Karen Foley - Coming Up for Air

Jenna thrust her long legs into her jeans and pulled them up, watching him warily. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Hell, no,” Chance assured her as he stood up and began to gather his own clothing. “I think it’s great! I mean that sincerely. Really.” He paused and scrubbed a hand hard over his face and laughed softly. A freaking pilot. Who would have thought? “You just surprised me, that’s all. As a matter of fact, I’m—”

“I know what they say about pilots,” she interrupted, “and most of the time, I’m in total agreement.”

Chance looked at her, puzzled. “What do they say about pilots?”

She shrugged and sat down on the blanket. Reaching for the bottle of wine, she poured them both a little more. “How do you know if you’re halfway through a date with a pilot?” She gave him an overly bright smile. “Because he—or in my case, she —says ‘That’s enough about flying. Let’s talk about me!’ “

Chance laughed and lowered himself down beside her. “You haven’t talked about flying once tonight, but if you’d like, we can talk about you. In fact, you are quickly becoming my new favorite subject.”

He watched her closely in the indistinct light, wishing he could read the expression in her eyes. He knew he was staring, but he couldn’t help it. Who would have guessed that she was a freaking helicopter pilot? It shouldn’t have mattered, but for him it made all the difference.

She took a sip of wine, smiling at him from over the rim of the cup. “How do you know when there’s a pilot at your party?”

Chance had heard the joke countless times, but he shrugged. “I don’t know. How?”

“He’ll tell you. How many pilots does it take to change a lightbulb?” She waited, but when Chance didn’t respond, she continued. “Just one. He holds the lightbulb, while the world revolves around him.”

“Wow.” Chance gave a small huff of laughter. “Sounds like you don’t think very highly of your fellow pilots.”

“Oh, no. That’s where you’re wrong. I have a huge amount of respect for what they do when they’re in the cockpit. They’re some of the bravest, most talented guys I know.” She grimaced. “It’s what they do the rest of the time that bugs me.”

“Clarify, please.”

Jenna shrugged. “They’re incapable of handling a committed relationship. If they have to consider anyone other than themselves, they fail. Basically, they’re shallow, narcissistic, egotistical, arrogant—” She broke off abruptly. “Well, you get the picture.”

Chance blew out a hard breath. Her words both disturbed and disappointed him. “So … you dated a pilot and he turned out to be a self-centered jackass, is that it?”

To his surprise, Jenna shook her head. “No way. My opinions are based strictly on a lifetime of observation. I’ve never actually dated another pilot. In fact, I make it a point to steer clear of them—at least, romantically.”

Chance felt something fist low in his gut. “Oh, yeah? I’d think you’d be happy to have someone who understands what it is you do. Someone who really gets it.”

“Ha! The only thing they want to get is laid.”

“So I guess you’re performing true to form, then, huh?” Chance couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, look at you … you’re a pilot. What makes you so different from the guys? You clearly wanted to get laid, and you succeeded.” He gave her a terse smile. “Glad to have been of service, ma’am.”

He began buttoning his shirt, refusing to look at her, because if he did, she might see something in his eyes that he was trying really hard to hide.

Regret. Disappointment.

He shouldn’t care what her motives were for being with him. It wasn’t as if he was planning on seeing her again. They’d agreed that this wasn’t going to be anything more than a onetime hookup. No strings. No commitments. So why did he feel so miserable?

Jenna sighed. Reaching out, she lay a hand on his arm. “Look, it wasn’t like that, okay?” She gave a rueful laugh. “To your credit, I broke my own rules when I agreed to come out here with you. My number-one rule is to never sleep with a pilot, so at least I didn’t break that rule, thank God. But I generally try not to get involved with anyone in the military, period. I don’t like to mix business with pleasure.”

The woman didn’t have the first clue what he did for a living. Chance’s first instinct was to tell her, just so he could see her response. Instead, he gave a snort and finished fastening his shirt. He didn’t trust himself to look at her. “I’m flattered. Really.”

She made a sound of frustration. “I’m not trying to flatter you—”

“Do the guys in your battalion have any clue how you feel about them?” he asked, cutting her off. He knew he sounded bitter, but he couldn’t stop himself. “Do they realize what a low opinion you have of them?”

Even in the darkness, he could see how taken aback she was. “Just because I prefer not to sleep with them doesn’t mean I have a low opinion of them. And why are you getting upset about this? Trust me, they have such high opinions of themselves that what I think doesn’t even register on their ego-meters.”

“Right.” Chance pushed himself to his feet and began scooping up their things, forcing her to scoot off the blanket so that he could roll it into an untidy ball and stuff it into his saddlebag. “It’s getting late. I’ll take you back to the club or drive you home. Whichever you prefer.”

He didn’t look at Jenna, but concentrated on packing up instead. He felt like he’d just made a crash landing after an exceptionally spectacular flight, and now his only hope was that he could walk away from the wreckage unscathed. He wasn’t going to argue with her and ruin what had, up until a few moments ago, been the best night he’d spent in a very long time. She was entitled to her opinions and it wasn’t like they were ever going to see each other again. Even if he had wanted to ask her out, once she discovered what he did for a living, she’d be gone from his life faster than a Hellfire missile.

Better to let her believe that her record was untarnished. Because after hearing her opinions about pilots, there was no way in hell he was going to tell her that she’d broken her own number-one rule. She’d just had the best sex of her life with an Apache helicopter pilot. Boo-rah.

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