Page 64 of Hot SEAL, Under Pressure

She inhaled a shaky breath and repeated what he’d said.

“Good.” He nodded and thrust the two-inch thick rope toward her. “Now do it.”

Her eyes held millennia of accumulated human fear of falling. Of death. It was a lot to conquer in one morning’s training. He was going to give it his best anyway.

“The sooner you get down, the sooner it will be over.” When she didn’t look convinced, he added, “You only have to do this twice. Once now. Once for the competition. After that, you never have to do this again.”

“Not true. The full obstacle course is the final challenge.”

Shit. He mentally reviewed every obstacle she was going to freeze on and realized there were a lot. That was going to be fun.

He’d cross that bridge when he came to it. He had to get her through today first.

Meanwhile, that she’d told him one of the future challenges, something she’d refused to do before, was proof of how scared she was.

He schooled his expression to not reveal his surprise at her revelation and lifted one shoulder. “Who says we’ll make it to the finals? Pfft. I’m thinking Marathon Barbie is a ringer. Probably black ops. She’s gonna win it all anyway.”

Her lips almost twitched into a smile before fear pulled then into a thin hard line again.

“Okay.” She reached for the rope. It seemed even thicker in her smaller hands. Glancing at him she said, “Strong hand…”

“Strong hand, weak hand,” he confirmed.

She grasped the rope and stared at the edge of the platform for long enough he wasn’t sure she’d be able to bring herself to go over it.

Finally, she moved. Hanging on for dear life with her hands she hooked her foot, turned and dangled. Hanging there, not moving, but on the rope.

“Now go. The ground is waiting for you. And I’m right behind you. Just loosen your grip just a little.”

She slid down a few feet with a squeak.

“You got it. Keep going,” he shouted in encouragement, moving to the rope as much to watch her as to be in position to go down himself.

She yelled her way all the way down. The kind of scream you heard at theme parks from people on the roller coaster. Part terror, part thrill. Then she was down, shakily standing at the bottom with a death grip still on the rope between her hands and legs.

More teams had arrived. By the time Stefan made it down to her, her friends Dani and Gabby had Shelly in a group hug.

Zach and Nick stood nearby offering verbal praise.

“Good job up there,” Zach said when Stefan approached.

Stefan nodded. “Thanks. It was touch and go for a while.”

“So we saw.” Nick cocked a brow up suggestively and Stefan had a feeling he was talking about more than Shelly’s struggle with the rope.

“She going to be up to do this again for the competition?” Zach asked.

Stefan blew out a breath. “God, I hope so.”

ChapterTwenty-Five

She could do it. She’d done it once already, Shelly reminded herself.

Just one more time then that was it. She could stay down on the ground where it was safe…until the damn parachute challenge. Then the obstacle course challenge which would put her right back up here on the tower of terror.

Don’t think about that. One trauma at a time.

She didn’t have to be the fastest today. And chances were good she wouldn’t be the slowest either.

---