Flying High
Olivia T. Turner
Copyright© 2021 by Olivia T. Turner.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including emailing, photocopying, printing, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. For permission requests, email [email protected]
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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, businesses, companies, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
www.OliviaTTurner.com
* * *
Edited by Karen Collins Editing
Cover Design by Olivia T. Turner
Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
Epilogue
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Chapter One
Nia
* * *
“Please be honest with me, Nia,” Susan says with a frazzled look in her eyes. She usually looks like she’s had a few too many pots of coffee, but right now, she’s trembling so much she looks like she’s about to explode. “Are we going to die?”
“Are you serious?” I ask, looking at her funny.
She starts gnawing on her fingernails like she’s trying to get down to the bone. She’s serious.
We both look up at the parked helicopter and I start to get excited. The spectacular volcano in the middle of Maui rests behind it, full of lush vegetation and gorgeous flowers.
“These pilots fly tourists around all day,” I tell her in a calm voice. “Our pilot has probably flown this route thousands of times.”
“Thousands of times?” she mutters as she looks up at the still rotor blade. “So, you’re saying he’s due for a crash?”
Wow, this is her on vacation. It’s just my luck to be stuck with this crew of people.
Next time I win salesperson of the year at my company and qualify for the all-expenses paid trip to Maui, I’m going to ask them if I can have the money instead. If they say no, I’ll just stay home.
“You’ll stay with me the whole time, right?” she asks as her bloodshot eyes land back on me.
“We’re going to be in a helicopter,” I answer in a flat voice. “Where do you think I’m going to go?”
“Who’s ready to get a bird’s eye view of Hawaii?” my boss Devon asks as he walks over with a spring in his step. “It’s going to be off the playground!”
My coworker (and only friend here) Kyle is beside him trying not to laugh. We’re always making fun of Devon behind his back. He’s the only black man I’ve met who gets his slang from Nickelodeon.
“Has Susan had a nervous breakdown yet?” Kyle whispers to me.
“It’s in process,” I whisper back. “Did you text Rachel and tell her you love her one last time?”
“No,” he says as he looks at his phone. “I sent her a meme about a drunk penguin this morning. I’d like that to be the last thing I say to her if I die in a horrific helicopter crash. It’s more me.”
“It’s definitely more you,” I say with a laugh when he shows it to me.
Kyle and Rachel are the best couple ever. They’re getting married in three months and I’m so happy for them. I look at them and that’s what I want to have—a partner who will lift me up and let me do the same for him.
“Did you see our pilot yet?” he asks. “Is he hot?”
I shake my head as I try not to laugh. “I still can’t believe I told you I had a thing for pilots.”
“Did you forget how drunk you were? You told the entire bar that you had a thing for pilots. In fact, you were standing on the bar and yelling out if there were any pilots in the place who wanted to take you on a ride, if I recall correctly.”
“I don’t think you’re recalling it correctly at all.”
He raises his eyebrow as he gives me a look. “Oh really? I did have it recorded on my phone until someone made me erase it.”
I shake my head in embarrassment as I remember him playing it for me when I was hungover the next day. I made him erase it by saying I would convince Rachel to take a trip to Alaska for their honeymoon if he didn’t. Thankfully, he did.
Susan comes barging into our conversation with shaky hands and wide open eyes. I don’t think she’s blinked in the past fifteen minutes.
“Kyle, are these pilots certified?”
“No,” he says with a shake of his head. “I think they just hire them off the street.”
Her eyes widen even more.
“He’s kidding, Susan. They have to be certified pilots with at least a commercial license in order to operate a helicopter.”
“It’s true,” Kyle says with a grin. “Nia knows her stuff. She buys the hunky helicopter pilot calendar every year.”
“Shut up,” I say with a laugh.
“Where is this guy?” Devon mutters as he checks his watch. “We’ve been waiting out here for ten minutes!”
This activity is all part of our corporate retreat. Kyle, Susan, and I are the top sales execs in the country for Handleback Insurance and we’ve all qualified to be pampered for the seven-day retreat. We’re on day three so far and after our motivational meeting this morning, we’re taking a helicopter tour of the island.
The beachfront hotel has been amazing, the food has been incredible, but after three days, these people are starting to get on my nerves. Except for Kyle. He’s cool.
I’ve never been to Hawaii before and I think I’d prefer it much more if I was here with a husband, or a fiancée, or a boyfriend, or any kind of guy really. I’ve been working so hard over the past three years that I haven’t made any time for dating.
I’m twenty-one years old and I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve never even kissed a man, let alone slept with one. Seeing happy couple after happy couple on this trip has been a painful reminder of how lacking I’ve been in the love department.
It started off when I sat next to a newlywed couple on the plane and it continued when I got to my room, which is stuck between two more newlywed couples (one who likes to christen their vows in the morning and the other one who likes to do it all night).
“Why are you into pilots again?” Kyle asks as Devon goes to check on ours. Susan is inspecting the tires like she knows anything about helicopter tires.
“I’m not,” I say with a sigh. “Well, they’re kind of hot, I guess. It’s more the flying that I like. The freedom. I wanted to be a helicopter pilot when I was growing up.”
“Really?” he asks with a grin. “Until when?”
Until always, really. The desire has never gone away, but what am I supposed to do? Quit this lucrative career that I busted my ass for to take a chance and spend a ton of money on becoming a helicopter pilot? That’s just ridiculous. I’m not going to give up security and a fat paycheck in exchange for an unrealistic childhood dream. It would be irresponsible.
“Until I grew up,” I tell him in a sharp voice, hopefully ending this conversation. “Look, Devon got the pilot.”
“Oh God,” Susan
gasps as she bends over and starts hyperventilating.
I was hoping for a calendar-worthy pilot, but he’s not my type at all. He looks like he’s in his mid-fifties with a big belly and probably has a few kids and a wife at home. Devon is talking his ear off as they walk over.
“Hello,” he says with an awkward wave when he arrives. “I’m Pilot Dave.”
“Pilot Dave,” Kyle whispers with a chuckle. “You think he was March or November?”
“I think you should drop it unless you want to be honeymooning with polar bears,” I whisper back. Kyle knows that Rachel and I are best friends who talk about everything. He also knows that she values my opinion and I can get her to do pretty much anything if I talk it up enough. Which was how I got her to go out with him in the first place.
“I’ll sit in the front!” Devon says as he rushes to the passenger side of the helicopter. “I’ve flown thousands of hours on my computer simulation, so I can act as your co-pilot if you need.”
“That’s not necessary,” Pilot Dave says with a hand up.
“But I can, if you need.”
Pilot Dave stops and stares Devon down. “You’re not allowed to touch any of the controls. Understand me?”
Devon looks like a disappointed little kid as he nods his head.
We get in the helicopter and I’m squeezed in the middle between Kyle and Susan. Susan is praying under her breath as she grips onto the handle with white knuckles.
I start to get really excited when I put my headphones on and the engine starts. I can feel the vibrations through the seat. I love this.
The headset clicks on and Pilot Dave’s voice comes through it. He starts going on about the safety instructions, but my mind blanks when I see a real pilot walking along the paved grounds. He looks like the one I was hoping for.
Not only is he calendar-worthy, but he looks like he’d be on the cover of Hunky Helicopter Pilots. Now that’s a calendar I would buy.
I can’t take my eyes off him as he struts across the place like this whole island is his. He’s wearing the gray slacks and black Polo shirt that all the pilots are wearing but this sexy man is no Pilot Dave. He’s making the uniform look like a work of art with the way it’s hugging his large muscular frame.
I swallow hard when I see the way his sleeves are snug and tight around his big tattooed biceps. My fingertips tingle as I imagine running them down his thick forearms, tracing the beautiful tattooed sleeves that end at his wrist.
Stop it.
I’m getting too worked up for someone who is surrounded by co-workers. There’s a warm wetness between my legs and it’s getting so hot that I can no longer blame it on the vibrating seats.
But I can’t take my eyes off him. They’re locked on this man and his wide powerful chest. My breath is stuck somewhere in my throat when he looks at our helicopter and I see the full view of his gorgeous face. My core clenches. Heat flushes through me.
Can Pilot Dave open a window in here? Geez…
He has a shaved head with what looks like blond hair. Intense cobalt blue eyes. A wide powerful jaw. His lips are mesmerizing. They look so damn kissable.
I don’t know if I’d rather feel them on my mouth or on the pulsing area between my legs.
His skin is a beautiful golden tanned color. I have no prejudice or preference when it comes to skin color, but his looks perfect. I’ve never cared about looks, only personality, but this man’s incredible, spine-tingling beauty has me wondering what’s going on behind those alert magnetic eyes.
“We’re going to perform a flawless take-off now,” Devon’s voice squeaks in my ear.
“I’m the pilot,” Pilot Dave snaps, losing his patience already. “Don’t make announcements or you’ll be watching the take-off from the parking lot.”
“Aye-aye Captain, Dave!” Devon answers with a crisp salute.
“It’s Pilot Dave,” he corrects with a shake of his head.
Susan grabs my knee and squeezes it, making me jump. The seatbelt digs into my shoulders as I leap up in shock.
I rip my eyes off of Captain Hottie and look at my frazzled co-worker. Susan looks like she’s mid-panic attack.
“Are we going to die?” she mouthes to me.
God, I hope so.
I let out a slow exhale and turn back to the windshield to get one last look at Pilot Tattoos before we take off.
My eyes widen and my heart stops when I see him frozen, staring directly at us. The papers he’s carrying slip from his hands and blow off in the wind, but he doesn’t react. He doesn’t even seem to notice as his intense eyes stare at our helicopter.
At our helicopter, or at… me?
It feels like he’s staring right at me. I can feel it in every stirring cell in my body.
It can’t be…
But I think it is. His eye-line is slicing right through Devon and Pilot Dave and centered on me. His big chest isn’t moving. His body is so tight.
God, my heart is pounding violently in my chest. I’m wondering if Susan and Kyle can feel it.
“Time for take-off!” Pilot Dave says.
Devon punches the ceiling with a holler.
“Don’t punch my helicopter,” Pilot Dave admonishes. “And no hollering into the headsets or I’ll turn yours off.”
He flicks a button and the whole helicopter begins to shake as the rotary blades on top begin to rotate faster.
Pilot Dreamy goes from stunned to sprinting. He takes off like a bullet, pumping those thick powerful thighs as he runs right to us.
“What the hell?” Pilot Dave mumbles through the headsets as he sees his co-worker advancing toward us with a crazed look in his eyes.
There’s a fluttering in my stomach and a feeling like something in my chest is expanding as he arrives at Pilot Dave’s door and yanks it open.
“Jack!” Pilot Dave shouts in shock. “What the fuck?!”
I pull my headset down with a trembling hand.
“Everybody out,” he barks in a firm commanding voice that has everyone on alert.
His eyes dart to mine and my cheeks heat up, turning my dark skin a little darker.
“Not you,” he says to me. My adrenaline spikes. “You stay right there.”
Chapter Two
Nia
* * *
“I thought I was taking this group up?” Pilot Dave says as he pulls his headset down.
“Not anymore,” Jack answers with his jaw clenched. He keeps shooting me quick fierce glances and it has a strong effect on my body. It’s burning between my legs every time those intense blue eyes hit me.
“Okay,” Pilot Dave says, trying to understand what’s happening. I don’t think any of us truly understand what’s happening. I know I don’t. I’ve never had a guy react like this in front of me. Or to me, is more like it. “Let’s go inside and update the flight logs.”
“What’s happening?” Devon asks as he butts his head in. “What do you need me to do, Captain?”
Jack’s massive chest is heaving up and down. I can only imagine that his heart is beating as hard as mine is.
“Everybody out!” he shouts, looking like he’s going to explode hotter than the volcano behind him.
“But the flight logs,” Pilot Dave says.
“Fuck the flight logs,” Jack barks as he unbuckles Pilot Dave’s seatbelt and yanks him out of the helicopter.
“We’re not going?” Susan says as she pulls off her headset. “Oh, thank God.”
She opens the door and rushes out quicker than Pilot Dave was yanked out. Kyle leaves with a shrug.
He holds the door open as he waits for me. “Aren’t you coming?” he asks, staring at me with a confused look on his face.
I shake my head. My destiny lies here.
So does Devon’s apparently.
Jack climbs into the pilot’s seat and slams the door closed.
It’s just the three of us in here now.
“Hello, Captain,” Devon says with his hand extended. “I can be
your co-pilot. I have hundreds of hours logged on my flight simulator at—”
“Get. The. Fuck. Out,” Jack hisses through clenched teeth.
Devon gulps and then quickly exits the aircraft.
The air charges with a tingling voltage now that it’s only me and Jack inside the helicopter. He puts on his headset and I do too.
I gulp as he turns around, those passionate cobalt blue eyes burning into mine.
“Ready?” he asks.
I nod my head, not sure what I’m ready for, but knowing that I’m ready to go anywhere with him.
He turns back to the controls, hits a few switches, and then pulls on the joystick between his legs that looks like a big long… never mind.
We start to move. Up.
I glance out the window and see the top of my co-workers’ heads. Kyle is looking up with a worried look on his face, Susan is kissing the concrete, Devon is celebrating our successful take-off with a fist pump, and Pilot Dave is looking very confused.
The helicopter banks to the right and my stomach drops at the feeling. Or maybe it’s from the feeling of being so close to this absolute alpha of a man.
I’m sitting behind him and free to study the parts of him I can see. His thick tattooed arm and big round shoulder. I lick my lips when I gawk at the back of his neck, wondering how it would feel to run my fingers up it.
He’s so unbelievably hot. It’s not in a pretty-boy kind of way. He’s all man. Rough, growly, solid. The kind of man who takes what he wants. The kind of man who gets what he wants at all costs.
We’re flying high now and I can see the vast blue ocean on my right. The stunning luscious view of Maui is on my left, but I have no interest in any of it. Not when I’m able to gawk at this sexy pilot without him knowing.
Flying High Page 1
