Filthy Scrooge

“Would you stop?”

“Jet streams are a little crazy.”

“You can feel that?”

“Hold the yoke.”

I looked down at the steering wheel thingie and how it moved. “I’m good.”

“Afraid?”

“Yep. I’m good with it. A healthy fear keeps you humble.”

“Would you prefer to sit on my lap?”

“You keep your filthy pilot fantasies to yourself, buddy.”

He tipped his head back. “Seriously. Just try it.”

“My mom used to say that to me to get me to eat peas. Didn’t like them either.”

What if I pulled on it wrong? Actually, that was a fear in my mind for more than one yoke, but we didn’t need to go into that line of thinking right now. I could only concentrate on one anxiety-ridden topic at a time.

Okay, evidently two, because I kept looking over at his lap. Did flying turn him on? Or was it just me who was humming?

It was probably the engine. And I was probably going to have a small heart attack and still never lose my V-card.

This sucked.

I grasped the yoke and earned a huge smile from Linc.

“I knew you had it in you.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t.”

“Now just pull back and look at that little gauge right there. It keeps us level with the horizon line.”

He let go and I yelped when the plane dove.

“Pull up and follow the line, Miss Kane.”

“Do you think...” I gripped the handles and wrestled the stupid thing into submission. I gritted my teeth as we slowly leveled out. “Do you think you could call me Kay when you’re going to do something like that?”

“You’re doing amazing, Kay.”

Okay, maybe we needed to go back to Miss Kane. I wasn’t sure I could handle that kind of growly tone in my ear. There were far too few people who called me Kay. Kandy seemed to flow off most people’s lips, especially my family.

I swallowed a lump and nerves as I finally leveled the plane out.

“Now pull back a little—not so much.”

The plane inclined and I was thankful I hadn’t had time to eat. Jesus, I was not the right person for this. Not at all.

He flicked off his belt and leaned over to ease the wheel back. “Slow and easy. Kinda like a video game when you were a kid. No huge moves. A little does a lot.”

There was an overpowering scent of grease in the cockpit, but just then I could only smell him. Cologne that was spicy and woodsy at the same time. I shivered as he placed his hands over mine on the handles. He’d had his damn hands under my skirt and I wasn’t as nervous then as I was now.

“Perfect.” He let me go and settled back in his seat and closed his eyes.