The Undaunted (Book 2 of The Undesirables)

Chapter 25: The Choir Boy

When Bel jumped from her cockpit Jack was there waiting for her, and she leaped into his arms. She held onto him, her arms around his neck and shoulders, her knees locked around his waist. They couldn't say anything because their mouths were too busy kissing. Jack, seldom coming up for air, carried Bel away from her plane. Its propeller was still spinning behind them when he took her around a corner of the control tower. There, concealed from the tower by a layer of thick smoke, and with nothing for miles behind him, he put Bel down and immediately unzipped her coveralls while she did the same to him.

They kicked off their unwanted flight suits and then Jack lifted Bel once more, pushing her up against the control tower's wall. He lifted the skirt of her uniform up over her waist as she worked on unfastening his belt buckle. He ripped her panties, and she tore the button from his trousers. Jack pushed inside of her, and they were kissing and thrusting and grunting in ecstasy.

Bobby couldn't hear them over the roar of the flames and the clang of mechanics' tools. But he didn't require much imagination to know what they were doing. And Bobby was envious of his friend. He wasn't immune to the sexual desire the fight had awakened in him. He tried focus that untapped energy into physical labor.

The fuel depot was still burning, and the re-supply trucks had been bombed into oblivion, so Soviet ground crews had to siphon fuel from the damaged Yaks whose gasoline hadn't yet drained from their punctured fuel tanks. They raced against time, vigorously levering the hand-pumps in an effort to siphon the valuable resource before it spilled out onto the tarmac. Bobby gave the mechanics a hand, sweating under the heat of the flames as he handled the dangerous petrochemicals.

Lenka worked beside him. The heat of the flames motivated her to unzip her own flight suit. She'd peeled off the sleeves and left its shirt dangling from her waist. Her face and arms were slick with sweat – she looked almost as if she'd just emerged from a pool. Her wet tunic clung to her breasts and Bobby could see the outline of her bra. It wasn't a sexy bra; it was soviet military issue – practical to the extreme. But Lenka was young and slim and pretty, and the bra reminded Bobby of her sexuality. She'd had a crush on Bobby once, and he'd always found her attractive. He'd rejected her because, at the time, he'd been in love with Karen.

Now Lenka was keeping their relationship entirely professional. The old flirtatious girl who'd enjoyed teasing Bobby's prude sexual attitudes seemed to have disappeared. Now she just worked tirelessly and efficiently, helping Bobby and the ground crew refuel the planes. Maybe battle had changed her, or maybe she was afraid of being rejected twice. Either way, she kept her emotional distance.

Eventually Jack and Bel finally re-emerged from behind the control tower. They were both wobbly on their feet: they had obviously worn each other out. They gave a last kiss before climbing into their respective cockpits. And then, with the planes refueled, both squadrons of remaining Yaks and P-39's took to the sky.

They'd each lost almost half their aircraft, so a snap decision had been made by command: they'd be re-combined into a single mixed squadron. Trucks had already been dispatched to Akhtuba. They would transport the surviving ground personnel, to the back-up airfield at Srednaia.

* * *

Bobby, Jack, Bel and Lenka landed at Srednaia long before the trucks arrived with the ground crews. That meant the pilots had the showers to themselves. Even so, by the time Bobby jumped down from his cockpit a line for the stalls had already formed. Bobby was last in that line, right behind Lenka. It looked like it would be some time before either one of them enjoyed the luxury of hot water.

"How about I buy you a drink?" Bobby suggested.

Lenka cocked her head and smiled. She looked at him as if appraising a new car. She couldn't be sure of his intentions, so she decided on the safest response: "I don't want to lose my place in line."