THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

harbored, but he shook his head. “No. I’m making a delivery to a client at a private airfield.”
    “How, uh, soon?”
    “Little over an hour if the storm doesn’t force me to circle too far out.”  He turned toward the control panel, searching for something amid the mass of lights and gauges, then faced her again, apparently satisfied for the moment. “Where you headed?”
    “South.”  That was as good a directional choice as any. To avoid focusing on herself any longer, she pushed the subject off course. “Is this your plane?”
    “Yep. I have a charter company.” 
    “What kind of charters?”  Seemed like a cargo pilot wouldn’t have to work in the middle of the night, flying through storms. Not that she was complaining since she’d benefited by whatever had forced him to fly in this mess.
    “I handle special cargo that normally can’t be transported by most commercial carriers. We’re based in Ft. Lauderdale at Sunshine Airfield. Those ventilated boxes contain lab mice my client needs right away. I’m headed home as soon as I deliver them.”
    She gulped coffee to cover a shudder. Ugh, she hated rats. The slight smell and frantic scratching emanating from the boxes suddenly made sense.
    “Sounds like an expensive way to ship rodents.”  
    “These are special rodents.” 
    “They do tricks?”  She couldn’t resist teasing him if for no other reason than to get another dose of that hot smile of his.
    She got her wish.
    He answered her with a grin that made her want to preen under his attention. She barely stopped herself from sighing before a slap of common sense tamped down her burgeoning attraction.
    Hadn’t Mason turned her head just as easily?
    All charm and teasing when she’d worked in his warehouse. Too late, she’d found out what kind of animal hid behind the million-dollar smile and impeccable manners. This pilot might behave like a perfect gentleman, but only a fool flirted with a man who’d helped her escape without even knowing who she was or why she’d been running.
    Would she ever learn?
    Confusion crossed Zane’s face. “What’s wrong?”
    She flushed the irritation from her face and gave him a polite smile. “Nothing. I just wondered how long the airplane would fly by itself.”  Yeah, right . Well, she had thought about that a few minutes ago. To support her claim, she glanced at the controls.
    “We’re good until I take it off of autopilot in just a minute.”  He put away the first-aid kit and shifted to face forward in the left seat. “We’ll be hitting a rough patch of weather soon. You should come up here and buckle in.”
    Having never flown, and definitely not in a small plane, she hesitated at the idea of being buckled in so close to the windshield.
    Limitless black heavens changed from a constant patter of rain to a loud drumming over the entire craft.
    Zane issued a quick order. “Jump in the co-pilot’s seat now before it gets worse.”
    Wrong time to have a distracted pilot.
    She bent her legs to stand, gritting her teeth at the ache in her stiff muscles. She managed to get into the seat and not hang herself on the headphone cord.
    He reached over without waiting for her okay this time and secured her harness, then took control of the airplane. She didn’t move a muscle while the plane dipped and bucked against the turbulent atmosphere.
    Zane calmly discussed weather and exchanged flight information with an air traffic controller. Vicious wind and rain pummeled the outer shell. When the fuselage shuddered hard several times, she questioned her choice of nights to run.
    But without the storm there would have been no escape.
    Temperature outside the plane had cooled. Her damp clothes chilled her to the bone, but she refused to complain while Zane had his hands full flying in this mess.
    Warm air began to migrate through her space. When another dry towel fell in her lap, she wrapped it around her shoulders and cut her eyes left. He maneuvered the buffeted aircraft with amazing dexterity.
    In the middle of fighting a storm, he’d actually noticed the goose bumps on her arm? And he’d cared enough to pause what he was doing and try to make it better. Could this man be just as decent as he seemed? Where had Zane Black been when she’d been in the market for a nice guy?
    The airplane dropped hard in a downdraft.
    Her stomach lurched. Just when she thought her heart might climb into her throat from sheer terror, Zane glanced over long