“And she didn’t?”
“She did not. And neither did my brothers when they found out. The teasing was…” Pippin’s eyes were dark, his expression heavy, and she held him a little tighter. “It’s not that I don’t want to be here, Chase. I’ve never felt welcome anywhere. Not for who I really am.”
“So the gay genius RIO and the hated general’s daughter. We’re quite the pair.”
“Indeed.”
? ? ?
In the hangar, the Streakers stood together, wing to wing. Pegasus first, polished and beautiful. Dragon next, with brand-new wheels and more than a few dents and scratches. Tristan ran his hand over the metal skin, like Chase had done so many times with her bird.
“Phoenix reminds me of you,” she said, surprising him. “Cocky. Intense. A little sexy.”
Tristan turned around, his smile ready. “Sexy?”
She nodded, not bothering to hide a blush that seemed to start at her knees and spread ever upward. She stepped under Dragon, touching her jet’s smooth skin. The pearly silver was her favorite kind of beautiful.
He stood close to her back. “If the Streakers don’t pass, tomorrow might be the last time we fly together. I hate that thought.” Chase did too. Instantly. She rested against Dragon, and he took it as an invitation. He palmed the jet’s side with both hands, Chase between his arms. Her body lit up as he leaned in.
Then he paused.
“I’m waiting for you to say that this isn’t a good idea.” His eyes were their most fiery, and his hair was in need of some messing up. The kiss in the infirmary came back to her, wild and so much wanting. She took a breath and chose a small truth.
“You make me feel like I have six hands,” she said.
“I make you feel like a mutant?”
“No. I mean, you make me feel like every part of me is reaching for you.”
He made a sound like she’d just kissed him and punched him at the same time. “Chase, I—”
She put her hand over his mouth and led him up the ramp stairs to Phoenix’s cockpit. “In,” she said.
He gave her a questioning smirk but sank into his pilot chair. His hands rested on the throttle and stick as though he might twist up into the sky at any moment. As she looked down at him, she felt scars on the inside, contrails that crisscrossed her mind without fading. She could tell Pippin that she wanted to love Tristan. She could even admit it to herself, but how could she get from the feeling to his lips?
She took the mach approach, climbing on top of him and straddling his lap.
He became very still. “What’s going on, Chase?”
“I think…yeah. I’m just having a nervous breakdown.”
“Is that all?”
She traced his collarbones to the hollow at the bottom of his throat. “Distract me?”
“Gladly.” He touched a button on the side of his chair, and the seat reclined, bringing her farther onto his chest.
She surprised herself with a laugh. “Hey, I didn’t know the chairs could do that.”
“I’m still growing. An inch and a half this semester alone.”
“Really?” She wasn’t listening. She was too busy staring at his mouth.
“Why the breakdown, Chase? Did Tourn say something to you?”
She surprised herself with her answer. “No. Everything is okay. I mean, we have the trials, but I talked to Pippin, and I’m just…we’re going to be okay. We’ll pass the trials tomorrow, and then…” She messed with her hair. “Then we take Ri Xiong Di. No problem.”
“Yeah, no problem.” His doubt was playful. “So maybe I should kiss you—to pass that optimum interest in me or whatever you were worried about.”
“I don’t think it’s going to work this time.” Chase’s chest rattled like a wild thing was beating against the cage of her ribs. “Besides, there are so many more important things right now. Not the least of which being the fact that we’re going to be hunted in the sky tomorrow.”
“They won’t bring us anywhere near the d-line,” he said. “We’ll be all right.”
“That’s a good lie.” She forced a laugh and leaned her face to his. “Say it again?”
“We’ll be all right.”
She kissed him.
His lips tugged hers in a way that made her pull him closer. Closer. She couldn’t tell if he was a better kisser than everyone else she’d tried or if she was just better with him.
Maybe both.
Chase hit the canopy release with her elbow, and the dome folded over them. She felt like she was thinking clearly, and at the same time, wasn’t thinking at all. Her fingers sunk into his hair while his hands slipped from her face to her waist.
A dizzy, weightless sensation emerged as she felt that wide open everything that existed between them. And before she could decide what to do, she was already off that impossibly high ledge—and he went with her.
Chase kissed him hard and fast, and she felt like she was falling, falling, falling without ever coming near the ground.
33
PREFLIGHT
Preparing for the Big Show
Phoenix’s cockpit filled with a knocking sound. An urgent pound.
Chase lifted her head off Tristan’s shoulder. She’d exhausted herself in kissing and late-night talking and then slept like the dead. Her body was twisted and knotted from the way she had curled up on him all night, and yet it might have been the best sleep she’d ever had.
The dome of the cockpit was incriminatingly fogged, although they’d done nothing more than kiss. She’d completely let go, and she was a little startled to find that when she stopped trying to escape feeling, she didn’t need skin or the drug of touching. She just needed him.
But it was morning now, and they’d overslept.
“Tristan, get up.”
“Can’t,” he said. “You’re on top of me.” He lifted his head and looked at her. Chase was ready for that guilty distraction she felt after hooking up, but it didn’t come. Instead, she kissed him all over again and found his mouth warm and wanting.