Page 6 of Falling for the Playboy Pilot

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DALTON

Iwas ready to snap. I stared at the woman who clearly thought she was bigger than her boots. She stood with her hands on her hips, chin lifted like she was ready to throw down. Her blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders. Light blue eyes stared at me with anger flashing.

She looked five-foot-nothing and pissed off.

I stared at her, momentarily thrown by the contrast. Fiery as hell. Gorgeous, too. And brave in that stupid kind of way only someone brand new and too green to know better could be.

“Excuse me?” I asked, letting go of Tyson and focusing my attention on her. “You want to try that again?”

“I said,” she repeated, loud and clear, “why don’t you back off before you pop a blood vessel? You don’t get to rough people up just because you’re an asshole.”

I glanced over at Chief, who had half a cookie in his hand and seemed mildly entertained. I arched an eyebrow at him, questioning him. Like who the fuck was this little thing trying to take me on like she was a boxer? Chief just shrugged like it was my mess to clean up.

“I’m an asshole?” I repeated.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on between you guys, but there’s no need to get physical. You’re trying to shake that man’s head right off! It just makes you look like a fucking jerk!”

“I am a fucking jerk! But let me paint you a picture about who the real asshole is. I flew a full goddamn payload over a fire zone and couldn’t drop a single ounce of water because this clown didn’t check the hydraulic system like he was supposed to.” I jerked a thumb at Tyson, who was now retreating into the nearest hangar like he wanted to hide. “You know what that means?”

She folded her arms across her chest, which only made my eyes drop to her tits. Nice. “I guess that means you had a bad day?”

I leaned in, smelling something sweet and tart, like strawberry pie. “My day isn’t going to be nearly as bad as the firefighters on the ground that have to try and save the forest. It means someone could die. When we screw up, it’s not just a bad Yelp review, sweetheart. It’s lives lost. It’s property destroyed. Livelihoods in ash. Pristine forest land reduced to charred remnants. This job matters. So yeah, I take it personally when someone half-asses their work.”

Her eyes narrowed, mouth twitching with anger. Her perfect, plump, pink lips pressed together for a split second. “You think you’re the only one who cares about doing this job right? Fine. But this isn’t the damn Roman Empire and you’re not Caesar. You don’t get to rule with fear just because you’re bigger than everyone and have a bad attitude.”

I blinked. She was full of venom and heat. Her voice was shaking just enough to tell me she was either terrified or furious. Maybe both. Either way, she was standing her ground, even if she had no idea what the hell she was talking about. There were few men who had the balls to stand up to me, especially when I was pissed.

And right now, I was furious.

“You don’t know me,” I said tightly. “You don’t know shit about what I do. And you obviously don’t know shit about what we do here.”

“I know I already don’t like you. And I do know what you do here because I do it, too!”

God. I should have walked away. But something about her—the fire in her voice, the challenge in her eyes, the way her chin tilted up like she could take me in a fight—had me hooked. I was either going to fuck the woman stupid or load her in my plane and drop her in the middle of the forest.

“All right,” Chief’s voice drawled from behind her, mouth full of cookie as he shook his head. “Everybody cool your jets before someone does something stupid.”

“Too late,” I muttered.

“No shit,” the blonde bombshell shot back. “Stupid was three minutes ago.”

I stepped back, exhaling hard through my nose. Chief strolled up with the same unbothered swagger he always used, chewing like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“She’s right, Dalton,” Chief said, nodding at the girl. “This was a training run. That’s why we do training runs. To find the broken shit before the mountain’s on fire.”

“It is going to be on fire,” I reminded him.

He waved a hand. “The ground crew is already in the area thinning brush. And it gave Pickle a chance to take his shot. Save the glory for some of the other guys.”

I spun toward him. “I told them the valve was sticking! A week ago!”

“I know you did,” Chief said, keeping his voice calm. “And I logged it. That’s on the shop crew, and believe me, Tyson’s going to hear it from me. But you want to yell, you yell at me. Not the guy holding the wrench.”

The adrenaline was still buzzing under my skin. I couldn’t shake the image of flames licking trees and no way to put them out. Fire was lethal. It didn’t give a shit who or what it burned. I rubbed a hand over my face, shooting the new chick a dirty look. She had the good sense to take a few steps back as if she just realized I outweighed her by a hundred pounds and was a hell of a lot meaner than a hornet in a nest that had just been kicked.

“You can’t keep letting this crap slide, Chief,” I growled. “What if we would have had a ground crew surrounded? What if that was someone’s house?”