Page 99 of Sexy as Sin
Azra helped her get dressed. “Not white,” she said, “not on camera. It’ll wash you out. Not black, either, because nobody’s eye will linger on you in black, and no prints. It’ll be colder up there, though, right?” She shivered. “Glad it’s not me. Hanging over the edge, the thing jerking around underneath you... like being on a carnival ride, only worse, because you aren’t on the rails. Ugh.”
“I can’t wait,” Willow said, “and, no, they say it’s warmer than on the ground. You’re under a burner. Like sitting beside a patio heater.”
“Ugh,” Azra moaned. “Ugh. Ugh. A carnival ride that’s come unmoored and is on fire, hundreds of meters above the earth. I’m not watching the video, either, so don’t ask. Here. Wear the sleeveless red one we got you. Red’s always good, and you have toned arms. Take a warm jumper, though. I don’t care what they say, I’ll bet it’s freezing.”
Itwasn’tfreezing, just a bit chilly, when Dave pulled up at the launch site in the gray light of almost-dawn. It was, in typical Byron fashion, in a paddock near Ewingsdale with some sheep cropping the grass. Willow scrambled out fast and waited for Brett to join her.
“Hang on,” he said, but he was smiling. “Don’t rush a guy.” He told Dave, “Come on and watch, if you like.”
Dave said, “I’m good. I’ve got a game to look at on my phone, and it’s warmer in the car. It’s a balloon. I’ve seen them before.”
Ahead of them, a gigantic sheet of fabric striped in all the colors of the rainbow lay on green grass, attached to a brown wicker basket on its side that was held down by guy ropes and sandbags. A white gout of flame shot out horizontally into the opening of the balloon in a fairly frightening way, like the biggest browning torch you’d ever seen, aimed by a bearded fella in a khaki jumper, who appeared remarkably unconcerned by his nearness to fiery death. The balloon was filling. Slowly. The way a... well, a balloon did fill, rising slowly from the ground and beginning to take shape.
A green people-mover van with a trailer attached stood a ways off, and there was a knot of people around the bloke. He clearly hadn’t heard Azra’s message about the proper clothing for being on camera, but a lean man with a gray ponytail and beard was filming him nonetheless. The cameraman, then. Jamie was on hand as well, on time for once, wearing a skin-tight blue T-shirt that matched his eyes and two days’ growth of black scruff, and looking like he was ready for his close-up. Brett was probably right about the modeling résumé. Crystal, at his side, looked keyed up, too, and to Willow’s surprise, Amanda and Tom had come as well. Amanda was talking urgently to Crystal, Tom was holding the edge of the basket as it slowly tipped upright, and Willow got a rush of silver fireworks straight through her body. She was actually going to do this.
Amanda came over to Willow in her own rush. “Good,” she said. “You’re here. Ten more minutes, and you’d have missed it, Andy says, because he can’t wait. I was getting worried. Crystal’s nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs, the silly sook. I thought she was going to back out, and weneedthis footage for the site.” As if it had been her idea. She looked Willow over more critically. “You’re going to clash with her, though. We should have coordinated colors. Blue or green would have been much better with fuchsia, and surely, redheads shouldn’t wear red.”
Brett looked at her with his patented polite detachment and said, “I asked Willow to wear red. I want her to be the focus of this shoot, since I’m guessing she’ll be the best on camera.” He hadn’t chosen Willow’s outfit, but she was happy with the lie. It wasn’t Amanda’s outing. Why was she taking ownership?
“Well, never mind,” Amanda said, clearly thinking,Are you mad, mate? She’s a ginger in a red jumper.That’s horrible.“Can’t be helped. You can stand...” She waved a hand vaguely at the basket. “Diagonally across from her, or something, Willow, so the clash in the colors won’t be so obvious. I’m sure Andy will want you to do that anyway, to balance the weight.” Crystal thought she was waving at her, apparently, because she came forward. “And, Crystal, of course you can do this. I don’t want to hear any more about it. They take balloons up every day, and they hardly ever have accidents. Right, Tom?”
“Pilot error, that’s all,” Tom agreed. “Hitting a power line and the like.” He was wearing a Byron Bay T-shirt today, with a puffer vest open over it, and the balloon loomed behind him, swaying a little in the early-morning breeze. Like a circus tent, somehow, carrying the promise of thrills.
“Oi, mate,” Andy-the-balloon-man said, heading over while wiping his hands on a bit of white rag. “I don’t hit power lines.”
“Are you an expert at ballooning?” Brett asked Amanda. “I didn’t realize that.” Still politely, but there was an edge to it.
“Tom is,” Amanda said, “or near enough, as many times as he’s come along to lend Andy a hand. But then, there isn’t much that Tom can’t put his hand to.”
Or,Willow thought,it could be that Tom’s a lazy sod who likes to play with toys.If he had the wit and the energy to cook up an elaborate scheme of siphoning off funds from the catering firm, much less researching how to poison forty people’s dinner without killing anyone, then actually pulling it off, she’d be more than surprised. The idea was ludicrous. Tom knew which side his bread was buttered on.
She forgot about that, because Crystal was hugging Jamie’s arm and staring at the balloon. “Oh, my God,” she moaned. “I didn’t realize it’d be so...big.Or sohot.I’m not sure I can do this.”
I’ll bet you say that to all the boys,Willow thought, and couldn’t help a little snort. Brett got it, because his mouth twitched, which made her have to feign a coughing fit. The more she tried not to laugh, the more she did, until she was turned away and bent double, and Brett had a solicitous arm around her.
“Stop it,” he muttered. “You’re making me laugh, too.”
“Never tell me that line works, mate,” she gasped. “If it does, I’m practicing.”
He pulled her upright and said loudly, “She’s fine. Ready to go.” Then lowered his mouth to Willow’s ear and whispered, “Behave.”
“Too naughty for you?” she whispered back. “You know what you can do about that. Keep me in line, hey.” And had the satisfaction of watching him lose his cool. She’dmissedhim.
“Right,” Andy, the balloon man, said. “We’re ready for you to climb in for our safety briefing, and then we’ll be on our way.” His mouth was smiling, but his eyes were saying,It’s free publicity, and I’ll be rid of these knobheads in an hour. I hope that artsy bugger gets a good shot of my logo.
Which was when Brett Hunter, the world’s most discreet man, took Willow by the waist with one hand and the shoulder with the other, pulled her into him, gave her the kind of soul-searing, back-arching kiss that took your breath away, and said, “They’re waiting, baby. Get in there for your safety briefing.”
I know exactly what you’re doing,his expression said.And you set me on fire.
She’d encountered that expression on a few previous occasions. She’d enjoyed every one.
Willow was the last one to step through the wicker door and into the basket, thanks to Brett’s very public display of affection. She may have been a little wobbly, too. The pilot, Andy,didplace her diagonally across from Crystal, which was annoying, before he latched the door shut. The cameraman was straight across from Willow, though, and his camera panned from her, to Andy, to the paddock, where woolly white sheep grazed, and on to Jamie’s bearded-pirate face and broad chest. Jamie’s black hair was a little long, and he was, Willow realized with another fit of the giggles, wearing earrings: thick, squared-off stainless-steel hoops like chunks of visible badassery. He raised an arm to pull back his hair, as if on cue, and showed off the tattoo on his bicep.No Regrets.
Deep stuff. Brett would be so unsurprised.
The cameraman didn’t seem to be including Crystal at all, and she was either pouting or scared, Willow couldn’t tell which. On the ground, Tom circled the basket, held to earth now by only four lines, while above their heads, a gout of yellow flame roared from the burner into the opening in the balloon, fed by a canister strapped into a center compartment. Itwasmore flame than Willow had expected, but it was exciting, too. An adrenaline rush, especially when you took off, surely. The airfield was surrounded by huge gum trees, but Andy must be used to clearing them.
Doing something new was always scary, but the fear was part of the rush, a package deal.
