“Three islands,” Trey said, pulling a crumpled sheet of paper from his leather messenger bag. “Waruhatu, Pareaa and Suaneva.”

“Those are all on my list,” she said. She glanced over at him, then reached up to close the cowling over the engine. “All done. I’ll just do the preflight and we’ll be ready to leave in about ten minutes. There are some cold drinks in the cooler over there if you want to grab one. You can stow the cooler behind the front seat, if you’d care to help.”

She brushed by him as she returned the wrench to the tool cart and Trey caught the scent of her perfume, or maybe it was the flower in her hair. Whatever it was, he found the smell incredibly intoxicating. What was this beautiful girl doing in such a place? he wondered.

True to her word, they were rolling down the runway ten minutes later, Trey strapped into the passenger seat and Sophie Madigan behind the controls. Though Trey had never been afraid of flying, something about this situation made him nervous. For the first time in his life, he’d placed himself in the hands of a beautiful woman. The most he’d ever surrendered to a woman in the past was his body and even then, it had never been complete surrender.

The plane smoothly lifted off the runway and soared into a steeply banked turn over the water. As they continued to climb, Trey closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. She seemed to be a very competent pilot, at least so far.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

He opened his eyes to find her staring at him, her brow furrowed. “Yeah.”

“If you’re going to be sick, there’s a bag under the seat.”

“I’m not going to be sick,” he said. “I’m just not a big fan of small planes.”

She shrugged again. “Don’t worry. I can put this plane down anywhere. That’s the benefit of an amphibious plane. Water or land.”