A Perfect Holiday Fling Read Online Free PDF Page B

chest just in case her rock hard nipples were showing despite both layers of clothing covering them. It was preposterous—yet understandable, Callie reasoned—that she could allow herself to get so worked up over one, albeit ridiculously sexy, man.
    She hadn’t become a total recluse after her divorce. Her two best friends, Jada and Kiera, had both set her up on dates—despite the fact that they, too, were going through their own man crises. But those couple of dates had ended in nothing more than a good night kiss.
    At Anita’s urging, Callie had attempted a random hookup with a fellow attendee at the veterinary conference over the summer, but chickened out when the handsome vet from Chicago knocked on her hotel room door later that night. She’d spent the last two days of the conference avoiding him.
    Now she had Stefan Sutherland and his penetrating gaze causing her face—and other unmentionable parts—to heat up like a furnace.
    Callie considered bypassing the freezer section all together and heading straight for the checkout, but then thought better of it. Despite the chilly November day, she could use the ice cream to cool herself down. Grabbing a pint of butter pecan, she quickly made it through the checkout line and to her car.
    And away from Stefan and his dangerously sexy dimple.

Chapter Three
     
     
    Stefan rested his elbows against the gleaming wood bar while he listened to fellow ex-Navy pilot, Dustin Patrick, prattle on about the treasures to be found working in the civilian world. The two had served two tours together in Afghanistan a few years ago. Dustin had left before he could get called up on a third, and from the look of things, he didn’t regret it one bit.
    “I’m telling you, man, there’s money to be made. Getting out when I did was the best decision I ever made.”
    “There’s a big difference between our situations. You left on your own. They’re probably going to kick me out,” Stefan reminded him.
    “An honorable discharge is nothing to hang your head about,” Dustin said as he slurped up a raw oyster from the fresh platter the bartender had just set before them.
    “It’s a nice way of saying you’re not good enough for us anymore.”
    Dustin rolled his eyes. “Look, I didn’t ask you to meet me here so I could listen to your candy ass bitch and moan like a school girl.” He may have been away from the Navy for a few years, but he still had full command of the language. “I have a proposition for you.”
    Stefan’s brow rose a fraction as he brought his beer bottle to his lips.
    “I’m expanding to the Gulf South region. And, with that expansion, I’m going to need a lot of new pilots.”
    Dustin had parlayed his skills as a naval pilot into a lucrative shuttling business for the oil and gas industry. He owned a fleet of helicopters that transported workers to remote locations in Alaska and Canada.
    “If my eyes aren’t good enough to fly for the Navy, they won’t be good enough to fly for anyone,” Stefan reasoned, trying to ignore the pang of sorrow that gripped his chest at the thought.
    “I don’t want you to fly. I want you to teach,” Dustin said.
    Stefan’s head reared back. “Teach?”
    “Dude, you’re one of the most kickass pilots I know, but you’re even better at explaining the mechanics of flying. I just bought a fifty-thousand square foot facility in Belle Chase. I’m moving my entire base of operations there. Pilots will come there to train, and then be dispatched to wherever they’re needed.”
    Stefan had never once considered doing anything that didn’t involve being in a cockpit, up in the air. Dustin was asking him to stand in front of a classroom and teach?
    Dustin signaled for the bartender and said, “Have another beer while you think it over.”
    Stefan declined the beer. “I need to head back,” he said.
    “You’re leaving?” Dustin stretched his arms out, looking around the oyster bar. “We’re in the French Quarter,