Page 103 of Jump

I only nod, since my words are stuck in my throat.

He flashes a wicked smile and slides his tongue along my bottom lip. “Will you spend all of your birthdays with me? And every second Friday at five o’clock? Because my schedule is open, but only for you.”

Epilogue

VIVIAN

One year later

“You said a date!” I scream above the roar of twin engines. Above the thunder of wind in my ears.

I clutch to Matt’s arms like my life depends on it, and when he nudges me forward, I practically twist and monkey up his body for safety.

And he simply laughs.

“Matt! When you said ‘Hey, Ana, it’s Friday, and I have something I wanna show you at five,’ I thought you meant your dick! Not…” I thrust my hand into the abyss laid out behind me, “this!”

Hannah sits in front of Axel and giggles. “If you’re not gonna show us all your dick, Ruiz, then I suggest you keep it in your pants. When do we go?”

“Not yet.” Matt wraps his arm around my hips and turns me back so he becomes a big spoon for me.

A comfortable position, typically. Especially when we’re sharing a bed.

But this isn’t a bed, and the screaming I do today has nothing to do with the pleasure I get when he’s wrapped around me.

“If we go now,” he continues calmly, his hand rhythmically stroking my thigh. “We die.”

“But it would be quick,” Axel inserts smugly. “Not the dying bit,” he clarifies. “But the ‘oh shit, I messed up’ would become apparent almost immediately.”

“I don’t like this!” I twist in Matt’s arms and look up at him in desperation. “Friday nights are date night. At home, alone. They’re meant for dinner and a movie. A book. Maybe some sex.”

“Maybe?” Axel cackles. “Only maybe? Vivian! Why do you accept mediocrity?”

“It’s a hundred percent date day.” Matt leans closer and, for the first time in his life, presses a kiss to my neck at ten thousand feet. I shiver under his touch, terrified and knowing soon, we’ll hit fifteen thousand feet and have to move into the next portion of this tragedy. “My hundred percent today includes sharing my date day with Axel fuckin’ Feeney. Which is a pretty big deal for me, Ana, and strongly encouraged by my therapist. So this is what we’re doing. Get onboard.”

“I would have picked a book,” I plead. But I don’t miss the way his calling me Ana sends tingles sprinting along my spine. How his strong hands on my body result in a hum of pleasure just beneath my skin. “Wine. Quiet and privacy. I don’t wanna be on a date with Axel, either!”

My long hair whips around and slaps his face; karma for this insanity he’s calling a date and justifying by saying his therapist thinks it would be fun. Fun!

“Matt!”

“I don’t know why you feel the need to toss my name into your arguments,” Axel huffs. Pushing up to stand, which is a feat, considering Hannah is strapped to his chest, they hobble toward the open door together and stop just three feet from our legs. “I’m just enjoying my time. It’s almost sunset. The world is good. We’re healthy. Happy.”

“Just shut up and jump,” I growl impatiently. “Jesus.”

Axel holds the handle on the ceiling with one hand and uses the other to point toward us. “You used to be nicer. Before you started banging him, you were much more pleasant.”

“And I used to think your silliness was charming!” I counter. “You made Hannah happy, so I tolerated how exhausting you are. But now you’re annoying me. So go!” I cling to Matt’s arms and vacillate between the thrill of being in a freakin’ plane, and the terror that soon, we’ll be jumping out of it. “Oh god. Hannah! Don’t die.”

She cackles, entirely fearless, as she waits with him at the door. “I’ll catch you,” she promises.

“And Rocky’s waiting down there with everyone else. You know he won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Why did you invite so many people to watch us die?” I twist on the floor of a Casa 212 and peer up into Matt’s handsome eyes. Damn him for watching me like I hung the moon and stars. Damn him for loving me so deeply. “We could have done this without an audience.”

He glances over my head and grins when Hannah’s excitement turns to a squeal of fear. When Axel throws them out of the fricken plane and into the air, like humans are supposed to fly.

“I made them go first,” he murmurs. Grabbing my jaw and tilting my head back, he strokes the front of my neck with the pad of his thumb and brings his lips closer to mine. “Which means we get right now alone.”

---