scrunched tight, her face as
pale as his mom’s lace tablecloth.

Over the intercom a man’s voice drawled, “This is your captain. Y’all sit tight with
your seat belts fastened until we ride out this storm.”

Poor kid,
Kade thought as he studied Kelsey.

He couldn’t stop himself. He eased an arm around her and pulled her head to his chest.
She remained rigid, trembling. In a few moments, he felt her relax. A bit.

“Everything’ll be fine,” he whispered into her hair, and squeezed her cold fingers
within his warm grasp.

His gut tightened at the smell of her and the feel of her soft body in his arms. Somehow
he felt like he knew her. That he’d always known her.

The plane bounced and rattled amid the turbulence, and she pressed her face closer.
Tears soaked his shirt, and he fought the urge to slip his fingers into her hair.

Why was she so terrified?

He moved his thumb over the back of her hand and noticed a band of pale flesh against
her skin, where she must’ve worn a wedding ring. A broken engagement? A divorce?

The rest of the flight to Tucson was one of the roughest he’d taken. The thunderstorm
raged and turbulence tossed the plane like a toy caught in a dust devil. But Kade
found himself glad for the storm, glad for the excuse to hold the woman that he barely
even knew.

Kelsey woke to a whisper in her ear. “We’re here, Kelsey. We made it.”

***

Disoriented, she blinked, then heat burned through her when she realized she had her
head against the cowboy’s chest. When she pulled away from Kade, she couldn’t think
of a thing to say.

How could she have let a stranger hold her to begin with? But it had helped calm the
terror that churned inside her like an earthquake in the heart of San Francisco.

Davis had never held her.
You’re being stupid,
he would say.
Get over it.

Not this man. Kade didn’t even know her, and yet he held her as though he truly cared.

“Such a sweet couple,” the wispy lady croaked from the other side of him. She reached
across with her frail hand and patted his, still covering Kelsey’s. “You two remind
me of my Wilbur and me. Sixty years of marriage and still dancing.” She gave a watery
smile and eased herself up to enter the aisle.

Kade grinned and Kelsey wanted to drop through the floor of the plane.

She ducked and reached under the seat in front of her to grab the laptop bag. When
she looked back, her eyes kept going up, traveling those long legs in snug Wranglers
and, good lord, that very nice package... Her cheeks burned again at the turn of her
thoughts.

He put on his cowboy hat and allowed her to go in front of him in the aisle. What
did he think of her after that terrifying plane ride? Did he think she was some weepy
woman who couldn’t take care of herself? Why did she care what he thought?

While she exited the plane onto the ramp, Kade strode at her side. “How long’ll you
be here, Kelsey?”

The way he said her name sent shivers throughout her. A gentle drawl, a husky tone.

“Three weeks.” She chanced a look at him and saw his smile, a smile that caused something
within her to burn. An ache, a wanting.

She didn’t tell him that she was considering moving to Tucson. Too many memories shrouded
her in the Bay Area.

While they walked toward baggage claim she was surprised at the comfortable silence
between her and the stranger. He had such an easy, relaxed presence that she found
herself drawn to him even more, despite the pinging in her belly.

As he stood next to her at baggage claim, Kelsey tried not to think about the effect
he was having on her. She was afraid he’d felt it, too, and that was dangerous territory
she had no intention of exploring.

With relief, she saw her bright pink bags tumble down the slide to the conveyor. She
snatched them one at a time and set them on the floor beside her. She turned to face
Kade and saw him grabbing his own suitcase.

She took a deep breath and met his intense blue gaze. “It was nice of you to—to—well,
help me make it through that flight.”

“Anytime.” In one swift movement, he gathered her two hefty suitcases along with his
own and made it look like he was carrying a couple of hatboxes.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, hands on her hips.

“Helping you to your ride.” He managed a small bow and sounded quite gallant.

“I can carry my own bags,” she insisted to his retreating back.

“Is someone picking you up?” he asked as she trailed after him.

“I’m catching a cab.” The clean smell of rain hit her and thunder rumbled in the distance
as they exited the terminal. An odd thrill tingled within her at the tension in the
air. She loved thunderstorms—as long as she was safely on the ground.

Kade didn’t stop until he reached the short line of cabs and handed the driver her
belongings while she stood under the awning. Rain rolled off his cowboy hat onto his
shirt as he held the cab door open for her. “Where’re you headed?”

“Tucson Larson Hotel,” she replied as she dodged into the pounding rain and pushed
her laptop case and purse into the cab’s backseat.

Wrinkling her nose at the smell of stale cigar smoke, she scooted over the cracked
vinyl seat, to the far side that had fewer tears in it. She wiped raindrops from her
face and pushed her damp hair behind her ears.

Kade leaned in the cab door. “I’m staying the night at the Larson, too. Mind if I
get out of the rain and share your cab?”

He was already soaked from the storm and she hated to see him get any wetter. In fact,
the thought gave her a little thrill. She nodded, then worried her lower lip with
her teeth as he disappeared again and she felt the trunk of the cab being slammed
shut.

As the cabdriver hopped into the front seat, Kade climbed in the backseat next to
Kelsey. Her pulse picked up. Spending any time with a man who made her feel like taking
a chance on romance was definitely not a good idea.

The cabbie pulled into traffic as Kade set his Stetson on his knee and studied the
woman next to him. “I’m having breakfast at the Larson in the morning,” he said, trying
to set her at ease. “Otherwise I’d head home tonight.”

Kelsey jumped as lightning split the sky, the crack of thunder not far behind.

“Scared of thunderstorms also?” Kade asked, hoping she’d need a shoulder to lean on.

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m just not used to them.”

He smiled. “If you’re frightened, you could hold my hand again.” She pursed her lips,
and he felt desire burn in him. So soft, so inviting, those lips.

“Listen, Kade.” She hesitated. “You were kind to me on the plane. More than kind.
But I don’t let strange men hold me.” She turned to the window, where he could see
streetlights blurring in the rain.

“Kelsey,” he said. She turned back with obvious reluctance. “I have no doubt that
you would’ve made it through that flight without me lending a shoulder. There’s nothing
wrong with being insecure sometimes. We all are.”

Sighing, she stared at her lap, reaching for her ring finger as if to twist a band
no longer there. She thrust her hands to her sides and looked at him. “Someone always
told me how weak I was for my fear of flying. He even knew what happened.”

The cab lurched to a stop in front of the Larson, and before he had a chance to respond,
to ask what kind of jackass would say something like that to her, she flung open her
door and darted out to the curb and into the rain. He followed, banging his forehead
on the door frame and uttering a curse that was sure to turn Kelsey’s pretty ears
blue.

By the time he managed to get his bulk out of the cab, she’d stuffed bills in the
cabbie’s hand and was hauling her suitcases through the impressive doors of the Tucson
Larson. Kade shoved his fare at the driver, grabbed his own bag, and followed. He
couldn’t help admire Kelsey’s curves and the toss of her head. In a matter of a few
strides, he’d caught up to her at the registration desk.