Twenty-nine year old pilot, Gilbert Savage has had a crush on thirty-two-year-old ex-navy “ Airline Poster Pilot” Mario Freeman, since Mario started working at their company, AirEast, a New York City charter airline a year ago.  Mario invites Gilbert on an orientation flight on a new revamped party jet, and the flight leads to the experience of their lives.  A near miss on landing with a smaller plane piloted by Gil and Mario’s CEO’s son, starts a full blown investigation that could break both Gil and Mario’s careers.

The beginning of Check Ride floored me with the descriptions of the take off and the actual flying.  I felt like I was on board with Gil and Mario as they were in flight.  With the near fatal collision on the landing runway, and the explosion of long hidden desires, the romance between Gil and Mario was booth sweet, stimulating, and at times excitingly raunchy.  Gil discovers he enjoys being submissive to Mario, and they begin a wonderful journey of discovering each other.  I enjoyed the different faucets of both Gil and Mario’s personalities; Gil’s desires to be dominated, both men’s admitting to fear during crisis, tender moments, as well as the sexually dominating curl-the-tile moments between Gil and Mario.  Check Ride was a fascinating and a fun read.