Thrilled for the chance to stretch her legs and stand on solid land, Allie slid the door open, hopped down to the gravel, and released the lever to drop her seat, allowing Mary and Eric, the older, married couple in the third row, to get out of the minivan.
Filled with nervous excitement, she inhaled the ozone scent of the approaching storm and searched the sky underneath the ominous wall cloud for a sign of a forming tornado.
The driver’s window rolled down, and Drake stuck his head out, catching her gaze with his pale blue eyes and a grin. “Allie, want to help me analyze the data?”
An opportunity to spend time alone with Drake and play with thousands of dollars’ worth of meteorological equipment?
Are tornadoes measured on the Enhanced Fujita Scale?
Hell, yes.
Taryn gave her a wink before she and everyone else vacated the van and crossed into the field to check out the developing storm. At the moment, Allie only had eyes for Drake as she climbed into the front seat and wiped her damp hands on her khaki shorts.
Nothing to be nervous about. They were just two weather enthusiasts hanging out together.
Yeah, if one of those weather enthusiasts wanted to rip the other’s clothes off and use her tongue to lick a trail from his neck to his—
“I have a good feeling about this storm.” Drake fiddled with the screen in front of him, enlarging the map of the area. “See this here?” He tapped the screen. “Even the crew outside might not see a tornado forming. The dual-pol radar can differentiate between precipitation and a debris ball, which shows up as purple on the reflectivity image. When the red outbound velocities meet the inbound velocities in green, we’ll have a strong rotating column of air, and when we see the signature hook, you’ll get your tornado.”
She didn’t completely understand, but she nodded anyway. “I noticed you said when and not if. How do you know it will happen?”
“Because I promised you a tornado,” he said, squeezing her naked thigh and letting his hand linger, the heat of it awakening the nerves of her male-touch-deprived skin. “And I never disappoint.”
Air rushed out of her lungs, leaving her breathless and dizzy. The innuendo in his comment begged for a flirtatious response, but as usual, her mind went utterly blank. By the time she’d come up with a snappy response about testing the veracity of his statement, the opportunity had passed, and Drake had removed his hand from her leg to play with the Doppler.
She made a living as a television news producer, for Pete’s sake. Verbal communication was as natural to her as breathing. And it wasn’t as if she were a virgin. She didn’t have a huge amount of experience, but she’d had a couple of long-term relationships.
Her throat grew dry, one of the mild side-effects of the condition Allie had contracted on day one of her vacation. Taryn had laughingly dubbed it “Drake-a-titis.”
Allie grabbed a cherry sucker from her purse, unwrapped it, and stuck it in her mouth. Because it had decreased her nausea, she’d spent months of chemo treatment sucking on the candy. At least this was one symptom she could treat.
Unfortunately, there was only one cure for the heavy ache in her breasts and the subtle tingling between her thighs, and there wasn’t a chance in hell she’d ever find the courage to ask Drake to help her with it.
He turned his head toward her and suddenly stilled, fixated on her mouth. It sent delicious shivers down her spine, and the subtle tingling morphed into a full throbbing. She swallowed and cleared her throat, breaking the eye contact to rummage through her purse again. When she pulled out another sucker, he continued to stare at her. “Here you go.” She awkwardly handed him the candy, immediately kicking herself for not using the opportunity to get him to kiss her.
A slow smile split his face as he took it from her trembling hand and then unwrapped the lollipop. “Right. That’s exactly what I need. Thanks.” He blew out a breath and muttered something she didn’t hear, returning his attention to the data in front of him before popping the candy between his lips.
She slouched in her seat and looked out the window, pretending to check out the sky. Gah, she was so out of practice on the flirting front. “So…” Maybe she should just straight-out tell him she was attracted to him and wanted to hook up for a one-night stand. That way if he rejected her, she’d be on a plane back to Chicago in twenty-four hours. “What got you into chasing storms?”
He leaned closer, and she caught his tantalizing scent beneath the cherry candy. It reminded her of the sweet smell in the air right after a rainstorm. “I’ll let you in on my secret. I used to be terrified of weather. Not only tornadoes. Thunder and lightning too. When the weather turned bad, I’d hide under my bed until my parents would slide me out by my ankles. I spent many nights asleep under that mattress. Ask my sister.”