by Jamie Knight
“Don’t be so surprised, Valeria. I only do this on rare occasions. And today, you starting to work here feels special enough to me,” he breathed, tucking his shirt in.
There was no one in the chopper, and I could not help my surprised expression.
“How are we going to… no. You can fly?” I gasped, in shock.
This man had plenty to tell, and his smile and simple tug on my arm reminded me who he was, and who he could be.
“I dabble a little, Valeria. Don’t fret. I’m licensed,” he reassured me, when he saw the raised eyebrow I gave him.
We walked to the doors of the metal bird and he opened the door for me. As I entered, he chuckled and smiled.
He locked my door and ensured that it was sealed tight. As he walked around the helicopter, I could not help but take in the beautiful view that was laid before me.
Buildings upon buildings sat in the majestic light with the bright sun glimmering off their windows. The heat from the sun could not even be felt on my skin, due to the sweet mellow breeze whispering through like a wave. In the far distance, everyone looked like tiny ants, with tiny problems.
I was woken from my awe by the loud sound of the shutting of my pilot’s door, and his smile made me shudder.
“Loving the view, huh? I knew you’d enjoy it. Personally, when I’m stressed from a meeting downstairs, I come here to vent,” he confessed.
Alex strapped me in carefully, taking his time when he was closer to my breasts and thighs. He eyed me longingly, and I could not help but wish to know what he was thinking right there and then.
Was he having dirty thoughts like I was?
“Do we get to fly over my house? And Stella’s, too?” I asked.
I knew I sounded like a five-year-old then, but my excitement came in many forms. Sometimes I was a grown ass woman, and sometimes I was a crazed teen in search of an orgasm.
“Who’s Stella?” he asked, putting on his black helmet with a communication device of some sort hanging at the end of his face.
“She’s my best friend since we were kids. She lives just a few blocks from the cul-de-sac from where I live. Please, can we fly over there?” I asked, as he handed me my helmet and fastened it on my head.
“You do know this will ruin my hair, right?” I asked, to affirm that he knew. Of course, he didn’t.
I spent time combing it on the bus ride here, and his silly smirk and chortle proved my theory that he was clueless about how much time it had taken me to do, and how much the helmet would mess it up.
“Show me where she lives… Better yet, show me where you live, and we’ll fly over there. Tighten that strap just a little bit more,” he instructed.
He was acting a little overprotective, with reason, I assumed. It was the first time he had someone in here, perhaps.
“Alexander, am I your first passenger?”
“Yes.”
It was weird for his voice to sound through the device on my head.
“Yup, you are. And now I want to enjoy this with you,” he added, looking towards me with a sense of wonderment in his eyes.
“Ready?” he asked.
“No,” I replied.
There was no harm in telling the truth. I felt butterflies in my stomach from the height.
“Me neither,” he chuckled. “Oh well. Truman, on. All aboard and fly out,” he commanded.
What took me by surprise was the interface on the dashboard. There were a lot of buttons and knobs and they all seemed confusing, yet attractive, due to their shiny state. With the sun blinding through the stainless front windshield, the view in front of me was too futuristic.
A screen in the middle of our seats lit up with a blue string of waveforms that was pulsing with every word and echo uttered by the machine.
“Hello, Valeria. My name is Truman, and I will be your designated co-pilot today. Where would you like to go?” piped up the monotone voice over a speaker I could not see.
Alexander laughed and just looked at me, then outside.
“I apologize. Truman gets ahead himself a bit sometimes. He scanned your fingerprint when you pushed that button on the elevator and he got online and got all your details. I know it’s creepy!” he added, seeing my disapproval clearly through my face, “but it is protocol I wrote down in case someone got into my elevator with unauthorized access.”
“Okay, Alexander. What does Truman know about me?” I playfully asked.
“Everything, Valeria,” the monotone voice answered. “I respect privacy as much as Mr. Foster here, and all control is in his hands, with the inclusion of Jonathan the greatest, the mighty ruler of colloquialisms, the king of the sarcastic dinner, the…”
Alexander cut him off before he droned on. Clearly that was something that this Jonathan person had added into the operating system.
I was actually enjoying myself with this new fascination for technology I had never seen before, but the boss is the boss.
“Can it, Truman; just give me the coordinates to our destination and play us a selection of Valeria’s favorite music.”
“Quite right, Sir. She has a better playlist than you do, by all accounts,” Truman voiced.
I liked Truman. He had a sense of humor that Alexander clearly enjoyed, as did I.
We would have to have a lengthy chat about my privacy, though…
The chopper’s engines roared to life as we lifted off the helipad. I tensed up a little bit as the air whooshed beneath us and took us to higher levels.
We were flying!
Chapter Fourteen
Valeria
Exhilaration compounded by wonder made me grab onto the window straps and my seat. It was quite scary as we flew off the building and into the air, with everyone underneath us minding their own businesses.
I looked over to Alexander, and saw that he wasn’t holding on to the joystick thingy.
“Alexander! Who’s flying this thing?” I screamed, forgetting that we had microphones in our helmets.
He winced at the loud frequency he received and looked at me. Then he glanced towards the screen with the blue string of waveforms on it all lit up, and I eased up a bit.
If I could save time in a bottle,
The first thing that I’d like to do,
Is to save every day,
till eternity passes away,
Just to spend them with you…
Jim Croce blasted through the unseen speakers in our helmets, and it was a throwback I remembered having on my playlist on my phone. Then it hit me.
“How did Truman just invade my privacy like that? Seriously, there have to be rules,” I snapped.
I didn’t like the idea that a computer program had somehow accessed my personal phone.
“He just got carried away, I promise. He just does as he is told and doesn’t interfere with your private files, unless… there are certain videos you don’t want revealed?” Alexander asked coyly.
I shook my head and playfully slapped him on the shoulder. He laughed.
The view over the city was amazing, and we were approaching the countryside slowly, carefully, freely.
“There’s nothing of the sort on my phone, Alexander,” I confidently retorted.
“Sir, I detect a lie in her statement, and I have a short one-hour long video that seems to have the title ‘Dirty wh…”
“Can it, Truman!” I bellowed. “This is nothing to joke about.”
But Alexander laughed his ass off, and so did I.
“Mute, Truman,” he commanded.
Now, only music filled our ears in the chopper.
“I would never have pegged you for a Jim Croce fan, Valeria. That song is from way back when. I doubted your generation listened in on the classics.”
Alexander was clearly impressed by my taste in the real classics.
Of course I had heard Jim Croce through my father. I didn’t want to talk about him right now, though.
“Oh, you must have been what, back then, thirty?” I joked.
He smiled knowingly at the banter we were having.
“I was quite young back then, if I do say so myself,” he responded, eyeing me curiously to see if there would be any sign of discontentment. “I was just born, in fact.”
“Well, that makes this song more special, Alexander,” I answered, leaning over to put my head on his shoulder.
The view was spectacular. We flew over houses I used to see while walking to and from school. A certain familiar red-tiled house came into view, and I waved and pointed.
“That’s my house! We’re actually flying over my house. If only my mom could see me now, she wouldn’t believe it. And that’s Stella’s over there! The one with the grey roofing and a black car outside the driveway.”
I was super excited, knowing that opportunities like these came only once in an entire lifetime, if at all.
I thought about asking him if we could land and I could surprise Stella, but I wanted some time for her to get used to the idea of me being with a billionaire first, before just showing up with such a shocker like that. Plus, I wanted to keep this time just for Alexander and me, one on one.
Alexander was all smiles and quiet, perhaps reflecting on how the first-time flying with a passenger was going for him. I looked at him, with his strong arms grabbing onto the joystick, and his lips curled into a smile that radiated in that late morning sun.
“I’m glad to know where you live, Valeria,” he whispered. “Perhaps I could drop by one of these days. I need to say hello to your father.”
I knew that we were not at any point close to that place in our relationship where Alex would tell my father that we were together. Having sex and sharing kisses meant a lot less than actual commitment, and I had to wait and see if he was all in or just loved my youthful figure.
My father would kill me. And his wrath was not something I was willing to endure for a passing fling. I had to know this was real, first.
“Where are we going?” I asked, carefully looking beyond his gaze to avoid the remark he had just made.
Alex had not turned the chopper around to go back to the office.
“It’s a surprise. I don’t want to ruin it for you,” he laughed.
Wherever we were going, my playlist was slowly keeping me relaxed as we flew along the skyline, taking in the beautiful sights.
I kept to my own thoughts for the rest of the flight, continuing to take it all in. The sights were amazing, as we passed over the little creek by the edge of the suburbs. The light was unforgiving, and so was the heat. We were flying farther and farther away from the city’s limits, and I couldn’t help but wonder even more now where we were going.
Alexander knew how to keep a secret, and he just silently hummed to the tunes of John Denver over the speakers.
Country roads, take me home…
He hummed so beautifully, and I couldn’t resist his whims. I had to join in as the chopper swayed against the wind currents and the rotor blades whirred in quick succession. We delighted in the scenery as we sang together.
…mountain momma, take me home, take me home.
As we quit our little karaoke session, and Michael Jackson’s “Bad” came on, we couldn’t help but smile at each other foolishly.
“Sir, we’re here,” the intercom buzzed.
“Aah, finally. The ranch,” Alexander announced.
He had a glint in his eye that seemed to mean that the place meant a lot to him. Truman lowered the helicopter slowly to the ground.
I looked outside; it was a huge open field that was surrounded by rolling hills of grass. We were at the famous Foster Ranch, and I was the esteemed guest of the owner.
Stepping out of the helicopter and into Alexander’s arms, I felt safe yet unfamiliar with myself. I was nervous. I had travelled via chopper to the Ranch, and I had no idea how to get back home in case things didn’t work out as Alexander or I had planned.
He walked me over the plain airfield with his hand in mine, and from a distance, a man in a white shirt and a stereotypical cowboy hat walked and half ran over towards us.
“Señor Alex! How unexpectedly delightful your visit is. Will you be staying long?” the short stout man asked.
He had an air of etiquette in him that you would not expect a man of his stature and accent to have.
“No, no, Pedro. Just a few hours. Is everything ready for my guest and me to use?” Alexander checked.
He had greeted the man fairly, like a friend. It seemed these two had history together.
“It is. Well then, Señor, Señorita, right this way, please.”
Pedro directed us towards a rectangular building that seemed recently repainted white and looked like a tooth on the outside.
“Come on, Valeria, your surprise awaits you,” Alexander said with a smirk.
He had a way of adding a sense of mystery to anything and everything. I loved it.
I grabbed his hand and entwined it in mine. We walked together towards the entrance to the white building. As soon as we stepped close to its doors, I smelled a wave of food odors. After flying for hours, I was very ready for lunch and something smelled perfect.
The building was a fucking palace. The lights were all natural, with the roof structured skillfully to let the sun lighten up the place with mirrors. The walls up on high were painted with murals I had never seen before, with beauty and awe that made me gawk.
It was like the Sistine Chapel. It seriously had an uncanny resemblance to it, but much more magical and modern.
The floors were tiled in Italian stone. I remembered it from a history lesson in 11th grade, and I just marveled at the masterpiece laid before me.
Three chefs adorned in full attire, including even the huge hats, were behind an open counter, similar to the one that Japanese sushi chefs use for their customers. They were all grilling something I could not place my finger on. It smelled sweet and sour, but with a hint of mint.
“It’s your first time at the Foster Ranch, so I can understand your reason to be wide-eyed,” laughed Alexander.
I had never seen him laugh this much, ever since I got to know him.
“Alexander, this is magnificent! How did… what is… when… I have so many questions to ask you!” I remarked. “I can’t even finish them all!”
He laughed, and so did I.
There was no way this place came cheap. The prices to have a meal here and to enjoy the facilities probably cost more than my dad’s car and believe me — I’d checked before. My crush on Alex had caused me to look up everything about him on the internet that I could possibly find.
“First, take a seat on the terrace, then we can talk,” he instructed.
What terrace was he talking about? I wondered.
Then I saw it.
Right below us, where there seemed to be a pool or fountain, was an entire ecosystem of green plants with waterfalls buzzing through. There was an entire artificial forest built under the California desert, and we were at the top of a cliff.
The whole place just took my breath away. I couldn’t stop staring as I found a table to sit at and wait for Alex.
This was the most fantastic date I could ever imagine.
Chapter Fifteen
Alexander
The look on Valeria’s face earlier had said it all. She had never been in a helicopter before; that much was for certain. She had a smile so gleeful on her pouty lips that just told tales of her awe and satisfaction the moment she got into the helicopter.
Cruising through the air as Valeria and I hummed to her amazing playlist, I couldn’t help but think that I had never felt this comfortable with a woman before. There was just something about Valeria that made me relax and want to have fun.
She was silent with shock when we touched down on the airfield at my ranch. I thought that there would have been nowhere as private as my ranch. Here we would be away from prying eyes and I wanted her to feel special.
Now, I was going to cook Valeria a meal. I had promised her a day
of wonder, and I had only delivered a drop of it. She clearly had had no clue before why the Foster Ranch was so damn expensive to enjoy, and now she knew.
My company had privately acquired the land and decided to go all out in the creative department. I got a team of contractors to manually unearth 600 feet of dirt and create for me a masterpiece; a haven for anyone with enough money to come and enjoy the delights of a natural rainforest – for a fee, of course, since I was always a wise businessman.
Jonathan and Truman had their part in this. Truman ran the facility virtually and had all conditions under control 24/7, and Jonathan came here whenever he could to check in on things and provide direction to the staff. I was rarely ever needed or came here, though, unless I had a migraine on my bad days and needed to relax. It was nice to be enjoying it, not to mention with such a beautiful companion.
I sat Valeria down on a bench and asked her to survey and explore with her eyes before we set out to our private suite. We had to eat first, as I knew that the sex I planned to have with her would wear her out.
“Okay, Alexander. I’ll wait, but where are you headed off to?” she asked, curiosity beaming from her wide blue eyes.
“It’s another surprise,” I cooed. “Relax and I’ll be right back.”
I sped off to the kitchen, where Pedro was awaiting my orders.
“Señor, she’s beautiful,” he said. “What would you like us to prepare for the two of you? The ‘House special’?”
“Not today, Pedro. Today, I’ll need Chef Baker’s attire and some room. I’ll be cooking,” I said firmly.
The look on his face was priceless, and I must say, it was unheard of for me to cook alone.
“Right away, Señor.”
Pedro knew better than to question me when I was at my best, or, as was more often the case, at my worst. He came clicking over with his cowboy boots and funny hat and handed me the material I had asked for.
“Leave me be, Pedro.”
I waved him away.
“I’ll be done in a while. In the meantime, make sure the young lady is not disturbed by any of the other guests or staff,” I ordered, as I washed my hands in preparation to cook.