Pilot in Command Ch. 01

Her email was "abearheart@" followed by what was obviously a university email address. He was surprised that she used her school address rather than a private one. That naïveté made him feel she was genuine. Gus was excited to think the beautiful young woman in the pictures and bio was real. Was he really going to find a new lover? The very possibility invigorated him.

He chose three pictures of himself to send back. In the first, he was in an airplane looking back from the pilot's seat. A yellow lab with a huge smile and her ears sticking out expectantly was looking from the copilot's seat. The second picture was of him walking on a trail in the woods with his 'copilot' and another yellow lab. In the third he was sitting on a couch with one arm around the dog from the airplane - sitting upright like a human against his side - and his left hand resting on a lab curled up against his other side.

He typed out an email to send with the photos:

"Hello Ahki,

I'm very pleased to hear from you! I no longer thought I would? I am shamelessly enclosing photos that show off my best features, namely my sweeties. My copilot is Glider - she's the good one. The other is Diver, though it should be Dive-Bomber the way she goes after everything that might be food or trouble!

Have you been in other arrangements? Do you have any questions you want to ask me? Not having met, I'm at a loss to know what you might be thinking or wondering. I tried to lay things out in my original message but I know there's a ton I didn't touch on?

Please feel free to ask. I won't be offended by any question. Really.

Gus"

Before hitting 'send' He reread his message. Oh, that wouldn't do at all. It was even more lifeless than his website message. He decided to reveal his desire for her. He added the following, just before the last line of his email:

"You are gorgeous! Your smile, your dark eyes and figure - are stunning. The flow of your silken hair possesses me. I hope to feel it glide between my fingers as I bury my face in it and inhale. I want to feel the warmth of your scalp with my fingertips. When you are above me, looking down, I want my face to be surrounded by your hanging hair. I want my body to come alive with the impossibly soft brush of your hair against my skin.

I'm as enchanted by your graceful hand in the beach photo. I would love to take your hands in mine to caress them. I want to stroke your palms so lightly they tingle. I want to trace each finger out to its very tip. All ten, then all ten again. My touch will be as delicate as your hands. After forever, I'll move my caress to your wrists. When the world around us has disappeared, I'll move on to your forearms...

I want to stop time so I can adore all of you. I want you to know my touch and need it."

After hitting 'send' Gus felt ridiculously rejuvenated. He realized he was getting WAY ahead of things. He didn't even know if they would actually meet.

Ki saw the message come through and read it at once, then again, and a third time. His words - so direct - blurred the boundaries of her world. They were exhilarating and unsettling and she was momentarily breathless.

Her response mentioned none of this effect, but rather concentrated on his beautiful dogs. It didn't mention the smile that seemed like it couldn't exist without his full mustache or his penetrating eyes or how he really did look like a 'Pilot in Command' sitting in that cockpit. Instead, she commented on how beautiful his dogs were and how contented they looked in the woods with him and how comfortable they all looked on the couch together. She talked about how regal Glider looked sitting upright like that, sitting 'like a refined woman should'.

Gus noted that her reply stayed away from the more intimate part of his message. He replied "Glider is my older girl. We've slept together ever since she was a tiny pup and I worried about rolling onto her. We live in each other. We're aware of the other - even from different parts of the house. We're connected. When she's excited, I love to rest my hand on her back to feel her quiver."

Ki read his response and looked again at the picture of Gus and Glider and Diver sitting on the couch. She looked at his broad, long-fingered hands, one on Glider's shoulder and the other on Diver's back. Not a young man's hands, and looking older than his beguiling smile, but comforting hands. She thought of him holding her head as her hair cascaded around them. She imagined his fingertips touching her scalp. She thought about looking into his warm eyes as he held her head and then when he caressed her hands.

She imagined him undressing her, and his hands on her skin. She imagined him touching her everywhere. Her body bare-naked and goose-bumped, but warmed and glowing wherever his hands roamed.

Again, she didn't mention any of those thoughts in her response. Instead she asked "Why did your last arrangement end?

"It was time" came the clipped reply.

"You wanted something different?"

"No" he wrote. "I didn't. I didn't want anything else." Twenty minutes later he added "She needed something more than an arrangement. When the opportunity for her to have a more traditional relationship arose, I encouraged her to take it." He closed with "Need to sign off now."

Ki wondered why she brought up his earlier arrangement, but later, when they talked on the phone, she asked about it again. "So you didn't want it to end?"

"No."

"Did you love her?" she asked. Ki knew it was too much as soon as she asked. She was thinking about Tess's revelation that she loved James and wondered whether it was common in arrangements. The silence that followed confirmed he wasn't going to answer so she quickly asked a different question. "What was it about that relationship? Why did it work?" Her discomfort increased as she waited for an answer that didn't come. She silently chastised herself: What are you doing, Ki? Why the 3rd degree? She fumbled ahead and said "I'm sorry...it's just I've never been in an arrangement and know you had a good one and I'm wondering why it worked when others don't?"

He finally responded. "It's difficult to describe?" After pausing, "The sex was surprisingly good from the very beginning -- and never stopped getting better. But it was more? We disappeared into each other, or into something where the world no longer concerned us?" Then he continued so quietly Ki strained to hear. "When we made love there was nothing else. We were the universe."

Gus was startled to speak so frankly to this young woman. "I'm sorry" he quickly said "I didn't mean..."

"No" Ki interjected. "Please don't stop. Tell me."

"We fit together - physically, sexually and emotionally in a way that made us right in our own skins. Incredible as the sex was, the bliss after was the best part. Our ages were unimportant."

Listening to him speak Ki decided he had fallen in love, like Tess. She wondered if he'd fall in love with her. Will I fall in love?

He steered the conversation to other subjects. They discussed her career plans and what she liked to do in her spare time and her friend Tessa and where she'd travelled and where she wanted to go next. She learned his companies and home were an hour west of Madison, in a town whose smaller size made it difficult for them to meet discreetly. He had a second home and acreage in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and his wife had a place in Florida?

He also confirmed he was a pilot and mentioned he was bringing an airplane to Madison airport for an avionics data upgrade. They agreed to meet when he flew it in. The meeting was going to be at the general aviation terminal, across the airport from the airline terminal.

She didn't see him when she entered the GA terminal so she sat at a table by the windows facing the airplane ramp. Tess said to relax and enjoy the meeting but Ki was shaking with nerves. They weren't meeting to say "hi." They were meeting to decide if they'd have sex the next time they met. While they talked he was going to decide if he wanted to take her clothes off, touch her, look at her, kiss her and make love to her. Her too. Right here, at this table, they would size each other up as sexual partners. This is too much!

Then she started wondering what it would be like in bed. Will he like my body? Will I satisfy him? Panic over her inexperience seized her. How many women had sucked his cock? We're they beautiful and skilled lovers? Will he be turned off by my clumsiness? What if he regrets ever being with me? What if I disappoint? The potential humiliation fanned her alarm. She could still run back to the comfort she knew, and she almost had, when she saw him walking between airplanes towards the terminal.

He wore an easy smile that matched his relaxed gait as he joked familiarly with the ramp guys walking with him. The anxiety that was building within her quickly eased. He was disarming. She started to wave when he came through the door but he'd already spotted her and was coming her way.

"Ahkiiwan" he said, smiling. The effortless warmth of his smile washed over her like a summer breeze.

"Hi" she replied in a voice too small to be her own. Recovering, she added "We finally meet" with a brilliant smile.

"I've wanted to meet since our first message" he said as he sat. "Yes, finally" beaming.

"Did you just land?" She asked.

"No. Hours ago. I just came from the avionics hangar where they're finishing up." He couldn't stop smiling at her, to the point he started feeling foolish. "I'm sorry," he said "I wasn't prepared for you to be so much more beautiful than your pictures."

Her nervousness faded but was replaced by a blush, and an ache. God, she thought, if he started to undress me I wouldn't do a thing to stop him. I wouldn't want him to stop. She desperately sought a safe topic. "What kind of airplane is it?"

"A Cessna."

"I flew in a Cessna!" she proclaimed. "That's the only private plane I've been in."

"I'll give you a ride in mine." He replied. His smiling gaze drank her in. "I can't believe how gorgeous you are! I'm sorry, I don't want to be rude but I can't take my eyes off you." She tried to think of a reply. She liked the way he was looking at her

He spoke again before she could. "I hope I'm not getting ahead of things, but I really hope you're still interested in exploring what we talked about, an arrangement?" Now he felt like a teenager. Did he really ask that two minutes into their first meeting?

She was acutely aware that the real question being asked was "Are you interested in having sex with me?"

"I am" she replied with a soft conviction that surprised them both. "I'd like that."

His relief was palpable. Their phones dinged simultaneously with incoming messages. "Go ahead Ki" he gestured at her phone and reached into a pocket for his own. Slow down Buddy he thought. This seems too good to be true. Pulling his phone out he felt the envelope that was also in his pocket and placed it on the table. His message said the plane was ready.

He studied Ki's face as she typed a response to her message. So open, he thought. Beyond her he noticed a young woman reading her phone as she entered the terminal. When Ki tapped 'send' the woman looked up. She looked right at them, but sat down across the room. She briefly typed on her phone and then Ki's dinged with a message.

"Important?" he asked. His smile now subdued and lacking the warmth so prominent a moment before.

"No" she replied "what about yours?" She was startled by the sudden change in his demeanor.

"My airplane's ready. They're pulling it out now."

"I'd love to see it. Can you show it to me?"

In his peripheral vision he realized the woman who just sat was surreptitiously taking their picture with her phone. He couldn't keep the disappointment from his face. He said "I should get going. I have a meeting in Erie and I want to be back this afternoon."

"Already?" she stammered. Then added "Erie Pennsylvania?", now thoroughly confused by this sudden change in plans and wondering how he was going to fly a little Cessna to Pennsylvania and back in a few hours?

"Yes." Then he sighed audibly and let the other shoe drop. "Why don't you ask your friend to join us?" He said it with a calm edge.

Shit - he knew! Ki felt like a child caught in her lie. While she searched in her cloud of confusion for anything to say -- he abruptly stood and motioned for the woman to join them.

Tess froze when Gus stood and gestured to her. Ki's discomfort was obvious across the room. Shit. Shit. Shit. She wanted to run out the door but walked on leaden feet to where Ki was sitting with her head down.

Extending his hand to shake hers he said "Gus".

"Tessa" she replied.

"I wish Ki told me you'd be joining us" he said matter-of-factly. They both glanced at Ki but she was studying her hands. "But I'm glad you're here to keep her company because I have to leave." Looking at Ki he said "It was nice meeting you" and then added "both of you." With that he turned and started walking towards the ramp door. As he passed the service desk he said "pilot to Five Delta Delta." The door whisked open and he was gone.

Ki looked stunned. "What happened?" Tess asked her.

"He figured out we were texting each other." Ki said. "He knew I must have asked you to come check him out." Ki looked forlornly at her friend who hadn't even sat down yet. "We talked about discretion Tess. He said he's never told anyone about his earlier arrangements. Nobody. And then I tell you before we even start." She buried her face in her hands and almost whimpered "I...don't...know...what...I'm...doing." She suddenly looked up at her friend. "He seemed right? He was real Tess. Didn't he seem right?"

"Apologize to him" Tess said, "Explain you were nervous. Tell him I'm your best friend. Explain that I convinced you to consider an arrangement in the first place. Anything! Just keep talking with each other."

Ki stood impulsively and rushed to the service desk "Can I get out to the airplanes?"

"Only pilots and passengers" was the curt reply.

"I forgot to tell the pilot something."

The woman behind the counter eyed her dubiously. "Which one?"

Ki realized she didn't know Gus's last name. Remembering what he said on his way out she blurted "he's flying Five Delta Delta."

The attendant checked a list behind the counter. "Should I have the ramp crew ask Mr. Isaksson to come back inside?"

Ki looked at Tess who'd joined them. Tess shook her head no and Ki said "No, thanks." She looked out the windows and couldn't even see which plane he went to. An airplane parked right outside the door blocked the view. "Where can we go to watch him takeoff?"

The attendant pointed to a stairway labelled 'observation deck' with an arrow. "Up those stairs."

From the elevated vantage point of the observation deck they could see most of the planes parked on the ramp. "I don't see him" Ki said. "How do I know which one is five delta delta?"

A teenage boy with binoculars looked her way. He looked like he came here often. "That's an N number" he said, "a tail number." Turning his attention back to the ramp he asked "what kind of plane?"

"I guess its a little Cessna" Ki replied.

He looked where the small planes were lined up and said "I don't see it." The sound of a jet engine whining to life followed by the 'whoosh' of ignition drew his attention closer. He looked at a jet closer to the building, as its pilot began the starting procedure on the second engine. "That's Five Delta Delta" he said, pointing at the jet. "See the tail? N525DD. Phonetically that's November

Five Two Five Delta Delta." Seeing the puzzlement on Ki's face he added "Five Delta Delta is a Cessna Citation Jet."

Looking at the jet's cockpit, Ki and Tess realized the pilot was Gus. His full mustache made him recognizable even with a headset on. He was busy pushing buttons and configuring things. "Is there any way to hear him talking with the tower?" she asked the teen.

"Sure" he said, holding up a small radio. "Want to hear him talk to Clearance Delivery first?" Ki and Tess nodded together. The teen punched in a frequency he clearly knew just in time to hear the controller say "...to Echo Romeo India as filed."

"Erie, Pennsylvania" the teen interjected knowingly. He was thrilled to display his knowledge to these lookers.

The controller continued "On departure climb and maintain four thousand. Flight Level three zero zero in ten. Departure control on one two five point six five. Squawk six three seven six."

Almost immediately Gus came over the radio "Erie as filed. Four. Three zero zero in ten. One two five six five. Squawk six three seven six. Five Two Five Delta Delta.

"Read back correct" from the controller.

"Professional pilot" The teen anounced.

"No." Ki said absentmindedly. "Businessman. Also a pilot." Ki and Tess were looking at each other.

"Huh." The young man said wistfully. "Also a pilot in a Citation fucking jet."

When the jet's engines revved up and it began moving the teen said "He's already gotten his taxi clearance, sorry if you wanted to hear that too." As Gus taxied out of their view he said "Want to hear him talk with the tower when he's taking off?" Ki nodded. He switched his radio to the tower frequency and they heard several airplanes and two airliners get cleared to take off before they heard Gus again.

"Madison tower, Citation Five Two Five Delta Delta ready three five at charlie." He spoke in a clipped military like voice. Serious.

The tower responded "Five Delta Delta cleared for takeoff runway three five. Runway heading. After passing eight thousand cleared on course and flight level three zero zero.

Gus's reply came over the frequency: "Cleared three five, runway heading through eight, then on course and three zero zero." As the jet taxied onto the runway they heard the engines spool to take off power and the jet quickly catapulted down the concrete. The nose wheel came off the ground and then the whole jet as it climbed steeply. Seconds later they saw the wheels retracting just as the plane disappeared completely into the low overcast.

Just like that. Gone.

The teen looked at his phone then and said "He's got serious weather on the way to Erie." He looked at the women and asked "You know him, the pilot?"

Tess said "No" at the same instant that Ki said "Yes."

Ki was staring at the overcast where Gus's jet had disappeared. Tess touched her on the shoulder and said "C'mon, I've got an idea."

~~~

Authors note: The stage is now set. The following chapters will be scenes on this set as Ki explores her sexuality. The surprise in the next chapter is how she begins that exploration.

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