Chapter Seven
Kaitlyn
Something was going on with Aric. He was acting very strange, but she couldn’t seem to piece it together to figure out why. First he was excited and jubilant, like a kid on Christmas morning eager to go and see if Santa had left presents. That had been cute, and contagious.
When the soldier had pulled his weapon on them however, all that had disappeared. Her brain reran the scene in her mind. Aric, turning slowly, his shoulders and spine straightening in a way she’d never really seen from him before. The tenseness of his body, and the way he spoke. Calm, collected, and with the promise of deadly violence. Everything about his posture and stance had screamed “threat” to her.
It was at that moment she’d truly felt aware for the first time how big he was. Aric towered over her. His hands when he’d grabbed her to lift her down had gone a considerable way around her not-very-small waist. She’d felt tiny and yet secure, his hands comforting more than scary. The experience had thrown her mental defenses into disarray. She’d responded with curtness, knowing she had to put a block between them, or else she wouldn’t be able to trust herself if he did that again. It had been that good of a feeling.
Now he was acting like a nervous train wreck. It awkwardly reminded her of the first guy who had ever asked her out way back in high school. He’d been a bit of a geek, but personable enough when they were in a group setting. So she’d said yes, what the heck. A guy was into her, and he was kind of cute, if he’d just pushed the long hair out of his face and stopped wearing the anime shirts.
Which he had on their date. Her mom had dropped her off at the movie theatre in a raging snowstorm. It was mostly empty, but he was there waiting. Kaitlyn had been ecstatic that she’d not been stood up.
Unfortunately by the end of the date she’d wished she had. He was so awkward! Even thinking about it now made her cringe in embarrassment for him. They’d decided on an earlier movie and then dinner afterward. As it turned out, he’d decided that some movie theatre nachos was the perfect date food, “because they could share”.
If the entire rest of the trip was going to be filled with painful reminders of her early dating life, then they were going to have a problem. A big one, when she remembered that they weren’t even dating. This was a business trip.
“Did you check with the pilot this time?” she teased as he climbed in. “Are we in the right helicopter?”
It wasn’t very nice, but it made her feel more in control of the situation. It was now awkward and funny because she’d made it that way. Not Aric. Being in charge wasn’t an issue for her, but she suspected it might be for him.
Oh well, time to grow up and be an adult. Boo-hoo, you tried to act like a macho man and chose the wrong helicopter. Too bad. That’s your fault.
She wouldn’t have thought less of him if he’d explained to her they were going up, but he wasn’t sure which one it was. Why would she? It was only logical. Apparently Aric was having a hard time with logic today though. She glanced to her left, where he was strapping himself in. Due to his size they were pressed in close together. Great.
“Very funny,” he muttered, finishing with the last of the straps. “Just remember that you’re closest to the door now, and if you piss me off, well…”
Kaitlyn’s neck swung around so fast it popped as she stared at him. The big man was grinning from ear to ear. “You would not!”
“I have a very fragile ego,” he stated, making obvious light of what had happened. “I wouldn’t push the issue.”
She laughed with him. “I’ll try to remember that.”
The copilot arrived, pulling the doors shut with only a mild frown at the pair of them before moving around to the right-hand side of the helicopter and sitting in. She overheard him talking to the pilot, but his words were too low for her to overhear. Aric however appeared to frown in concentration, and his eyes darted every so often to the front. Could he hear them speaking? That seemed impossible, especially as the rotors started up.
Yet even as the pilots decided they were done talking Aric nodded once, a minute movement she would never have noticed unless she was staring right at him. There was no way he could have overheard their conversation. Could he?
Before she could ask they lifted clear of the ground. The pilot turned his head slightly and they could see he was talking, but she couldn’t hear him. When they didn’t respond he tapped the headset he was wearing and pointed up at the ceiling, without looking farther back.
Kaitlyn got the point and followed his hand, seeing several more headsets hanging from a bar. Grabbing one she pulled it on, as did Aric. Maybe his hearing wasn’t that great then.
“Can you hear me now?”
She nodded.
“Great. Welcome aboard everyone. We’re heading deeper into the mountains today to check out some reported seismic activity and to ensure it’s not of any danger. This means we won’t be able to do much in the way of requests, but I promise you the view won’t disappoint, anyway. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.”
Kaitlyn grinned and peered out the window, watching the ground fall away below them.
“What a beautiful sight,” Aric said.
There was something different about his voice, but she forcefully kept her eyes staring straight out the door window. “It sure is,” she agreed. “I’ve never actually been in a helicopter before,. This is pretty neat. You move so much slower than a plane you can actually look at what’s below you.”
The helicopter swung around and headed off into the mountains, the military base disappearing. It was replaced with rolling hills and steep cliffs, and gray rock and scraggly mountainside trees as far as the eye could see. It was breathtakingly stunning, and for once she didn’t have anything to say.
“How did you arrange this?” she asked as the pilot banked them around one mountain range. Her attention was pulled away to look back at Aric.
“He bribed me.” That was the pilot.
Aric frowned, reached up and flicked a switch. “There, that’s better. Now he shouldn’t be able to hear us.”
“I see.” Kaitlyn smiled nervously, wondering why he wanted that. “So how did you arrange this?”
Huge shoulders rose up and down as his lips twitched mightily, showing a major effort of restraint. “I bribed him.”
She coughed as explosive laughter ripped from her chest. “Why did you have to put us on a private channel to tell me that?” she finally managed to ask.
“I didn’t. I just didn’t feel like talking to him.”
“Right. Well, what did you bribe him with?”
Aric grinned. “Money of course. That and my credentials give me access to basically anywhere. They think I’m important like that.”
She rolled her eyes. “You do too, apparently. Thankfully it’s a relatively small percentage of people that have fallen for that lie.”
Aric pouted for a moment before smiling. “It got you up here with me, so I’d be nice if I were you.”
“Fine, I’ll be nice for the next…” she reached up and flicked the switch. “How long are we estimated to be out here for?”
“Two hours at most. Less if it goes smoothly.”
Kaitlyn nodded and flicked the same switch again. “You’ve got two hours of niceness. Don’t abuse it.” She stuck out her tongue before abruptly turning to look back out the window.
What was she doing? She was flirting with him! This was not good. Not good at all. Stifling a groan, Kaitlyn peered out the window, doing her best to ignore everything else around her. This was not happening. Despite her best efforts she was already slipping, and it had been less than a day!
At this rate she wouldn’t last forty-eight hours before falling into his bed again unless she tamped down on her responses and kept everything to a perfectly functional platonic working relationship. Which is precisely what it was. Except that she was going to have his offspring in eight and a half months. That minor detail changed everything.
Even if he didn’t know it yet.
“Goodie, two hours of forced niceness. Whatever did I do to deserve such a treat,” Aric deadpanned. “I wonder if these things have parachutes.”
“That desperate to get away from me, huh? So much so that you decided to voluntarily lock yourself in a metal box and sit next to me for two hours? Sorry, not buying that,” she shot back.
“I’ve heard you’re clumsy. I didn’t want you to fall out and me not be in range to save you.”
Kaitlyn expelled her breath in a whoosh. “Ah, so this is a calculated plot to eliminate me then? While making it look like you were the good guy?”
“Drat. Foiled again!”
They both laughed, even as she cursed herself on the inside. It was just so easy to have fun with Aric when he was being himself. The problem was she could never get a good fix on just who that Aric was. He changed from moment to moment, and so far it was nearly impossible to predict what version she was going to get next.
Which is precisely why she was keeping the news to herself. Kaitlyn was well aware of the hypocrisy of her having such a monumentally large secret, while also telling him on the plane that she was done having secrets between the two of them. Her logic was she’d meant work-related ones, not personal. It was flimsy and would blow away in a gentle breeze, but she held onto it for now.
Feeling guilty, she looked out the window, forcing her mind to focus on the beauty of the mountain ranges. They were so different than the ones from home, but it was a view she could appreciate nonetheless.
If anything it made her feel more at home in this foreign country. It helped that she spoke the language fluently, but there was still a feeling in her that insisted she didn’t belong. Seeing the mountains helped with that.
As did flirting with Aric, problematic as that may be. The only thing that remained to be seen, though, was just what sort of trouble it would lead her into now. After all, she was already pregnant.
What more could happen?