A smile tugged traitorously at his lips as adrenaline seeped into his blood. Her eyes were wide with childlike excitement; her bright teeth were straight and white with the sliver of a pink tongue barely showing within. He drank in the sight of her. God, she was something else.
“Cat got your tongue, John?”
A strange clunk rumbled through the mechanics and his burgeoning smile vanished. “What was—”
Her smile dissolved. “Oh, God.”
The excitement in her gaze was replaced with horror. She slapped her hands hard to the bar and held on. Dread dropped like a rock into John’s gut. This did not bode well.
“Here we go.” She gritted her teeth.
“Go? Go where?” John looked ahead.
Another rumble and the ride spun into free fall. Her hands ripped from the bar and she was flung into his side from the force of gravity whizzing around them. She smashed into his rib cage and the breath left his lungs. “Bloody hell.”
Instinctively, he dropped his arm to her shoulders, keeping her flush to his body for safety. He had no idea what he could do to protect her when it was clear an Amazon woman couldn’t have fought the pressure that had spun her slight frame across the seat at forty miles an hour.
“How the hell do we stop this thing?” he yelled.
“I don’t know.” Her jaw was set in consternation.
His eyes widened as he stared at her profile. “You don’t know.”
“I thought—”
“No, Sasha. Thinking was the last thing you did.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” She turned.
John stared into her eyes. An apology from her was the last thing he thought he’d hear. Not today, tomorrow or ever. Her hair blew back and forth across her face, her brown-black eyes wide and beautiful.
He grimaced. “So, this isn’t going according to plan, huh?”
Her gaze ran over his face to linger at his mouth. The ridiculousness of their situation gave way to physical awareness. The desire to kiss her filtered through his mind. To show her who was boss and stop this damn power play she had going on. His mouth went dry. What was she doing to him? This was not the plan at all. School was out for the summer and by the time the new semester started he’d be home and back at work where he belonged. Getting wrapped up in a woman, in Sasha, was not an option.
He tore his gaze from hers as they whipped to the other side of the ride once more. “I’ll have to stop it.”
“What? You can’t. How will you get out of the seat, let alone anything else?”
Reluctantly, he slid his arm from her shoulders and attempted to lever an inch or two of space between them. “Try to pull away from me. Just a little so I can stand.”
“Stand?” Her eyes widened to manic proportions. “Are you insane? Stay there. I’m not being held responsible for getting you killed.”
He gritted his teeth and fought hard against the insistent pressure of the pulsating gravity holding them tightly together. His ass lifted about two inches before the ride shot off in another direction, landing him back on the seat with a violent shudder that reverberated up his spinal cord. “Bugger.”
Her totally unfeminine snort and ensuing screech of hysterical laughter trembled through his body. They were well and truly glued to each other. His gut tightened as laughter tickled at the back of his throat. He turned and she looked at him with such delight, resistance was futile.
He tipped his head back and laughed harder and louder than he had in years.
* * *
SASHA COULDN’T DRAG her gaze from the totally masculine sight of his throat, faintly grazed with stubble, as the sound of his deep, toe-curling laugh hit her in the center of the stomach. The taut skin at his neck vibrated and the sensuous, joyous sound was captured on the wind and whisked into her box of memories before she could think to resist. She couldn’t wipe the wide and undoubtedly stupid smile from her face.
He met her eyes. His shone with unshed tears. Bright blue like sapphires in the sun. Christ, what was she thinking? Sapphires in the bloody sun? She whipped her head around. She had to get off this damn ride. “Maybe we should try shouting for Freddy?”
“What?” He smiled.
Damn. He was more handsome than ever when he smiled. She closed her eyes. “Freddy!”
The screech of metal against metal ricocheted around them.
His laughter abruptly stopped and his body—so damn tight to hers, his biceps pushed her shoulder—stiffened. “What was that?”
She opened her eyes and stared ahead. Looking at him was far too dangerous to her game plan of throwing him totally for a loop—not that the plan was going all that well so far. “We’re slowing down.”
“But how? Wait. Did you know this thing would stop eventually?”
She shook her head and nodded toward the control booth. “Look.”
He turned. The skewed image of Freddy showed behind the reinforced glass. “Thank God.”
She screwed one eye shut and grimaced. “Maybe I shouldn’t have—”
He stared for a long moment as the ride slowed before he lifted his arm from her shoulders and looked away. “You’re right. You shouldn’t have.”
Realizing she was still pressed up against him without any need, Sasha hurriedly scooted away, leaving a foot-wide gap between them. Her heart raced. Had he just dismissed her? She looked at his hardened profile as he glared ahead at God only knew what.
“Do you know something?” She pulled back her shoulders. “I’m glad I did this. I wanted to see you knocked off-kilter for a while. You’ve no idea what it did to me, having you turn up here yesterday.”
He turned. His eyes were midnight-blue with irritation. “And your response to that when you saw me sitting on this godforsaken ride was to pay me back by giving me whiplash?”
She bit back a smile. “Yes. Now I’m done.”
“You’re...” He shook his head and rolled his eyes heavenward. “She’s done. My God.”
They sat in strained silence as the ride took its merry time grinding to a halt. When it finally stopped, she leaned over and expertly released the mechanism locking the lap bar into place. She shoved it upward, heedless of the fact he still gripped it. When his shoulders audibly clicked with the force of his arms almost leaving their sockets, she grimaced again.
“Sorry.” She jumped from the ride and stormed toward the steps.
“Hey,” Freddy shouted behind her.
God damn it. She turned. “What?”
He lumbered toward her. “What?
