by Lori Wilde
The plane climbed higher.
His stomach roiled. Good thing he’d passed on lunch.
Aw, hell. What was he going to do? He couldn’t parachute from the plane. He was supposed to be fearless Wild Man Zack. The guy who would try anything once.
He couldn’t even handle this tandem jump with the burly ex-paratrooper jump master whimsically called Tiny, sitting calmly on the bench across from them. Beside Tiny sat the other jump master, his exact physical opposite, a fidgety string bean of a man called Moose. Whomever nicknamed these guys had a wry sense of humor.
And he wasn’t fearless Zack. He was terrified-of-heights Jack. He had been acrophobic since Zack pushed him out of the chinaberry tree in their backyard when they were nine years old and he’d broken his collarbone.
Nothing but nothing could possess Jack to free fall out into the wide blue yonder, hurtling one hundred and ten miles an hour to the ground below. He blanched at the mere notion.
Nothing that is, except CeeCee.
He had to do this. For her.
If he jumped, it that would prove to her that if he could let go of his fears and change, then so could she. Nothing less dramatic would work.
In that moment, he knew he was going to have to jump. No lucky weaseling out of it like at the tattoo hut. Not even divine intervention could stop him from his mission.
He tapped his foot restlessly against the floor. Okay, so he wasn’t tapping it restlessly. His leg muscles were jumping beyond his control. He couldn’t have stopped his knee from bobbing up and down like a jackhammer any more than he could’ve stop breathing.
“Getting excited?” CeeCee asked, eyebrows raised.
“Yep.” It was all the conversation he could manage.
CeeCee’s heart thudded. Inside she felt as trembly as Jack’s knee. She was surprised he’d let things go this far. Zack had assured her he would back out long before they got to the airplane. She was more than a little apprehensive about skydiving herself. But if he could keep playing his ridiculous game, then so could she.
Who would cry “uncle” first?
She had endured six hours of ground school simply to see how far he would take his masquerade before admitting he really wasn’t Zack. Apparently, he was taking it to the limit. When was he going to own up to the fact that he would rather be sealed in a locked cellar with a hundred rats than challenge his fear of heights? Why didn’t he just come clean? He was stubborn as a mule.
But she was stubborn, too.
Stubborn and mad and hurt. Did he realize exactly how much he’d wounded her? He’d been the only man in the world she had trusted completely, and he had shattered that trust by lying to her.
And for three weeks!
Her heart ached. Plus, he’d tricked her into making love to him. Oh, Jack, why?
Was it because he realized she would never have gone to bed with him if she had known he wasn’t Zack? Had she forced his hand? Was she actually in some ways responsible for his deception? And she remembered, he’d never actually told her he was Zack on the night of her pool party. She’d simply assumed it and he hadn’t corrected her.
Or was it more than that? Had she simply wanted to believe in Jack’s flimsy ruse?
Still, it was no excuse. He could have corrected her.
“Eleven thousand feet,” the pilot announced. “We’re over the drop zone.”
CeeCee rested a hand on his overactive knee. “This is it, Zack.” She placed extra emphasis on his name.
“CeeCee, I...”
Her stomach squeezed and she looked deeply into his dark eyes. Was he about to tell the truth? “Yes?”
“You first,” Tiny, the jump master who looked not unlike Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson flicked a finger at Jack. Tiny got to his feet, ducking his head in the cramped confines, and opened the side hatch. Moose went to stand beside him.
Cold air blasted into the cabin. The hair poking out from CeeCee’s helmet whipped around her neck. Even in that macho gear she looked impossibly feminine and beautiful.
He felt like a World War II soldier leaving his woman at the train station while heading out on a suicide mission.
“Are you ready?” Tiny asked.
According to their ground school instructor, Jack was supposed to respond with an enthusiastic “Yes!”
He leaned forward, stared out the door at the blue sky and clouds and the tiny scenery far, far below and swallowed hard. His knee bobbed with the rigor of a hound dog scratching an ear with a back leg. “No.”
“No?” Tiny blinked.
“I’ve got something to say to her first.” Jack stared at CeeCee and mentally begged her to understand.
Her eyes were on his face, her hands clenched in her lap. “What is it?” she asked.
He met her gaze and held it firm, sweat slicked his palms.
“I’m Jack,” he said simply.
“I know.” She clenched her jaw.
He saw the muscles work beneath her skin and he felt hopeless.
“You’ve been pulling the old switcheroo.”
“You knew?” Dread seized him and refused to let go.
Silently she nodded, her green eyes filled with so much hurt his gut lurched. To think he’d put that expression on her dear, sweet face. He was a royal bastard.
“But how?” he asked. “Since when?”
“Since this morning. Zack called your cell phone while you were still sleeping.”
Ah. So his brother was the impetus behind the impromptu skydiving expedition. He might have known. He felt lower than a snake’s belly. It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. The last thing he’d ever wanted was to disillusion her like the other men in her life.
“I can explain,” he began.
“I don’t want an explanation.”
“I did it for you.”
“Ha!”
“I did it for us.”
“There is no us,” she said flatly. “Not anymore. Friends don’t lie to each other.”
“You’ve got to listen to me, CeeCee.”
“Save your breath. I don’t want to hear it. You’re just like every other man I’ve ever known, Jack. I’m not going to feel the least bit badly if you get your heart bruised over this. I tried to warn you.”
“You’re wrong. I’m not like the others.”
She fingered her charm bracelet and frowned. “No. You’re not like all these guys. You’re worse. At least with them I knew where I stood. I never believed in them. Never put my trust in them.”
“I just wanted to prove to you that you could fall in love.”
“Oh, Jack, I already knew I could fall in love with you. Why do you think I told you we could never be more than friends? I knew it wouldn’t take much to push me over the edge, and now you’ve gone and ruined everything.”
“You’re in love with me?” He stared. Had he heard correctly?
She shook her head. “How can I love you? I don’t even know who you are anymore. I was afraid I might be falling in love with Zack except I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I was so confused. But either way, it doesn’t matter. Even if I am in love with you, I can’t marry you. There can be no happily ever after for me. Didn’t I make that clear enough? Love’s got nothing to do with it. I’m cursed, dammit, don’t you get it?”
“You’re just afraid,” Jack said quietly. “Afraid that maybe you aren’t cursed, and you’ll have to assume responsibility for your own happiness. Afraid you’ll no longer have something to blame for your romantic failures.”
“You’re nuts.”
“Am I? You’re as afraid of marriage as I am of heights. Admit it.”
“Okay. All right. Yes. I’m afraid.”
“What’s going on here?” Tiny, asked, clearly irritated with them. “Are you two goin’ to jump or make love or what?”
Moose just loomed tall and skinny like a silent lodgepole pine.
“Should I kill the engine?” the pilot asked over his shoulder. “Are they jumping?”
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br /> “No,” CeeCee said at the same time Jack said, “Yes.”
The pilot shut off the engine. The silence was almost deafening. Only the sound of their breathing filled the small plane. Jack scooted to the open portal.
“What are you doing?” she shrieked.
“I’m ready to face my fears, sweetheart. I’m trying to prove that there’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for you. Even jump from a perfectly good airplane if that’s what it takes.”
“Get back over here, Jack, you’re not jumping.”
“I love you, CeeCee. I want you. For now and always. Curse or no curse. Can’t you understand that?”
“Jack, no, please don’t do this. I never meant for you to skydive. It was just a ploy Zack and I cooked up to get you to confess. We never thought you’d go through with it.”
“It was an effective plan.” He reached out and took hold of the strut as he’d been taught.
“You’re still going?”
“I can’t prove anything to you from inside this plane.”
“But what about your knee?”
He shrugged. “I’m ready to accept the consequences of my love. Are you?”
“Are you ready?” Tiny boomed.
“Yes!” Jack shouted.
“Please don’t do it,” CeeCee cried and reached out to him.
But it was too late.
He’d already jumped.
16
Jack loved her.
Of that she had no doubt. Who could overlook such a grand gesture? He’d faced his greatest fear by leaping from a plane eleven thousand feet in the air just to prove to her how much he cared.
The least she could do was follow suit.
“Dammit, he didn’t wait for me,” Moose finally spoke. “He could get hurt.” Then Moose bailed headlong from the plane after Jack.
“Oh my gosh.” CeeCee’s hand went to her throat. “Is he going to be okay?”
“He’ll be fine. Moose is the best.” Tiny crooked a beckoning finger at her. “You’re next.”
CeeCee inched toward the door. She peeked out and saw Jack falling like a stone, Moose right behind.
Terror struck her heart. If anything happened to him, it was all her fault.
What had she done?
At that moment, Jack’s parachute opened. Thank God.
“Are you ready?” Tiny shouted to her. “To take a gamble on the most incredible experience of your life?”
Tiny was talking about skydiving, but that wasn’t why CeeCee answered, “Yes!”
At Tiny’s signal, she climbed out onto the strut, held on with all her might in the eighty-mile-per-hour wind. Her pulse was racing as fast as it had the night before when she and Jack had made love. Memories of the previous night danced in her head, mingled with the adrenaline spiking through her veins. She thought of Jack. Of how he’d shown her with tender kisses, gentle caresses, and soft hugs just how much she meant to him.
“Check in,” Tiny called, snapping her back to the present.
She performed the maneuvers she’d been taught, then she let go of the strut and started her free fall.
Tiny followed behind her. Once he was in the air beside her, he tapped on his altimeter to remind her to watch her altitude.
Ten thousand feet.
Good thing Tiny was there. She was so terrified she could barely get her body in the correct position, arching her back, putting her arms and legs out, spread-eagle.
Nine thousand feet.
Falling, falling, hurtling toward the ground at an incredible speed. The fear was intense. She forced herself to smile, to give Tiny a thumbs-up.
Eight thousand.
What if her chute didn’t open? Dear God, what if she was killed before she had a chance to tell Jack that she loved him? That she forgave him. Everything passed in a blinding rush.
Seven thousand feet.
Nothing was more important than Jack. Nothing.
Five thousand.
She pulled the cord on her chute. It billowed out in a puffy orange rectangle, slowing her descent.
Once the fear of her chute not opening passed, her adventuresome nature roared to life and she began to enjoy the experience.
Floating suspended. Tranquil. Other than the flapping of her chute in the wind, she heard only silence.
A deep, thoughtful silence.
She’d leaped into the arms of emptiness, trusting that the parachute would open, trusting she would be okay. Why did she have the courage to do something most people would never dream of doing but she didn’t have the courage to do something that almost everyone did—fall in love and get married? Why couldn’t she let herself jump into love with Jack? Why couldn’t she trust that together, they could break the curse?
Down, down, down she drifted, while her spirit soared at the possibilities. Maybe Jack had been right all along. Maybe the Jessup family whammy was nothing more than self-fulfilling prophecy.
Did she dare hope?
She hit the ground in a landing so softly a two-year-old could have made it. Grinning, she spun around, looking for Jack. Where was he?
She took a deep breath and spied Tiny. He trotted over and gave her a high five. “Great jump.”
“Thanks.” She felt her face flush with happiness, but she didn’t care about what she had accomplished. She just wanted to see Jack and make sure that he was all right. Stripping off her helmet, she then tucked it under her arm.
They were in a large open field, no one else around. She had to find him. Had to tell him what revelations had occurred to her up there in the air.
She had to tell him that she loved him. That she forgave him his deception. That she understood why he’d pretended to be his twin brother.
For he was right. She would never have allowed herself to get intimate with Jack. He’d done what he had to do to achieve his goal, and she could not fault him for that.
Jack was nothing if not determined.
But where was he?
She started to panic and turned to Tiny. “Where’s my friend?” she asked. My friend, my lover, my mate, my everything. “Did you see where he came down?”
“Isn’t that him right over there?” Tiny pointed and she saw a Drop Zone van parked on the side of the road, with Jack and Moose leaning nonchalantly against the hood.
She ran to Jack, laughing and crying and breathing hard. “Hi.”
“Hey, you,” he said, catching her as she hurled herself headlong into his arms.
Jack pulled her to his chest, gazing at her with a sultry expression that was pure bad boy. A look that told her he was remembering last night and hoping for many more such nights to come. Good thing he was holding her tight because her legs were so rubbery that she would have slid straight to the ground.
“What did you think of the dive?”
“It was wonderful, exhilarating, terrifying, fabulous, fantastic,” she enthused, then lowered her voice. “It changed my life.”
“Mine, too,” he whispered and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “I’m so glad we did it together.”
“You jumped out of an airplane for me.”
“Sweetheart, that isn’t the half of it. I would walk across hot coals for you; I’d swim with sharks. I would even get a tattoo, and that’s saying a lot.”
She didn’t care that the skydiving instructors were gawking at them. She didn’t care that her cheeks were windblown, or that her hair was a disheveled mess. She raised her chin and brushed her lips against his.
Jack kissed her back. Hard. Fierce. Hungry.
He grasped her slender shoulders in both hands, touching her, caressing her, making sure she was all right. His blood boiled liked candy syrup, thick and hot. He felt free, weightless, invincible. He’d faced his fear and survived. Survived the jump, survived telling CeeCee the truth, survived his own adventure. He’d done something even his twin brother had never done.
He had tumbled eleven thousand feet from the sky for CeeCee’s love.
&
nbsp; He held the moment close to his heart, creating a cherished memory.
Their audience applauded.
They didn’t care.
“Am I forgiven?” He pulled back, his eyes searching hers.
“Absolutely.” She kissed him again.
Someone, he thought it might have been the massive Tiny, snickered.
“I love you, CeeCee.”
She fingered his lips. “I love you, too, Jack. So much it scares me.”
“Don’t be scared. I don’t love lightly, but when I do, I’m in it for the long haul. Saying that, I’ve got to ask you something important.” He was afraid to ask the question, but if he’d learned nothing this afternoon, he’d learned to meet his fears head-on.
“Okay.”
“Are you sure it’s me you love, and not Zack?”
“I never even met Zack! How could I love him?”
“He’s funnier than I am, wilder, more adventuresome. He’s sexier, too.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” she murmured low in her throat. “You’re pretty darned sexy, Dr. Travis. And don’t forget romantic. Rose petals and champagne and carriage rides and chocolate-covered strawberries.”
“But I thought you didn’t like my romantic gestures.”
“I liked them! Too much. That was the problem. I was trying to keep up my guard, but you kept slipping in under my radar. You’re a tough one to thwart, Jack.”
“And you’re a tough cookie to romance, sweetheart.” He leaned his forehead against hers and peered deeply into her eyes. She saw her future in those dark depths, warm, welcoming, accepting. The intensity of his feelings blew her away. “I promise, CeeCee, I’m here for you. I’ll always be here. You don’t ever have to worry about me leaving. Face it. I’m a forever kind of guy.”
“Oh, Jack,” she whispered, tears of joy springing to her eyes.
In that moment, CeeCee Adams knew the truth. She was not cursed, jinxed, hexed, or doomed. She was charmed, enchanted, blessed and redeemed by the love of a wonderful man who’d risked everything to prove to her life was what you made it. There was no such thing as curses. No whammies, no spells, no magic except the power of love.
“Come on,” he said and took her hand. “Let’s go home.”
