Page 80 of A Stolen Heart

“This looks like an excellent spot to land.”

“Yes, if only it will.” They waited a little breathlessly as they dropped lower and lower, skimming over a wide creek.

Straight ahead of them lay a stand of trees.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

SEBASTIAN LOOKED AT THE TREES, CLEARED his throat and said, “I think it might be time to try that valve.”

Alexandra nodded, her heart in her throat. Though they were much closer to the ground, if they fell, it would still be very serious.

“You will be safer if you sit,” Sebastian directed.

“What about you?”

“I have to find this bloody cord. But there’s no reason for both of us to stand.”

“But—”

“Please don’t argue about equality right now. I refuse to let you stand here and try the cords.”

At the look on his face, Alexandra subsided and sat on the floor of the gondola. She wished she were standing. It might be safer on the floor, but there was something more frightening about not being able to see where one was going, only feeling the sudden drop if it came.

Sebastian tugged fruitlessly at one cord, then another. Finally, after he pulled one, there was the hiss of escaping air. Alexandra looked at the balloon. It looked to be slowly deflating. She jumped to her feet.

“That’s it!”

“Yes, if only we make it in time.”

She looked where Sebastian’s eyes were focused and saw the trees coming up on them at an alarming rate. Sebastian pulled her onto the floor with him, sitting down and wrapping his arms around her, bending over her protectively. They waited, scarcely breathing, for the crash.

When it came, it was not the impact they had expected. The balloon hit and caught on the higher branches and stopped, causing the gondola to swing forward and sharply back. They went tumbling across the basket, coming up tangled against the other side. They lay for a moment, waiting for something more, but nothing came.

It sank in on Alexandra that they were still alive and whole and no longer floating through the air. In the next instant she realized that she was lying on top of Sebastian, her legs tangled with his, her face against his chest and his arms around her. She could hear the rapid thump of his heart beneath her ear, feel his warmth surrounding her. Her breasts were pressed against him, and their bodies lay flush against each other all the way up and down.

Alexandra could feel the heat rising up her throat and into her face, and she was not sure whether it was embarrassment or the more carnal flush of desire. Hastily she scrambled off Sebastian, unable to look him in the face.

The dangling gondola swayed at her movements.

“Careful,” Sebastian told her, sitting up slowly. “We don’t want to send this thing crashing.”

The basket was tilted away from the tree. A branch, the end snapped off raggedly, poked through the opposite side, and several branches stretched across the gondola above their heads.

Carefully, Sebastian and Alexandra stood, balancing on the slightly tilted floor and easing around the branches. Grasping a couple of the larger branches, they eased forward to the edge of the gondola. It rocked a little, and Alexandra was glad that she had hold of a thick branch. She peered over the side at the ground below.

They were surprisingly close, hanging no more than eight feet above the ground. Sebastian turned to Alexandra with a grin. “No broken bones?”

Alexandra shook her head. “Just a few bruises.”

“Then I would say we’ve come out ahead.” He edged to the door of the gondola, unbolted it and pushed it out. Then he lay on the floor of the basket and slid out backward, holding on to the bottom of the basket with his hands and finally dropping the rest of the way to the ground.

Alexandra crawled to the edge and peered down. Sebastian was scrambling onto his feet. He looked at her. “Come on. I’ll catch you.”

The ground suddenly looked much farther away when she thought about jumping down. But Alexandra took a firm grip on her courage and swung around, slowly lowering herself out of the basket. She thought about the view she must present to Sebastian below, her skirt twisting around her legs as she slid out. That thought gave her the impetus to shove herself the rest of the way out and drop.

She fell into his arms, and he set her on the ground. He bent over her, laying his cheek against her head, his arms tight around her. Alexandra wrapped her arms around his waist just as tightly. Suddenly, in the aftermath of their adventure, all the tension that had been humming inside her for the last few hours broke loose, and she started to tremble. Her knees felt like melted wax. She drew a ragged breath and commanded herself not to cry.

Sebastian rubbed his hand up and down her back, soothing her without a word. She felt his lips brush against her hair. Desire flashed through her, exploding in her abdomen. She wanted him to continue to stroke her, to run his hands through her hair and move them all over her body.