The instructor pointed out first Steve and then Tyler, both below her, both drifting down as she was. She watched as Tyler circled, slowed and landed.
Steve followed, and before she knew it, it was her turn. She was told to lift her legs and bend her knees in preparation, and then they landed too.
Solid ground had never felt so good, or so foreign, and as her feet touched it, she whooped.
Oh my God! What a rush. What an unbelievable rush.
As soon as she was free, she raced over to find the men. Tyler was gathering his chute together, but Steve was standing exactly where he’d landed, grinning from ear to ear. She realized she had an identical smile on her face. She ran to him, and he caught her in a huge hug, spinning her around.
“God, how incredible was that?” she enthused.
“Un-bloody-believable!” He spun her around again.
Her stomach lurched. “Urgh. Put me down quick. Enough flying for one day.”
Arm in arm they walked over to Tyler, laughing and talking, comparing notes, and making sure neither one of them had been harmed in any way.
Tyler’s face was alive, his eyes shining. “Did I tell you? The biggest rush ever?” He threw his chute over his arm, placed his other arm around Katie’s free shoulder, and together the three of them headed up to remove their flight suits and rehash the most exciting five minutes of Katie’s whole life.
All the while, Katie couldn’t stop wondering what death-defying notion had compelled Tyler to take up skydiving in the first place.
“You’re crazy, Ty, you know that?” Katie told him later. Certifiable.
It was early evening, a little past seven, and Steve had gone home to get clean clothes. he’d be back in less than an hour to spend the night. For a brief time, Tyler found himself alone with Katie. They sat at her kitchen table talking. The tension was still thick between them, but for now he didn’t push it. Katie was exhausted. The jump had taken it out of her.
Katie was coming down from an adrenaline high. She didn’t need any more excitement or agitation.
Besides, Steve would be back soon. Now was hardly the time to start a conversation that would impact the rest of all of their lives.
She drank a cup of tea, the only thing she’d been able to stomach since the jump. Her body had reacted to the g-force, leaving her a little off-color. By tomorrow she should be fine, both mentally and physically. Tomorrow, when time was not limited, he’d push her with every ounce of strength he had.
He eyed her thoughtfully. “You think I’m crazy because I gave you the opportunity to do something you loved? Something you never would have done otherwise?”
She frowned. “No,” she told him. “I think you’re crazy because you reacting like a man possessed. When did you become such a daredevil?”
He snorted. “Daredevil?” There’s a word he’d never considered.
Coward, yes.
Daredevil, no.
“C’mon, Ty. First the motorbike, now the skydiving. When did all this happen? When did you start taking all these risks?”
When he’d first realized risks were only perilous if you had something to lose. Once he’d left Sydney, and left Katie and Steve behind, apart from his sister he no longer had much he cared about.
“Katie, I’ve told you. The bike isn’t dangerous. It’s a means of transport and a way to catch a little fresh air at the same time.”
She harrumphed. “Yeah, and I guess skydiving isn’t hazardous either? No possibility that you’ll come smashing down to earth when your parachute accidentally doesn’t open?”
He laughed, enjoying how she wasn’t scared to call him on his actions.
Challenge him. She never had been. For just a minute it felt like old times.
“There is always a small chance.” It’s what makes the act so damn exhilarating. Hey, if there wasn’t a possibility of dying, it wouldn’t be such a thrill. With the fear factor taken out of the equation, it’s just a jump from high up. No big deal. For him, for a long time, that’s all it had been. A jump from high up.
“So you admit it might be somewhat hazardous to your health?”
“I’d be a fool to deny it. Health, however, was all a matter of perspective as Katie would discover tomorrow.”
“Thus back to my original point. You’re nuts. Volunteering to do this for fun.”
“You did it for the thrill.” Like he’d known she would.
She opened her mouth to argue but obviously couldn’t. She had done it for the sheer buzz of the fall, and she knew it. In deep thought, she rubbed her tongue against her teeth.
His pulse quickened, and his body tightened. So much for the old familiarity of their friendship. “Close your mouth,” Katie, he warned softly. “I can’t look at your tongue without imagining the places I want you to run it.”
She snapped her jaw shut, which would have been fine if she hadn’t then dropped her gaze first to his mouth and then to his dick two of the places he’d imagined and nervously licked her lips in the process.
Tyler groaned. “Damn it, woman.” He shook his head to clear it. “I let you go last night. Do that again, and I swear you won’t get off so easy.”
See, it’s comments like that, that convince me I’ right. Her temper flared. “Your life has turned into a series of dicey events. What about me, Tyler? Am I just another risk to you? A means of revving up your oh-so boring life?”
Shit, he never thought she’d go there, never thought she’d mention the fact he was risking everything for her. He was, but not because she was just another kick out of life. He was willing to chance everything for her because he did not want to live another day without her.
“Easy, Katie. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh I don’t?” Her eyes flashed. “You don’t see a pattern emerging?
A pattern that might send your life straight to hell? If you don’t get yourself killed on your bike, or break your neck jumping out of planes, you can fuck up your friendship with Steve. How do you think he’ll respond when he finds out you almost had sex with his fiancé?”
“That’s a good question.” He turned the tables straight back on her.
“How do you think he’ll respond?” Fuck. He shouldn’t have said that. He should have shut the fuck up. Too much for one day, Bonnard!
She slumped back in her seat. The anger drained from her shoulders, but a million other emotions played across her face. She didn’t touch on any of them. In the end she ignored the question altogether, and he didn’t bring it up again.
“Tell me, Ty, what made you jump out of an airplane the first time?
Why’d you choose to endanger your life for a little joyride? And don’t feed me that crap about it not being so risky.”
He studied her for a long while without answering. They needed to talk, and she’d given him the perfect opening. Maybe he should just come out with it.
What was he waiting for? Would there ever be a time Katie would be more ready to hear what he had to say? Christ, where would he start? At the beginning?
At the end? With an apology? With his first jump?
He just sighed heavily. Steve would be back soon. This conversation would have to wait.
Her gaze searched his face, softened. “Ty?” she prompted, her voice gentle.
“What made you do it?”
He shook his head.
Her eyes were alert, compassionate. “You’re hiding something from me, Tyler. What is it?”
“It’s a long story, Katie.” He drummed his fingers on the table.
“I have time. For you, I always have time. As much as you need.”
She covered his hand with hers, stilling his restless fingers. “Whatever else may have happened between us, you are still my best friend. Talk to me, please. Tell me what you’re hiding.”
He shifted his gaze to stare at their hands. She turned his until their palms touched. The innocent action was unexpectedly intimate, and Tyler couldn’t stop the warmth that flooded through his arm and into his chest. Yes, whatever else had transpired between them, she was still his best friend.
He shook his head again. “It’s not only about time. It’s about Steve too.”
“So what is it about? Did something happen to you in London?”
He smiled wryly. “Remember what I said to you this morning? Right here in your kitchen?”
Color heightened her cheeks. “How could I forget?” she whispered and knit her brows. “You, uh, told me you were half mad with wanting me.”
Her voice was sweet, like warm honey. Lust, hot and potent, crept into his limbs, making them heavy. The air between them seemed to shimmer. He closed his eyes and fought down his hunger.
When he was sure he’d reined in his self-control, he opened them again. He squeezed her fingers and let go of her hand. “I meant the part about you asking too many questions for your own good,” he corrected gently.
He leaned over, put a finger under her chin and lifted her face to his. Her eyes were enormous pools of repressed desire. “If you’re not ready to hear my answers, sweet Katie, I suggest you stop asking questions.”
And once again, he kissed her. His lips touched hers, just long enough to remind her that the fierce fire they’d lit last night had not been doused, and just short enough to leave the flames roaring furiously in his body.
“Sweet dreams, my love,” he whispered, and walked out of the kitchen.
Five minutes after Katie closed herself in her room, the phone rang. Tyler answered it. By the time he hung up a good twenty minutes later, Steve was back. Tyler found him in the kitchen, making coffee.
“Want a cup?” he asked, when he saw Tyler.
“Not for me. Thanks.”
“Kate gone to bed?”
“Yes. She looked knackered.”
“I don’t blame her. I’m pretty beat myself.”
“Happy you jumped?”
Steve thought about it. “Uh-huh. I won’t ever do it again, mind you, but I loved it.”
Tyler grinned at him. “Like I said, you’re a wuss.”
“Maybe so,” Steve agreed happily. “At least I’ll be a living wuss, unlike you, mate.”
Tyler’s mind was half on his phone conversation, half on Steve. If anyone was a wuss, it was Tyler. It had been over a week and still he hadn’t told Katie or Steve why he was back. Sure, he’d wanted to ascertain Steve’s feelings for Pen, but he hadn’t done a damn thing about it yet. He hadn’t had a chance.
Until now.
He pursed his lips. “Steve?”
His friend stirred sugar into his drink. “Hmm?”
He took out his little seed again. “That was Penelope on the phone.”
Steve’s movements faltered. “Oh.” He resumed stirring. “How is she?”
Tyler studied his back, noticing the muscles cord in his shoulders.
“Okay, I guess.” That wasn’t exactly the full truth, but it wasn’t his place to share all the facts.
Steve picked up his mug, blew on the coffee and hesitated before taking a sip.
Tyler took the bottle of milk from the counter and put it back in the fridge.
“She says hi.” He needed to play this one cool. Demanding Steve expose his deepest feelings for Pen would not get him any answers.
Steve nodded, blew and took another sip. “She still teaching?” He trained his eyes on the window, staring into the darkness outside.
“Yes.” Was it a good sign that Steve couldn’t talk about Pen and face him at the same time?
“She still love it so much?”
“It’s the kids she loves more than the work. They make her happy.”
He didn’t move a muscle. “Does she know I’m getting married?”
“We discussed it.” At length.
Steve’s face was void of expression or emotion. “I suppose that saves me a phone call I’d have had to make sooner or later.”
“You were going to contact her?” Tyler asked, caught by surprise.
Steve hadn’t spoken to Penelope in a very long time.
Steve frowned. “I owe her that much.”
Technically, he didn’t owe Pen a damn thing. “Decent of you.”
Finally Steve smiled and made a halfhearted attempt at a joke.
“Hey, you know me. I’m a decent guy.”
Tyler didn’t laugh. “She still gets to you, doesn’t she?” he asked quietly.
Their futures Steve’s, Katie’s, his own, and even Pen’s, all hinged on his answer.
Steve shook his head, stared into the darkness. “It’s immaterial.
I’ve moved on. I’m getting married.” He took a gulp of coffee, then swore and touched his tongue. “Ouch.”
“Burnt?” Tyler asked.
He nodded and put the cup down. “Too damn hot.”
Tyler gave him a sympathetic smile. It wasn’t the coffee that bothered his friend. It was his question.
After a couple of tense minutes, Steve spoke. “Is she seeing anyone?”
Tyler thought twice before answering. “You sure you want to know?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure at all, but tell me anyway.”
“There’s someone. I don’t know how serious it is. He seems more interested than she does.”
“Story of her life, isn’t it?” Steve muttered.
“Mate-”
Steve cut him off. “No, don’t say it. Our relationship was what it was. I knew that all along. I was under no false illusions that she wanted the happy ever after.”
Tyler swore to himself. Talk about false illusions. “Still think about her so much?”
Steve’s lips were tight. “I try not to.”
“Must be damn near impossible. She was the only woman you thought about for a long time.” Tyler had tried not to think about Katie. he’d tried every day for two years, but he hadn’t managed to delete her from his mind. Not once in all that time. Had it been the same for Steve with Pen? In a fucked-up kind of a way he hoped it had.
Steve took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “Yeah, Ty. I still think about her.” He dropped his gaze. Stared at his drink.
“Doesn’t make a difference though. I’m getting married, and Pen is not the lucky woman. He threw the rest of his coffee in the sink and rinsed the cup. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to join the lucky woman who will be my bride.” He pointed at Tyler. “See you in the morning.”
Just like that, the conversation was over.
Tyler looked at his seed. It had sprouted a tiny leaf. Which meant the time had definitely come to tell Katie the full story. He could procrastinate no more.
Katie yawned and stretched as she opened her eyes to the weak light of early morning. A loving caress had woken her.