“Roman, my man!”

And it had almost been a nice flight.

Getting to the gate had revealed why Ken had chosen now to reveal what he knew about Cory: the asshole was their third man on the flight deck today.

Ken had given him an anxious glance, but Roman could feign politeness as well as the next Tennessean. Gentlemen’s agreements were how shifts were usually sorted out.

With Ken and Cory working the first shift, Roman had been stuck with a four-hour rest period, which hadn’t been very restful. That was why nobody wanted the first sleep period, while they were already wide awake, but he’d agreed to take it on the basis of having the least seniority.

Working with Cory was inevitable. The flight commander was Ken, so Ken was in charge of the takeoff and landing, and signed the flight plan. The middle shift—that was all Roman’s.

And Cory was beaming at him as Ken handed over control of the cabin to him. “Our knight in shining armor. I didn’t know they were calling you in.”

“Me neither, until they did,” Roman said. The dry humor was lost on Cory.

“I’ll leave you two to it, then,” Ken said pointedly, giving Roman an extra glance. When Roman lied and nodded an I’m fine nod, Ken headed out.

Leaving the two of them alone at the controls of a 777 with three hundred people aboard, whose safety Roman immediately put in the forefront of his mind. He busied himself checking the instruments, but that could only take up a few minutes, and Cory was already talking at him.

“Did you see the game last night?”

“Yeah, man. Great game,” Roman responded automatically. Cory never seemed to notice that he never had anything to say about said games.

“No kidding! When O’Brien crossed over behind Shaw at the last second for the goal, that was goddamn genius. Like they were using, like, telepathy.”

“Mmm.”

“And a real overtime win. Jesus. It makes every other game this season look boring as shit. And they are, aren’t they? The league was way better when we were growing up, you know? More on the line. All this safety shit these days…”

Hockey, Roman guessed. He nodded and tuned out. The conversation stayed mundane and mind-numbing but unengaging for a good half hour as Cory worked his way through all the sports that had apparently been played recently.

Then the conversation moved to Cory’s girlfriends and the desperate measures he’d had to take to keep them finding out about each other. Roman had long ago learned not to judge his coworkers, just listened and offered sympathy without advice or approval.

Then what he was waiting for—the sneaky approach.

“But I bet you don’t have those problems, huh?”

Roman looked over at him slowly. It was steady, level flying without any traffic nearby, and not a cloud in sight. No chance of distracting him without being very obvious. He was almost there, but not quite yet.

“What do you mean?”

“Dating guys. We’re not all crazy, huh?” Cory grinned.

“Only some of us,” Roman muttered, but Cory missed it.

“And, you know, nagging us and checking our phones when we get back from a long flight…”

“Before you have a chance to clear your texts, you mean?” Roman answered, raising an eyebrow.

Cory snickered. “Right.”

I feel like I’m talking to a wall. Roman hummed. “Sure. It’s fine.”

“So, uh, you going out anywhere when we get there?” Cory asked.

Okay, twice? What the fuck. “Man, what’s up with you suddenly wanting to integrate into our culture?” Roman asked, casting a suspicious look at him. “It doesn’t sound like you liked it last time.”

“Oh, it was great. But we could have skipped the whole shebang, you know…”

Roman blankly looked at Cory.

“Come on, we’re all guys here. You know. We don’t need to get all warmed up, buying each other drinks…”

Roman raised his eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“Is it a date?”

“Just come out and ask what you want, dude. I’m clueless.” Not as clueless as he wanted to be, though. Roman was starting to get a suspicion what was going on.

“Well, if you don’t wanna bother going into town and all that, any port in a storm…” Cory raised his brows meaningfully. “I got the same needs as you, bro.”

“Are you picking me up?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Cory laughed. “Just an offer, dude. Don’t get all uppity.”

“You’ll kindly let me… what?”

Cory stuck his tongue in his cheek pointedly and then glanced down at himself.

Great, he’ll let me suck his dick. Like any old straight guy. Jesus.

“Really? Here, of all places?” Roman stated flatly.

“We can discuss it later if you’d rather, I guess,” Cory shrugged carelessly. “But what else is going on?” He gestured around the skies. “And in two hours, the black box will erase all this. Or half an hour, manually.”

“I have command. It’s my call whether to erase those tapes early,” Roman stated, his jaw tight.

“Yes, sir,” Cory smirked, and he managed to make it sound like an innuendo. “I’ll submit to your command, of course.”

Roman took a deep, calming breath. I guess we’re having it out now. Less than ideal. He checked all his instruments again, almost hoping for a problem. Not major, of course. Just a little glitch that could distract him for a few minutes.

No such luck.

“You’ve been getting weird on me ever since I got promoted,” Roman started slowly. “Have you been trying to get into my pants?”

“Nah,” Cory snorted. “Of course not.” He said it with a disgusted lip curl, like he couldn’t quite believe he was doing it himself.

“You’re straight. Just curious. Or willing to let me treat you, huh?” Roman continued.

Cory paused, eyeing Roman for a moment before lifting his shoulders in a shrug. “I got girlfriends.”

“Right. But it’s not cheating if it’s a guy, huh? On either of them?”

“Cheating? Whoa, man. I didn’t say that.” Cory put his hands up. “I’m just choosing the girl I got the best shot with. And it’s none of their business. Guys will be guys when we’re alone, huh?”

“Is my number on the schedule as for a good time, call, or something?” Roman snapped, not even bothering to hide his anger.

Cory looked startled. “What? Calm down, man. Nobody has to know about this.” Abruptly, his hand was on Roman’s thigh. Warm pressure from each of his fingers crawled up Roman’s skin.

Roman whirled on him and glared so fiercely Cory’s seat rocked as he recoiled. “Don’t you fucking touch me again, you fucking creep. We. Are. At. Work.”

Cory flatly watched him, his cheeks reddening as he folded his arms tightly.

“There are three hundred people on board this plane, and we are the only two people in charge of getting them to the ground. After we land, and we’re off work, you can make any indecent proposals you still wanna make to me. Or call one of your girlfriends, tell her about the other, and jerk it by yourself in the shower like a decent fucking human being. Got it?”

Cory snorted and shrugged carelessly. “Suit yourself.” His casual words were at odds with his quick breathing and the tight muscles in his body.

But, for the first time ever, there was silence in the cockpit for five minutes. It stretched to ten, then fifteen before Roman finally felt the adrenaline ebbing.

It was gonna be a long few hours, but for being so hard-won, the silence was the most peaceful he’d ever had.