Space in His Heart by Roxanne St. Claire Read Free Book Online Page A

uncrossed his
ankles and looked at his watch no less than six times.
    “I’m going as fast as I can, Commander. I’m
trying to help you because I promise you will not be this
comfortable on the real set of the Today show.”
    “No, I won’t, because I don’t intend to do
it.”
    “You’ll have to,” she insisted. “Don’t you
follow orders?”
    “Let’s just make it easy on both of us.” He
inched closer to her and touched his ear, his voice low and
teasing. “If I do show up on the Today show, I’ll just wear
an earpiece and you can whisper in my ear.”
    Droplets of moisture formed at the nape of
her neck as she stared back at him, unable to come up with even a
lame response.
    “Enough, Deke.” Jeff Clark jumped in. “It’s
my turn. Go sit down and watch a pro.”
    Deke shot out of the chair and walked off the
set.
    “So, do you think you can handle that pain in
the ass?” Jeff asked in a confidential tone as he dropped into the
hot seat for his interview.
    “I understand that he doesn’t want to do
this.” She watched Deke leave the studio, oddly disappointed that
he wouldn’t stay just a few minutes longer. “But, honestly, he has
all the right stuff—no pun intended—to capture the attention and
attraction of America. I truly believe it will help this country
want to embrace the space program along with him. And that’s our
objective. Making him a sex symbol is merely a strategy to reach
that goal.”
    She heard the poised, professional tone in
her voice. But something about that man made her feel anything but poised or professional.
    * * *
    He left the set, but Deke wasn’t quite ready
to leave the studio yet. From the booth behind the darkened glass
of the studio wall, he sat in the empty assistant director’s chair
to observe Jessica Marlowe on three different monitors.
    He wasn’t the least bit surprised that the
camera loved her. And she obviously knew her job, asinine as it
was. He took a deep breath and listened to her ask far less
intrusive questions of Jeff. She had no intention of using a backup
astronaut. He could read her determination a mile away.
    Son of a bitch, he just couldn’t get his head
around this PR business and why Price wanted him to do it.
His mission at NASA was clear and if it hadn’t been, he wouldn’t
have come over and left the life of a Naval aviator, a life that he
loved.
    He didn’t worry about NASA’s image problems.
He never cared about image. He cared about flying and exploring and
getting the research done right. And he wanted to make sure no
lives were lost in the process. He thought of the growing
complications up on the space station, something the wide-eyed PR
girl knew nothing about. If they didn’t figure out what had caused
the hydrogen leak, the launch would have to be delayed. And that
could be deadly for one man.
    Skip’s favorite war, the Cold one, would heat
up again in a big hurry if the Russians thought the Americans
deliberately let a cosmonaut die in space because the
engineer-astronaut responsible for getting the shuttle up was out
on a media tour. Then they’d have an image problem, all right.
    Maybe someone should tell her. But if
something leaked, all hell would break loose. They’d have a real
media circus on their hands.
    No, he couldn’t trust her with information
that confidential. No one could know how bad off the cosmonaut
was.
    His gaze traveled down her body, giving in to
the urge he’d fought since he’d seen her in the parking lot this
morning. Miss Image-Maker certainly didn’t rely exclusively on her
impressive gray matter or that little skirt wouldn’t shimmy up so
far each time she crossed her well-toned thighs. An irrepressible
male response annoyed and alerted him.
    Shit. He pushed up and left the studio for
the OPF, needing to concentrate on some spark-burned wires he’d
found near the coolant tubes. The less time spent anywhere near
that leggy brunette, the better.

 
     
     
     
     
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