Hard Impact: An Alpha Billionaire Romance Novel

by Grey, Helen

  I gave him a dirty look. He laughed.

  Several minutes later, the aircraft straightened out and then gradually climbed in increments, then made a wide circle. I tried not to look down, not to look at the ground so far below. I caught a view of the Tetons in the distance, before the craft banked, and then a glimpse of incredibly blue sky the next. Every heartbeat shot adrenaline through my veins. I felt the pulse pounding in my neck. It was comforting to have Blake sitting beside me as we headed upward, but how would I feel about going down alone?

  And then, following a signal from the pilot, Blake stood. He reached for one of the pulley lines overhead and clipped a strap that extended from the bundle on his back to the line. He gestured for me to stand up. I did, though I didn’t want to. Why did I have to stand up? I didn’t let go of the back of the seat as I followed his instructions, standing close to him.

  The wind whipped at our coveralls, pressing them against my shins. I looked up at Blake in question as he pulled me closer, then turned me so that my back pressed up against his chest. I felt him maneuvering himself around me and turned to look over my shoulder up at him.

  “What’re you doing?” I shouted.

  “Attaching your harness to mine!”

  Oh.

  My.

  God.

  My entire body screamed “NO” as I shook my head so hard I nearly knocked myself out. No, he couldn’t possibly—

  “Hold still!” he shouted. “I have to make sure!”

  I was yanked backwards as he tugged at my harness, double-checking the clasp just under my breasts, then pulling on the back of the harness, propelling my ass against his groin.

  “No!” I shouted, clawing at the air, trying to find something to hang on to. “Blake, no!”

  “You made a deal!” he shouted back.

  Panic surged through me. Had I misunderstood? He hadn’t told me that I was going to jump with him! He just told me I was going to go up with him! I kept shaking my head. “No! No, Blake, I can’t!” My voice cracked. I felt my face begin to crumple. Don’t cry, I scolded myself. Or pee my pants. Or worse!

  And then his face was beside mine. His arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer than the harness. He encapsulated me. His lips brushed against my cheek as he spoke.

  “Don’t be afraid,” he cajoled. “Trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

  The feel of his lips brushing against my cheek elicited a frisson of sexual excitement that jolted down the center of my body. Despite my fear, despite my raw, terrified emotions, I knew that I trusted him. He would never do anything to hurt me.

  “If you can’t do this, tell me now. I’ll unbuckle you and you can sit down and return to the airfield with the pilot. But tell me now.”

  I was torn. I had never done anything so daring in my life. I was scared to death, but knew that I would never get the opportunity to do anything like this ever again. At the same time, I wanted to make him proud of me. I sensed what was happening. I was compelling him to lower his walls of defense while he was encouraging me to do the same, but in totally different ways and for totally different reasons.

  As my breath heaved in and out of my lungs, I realized that my life had to be about more than just work, just a means to an end. I wanted to experience life, to grasp it, to enjoy every moment of it. I had never really reached out and embraced everything that life had to offer. Comfortable in my own little bubble. Never pushing the envelope. Never daring to do anything different. Allowing my fears and my lack of self-confidence to hold me back. I glanced down, saw Blake’s hands wrapped around my waist, fingers interlaced. Strong, capable hands. I understood at the deepest level of my being what he was encouraging me to do.

  I sucked in a breath and embraced the moment. What the hell? “Okay,” I said, my voice shaking. I wanted to get this over with, quickly, before I changed my mind.

  “What?” he shouted to be heard over the wind.

  “Yes!” I shouted, fighting back the surge of nausea rising in my throat. “Let’s do it!”

  He threw back his head and laughed, gave me a squeeze, and then he duck-stepped with me toward the gaping opening. He stood behind me, pressed close against my body. He gestured with his arm toward the pilot. And then we stood in the doorway, the wind tugging at my coveralls. The wind rushed against my face. I stared down at the ground, so far below, praying that I wouldn’t faint. I felt dizzy with a combination of excitement and dread. The adrenaline surged through my veins. The sound of the wind whipped in my ears, but over it all I heard the pounding of my heart. It was racing so fast I was surprised it didn’t burst.

  “Ready?”

  I didn’t say anything, but offered a jerky nod. And then, that next instant, we were falling. I shrieked. Blake whooped, the sound of his thrill echoing close to my ear. Free fall! The wind blasted against my face as I fell toward the ground, still thousands of feet below. Above me, Blake shouted instructions.

  “Spread your legs and extend your arms!”

  I did. He did as well, grasping my hands in his, his legs pressed hard against mind as we soared downward together, our bodies forming an X shape. I screamed again, a sound filled with every ounce of fear burgeoning from every single cell in my body. I was honestly surprised that I didn’t pass out.

  I didn’t get that funny dropping feeling in my stomach that I had expected. Not like it did on a roller coaster ride. No, I felt almost like I was floating in midair, the wind almost seeming to hold us in the sky even though I knew we were falling. Blake pressed up against me, guiding our body position over the ground.

  And then my scream of terror changed into something else. I no longer screamed in fear, but with exhilaration. I began to laugh and cry at the same time. Near my ear, I heard Blake laughing, his head so close, his hands tightly clasping mine.

  Down we dropped and Earth became bigger as we rushed to it with increasing speed. Then, after only a few seconds, he wrapped one hand around my waist and pulled his chute. It wasn’t like you saw on television where it looked like the sky jumper shot upward. We just decelerated quickly. My breath left me in a whoosh as our speed rapidly slowed and our bodies slid into vertical positions. And then he let go of my hand and reached up, guiding the parachute lines as we coasted gradually downward.

  I kept my grip on his forearms, my fingers digging into his flesh as I felt the play of muscles there as he tweaked the lines. Together, we continued to float downward, not as fast as before, but still faster than I imagined. I pulled my gaze from the ground, not wanting to see it grow closer and closer, but shifted my gaze out into the distance. My breath had been taken away now, not just due to my lingering fear at our rapid decent, but by the vast beauty surrounding us. Now I knew how a bird felt, flying on the breeze. I could see what I imagined was hundreds of miles in every direction. The Tetons rose in the distance, jagged edges still snowcapped despite being mid-summer. The sky was a brilliant blue, only a few puffy clouds here and there. The landscape below a combination of farmland, ranchland, and forest.

  When Blake tugged hard on the lines, we slowed down still more. The ground grew ever closer.

  “Bend your legs!” he instructed.

  I did, and then the ground rose up to meet us. His feet touched ground first, then mine, and then we were toppling sideways and landing on our sides in the dirt. The moment I touched terra firma, I began to laugh, almost hysterically. Actually, I couldn’t tell whether I was crying or laughing, maybe a combination of both.

  Blake wrapped his arms around me and pulled me on top of him as he rolled onto his back, his laughter also ringing in my ears.

  “You did it, Misty! You did it!”

  The joy in his voice brought tears to my eyes. While I couldn’t say I would ever do that again, I could say that I had. The experience had been exhilarating. No, more than exhilarating. It had been—

  He gave me a hug. “I’m so proud of you,” he said. “You did great!”

  I heard the
rumble of a truck and turned to see a small pickup coming toward us. Moments later, Jacob emerged from the cab, a broad smile on his face. Soon, he stood next to us, reaching down a hand. Blake took it, and he and I picked ourselves up from the ground. Blake unhitched our harnesses, then spun me around and enveloped me in another hug. I wrapped my arms around his waist, my head nestled under his chin. His heart pounded with excitement. Mine did too. He gently set me away from him, gazing down into my face.

  “You okay?”

  I felt my face heat with emotion. I blinked back happy and relieved tears and nodded. “I’ve never done anything so scary or so exhilarating in my life!”

  He laughed and then pulled me in for another hug. Following congratulatory words by Jacob, we separated once again. Blake reached to unfasten my harness and then helped me out of it. Then he paused and grinned down at me.

  “Oh… maybe I should have waited. Do you want to go again?”

  “No!” I exclaimed, realizing he was teasing. “Once was enough for me.”

  Blake nodded, handed the harness to Jacob, and then began to pull on the lines of the overlarge parachute lying on the ground behind us. Together, he and Jacob grabbed up the yards of nylon and shoved the bundle into the back of the pickup. Blake gestured for me to climb into the cab and I did, squeezed between Jacob on one side, Blake on the other.

  As we headed back toward the hangar, bouncing over the ruts and dips in the field, I clenched my hands tightly together between my knees, not wanting to instinctively reach out to grab onto Blake’s thigh during the jostling ride back to the hanger. I couldn’t believe what I had just done.

  “You think my guests will enjoy the experience?” Blake finally asked.

  I glanced at him and smiled. “Yes, it was quite a thrill. I’ve never done anything quite so adventurous.”

  Blake nodded and then turned to Jacob. “I’ll go up again if you don’t have any passengers flying up.” He turned to me. “There’s a small stand of bleachers near the airfield. You can wait there for me, okay?”

  I nodded, amazed that he wanted to go up again. Once wasn’t enough for him? But then I imagined that tandem jumping was probably not as exhilarating as free falling on his own, at least not for Blake. As I thought about it, I realized that I looked forward to seeing him jump by himself.

  After we returned to the hangar, we headed inside. A few moments later, I heard the sound of the small aircraft returning. Jacob headed for a set of headphones attached to a communication board, told the pilot to keep the aircraft running, and that Blake was going up again. Blake quickly helped me out of my jumpsuit, and replaced his tandem harness with a single. I had no idea regarding the difference between the two because they looked similar, but in moments he was headed toward the table with the parachutes. Once again, Jacob helped him attach the gear to the harness.

  With my satchel safely slung over my shoulder and the jeans and sweatshirt nestled in the crook of my arm, I watched as the men walked together outside of the hangar and toward the aircraft. I followed a few steps behind, not able to catch what the two of them were saying. Once outside of the hanger, I glanced to the left and saw the small set of metal bleachers that Blake had mentioned. Several people sat on the bleachers, apparently watching jumpers as they went up and then came down.

  I headed toward it, glancing back once over my shoulder in time to see Blake step into the aircraft. As I took a seat on one end of the bleachers, I watched as the plane moved slowly down the airstrip and then accelerated.

  “I saw you come down. Did you have fun?”

  I glanced over my shoulder and realized the middle-aged woman sitting a few seats back was speaking to me. I nodded. “Yes, I did. It was my first time.”

  The woman smiled. “My name’s Maggie… Maggie Bass. I own the sky diving company with my brother, Jacob.” She gestured toward the small aircraft, just now lifting off the ground. “You with Blake Masters?”

  “Sort of,” I replied, offering a brief shrug. “I haven’t known him that long.”

  “He’s a good guy. Helped us open this company two years ago after he bought the Camp Robber. We’re promoting each other, which is a good idea here in Jackson Hole. You from around here?”

  I shook my head as I watched the small plane soar into the sky. “No.” I had to speak a little louder to be heard above another plane roaring past in the opposite direction. “I’m from San Francisco.”

  “Vacation?” the woman asked.

  I wasn’t comfortable with explaining the true nature of my relationship with Blake. “You could say that.” I smiled.

  “Like I said, Blake’s a good guy, despite all the gossip you might hear about him around here.”

  I turned from the airplane back to Maggie. “Gossip? Here in Jackson Hole?”

  She gave me a curious look. “You do know about his past, don’t you?”

  I felt a flash of annoyance at the woman. A surge of… what, protectiveness, regarding Blake bolted through me. “Some,” I hedged.

  “Ever since he and his mother moved here about six years ago, people have gossiped. Can’t blame them, really, considering his past.”

  I frowned. Blake’s mother lived here? In Jackson Hole?

  “They both kept to themselves for the longest time. His mother, Eileen, is a wonderful woman. Owns the Precious Greens nursery just outside of town. A bit of a recluse, but that’s understandable too. Blake, well, let’s just say that in his younger years, his reputation preceded him, not only because of… well, because of what happened to his dad, but because of his reputation as one of the hottest catches in town.”

  I did my best to school my expression of surprise, not wanting to give anything away. Blake had mentioned his reputation of being a player, even though he denied it, and I supposed that would probably follow him around forever. Once labeled a player, always a player, or so the gossip rags claimed. The more I found out about Blake, the more curious I was to try and unravel his past. Not for the magazine, but for myself.

  “He’s quite a catch, don’t you think?”

  I glanced at the woman and smiled. “What’s not to like?”

  “Indeed,” the woman agreed.

  I turned around in the bleachers, catching sight of the small plane as it began to circle back toward the airfield. So Eileen Masters lived in Jackson Hole. Imagine that. I knew that I would have to try to find the woman, call her, and perhaps even interview her. What better way to get to the truth?

  As the plane headed over the airfield, I saw Blake jump. For a second, my heart leapt into my throat. He shot down nearly vertically toward the ground, much faster than I imagined someone could fall. He looked like a bullet, not spread-eagled as we had come most of the way down together. When would he pull his chute? He shot downward. He was going to pull his chute, wasn’t he? My heart began to pound. Pull your chute! Pull your chute!

  Faster and faster, Blake aimed himself toward the ground. My God, how fast was he going? He looked like an arrow racing toward a target, his legs together, his arms pressed close to his side. My gaze riveted to his form, my eyes wide, I half-stood as he raced ever closer to Earth. And then, just when I began to despair that his chute would never open, it blossomed over him. I was surprised by the relief that surged through me. Damn him for scaring me! My knees weak, I sat back down onto the bleachers.

  “You better keep an eye on him,” Maggie chuckled, climbing down the bleachers and pausing in front of me for a moment before she headed toward the hangar. “That one’s got a streak of recklessness in him that’s going to catch up to him someday if he’s not careful.”

  Sobered by the thought, I turned my gaze from Maggie back to Blake, who was just now pulling on the chute strings, maneuvering his landing approach. He landed on his feet, taking a few running steps as his feet touched ground, unlike our earlier, less than graceful landing.

  I felt the beginning of a headache forming behind my eyes, more than likely due to the surges of adrenaline, the stress,
and now the relief that Blake was all right. As he began to gather his chute, once again waiting for Jacob to go out into the field to collect him, I immediately began to wonder how I would find his mother.

  I knew better than to tell Blake that I wanted to talk to her. Maybe it would just be best if I didn’t tell him just yet. Maybe, if Eileen Masters agreed to speak to me, I would tell him afterward.

  But not before.

  CHAPTER 11

  Misty

  By the time we left the airfield and headed toward the Camp Robber Resort, I was able to calm myself a little. Not much, but a little. I was still experiencing the exhilaration of the adventure, along with an intense sensation of self-pride and confidence. While the skydiving venture had pretty much — no, definitely — been thrust upon me, Blake had given me a chance to back out, to say no. I hadn’t. I’d done it!

  While I couldn’t say that I would willingly do it again, I could say that I had faced my fears and gone through with it. The fact that Blake had been attached to my harness had made me feel safer. Would I have jumped on my own? No. But with Blake, I’d felt as if nothing could harm me.

  He exuded confidence, knowledge, and experience. I could imagine that he’d done everything that he was offering his potential customers. Skydiving, rock climbing, kayaking down rapids, you name it; I had no doubt that Blake Masters was a man who would let nothing stop him. I was also beginning to realize that though he was an adrenaline junkie, he wasn’t careless. Watching him carefully inspect his helicopter, check his harnesses, and mine, before we went skydiving proved to me that he was not only aware of safety, but a proponent of safety. He may do stupid stuff, but he wasn’t reckless.

  While I couldn’t say that I understood the desire to scare the shit out of yourself, I did understand a little bit more than I had before I met him. I wasn’t a thrill seeker, I knew that. I had experienced more fear, anxiety, and exhilaration since I met Blake than I had in years. The constant warring of emotions between panic and excitement was a thin line. While I didn’t necessarily want to seek out those feelings, I knew they were helping me gain a greater understanding of who Blake was, if just a little bit.