Page 33 of Ripple Effect

Can I practice running away from the room screaming like a madwoman?

Cal stands with grace and pulls me from my chair. I groan. “I promise, Libs, it will be unlike any experience you’ve ever known. Trust me?” His dark eyes are shining down at me.

And another piece of Cal is handed to me. This isn’t payback; this is something he truly enjoys that he wants to share with me. “Trusting you isn’t the problem.”

“Then what is?” he asks as we join the others in the practice room.

“My fear of only living long enough to see the earth come up to my face is,” I grumble as I go over to the instructor, my partner for the tandem jump.

Cal leans against the wall while we move around in necessary training required for our certification for a while before he disappears. Good. Now I can’t shoot daggers in his direction and can actually focus. We’ve practiced how we’re going to be hooked up, how we’re going to land, and everything in between. The only part we haven’t practiced is my screaming, but I figure that’s something I don’t need to work on.

Finally, the moment I’m dreading arrives. “Who’s ready to fly?” Bruce, the instructor and the man who’s going to hurl me to the earth for my final moments living, calls out.

The entire room—save me—erupts in cheers.

“Then let’s go!” Bruce leads the way. Cal and I are somewhere in the middle. Cal’s got a pack on his shoulder he didn’t have before.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“My chute.” It takes me a second before I realize Cal’s already got his harness in place. He slips on a pair of dark shades, but even without being able to see his eyes, his entire demeanor is relaxed.

It’s just another reason to hate him right now.

“Libby!” Bruce calls out to me. “Come on over so I can get you in your harness.”

“You’re not getting a blow job for a month. Don’t imagine my mouth on your dick because it isn’t happening.” I grit my teeth in a semblance of a smile at Cal before turning on my heel to stalk away.

He barks out a laugh right as I take the first step. Reaching out, he snags the back of my shirt to halt me. “One thing, Libs?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll bet your mouth will be wrapped around my cock by the end of tonight. You have no idea, baby, but the rush…” Instead of finishing his sentence with words, Cal chooses then to kiss me, leaving me incapable of telling him the million and a half ways he’s wrong.

Instead, I’m left light-headed by the feel of Cal’s hands on my hips drawing me close against his body so I can feel his arousal. Knowing this may be the last time I feel these lips on mine, my arms twine around his neck as I give in unconditionally. His head slants and draws me deeper into the kiss, his tongue stroking against mine over and over. The passion is driving me dizzy, crazy, in a world that’s suddenly gone upside down. The only thing to hold on to is Cal, so I do.

Slowly, our lips part. His are fuller and glossy from where my tongue has gone over them, my teeth nipped them. “Go to Bruce, baby. It’s time to fly.”

This time, there’s no sass when I reply, “But I just did.” Still, I turn and head over to the instructor, who has a knowing smirk on his face.

I don’t care. I can officially die happy since the man I love just kissed me goodbye.

20

Elizabeth

Twelve Years Ago from Present Day

“Are you ready?” Bruce yells to another tandem team. They give him a hand slap/fist bump thing before easing to the open doorway. Each one. Is it some kind of come-back-alive ritual of the crazy helmet people?

“I’m surrounded by lunatics,” I whisper.

“What’s that?” Cal yells as he adjusts his goggles. He looks cocky and so damn hot I want to jump him in the back of the plane—not strap myself to Bruce and go out the front of it.

“Nothing,” I yell back.

“Are you ready?”

I look away, nauseated. “Sure. I’m just fine.”