She was with Lev again—somehow, that seemed easier than it would have been with Vashi—when they picked up a woman in labor from Cooke City. An early snow had closed the Beartooth Highway, leaving the woman stranded. That one was fun. They heloed up, just as the sun set over the mountains, casting a gorgeous pink glow over the pristine blanket of snow.
They set down on the highway right outside the woman’s home—no worries, as there were no land vehicles out except for snow machines. The propwash stirred up a whirl of white around them so Haidee felt they were landing in the middle of a snow globe. It seemed scary to her until she looked over and saw the big grin on Lev’s face and she realized he was having fun. He set them down as gently as if he could see right where the ground was and let out a “Yeehaw!” in celebration.
He caught her looking and winked as the snow settled. Keeping her attention, he tapped the silver wristband he wore. She’d noticed it before. The etching on it read, “Damn I’m good.”
This was the third baby for the laboring woman, and she was looking pretty active. Haidee had spent a couple weeks on the labor deck in Flagstaff with her midwife friend, Michele, so she knew anything could happen. But she thought they had a chance of making it to Billings, so they loaded her and the husband into the helo.
The baby was born in the air, a very uncomplicated birth that led to more celebration.
It was a cheerful flight. She exchanged looks with both Landry and Lev, who’d turned to watch as she handed the newborn, still wet and cord attached, up to the mom. It was a happy moment, a pretty unusual event in the life of an air rescue crew.
The transfer from the airport to the hospital was no longer an emergency, but Haidee rode along. She was ducking out on what she knew would come—an invitation to join Lev and Landry in a celebratory drink. The two men stood together while the ambulance drove away, the direct look in Lev’s eyes telling her he knew exactly what she was doing and chiding her for it.
Too bad. She wasn’t going to sit in a bar and drink with him.
Her first interaction with Vashi came soon enough. They were flying a transplant patient to Mayo, so she was busy enough on the way there. But on the way back, the two of them were alone, and Haidee didn’t have a patient she could even pretend needed her attention.
For the hours of the outgoing trip, he seemed to accept her short responses to his greeting and the routine status updates they gave each other. That all ended on the way home.
They were in the Citation, and, normally, on the return trip, the flight nurse or other staff would sit up in the right seat in the cockpit—because it was fun, for one, but also because it was comradely. In general, that person would take a seat in back only if he or she meant to sleep. So it wasn’t unheard of, and Haidee planned to make that choice even if it was still just late afternoon.
Vashi was waiting for her when she got back from transferring the patient to the hospital. He was in the office of a FBO at the Rochester airport, seated in an armchair and reading from an e-pad. He looked up as she came in, like he had radar for her. Standing, he asked if she was ready, and, as soon as she nodded, shepherded her to the jet.
He opened the hatch and let down the steps, and she followed his gesture to board. But he was close behind her, as though he was expecting it, and, when she turned right to take a seat, he stopped her. “Nuh-uh,” he said. With a hand at her elbow and one at the small of her back, he directed her to the cockpit.
He joined her there after closing up, giving her a look as he belted in and got ready for flight. He was busy then for several minutes, until they were in the air and on course for Billings.
She hadn’t picked up a headset like she would normally do, to listen in on what was going on and to be able to talk easily with the pilot. He failed to take that as a signal she didn’t want to talk. When they were all set to cruise, he dropped his headset to hang around his neck and looked over at her.
Really looked. Spent a good long time at it. “Are we going to pretend that what went down between us never happened?”
She’d turned away as soon as his gaze left her face and traveled down to her breasts. She didn’t see where else it went, but she could feel it. “If you don’t mind.”
“Well, I do mind. It was fucking spectacular, and I’d like it to happen again.”
She looked back at him, not exactly surprised, but still aghast. “It’s not going to.”
“Are you sure?” he demanded. “I have a pretty strong will, and, usually, when I want something, I get it.”
Haidee angled her body toward the space between the seats and put her hand on the safety buckle. “If I want to go back there and sit, are you going to physically restrain me?”
His brow lifted eloquently. They both knew that had already happened. With a sigh, she settled back in her seat. “You know I’m with Danya now, right?”
He nodded. “I agree that’s an impediment.”
“‘Impediment’! Vashi, what I did with you that night—it wasn’t me.”
He grabbed her hand and gave a squeeze, though he didn’t keep hold long enough for her to shake him loose. “It was you, Haidee. It was you and no one else. I get that things happened and you went a little wild. But it’s not like you were a different person. You just found a different part of yourself. Don’t pretend it’s not in you, what we did that night. And I fucking liked it.”
She ducked her head and he followed, a finger on her jaw to force her gaze to his.
“Didn’t you?”
Haidee shook her head, opening her mouth to deny it, but he spoke first.
“Don’t lie to me.”
She took another breath, ready to put the words out there, but then she closed her mouth and sat back in her seat. Trying as hard as she could to ease her breathing, she forced herself to look at it. At what was true.
There had been glory in it. She had loved the dark power that Vashi used as he took her, as he controlled her. She’d loved the release of—of control, of self-determination. It stirred her when he bound her. It was wildly exciting, wildly seductive, to give her power over to him.
She hadn’t objected to any of it. Not when he lifted her and set her down, impaled, on that phallus. Not when he pushed his cock up her ass or when he fucked her mightily with it.
Not even when Lev had come, and Vashi had turned her, and given over a share of her to his brother.
She wasn’t passive about it. It wasn’t against her will. They had fucked her, but she had fucked back. She had ridden them, both their cocks. She had gloried as they’d touched her, used her, bruised her. The words were in her head, if not cried out loud—and she wasn’t certain about that, either way. “Yes! Yes! More! Harder! More!”
Haidee hadn’t really remembered it before. There really hadn’t been time—or desire. Danya had come and taken her home, had held her, loved her. Had convinced her that what had happened wasn’t significant. And after that, it was easier—better—not to think of it at all.
She’d closed her eyes and, when she opened them again, Vashi was looking at her knowingly.
“We’ll work something out.”
“No!” Haidee sat up, a hand slapping to her chest. “I don’t want that! Even if it weren’t for Danya, I wouldn’t want it.”
He looked out at the horizon. They were chasing the sun home. He was quiet for a long time and, when he spoke, the words were low.
But she heard him.
“We’ll work something out.”
* * * *
Vashi didn’t like what he was feeling. He’d banged plenty of women before. Plenty. He’d taken many a woman down to his room and put her through her paces with the equipment he had there. He’d bound them and ass-fucked them and, when Lev came along, double-fucked them.
It’s not like he’d done anything new or different with Haidee. But it was different—somehow it was, and he couldn’t fucking get it out of his mind. Get her out.
He’d tried. Danny had that little puppy lov
e thing going on, and he’d tried to respect that. It had always come to nothing in the past, so, at first, Vashi thought he could wait it out. Well, first he thought he’d forget Haidee. Then, when that didn’t happen, he figured he’d just bide his time until Danya moved on. Because he always did.
But it had been more than a month now, and Danny seemed no closer to letting things go.
Not that he heard much about it, because they were all working hard and the blasted pup was spending all his time that he was in town with the woman. But he’d checked with Lev, and neither of them had seen Danny home in his own bed more than a couple of times in the last few weeks. And, when they calculated, they realized it only happened because Haidee was in the air with one of them!
So waiting around for Danny to tire of her had turned out to be a suck strategy, and he was about ready to implement a new one. Lev was aware—he’d figured it out when Vashi went to him asking about Danny’s whereabouts. Vashi didn’t guess it came as a surprise. He’d been more than clear the night of the little Haidee lovefest that he wasn’t done with her. Lev had been clear about that, too.
They’d let Danny have his way about it for two weeks after that night. They’d let him take all the ambulance trips well beyond the time it turned impractical. And when it turned impossible, Lev had a couple flights with her, and then Vashi had those hours alone with her on the way back from Mayo.
He’d pretty much given her notice then. She hadn’t been happy about it, he could tell. She hadn’t wanted to think about the wanton he’d let loose that night. But when he forced the issue, she hadn’t ducked it. He could see her, sitting there in the right seat, remembering what had happened that night. Remembering, he figured, that she’d been wild with it, screaming for more, riding two cocks like an unruly cowgirl.
She seemed to be too honest to deny it.
He wasn’t so sure how to give Danny notice, though. Danya was the baby, and giving in to him, letting him have his way, had become kind of ingrained for the older two. From the time they were four and five, Lev and he had been hearing it.
“Let him have it, he’s just a baby.”
“Stop pestering him, he’s littler than you.”
“Watch out for Danya. You’re his big brothers.”
That had bought the kid a lot in his life. But he wasn’t a kid anymore—no matter what their mother said. Vashi couldn’t give him a pass on this. Not on Haidee.
* * * *
A logging truck had braked for a deer on 87 coming in from Roundup, and the old rancher in the pickup behind him hadn’t been paying enough attention. Apparently, his rig was pinned under the bigger truck now, and, between a mess of twisted metal and logs scattered around like pick-up sticks, rescue workers were having trouble getting him out. A fuel tanker had jackknifed in an attempt to miss the whole mess, and, just to keep the rescue attempt interesting, it was spewing a little gasoline. Added to that were gusty winds and no rain for a good two weeks, so Vashi figured the whole deal was going to have a high pucker factor.
He’d been looking forward to seeing Haidee again, but he frowned when her saw her come out of the SUV that Landry drove onto the tarmac. The other flight nurse she shared call with was a fiftysomething guy named Gregory who’d left his cardiac ICU job somewhere back east when he caught his wife in bed with a doctor. A girl doctor. Vashi didn’t like the sounds of the clusterfuck they were headed into, and he’d much rather it was Greg flying along with him than Haidee.
But she climbed aboard like a danger-filled rescue was right up her alley, took the right seat as he was firing up the rotors, put her headgear on, and asked if he had an updated sitrep.
“Yeah,” he said. “And it makes me want to ask you to get back in that SUV and go back to the hospital.”
She’d had her head turned, looking back to watch Landry getting their gear ready, but she brought her attention back sharply to Vashi. “Pilot,” she said, “I asked for a situation report.”
He took a couple breaths before he answered. She was lead in a flight he just knew had FUBAR written all over it, and he was kind of required to respect that. Even if it ran counter to every last base-pair of DNA in his Y chromosome. Giving her a hard look that matched his voice, he told her the latest. “An old guy is pinned in his pickup with a logging truck’s payload scattered on top of him. They’ve got the Jaws of Life there, trying to get him out. A tanker is half on its side, spilling gas on the whole scene. There’s no fire yet. But it’s dry and there’s a lot of wind, if you haven’t noticed, and so it’s a powder keg waiting for a match.”
Haidee watched him blandly as he gave his report then spoke in the same way. “I guess we should be in the air, then.”
Vashi wasn’t one to hold back a curse just because he was talking to a lady—at least, not when his mother wasn’t there to hear—and so he let loose a couple good ones. But he turned his attention to his controls, talked to the tower, and got permission for skids up.
It only took them a few minutes in the air to find the wreck site. There wasn’t a lot of traffic on this road generally, but Friday afternoon was peak time as weekenders headed out for cabins and campsites. The Highway Patrol was there, working on getting cars and campers turned around and away from the scene. He could see the ground rescue workers clustered around the half-buried-in-truck old pickup. Fire, too, was there. At the moment, those guys were spreading foam around the site rather than fighting flames. Thank fuck.
Vashi made a wide circle, not wanting his propwash to stir things up near the wreck, hunting for a place to set down. The terrain was pretty rocky, and there was fence and quite a gully on the side of the road in the direction of the best landing site. He didn’t like being that far from Haidee once he let her out, but the highway wasn’t secured enough yet in either direction for him to safely put down there.
He looked at Haidee and then Landry and their supplies. “I’ll hover and drop you near that ground rescue unit so you can unload. I can’t stay there, though.” There was fuel still leaking, and he didn’t want his helo sitting in it if it went up. “I’ll power down in that piece of flat to the southwest, and I’ll come back for you when you’ve got the guy ready for transport.”
Haidee nodded and started to move out of her seat, but he stopped her with a firm grip on her arm. The helo buffeted a bit in the wind while he looked at her. “That site’s not safe,” he said. There was risk of fire, and of logs rolling, and no doubt other potential shit he couldn’t see. “You keep your head up. I don’t want you taking chances. You copy? Keep yourself safe.”
Her gray eyes could turn pretty cold, he learned. She frowned as another gust caught them. “You think you can hold this bird steady so we don’t go splat when we bail out?”
Fuck. She probably didn’t get that the thing he’d really meant to say was, stay here, pretty girl, and let those guys on the ground take all the risk. Insulting his flying skills was really uncalled for.
“Yeah,” he grunted and let her go.
He got them as close as he could and held the damn helo steady as fuck while she and Landry off-loaded. She waved him off when they got everything they needed on the ground. Feeling all kinds of wrong, he lifted up and crossed the road to the southwest.
His rotors set off a dust storm as he put down. He turned his boom to the wind, noting that gusts were up to 35 mph. He feathered his rotors and tailwheel as he powered down, giving the wind the smallest target possible. Normally, he’d stay with his bird in suck conditions like these, but nothing seemed more important to him at the moment than getting eyes on Haidee. As soon as his blades stopped circling, he went out.
He had to hop over barbed wire and climb down and then back up the gully to get to the scene. Ground rescue had come out of Billings, so Vashi knew the chief. The guy had been working on getting all unnecessary personnel out of the site, but he nodded as Vashi strode past him.
He’d felt sure he wasn’t going to like what he saw, and he’d been damn right. Foam covere
d the highway surface, but the smell of fuel vapor was still strong. Logs had come down over the pickup helter-skelter. The cab was mostly crushed, between logs on top and the engine and a couple more logs thrusting into it from the impact.
Haidee and Landry were right in the thick of it, like they were somehow immune to turning crispy if the place lit up. As he got closer, he saw Haidee wriggle into the bed of the pickup, right under those unstable logs. He could see they’d cut an opening into the back of the cab so she could crawl in and get to work on the victim. She had a small oxygen tank and mask, which she was working over the old guy’s head as she crouched on what was left of the passenger seat.
From the outside, ground rescue guys were using metal cutters to open up the cab and sawing logs to clear the way for removing the victim. Vashi cursed and wished for a lumberjack.
He crowded up behind Landry, who handed equipment in as Haidee called out for it. “What the hell?” he hollered in Landry’s ear. There were two saws going, and it was a hell of a racket. “How are you going to get her out of there if this turns into a bonfire?”
He’d grabbed Landry’s shoulder, and Landry roughly shrugged him off as he passed forward a neck brace. “Maybe you could talk her into waiting until they get the guy out. But when I mentioned it to her, she kind of insisted on doing her job!”
Lan’s voice rose there at the end, more even than was needed, and Vashi wasn’t certain who the guy was mad at. But the temper felt just right to him, so he didn’t exactly care. “Goddammit!” he answered. And, though it wasn’t his to do in any kind of rescue-scene way, he shoved past and wormed his way into the half-crushed bed of the pickup. He got his shoulder under the log that seemed most threatening, and stuck his head through the broken-glass and torn metal opening to the cab.
He came just about face-to-face with Haidee. “What the hell did I tell you?” He was close to a roar.
Three Men and a Woman: Haidee (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 10
