The Right Stuff

Pulse pounding, she searched his face. The years had been lavishly generous. Maturity had deepened his good looks, ripening his masculine appeal. He was bigger than she remembered. Taller, harder. He’d been handsome before, but now…?

Now, he was extraordinary.

His shoulders had broadened and so had his muscular thighs and biceps. His posture was ramrodstraight, his presence commanding. He wore a white lab jacket over his basic uniform. His face was attractively fuller, less rangy than it had been, but his waist was just as narrow. His hair was a bit longer than the buzz cut he’d had for military induction, but it was still quite short and tidy. She couldn’t spy even a hint of gray.

And his eyes. His devastatingly gorgeous eyes were as impossibly blue as ever.

“How about you?” he asked.

“What?” She blinked.

“Is there a Mr. Milton? Any little Taylors running around?”

“Me?” Taylor laughed, desperate to appear casual and unaffected by this strange turn of events. How could she still be affected by him after all these years? “Not hardly.”

“It’s a fair question. You’re thirty-three now. No ticking biological clock?”

“That’s not any of your business.” The answer was yes. She did think about kids. Especially since her father had died, since she was all alone in the world, but she didn’t have to tell him that.

“So you’ve never been married?”

“No.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Not currently. You know me.” She laughed again, trying to sound carefree. “I’m not the kind to settle down.”

“Still all about fun, fun, fun, huh?” He said fun as though it was a dirty word.

“I do enjoy a good time.” She battered her eyelashes in a facetious gesture.

He frowned. “I know.”

Her pulse quickened. “I never made a secret of it.”

“I never said you did.”

If you only knew how much it hurt me to have to hurt you…

She stifled the urge to jump into her Porsche and zoom away from the intensity of those snapping blue eyes. Eyes that seemed to possess a hidden meaning all their own. At the same time an equally compelling impulse had her wanting to kiss him with a fervency born of urgent familiarity.

But she did neither.

Thirty-three years as the only child of a billionaire airline executive had honed her ability to cloak her true feelings behind a happy-go-lucky facade. The skill had given her the strength to send Daniel away on the night of his graduation. From the looks of him now—disciplined, a doctor, a lieutenant colonel involved with the aerospace program—it had been the right decision. He had achieved all his dreams because she’d let him go.

Taylor took a deep breath, steeling herself. She could handle this.

And yet, the intensity of those blue eyes unsettled her in a way nothing else could.

“I remember a lot of things about you,” he added.

The criticism in his voice grabbed her in a stranglehold. She knew she’d hurt him, yes, but she’d been hurt, too. That part he didn’t understand. He stood looking at her, his expression a combination of judgment and annoyance.

“You haven’t changed a bit, Taylor,” Daniel said. “Still beautiful and as inaccessible as ever.”

“I…I’ve changed,” she said, denying his accusation.

“Yeah?” He arched an eyebrow. “How’s that?”

I learned how to live without you.

Taylor drew herself up tall. “I’m running my father’s airline now,” she answered. “I’ve overhauled it completely and we’re more successful than ever.”

“How is your father?”

“Dad passed away four years ago.”

“Taylor, I…I’m so sorry.” He reached out a hand, but seemed to think better of it, and let his arm fall to his side. “I know he was your only family. That must have been so hard on you.”

His sympathy pushed a lump of unshed tears into her throat. “I managed.”

Casually, she slipped her sunglasses on, trying her best not to let him see that her hands were trembling, hiding her eyes behind the barrier of UV lenses. Perspiration dewed her upper lip. Not so much from the warm morning sun as from his unwavering gaze.

At that moment, a young airman came running up to them. “Doctor Corben, Doctor Corben!”

“What is it, airman?” Daniel’s voice was authoritative, commanding. A shiver tripped down Taylor’s spine at the sound of it.

“We’ve got…there’s been…” The young man was hyperventilating.

Daniel rested a hand on his shoulder. “Slow down. Take a deep breath.”

“I…it’s an emergency, hurry, hurry.”

Alarm lifted the hairs on Taylor’s arm. She’d never been any good during emergencies.

“Where?” Daniel’s expression was calm and assertive.

“Motor pool…” the guy wheezed out. “My buddy Mac. Vehicle jack collapsed. Got him pinned underneath a Jeep. He can’t breathe. There’s blood.”

“Let’s go.” Daniel and the airman took off at a sprint.

“What do I do?” Taylor called.

“You wanted in on the action,” Daniel barked over his shoulder. “Come on.”

Taylor followed them, but had trouble keeping up in her high-heeled sandals. Finally, she stopped, peeled them off and ran after them, the straps of her shoes looped around her fingers.

Daniel and the airman entered the hanger building housing military vehicles out of service for repairs. The smell of oil and diesel fuel burned her nose. Vehicle parts were strewn around, as well as various tools that looked as if they’d been dropped in a hurry. A stack of tires initially blocked her view, but as she rounded the corner she saw a cluster of airmen hovered around a Jeep.