Page 13 of Falling for the Playboy Pilot

Onscreen, the planes collided midair in a sickening crunch of wings and flame.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered.

“You’re not alone up there,” I said. “Keep your head on a swivel. When things get bad, we all have to work as a team.”

A phone ringing cut through the sound of the simulated radio. I turned to glare at Laser.

“Sorry!” Laser grabbed her phone and rushed out of the room. She knew the rules. Phones were supposed to be on silent in here.

With the interruption over, I started the next sim run and gave Janna the coordinates. She punched the button.

The smoke bomb deployed and landed a half mile off target. I stayed silent, just folded my arms tighter and let her stew.

She growled. “You going to say something, or just hover like a judgy ghost?”

I loaded another sim to see if she would give up. I was putting her through the hardest simulations but she needed to get a reality check. She was young and cocky. I had seen pilots like her die because they thought they knew everything already. Being young made people feel invincible. It didn’t mean they actually were.

She tried again and again and again. She overcompensated, second-guessed, stalled once, and cursed every time I corrected her. I pushed her harder with each attempt. She needed to feel the pressure. That split-second window between too early and too late was everything in the sky.

Then on the sixth run, she nailed it. The smoke bomb landed exactly where it should have. Janna froze, like she was waiting for me to tell her all the things she did wrong. I didn’t get the pleasure of saying any such thing because the simulator screens turned green.

She whooped, leaping up out of the chair like she’d just landed on the moon. “Yes! Finally!”

Her eyes met mine in the darkness, tinged with green from the screens. Her grin stretched from ear to ear, and for a second I forgot who I was. Forgot who she was. Our eyes locked. Her lips parted just slightly, the laughter dying away in a flash.

Fuck me, has she been this gorgeous the whole time?

I wanted to kiss her. Hell, I wanted to do a whole lot more than that. I wanted to push her up against the wall and kiss the smugness off her mouth. There was something burning between us. I knew she wanted the kiss. I wasn’t a saint. I knew women. And the hot little thing standing in front of me was practically begging for it.

Sanity returned like a slap to the face.

I cleared my throat and took a step back. “You’ve still got a lot to learn. Don’t celebrate too much.”

Her grin dropped and I saw the moment her own sanity returned.

I turned and walked out of the simulator room before I did something really, really stupid.