Deity by Theresa Danley Read Free Book Online Page A

they truly were. She’d
dated Navy pilots, bar flies, a rodeo stock contractor, a business executive
and everything in between. She even dated a golf pro
once, but every one of them had one thing in common—underlying egos demanding
fulfillment of their own needs and outcompeting KC’s longing desires.
    Perhaps
that’s why she felt safest with her last relationship with a Methodist elder who’d just moved to town. His stability was intoxicating,
his tenor voice, seductive. He was real and his openness about the Jesus in his
life made him appear vulnerable, and vulnerability implied exposure of the
deeper self.
    Little
did KC know that vulnerability itself was a mask that could cover a man’s
mid-life crisis, not to mention the wife and children he left back at home in
Memphis.
    That
was nearly two years ago. After that, KC swore off men but she quickly realized
that it was nothing but a mask she had chosen for herself. Deep down inside,
there was still that void longing to be filled by a man, a real man who had
nothing to hide. Despite the hardened facade she’d perfected externally, inside
that yearning was still open to any man who dared look for it.
    She
hadn’t realized just how open it was until Anthony Peet came along.
    There
was an instant attraction to him. Something primal within her autonomously
reached out for Peet’s subtle masculinity. At first KC tried to ignore it,
annoyed at another opportunity for disappointment. But during the flight to Mexico,
his presence consumed her. There was an awareness of just how small The Ladybug
was and when the anthropologist dared to take a seat in the co-pilot’s chair,
KC’s world constricted to that short space between them. It was as if the cockpit
of the Twin Commander was compressing around them, intensifying the pull from
the man sitting next to her.
    Confinement
ten thousand feet in the air had been surprisingly welcome in the company of
Anthony Peet. She felt like a teenager again with a sudden resurrection of
hormones run amuck. KC had been floating on that feeling even after Peet left
her and the Ladybug on the warm Mexican tarmac. She’d just settled in a greasy
maintenance hangar, preparing to disassemble a hitchy gearbox from the left turbo
when Peet called, needing a flight back out of Mexico City. KC knew she was in trouble when
she realized just how much she anticipated a return flight with Peet.
    Maybe
this time she would listen to her instincts and use those hours to get to know
him better. After all, who could offer a more grounded relationship than a man
who spent his days digging in the earth? But when Peet returned to her in the
company of another man, a priest no less, KC couldn’t help but lash out against
yet another disappointment.
    “Nobody’s
asking you to convert to anything,” Peet argued as he chased her beneath the
wings of The Ladybug. “All we need is a ride Chichen Itza.”
    “You
make it sound so simple.” KC sighed irritably. “That’s all everybody wants when
they ask for a ride to Chichen Itza.
Then along the way they try to sell me on their New Age crap. Or worse yet,
they try to scare me with all this talk about the end of the world. Now I
suppose this priest wants to convince me that Jesus is returning.”
    “He’s
not an evangelistic missionary,” Peet said , as if that
was all the reason she should need to change her mind.
    KC
marched under the tail of the plane and circled around for the second wing tie.
“I don’t give a damn what he is. All I know is that anyone going to Chichen Itza right now has
some convoluted idea about what’s going to happen on December 21st. I’m going
to have a good hard laugh when everyone wakes up only to realize they still
have to go to work in the morning.”
    “You
had no problems flying me to Mexico
City, KC. What’s the difference?”
    KC
released the tie and spun around so sharply that Peet’s chest nearly crashed
into her face. Unfortunately, the man caught himself