by Kim Linwood
He kicks off his sandals and changes into sneakers, tucking the old shoes into the basket with my bikini. A small strangled noise leaves his throat and I look over. My itty bitty thong is hanging from his hand.
“I’m going to kill Danny,” Hunter mutters before I have the chance to react. “Kill him.”
“Oh? You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t have done the same thing.”
Hunter looks at me, and his expression goes soft and hot. “That’s different.”
“How?”
“You know exactly how,” he whispers low so the camera can’t pick it up, his breath warm against my neck.
“Hunter?” The pilot interrupts. “I’m ready when you are.”
My throat is dry, but the area between my thighs is anything but.
He holds me against him, hand flat against my stomach. I’m so distracted that I barely notice him strapping us together, each buckle and cinch locking us tight.
With one big yank, Hunter opens the door, leaving me looking out of a gaping hole into the sky.
Reality crashes down. We’re going to do this. We’re actually going to do this.
“You’re good. Everything’s in place. All you have to do now is enjoy the ride.”
Easy for him to say.
Next to us, the cameraman goes over his gear one last time as well. He’s obviously done this before. He’s got a GoPro on his helmet, and a camera he can aim secured to his arm. He gives a nod and stands up, ready to go.
Attached to Hunter’s front, my feet barely touch the ground. The die is cast. Even if I wanted to I couldn’t get loose now.
There’s a click as he releases my safety strap. “Stop wiggling and lift your knees.”
I curl into a little ball, hanging on the front of him as he walks closer and closer to the edge—the separation between sort of safe and dying at almost two hundred feet per second. See, I remembered something. Go me!
Hunter raises his arms and leans forward. I whimper, too scared to scream. He doesn’t jump right away, just leans and looks down, leaving me to basically hang from his chest with nothing but the ground far below me.
“Alright. Here we go.”
I’m going to die.
Liz
The cameraman drops out of the plane and I draw my breath in shock. Hunter waits the span of a heartbeat, then follows. A terrified scream tears itself from my lungs.
To make it worse, he flips on his way out, showing off to the camera and making my world spin in a nausea-inducing whirl. It’s only when he straightens and stabilizes that my scream tapers off.
The drogue chute deploys—a tiny piece of cloth that’s supposed to keep us from dropping too quickly—and I feel the slight tug as it starts to do its job. My eyes are squeezed shut and I’m dangling in the air, secured to Hunter, but plummeting towards the ground.
I open my eyes.
Oh.
My.
God.
The plane was my only frame of reference, and now it’s off in the distance. The ground is so far away that it hardly even feels like falling. We’re flying.
Floating.
It’s terrifying, and amazing. Hunter yells something into my ear, but all I can hear is the rush of the wind. He bumps my shoulder, and I realize I’m still practically curled into a ball. I spread my arms and the feeling of floating is complete.
Everything is so clear. My skin tingles, but I don’t feel cold.
How long was the fall supposed to last? A minute or so, he said. I’ve lost count of seconds, but it feels like forever. Hunter taps my shoulder in warning.
Now.
Everything goes tight and I lose my breath. For a couple of seconds after Hunter yanks the cord, we soar up before we settle. The roar of the wind goes silent and then we’re floating gently with the expanse of the chute unfurled above us.
There’re a couple of clicks as he releases the latches at my hips, and the harness loosens enough that I can breathe again. “There. That should be better. How are you feeling?”
“Like I want to kick your ass, and like I’m in a whole different world.” Never in a million years would I have guessed I’d enjoy this, but it’s incredible.
“It is a whole different world. This is my favorite part. Totally disconnected from the earth. Up here I can just be.”
“Yeah.” For as long as we’re falling, life feels like it’s been put on hold. “Thank you for sharing this with me.”
“I’m glad you won,” he murmurs into my ear.
So am I.
Below us, the island grows larger and larger. I’m like a leaf caught in a breeze, like even a slight adjustment could send us careening off into the ocean. The closer we get to the trees, the more nervous I get, but Hunter is a steadying influence behind me, strong and sure.
“How are you holding up? Am I going to have to restart your heart when we get down?”
“I’m okay.” Surprisingly, it’s true. I should be panicking, but I’m not. There are no engines that might explode, or wings to fall off. It’s just us and a parachute. I’m not afraid of heights or falling, just of being out of control.
What a joke.
I’m not in control. I’m living a lie, inside a lie.
My heart’s pounding, but it’s time for the real leap of faith. The guilt has been tearing at me for too long.
“Hunter?”
“Mhmm?” His mouth is right against my neck. I’ve been so distracted that I didn’t even notice, but now that I have, sparks trail across my skin.
“I... I need to tell you something.” Just spit it out! Thank God I can’t see his face or I’d never dare.
“Go on, then. I’m a captive audience.” He laughs softly. His lips brush the sensitive skin behind my ear.
I can’t do this. I don’t even know what to say.
“Sarah?” Hunter prods.
Right. That’s a good place to start. “My name isn’t Sarah. I’m not who you think I am.”
Behind me, Hunter tenses. “Then who are you?”
This is it, the moment he starts to hate me, and I can’t make myself say it. The words just won’t come out. We float down, the cameraman drifting below us, and I’m praying the ground will open up and swallow me when we land.
“Just say it.”
“Liz, Liz Bissette.” My chest tightens more and more for every second he doesn’t speak. Hanging in the air, it feels like a silent eternity. “Say something. Please, just say something.”
“You’re exactly who I thought you were.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, and a tear leaks out. “You knew.” It was always a possibility, but after the first couple days, I stopped letting myself worry about it. I didn’t want to know. “For how long?”
“From always, Liz.” He sounds frustrated, which is better than angry. Right? “Did you seriously think a new hair color and some cheap contacts would fool me?”
“It’s been a long time!” Wait. “Hold on, you’ve known the whole time?”
“Of course.”
“So when we... the whole time?” Us bickering. Us kissing. Us naked.
“I didn’t occasionally forget, so yeah, the whole time.”
“How dare you? You’ve been stringing me along!” My face flushes hot the moment I say it. Pot, meet kettle.
We’re low enough that the cameraman has stopped filming and started focusing on his own landing. There are cameras waiting on the ground for us, but for now we’re as alone as we’re going to get.
Hunter laughs. “You’re going to turn this on me? Look in the fucking mirror first, princess.”
“I had my reasons!”
“Really? Reasons that justify lying and cheating? Those sorts of reasons?” Hunter makes a sudden adjustment to the steering handles and we veer hard to the side. “You could’ve come to me at any point. I waited. You know that? I kept thinking, ‘She’s got something up her sleeve, but she’ll tell me’. Except you didn’t.”
“What are you doing?” I as
k in panic. “We’re going the wrong way!”
“No, we’re going the right way. You waited until now to tell me, but now the cat’s out of the bag. We’re finishing this, and no matter how it ends, I don’t think you’re going to want an audience.” His voice is hard as steel.
No matter how it ends?
The cameraman is a rapidly shrinking dot in the distance as we drift farther and farther off course. What was I thinking? I wasn’t, that’s what. I was seduced by the feeling of being outside our regular lives. What was going to happen after we landed hadn’t been on my mind.
“Do you hate me?” I cringe at the desperation in my voice.
“Hate you?” Hunter leans so his mouth is right next to my ear. “I should ask you the same.”
“Of course not. I’d never have”—gotten naked and almost had sex with you—“done all that stuff if I hated you.”
“But you think I would. Is that it? You think I’m some idiot jock who wouldn’t recognize one of his best friends and would fuck around with anyone with tits. I get it. Do you think I did the same with Amanda? Or any of the other women?”
It sounds so bad when he says it. Am I really that self-absorbed?
I don’t have an answer.
Up until now I’ve been able to compartmentalize things. This Hunter is the same Hunter as the one I loved for years, but knowing it wasn’t going to last, I didn’t have to think about him as a real person.
One I might feel guilty about fooling.
“Here, hold these a second.” He pulls the toggles down and puts them in my hands.
“What? No! I don’t know what I’m doing!”
“Just hold them steady. It’s not brain surgery, and I’m right here.” He waits until my fingers wrap around the handles and then lets go.
I clutch them like our lives depend on it. Because they do. “This is crazy. Take them back before I crash us!”
“Relax, I know what I’m doing.” He shifts, and his hands run down my body. One slides to my stomach, holding me tight against his body, the other strokes my side. “Do you feel this?”
It’s not just his hands. Hunter thrusts his hips against me, and I can feel the outline of his cock pressing against my ass. My world spins faster than it did when he hopped out of the plane.
He slides his hand up over the outside of my shirt, the parachute straps getting in the way, but not enough that I can’t feel him as he strokes his thumb over the bottom of my breast. “We’ve both changed. Some of the changes I like.” His palm passes over my hardened nipple. “Some I don’t.” He wraps a hand in my hair, tugging. “Like the lying.”
“It wasn’t like that.” Arousal rushes through me. I’m terrified of what’s going to happen once we land, but at the same time, I want him. Badly.
“We’ll see,” he says dismissively, dark promise dripping from his words. “Do you know how hard it’s been to know you were sleeping just a few rooms down and not be able to do anything about it? Knowing you were right there, but that I couldn’t have you? Not the real you.” One of his hands teases my breast, while the other moves between my legs, cupping me. His cock is a hot brand against my back. “You made a mistake.”
I moan as he pinches my nipple between his fingers.
“I bet you thought you were safe up here. You’re not.”
His hands vanish, and he takes back control of the handles. I arch against him, trying to reclaim his touch, but it’s too late. We’re just above the tops of the trees.
There’s a small clearing ahead, surrounded by jungle. A couple large rocks stick out of the ground, and less than a hundred yards away is Fool’s Drop. I barely have time to think about what could happen if we overshoot, before we touch down.
I know exactly where we are.
The huge trunk of Giant Bob is right in front of me.
As ageless as it was the day of our first kiss.
Hunter
We touch down, soft and smooth. A textbook landing, and then the parachute collapses on the ground behind us. I hate having to lose the feeling of Liz’s curvy body pressed against me, but it won’t be long before she’s back where I want her. I’m making sure of it.
We shuck our harnesses, and I tear off my shirt. Liz backs away. Her eyes devour me, but she’s nervous. Good.
“They’ll come looking for us.” Her voice is breathy and unsure.
My lips curl up into a wolfish smile. “Not right away. Potential tragedy makes for good TV.”
“You planned this?”
I don’t know if she even notices that I’m stalking her. She just keeps moving away until her back hits the tree. Her fingers go to the trunk, and her lips part as I kick off my shoes.
“I might have suggested it.”
“But... what if I didn’t win?”
Fuck, she’s beautiful. Liz’s face is flushed, and when I slip my hand under her shirt and stroke her bare skin, she can’t hide the way her eyes smolder and she presses into my touch. Her chest rises and falls, breasts straining against her shirt.
“How could you lose?” I’d picked that challenge myself. Unless one of the other women turned out to be a serious diver, it seemed a sure thing.
Liz turns her head away. “Things happen. The show isn’t always fair.”
My lips brush over her neck, and she moves a hand to my stomach. Her touch is hesitant at first, then she strokes over my abs, her fingers dipping just under the waistband of my shorts.
“I don’t care about the fucking show.” I grab the bottom of her shirt and pull it up over her head. “Do you want this?”
Her eyes are wide, stunned. “What?”
“It’s not a trick question,” I bite out. “If I could, I’d give you a bed. Candles and flowers. Whatever the fuck you wanted. But maybe this is better. This is where it started.”
“I don’t want candles and flowers,” she whispers.
“Then what do you want?”
“You.”
For now, that’s good enough. Burning with need, I tear my shorts and underwear down in one motion, pleased at her gasp when my cock bounces free. I’m so hard it fucking hurts, and I only get harder as she pulls down her shorts and unhooks the scrap of lace passing as her bra. I’m still going to kick Danny’s ass, but I can’t fault his taste.
Growing up with everything—materially speaking at least—I’ve never lacked for women. It’s not ego, it’s just reality. Surround someone with enough privilege and there will always be people looking to let some of it rub off on them.
I’m no saint. I’ve played in those waters.
This is better. This is her.
Slipping a condom out of the pocket of my shorts, I tear it open.
Liz grabs my wrist. “You came prepared.” Her voice is low, throaty and sexy as fuck.
“After our swim? Wasn’t taking chances.” I laugh, but she cuts it off by wrapping her hand around my cock, and I hiss in pleasure. “Turn around,” I growl.
Chewing her lip with a nervousness that belies the heat in her eyes, she turns and braces against the huge trunk of the tree, her rounded ass pointed right at me. With a tug, I shove down her bikini bottoms, my cock throbbing at the way they cling to her moist folds.
Fuck, I want her so bad.
I roll on the condom and trace my fingers through her wetness. She sighs and presses into my hand, trying to get what she needs. Fuck foreplay, there’s time for that later. Right now it’s not what either of us wants.
She looks over her shoulder, face soft and eyes slightly unfocused with lust. “Do it.”
I don’t need to hear begging. I’m way beyond ready. Nudging my throbbing cock against her softness, I push forward. My hands wrap around her waist, and I drive deep.
Her satisfied groan is music to my ears. She’s wrapped around me like a glove, her heartbeat and the encouraging squeeze of her body driving me crazy with need. With one hand, I trace her spine, admiring the line of her back, her graceful shoulders, her long, straightened hair as it
sways with our rocking.
Long legs spread, innocent little white sneakers still on her feet, and taking my cock like she needs it to live.
She’s so fucking sexy.
The way she pushes back at me, the way her soft body squirms beneath me, the sound of her throaty breaths as I hammer into her and the desperate twist of her hips as she seeks her own pleasure, they all combine to strip away my well-practiced control.
With a shuddering groan, I push deep as the muscles in my ass tighten. Everything I am floods into her, filling the condom until it seems like it should burst.
She moans pitifully as I reluctantly pull out. “No...”
“Trust me. I’m going to take care of you.” Taking her in my arms, I flip her around and press her against the tree. I lean in and she lifts her head to meet me. As our lips mash together, I run my hands over her body, exploring her, getting to know every inch of her smooth skin. Her hands find me, roaming over my arms and chest, leaving burning hot trails everywhere they touch.
The edge taken off, I take time to enjoy. For long moments, we lose ourselves in our kiss while we explore each other. Cupping one of her breasts in my hand, I dip down to suck on her hard nipple, while her fingers wrap around my already recovering cock. As she strokes me, I release her nipple with a wet pop and trail kisses up her chest, across her shoulder, up her neck and nip her earlobe.
“I’ve wanted to do this since I saw you on the plane.”
She laughs, interrupted briefly by what sounds almost like a hiccup when I slip a finger between her legs. “I thought you were a creepy stalker.”
I push against her. “I’m hurt. I was a sexy stalker.”
She groans. “Hey! You had help from a makeup team for your disguise.”
“Doesn’t matter. Now you’re going to pay.”
Her eyes are wide, watching me with a mix of lust and humor. “Pay?”
“Absolutely.” I drop to my knees and grip the backs of her thighs to hold her open. “I’m going to make you come so hard it hurts.”
