the size of a golf ball on my head!”
“Seems you and my new pilot has the
same problem. It took forever to get through her sleepy haze. I’m still not
sure she actually woke up. Let’s see if giving her a chance ends right here.”
“That’s not giving her a chance!”
Shane released a sigh of relief when
they pulled into the hanger and saw that the chopper was already started up and
the blades turned slowly. He looked at Logan and winked at him.
“It seems she can titivate in a few
minutes.”
“Ghmph.”
They walked towards the chopper, Shane
got in at the back and Logan headed for the front seat. He was also a qualified
pilot and was the backup pilot should something go wrong during a trip. He
worked a lot whilst travelling to and from sites, which was why he decided to
appoint a pilot six years ago.
They settled the earphones on their
heads and he watched the pilot scan the build-in GPS for the pre-programmed
coordinates. There was a lot of additional modern equipment specially built in
to make piloting it easy. He was surprised and suitably impressed that she
knew what to do and where to touch. She wore a tight fitting pilot suit and
had a cap on her head that was pulled down low over her eyes. Her hair was
caught in a pony that was pulled through the opening at the back of the cap,
but her face were in the shadows, so he could not form an opinion on her as yet.
“Morning, Madison, I am Logan Dalton
and in the back is Shane.” He saw her back stiffen and her head swung in his
direction.
“No bloody shit!”
Desire slammed through him
instantaneously when he recognized the husky voice and a slow grin formed on his
lips.
Shane literally jumped forward between
the seats and she glanced at him. “Hot damn!” He stared at her and looked
towards Logan noticing the grin on his mouth.
“I guess the world is a small place,
after all.”
Logan drawled in his sexy warm voice
and Madison snapped her head forward and nearly screamed in frustration. She
nearly jumped off the chopper when he leaned over and pulled the collar of her
jumpsuit away. His finger was fire on her skin when he softly stroked the
love bite in her neck. She slapped his hand away and he laughed.
“Very small indeed!”
What bloody luck! How could fate be so
cruel? She bit her lip and straightened her back. She reached for the throttle
and opened it all the way. When proper RPM was reached she pulled the
collective up, pushed the left pedal down as the pitch increased and adjusted
the cyclic to level the chopper. Once high enough, she pressed forward and
immediately increased speed and pointed the chopper’s nose as directed by the
GPS on the small screen in front of her.
Logan was impressed with her take off
and how she controlled the large chopper. There was not even a slight shudder
during takeoff, which most skilled pilots battled with when flying a strange
helicopter for the first time.
Her voice rasped softy in the
headphones, calling the control tower at the Meacham International Airport,
logging their flight route. The minute the call was logged the man asked
excitedly.
“Bubblelicious? Maddy, is that you?”
Logan’s hand fisted and Madison groaned.
“Hi Daniel, yes it’s me.”
“Wow, what are you doing in Texas? We
were all quite upset when we heard you left American Airlines. Wait … NO …
you’re Dalton Oil’s new pilot? Well, that’s good news. Phone me when you’re
off, we’ll get together.”
“Will do. Any traffic ahead?”
“None. Have to go … remember to call,
Bubblelicious.”
She chose to ignore the direct stare
from the man sitting beside her and concentrated on getting them to Keller as
quickly as possible. She read up some on oil refineries and knew there were a
lot that could go wrong on a rig. She was told by the agent that interviewed
her for the job that the Daltons were hands on with all aspects of their
operations.