Mary Lynn - Totally Tempting

“Jodie?” She jerked her head away from the window and looked at him inquiringly.

“We’re perfectly safe, you know.”

“Of course we are,” she promptly agreed. “As long as we sit here on the runway.” She glanced back out the window to continue to check the wings.

Dean made some kind of noise that sounded as if he was either choking or coughing. She looked back at him in concern. His lips were compressed and he wore a frown. His shoulders shook and suddenly, like Mount St. Helens, he erupted into laughter.

Laughter? She had rarely seen him smile, much less heard him laugh, and she stared at him in amazement. What a difference it made in him. He looked much younger than his thirty-eight years. Who would have believed it?

He immediately attempted to quell the sound, but then he looked at her again, recognized her bemusement, shook his head and continued to laugh—a deep-throated sound that finally made her smile.

He reached for his handkerchief and wiped his eyes, blew his nose and finally, after what seemed like forever, managed to stop.

But he continued to smile and she still hadn’t recovered from the change in him. Dean was smiling and, miracle of miracles, his face hadn’t cracked into a thousand little pieces. Who would have believed it?

“Care to share the joke?” she asked. She smiled her pleasure at this unexpected peek into the man she thought she knew so well.

He touched her arm and slid his hand down, lacing his fingers between hers. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed at your nervousness. You’re going to be just fine, I promise.”

“From your lips to God’s ear,” she muttered.

He chuckled again. He was certainly getting a great deal of amusement out of her fear of flying. Then again, maybe it was worth it to see that the man had a human side. A decidedly masculine side at that.

The brackets around his mouth had revealed dimples. She bet he hated them.

In fact, the man bore little resemblance to her stone-faced boss. Same hair and eyes, same strong jaw, and yet with his silver-blue eyes sparkling and his teeth flashing he was actually handsome.

Okay, she was losing it. When she looked at Dean Logan and saw a handsome man she knew she’d lost her grip. Fear could certainly do crazy things to a person’s perceptions.

“I was born in Indiana,” he said in a casual voice as though answering her question. “Came to Chicago to attend Northwestern and never left. How about you?”

She cleared her throat. “We’re from Wisconsin originally.”

“Who is we?”

“Mom, my three brothers, my sister and me. My parents got married way too young, but they were in love and didn’t want to wait until after they finished school to get married. My brother came along not long afterward, and Dad dropped out of college to get a job. He took good care of all of us, but I think he pushed himself too hard for too many years and he died of a heart attack when he was forty-five.

“Mom had to get a job but had trouble finding one since she’d never worked before. Without training or an education, it was tough going for her. She ended up as a waitress. Both Mom and Dad really stressed the importance of an education when we were growing up. All three of my brothers worked their way through college so they could take care of her.”

“Where does your family live?”

“All over the place. Mom’s in Phoenix. That’s where they lived when Dad died. One of my brothers is an attorney in Oregon, one is career Navy and based out of Bremerton, Washington, and one lives just outside of D.C. doing who knows what. If anyone asks, he says, ‘I work for the government’ in a vague way and changes the subject. My sister, Lynette, and I live here in Chicago.”

“Do any of them have children?”

She smiled. “Chuck and Lynette have two boys and a brand-new baby girl. The boys are pleased as little boys can be that they have a baby sister. My sister had two miscarriages before Emily came along.”

“Are any of your brothers married?”

“Not a one. Too busy with work or too busy playing the field.” She waited, and when he didn’t ask any more questions, she said, “It’s your turn. Tell me about your family.”

She wasn’t sure at first that he was going to answer her, but eventually he said, “My mother lives in a nursing home here. I had an older brother, but he and my dad were out on Lake Michigan at the wrong time years ago. A storm blew up and they didn’t make it back.”

“How awful. How old was your brother?”

“Twelve. I was eight and had a cold, so my mother wouldn’t let me go with them.” He looked away. After two or three minutes he added, “I haven’t talked about them in years.”

She wondered about the emotional scars he carried from that time. No doubt he’d been upset, probably angry, that he didn’t get to go. Then to lose them like that. Survivor’s guilt probably played a part. She knew him well enough not to say any more by way of sympathy for his loss.

“Why aren’t you married?” he asked bluntly.

She looked at him in surprise. “Isn’t that a rather personal question to ask?”

“Probably. But if I’m going to drag out all my personal stuff, I figure you can, too.”

“Mmm. I don’t think it’s quite the same, unless you want to discuss why you’re not married.”

“That’s easy enough. I have no intention of getting married. I was engaged once, but she found someone who had more money and broke the engagement six weeks before the wedding.” He shrugged. “She’s on her third marriage now, so she did me a favor. After that I decided to devote my time and energy to building my business, which was much more important to me than getting too involved in a relationship.”

“You know, Dean, one of these days you’re going to meet the woman you’ve been waiting for your whole life. And when you do, you’ll be a goner.”

“Somehow I doubt that very much.” He studied her for a moment in silence. “So,” he finally said, “have you ever been married?”

She shook her head, feeling a little exasperated with him. His persistence was one of his strongest traits. It made him an excellent businessman. But she didn’t particularly like it when he aimed his curiosity at her.

Before she could decide how much she wanted to share with him, the captain’s voice came over the speakers and said they were next to take off.

She immediately tightened her seat belt.

“Any tighter and you’ll cut off the blood flow to the rest of your body,” he said drily.

She took a deep breath, held it briefly and slowly exhaled. She was being an idiot. She adjusted the strap around her and forcibly relaxed her shoulders.

“No,” she finally said in a strained voice. “I have never been married.”

“Why not?”

“Because I haven’t wanted to be, obviously.”

“Any particular reason?”

“I feel like you have me under a microscope.”

“Why? We’re going to be together for the next week. I just want to get to know who you are when you’re away from the office.”

“Oh, all right. I had one serious relationship when I was nineteen. I shared a tiny apartment with one of my coworkers. We were both secretaries in a law firm and that’s where I met him. He was a law student working at the firm part-time.

“We dated for more than a year and we talked about marriage once he finished law school. We spent most of our free time together. Everything was perfect…until I came home early one night and found him in bed with my roommate.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah.”

“Did he explain why?”

“To hear him tell it, he’d left school early and thought I might be home. When I wasn’t, my roommate suggested he wait there for me. I’m sure she planned everything to work out the way it did. His explanation was that she was there and one thing led to another and it didn’t mean anything. He apologized. Said it would never happen again.”