making the craft easier to maneuver in the air.
The engine appeared worse off than he’d hoped. He wouldn’t know how much damage it had sustained until he could take the thing apart. To say the least, he had his work cut out for him.
“You don’t look very happy.” Alex was gazing up at him, her eyes deep violet in the shadows. “Can you rebuild it?”
“I’ll have to. The only question is how much time and money it will take. Right now the picture’s not a pretty one.”
“Papa would help you with the money if you asked him to. He has his faults, but stinginess isn’t one of them.”
Rafe’s sharp intake of breath triggered a jab of pain along his battered rib cage. He clenched his teeth, waiting for the agony to pass. “I’ve been down that road with your father, thank you. He offered to buy the aeroplane…and me. I turned him down.”
“You turned him down!” She stared up at him, amazement written across her face. “Why, for heaven’s sake?”
“I won’t be owned. Neither will my aeroplane. I want to start my own company, under my own name, like Glenn Curtiss here in New York, or Louis Blériot in France. My dream. My designs. My decisions. That’s what I’d be giving up if I were to accept your father’s offer. Does that make sense to you, or do you think I’m crazy?”
She pursed her very kissable lips. “Knowing Papa, I’d say you were very brave. Get on his bad side, and he’ll eat you alive.”
They moved on around the aeroplane, her body warm, damp and fragrant against his side. Rafe struggled to ignore the ripples of awareness that shimmered through his body. Despite his good intentions he was becoming aroused. “Your father’s been very generous,” he said. “I’d like to find a way to repay him. But as for the rest, I’m on my own now.”
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