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“Not falling, jumping,” he said.

She yipped out a laugh. “I assure you, if I go over that cliff, I will be falling because you pushed me.”

He had to fight his grin. She wouldn’t appreciate it, but she was so darn cute when she got feisty. He liked it. Picturing life with her was not hard to do.

“I’ll be holding onto you with my legs around your hips. And I will be controlling the parachute. If anyone were to fall, it would be me, and I assure you that you won’t get rid of me that easily.”

“This is insane,” she said. “You-you are insane.”

“No, I am skilled at keeping people alive and getting out of tough situations. I promise you, Bluebell, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“So, if I close my eyes?”

“You can do that until we get to the bottom. You have to be looking in order to land properly.”

“On the sand? Is the sand down there soft?”

They were on a volcanic island. There was nothing soft about this place, including the beaches. “No,” he told her honestly. “But you don’t have to worry about the rocks because we are landing in the water.”

“Great! So all I need to worry about is drowning.”

Her hands had fisted on her hips. Her current tone of voice would normally make his palm itch, but right now, he was glad to see anything that wasn’t fear.

“You’re not going to drown,” he explained. “I am going to let go of you at the last second so I’ll be able to help you as soon as you hit the water. You need to prepare, though, because it’s going to be cold. Very cold. And if you gasp, you’ll probably suck in water rather than air. I’ll have us in my boat as quickly as possible, and then we’ll head out to sea to rendezvous with my teammates on a much larger boat that will take us back to the United States.”

“So,ifI agree to jump off a cliff, andifI don’t drown or freeze to death in the water, andifwe can actually make it onto this larger boat… how long will it take to get back home?”

“If everything goes according to plan, we should be able to make it home to Wyoming in about three weeks.”

Something he couldn’t read crossed her face. “Is that where your ranch is? In Wyoming?”

Her question brought him up short. When he thought of home, he thought of Wyoming, but when did he start thinking of it as Tildi’s home, too? She had a family and a life somewherethat had nothing to do with him she probably wanted to get back to. And yet, somehow, for him, home now included her.

Who would watch over her when they got back to the States? It didn’t sound like her family was worth going back to. And on her own, she’d managed to get snatched by the Boss of the Midnight family, one of, if notthemost powerful clans of the Cosa Nostra in America.

It would have to be her choice, but now that he thought about it, he wanted her to call Wyoming home, too.

She was still looking up at him, waiting for his answer. “Wyoming is where I grew up. My family owns a ranch there, and I work the ranch with my brothers and run a private security company from there as needed. I’d love to show you when we get back. It’s beautiful there.”

A pretty peach blush flooded her cheeks, and she dropped her eyes. “I’ve never seen the Rocky Mountains before. I’ve heard they’re beautiful.”

They were a beauty beyond compare. At least, that’s what he always used to say. But that was before he met a pixie of a girl with pink hair and lavender-blue eyes. He wouldn’t be able to say that anymore.

“Well, Bluebell,” he said as he led her to the cliff’s edge. “I’ll take you on a personal tour. But first, we have to get to the boat. I’m counting to three, then you jump out like you’re doing a belly buster off the diving board.”

“I’ve never done a belly buster. I’ve never been on a diving board, either, for that matter. I don’t suppose this is a good time to mention I don’t know how to swim,” she said.

“Wait, what? You don’t know how to swim?”

She shook her head.

“Did you or did you not tell me not five minutes ago, little girl, that you weren’t afraid of water or boats? Were you lying to me? Because if you were, you are going to be very glad you arejumping into the ice cold Pacific. That’s what it will take to cool your backside off.”

She shook her head harder. “I didn’t lie. I mean, not exactly. I don’t get scared in the water or boats because I never get near them. How was I supposed to know you were going to make me jump into the ocean?”

His hand itched so bad it was twitching. She wasn’t going to sit without wincing for a month. “You don’t swim.”

“No,” she cried. “Thus, the talk of drowning. I told you I can’t do this!”