Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Piloting Lesson

ALLISON

For some reason, Carter decided he’d be fine eating the rest of his ice cream on the way back to the car. He even offered her more ice cream as they walked the mall with her arm tucked through his. He also insisted on carrying her bag. She did not require him to do so, but she also did not mind. It seemed to make him happy.

This was exactly what she’d always fantasized about. Experiencing a planet’s many activities alongside a loving partner she adored. As they walked, she eagerly accepted each lick of his cone. This was vanilla! With bits of chocolate cookie. They went well together.

This scoop did not have quite the same effect as the dark chocolate that had thrilled her as she devoured it, but it was still quite good. Even so, her human stomach was growing a touch unsettled. She remembered then that, other than ice cream, she had only eaten a dry turkey sandwich today. At least in terms of human food.

She debated simply shunting some transformative energy into her human organs to feed them. She decided against it. This was another part of the human experience, after all. Eating. Drinking. And it seemed ice cream, while delicious, could make her stomach mildly unsettled if she ate too much of it. That seemed horribly inefficient.

Either way, this mild discomfort was something she could easily ignore. She would not cheat. She had only been feeding her human organs with transformative energy because she had no other choice. One of the appeals of living here on Earth was living as its humans did.

She quietly told Carter of Miss Ellen’s job offer as they walked through the mall. He looked thrilled. He assured her this sounded like a perfect opportunity for both of them, and he promised to drive her to and from work. He remained so supportive and so thoughtful.

The parking lot had filled up quite a lot when they emerged. Allison hadn’t been keeping track of time, but the new position of the sun suggested it was now late in the afternoon. She would still have an hour or two to prepare for their date. She couldn’t wait to try on her new outfit. She could already imagine how it would show off the sexual highlights of her body.

Once they reached the car, Carter popped the trunk and lowered her clothes into the back. He slammed it, then glanced at her with a quizzical look in his eyes.

“What?” she asked hopefully. Was he ready to fuck her again?

He walked to the driver’s side of his car and then leaned across the roof, resting his muscular and attractive arms upon it. “So, I had a thought in the food court.”

She smiled across the car as she considered how best to seduce him. “Yes, sir?” She ran her tongue across her lips. “Is there something... else, I can do for you?”

He simply chuckled. “You ever driven one of these things?”

Her self-confidence faltered. “A car? No. I have not.”

“You should learn to drive. Not that you’ll always have a car, but it’ll help you if you do. How’d you feel about me teaching you? This one’s an automatic, so it’s easy.”

Again he was showering her with generosity. No. This was him being protective as well. Just like with the cash he’d gifted her and the basic clothing he’d insisted on buying for her. Just like with his suggestions she seek a job. He continued to prepare her to run without him.

Moreover, this was not because he wished her to leave. Far from it. He simply wanted her to have everything she needed to remain free if something happened to him.

Both her human mind and her own mind struggled as Carter’s warm and generous nature muddled her reason—she had so rarely experienced generosity—but she focused past all that. Learning to pilot a human vehicle would be useful. Should Carter be injured in some way and unable to pilot their car, she could take over for him and get him to safety.

Yes. This was an excellent idea. “I would like you to teach me. When?”

“Why not today?”

She knew her smile faltered and did not bother to correct it. “I had hoped for time to get ready for our date.”

“Oh, you’ll have plenty of time for that.” He smiled warmly. “It’s what... five? Bars don’t get hopping ‘til nine or even ten around here. We’ll head out a bit before that.”

“Didn’t you tell me you don’t like to drive between eight and two?”

“Right, we won’t be driving then. Bar I’m thinking of is only about ten minutes from my place. It’s got wings, darts, pool, and even some decent beer. If we go before seven the whole place will be dead, and you said we needed a crowd, right?”

“Yes,” Allison agreed. “I did say that.” He knew his territory well. “Then, all right. If we can spare an hour or two, this is as good a time as any to learn a few new things.” She hoped that would include him allowing her to pleasure him again.

“Sounds great.” He thumped the roof with a grin. “Hop in.”

She tilted her head as confusion set in. “You will not teach me here?”

“That, uh... that wouldn’t be a good idea, Allie. There’s people driving all over. Walking too. But there’s an abandoned box store about ten minutes up the highway that got foreclosed months ago. Huge parking lot like this one, but empty.”

“I understand.” Again, his instincts served them well. “Less to bump into.” She pulled the door open and hopped into the passenger seat. “I am ready to learn!”

He got in and slammed the door, then started the car by shoving a metal key an input socket in the... ignition column?... and triggering a short audible sequence. His thigh also tensed as he did this, suggesting he was doing something with his feet she couldn’t see.

The engine ignited with a rumble. It was far louder than the engine on her ship.

Next, he gripped the... throttle?... in the center of the vehicle, pressed down with his thumb, and adjusted it backwards. So the throttle had fixed settings? Simpler than allowing the pilot to choose any speed, perhaps. Or perhaps the speed was controlled elsewhere.

As he grabbed the back of her headrest and twisted his torso around to look behind them, then backed out, she felt a bit foolish. She had paid very little attention to the specifics of how he was piloting this vehicle as they drove. She had been too busy looking at her fascinating surroundings... and the attractive man driving her to the mall.

It was the dopamine. The human pleasure chemical had dulled her normally inquisitive nature and alertness, but she didn’t want to relinquish this heady, fluttery feeling. And she did not have to let it go, not with Carter.

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She trusted him to pick up the slack while she enjoyed this. A day of shopping and having ice cream with her new “boyfriend.” A pleasant, caring, attractive partner. A pairing like this was what everything she had always wanted.

The pairing she had fled, by comparison, had been absolutely unacceptable.

His thigh tensed again as they stopped after backing out. Yes. The speed controls were definitely at his feet, where a ship would normally have rudder pedals. Interesting. He touched the throttle again and shifted it down once more. Then, they moved forward.

He had moved the throttle down twice, once to back up and again to move forward. So it obviously could not be a throttle, since its position had nothing to do with the velocity of this vehicle. Or did it?

As Allison considered, she deduced the solution. That was instead a lever that allowed this vehicle to switch between movement modes—in this case, forward and back. And with its speed controlled with the foot pedals, one could move the car in either direction using those pedals once the overall direction was set by the central lever. While this configuration was a bit unorthodox, all of what he was doing now made perfect sense.

She observed the line of his gaze as they departed the parking lot. She noticed that while he normally looked ahead, he glanced often left or right while keeping their velocity low. He must be trying to avoid a collision with other vehicles or pedestrians who might emerge suddenly from behind an obstruction, like slowly navigating an asteroid cloud.

Once they had left the parking lot and were out on the road, they accelerated. Allison noted that he continued to keep to the right side of the roads as he had all the way from his apartment, even when they turned. The alternating white lines or yellow dashes in the road were like the guidance markers in a planetary shipping lane.

She already knew how stoplights worked, of course—Ryan had explained those the first time they encountered one—and she also knew the behavior expected of cars was directly opposite of pedestrians. Pedestrians walked on red, while cars traveled on green.

Soon they pulled onto a rising ramp that led to a much wider road. It had multiple lanes and no visible stoplights. Here, Carter increased their velocity even more.

She couldn’t see the instrument panel from the passenger seat, but the readout there was likely feeding him information. So that was the location of the HUD. The whole vehicle thrummed pleasantly, suggesting this was a well-made machine.

She had been on large open roads like this before, briefly, but never during the day. These wide roads were like slipways, subtle but detectable distortions in the spatial fabric that allowed a spacecraft to exceed the speed of light.

Slipways only flowed in one direction and often didn’t take one exactly where they wished to go, but offered exceedingly fast travel compared to normal space. They lowered trip time despite the detour. To best navigate this area rapidly, one would need to learn the different directions the currents allowed and plot where to enter and leave them.

Once they were moving smoothly on this human slipway, Carter’s actions became rote. He scanned the road directly ahead and occasionally looked to the mirrors on each side of the doors, as well as the one in the middle of the windshield. All the while, his hands remained atop the wheel, which he gently adjusted. It served to direct the car in place of a pilot’s stick.

She watched him appreciatively they drove onward. The tight shirts he favored made no secret of his musculature, which continued to make her hot. “You are an excellent driver.”

He smiled but kept his eyes on the road. “Thought you said you couldn’t drive.”

“I’ve never learned, but I have been observing you since we left the mall. You complete every action with clear purpose, and our ride has remained smooth.”

“Highway driving’s easy, and I promise you none of this is that hard. You’ll pick it up in no time, Allie.”

He was using that name for her more and more. Allie, not Allison. It came with the same mental warmth as Allison but with an even fonder mental tint. She had told him the name he chose for her didn’t really matter, but even so. She truly liked Allie.

It was not long before he left the slipway—no, this was a highway, and she needed to keep her terms straight—and she sighted the area he had suggested for her training. All around this lot were open fields overgrown with grass and weeds. This lot contained no cars, and in its center was a huge square structure. As he’d said, it appeared abandoned.

As Carter slowed, Allison examined the area in more detail. While some of the pavement was starting to crack, all of it remained smooth. Other than the tall metal poles that must light the structure at night and the abandoned building itself, there was absolutely nothing with which they could collide.

He gripped what she had labeled the ignition rod and turned it counter-clockwise. The thrumming ceased. So that was how one powered down the vehicle. Simply from watching him complete this journey, she had already learned quite a bit.

Now certain doing so would not distract him from his driving, she leaned across the central lever and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Why not make this the start of our date?”

He offered her a wide smile. “I had that idea too. Should be at least an hour of light left as well, so you won’t be learning to drive in the dark.”

She once more slid her fingers along his thigh. “We are no longer in public.”

He rested his palm on hers. “You’re not wrong, but we are running out of daylight. I really did bring you out here to teach you how to drive.”

“So this was not a ploy to find an abandoned location where I could suck your cock?” She didn’t need any more from him, right now, but she wanted it.

He grinned and lifted her hand off his thigh. “No, you need to earn that.”

Her brow furrowed curiously. “I do?”

“Yup. If you’re a good student, I’ll give you a reward.”

If only she could hop into his lap right now! Sadly, this vehicle was far too small for that, and they would simply end up tangled awkwardly. Still, she loved that he was obviously growing more comfortable about teasing her with prospective sex. This was promising.

“Now, hop out.” He opened his own door. “Time to switch.”

She obediently left her side of the vehicle and walked around the front as he passed by the other way. She did not try to seduce him. She was now focused on her reward.

She felt fully confident she could please him with how rapidly she progressed.

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