He pointed down at the cylinder. “Yep. This baby spins.”
“Holy shit,” she said with a laugh. “Yeah, let’s not do that yet. I’m barely keeping steady.”
“No worries. I flipped the switch to secure it in place. Try to take a few steps forward. Keep your abs tight and supporting you. Don’t lock your knees. The goal tonight is for you to reach me.”
Taryn’s confidence was building, and she took a small step. It wouldn’t require too many more to get to Lucas, but before she could take another, a loud crash of thunder rattled the building and the bright overhead lights blinked. Taryn made a startled sound, and she lost her focus, wobbling. She gripped the bar hard and managed not to slip off, but then the telltale whoosh of electricity going off filled her ears. All the lights clicked off. The cavernous space went pitch-black.
“Lucas!”
“Hell,” Lucas said from somewhere in front of her. “Hold on. Just give me a second. I’ll come and get you.”
Lightning flashed, illuminating Lucas and his tense face briefly. Taryn’s blood was rushing in her ears, and she tried to take a step backward toward the platform, but the trapeze was locked in place. “The bar is stuck.”
“I know. They automatically lock when the power’s turned off,” he said, sounding closer. “I’ll help you back. The emergency lights should come on.”
But nothing happened. The only light was the intermittent flash of lightning through the skylights. Taryn glanced back during one of the flashes and realized how far she’d gotten from the platform, but she could feel the vibration in the cylinder. Lucas was moving toward her.
Soon, a hand landed next to hers on her trapeze bar, and the heat of Lucas’s body brushed against her. The shift caused her to wobble, and he quickly wrapped his arm around her waist. “Easy. I’ve got you.”
His chest was pressing against hers, warm, solid, steady. She wet her lips, somehow feeling both calmed and completely freaked out by his presence. “Thanks.”
“Now I need you to listen to me,” he said, his breath tickling her hair. “There’s only one way to get off this thing safely right now, and you’re not going to like it.”
“You need to go ahead of me?” She was picturing some maneuver where he crossed over her and then guided her back or something.
“No,” he said, his arm firm around her. “We can’t risk walking back to the platform. You would have to let go of the bar, and it’s too dark. If either of us stumble and fall too close to the platform, we could hit the equipment and get hurt.”
She heard the words but didn’t quite process what he was getting at. “What do you mean?”
“I mean
the only safe way is down.”
“Down?” She wobbled with the force of the word. “Oh, hell no.”
“Listen.” His tone was gentle. “It’s a big pit of soft foam blocks meant to catch us. I’ve fallen in them many times. The only thing we need to make sure of is that we don’t fall on top of each other. We’re going to have to hold hands side by side and fall backward together.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“’Fraid not.”
She groaned. “I’m going to freaking kill Kincaid. Why couldn’t she drag me to Pilates or Zumba or something? No, no, that’d be too boring. We have to do goddamned acrobatics. In the air.”
She could almost see Lucas’s smile in the dark. “We’ve got this. Just don’t think too hard about it. I’m going to release you, and you need to take one hand off the bar to hold mine. Side by side, okay?”
This was definitely not the stress relief Taryn had been seeking, but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to deal. “Okay.”
“Good. Here goes.” Lucas made sure she was steady and then released her. Keeping one hand on the bar, he tapped her arm with his other. She got the best footing she could, turning sideways and then let her right hand release the bar. Lucas clasped her hand in his, the grip reassuring. “All right. On the count of three, let go of the trapeze and just fall backward with me. We’ll land side by side safely.”
The thunder rolled outside, matching the rumble in Taryn’s nervous stomach. She did not want to think about the trajectory of things if she lost her dinner up here. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“You got it. One. Two…” On three, she let her fingers slip from the bar, closed her eyes tight, and gripped Lucas’s hand so tightly that her bones hurt. And then there was nothing beneath her feet. She screamed and air rushed past her ears as she and Lucas fell backward into the darkness. Her back hit the foam, stealing her breath as the pit absorbed them. She sank into the softness. Everything was still pitch-black, and the feel of the foam around her was disorienting. She’d lost her grip on Lucas when they’d hit.
“Lucas!” She flailed her arms trying to find purchase, panic going through her at feeling buried, foam blocks hitting her face. Which way was up? “Lucas!”
Finally, two strong hands gripped her upper arms and pulled her up, but she was still writhing around like a caught rabbit, and her momentum knocked him backward. She landed on top of him in the sea of foam blocks.
She was about to scramble up, but his hands went to her face, stilling her. “You okay? Are you hurt?”