Page 30 of Kylo
I imagined Rue’s did the same.
She let out a shriek of terror as the world fell away. Her fingers crushed mine until the skin went white. Her legs kicked wildly.
“Open your eyes,” I yelled over the whoosh of the wind. “It’s better if you open your eyes.”
She squeezed them half shut for a moment, her palm sweaty in mine.
Then, little by little, her legs stopped kicking, her fingers loosened, and her eyes slid fully open.
“Oh,” she exhaled, eyes going round as John kept us moving through the sky. “Oh, wow.”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” I asked.
“It’s… beautiful,” she said, a smile threatening to break her face.
“Yeah,” I agreed, watching her. “Definitely beautiful.”
“How long does this go?” she asked.
“Ten minutes or so. Soak it up while you can.”
That was exactly what she did, looking around, leaning back, smiling the whole time.
I took my free hand, digging around in my side to pull my phone out of my pocket.
I was risking dropping it into the ocean, but, fuck, I had to capture the moment for her.
I held out my phone.
“Move in!” I called.
She leaned close enough for her face to press into mine, still smiling huge, and I snapped several pictures, then a short video.
The whole time, I might add, her hand was still holding mine.
I wanted to stay up there with her forever.
But it was the expected ten or so minutes before John turned and made the winch start to slowly draw us back down.
We dropped down onto our butts on the sun deck, Rue letting out a laugh that had John looking back and trying to suppress a smile.
I reached out, removing my straps, then reached over to do hers. It probably look chivalrous. In reality, I just wanted an excuse to touch her again.
Fucking John and his terrible timing.
Standing outside the cabanas, I saw the interest in her eyes; I felt the way she’d trembled at the barely-there touch on her shoulder strap.
I knew if I’d reached for her, she would have melted into me. I could have pulled her back into a cabana, and we could have gone a few rounds until we were both panting and boneless.
Begrudgingly, I had to admit that it was probably for the best that John showed up when he did. Letting things get physical before I knew what her connection was with our rivals would be a bad idea. I couldn’t imagine Huck would be forgiving of it if he found out and she did turn out to be in bed with them.
“Give me your number, and I can send them to you,” I said as John slowly turned the boat around to head back to Teddy’s place. “Then you can send it to whoever is in charge of making sure I don’t kidnap you,” I said, getting a surprised bark of a laugh out of her.
“Traeger. My grandmother seems to think it would be a great idea for me to disappear for a day or two.” Something about the way her cheeks went pink made me think her grandmother assumed the two of us were going to hook up.
“He seems like a good friend.”
“He’s amazing. And makes the best coffee known to man.”
