Page 7 of Crossed Wires: The Complete Series

“I do.”

“Jesus. Are you serious?”

Hunter suppressed a grin. Her American accent was cute. “Yes, Annie. I’m a fully qualified helicopter pilot. Not that you need to worry. We’re just hiding out in here, right?”

Annie bit her lip as she looked up at the propellers nervously. Rather than reply, she tried to climb into the passenger seat. The devil prodded him forward and he gave her a boost, using her arse for leverage. It was firm, tight. It took all this strength not to give it a good squeeze.

She startled when he placed his hands on her rear end, but accepted the momentum he provided to claim her seat. “Thanks.” Her slightly narrowed eyes and sardonic tone almost made him laugh.

“My pleasure.” He crossed in front of the chopper and took his place behind the controls. “So I guess we need to figure out how you ended upherewhen Dylan said he was goingthere.”

“He didn’t say he was going to New York. We were chatting on IM and he said something like ‘put your money where your mouth is’. Then he said Qantas, Sydney Airport, November twentieth, and gave me a time. I booked the flight, even though the arrival time he listed was a bit off, but I figured that’s because airlines are constantly changing their schedules.”

Hunter frowned. “I was there when he sent that stupid—Ahem.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I saw him send you the flight details—hisflight details—in an email about an hour after that. He forwarded you the information from the airline.”

Annie looked around the helicopter and he wondered what she was thinking. “I never got that email.”

“Well, he sent it.” Hunter didn’t want to mention that satellite reception on Farpoint Creek was sketchy at best. There was a very good chance Dylan’s email was still bouncing around somewhere in space.

Annie sighed. “I swear to you I never got it. I just said ‘challenge accepted’ or ‘game on’ or something in our chat.”

He nodded. “Yeah, Dylan took that to mean you were excited about his visit. Bloody dickhead.”

“But I meant I was cominghere. I thought he’d invited me to Australia.”

“Well, I don’t mean to criticize, love, but what woman accepts an invitation to visit a bloke she’s never met in a foreign country and only gives herself four days to prepare? Didn’t your family and friends try to talk you out of this?”

Annie’s shoulders straightened and he could see she was pissed off. “IknowDylan.”

He rolled his eyes. “A few emails and IMs and?—”

“We’ve been corresponding for months. Plus we’ve Skyped and talked on the phone and exchanged pictures. I feel like Idoknow him.”

“And I suppose from that kiss you gave me back in the terminal, you didn’t intend for this to be just a friendly visit.”

She bit her lip again. Hunter wished he didn’t find the gesture so cute. “That’s none of your business.”

He let her off the hook. Her blush answered his question just fine. “What’s the deal with the paparazzi? You an actress or something?”

“Dylan didn’t tell you about my family?”

Hunter shook his head. “Nope. Dylan didn’t share much about you at all. Showed me a photo of you a few weeks ago. Besides that and the fact you don’t read your emails carefully, I don’t know a thing about you.” Hunter didn’t mention the soul mate comment.

“I’m a journalist. I work for a magazine in New York.”

“Didn’t realize journalists were so popular in the States.”

She flashed him a dirty look. “It’s not my job that interests the press, it’s my name. I’m Annie Prince.”

He shook his head. “I’m still not following you.”

“Prince Incorporated?”

Hunter recognized that name even less. “Nope. Haven’t got a bloody clue what you’re talking about.”

“I guess Monet was right. She said there had to be somewhere on the planet where I could live incognito. Go Australia.” She raised one fist in a cheer for his country.

“I don’t know who this Monet is, but that’s not exactly true. You’re in Sydney and there are cameramen following you.”