Raven’s Prey(44)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

“If I hadn’t shouted at you a couple of times up there you would have tried to kill us!” Judd rasped furiously.

“I respond much better to calm, polite instructions. But you never tried that technique, did you? From the moment we got in the plane you began hammering away at me, telling me what to do.”

“Well someone had to tell you what to do! What did you think? [_That _]you were going to get into the plane and fly it all by yourself without any help?”

“I needed a little professional instruction. Not a lot of yelling and screaming! I knew this was a bad idea. I knew it this morning when you first suggested it, but I was willing to give it a try. Let me tell you something, Judd Raven. You may find all this a lot of fun but to me it was sheer torture! Furthermore, the way I feel right now I don’t ever intend to get back into the cockpit of ah airplane with you again. At least not until you learn a little self-control in the air!”

“Honor!” Judd abruptly slid a seething glance toward the small gaggle of men hovering just within earshot. “Come on, let’s go home. We can discuss this some other time!” He reached out to grab her arm but Honor stepped back hurriedly.

“Oh, no, you don’t! I’m not even sure I want to get into a car with you right away! Who knows? You may feel I need a little instruction in driving or something. I don’t think my nerves could take much more today!”

“Honor, you’re being ridiculous!” he grated and in the bright desert sunlight she could have sworn that the high bones of his cheeks were stained with red.

Was she embarrassing him in front of his fellow pilots? Honor wondered, relishing the prospect of a little revenge. After all, Judd deserved some recompense for what he had just put her through in the Cessna. “Tell me what else you do for fun around here,” she invited scathingly, gesturing vaguely at the rest of the airfield. “Dogfights over Albuquerque? Near-misses with some of the commercial lines landing at the big airport in town? Do you give tourists hair-raising flights over the mountains? Boy, this world of flying sure is some fun! A laugh a minute!”

“Damn it, Honor!” Judd stepped toward her. The glitter in his eyes should have warned her, but Honor plunged on recklessly.

“You sure had a good idea when you decided to take me flying this morning, Judd. I want you to know that I shall never forget the experience. I can see right now what a real togetherness sort of sport this is. What I want to know is, at what point do I get to start yelling at you? Or is that always going to be a one-way street? Will I always be the one who gets yelled at because I’ll always be the one with the last experience? I’m going to tell you right now, Judd, that doesn’t sound like a whole lot of [_fun _]to me!”

At that moment she suddenly realized she’d pushed him too far. Judd moved, swooping down on her with the speed and coordination of his namesake.

“Judd! Stop it!”

In the next instant she was over his shoulder and being hauled unceremoniously toward the waiting jeep. After the initial shock, laughter began to well up inside her. Did he think she was defeated? She still had a couple of shots left and she meant to take them.

“Do you know what he’s doing?” she asked, calling out to me grinning men by the hangar. “He’s playing a game. It’s the only game he knows. Judd has a very limited repertoire, you see. Actually he didn’t know any games at all until I taught him this one. It’s called Taming the Shrew. One of these days I’m going to teach him another sort of game. Maybe something to do with cards. Checkers perhaps,” she went on musingly as Judd reached the jeep and tossed her lightly down onto the seat She subsided in a grinning heap of tousled femininity as he climbed into the seat beside her and swiveled to face her with an expression that threatened disaster.

“What the hell are you laughing at?” he gritted.

“You.”

“You enjoyed that little scene back there in front of those men?”

“Well, it had its moments. And you have to admit I deserved something for the treatment I’d taken up there in the air,” she told him complacently.

He glowered at her for a split second and then something unfamiliar appeared in the depths of his eyes, an expression Honor had only seen once before in Judd. The other time had been when he’d dunked her and his shirts into the stream. Judd’s gaze was actually mirroring rueful laughter.

“You were madder than a wet hen by the time we landed, weren’t you?” he finally asked slowly.

“Judd, you started yelling at me before we even got off the ground! Sitting with you through half an hour of your ‘instruction’ would be enough to put most people off flying for lifer

“Was it really that bad?” he asked wistfully.

“It was.”

He shook his head wryly. “It worked both ways you know. I was a nervous wreck by the time we got back on the ground. I’ve never tried to teach someone to fly before. All of a sudden I have a lot more respect for professional instructors. But, Honor, I honestly didn’t intend for things to wind up this way.”

“I know. You wanted me to have fun.”

“That’s exactly what I wanted. I thought if you learned to love flying you’d want to spend more time with me. But the only part you enjoyed was yelling at me after we got back down, wasn’t it?”

Suddenly Honor couldn’t resist the overwhelming urge to offer some reassurance. “Judd,” she murmured, impulsively putting her hand on his arm, “teaching someone to fly is like teaching someone to drive. You shouldn’t even attempt it if you’re too close to the other person. It takes a certain professional distance. That much is obvious. If you really want me to learn to fly you’d be better off lining up a certified flight instructor for me and turning me over to him for the basics.”

He searched her face. “I got the feeling you weren’t ever going to go up again. At least not willingly.”

“People say a lot of things in the heat of battle,” she said offhandedly. “Things they may not mean to be taken literally.”

“You’d still be willing to try learning? If someone else were to do the teaching, that is?”

She shrugged. “I might be willing to give it a shot.”

He hesitated, the fingers of one bronzed hand lightly tapping the wheel in an uncharacteristic movement. “There’s just one thing, Honor.”

“Ummm?”

“Even if you got your license and even if you got very good in the air, every time you went up with me I’d still be the pilot in command. I’m too used to being in charge of my own plane. I’d let you do some of the flying but I can’t guarantee I wouldn’t still yell at you from time to time.”