Scott could hear how much Justin enjoyed their flirting, and the smoky look the camera picked up was pure sin.
“Got my hand down my pants stroking myself, wishing it was you,” Scott told him. “Not going to last long. Been thinking all day about giving you the best blow job of your life when I’m back in Fox Hollow.”
“I like how you think,” Justin replied. “I’m jacking off too. It takes the edge away, but it’s not nearly as good as being with you.”
“Glad I can’t be so easily replaced.” Scott’s words came slowly as his downstairs brain interrupted his train of thought. A few moments later, he and Justin came nearly simultaneously, neither of them hiding their shouts and groans of satisfaction.
“I needed that,” Scott admitted with a deep sigh as he reached for a tissue to wipe himself off.
“I’ll be ready again before bedtime,” Justin told him. “We have a lot of time to make up for when you come back. I’m looking forward to having you here with me.”
“So am I,” Scott confessed. “But now I’m ready to crash. I’ll call tomorrow and tell you all about how the photo shoot and flight went.”
“Can’t wait to hear,” Justin said. “Get good photos. Be careful. Love you.”
“Love you too.” Scott felt the usual pang of loneliness when they ended the call.
Soon, we won’t have to call. We can say goodnight and stay together. That can’t happen fast enough for me.
Early the next morning,Scott drove to the airport, keeping an eye on the weather. Despite predictions of storms coming in, the clear sky and bright sun gave him hope that today would be a good day for flying.
A dark sedan trailed him for a few miles, then turned off. Scott kept an eye out for its return but didn’t see it again. Still, he couldn’t help feeling watched.I’m just writing web articles. I don’t have any power over decisions or investments, and if the powers that be don’t like what I write, they won’t run it. There’s no reason for anyone to think I’m worth following.
He parked at the small airport and stayed alert, looking for anyone who didn’t seem to belong. Part of him wanted to chalk it up to paranoia, but Scott had long ago learned to trust his instincts.
Scott noticed a man in a mechanic’s jumpsuit who seemed to be puttering around but not actually working on a plane. He stared at Scott for a long moment before turning away. It worried Scott, but he didn’t have enough grounds to point the man out to anyone in charge.
He’s probably just on break, Scott told himself and hoped it was true. He found his way to the hangar to meet his assigned pilot. When he got there, he found Mike talking with a man who looked to be in his early forties with dark hair in a military cut.
“I’m Bill Trask,” the pilot introduced himself with a smile and a no-nonsense handshake. “You must be Scott. Mike’s been telling me about your articles. Sounds like an interesting focus.”
Bill was down-to-earth without being brusque, and Scott liked him right away. “The school speaks well of your flying,” he told Bill.
Bill glanced over his shoulder at his plane with a fond look that told Scott how much the man loved being a pilot. “That’s kind of them. Been doing charters for fifteen years, ever since I left the Air Force. Grew up in these parts. Started flying when I was sixteen. You meet all kinds of people in this business. Everyone’s got a story.”
Scott noticed that Bill’s plane had regular wheels instead of floats like Justin’s. “I’ve got a friend who flies a seaplane,” Scott said. “I know we’re not planning on landing, but I’m guessing wheels work better where we’re going?”
Bill chuckled. “Wheels work everywhere except water. There used to be a small airstrip near the mine to fly in supplies and visiting execs, but it hasn’t been maintained in the decades since the mine closed, so I wouldn’t want to count on landing there. We’ll go up and circle as much as you want until we need more fuel. If you want more time there, we can set another date.”
Bill’s quiet confidence reassured Scott. While he would still have preferred doing the flyover with Justin, now that he had met the school’s choice of pilot, he felt better.
Bill glanced up at the sky. “We’re burning daylight. Let’s get going.”
Scott hoped they could get most of what they needed today, since the forecast didn’t bode well for making a return trip until the following week.
Mike rode up front with Bill to get better photos. Scott sat behind them, with a view out the front windshield as well as the side. Once they were airborne, he turned his attention back to Bill. “Do you do a lot of photography flights?”
“More than you might imagine, although not of the old mine,” Bill replied. “The whole area is very photogenic, and there are a lot of companies and advertisers who want nice forest and wilderness shots. The rest of the time, I fly in hunters and fishing groups.”
That didn’t surprise Scott, since outdoor enthusiasts made up a lot of Justin’s clients as well.
“You know, my great-grandfather worked at the mine,” Bill continued. “I’ve heard stories about it all my life. It was quite the enterprise back in the day. I guess I like the sky too much to ever go down in a deep hole like that.”
Scott and Mike murmured in agreement. “What did your grandfather say about the mine, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“We’ve got time to kill, and I don’t mind at all,” Bill replied. “It was my grandpa on my mom’s side, and he came from a family of miners, so I guess it was in his blood. The dark didn’t seem to bother him. Used to talk about how deep that mine was, and what it was like going down in the elevator. He made a good living until everything closed down.”
“Did anyone ever try to reopen the mine before now? I’d think that there might be new technology that could make a difference.” Mike asked.
