Page 38 of Aviator
What I wouldn’t give to have her somewhere with a decent bed and a lock on the door right now. Based on the sounds she’s making in the back of her throat, she feels the same.
Her fingers snake their way under my clothes, cold shards of ice against my blistering skin, and I almost expect to see wisps of steam curling up from the contact. I keep my knees locked so we don’t crumple into the snow. But it’s a close call. The feel of her hands on me does incredible things to me, making me almost boneless. If we had that bed and lock, I could spend days with her touching me. It’s been so fucking long, and she’s the first person who’s feltrightin longer than I can remember.
We break the kiss, our lungs fighting for breath, and my mouth finds the hollow where her shoulder meets her neck. I kiss there, soaking up the way she whispers my name and digs her nails into the skin at my lower back. Her hips move against me, searching for friction, and as much as I want to give it to her, now is the worst possible time and place.
My lips move back to hers, rubbing a teasing pattern over them. She growls in frustration. Her free hand goes to the back of my head, her mouth parts under mine, and our tongues tangle. My careful control nearly snaps, and my fingers bite into her hips.
The cool logic I just had evaporates, and I’m about to drag her to the ground when I hear tires on the road and the rumble of a truck engine.
We come apart with gasps of breath. “Did you hear that?” she asks.
The sound is already closer. With my hands on her hips, I steady her as she puts both feet on the ground. “Get behind me,” I say.
She does as I ask, her hands still on me as though she needs the contact to steady herself. “You don’t think that’s them, right?”
I don’t answer because I don’t know, and I hate that. All we can do is wait. If it is them, we’ll do what we can and hopefully make it out of here with their truck.
The truck grows closer until it finally rounds the bend in the road in front of us. It’s a white F350 I’d recognize anywhere. Relief and disappointment war in my chest. I’m thankful to get off my fuckin’ feet, but I’m reluctant to leave, knowing it means my time with Kenna—which has been all too short—is coming to an end.
I turn, and she stays close to me, hovering in the circle of my arms. “It’s okay. You don’t need to worry. It’s not them.” My hand lifts of its own accord and travels over her short, dark hair.
“Who is it?” she asks, peering around me.
The truck comes to a stop next to us, the engine left on idle as the driver’s side door opens. Felix hops out, and the door slams shut behind him. Steps crunch through the snow and ice, and he rounds the front.
The smile he flashes when he sees us is a mile-wide swath of pearl-white teeth. “You probably used up a couple of your nine lives, friend. I think I ought to take back that offer to join NCHART,” Felix says. “You see, it’s important to keep the bird in the air if you want to survive.”
“No shit,” I say and limp toward him, clapping a hand on his back.
Felix doesn’t miss a thing. “You hurt?”
“He broke his leg when we crashed,” Kenna pipes in.
“Jesus,” Felix whispers. “I’ve got a kit here that may have a splint. Let’s get you guys in the truck with the heater. I’ve got food, too, if you’re hungry.”
“Starving,” Kenna says. “Thank you so much. I’m Kenna.”
“Shit, sorry. Kenna Lynch, this is Felix Bane. Used to roll with him overseas. He was in the Army, though,” I say before she can ask. “He does Search & Rescue now for North Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team.”
“So would this asshole if he weren’t such a pussy. But Marines,” he says as though that’s an explanation.
“Don’t listen to him,” I tell Kenna as I help boost her into the front seat of his truck. The warm air hits me like the flames of hell, and Kenna groans in pleasure as she settles in. I launch myself in after her and close the door behind me with a sense of finality.
We’re going home.
I should feel more relieved than I do, but the edge of disappointment sharpens. We’ll get off the mountain, and then it’s likely that she’ll go home. She has an entire family to look after, and I have Gramps to tend to. There’s no way the old man will ever leave the mountains. Shock washes over me as I realize. . . maybe I’m not as against the idea of moving as I was before we were stranded.
“So, do you have any embarrassing stories about Dean?” Kenna asks as she bites into a chocolate bar Felix passes to her. I decline but take a giant bite out of a sub sandwich, nearly groaning as the flavors explode over my tongue. Eating my first real meal in days is almost as good as kissing Kenna.
Almost.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
KENNA
“How long until we reach town?”I ask Felix as I down my second chocolate bar and sip from a thermos of hot coffee. It’s not a mocha by any means—it would be a stretch to even call it coffee because it’s watery and bitter—but it’s hot and coffee adjacent, so I’m ecstatic.
“Probably another half hour. They just managed to clear out most of the roads.” He shoots Dean a look. “That’s why it took so damn long to find you two. We were only just able to do a more intensive search. We thought you were dead. Speaking of, I’d better radio in and let everyone know I found your sorry ass.”
