Page 6 of Stranded with the Billionaire
Richard fell halfway out of his seat, pinning Sterling’s legs against the co-pilot chair. She grunted and tugged on the man, laying him flat on the floor. Kneeling beside him, Sterling pressed her cheek near his nose, trying to feel for any breathing sounds.
“Is he breathing?” Jake asked as he carefully sat down in the pilot chair.
Sterling tried not to roll her eyes. “Concentrate on driving the plane.”
“I think it’s called flying the plane, not driving,” Jake corrected her.
“Excuse me, grammar police,” Sterling put two fingers to Richard’s throat, trying to find a pulse. She moved her fingers around but found nothing.
Great, she was going to have to bluff her way through CPR. Sterling tried to remember what to do. “Okay, tilt head, pinch nose…”
“What are you doing?” Jake questioned as the plane took another swoop motion.
Sterling swallowed hard as the contents of her stomach didn’t appreciate the maneuver. Maybe she shouldn’t have had those two glasses of wine. “I’m trying CPR if you would just shut up and drive the plane straight.”
“I am flying straight,” Jake said defensively. “It’s turbulence or something.”
“It’s every time you turn around to see what I’m doing,” she shot back. “I bet you can’t look at scenery and drive straight on a roadway either.”
“I don’t have to. I have a driver,” Jake countered. “And who looks at scenery anyways?”
Jake Ramesly was exactly the guy who needed to look at scenery and remember that the world was not all about him and data sheets, Sterling thought. She took a deep breath, sealed her mouth over Richard’s and pushed air into his lungs.
Or she tried to. The experience left her own lungs and throat aching as no air moved anywhere. Sterling lifted her head and looked down at Richard with puzzlement. She’d tilted his head, pinched his nose, opened his mouth. Was there something she was missing?
“How’s he doing?” Jake enquired as another swoop happened, followed by a couple of smaller swoops.
“Just dandy,” Sterling said sarcastically. “He’s ready to get up and fly the plane.”
“No need to be rude,” he responded.
Sterling moved her knee for a better position and found something hard. Distracted, she gave it a glance, pulling a large round mint out from under her knee. Looking around, she could see other mints scattered on the floor.
“No!” Sterling breathed.
“What?” Jake asked with some alarm.
Sterling ignored him, got to her feet and raced for the first aid kit. Grabbing a flashlight which was stored with the kit, she turned it on and came back to Richard. Tilting his head, she looked down his throat as best as she could.
She didn’t see anything.
“Eww,” Sterling screwed up her face and stuck her finger down Richard’s mouth, trying to see if she could feel anything that shouldn’t be there.
“What?” Jake asked again. “What is it?”
“I think he choked on a mint,” Sterling kept feeling and was rewarded with a hard surface. Maybe it was his tonsils, maybe it was the mint. How was she supposed to know? Was she supposed to do the Heimlich thingie on an unconscious person? Although, if he didn’t have a pulse and wasn’t breathing, didn’t that make him a dead person?
Sterling gulped and tried to quell her nauseous stomach. She had her finger down the throat of a dead guy. She’d had her lips on a dead guy.
“Do something,” Jake ordered.
Sterling gave him a dirty look. Not that Jake could see it since he was flying the plane. Her eyes widened as she looked out the window. “Is that fog?”
“Clouds, I think?” Jake responded.
“I don’t think we should fly into that,” Sterling felt a fissure of fear dance its way down her back.
“How do I avoid it?” Jake gave her an incredulous look.
