Turbulent Intrigue (Billionaire Aviators 4)

“Yes. This is a flight school. I’m supposed to pay,” she told him.

“I’ll talk to Sherman about it,” he said, shifting on his feet. He wasn’t going to talk to Sherman, because she wasn’t paying. He wasn’t taking money from the woman, especially when he would be more than willing to pay her to be up in the air with him.

“I’ll talk to Sherman about it. I don’t trust you,” she said with a knowing smile.

Yeah, so would he. Ace absolutely wasn’t taking money for this gig. He planned on some after-hours activities, so money was definitely off the table.

Dakota simply smiled at him, and he knew that she knew exactly what was going through his mind. It wouldn’t ever be easy to pull the wool over this woman’s eyes. She was too aware of herself and her surroundings.

Ace led her over to a desk, popped open a book, and leaned in behind her as she went over some basic techniques of flying. Her brows furrowed as she read the material, glancing up at him every once in a while.

Ace missed those days when he’d first learned to fly. Every single part of the reading materials had fascinated him. But nothing had compared to when he’d sat in the cockpit for the very first time. There had been a thrill then that he still felt when he took the controls of a plane. He could rise above the land and soar like the birds. There was utter freedom in the act of flying.

Then he’d flown for the drug cartel, he remembered with a frown. That had dampened his love of flying, because he knew what and whom he’d been transporting. He didn’t want those thoughts invading his mind at this moment, but it was hard to pull himself out of that dark place. Dakota’s presence made it a little bit easier.

“You ready?” he asked, shaking his head to clear it.

Dakota looked at him as if he had a screw loose. He wanted to tell her that since he’d met her, there wasn’t anything bolted down securely in his head anymore, but he held that in. Those words wouldn’t exactly inspire confidence in his student.

“Ready?” she said, her voice hesitant. He found he liked knocking her off-kilter. The woman was so damn confident. He was used to being around women who knew they were beautiful and knew how to use their bodies. But with Dakota, it was different. She had an aura about her that spoke of competence as well as confidence.

“You didn’t learn how to walk by sitting on your ass. You can’t learn how to fly by reading a book,” he said, holding out his hand to help her up.

She accepted his fingers, though she seemed unsure as she stood up next to him.

“I didn’t think we’d be getting into the plane so soon,” she said. Ace smiled at her as the two of them drew closer to the plane.

“It takes many hours of hands-on experience to learn how to fly. It’s no different than driving, really. The biggest difference is you’re in the sky if something goes wrong. Like driving, though, you have to act quickly, be prepared, and use your training to keep your wits about you and deal with emergencies properly.”

“You aren’t exactly inspiring confidence,” she said with a sassy glare.

Ace’s smile grew even bigger.

“You have plenty of that on your own. I don’t need to stroke your ego,” he assured her.

They climbed inside the small cockpit, and Ace wasn’t complaining at all with her pressed up beside him. He had to help her with the seat belt, and that just made him smile all the more. His pants were achingly tight, and her perfume was saturating the air.

Normally, he wouldn’t mind that one little bit, but he had to be in trainer mode, and it wouldn’t do either one of them any good for him to be distracted. He wasn’t going to be able to ravage this woman if he got them both killed.

“Everything is new and exciting the first time you fly. But most pilots will say that feeling never really goes away. You are either born to fly, or you’re one of the many who prefer to be shuttled around. I can see the lust in your eyes. You’re going to make a hell of a pilot,” he assured her.

“I’m scared, I admit that,” she said with a chuckle. “But you also might be right. I think I was meant to do this.”

Ace had known a lot of female pilots in his lifetime, but none as sexy as Dakota. He normally wasn’t one to ever be the first officer, but he would make an exception with her. Flying in the sky, just the two of them, sounded as close to paradise as he could imagine.

“As long as you’re open to new experiences and you take charge of your learning, this will be as smooth as butter,” Ace assured her.

“Well, I’m as smooth as a porcupine, so I’ve got this,” she said seriously as she gazed at the controls.

Ace waited for her to laugh, but she didn’t. “You really don’t get idioms, do you?” he said after a few moments. She looked at him with guileless eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“Smooth as a porcupine?” he asked, with raised brows. She still looked at him in confusion. He just laughed as he pulled out the preflight checklist. She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Douglas Adams said that flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss,” Ace told her. “So let’s make sure we miss.”

“I can promise you, I want to do exactly that,” she said.