Valentine's Dinner?

51. Distraction

After a long, elaborate celebratory lunch with its accompanying wines, and then the extended farewells, Valerie, Lorne and Clyde settled into the passenger compartment of the helicopter while Chloe took her seat in the front beside Lisa. With her headset in place to deaden the whine of the turbine, Valerie laid her head on Lorne's shoulder and listened to Lisa explaining her every action to Chloe.

"Next, I'll increase power at the same time I pull up on the collective."

"That's to handle the coarser pitch, isn't it? That will lift us."

"Exactly. Watch."

Valerie felt the craft wobble, then rise. Chloe must be in heaven.

"Once we've stabilised in a low hover, we begin moving forward to gain safe speed. How would I do that?"

"Push forward on the cyclic as you slowly increase the throttle. And don't forget the pedals to counter the changing torque."

"Yes, and all coordinated to give a smooth transition."

Valerie felt her full stomach sink as the helicopter quickly rose.

"This is when we do another full sweep of the instruments, Chloe. Make sure once again everything is proper. What do you think?"

"I've been monitoring them. They're all in the green."

"Excellent. We'll climb now to three thousand as we move out over the valley, then once we've hit cruise, I'll let you take over."

Valerie hummed quiet sighs as she listened to the banter in her headphones, then she froze. What? Surely not. She bolted upright. Oh, God!

Lorne squeezed her hand as he leaned to kiss her. Then in an elevated voice next to her ear, he said, "Relax. She'll be fine."

Valerie pursed her lips and frowned, remaining silent as she leaned back and stared at him. Too much confidence. The both of them.

"It's perfectly safe." He moved his hands as if controlling a cyclic and a collective, then he pointed forward to the left and the right. "Dual controls."

Valerie nodded and blew out a held breath. "Yeah." She laid her head on Lorne's shoulder again and listened to the conversation in the cockpit.

"Hands and feet on the controls now, Chloe. No force. Just follow the movement with no resistance. Become accustomed to the actions and their effects as I take us through a few manoeuvres."

Valerie tensed and sat up when they banked and turned, then gradually relaxed as they did a few more. She remained relatively calm as the craft accelerated and slowed, and by the time they had begun climbing and descending, she was visualising Chloe's beaming face.

"Alright, Chloe. Are you ready to have a go at it?"

"Yes, I am."

"Good. You have control."

"I have control."

The helicopter continued along through a series of gentle turns, climbs, and descents while Lisa coached.

"This is easy. Fun too."

"I told you it is. You're a natural with it."

"The tough stuff is with the takeoffs and landings, isn't it? Not just easy flying way up here."

"Not tough. They just need a lot more attention. Particularly in windy conditions. Take us up to four thousand now, swing us around to two five zero and we'll head toward the coast."

The banter in Valerie's headset continued as she relaxed further. Then turning to Lorne, she mouthed, "Thank you," before pulling his face in for a kiss.

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For over half an hour, Valerie was lulled by the gentle movements of the helicopter, the soft caresses from Lorne and the background banter in her headset between instructor and student. She pinched her nose and blew out her ears as they descended, then she focused on Chloe's voice.

"That's Daddy's over there on its own. The Bombardier."

"That's out of our designated landing area. I'll ask the tower."

"You want to take control now? Or may I continue?"

"If you feel up to it, you can continue a while longer. You could initiate another hover while I ask permission to land over there."

"Okay. At what altitude?"

"Try to do one as close to two hundred as you can."

Oh, God! Valerie shuddered when she realised what was happening. After a glance out at the airport buildings not that far below, she looked up at Lorne's broad smile and shook her head. Three adventurers and one chicken. She listened to the changing sounds of the turbine and the rotor as Lorne leaned to kiss her. Quickly reciprocating, she lost herself in his lips and blanked out the voices in her ears.

A gentle bump and then another, followed by the rapidly decreasing sound of the engine brought her back, and she looked up to see Clyde shift his eyes to the floor. Done it again, haven't we?

She was about to lift the headset off when Lisa said, "Lovely landing, Chloe. You'll learn to do them more quickly with practice; but slow is always safe."

"Unless there are gusting winds."

"Exactly. Now let me show you the shut-down procedure."

Valerie sat shaking her head. She didn't. Surely she didn't.

Lorne removed Valerie's headset and fluffed her hair. "You appear to be in a trance."

"Tell me I'm imagining things. Tell me she didn't."

"Didn't what?"

"Land."

"She did it superbly."

"On her own?"

"With Lisa as a backup." He let out a loud laugh. "Remember our talk about a backup last week?"

"Hmmm. Didn't use it, did we?"

"Gave us the confidence to proceed."

Oh, fuck! Did it ever. "Yeah, it did."

"I love the way Lisa talked Chloe through it."

"Hmmm." Missed that. Too busy mind-fucking you.

"You had said we need something to help distract Chloe from thinking about sex."

"Yeah, distraction. Seems I need some as well." She looked up into Lorne's eyes and melted. Oh, God! Impossible.