We climbed into the back of the plane, sitting astraddle these long block seats that had been fixed to the floor, him behind me. I had my helmet in my hands, gripping it tight as the engine was turned on. I heard the thrum rise in sound, then the pilot taxied onto the runway. He shot us a broad grin and then put his foot to the floor, or whatever the pilot equivalent was. I didn’t travel often, as it was hard with Evie, but I was usually pretty calm when I did so. This time my heartbeat hammered in my ears, getting faster and faster, in time with the plane.
The little bounce up that came with the ascent into the air didn’t worry me, nor being in shaky small plane, little creaks and groans making clear the strain the plane was undergoing. No, the scary part was still to come.
“This is the bit I like the best,” Damon said, having to speak directly into my ear to be heard over the engine. “The anticipation. You know it’s gonna be good, but how good? That’s yet to be determined. Right now, it could be just good or it could be the best it’s ever been.” He let out a sigh. “I reckon it’ll be the latter.”
We were about to find out.
“Coming up on 14000 feet.” The pilot’s voice crackled through the plane PA system.
“Helmet on now,” Damon said, and I felt him begin to move, clipping my harness to his. The experience was curiously intimate, our bodies locked together, me unable to move from my position between his legs now, his hands spidering over the two of us, checking to see all of the harnesses were fastened correctly. The last thing was my helmet, checking the chin strap and the fit before putting his hands on the sides of my goggles, making sure they were fitted tight. “OK, up we get.”
I hated the side door. It was this flimsy looking roller door thing, made from a semi-transparent plastic that gave me a hazy view of the world below. But Damon shoved it up then and I just stared. At the tiny metal step we were supposed to stand on, then fling ourselves out into the air.
“Last chance to pike out,” he said, having to shout over the roar of the wind and the engine. “Lily?”
I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. For comfort, for something tangible, I didn’t know, but he took it as a sign.
“Ready?” he asked.
No!I wanted to scream, the world seeming too small, too fuzzy, too far away, but I didn’t. I took a deep breath in, lifted my feet and then Damon threw us out.
The weightof the wind was a shock as we soared out. It made its presence known, roaring in our ears, shoving back at us as we fell, making it hard for me to snap my arms and legs into position, my head, my back arched to help me breathe. The goggles were supposed to help me see, but I wasn’t getting anything right now. Adrenalin was pumping too hard, my whole body shaking as I surrendered in ways I’d never even thought of doing. Damon quite literally held me in the palms of his hands, possessing the power of life and death, and he chose life. He glanced at the altimeter, watching the needle shift and then, whoosh!
I blinked as we were jerked up, the parachute deploying and instantly slowing our progress, the roar dying down.
“Swallow,” he said, his voice audible now. “It’ll help your ears clear.” I did that and felt them pop. When they did, a strange kind of tranquillity settled over me.
“It’s beautiful,” I gasped and he chuckled.
It was the same patchwork view we got of the world via an aeroplane window, but it was a different thing again hovering physically above it. I could feel the brisk breeze on my face and then my finger shot out as we passed over a flock of birds.
“It looks a lot more peaceful than it deserves,” Damon said, pointing to the sprawling suburbs of the city. “I wish it was like that when I was driving amongst it.”
“You’re an apex predator in a concrete jungle,” I retorted. “What’ve you got to worry about?”
He laughed at that, but it wasn’t an entirely happy sound.
“That just evens the odds for me in a fight, although we don’t get in much of them anymore. Well, not ones that require fists to sort out.” He pressed his body tighter and I felt his breath on the back of my neck. “Now we’ve got to lure our prey close, with our big eyes, big ears and great big fangs, then right when we’ve got her where we want her…”
His teeth nipped my skin, the small sting making me gasp, just before he manipulated the toggles, sending the parachute swinging in a lazy loop.
Damon was getting what he wanted from the experience: I was awake, alive in a way that was unavoidable. One couldn’t swing above the earth, held up by a thin canopy of polyester, and be focused on creating a shopping list for dinner. I was here, present, scanning the landscape below us for new finds as we sailed lazily down to the jump site marked with a large X on the ground.
And I was aware of him.
There was something fucking hot about a guy who could just do physical things. From slinging a wrench to hammering a nail or jumping a fence. Both Sophie and I agreed that the casual acts of competency that men complete had the impact of dampening panties in ways they were unaware of. She often commented that the fact Taylor grew up on a farm was his saving grace. He might have been a computer nerd by day, but outside the office? You could take the boy out of the country, but he could still haul bales of hay to put down as mulch on Carmen’s garden with an ease that had our mouths dropping open.
So Damon being able to throw me out of a plane, then bring me rushing back to earth? My legs were pulled up, as his hit the ground running, the jump site manager sprinting over to make sure we were all in one piece. Yeah, that did things to me.
“So how do you feel?” the guy from the skydiving place asked, his grin infectious. I beamed back, feeling light and floaty from all that adrenalin. But something else set in as I was stripped of my gear and jumpsuit. Damon seemed to sense the change of mood as he did all the work, batting my hands away when I tried to help. He hung the gear up and folded up the jumpsuit, returning it to where it was supposed to go, before paying the man for our time. My feet felt too light, bouncing across the gravel car park as we returned to the car.
“So, how do you feel?” Damon echoed, sitting in the driver’s seat, but angling his body towards mine. His voice was a lot deeper, huskier than the instructor’s had been, his eyes heavily lidded as he seemed to suck my scent in.
“You want me to pretend I’m not a mother for a few hours?” I asked, a challenging edge to my voice.
“I want you to remember that it’s only one part of you,” he said, leaning closer. “What would Lily do if she’d never hooked up with Ben and you’d met me at a party?”
I reached out then, though it felt strange to do so with the sun pouring in through the windshield. A thrill shot through me as soon as my fingers touched the warm denim that was stretched across his thigh. He grinned, lazy as a cat and not moving an inch as my hand slid up, up.