But I did cut loose, I wanted to tell him. When I snuck away, out of the house, once I knew someone I trusted was looking after a sleeping Evie. When I entered a strange house or an anonymous hotel room. I was very, very irresponsible then.
“Is that what this is about?” I asked. “Letting the poor, little, single mum have a bit of fun?”
He smiled again and, dammit, part of me was relieved to see it.
“Don’t make it sound like pulling teeth, sweetheart. It’ll be wild, I promise. For just a couple of hours, the deadbeat daddy can look after the cub and you can have all the thrills.”
“So, what did you have planned?”I asked as I got out of the car, looking up at the sky and seeing a small aeroplane buzzing past.
“Well, I wanted something more exciting. Something to get the blood pumping. Something to make you feel alive. What could make you feel that more than jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane?”
“Skydiving. Are you for real?” I asked.
“Tandem skydiving,” he replied. “I got my certification back home and I made contact with the people here as soon as I met you.” He shook his head slowly, that devilish smile still there. “It was all I could think about after I left your shop.” His eyes slid upwards. “Your body strapped to mine, your heart beating so fast I can feel it thudding. Those little sounds of alarm you make when something scares you and excites you at the same time, letting me know what you’ll sound like when we finally fuck.”
My eyes narrowed as I considered the green-eyed alpha.
“I can’t for the life of me work out how it’s taken this long to find your mate. You seem like such a nice guy.”
“I’m not the nice one, love,” Damon said with a low growl. “But I am guaranteed to give you thrills you’ve never experienced. So what do you say? Gonna leave being a mum behind for a couple of hours?”
He held out his hand, his eyes full of challenge.
I just stared at those perfectly formed fingers. Long, sensitively shaped, with a palm that I knew would dwarf mine. Which it did when I slapped mine in his. Damon’s hand grasped it, tightening just in case I went to pull away, but I wouldn’t, not yet.
“Damon Morrison?”the owner of the place said when we walked in. “Good to finally put a face to the name. So this is your omega?”
Oh, this was awkward. But Damon rallied, putting his arm around my shoulders.
“Lily’s my mate and I’ve convinced her to make the leap with me.”
“Well, alright. Let’s get the forms out of the way and I’ll take you through to the classroom.”
Chapter 23
This was a bad, bad idea, my mind kept saying over and over.
Right now, I was standing in the big aircraft hangar, as the pilot went through the pre-flight routine. Damon, however, was fitting my harness to me. I’d been forced to slip into the jumpsuit they provided, where he had his own in a bag in the boot of the car, and then the rig was strapped to my body. I just stared at the combination of nylon webbing and metal clasps with a growing sense of dislocation. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be.
But, of course, it was.
Damon had been curiously patient and straightforward, the sexy bullshit put to one side as he talked me through the process, the two of us practising the way I’d need to arch my back and hold my arms when we jumped so I didn’t nose dive and hurtle that much faster towards the earth.
“I’ve got you, beta,” he told me in a low voice as he straightened up. “I’ve done this a million times before.”
“You’ve taken single mothers tandem skydiving on dates?” I asked him, sharply, and he just grinned.
“I’ve taken drunken women on hen’s nights and, similarly, men on their buck’s. I’ve taken tourists blowing through town and locals looking to shake the dirt of the farm off their boots. But I’ll say one thing.” He lifted his hand, reaching out for me, pausing for a second before cupping my jaw. “I’ve never wanted to jump as much as I want to with you. Having you strapped to my chest, your life in my hand.”
“Your child’s mother’s life in your hands,” I reminded him.
“Not now. Not today. When we’re in the plane, you’re just Lily, and I’m just Damon. Everyone and everything else can wait until we get to the ground. Can you do that for me, Lily?”
“I’m ready when you are,” the pilot said, walking over with a smile.
I nodded slowly, but to Damon, not the pilot.
“Then let’s go,” Damon said, taking my hand.