Hard Landing Ch. 04

"Really? I'll look like... some L.A. beach bunny."

"No, you won't. Come on. I want to try this one on myself," she said, holding up a turquoise number that seemed to be mostly strings.

Blue ushered her into a large fitting room and followed her in, locking the door behind them. "Well, go ahead, let's see it."

Jo actually blushed. "We're going to change right here in front of each other?"

"Why not? After last night, this is no biggie, right?" She grinned and whipped off her t-shirt and bra. "Let's go, c'mon Jo," she prompted as she pulled her shorts down.

Jo stared at Blue's breasts as they swayed while she tried to figure out the webbing of strings on the suit she had picked out. She drew in a breath and skinned out of her own t-shirt and shorts.

"See? You look great!" Blue said a few minutes later. Jo had to admit, the suit looked good on her in the dressing room's full-length mirror. The high cut on the hips and the racer-back top showed off her thighs and shoulders, while the full back covered enough of her ass that she wasn't too uncomfortable not having the full coverage of her normal boy shorts. She'd never owned a swimming suit that was so... feminine. Her middle was pale compared to her legs and arms. I guess laying out in this suit would fix that, she thought.

Blue's suit though... Wow. She turned away from the mirror to admire Blue's figure. The suit was basically a tiny bikini that barely covered her crotch and breasts and had a web of strings and straps connecting the top and bottom. "You're going to actually walk around in public in something that covers so little of your butt?" she asked Blue. Blue spun to present her backside to Jo. The strap in the back was maybe two inches wide.

"Only if I'm feeling extra saucy. Actually, no, I wouldn't wear this in front of the guys, I just wanted to try it on for you. You like?"

"I like." Jo said and thought back to last night. She stepped up behind Blue, wrapped her arms around her and whispered, "You know, we're in public and no one can see us." Blue's eyes widened as she licked her lips and looked around the changing room, gauging the noise level of the store outside.

"Okay. Yeah, Okay..."

Jo lowered her lips to Blue's neck and started kissing and licking at her special spot. It took no time at all for Blue to start breathing heavily. She looked at Jo's eyes in the mirror and whispered "Don't tease Jo, do it!" And then she held her hand over her mouth, as Jo nipped the soft skin with her teeth, then bit her, hard.

"M-m-m-mph!" Blue made a muffled sound under her hand and her knees buckled as Jo held her tightly.

"One of these times I'm going to get carried away and leave a big mark there," Jo said.

"I don't care. You can mark me all you want," Blue panted.

"Really? I'd be embarrassed to walk around with a bite mark showing on my neck."

"Well, my giving you a stern talking to yesterday aside, I'm a little on the submissive side. You marking me as yours like that... that would be a bonus for me actually."

"Really?" Jo said again, eyebrows raised this time. "You don't seem that submissive to me."

"Well that's because you've been all... you, and I've had to take charge to get this show on the road. You can take over anytime you want."

"Jesus, Blue, careful what you wish for."

Blue wiggled her eyebrows at Jo in response.

They started changing back into their clothes and Blue put the skimpy suit on the hook to be returned to the rack.

"Let's go pay for that one, it looks too good on you not to get it," Blue said.

"You know, this is the second time you've picked out something to dress me up in."

"You right, that hardly seems fair. So, let me make it up to you... let's pay for that suit then I'll go get us coffee at the Starbucks by the entrance and wait for you there. You can go buy literally anything in the store that you want me to wear for you. Either something for me to wear tomorrow on the bus or something you want me to wear at the next show or something to wear to bed tonight. Your call, anything. No questions or judgment. You buy it, I'll wear it."

Jo eyes unfocused and she turned bright red. "Uh..."

Blue laughed. "It's okay Jo. I mean it. Whatever secret fantasy you have, I'll do it. Anything you want me to wear. We've got five nights left, let's not waste them. I think there's even a Victoria's Secret down that way."

Jo's flush turned an even darker shade. "I, uh... okay." She was clearly lost in her imagination. "But if I'm getting something for you to wear to bed, shouldn't you get something for me to spool up your engines? I mean a bathing suit is one thing, but..."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea. I already saw what I'm getting you." Blue leaned in and took one of Jo's hands and gave her a deep, heated kiss, then said, "See you at Starbucks Jo," and walked away, swinging her hips.

JILL

I didn't regret going to dinner with Jo in Rehoboth Beach instead of going with the gang to the boardwalk. But going with the gang to the boardwalk in Virginia Beach was about the most fun I'd had on the trip, other than the beach jam. And the night in the pool with Jo. And giving Jo a rubdown. That naughty rubdown. And the night of the makeouts.

Ok, so it just barely made it into the top five, but the boardwalk was all kinds of fun. We ate and drank and played games and I laughed harder than I thought possible. Turns out Suzanne was a skee-ball assassin, no one could come close to beating her. Larry made a shot on one of those basketball games where the hoop is fifteen feet in the air. The guy running the game offered him double or nothing on the teddy bear he won and Larry buried another one to win Suzanne a stuffed Pikachu over four feet tall.

There was a guy kneeling on a tarp on the boardwalk with a boom box blaring R&B doing a painting of an amazing space landscape vista using just cans of spray paint in less than five minutes. I watched him do three of them before the gang had to drag me away with me furiously thinking the whole time how or even if I could duplicate his feat. Jo finally bought me one of his creations in order to get me to leave.

When we rode the Ferris wheel, I saw Steve give the operator a bill to strand our three cars at the top for a while. Then when we came down, Larry tipped him again for another trip around.

"The view up here is amazing," I told Jo, leaning into her shoulder and looking up and down the beach.

"The view's pretty funny back that way," she jerked her head over her shoulder. I turned and saw Larry and Suzanne making out next to Pikachu in the car behind and below us and I laughed.

"That's not a bad idea," I said snuggling closer.

"Want me to bite your neck?"

"No way!" I sat back up. "Everyone would see."

"Doesn't look like Suzanne cares if everyone sees her and Larry playing tonsil tennis."

"Yeah but I'm pretty sure Larry won't spontaneously give her an orgasm."

"Fair point."

"Your brother and Sara are going at it too." I pointed at the car above us. We could only see the tops of their heads, but there wasn't much doubt there was some kissing going on.

"Ick. That's something I don't need to see."

"It's not going to put you out of the mood to see me in whatever it is you bought me today?" I teased.

"Uh, no, I think I'll be good."

"I really never imagined when I was getting to know you that I'd ever see you blush this many times in one day," I laughed.

At the end of the evening, we had trouble finding a Lyft for six people. "Why don't you guys take one of the four-seaters. I'd like to walk back along the beach anyway, it's only a mile or so." I said, looking to Jo for agreement.

"You guys sure?" asked Larry.

"Yeah no worries. Can you take my spray can painting for me? And leave the door open, we didn't bring a key."

The beach was pretty crowded for late evening near the amusements area, but soon thinned out as we walked north. I slipped my hand into Jo's and felt her stiffen a little.

"You okay?"

She sighed and then tightened her grip on my hand. "Yeah sorry Blue. I'm just not good at the whole dating thing, and you're more of a date than I've had in... forever. I told you, mostly when I've been with a woman it's just been fucking. I feel out of my element with this," she said holding our hands up. "Not that I don't like it. It's just unfamiliar territory."

"What can I do to help?"

"I'm not sure. What do people who date do? Tell me something about you. Why art? How did that get to be your thing?"

"Hmm, there's no big dramatic story. Ever since I can remember I've been the kid who would rather draw than do anything else. Crayons, then pencil doodles and sketches. In junior high school I had an art teacher who introduced me to oils and watercolors and I was hooked. My parents weren't thrilled when I said I wanted to go to college for art. My dad always complained about spending all that tuition money for something that he said would never earn me a living. I guess he was right, since I'm doing something else."

"Your dad sounds supportive as fuck."

"Yeah... yeah I didn't win the lottery there. When I brought my first girlfriend home from college and came out to them all at the same time, they were just... 'get out.' No argument or discussion, they were just done. And I didn't see it coming, it's not like we were religious. We never went to church except maybe Christmas or Easter. I call them every now and then. Sometimes on their birthdays. It's usually a short conversation. I'm still pretty close to my sister Justine, but it's awkward. She's married to a nice guy. They have a kid and they spend most holidays with mom and dad. Sara's family has adopted me, pretty much. I call her parents mom and dad a lot." I sniffed and turned away from Jo. She wrapped her arms around me from behind.

"I'm sorry. That really sucks."

"It's ok. Sara's parents have been really great to me. Sometimes when I talk about mine it gets me sad, but it's good to talk about it. You know, get the bad stuff out to make room for good stuff."

She let me go. "Whoo-boy, you and I have different opinions there. I mean you probably have a healthier approach, but I never want to talk about my shit. As I think I've demonstrated."

"You're doing alright. I mean, you're uptight when you end up telling me stuff, but I don't mind. I like that you trust me."

"I think that's why I get angry though, I don't trust you." She looked over and saw the look on my face. "That came out wrong, sorry. I just don't trust anyone except Steve and dad. And Suzanne and Larry and Jack. I mean, I trust my copilot and my aircrew. And the members of my unit. But just as far as having my back on the job. There's not a fucking chance in hell I'd ever talk about my personal issues with any of them."

"Is it because of Amy?" I asked. The look on her face told me I was skirting close to her boundaries, but I didn't care. She stared out over the ocean for a long minute.

"No, I was an uptight bitch way before Amy. Pretty sure our relationship was sabotaged by me before I even left for my first rotation when we were together. The song incident was just the match landing on the pile of firewood."

"So why did you get back together before your next deployment?"

"I've never answered that to my own satisfaction. I think maybe because I thought as wound up as I am, I'd never find someone who could live with me and since Amy said she wanted me back I figured it was as good as I'd get."

I took her hand and started walking again. "Nah, you can do way better than a psycho, crazy bitch lady." She laughed. "So, I've always been an art girl. How did you get into the rescue pilot business? On the bus Friday night, you were pretty adamant it's 'your job'. How did it become your calling?"

She abruptly pulled her hand away again and reversed her direction, walked a few steps back away from me towards the boardwalk and then sat down hard on the packed sand looking at the waves. I sat down next to her, concern on my face. "Sorry?" I said.

She laughed ruefully. "Jesus Christ, Blue, you're like a fucking ninja finding my soft spots and poking at them." She sighed. "Anyone else I'd just change the subject and move on but you... you get your hooks in me somehow."

"Okay, sorry for real. What did I say."

"It's a mom thing."

"Oh. Well, again, you don't have to tell me."

"You say that now, then I sit here and fume and then I go ahead tell you anyway, just with the angriness. So, let's see if I can just tell you without getting pissed." She took my hand and squeezed it.

"My mom was a music teacher. She taught in high school and also did private lessons. One night when I was fifteen, during a bad storm in December, she was out doing a piano lesson at one of her student's houses and on her way home some guy slid through a stop light in a semi and t-boned her car."

"Oh Jo, I—"

"No, it's okay. Just... let me get this out. So anyhow, the weather was really bad. It took about two hours for them to get her to the trauma center. She never woke up and died two days later."

She sighed, then said, "Somehow I got it in my fifteen-year-old head that if they'd gotten her there quicker they could have done something. The night she died my dad found me outside of the hospital screaming at some pilot on the helicopter pad for the Life Flight chopper that if he wasn't such a fucking coward about flying in bad weather my mom would be alive."

"Oh my god. Is that what happened?" I asked.

"No, not at all, I was just being an asshole. I figured that out pretty quick afterwards. No one would've been allowed to fly as bad as the weather had been that night. I wouldn't even try it on instruments. She was probably brain dead from the moment of impact anyway. And the guy I was screaming at probably wasn't even on duty the night she got hit and had no idea what I was talking about. I think he recognized that I was some traumatized little girl and just let me yell at him."

I put my arm around her and she leaned her head over onto my shoulder and sighed.

"I didn't really put the two together when I was going into the Army. Like really, I don't think it ever crossed my mind, I just didn't want to go to college and I wanted to fly. My first tour when I was riding the right seat my PIC made a call to go into a hot LZ to pick up some casualties. And I was so fucking scared that first time. There were bullets pinging in and one went through our canopy. Probably missed me by three feet."

I shivered. I was getting scared just listening to the story.

"Afterwards I questioned his choice to go in and he pulled me aside for a talk. 'It's the PIC's call' he told me, 'Someday you're going to be in that seat, and you gotta remember two things. One, you're responsible for everyone on your aircrew. You crash, it's on you. But also, you gotta remember, that wounded soldier on the ground? They're someone's son, or husband, or father, or someone's daughter, or wife, or mom. And they need our help and it's our job to get them out. It's what we signed up for.'"

She raised her head off my shoulder and looked at me. "Someone's mom. And it just clicked. I'm there to get these people out. It's my job. Before that I was a good pilot but nothing special. But after that I just became... driven, I guess. To be the best pilot. To be the one who got everyone home. To their sons and daughters. That's why it's my job, my calling. It's why I can't imagine retiring when I get my twenty to chauffeur rich dudes around like Steve does."

She reached out and wiped her thumb over my cheek and I realized I was crying. I sniffed. "How are you sitting there dry-eyed after that story?" I asked.

She smiled a little sadly. "I don't know Blue. I never cry. I haven't cried since my mom's funeral, I couldn't tell you why. There have been plenty of times I've wanted to. Then I just... don't."

"I gotta tell you Jo, that's messed up."

She laughed. "I keep telling you, I'm a fucking mile of bad road." She stood up and pulled me to my feet. "Well, I think that's enough serious shit for one night. And hey! I told you a mom story and didn't get pissed at you for getting it out of me!"

"Baby steps, Jo, Baby steps."

Back at the house, everyone was slightly drunk and we joined them for a beer. Larry was curled up on the couch with his arms and legs wrapped around the giant Pikachu, much to Jo's amusement. I was getting all wound up wondering what Jo had bought at the mall for me though. When Steve asked Jo if she wanted another, she made eye contact with me and I tilted my head towards the bedroom.

"Nah, think we'll call it a night. Catch you guys tomorrow."

"Sara, we're going to swim a couple miles in the morning, want to go?" I asked. Sara has been my swim partner at the pool for years.

"Wait!" Steve said, "Jo you're not going to run tomorrow? Wow!"

"Uh, no, I guess I'm swimming instead."

"I am so in," Sara said, grinning.

"Hell, maybe we'll come down to watch," said Larry.

"Oh, hell no," I said. "If anyone comes with us to the beach, you're swimming or you can get lost. The train leaves at 8:30. Anyone who wants to go, be ready." Then I led Jo into the bedroom.

"So... do you have something for me?" I asked. Jo flushed bright red again. Huh, that was the third time today.

"Listen... look Blue, I'm not sure..." Oh my god she was totally embarrassed. And it was turning me on so much.

I stepped closer to her and ran my hand through her hair. "Jo, it's all in fun. We're going to both take off our clothes now. And then I'm going to touch you all over your body. And if you have something you want to see me in while that happens I'm totally up for it."

She kissed me hard. "Okay Blue. Just know if you laugh at me I'm going to tickle the shit out of you though."

"I promise I won't."

She went over to her stuff and pulled out a small bag. Very small. "So, uh, this..."

"No, no, don't tell me!" I said and took it out of her hand. "I'll be back in a minute." I kissed her again and went into the bathroom. As I closed the door Jo was sitting down on the edge of the bed, looking equal parts embarrassed and hungry.

I couldn't get my clothes off fast enough. Once I was naked I opened the bag and pulled out its contents and smiled. "Okay Jo, if this is your kink, I'm so here for it," I whispered to myself. I took an educated guess and stopped a minute to put my hair into two ponytails on either side of my head and then donned the contents of Jo's bag. I looked into the mirror. My hair was halfway to a Harley Quinn cosplay. Hmm, maybe next year.

"Hey," I whispered as I leaned against the doorframe to the bathroom. Jo was sitting on the edge of the bed and had stripped down to just her boyshorts. She looked up and down my naked body and said "Hey back" in a husky voice. As she stood up, I raised one foot and ran the silky bottom of the socks Jo had bought for me along my calf. "I really like these," I said. They were short white socks with a lacy cuff turned over at the ankle and a powder blue silk ribbon woven through the lace around the edges.

She walked up to me, her eyes on my legs and ran her hands up and down my sides, fingers sliding lightly over my skin. I shivered and said "How do I look?"

"Good" she said in a croak, then cleared her throat and tried again. "Really good," as she knelt down in front of me. She gently lifted the leg I was using to stroke the sock up and down my calf and placed my knee over her shoulder. I thought I knew what she wanted so, pointing my toes, I started stroking her back with the soft fabric as she started kissing my thigh. I sighed and leaned my head back against the wall with my eyes closed and focused on her tongue trailing back and forth from my knee up towards... she got closer each time, then trailed back away to my knee, stopping to nibble at the skin several times.