Page 74 of Wild Love

"That's unlikely, but my coworkers are flying with them. They know what to do if there's a problem."

"I hope you're right," Marigold mumbled.

Dax came to a big field and stopped. "This is about where they should land. We can watch from here."

We got out, shivering in the cool air.

"You think you'd like to go up one day?" Dax asked Marigold.

Marigold scoffed at him but kept her gaze on the sky. I didn't hear or see a plane yet. But I wasn't sure we would. How far did they drift from the aircraft? I'd known nothing about skydiving until this morning. I wish I had more time to prepare.

"There's the plane." Dax pointed to the sky, and I had to squint to see anything behind the bright sun.

"We should see them soon."

Marigold huffed out a breath. I wanted to grab her hand and squeeze it, but Dax had already placed a hand on her shoulder as he stood behind her.

"They'll be fine," Dax reassured her, and she didn't even acknowledge that he was touching her. What was going on?

"They better be," I warned him.

Dax smirked. "No safety issues here."

"There's a first time for everything," I mumbled, afraid to voice that too loud.

"There they are," Marigold yelled, and we took off running in the direction of the dark figures with the parachutes above them.

They wore flight equipment, so I couldn't tell one from the other. The first one landed with a run on the ground, the parachute falling around him. He flailed to get it off. Then a second one landed. I kept my arms crossed over my chest, worried if I let go, I'd unravel and drift away with the wind.

"Chance!" Marigold cried as he finally got the parachute off his face and removed his goggles.

"Marigold? What are you doing here?" Chance looked from her to where Dax stood behind her, both hands on her shoulders.

Marigold waved in my direction. "We were worried about you."

Chance grinned. "It was amazing. Best adrenaline rush I've ever experienced."

"Are you okay? No trouble with your parachute?" Marigold took a step forward, Dax's hands falling away.

Chance frowned at her obvious panic. "I wasn't worried. Dax runs a good operation here."

"I tried to tell her that," Dax said jovially, but Chance gave him a look.

I should have wondered about his reaction, but my gaze was on the other men. Xander was second, then Oliver, and their cousin Walker who was home for leave.

I'd blame Walker for this craziness. He probably did this in the military and thought it would be fun. But not everyone wasan adrenaline junky. I liked to be carefree, but that didn't equate to participating in dangerous activities.

"Eli." It came out more like a prayer. I ran to him and waited for him to extract himself from the harness and the chute.

"What are you doing here?"

His words weren't even out of his mouth before I was flying through the air and landing against him. I must have caught him off guard because he held me to him while we fell. He landed with a thud on his back.

But when he met my gaze, a smile spread over his face. "I didn't know you would be the most dangerous part of my morning."

I smacked his shoulder. "What were you thinking?"

"I thought you were okay with me skydiving. You didn't say anything."

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