Blue Skies Page 6

  As Major O’Keefe promised, the students of the 414th met and suited up for their first advance air combat training. To her surprise, she had been teamed up with the ever-exuberant Captain Post. Sydney swallowed her groan because, she and Post were the only women in a class of seventy and she could sense the men in the squadron were already siding bets that the ‘girls’ were easy prey.

  “This is not a game,” Maj. Maxwell barked. “This is a test,” he stressed, marching in front of the group outside of the hanger. “Three teams go up—only one team will be declared a winner. The rules? There are no rules-as long as you safely land the plane in one piece.”

  The men turned to each other for immediate high-fives and Maj. Maxwell had to shout above the din of hoots and hollers.

  “This is a one time thing. We want to see everyone’s natural ability and instinct behavior. Remember, this is not a game—nor a time to show off. The purpose of this test is to see how well you engage the enemy and how well you get out of a jam.”

  Sydney thrust up her chin; already feeling the rush of adrenaline and the itch to prove her place in the squad-and, of course, to prove that she was a damn good pilot.

  Minutes later three sets of teams were organized and Sydney and Captain Post were strapped into their jets and ready to rock-n-roll. It was the first time in a long while that she couldn’t tell whether the accelerated beat of her heart was due to her love of flying or the fact that she was going against Lt. Blocker and Lt. Colton.

  The three sets of teams took off into three different directions to follow their instructors and immediately performed a quick-list of test. During such things, Syd struggled to keep her ego in check and not to give into the temptation of becoming a showoff. Her experience in the Academy taught her the hard lesson of just how much the Air Force frowned on such behavior.

  When she and Post finished their test they were instructed toward their test fly-zone. During their short flight to their designated area, Syd had only one objective: teach Lt. Jett Colton a hard lesson.

  Jett glided through the air, feeling very much like the Prince of the skies-ready and determined to prove just who was the Top Gun. Almost immediately upon entering the test fly-zone, he and his wingman, Lt. Tyler “Puck” Johnson, were under attack. From whom, he was unable to ascertain; he just knew he had to shake the flyer before they were able to get a lock on his plane.

  This proved more difficult to do when more planes entered the zone and turned what he perceived to be a simple cat and mouse game into a full-blown war attack.

  Lt. Johnson was the first to go down, while Jett managed to escape more than one close call. Twenty minutes later, he eliminated one pilot from team C. In no time team B-Captain Post and Captain Garrett-eliminated the last member from team C, which left the playfield to two against one.

  Jett felt like a mouse in a field of starved cats. However, he remained a slippery and elusive mouse for his prey for thirty more minutes before he nearly eliminated Captain Post in a perfect execution of a glide and roll. He didn’t see the trap until it was too late when Sydney, popping up from nowhere, got a lock on him.

  “All right, guys,” Maj. Maxwell’s voice boomed in their headgear. “Good show. Bring it on in.”

  Jett didn’t answer, but instead released a stream of curses throughout his flight back Nellis. A long list of what he should’ve and could’ve done scrolled through his mind and his temper was nowhere near cooled by the time he climbed out of his aircraft.

  As he returned to the group, he saw Sydney and Niecy receiving a series of high-fives and congratulations. When Sydney turned her broad smile and twinkling eyes toward him, his heart seemed to cease in his chest. She looked breathtaking and he almost felt guilty for hating her guts at that moment-almost.

  He didn’t want to congratulate the ladies, but he felt the expected gazes from the rest of the group. Niecy eyed his approach and smugly crossed her arms.

  When he stopped before them, he lifted a tight smile and forced his congratulations through clenched teeth. “Nice flying, ladies.”

  Sydney nodded.

  “Wow,” Niecy commented. “That looked painful.”

  Sydney elbowed her new friend.

  “That’s all you’re going to get out of me for a streak of luck.”

  Sydney’s smile vanished. “Luck?”

  A few men snickered around them and Sydney’s face flushed a darker shade of burgundy. Remarkably, she was just as breathtaking angry as she was smiling. How was that possible? “It’s no big deal.” Jett shrugged. “We all get lucky from time to time.”

  “Aw,” Sydney drawled sarcastically. “Are your little man feelings hurt because you were beaten by two girls?”

  Jett’s spine stiffened.

  Another round of snickering ensued as Sydney sensed she’d hit the nail on the head. Her smile returned as she eased up close to him. “If you’re going to fly against me, always be prepared to lose.”

  Jett’s eyebrows rose. “Is that right?”

  “That’s right,” she reaffirmed; her eyes and smile absent of amusement.

  “Care to make a little wager on that?” he asked.

  “What sort of wager?”

  “Next time we go up if I win, you have to go out with me.”

  “Should have know,” Niecy snorted. “You really do have a one-track mind.”

  Sydney blinked, thrown for a moment, but looked as though to really consider his proposal. “And if I win?”

  He shrugged at the obvious. “You don’t have to go out with me.”

  “I don’t have to do that now.”

  He smirked. “Okay, then what do you want?”

  “Simple.”

  Something told Jett to worry about the sinister twist to her full lips; but as it was, he was having a hard time keeping himself from leaning forward and stealing a kiss.

  “If I win,” she continued, smiling. “Then you have to stand before the class and announce that you’re an egotistical sexist bastard who has now seen the error of your ways.”

  Niecy let out a small hoot.

  It was Jett’s turn to look horrified. “A little extreme, don’t you think?”

  “No more extreme than me actually going out with you,” she retorted and mimicked Niecy’s pose.

  Lord how much he wanted to kiss that over-confident smirk off her face. Remembering how she trembled in his arms yesterday, he was certain her bravado was just a front to cover her attraction.

  “All right,” he said, jutting out his hand. “I accept the terms. You have a deal.” To his surprise, she hesitated a moment. Had she hoped he wouldn’t accept the wager?

  At last, she slipped her hand into his. “Deal.”

  Chapter 10

  For the third day in a row, Jett stood before the class with his jaw clenched tight and his pride a thick mass in the center of his throat while he forced the words out his mouth, “I’m a egoistical sexist bastard and I’ve now seen the error of my ways.”

  “Louder,” Sydney commanded with a wink. “I don’t think the fellas in the back can hear you.”

  Jett tried his best to smite her with a narrowed look, but his efforts were only rewarded with a wider smile. The same smile he thought he loved a few days ago.

  Sydney and Niecy giggled like teenagers from the front seats.

  Though Jett no longer wanted to kiss the smirk from Sydney’s smug lips, he certainly wanted to wrap his large hands around her lovely neck and give it a good throttle. He wasn’t the only man who wanted to do so. He’d heard whispers when the men clustered together. Captain Garrett and Captain Post were bruising the men’s egos and carelessly flaunting their victories with smug smiles and girlish giggles.

  Okay maybe they weren’t giggles-but it sure sounded like it to a bunch of annoyed and frustrated men.

  “Well, thanks again, for that lovely announcement,” Maj. Maxwell said, suppressing his own amusement while Jett took his seat. “Looks like next week, I’ll have to separate our
dynamic duo Garrett and Post-or at the very least pit them against each other to see who’s truly the best.”

  Sydney and Trenese’s smiles disappeared as the women quickly gave each other accessing glances.

  Jett noted their reaction to Maj. Maxwell’s announcement and felt the first real smile he’d had in days slope his mouth. At this point he didn’t care who beat Captain Garrett as long as someone did.

  “Before I let you fine officers go for the weekend, I have yet another speech I advise you keep at the front of your minds.” Maj. Maxwell’s shoulders swelled to the size of mountains, the way they usually do when a speech was more in the vein of a lecture.

  “For the majority of you who are not from our great city of Las Vegas, I’m sure the vices and the temptations the city offers doesn’t come as any great shock. One thing you must not believe is ‘whatever happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas’. Whatever misconduct you find yourselves in will become a part of your permanent record and will guarantee you a trip out of this squadron.” Maj. Maxwell let his words hang in the air as he took his time to meet a few gazes head on—Jett’s included. “You represent our fine country whether you’re in or out of uniform. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Sir, yes, sir.”

  “Dismissed.”

  Jett bolted out of his chair. He gave no thought to lingering behind and ogling Serious and her partner. He was over that madness. With the weekend laid out before him, he had every intention of enjoying some of Las Vegas’s vices and temptations. Surely the city’s renowned bevy of beauties knew all the tricks of the trade to get Captain Garrett out his system for once and for all.

  At least he hoped so.

  Sydney watched Jett bolt out of the classroom and wondered about the tide of disappointment crashing within her. Given the short amount of time she’d known Lt. Colton, it didn’t make sense to actually miss his attention, his arrogance—or his smile.

  “So what do you have planned this weekend?” Niecy asked.

  Saved from her own troubled thoughts, Sydney replied with a shrug of her shoulders before she stood from her chair.

  “You are planning on hitting one of the strips, aren’t you?”

  Here comes the part when her new friend finds out how boring and uncool she was. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just make it a blockbuster night.” Sydney headed for the door.

  Niecy stayed on her heels. “You’re joking, right? Our first weekend in Vegas-?”

  “Sorry, but I’m not really the party girl type.”

  Sydney had marched out the classroom and half way down the hallway before Niecy finally had a comeback.

  “Well, you don’t have to be a party girl just to go out for a few drinks and check out the new models rolling out of the peanut gallery.”

  “Thanks, but no thanks.” Sydney forced a laugh. She didn’t drink, couldn’t dance, and positively didn’t know how to interact with the opposite sex-meaning flirting, teasing, or talking about meaningless topics until she allowed them to drop chow and pawed each other until the wee hours of the morning.

  “Okay, I’m starting to think your call sign should be “Serious”, too. C’mon, let’s go out, let our hair down and act like cheap whores.”

  Sydney tossed an inquiring glance over her shoulder. “Act?”

  Niecy’s handsome features darkened while a wicked grin across her thick lips.

  This time Sydney’s laugh was genuine. “No, thank you.”

  “All right...but I bet you Jett is going to be out on the prowl tonight.”

  The announcement threw Sydney’s confident gait off for a moment, but she recovered quickly and hoped above all things that Niecy hadn’t noticed. “I could care less what Lt. Colton does or doesn’t do with his weekend.”

  Niecy’s hearty laugh drew a fair amount of curious glances in their direction—including Jett’s though he marched several feet ahead of them.

  Jett’s dark gaze scanned over her body for the briefest of seconds, but it was long enough to short-circuit every system in her body. When his attention turned away another tide of disappointment nearly wiped her out.

  “Could care less my ass,” Niecy’s snickered as she dogged Sydney’s heels toward housing. “One would have to be blind, deaf, and struck dumb not to notice the sexual tension flowing between you and Mr. ‘They call me Jett because I like anything fast.’”

  Sydney laughed again which only weaken the effect of her denials. “Lt. Colton is an egoistical sexist-”

  “Bastard. Yeah, yeah, I know. The whole class knows.” Niecy giggled as they entered their housing building. “Besides I’m not suggesting until death do you part-”

  “You just want me to get laid.”

  “No, no.”

  Sydney rolled her eyes while she slid her key into her lock.

  “Okay, well—maybe,” Niecy admitted. “But by all means not with Colton. What about Lt. Johnson? I think he has the hots for you.”

  “What?” Sydney asked surprised.

  “C’mon. Don’t tell me that you haven’t noticed.”

  “I-I...”

  “See women like you make me sick,” Niecy declared with disgust. “Beautiful, low maintenance women who don’t notice all the men panting after them.” She crossed her arms. “I practically have to be set on fire to get noticed.”

  “That’s not true,” Sydney tapped her on the shoulder. “You’re very pretty.”

  “Yeah, thanks.” Niecy shrugged and returned to the subject at hand. “Johnson is the guy for you. He’s tall, handsome, and he rarely smiles—just like you.”

  “Very funny.”

  “Oh, come on. Let’s go out. I promise you’ll have fun.”

  “So what’s the real story between you and Serious?” Lt. Jim “Weasel” Hawley, another member of 414th, asked Jett as they cruised toward famous Palms Casino.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why do you keep letting her humiliate you in class? You two have a love thang going on or something?”

  Jett rolled his eyes as he shifted in the passenger seat of Jim’s black Explorer.

  “Don’t get me wrong. I think Serious is hot, too, but don’t you think you might be carrying things a little too far?”

  “Last I checked, I wasn’t the only person Captain Garrett and Post were humiliating in the squadron.”

  “No, you’re just the only one standing in front of the classroom castrating himself. That shit ain’t cool, man—unless you’re laying the pipe down fast and heavy on the girl.”

  Jett balled his hand and shot Hawley a glare of warning.

  “Hell, if you’re not hitting it, then I’m definitely going to make a move. Hell, if you ask me-”

  “Which I haven’t.”

  “A good tumble is what the girl needs. Hell, a few of the guys have a little pool going.”

  Jett balled his other hand. “What sort of pool?”

  Weasel cackled while he kept his eyes on the road. “You know what kind of pool. Of course the only question the group has is whether you are doing all this egoistical sexist bastard routine as a way of biting in our action. You’re more than welcome to toss a few dollars into the pool yourself.”

  The urge to kick Weasel’s ass didn’t wane when Jett counted to ten or twenty; but somewhere around the number fifty, he realized that he had no real relationship with Sydney Garrett and he couldn’t order a squadron of gambling bastards to stay away from her--not that any of them stood a better chance of thawing the block of ice around her than he did. Of course, he didn’t like the idea of them trying either.

  He exhaled a frustrated breath. All he wanted to do tonight was to forget about the insufferable ace pilot and before he could he could even execute his plan, he was submerged in thoughts and plans on how to protect her from cads like Weasel.

  “So what do you say, Jett? Are you in or out?”

  Chapter 11

  Nothing in Sydney’s well-organized life had ever prepared her for The Palms Casino night
club Rain. Gigantic fireballs lit up an elevated dance floor while erotic hard bodies rocked and gyrated to a thunderous hip-hop beat. At the moment, Sydney couldn’t recall how Niecy had talked her into coming to this place.

  Nor could she remember how she was talked into wearing one of Niecy’s dresses—a short dress. If Niecy hadn’t become a fighter pilot she would have made one heck of a used car dealership.

  “Niecy, I don’t think this was a good idea,” Sydney shouted, tugging on the hem of her skirt which stopped at mid thigh.

  “Why?” Niecy bounced to the rhythm. “This place is jumpin’ and we look hot.”

  To support her declaration, two men with overly buffed bodies crowded their space and leered down their plunging necklines.

  “Wanna dance?” One with an LL Cool J smile asked and then slid an arm around Sydney’s waist before waiting for an answer.

  Sydney pried his arms off. “No.”

  “Yes,” Niecy countered and jabbed Sydney sharply in the side.

  “What the-?”

  “Dance with the man,” Niecy urged with a shove.

  Before Sydney could think her body was rammed against the stranger. His beautiful smile widened but his overpowering cologne was almost enough to do her in.