Donna Kauffman says “Fly Me….”

Buckle up. Enjoy the view.

Jake McKenna fixes planes, not people. Compared to an engine, humans are high-maintenance and unpredictable—which is why Jake has zero interest in indulging his sister’s request that he play tour guide and rent-a-date to her boss’s visiting stepdaughter. Still, Lauren Matthews is nothing like the uptight, reed-skinny workaholic he expected. She’s curvy—deliciously so. Funny. Open. And convinced that there’s more to her mother’s hasty marriage to the local mayor than meets the eye.

Leaving her fast-track Washington career is the most impulsive thing Lauren has ever done—right until the moment she arrives in Cedar Springs, Colorado. Everything about sexy, enigmatic pilot Jake tempts Lauren to unleash her inner bad girl and let him take her places she’s never been…even as her snooping around town provokes some extremely hostile reactions. At this altitude, losing your head is easy. Trusting your heart can cost you everything…

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What is it about fast planes and hunky pilots that get us a little hot and bothered under the collar?  Okay, so what’s not to love, really, right?  When I heard about a sport where men race restored World War II fighter planes in close-the-ground air sprints, where they go thundering, literally, through a marked course at rates of speed that would make anyone’s pulse pound…well, I knew I had found just the right extracurricular activity for my flight school pilot, Jake McKenna.

I’d also driven west to the Rockies for the first time last summer, while plotting this book, and when I got about four hours west of Denver and rolled into a small resort town (okay, okay, so perhaps it more like screaming into a small resort town, riding the brake of my rental SUV, white knuckled grip on the steering wheel, and praying I didn’t end up Rocky Mountain Roadkill – but damn those declines are steep!) Yet, once safely in town, I knew I’d found not only my home-away-from-home for the next ten days, but the setting for my hot, hunky pilot book.

My small fictional town of Cedar Springs, Colorado is (not so) loosely based on Steamboat Springs, which has become one of my all time favorite places.   When I describe the happy, shiny townsfolk in the book, that is exactly how the lovely denizens of that charismatic little mountain town are.  Breathing too much thin air?  Perhaps.  But I prefer to believe they’re just ridiculously happy because they know they’re fortunate enough to live in place as stunningly beautiful and awe inspiring as Steamboat.   A part of my heart will always be there.

Also in my heart?  Jake McKenna’s and Lauren Matthews’ fun, emotional, witty, and sexy romp of a blossoming romance.  From it’s inauspicious, stormy beginnings, to the pulse-pounding conclusion, I enjoyed unfolding their love story every step of the way.  I hope you enjoy your time in Cedar Springs, too!

Here’s a small excerpt to get you started!

Lauren hefted her laptop bag and purse strap over her shoulder, then positioned herself at the top of the metal stairs so she could open the umbrella outside the side plane door.  The wind almost yanked it from her hands, but she grabbed tightly at the last second, keeping herself from making a Mary Poppins exit from the plane, smack onto the tarmac.

It was raining so hard, with the wind whipping even harder, that she didn’t even attempt to take a look at her surroundings.  Not that she could have seen much anyway, but she’d been looking forward to seeing the Rocky Mountains, and now it was all she could do to focus on the wide rivers of water cascading across the paved tarmac as she skipped and hopped her way to the double set of glass doors.

Just as she went to reach for them, they swung open for her, and a large, male hand snaked out and gripped her elbow.  The action startled her into loosening her grip on the umbrella, which was immediately snatched away by the wind and went flying back over her head toward the tarmac.  She turned instinctively to see where it went, only to get hit with a full swath of rain, which instantly plastered her hair to her head and her clothes to her body, along with fogging up her glasses so she was, for all intents and purposes, blind.  She’d never considered herself much of a screamer or a squealer, but she might have done a little of both.

The man holding her elbow tugged her in out of the rain and let the doors close behind her.  “Thank you.  I’m so sorry—my umbrella—“

“Marco picked it up,” came a very deep voice with a bit of a rough edge to it, like maybe he’d just woken up.

She was still blinking water out of her eyes and he still had a hold on her elbow.  Everything was just a blur.  “Marco?”

“Ground crew.  Here, let me take those.”

Her elbow was abruptly released, which sent her a bit off balance, then her bags were suddenly lifted from her shoulder and slipped out of her death grip as if her hands were made from putty, sending her staggering a step in the other direction, and her feet both slipped a little as the smooth soles of her shoes were not made for…well, any of this.  And then his hands were on her again, both elbows this time, and, and….well, the entire last sixty seconds had been so discombobulating, for a person who was never discombobulated, that she didn’t know quite what to do. “Bad day?”

It was the dry amusement lacing his tone that gave her the focus she so mercifully needed.  She ripped her elbows from his grip, as if all this was suddenly very much his fault, but instead of being the liberating, independence-returning move she was so desperately seeking, the action only served to send her wheeling backwards.  Which resulted in being caught, once again, even more humiliatingly than before, by his very big, very strong, and very steadying hands.

“Thank you,” she managed, through gritted teeth.  She carefully removed one elbow from his grip, not chancing leaving his steadying powers all at once, and scraped her hair from her forehead and removed her fogged glasses from her face.  Finally able to see, she looked up…only to be thrown completely off balance all over again.  But, this time, her feet were totally flat and stable, on hard, steady ground.  “You can let me go now,” she managed in a choked whisper.

He was just above average height, probably not even six feet, but given she topped the height chart at five-foot-six, and that was in three inch heels, he was very tall to her.  But it wasn’t the height part that commanded the attention.  Nor was it really the square jaw, the thick neck, broad shoulders, very nicely muscled arms and chest that were obvious even through the old sweatshirt and t-shirt he wore.  The thick, sun bleached brown hair might have been a teensy part of it, but mostly it was piercing—truly, piercing—blue eyes, staring at her from his weathered, deeply tanned face.

Crinkles fanned from the corners of his eyes, and there were grooves bracketing either side of his mouth, but she didn’t know if that was from squinting into the sun, or smiling a lot. He wasn’t smiling now, so it was hard to tell.   But he was still holding onto her, and it was that, plus those look-right-through-you eyes, that were keeping her from reclaiming the rest of her much-needed balance.

“I’m—fine.  Really.  Thank you.  Again.”

He held her gaze for another seemingly endless moment, then gently let her go.  “No worries.”

“I, uh, need to rent a car.”  She sounded like a stuttering idiot, and she was normally always super composed, calm, and cool under fire.  It was why Todd had been so impressed with her and promoted her up the ranks of his campaign staff so quickly.  It was also why she’d been one of the first ones hired to his permanent staff when he’d won the senatorial race.  If he could see her now, he wouldn’t even recognize her.  She didn’t recognize her.  And then it hit her what she must look like.  Oh, God.  Not that it mattered what this rugged stranger thought of her, but still…

“If you could just point me in the right direction—“  I will slink off and pretend we never met.

“You don’t need a car.”

She looked up at him again, and though she’d never particularly thought of herself as vain, she’d have given large sums for the use of a comb, a tissue, and a bathroom mirror.  Okay, so a quick salon makeover probably wouldn’t have helped at the moment, but her pride wouldn’t have minded at least a brief attempt at restoring herself.  “Where I’m headed is about two and a half hours from here, and though it’s probably not all that far fetched to think there are probably horses for rent as well, I’m not really that well schooled in horseback riding, so I’m thinking a nice SUV would probably be a better bet.”

His lips quirked a little then, and her pulse actually did this zippy jumpy thing that it never had before.  And it felt kind of good.  In a somewhat startling, disconcerting kind of way.  However–reality check–she hadn’t forgotten that her appearance was highly unlikely to provoke the same reaction in him. Besides, she was not here on vacation.  She was here on a very serious mission that had absolutely nothing to do with having a vacation fling of any kind.  Not that she was the fling type.

“Given the weather, it would probably be as uncomfortable for the horse, but that’s not why I said you don’t need a ride.  You don’t need one, because I’m your ride.”

God help her, she looked him up and down before she could stop herself.  He was her ride?  If only.
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*****Many thanks to Donna for being our visitor today! Leave a comment for the chance to win a copy of A Great Kisser!