to Ellen’s hut. He had no choice but to knock on her door. Never having been an indecisive person, he couldn’t understand why this time it was so difficult to do something so simple. Maybe because he was afraid she’d chew him out for the abrupt way he’d grabbed her, kissed her and walked off. He deserved her disdain even if he had done the right thing. Now he had a larger issue. A shipment of drugs was coming in and he needed to meet the plane. She’d offered to help with the paperwork and this was one of the times he needed her.
Needed her. Unfortunately, that seemed to be happening on a number of levels.
He prided himself on facing problems head on but the thought of approaching Ellen so soon after their kiss had him feeling uneasy. The kiss they’d shared had rattled his nerves and his convictions. He wanted more than a kiss and that shook him to the core. She shouldn’t interest him, shouldn’t affect him in any way, but she did, far too much. He’d spent the night vacillating between berating himself and wanting to crawl into Ellen’s bed. The latter he wasn’t going to do under any circumstances. He had to stop whatever was happening before it got out of hand.
He wouldn’t kiss her again.
For him, controlling his emotions had been a lifetime thing. He done it when his mother had left, when his father had sent him to boarding school, separating him and his sister, and yet again when the headmaster had stated frankly he would never amount to anything. He would do so again where Ellen was concerned. It was necessary if he didn’t want to lose his sanity, or, worse, hurt her.
She was a good doctor and he was as well. They were in Honduras to help people and that was what they would do. Their relationship would remain professional. He wasn’t some teen whose body ruled his brain or some lovestruck young man who went after the first beautiful woman he’d seen in a while. As a mature man he could handle any fascination he might feel for her, especially a woman he wasn’t sure he liked.
Chance gave the door a sharp, solid tap. There was no response. His knuckles rapped against the wood once more.
“Coming.” The word had a groggy sound.
Ellen opened the slatted door and stood on the other side of the screen door.
“Did I oversleep?” Panic filled her voice.
Her mass of hair fell in disarray around her face. The temptation to open the door, take her in his arms and walk her backwards to the bed almost got the better of his control. How much was a man supposed to take? Chance sucked in a breath.
“No. Were you serious about helping with the paperwork?” He sounded gruff and formal even to his own ears.
She blinked twice. “Yes.”
“Then I need you to come with me. We have a shipment. I want to show you how to handle it and what’s involved.” He was already making his way down the steps again.
“Okay. Give me ten minutes.”
“I’ll get us something to eat and meet you at the truck.” He didn’t wait for her to answer before heading along the path.
As good as her word, which he was coming to learn was ingrained in Ellen’s makeup, she showed up at the Jeep dressed and ready to go right on time. He’d never known a woman as attractive as she who could be dressed on such short notice. His ex-wife would have certainly balked at his request, expecting at least an hour to prepare herself to go out in public, even in the wee hours of the morning.
Ellen climbed into the seat beside him and he handed her a cup of juice and a banana. “Breakfast of champions.”
“Or the crazy,” she mumbled.
Chance grinned. He found she had that effect on him more often than most. There was never a dull moment around Ellen. He was learning to like it. Putting the Jeep in gear, he headed toward the road that would take them to the nearby airstrip.
Ellen yawned. “Why so early? It’s three a.m.”
“This is when a plane was available to bring supplies in. We use volunteers and have to work around their schedule. This plane was making another delivery and just added us as an extra stop.”
“Oh. You couldn’t have told me about this last night? I would have been ready.”
“I didn’t know for sure and I had other things on my mind.” Like kissing you, holding you, taking you to bed.
A soft sound of realization came from her side of the cabin.
“Uh, Ellen, about that kiss. Look, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. You didn’t come down here to have an affair and I certainly don’t make it a habit of taking advantage of young women. It won’t happen again.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw her shift towards him in the seat.
“For starters, I’m old enough to take care of myself and I make my own choices about who I kiss, not you.”
“But I took advantage of the situation…”
He felt her glare. “Chance, just shut up and drive.”
Half an hour later they had reached the airfield. Marco and a couple of the others were helping set out lanterns along a dirt runway.
“This looks a little illegal to me,” Ellen said as they waited on the plane circling the field.
“It would be by American standards but by Honduran ones it’s the only way to get the drugs safely into our hands.” Chance pointed toward a car sitting near the tree line. “That’s one of the officials. We’ll give him the papers, a little cash and he’ll sign off on them.”
“So it is illegal?”
“No, we just have to get our shipments in a less orthodox method so that we don’t draw the drug traffickers’ attention. This way we’re not robbed on the road. Marco, Ricardo and Perez will ride as an armed escort back to the resort just to be sure.”
“Is this how it’s handled every time?” Ellen sounded excited by the whole idea.
“Pretty much, but we change up meeting points and times. Nothing’s the same twice.”
“Interesting. I kind of like this cloak-and-dagger stuff.”
Chance grinned. He could see her as a femme fatale. “Rest assured, it’s necessary and not something to take lightly.”
The plane’s wheels touched the runway, throwing up dust.
“Do you ever see the humor in something or do you always take everything seriously?”
“When it comes to my work it’s serious.”
And unfortunately where you are concerned it is serious as well.
Chance stepped on the gas and raced after the plane. They needed to have it unload and gone before anyone took notice. He pulled to a stop beside the plane. Thrusting some papers into Ellen’s hand, he said, “As I call out the meds, you mark them off the list.”
“Got it.”
By the time he had the first box in his hands and was placing it in the trunk, Ellen was standing at
