He guided the plane through puffy clouds. Nicole focused on a spot in the distance.

“Almost there.”

The plane rocked and bounced as the runway rose to meet them. She gripped the bottom of the seat until numbness froze her hands.

“You can wake up now, Sleeping Beauty.”

Nicole emerged from her self-imposed trance like a caterpillar transformed into a butterfly. She blinked, relieved to discover Ace taxiing to the tie-down area.

“You’re still alive,” he said.

“Tell that to my stomach.”

Ace laughed softly, then shook his head. He maneuvered the plane into the spot indicated by an attendant. When he shut down the engine, he turned to Nicole. “You hungry?”

“Couldn’t eat a thing.”

“You should try something light. This’ll be your last opportunity for a decent meal until tonight.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

He lifted a broad shoulder in a hint of a shrug, then dropped it again just as quickly. “We’ll be leaving in about fifteen minutes.”

Ace swung his long legs to the ground, then came around to her side of the plane. He offered his hand, and she accepted it, surprised by the tingle that chased up her spine at the warmth of his touch.

He released her, moving back a few steps. The motion caused his jacket to flap open. Something metallic glinted in the bright sunlight. She looked again. The handle of a knife.

Nicole gulped. A long knife, the size of the one she carved with at home, was sheathed in a leather holster. Her heart rate jumped. No man she’d ever known owned a knife like that, much less packed it casually on his waist. Instinctively, she knew he had the knowledge to wield it. A shiver of fear traced her spine.

“Is that really necessary?” she asked, her voice betraying her fear.

He followed her gaze. “This?” He pulled the knife from its home with a fluid motion and a vicious hiss.

The sunshine refracted in a hundred different directions, shooting rainbow colors into the sky. The brightness of the glint made her blink several times.

“Yes, it’s really necessary.”

Pulling her gaze away from the wickedly serrated metal edge, she looked directly into Ace’s hooded eyes. He’d certainly drawn the weapon quickly, proving his lazy good looks deceptive. “I received a letter from Governor Rodriguez just a few days ago, saying he was anxious to talk again. He wants this account saved as much as my client does.” As much as I do, she thought.

“No doubt,” he agreed.

His silence, combined with a tense stance, made her push on. In her years as a leader in the corporate world, she’d learned to read body language. And Ace’s screamed he was hiding something. “Go on,” she encouraged. “If you have something to say, say it.”

In a single flip of the wrist, he expertly returned the knife to its worn home. “Look, Ms. Jackson, I have plenty to say about this trip of yours to Cabo de Bello. Regardless of that, my job is to get you there...”

His glance lazily traveled the length of her body. For the second time that day. She refused to shift uncomfortably, but standing still was one of the most difficult things she’d ever done.

When his piercing gaze finally met her face, he was met with her best impression of corporate coolness. But nothing could hide the way her blood rushed through her body.

“...And see that your butt is kept in one piece until I get you back home to your safe, insulated condo in Los Angeles.”

“Really, Mr. Lawson—”

“Ace. The name’s Ace. We’re going to be spending the next couple of days together. You might as well dispense with the formality.” Calmly he folded his arms across his chest.

“If that’s the way you want to play it...” She allowed her sentence to trail off.

“Honey, I guarantee you, this is anything but a game. The report that crossed your desk last week wasn’t a joke. The island’s politically unsettled, and I don’t mean a comfortable ‘vote ‘em out of office’ mentality. I’m talking about ‘shoot ‘em till they shut up’ philosophy.”

Back home, in her floor-to-ceiling glass-paned office, the crudely typed report seemed more the stuff of a grade-B movie than her life. Her heart beat faster.

Unfolding his arms, he made one hand into a fist. “You and your client are trying to change a way of life.”

“Then why did you agree to pilot me?”

“Money.”

Nicole arched a brow. “Somehow you don’t seem the type to require a lot of money.”

“You’re right. I don’t.”

“Then why?”

“Anyone ever tell you you’re a pushy broad?”

“The last man who did wore his front teeth in his lip.”

Ace nearly cracked a smile. Nearly. “You’re welcome to try.”

“I’d prefer a simple answer.”

“Right. I’m taking you to Cabo de Bello because you want to go and I need the cash.”

She waited. And waited.

“That’s as simple as it gets,” he said.

He took her shoulders between his hands, firmly, but not excessively so. That didn’t stop a frisson of awareness from passing up her spine.

“I intend to take this opportunity to use every means at my disposal to get you to change your mind about representing your client on this. My beef isn’t with you, necessarily, but you’re the conduit. And if I take you out of the action, they’re out, too.”

Her jaw dropped. She closed her mouth with an audible snap. “You sound as if you have a vested interest, Mr. Lawson.”

“Nope.” He released her. A warm Pacific breeze toyed with his hair, subtracting years, if not determination, from his face. “I’ve got friends that don’t want to see Cabo de Bello become another sweatshop just to line the deep coffers of your client’s purse.”

“You’re being melodramatic.”

“Maybe you’re not being realistic,” he countered.

“They’ve invested over four million dollars and two years on this project—”

“Two years is nothing, compared with the way of life you’ll change forever,” he interrupted, hostility making his words deeper, more husky.

A primitive part of her responded with an internal leap to the sexiness in his voice. Yet, right now, he was on the opposite side of an issue, an issue her survival depended on. “Opening the plant on time hardly compares with ruining a way of life,” she said, brows furrowing together.

“Sure it does. Your client...”

She didn’t like the emphasis on the last word.

“...Will be getting clothes made at dirt-cheap prices, then selling them for a huge profit. The standard of living won’t increase much here, but some fat cat in the States will get even fatter.”

“That’s free enterprise,” she insisted.

“That’s robbery. Just because it happens doesn’t make it right. Have you stopped to think about the jobs that might be lost at home?

“Be warned, Ms. Jackson,” he said, the heat of his breath feathering across her cheek. “I mean it when I say I intend to do everything in my power to send you back with a change of heart. You and your client can find another place that’s anxious for your kind of progress.”

Nicole shook her head and several strands of her hair met and mingled with his breath. “That’s not possible.”

More than he knew was at stake. Everything she’d spent years fighting for lay on this deal. If she didn’t salvage the project, she would lose the account. God knew she—and WorldNet—couldn’t afford it. Because of a series of disastrous failures, her company might be swallowed whole by the highest bidder, maybe by the one person she and her father had trusted implicitly.

Bitterly, she thought of Sam Weeder, her father’s partner—her own godfather. Weeder had worked to undermine her company since her father’s death. He’d placed a mole inside WorldNet, jeopardizing accounts. Judging by last quarter’s financial statements, he’d done a heck of a job.

Failure was unacceptable. She intended to approach success with single-minded determination.

“I can be persuasive.” He traced his blunted fingernail down one of her cheekbones.