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could see the kiss coming, could feel the warm whisper of his mint-scented morning breath against her cheek and she was powerless to stop it. Blast it all, she didn’t even want to, which was the worst trick yet this morning. What good did it do to say no, when your whole body was shouting yes? Blake was a perceptive man. He obviously heard those shouts all too clearly.
    She caught the triumphant gleam in his eyes just before his lips covered hers, slanting heat across trembling moistness. She had just a fraction of a second in which she might have managed a half-hearted objection, but it stuck in her throat as his mouth teased gently and then possessed, taking away not only her breath, but all thoughts of protest. In fact, there wasn’t a rational thought left in her head as she gave herself up to the most provocative, enticing sensations she’d ever experienced.
    Maybe it was the altitude. More likely, it was Blake Marshall teaming up with her suddenly rampaging hormones. Whatever it was, the kiss left her weak and chastened and just about willing to do anything the man suggested, short of jumping out of the gondola at one thousand dead-on-crashing feet. For a woman who’d planned to spend the next week learning to be assertive, it was obvious she’d failed the first lesson. Worse, with Blake’s arms tight around her, she didn’t even mind.
    Then the phrase “good sport” crept into her mind, followed by “understanding woman.” It was like hearing a battle cry, with enemy troops just over the crest of a hill. She put her hands against Blake’s rather solid chest and shoved with all her might.
    â€œYou have some nerve!” she said indignantly, when she could manage to get a word out without sounding all breathless and fluttery. “Is this how you seduce your string of women? Do you get them up in one of these dumb balloons and then take advantage of them, when they don’t have anyplace to run?”
    â€œAt the risk of sounding egotistical, most women I know aren’t interested in running.”
    â€œWell, I am. I don’t even know you. I do not go around kissing strangers.”
    â€œThen I guess we’ll just have to change that, won’t we?” he said with absolute calm as he shot another blast of hot air into the balloon.
    Audrey had seen enough by now to know that the hot air sent them up, not down. Her stomach rolled over. “Change what?” she asked, regarding him warily.
    â€œThe fact that we’re strangers.”
    Audrey didn’t want to be disagreeable, not if it would end her captivity at a height that made her head swim. “Fine. We’ll meet later for drinks. After the race. A friend told me about this great little outdoor café in Aspen. We can have a drink and celebrate your victory.”
    â€œWhy wait?”
    Good question. He’d already heard most of her salient answers and he wasn’t particularly impressed with them. She tried one last time to remind him of the race. Not so long ago it had been all-important.
    â€œHow much talking will we be able to do, if you have to keep your mind on the race?”
    One brow arched. “You could help. Working side by side often makes a relationship much stronger.”
    She folded her arms stubbornly across her chest. “Not on your life.”
    â€œThen I can probably manage to do two things at once.” His glance slid over her with provocative slowness. His voice softened to a purr. A little more oomph and it would have been a predatory growl. “If I couldn’t and had to choose, though, I think I’d opt for getting to know you.”
    Her pulse leaped crazily.
    Flattery, Audrey, that’s all it is, she told herself. A man resorts to insincere flattery when he’s losing his case. All she had to do was muster a few more convincing arguments along this line and she’d be down on the ground in no time and Blake would be