Page 18 of Reluctantly Married

“Yeah. I’m sorry.”

She forced herself to pry her eyelids open and look at him. His ice-blue eyes held concern. He sounded sincere. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. He wasn’t exactly Mr. Truthful. She sighed. “Well, now what?”

He kissed her forehead, and warmth spread through her traitorous body. “We go down.”

Her muscles ached from clenching the rocks so tightly. “I don’t think I can let go.”

“Hey,” one of the instructors shouted. “You guys okay up there?”

“We’re fine.” Adam stared into her eyes, and lowered his voice. “You want to hang onto me?”

The tips of her toes were numb, and her muscles trembled. Could she let go and hang onto Adam? She wasn’t sure she could do it. “I don’t know.”

He came closer, his strong chest pressing against her shoulder. “There’s no rush. We have time.”

Sure. Stay up here with Dale filming her stuck on the stupid rock wall while ten-year-olds passed her up. Not a good plan. She gritted her teeth. “Okay. I’ll hang onto you.”

“Good. Whenever you’re ready. I’m not going anywhere.”

She took a couple of deep breaths, then quickly wrapped her arm around his neck. Tight.

“Okay,” he choked. “Now your other arm.”

With every ounce of courage she had, she let go and grabbed hold of him, knocking them both off the wall. She wrapped her legs around his middle and squealed as they swung from the safety lines.

“We’re ready to come down,” Adam called.

They were lowered slowly to the floor, Megan’s heart pounding hard in her chest and Adam rubbing her back, telling her softly they were almost there.

When they hit solid ground, relief flooded through her and she could breathe again. She jumped off him, heat creeping up her neck. “Sorry.”

He took in a gasp of air. “No problem.” Then he pointed up at the wall. “For someone who’s afraid of heights, you sure did a great job. Look how high you got.”

Her throat closed as she peered up to where she’d been.

He put his arm around her and leaned in close. “Proud of you,” he whispered.

Her heart fell into the pit of her stomach. Why was he being so nice? His kind words hurt more than ever, knowing his plan to humiliate her in order to further his career. She turned away, unable to bear it any longer. “Thanks.”

Adam beat himself over the head once again as he watched Megan turn away from him, pain evident in her eyes. Why had he brought her here? A fear of heights is very different than a little embarrassment on a karaoke stage. He closed his eyes and couldn’t get the image of Megan’s terrified face out of his head.

Of all the stupid things he could have done. He laid his hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go do something else.”

A tight smile formed on her lips. “What else did you have planned? Pottery class?”

“Nope. Why don’t you choose?”

She glanced at the door to the rest of the complex. “We are at the roller skating rink.”

He laughed. “That would be good revenge, then. I’ve never skated before, and I’ll probably fall more times than you can count.”

A devilish grin crossed her face. “I can count really high.”

The tension between them eased as they entered the darkened room. Colored lights bounced off the walls, and loud pop music vibrated the floor. A snack counter with some bar stools stood against one wall. They paid for their skate rentals and sat down to put them on.

“You’ve really never done this before?” Her eyebrow arched.

“Never.”

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