Page 7 of Confessions of an Apache Pilot

Without missing a beat, she took her hat off and flipped it upside down and showed me the inside. In the center a big dick was drawn in pink highlighter. “Got it when I got my first kill,” she said, smiling. “Look, they even drew it in pink, cause it’s still a girl’s dick. Aren’t they sweet?” She was proud, actually proud of the dick in her hat.

She had just said she had to give up some of her femininity. Being a woman and a combat pilot, the commander of other combat pilots, she must have given up more than a little femininity. My mission was to save lives, hers was to take them. She did so and held the respect of her men.

“Sleeping around, even for my own sanity, isn’t really my thing.”

She gave me a sharp look and came to a stop, putting her hands on her hips. “You could just pick one guy and sleep with him. You don’t have to find a new one each night.” Her smile grew wider. “Come on, how long has it been?”

I grimaced, looking away from her. “A bit,” I admitted.

She gaped at me, her hands falling to her sides. “Please tell me that asshole Scott isn’t the last guy you’ve slept with?”

Pasting an innocent expression on my face, I tried to hide the truth. It was pointless. She knew me too well.

“Are you kidding me, Jen?” She shook her head in disappointment. “You’re supposed to jump into bed with another man after a bad break up like that. Wash the lousy sex right out of your mind with something better.”

I all but choked on my laughter. “I didn’t hear that rule.”

“Well now that you know, I expect you to do something about it.”

“I’ll get right on that,” I told her, tone dry as the desert surrounding us. I started walking again, leaving her to catch up. I thought about what Laura was telling me. She was going to be the clue I needed to fit in here. She’d managed to seamlessly integrate herself in with this group of men. Something I wanted for myself and my crew. There was no way for me to become my friend—Laura was a bit more outspoken and free than I was—but that didn’t mean I couldn’t adapt her methods for myself.

Sheppard immediately came to mind. He had known Scott for four seconds before knocking him to the ground. He didn’t bother to learn Nick's name. Sheppard showed no respect to anyone outside of his circle. Something told me that even being inside his circle you’d have to fight to earn anything from that man. He didn’t seem like the type to let anyone have a free pass. Yet Laura held his respect. I studied Laura for a moment.

I hadn’t been in the country for a whole twenty-four hours yet and already I was lost. What the hell was she going to drop on me next? I had a lot of learning to do about the different aviation communities, and about managing stress in deployment. I didn’t want to be the one inadvertently making an ass out of myself by stopping something that was just them having fun. The MEDEVAC unit was downright tame compared to these guys. I slowed my gait and let Laura catch up so she could finish the tour. Determination to figure out how to get our communities to co-exist peacefully had me listening intently to everything she had to say.

CHAPTER 4

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Mark Sheppard

Istared up at the ceiling, desperately trying to avoid making any sort of chit chat with the Battle Captain. Battle Captain. Another stupid and meaningless title the army invented. It just meant that he was an officer too inept to lead troops, so they made him a glorified secretary.

Staring at the PowerPoint slides in front of me, I curled my lip in disgust. This is what the army had devolved into. PowerPoint. Death by PowerPoint to be more accurate. As if we were a bunch of boardroom CEOs, talking about… whatever the fuck civilians talked about in meetings.

I was in the room with Artie and Brady, two of three other pilots that were my regular team. Laura, our captain and commander, was out showing the new MEDEVAC captain the rest of the base. That reminder was all it took and my head was filled with the sight of her. I hadn’t even gotten her name, but her face was enough to fully invade my thoughts. I shifted, adjusting my hard-on.

It’d been fucking years since a woman had made this kind of impression on me. She was gorgeous. That, plus the fact that I’d had to escort the last crew to Bagram, had put me in a foul mood when I’d first met her. I hadn’t exactly been welcoming. Too late to fix that now. I was stuck in this damn room. I’d happily eat some crow and apologize to her if it got me out of this pointless meeting.

We were in here with the Chinook pilots, the MEDEVAC co-pilot and that moron Ross, the current Battle Captain and former commander of the MEDEVAC.

It didn’t matter that the briefing for tomorrow’s mission was supposed to have started ten minutes ago. I was anxious to get out of here. I worked on stomping down my impatience. After almost two decades in the army I should be used to waiting. I sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm my irritation.

Laura was our commander for the Apache unit. But this being aviation, she was the commander when we were on the ground. On the missions, typically the senior pilot was in charge. It had nothing to do with rank, and everything to do with experience. This being my fourth deployment it left me in charge of all our missions. I respected her authority on the ground by giving her advice that came from years of combat time. Ultimately, we followed and supported her plans. In the air, she never questioned me. I reciprocated by making sure to never undermine her. It was a win-win for everyone.

Laura walked in with the new chick following behind her. I looked her up and down. Surveying a new soldier when they arrived wasn’t unusual. It would have been easier on me if there wasn’t anything remarkable about her. I already knew she was going to be a temptation for me. Those ocean blue eyes had threatened to pull me in when we’d met out on the tarmac in Bagram. She’d been silently listening to me, and I was getting lost in those eyes. I didn’t need this distraction. I didn’t need a woman invading my dreams. Didn’t need to be constantly adjusting a dick that got hard just from thinking of her.

She was average height—that is, average for female pilots—about five-nine or five-ten. She had dark brown hair bordering on black, which could be an effect of the light. It was hard to tell. Probably black and not brown, I decided. It was tied back in a normal bun. Nothing cute or fancy like a braid or weird twists. Somehow that made it hotter.

The army had recently changed its rules about how women could wear their hair. The fact that she didn’t have a ponytail said a lot. She was a professional. She had chosen the traditional look over comfort. Not only was this woman not trying to stand out, but she wanted to be taken seriously. That was a good sign. Of course, it had the sexy librarian effect. I wanted to watch her slowly let her hair down and shake it loose.

My fingers twitched, itching to reach out and mess her up a bit. I imagined what it would look like, the sight of all that hair framing her face as she rode me until I came. My eyes rolled back up to the ceiling as I worked to calm my overactive imagination. I should be making myself promises to stay away from her. It was pointless, so I just worked on getting the thought of her naked out of my mind. Shifting in my seat, I tried to ease the discomfort in my balls. It didn’t take long before I was staring at her again.

She was thin, smaller in frame than Laura. Light skin, not quite pale. Freckles on her face. How far down did the freckles go?

For some reason MED units had a disproportionate number of females. Which meant that they would bring with them an above average number of hot females. There were always perky tits and tight shorts strutting around distracting everyone. Usually I ignored them all. For some reason this woman had caught my eye. From the moment I’d stepped out of my aircraft, my gaze had zeroed right in on her. I hadn’t even noticed the other two women who’d walked up while I’d been talking. She had been all I could look at.

We were too damn busy for any of us to be focusing on anything but our missions. Yet here we were, three new women, and their leader was gorgeous to the point of complete distraction.

If they could do their job and stay out of our way, then they would be perfect. There was a time and place to chase pussy, and this was neither. The last was more of a reminder to myself and my aching cock than anything.

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