Lori Wilde - Zero Control

“Let’s say I’m second-guessing my reasons for being here. I worry about you being home alone.” That was true enough.

Stacy sighed.

“What?” An airplane took off, the noise halting their conversation for a minute. “What is it?”

“It’s time you stopped using me as an excuse for putting your life on hold. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, Roxie, you know that, but I can’t keep being the thing that’s holding you back. I feel guilty and—”

“Don’t ever feel guilty,” Roxie said fiercely. “Raising you has been the joy of my life.”

“I’m not saying this to hurt your feelings, but you need a new joy in your life. I’m grown. I have my own friends, my own interests.”

The stabbing sensation deep within her heart hit Roxie. She knew everything her sister said was true, and yet, she couldn’t let go of the identity she’d taken on when their parents had been killed. Empty-nest syndrome was a bitch.

“I want you to make me a promise,” Stacy said.

“What is it?”

“You have to promise first.”

“I can’t promise until I know what it is I’m promising to do.” Roxie hardened her chin. Around her everyone was picking up their luggage and heading toward the terminal, but she barely noticed.

“Promise me if an opportunity for a vacation fling comes up, you’ll grab it with both hands.”

“Stace…”

“I mean it. Promise me.”

“Okay, all right, on the off chance that an opportunity for mad monkey sex with a handsome stranger presents itself, I promise I’ll swing through the jungle.”

Stacy laughed. “You don’t have to do anything that kinky, sis. Just relax and let yourself have a good time. Go with the flow. You deserve it. For ten years you’ve been the ultragood girl. It’s okay to be a little bit bad once in a while.”

“How did you get so wise?”

“I had a great teacher.”

A soft, mushy sensation replaced the lost, lonely feeling in her heart. She was so proud of her baby sister. A hand settled on her shoulder. A firm, masculine hand.

“Roxie.” Dougal’s voice was in her ear, her name on his tongue and his scent in her nostrils.

“Who was that?” Stacy asked.

“Huh?” She played dumb.

“You’re the last one left,” Dougal said.

Roxie looked over at him.

He held her luggage in one hand, pointed at the tour bus waiting beyond the chain-link fence surrounding the terminal gate. “We have to go.”

“It’s a guy. I definitely heard a guy’s voice calling your name. You sly woman, you’ve already met someone!”

“Listen, Stacy, I have to let you go, the tour bus is getting ready to leave and—”

“Go, Roxie, get your groove on.” Stacy chanted in a silly singsong voice. “Go, Roxie, get—”

“Goodbye, little sister. Don’t forget to study while I’m gone.”

“You do some studying of your own. My assignment to you—get up close and personal with physical anatomy. I’m rooting for you to get lucky with your new boyfriend.”

“I’m not getting lucky and he’s not my boyfriend.”

Stacy made clucking noises. “Chicken.”

“I’ll call you later.” Roxie closed her cell phone to find Dougal studying her intently. Had he overhead her conversation with Stacy?

“Let’s roll.” He held out his arm.

An edgy, warm feeling, thrilling and unwanted, pushed through her. She wasn’t going to have an affair with him just because he was good looking and she hadn’t had sex in years.

“I can walk myself to the bus, thank you very much.” She snatched her suitcase from his hand and scurried toward the bus. She was just about to climb on when Dougal called out to her. “Oh, Roxie.”

What now? She spun on her heels, still feeling hot all over. “What is it?”

“You’re getting on the wrong bus.”

AFTER HE MADE SURE ROXIE got on the right bus, Dougal spoke quickly to the Eros mechanics and told them to scour the plane for problems before letting it take to the air again. Then he placed a call to Taylor, but her cell phone went to voice mail, so he left her a message.

“Taylor, Dougal,” he said. “There was a glitch with the autopilot on the plane. I put your mechanics on it. Nick Peters thinks it’s nothing, but I…” He paused, looked toward the waiting bus, saw Roxie in profile at a window seat near the back. In all honesty could he really say he suspected the autopilot had been tampered with? It seemed like a simple problem. If someone was making good on their threats, they’d done a lousy job of it. “I think we should wait to hear from the maintenance crew before we make any snap judgments. I’ll call you later.”

He closed his cell phone and slipped it into his pocket just as Roxie’s eyes met his. Her gaze was steady, but he saw a flicker of something inside those cool depths.

What was it and why couldn’t he shake the feeling she was up to something? She was the most unlikely of suspects.

She smiled at him then, tentative and sweet, and gave him a quick wave. And damn if he couldn’t help smiling and waving back. He got a soft, achy sensation in the pit of his stomach.

Aw hell, this feeling wasn’t good. Not good at all.

THE TOUR BUS TOOK THEM to the Eros resort just outside Stratford-upon-Avon. Stubborn gray clouds hung in the sky, and even inside the bus the air smelled of impending rain and city soot. The driver wore rain boots and had a black umbrella stashed under the dashboard. Dougal sat up front behind the driver and narrated the sights as they motored through the crowded streets of downtown London. Outside the window the landscape looked just like in the pictures and movies she’d seen. Imagine. She was here. England.

Roxie found herself sitting across from twin sisters, while the seat beside her remained empty. That was just fine with her. She didn’t need a traveling companion, but then she thought wistfully of Stacy and wished her sister could have joined her on this adventure.

Yeah, drag your sister along while you commit corporate espionage. What fun. Not exactly the actions of a stellar role model.

A fresh stab of conscience had Roxie worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. If Stacy’s entire future didn’t depend on her salary, she’d call off the whole thing.

“Hi,” said the twin sitting on the outside seat. She extended her hand across the aisle to Roxie. “I’m Samantha, but everyone calls me Sam.”

The other twin leaned over her sister to extend her own hand. “And I’m Jessica, but everyone calls me Jess.”

She shook their hands. “Hi, Sam, hi, Jess. I’m Roxie.”

“Nice to meet you, Roxie,” Sam and Jess said in unison.

The twins were gorgeous, their elegant thinness a sharp contrast to Roxie’s rounded curves. They possessed matching noses so perfect Roxie wondered if rhinoplasty was involved, and they had high, dramatic cheekbones enhanced by artful application of blush. They looked as if they’d stepped from the cover of a fashion magazine with their stylish bobbed blond hair and designer jeans. Beside them, she felt frumpy and out of place in her summery yellow sundress.

Sam leaned across the aisle and lowered her voice. “You are so lucky.”

“Lucky?”

“You got to sit next to Shakespeare for the entire flight.” Jess nodded toward Dougal.

Roxie hadn’t felt lucky, she’d felt…what had she felt? Unsettled was the best adjective she could come up with. “I guess there’s an upside to traveling alone. The tour guides take pity on you.”

“So tell us,” Sam breathed. “What’s he like?”

Roxie shrugged. “He’s just a guy.”

Jess’s eyes widened as if she’d said something blasphemous. “Oh, no, he’s not just a guy. Look at the muscles on him. And those aren’t pretty-boy, gym-induced muscles. This guy does something rugged. Rock climbing, I’m guessing.”