not out to sabotage your race,” she repeated.
“So there’s no problem with that one.”
“There’re more rules?”
He leaned closer. “We spend time getting to know each other.”
Her breath caught. He was close enough to her that she could feel his breath brush against her cheeks. Close enough that leaning forward only a few scant inches would put her mouth against his, her lips brushing his.
“We know each other quite well enough.” Was that breathless voice hers? She wanted to jump up and run away. A quick flick around the gondola convinced her that was totally impossible.
“We could know each other even better,” he said, his fingers brushing her hair lightly.
She jerked back as if stung, scooting away several inches and trying to show her displeasure. Only, she was afraid her reaction was a bit extreme.
“Didn’t we just agree you are wasting your time trying to charm me?” she said.
“Ah, but it’s so much fun,” he said, watching her with those dark eyes.
“I don’t think there’s any point in it.”
“It will make the journey more interesting. We can become friends.”
She rolled her eyes at that notion.
“Or lovers.”
She snapped her gaze right back at him. “You’re crazy. We don’t know each other enough to ever get to that level.”
“It doesn’t take long to get to know someone when confined to such a small space for endless hours,” he said, his voice deliberately pitched low and sexy.
She raised her right hand, index finger shaking at him. “Stop right there. We are not going to become that close.”
He leaned back and stretched out his long legs, taking up all the available floor space. “Maybe not. But it’s worth thinking about.”
“You need to think about this balloon and keeping us up in the air,” she said, scarcely able to form two words together as the mere thought of them tangled together in lovemaking almost erased all her thought processes.
He touched her cheek lightly and then rose in one easy movement and glanced around at the gauge. A second later the jets roared to life.
Once her breathing was under control, Amalia stood and looked around. Looking out instead of down, she spotted the other balloon. It looked closer than before. Now it was slightly higher than they were.
“Clear sailing until the ambient air warms too much to make it easy to keep our altitude,” he said.
She nodded, amazed he could switch off the charm and move to dedicated racer in a heartbeat. She was still reeling from their discussion.
And wondering what it would be like to be a close, very personal, friend of Rafael’s.
Rafael switched to the last fuel canister later. He was not getting as much lift as earlier when the air temperature had been cooler. Time to begin looking for a place to stop and exchange these tanks for fresh ones. It was early afternoon. He’d already covered more distance than every day of the festival combined. The wind was steady and probably moving them more than twenty miles an hour. He estimated they’d covered more than a hundred miles.
The mountainous terrain below didn’t offer many wide meadows where there would be room to set down and let the envelope deflate without becoming tangled with trees or ground growth.
The chase crew would have replacement tanks and plenty of food, as well as the tents and bedrolls he hoped they would not have to use. If he didn’t have to rough it, he’d choose not to. On the other hand, dossing down on a sleeping bag beneath the stars was something he’d done more than once. Once they refueled they’d be off again. Long jumps were also an endurance event. He’d go for a few more miles before setting down for the night.
Amalia had not said a word for a while. She had gradually relaxed enough to doze for a few minutes but she hadn’t offered to help in any way. So much for a truce. If Vicente thought that would slow him down, the man had rocks in his head.
“We’ll be setting down soon,” Rafael said to Julio when he’d reached the chase team on the radio. He scanned the terrain for a suitable place. “Where are you?”
“You are a bit behind us and farther north. Maria has you in our sights comparing it with the topographical map. Do you see any place to set down? How far ahead of Vicente are you?”
Rafael noticed Amalia was awake now and watching him.
“His balloon set down about twenty minutes ago. I’m riding at half tank on the last one right now and would prefer to come down soon. But all I see is tree-covered hills.”
“Wait, Maria says there’s a new reservoir north of your position. Any chance you could get near that? There should be plenty of cleared space. Just don’t land in the water.”
With that Amalia rose and clutched the side of the basket, looking around. “We aren’t going to land in water, are we?”
“Can’t swim?” he asked.
“Of course I can swim, but I’m not dressed for it. What if the balloon comes down on top of us and drowns us?” she asked anxiously.
“Relax, we’re not landing in water. Often reservoirs have a lot of cleared land surrounding them, to allow for water fluctuation.” He spoke back into the radio, “I see a clearing, and a road leading to it. We’re lined up for it, I’ll try for that.”
The balloon began descending.
“We’re heading in that direction,” Manuel said.
She looked around. “Where’s the other balloon?”
“They put down already.”
“Why would they do that?”
“If he found a meadow Stefano wanted to take advantage of, he’d land. He needs fuel. So do we. Once we switch out the tanks, we’ll be good to go again.”
“Why didn’t we put down when he did?”
She’d wanted time to talk to Stefano, get him to agree to let someone else take her place. Maybe she could switch with Maria and be part of the ground crew.
He smiled at her tone. “Don’t you like to win?” he asked.
“Not if we’re risking our lives!” she snapped.
“We’re not. Relax. I promise to get you home all in one piece,” he said. He saw the reservoir. He wished he had some better way to gauge the wind rather than flying in it to see where he ended up. Experience told him if they continued at the current rate, they should reach ground about the time they reached the cleared area surrounding the water.
“When we get on the ground, one of us has
