Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 09 (16 page)

 
          
What
was it about Annie Dewey that excited him? he wondered. There were plenty of
great looking women here, most of them not in the Air Force; many of them had
successful entry- level or mid-level managerial careers, and a couple of them
were better-looking than Annie. He couldn’t quite identify what it was that
attracted him to her.

 
          
Annie
was trim and athletic, bordering on thin—typical Air Force. Concerned that she
would be discriminated against by other Air Force pilots because women did not
have as much upper-body strength as men, Annie had changed her exercise regime
to include more upper-body strength sports such as rock climbing and
volleyball. The difference showed: Dev noticed well-defined shoulders, back,
and arms, tapering down to a thin waist, tight butt, and shapely legs. She did
not have very big breasts, but the rest of the package more than made up for
that.

 
          
It
was his opinion that other men saw her physique, her many female friends and
far fewer male friends, and her profession, and assumed Annie was gay.
Truthfully, Dev had thought so, too—or else he had never really thought too
much about her at all. But then he’d started noticing her and the HAWC chief of
aerospace engineering, Colonel David Luger, together all the time, and he’d noticed
that little whatever-it-was about her come alive. That’s what had made whatever
attracted him to her ignite.

 
          
And,
he noticed, Luger wasn’t with her tonight. She was dressed nicely, in a silky
form-fitting dress with thin spaghetti straps, sandals, and a little gold ankle
bracelet on her right ankle. Her light brown hair was up, as usual, but in a
flight suit it made her look a little butch—in that dress, it exposed her thin
neck and well-defined shoulders, making her look even more attractive. He
looked hard without trying to stare to see if she was wearing a brassiere, and
realized with a faint shock that she wasn't. She was so buff that very little
beneath that silky dress jiggled at all.

 
          
What
was it about her? It wasn't pure sexuality although she certainly was sexy.
Allure. Dev thought that's what it was. Allure. She was alluring, She was
obviously looking for something or someone in her life, but she was willing to
stay out of the spotlight and w ait until she found it Dev definitely sensed a
deep, smoldering passion inside her. Even if she had been gay, she still
would’ve had that animal allure about her—now that he realized she probably
wasn't it made him think even more about the possibilities of unleashing some
of that passion in his direction.

 
          
He
hoped to hell Luger wasn't her type To be honest Dev had no idea whose type
Luger could be He seemed a nice enough guy. just a little detached, distracted,
out of place. Annie had some kind of connection w ith him. Either she saw
something in that weird engineer from
Texas
, or she was throwing a pity party for him.
A romantic connection? Luger didn't seem the type. Maybe he was the gay one

 
          
“Heels!"
Dev said, as their eyes met Most ev eryone at the squadron knew everyone else
by their call sign—it was unusual for someone to use their Christian names in
casual conversation He came over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, then
reached up and squeezed her shoulders in his hands. Good God. he thought I w
ish I had shoulders that tight, “Thanks for coming.”

 
          
“Thanks
for inviting us.”

 
          
She
used the word “us," Dev noticed, but she was alone. Her voice told him
that she was disappointed at not being an “us" at the party “Where's
Colonel Luger?”

 
          
“Still
out at the lake,” Annie said. They called Elliott Air Fofce Base, near dry
Groom
Lake
, the “lake” when away from there. “Sorry he
can't make it.”

 
          
“I
know he has a pretty important test coming up,” Dev said. “Those HAW C guys get
obsessed w hen a big test is happening. They all seem to disappear into their
little rabbit holes, afraid to do anything that might screw things up. Problem
is. they're
afaays
like that, even when they've done good.”

           
“They’re not exactly party
animals,” Annie agreed. She looked around the room, then at him, then around to
the pool area.

           
“I hope you brought your suit,” Dev
said. “The pool is nice and cool, and the hot tub will be perfect once it starts
to cool down outside.”

 
          
“I
should have brought a suit, but I didn’t.”

 
          
Dev
was going to give her his standard line, “Well, you know, around here, bathing
suits are optional,” but for some reason he didn’t use it on Annie. Was he
afraid of offending her, chasing her away? He was amazed at his own odd
feelings. Since when did he care so much about what others, especially women,
thought of him?

 
          
“We
can get you a suit if you'd like to go swimming later,” Dev offered, “or just
take a rain check,” She smiled at him— he was pleased to think he had said the
right thing, caring and helpful without being too pushy. “Can I get you
something to drink? I make a pretty good margarita. I’m doing mango and
strawberry tonight.”

 
          
“I’m
not into that stuff,” she said. That was the first hint of resistance from her,
and his hopes sank. But then she suddenly stopped looking past him, took a deep
breath as if she had just decided something, and said, “But if you’re making
margari- tas, I know you have tequila, and I see some Coronas around, so I’ll
start with a shot and a
Corona
.” She looked directly at him with incredible liquid blue eyes that
looked like they could stop a freight train in its tracks, and asked, “Care to
join me?”

 
          
Dev
smiled and nodded. “Best offer I’ve had all day,” he said.

 
          
The
party had ended just before
midnight
, but for Dev and Annie it was only getting
started.

           
They stayed and talked well after
everyone else had gone. They both quit drinking shots before too long, but had
nursed their Coronas and then white wine and San Pellegrino. After
one a.m.
the apartment complex residents stopped
coming down to the pool and hot tub, so they decided to give the hot tub a try.

 
          
The
pool deck was dark, illuminated only by a few sidewalk edge lights, step lights,
and the parking lot lights several dozen yards away. Both Dev and Annie wore
bathrobes, and carried plastic cups of Chardonnay to the spa. The hot. dry
desert air cooled quickly after sunset, and there was a breeze blowing, so it
felt much cooler now. “Man, I’ve been in the hot sun all day, but I’m ready for
the hot tub,” Dev was saying. He turned on the bubble pumps, set his wine down
on the concrete deck, shed the robe, revealing his black Nike bathing suit
underneath. then sat on the edge of the spa and let his feet dangle in to test
the water. “Perfect,” he said. He took a sip of wine. “I’m glad you could—”

 
          
He
stopped and gulped. Annie took off her borrowed bathrobe—revealing only her
birthday suit. Her breasts were indeed small, but larger than they appeared
beneath her dress, and incredibly firm. Her shoulders and arms were not just
well- toned—they were ripped, as were her stomach and thigh muscles, lean,
taut, and striated. She watched him closely as she eased into the warm bubbly
water with a confident, satisfied smile on her face.

 
          
“I—I
hung a bathing suit on the doorknob for you,” he reminded her

 
          
“I
know. I saw it. Thank you,” she said. “That was a very considerate thing to do.
You don’t mind I didn't use it, do you,

 
          
Dev?”

 
          
“Are
you kid ... I mean, no, not at all. Heels.” She leaned back, her elbows back on
the edge of the spa with her breasts tantalizingly obscured within the bubbles
on the water’s surface, and sipped her wine. He felt like a dork now, with a
bathing suit on, so after he got into the hot tub, he slipped it off and placed
it on the edge of the tub.

 
          
After
several long moments, he stopped trying to get a look at her breasts and
relaxed. As always, his attention drifted up to the sky. The nearby buildings
and the lights from the parking lot washed out most of the sky, but he could
still see a few stars shimmering overhead. “Finally starting to see the
summertime constellations,” he said. “That’s Vega, in the constellation Lyra.
You can just start to see the head of Scorpio down over the building.”

           
“Must be a navigator thing, ha\ ing
to learn all the stars and constellations,” Annie said.

 
          
‘They
still taught celestial navigation in nav school when I went through,” Dev said,
“although they phased it out shortly after I left. They taught us how to use a
sextant, do a precomp—figure out what the star positions are
supposed
to
be— shoot the stars, sun, and moon, and plot a celestial, pressure, and speed
line of position. Get two good star shots with a small bubble and a steady autopilot,
add in a good pressure LOP and a true airspeed line from a good air data
system, and a good nav could plot your position within five to ten miles.”

 
          
“Five
to ten
miles!”
Annie exclaimed.

 
          
“I
know—ridiculous, huh?” Deverill agreed. “The absolute w orst inertial nav
system back then could keep you within a mile or two with an update every
thirty minutes. Nowadays, the worst INS gets you within a quarter-mile with one
update, and GPS can get us within six feet. But it was pretty amazing to think
that navs throughout history fought wars across the oceans with little more
than a star to guide them. It’s a lost art.”

 
          
“Show
me what you're looking at,” Annie said. She picked up her cup of wine and waded
over to him, turned around, and sat beside him. then leaned back against his
chest. It both shocked and pleased him at the same time. The damned bubbles
still obscured her breasts. He put his left arm around her shoulder and across
her neck, clasping her right shoulder, and he could feel her nipples against
his arm. Stars, Dev, he shouted at himself, think of
stars
now,
celestial navigation, precomps, star tables, air almanacs ...

 
          
“Now,
what were you looking at?” she murmured. Her head was tilted back against him.
the back of her head in the water, but she wasn’t looking at the stars.

 
          
“I
was trying to look at you,” he said softly, and he bent down to kiss her lips.
A bolt of electricity shot through his body, the physiological responder he w
as dying hard to distract sprang to life, and he kissed her deeper, harder. She
returned the kiss, then took his hand from her shoulder and placed it on her
breast “God, Annie, you are so sexy.” She said nothing, but her right hand
drifted down to his stomach, then his thigh, and then to his fully attentive
and waiting member. She stroked him a couple times. He moaned with pleasure ...
and then realized she had stopped. “Annie,
please
...”

 
          
“I
can’t, Dev,” she whispered. She reluctantly twisted away from him, moved away
from him—not to the other side of the spa out of reach, but definitely apart
from him—and laid her head back on the edge of the spa and covered her face.
“I’m sorry, Dev. It is not you, believe me ...
believe
me.”

 
          
“Then
what is it?” But he knew the answer the second he asked the question: “Luger.
You’re in love with him or something.”

 
          
“Or
something,” she said. “I wanted to, but... I don’t want this to turn into a
retribution thing.”

 
          
“You
mean, sleeping with me just to get back at Luger.” Annie nodded. “I’m sorry,
Dev. I mean, you’re greatlooking, and you got a great bod, and you got the
eyes, and the butt....”

           
“Wow. Women really talk like that
about guys?”

 
          
“Only
certain guys,” she said, with a smile. He liked her warm, honest smile. He’d
never thought of her as a friend before, only as a colleague and maybe a future
conquest, but now he was talking to her like a friend, and he enjoyed it. He
still wanted to see her underneath him or on top of him, but it wasn’t an
urgent need anymore.