Page 15 of All Night with the Cowboy
“Come on, help a guy out of his seat, would you?”
Lauren held out a hand and helped haul Tanner up. She had to clasp her other hand over his arm as she pulled him up, and given how much effort she had to put into it, she knew how stiff and sore he must be.
“This Fiji weather better help my aching bones,” he muttered.
Lauren’s breath caught in her throat as he looked down at her.One step.One step was all it would take to have his body rammed hard against hers, her fingers clenched in his hair, her lips dancing with his.
He cleared his throat and she took a step back.
The trouble was that she didn’t sleep with clients. She didn’t kiss clients. She didn’t even joke around inappropriately with clients. Which meant that Tanner Ford was more than off-limits—he was forbidden.
Tanner raised an eyebrow, looking down at her, like he was waiting for her to do something or say something.
“You ready for some tropical sunshine, Lol?”
“How about you stop calling me Lol?” she replied. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a grown-ass woman now.”
“Oh, I’ve noticed.” Tanner laughed. “How about you stop staring at my mouth and just hurry up and kiss me?”
Lauren’s skin burned hot and she glared at Tanner, opening her mouth to say something smart back. Only words failed her. She balled her fist, aching to open her palm and slap him straight across the cheek as punishment, but she didn’t. She wasn’t a little girl lashingout, she was a woman who wanted respect—and it looked like she was going to have to earn it.
“Come on, sweetheart, let’s go,” Tanner said, grinning like he’d never said anything in the first place.
***
Tanner let Lauren go first, not wanting her to see what a struggle it would be for him to go down the stairs. As sore and stiff as he’d been before the flight, he felt like an old man now, his joints so tight and sticky he could hardly make his leg do what he expected of it.
He felt the thick, humid air as he walked off the jet, and by the time his feet hit the ground he wished he’d worn flip-flops instead of boots. What kind of idiot wears boots to arrive in Fiji anyway? He pushed up his shirtsleeves a little more, then locked eyes with a big man, easily as tall as him, with the widest smile he’d ever encountered.
“Bula!” the man announced. “Bula!Welcome to Nadi!”
Tanner grinned back at him. “Bula,” he replied, bending his head to allow some sort of shell necklace to be placed around his neck as he said hello. He looked over at Lauren, waiting for him, hand raised to shield her face from the sun. She was wearing the same necklace as him, and there was a Fijian man standing beside her, too, happily chatting away like they were old friends. How the hell could she chat so easily to a stranger, yet whentheytalked it was either painfully hard or they ended up rubbing each other up the wrong way.
“Come, Mr. Ford. Come with me,” his man said.
Tanner waved to Lauren and she joined him. There was a golf cart waiting to take them to the terminal, and he raised his eyebrows at Lauren.
“You told them I was a cripple?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Not me. But see over there?”
He looked and noticed some more men getting around in the same type of vehicle.
“I wouldn’t take it so personally, I think it’s a popular way of transport here.”
Tanner sat back, one arm stretched out behind Lauren. She might have won that round, but the way she was all fluttery beside him the second his arm brushed her back? He definitely took points for that.
They were processed at customs and then escorted to a helicopter. The sleek, black machine was all prepped and ready to go, the rotors already whipping around.
“Enjoy your stay in Fiji!”
Tanner’s gaze passed over Lauren and settled on the man speaking to him. His smile was wide, his face glowing with perspiration as he leaned forward from the driver’s seat. As the other man was collecting their bags from the back and running them over to the chopper, Tanner realized how much he hated that someone else had to carry his luggage for him. Any other day, any other time, he’d have never let someone heft his bags.
“Do you have a family?” Tanner asked, speaking louder against the aviation noise.
“Five children,” the man said proudly. “Four girls and a son.”
Tanner took out his wallet from his back pocket, awkwardly leaning forward and trying not to put too much weight on his leg. “And your colleague over there? He has children too?”
