The Spy Who Loves Me by Julie Kenner Page B

Her hair streamed out behind her, caught in the prop wash, and she laughed, tossing her hands up above her head in pure joy. “Okay?” she repeated, donning the headphones again. “I’m fabulous!”
    They were cruising at an altitude of about one thousand feet, and Amber couldn’t have been happier. Finn’s idea of a thrill suited her just fine.
    â€œYeah? Well, then you’re going to love this. Hold on!”
    The biplane started a climbing turn, transitioning nicely into a descending turn before climbing again. Amber had to grin. Finn was doing a lazy eight, a sexy maneuver, but hardly enough to appease her appetite.
    â€œNot bad,” she said, her voice laced with a tease. “But is that the best you can do?”
    â€œYou wound me, babe,” he said, the suggestion clear in his voice. “I thought I already showed you just how much more I can do.”
    Amber laughed. “Yeah? Well, show me what you can do in the air.”
    Even as she spoke, the nose of the plane started to climb, and Amber clutched the smooth leather side of the cockpit, the shoulder harness keeping her firmly in place. Higher and higher, and as Finn aimed the nose back in the direction they’d come, Amber realized he was executing a loop. She let out a whoop for good measure, completely delighted with Finn’s idea of showing her a good time. Sunlight glimmered on the fuselage, and as Finn completed the loop, the biplane passed through its own prop wash, shivering slightly as if she, too, found the maneuver exhilarating.
    When Finn had suggested another thrill, Amber had expected a speedy return to Los Angeles and the hedonistic comfort of his bed. So when Finn had driven south to the private airstrip just outside San Diego, she’d been totally and completely blown away.
    She’d known, of course, that he had a pilot’s license. What she hadn’t expected was that he’d use that skill as a dating tool. Even more, when Brandon had given her the rundown on Finn, he hadn’t mentioned that her neighbor was proficient in biplanes—much less aerobatics.
    All in all, a nice little surprise.
    She’d known from the get-go that this assignment wouldn’t be painful. Finn, after all, ranked up there on her eye candy chart, and the background check had revealed enough about his relationships to suggest that he knew his way around a woman, an assessment he’d confirmed that afternoon. But what the dossier hadn’t conveyed was the rest of it. Like how he made her laugh, or how he kept surprising her.
    Maybe she’d just been too long without a lay, but this mission couldn’t have come at a better time. Or with a better man.
    â€œLook to your left,” he said.
    She complied, and was rewarded with a stunning view of dolphins frolicking in the waves off the San Diego shoreline.
    â€œDo you want to fly her?” he asked.
    She did, desperately. She hadn’t flown a plane since her last stint in an F-14. But that wasn’t the role she was playing. She shook her head. “I better not,” she said. “I wouldn’t know what to do.”
    â€œNothing to it. It’s dual control. Your control stick is attached to mine, and I won’t let you do anything that would scare me.”
    â€œWell, with an offer like that, how could I say no?”
    She started to take control, then remembered that she was supposed to be clueless. “Um, so what do I do?”
    â€œJust take a hold of the stick,” he said. “I know you can handle that.”
    She grinned. “Right you are.”
    â€œYou want her to respond to the lightest of touch. Don’t force it. Just take it gentle.”
    â€œWe’re still talking about flying, right?”
    â€œFor now,” he said. “But hold that thought.”
    An unintended bubble of laughter welled in her throat, and Amber sat up straighter, unable to remember when she’d had such