Disappointment rushed through him. He’d wanted her to beg him to spend time with her, but that just wasn’t Emma. Her whole life she’d had it drummed into her head to always do the right thing, so if he actually wanted to see his plan for payback through, he’d have to convince her to throw caution to the wind.

Just like he always had done. The same old roles, repeated a decade later. Clearly, people never changed.

Even when you wanted them to.

Besides, if he didn’t convince her to stay, he would miss out on another chance to sample what she was so clearly offering in her stunning low-cut pink dress, those strappy sandals elongating her fabulous legs.

“You know what, on second thought I can shuffle my schedule around. We haven’t seen each other in so long and who knows when you’ll get the time to visit me again.”

A shadow crossed Emma’s face and he wondered again what had brought her running to Napa, away

from the safety of her perfect suburban life. Once she trusted him with her secrets, he’d have one more weapon against her. It likely wouldn’t take much persuasion to get her to open up to him. He sensed, as he always had, that Emma was simply dying to unburden herself of all her fears. But she’d surely grow skittish if he moved too soon. So he backed off, saying, “How would you like a personal wine country tour guide? If the restaurant hadn’t worked out, that’s probably what I’d be doing today.”

Her smile lit up not only her face, but something deep within Jason. Forcing away the good feelings, he threw the rest of the dripping cone away, grabbed her hand, and said, “Let’s get on with the tour,” racking his brain to think of the best possible backdrops for more erotic adventures.

Ten

Ican’t do it.” Emma took a step back in horror.

“Sure you can. Besides, you can hold on to me if you get really scared.”

While wrapping herself around Jason sounded wonderful, doing it hundreds of feet in the air courtesy of a hot air balloon wasn’t exactly the venue she had in mind.

“Can’t we just go for a walk through the vines instead? I don’t need to see what they look like from the air. The ground is just fine.” Flicking him the big-eyed look he’d never been able to resist in college she said, “And then we could talk. About old times. Remember what fun we had together?”

She knew the minute she’d said it that she was moving too fast, had taken exactly the wrong approach. So she tried another angle. “I thought hot air balloons could only fly first thing in the morning,” almost adding,We don’t have to talk about the past if you don’t want to, but managing to keep her mouth shut before she jammed both feet into it.

Jason climbed up the stairs into the huge basket and reached for her hand. “My buddy says the air is still enough and hot enough. We’ll be just fine.”

She looked around the deserted field in desperation. “We’re not going up in this thing alone, are we? Isn’t your friend going to come with us? Don’t we need a licensed pilot?”

“Emma,” Jason said, a wicked gleam in his eyes, “don’t you trust me?”

“Of course I do,” she practically shrieked, “in the kitchen and the bedroom!” She flushed as her words hurtled back toward her. Had she actually just said she trusted him in the bedroom?

Grinning wolfishly, the hardness her “talk about old times” speech had conjured up finally gone again, Jason effortlessly lifted her into the balloon. “Good. Then you’ll just have to add one more location. A hot air balloon.”

She had to make one last try to get out of this death trap. As far as she could tell, there was one thing Jason couldn’t resist. And neither could she.

“Couldn’t we just go back to bed instead?

“Very tempting,” he said as if he were considering her suggestion, “but then what kind of Napa Valley tour guide would I be?”

With that he lit the wind-protected propane tank in the middle of basket and they began to float up in the air. Emma gripped the thick rim of the oversized basket so hard her knuckles cracked. Jason’s arms came around her waist and he hugged her tightly to him.

“Try to relax and enjoy the ride.”

His words were coaxing, but she was so wound up at the vision of the two of them falling from the sky and crashing to their deaths in the middle of a picturesque vineyard that she could barely appreciate the hard planes of his body pressing into her.

“Do you need me to help you relax?” he murmured into her ear.

She spun her head to face him. “Don’t be crazy,” she hissed. “We can’t fool around up here.”

“Give me one good reason,” he said as one of his hands moved up to cup her br**sts.

A soft wind blew across them and she shivered with the beginnings of desire. “Because you’re driving this thing.”

Her protest sounded slightly wimpy even to her ears. She was still afraid they were going to die, only it was increasingly difficult to concentrate on their impending demise when he was touching her like that.

“Piece of cake,” he said and she no longer knew if he was talking about piloting the hot air balloon or getting her all hot and bothered.

His free hand gently pulled the thin, soft cotton of her dress up her thigh. “We can’t do this,” she said again, her objections growing weaker and weaker. “Not here. Not now. It’s too dangerous.”

“Of course we can,” he said, a man who was 100 percent certain of his decision to pleasure a woman hundreds of feet in the air. “I thought you wanted to live dangerously.”

Barely aware of the way her limbs and muscles were relaxing beneath his touch, she leaned her head back into the space between his chin and shoulder. He cupped her more closely to him, his thumb and

forefinger on one very erect nipple, his other hand just now reaching her silk thong panties.

She was already impossibly aroused by his touch, even when she was more than a little hurt that he’d much rather have sex than reminisce about old times. But for now, if hot sex was all she could get, she told herself to be happy about it. Better some part of Jason than no part at all, right?

“Yes,” she whispered, “that’s exactly what I want. To live dangerously. With you.”

The bold words had barely left her mouth when his hand was cupping her mound and she could feel how wet she already was, utterly desperate for him to slide one of his thick fingers into her.

“I know what you want, Emma,” he said as she moved her legs apart to give him better access and then he was inside of her, stroking her.