Mine: A Stepbrother Romance: (With bonus novel Bossy!) (16 page)

“I... You...” I growl and look around. “Where am I supposed to change?”

He’s already busy checking a pile of gear that I assume is supposed to keep us from splatting into the ground at a million miles per hour. “Uh. Here?”

“Turn around and close your eyes,” I order. “And you too!” I tell the cameraman, who seems to forget I can see him.

They dutifully—but not very quickly—follow my instructions. With a sigh, I check what’s in the basket. What the... “Hunter?”

“Need a hand?” he asks hopefully.

“No! Did you have Danny go through my stuff?” The clothes are perfectly reasonable, cotton shorts and a plain t-shirt, but the underwear is a touch less practical.

“I told him to take something easy and comfortable. Why?”

“His idea of comfortable and mine might not be the same,” I say ruefully, eyeing the lace thong.

Hunter starts to turn around.

“Hey! The other way!”

He holds up his hands in surrender.

I change quickly, leaving my bikini bottom on, because the last thing I need at however many feet is a wedgie. “Okay, you can turn around now.” I kick the basket under the seats.

We sit down, and Hunter goes over what we’re going to do. A woman in dark shades climbs onto the plane and gives Hunter a wave before sitting down in the cockpit.

“Oh right, you aren’t flying.”

He laughs. “I’m good, but that would be a bit too much of a stunt, even for me.”

I blush and shove him with my shoulder, playfully. “Shut up.”

“No, you shut up,” he teases.

I don’t know if I’m getting used to flying or it’s Hunter’s relaxed presence, but I hardly panic at all when the plane takes off.

The whole way up he’s going over the skydiving procedures. I listen as well as I can, but somewhere in the back of my head there’s a voice repeating over and over, “You’re going to jump out of a plane and die.”

“You got all that?” he asks.

“Oh, yeah. Absolutely.”

“Okay then, tell me what you’re going to do.”

I grin and look straight into his bright blue eyes. “Scream a lot and possibly pee my pants.”

His face lights up with a huge smile, and he throws his head back and laughs.

I love that sound.

About a half an hour later, we’re at height and circling. He’s gone over the steps until I actually mostly remember them, and I’m strapped into a harness that will attach to his. He’s the one with the full parachute getup on, so I guess he wasn’t totally wrong when he said I just had to hold on and enjoy the ride.

He kicks off his sandals and changes into sneakers, tucking the old shoes into the basket with my bikini. A small strangled noise leaves his throat and I look over. My itty bitty thong is hanging from his hand.

“I’m going to kill Danny,” Hunter mutters before I have the chance to react. “Kill him.”

“Oh? You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

Hunter looks at me, and his expression goes soft and hot. “That’s different.”

“How?”

“You know exactly how,” he whispers low so the camera can’t pick it up, his breath warm against my neck.

“Hunter?” The pilot interrupts. “I’m ready when you are.”

My throat is dry, but the area between my thighs is anything but.

He holds me against him, hand flat against my stomach. I’m so distracted that I barely notice him strapping us together, each buckle and cinch locking us tight.

With one big yank, Hunter opens the door, leaving me looking out of a gaping hole into the sky.

Reality crashes down. We’re going to do this. We’re actually going to do this.

“You’re good. Everything’s in place. All you have to do now is enjoy the ride.”

Easy for him to say.

Next to us, the cameraman goes over his gear one last time as well. He’s obviously done this before. He’s got a GoPro on his helmet, and a camera he can aim secured to his arm. He gives a nod and stands up, ready to go.

Attached to Hunter’s front, my feet barely touch the ground. The die is cast. Even if I wanted to I couldn’t get loose now.

There’s a click as he releases my safety strap. “Stop wiggling and lift your knees.”

I curl into a little ball, hanging on the front of him as he walks closer and closer to the edge—the separation between sort of safe and dying at almost two hundred feet per second. See, I remembered something. Go me!

Hunter raises his arms and leans forward. I whimper, too scared to scream. He doesn’t jump right away, just leans and looks down, leaving me to basically hang from his chest with nothing but the ground far below me.

“Alright. Here we go.”

I’m going to die.

T
he cameraman drops out of the plane and I draw my breath in shock. Hunter waits the span of a heartbeat, then follows. A terrified scream tears itself from my lungs.

To make it worse, he flips on his way out, showing off to the camera and making my world spin in a nausea-inducing whirl. It’s only when he straightens and stabilizes that my scream tapers off.

The drogue chute deploys—a tiny piece of cloth that’s supposed to keep us from dropping too quickly—and I feel the slight tug as it starts to do its job. My eyes are squeezed shut and I’m dangling in the air, secured to Hunter, but plummeting towards the ground.

I open my eyes.

Oh.

My.

God.

The plane was my only frame of reference, and now it’s off in the distance. The ground is so far away that it hardly even feels like falling. We’re flying.

Floating.

It’s terrifying, and amazing. Hunter yells something into my ear, but all I can hear is the rush of the wind. He bumps my shoulder, and I realize I’m still practically curled into a ball. I spread my arms and the feeling of floating is complete.

Everything is so clear. My skin tingles, but I don’t feel cold.

How long was the fall supposed to last? A minute or so, he said. I’ve lost count of seconds, but it feels like forever. Hunter taps my shoulder in warning.

Now.

Everything goes tight and I lose my breath. For a couple of seconds after Hunter yanks the cord, we soar up before we settle. The roar of the wind goes silent and then we’re floating gently with the expanse of the chute unfurled above us.

There’re a couple of clicks as he releases the latches at my hips, and the harness loosens enough that I can breathe again. “There. That should be better. How are you feeling?”

“Like I want to kick your ass, and like I’m in a whole different world.” Never in a million years would I have guessed I’d enjoy this, but it’s incredible.

“It
is
a whole different world. This is my favorite part. Totally disconnected from the earth. Up here I can just
be
.”

“Yeah.” For as long as we’re falling, life feels like it’s been put on hold. “Thank you for sharing this with me.”

“I’m glad you won,” he murmurs into my ear.

So am I.

Below us, the island grows larger and larger. I’m like a leaf caught in a breeze, like even a slight adjustment could send us careening off into the ocean. The closer we get to the trees, the more nervous I get, but Hunter is a steadying influence behind me, strong and sure.

“How are you holding up? Am I going to have to restart your heart when we get down?”

“I’m okay.” Surprisingly, it’s true. I should be panicking, but I’m not. There are no engines that might explode, or wings to fall off. It’s just us and a parachute. I’m not afraid of heights or falling, just of being out of control.

What a joke.

I’m not in control. I’m living a lie, inside a lie.

My heart’s pounding, but it’s time for the real leap of faith. The guilt has been tearing at me for too long.

“Hunter?”

“Mhmm?” His mouth is right against my neck. I’ve been so distracted that I didn’t even notice, but now that I have, sparks trail across my skin.

“I... I need to tell you something.” Just spit it out! Thank God I can’t see his face or I’d never dare.

“Go on, then. I’m a captive audience.” He laughs softly. His lips brush the sensitive skin behind my ear.

I can’t do this. I don’t even know what to say.

“Sarah?” Hunter prods.

Right. That’s a good place to start. “My name isn’t Sarah. I’m not who you think I am.”

Behind me, Hunter tenses. “Then who are you?”

This is it, the moment he starts to hate me, and I can’t make myself say it. The words just won’t come out. We float down, the cameraman drifting below us, and I’m praying the ground will open up and swallow me when we land.

“Just say it.”

“Liz, Liz Bissette.” My chest tightens more and more for every second he doesn’t speak. Hanging in the air, it feels like a silent eternity. “Say something. Please, just say something.”

“You’re exactly who I thought you were.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, and a tear leaks out. “You knew.” It was always a possibility, but after the first couple days, I stopped letting myself worry about it. I didn’t want to know. “For how long?”

“From always, Liz.” He sounds frustrated, which is better than angry. Right? “Did you seriously think a new hair color and some cheap contacts would fool me?”

“It’s been a long time!” Wait. “Hold on, you’ve known the whole time?”

“Of course.”

“So when we...
the whole time?”
Us bickering. Us kissing. Us
naked
.

“I didn’t occasionally forget, so yeah, the whole time.”

“How dare you? You’ve been stringing me along!” My face flushes hot the moment I say it.
Pot, meet kettle.

We’re low enough that the cameraman has stopped filming and started focusing on his own landing. There are cameras waiting on the ground for us, but for now we’re as alone as we’re going to get.

Hunter laughs. “You’re going to turn this on me? Look in the fucking mirror first, princess.”

“I had my reasons!”

“Really? Reasons that justify lying and cheating? Those sorts of reasons?” Hunter makes a sudden adjustment to the steering handles and we veer hard to the side. “You could’ve come to me at any point. I waited. You know that? I kept thinking, ‘She’s got something up her sleeve, but she’ll tell me’. Except you didn’t.”

“What are you doing?” I ask in panic. “We’re going the wrong way!”

“No, we’re going the right way. You waited until now to tell me, but now the cat’s out of the bag. We’re finishing this, and no matter how it ends, I don’t think you’re going to want an audience.” His voice is hard as steel.

No matter how it ends?

The cameraman is a rapidly shrinking dot in the distance as we drift farther and farther off course. What was I thinking? I wasn’t, that’s what. I was seduced by the feeling of being outside our regular lives. What was going to happen after we landed hadn’t been on my mind.

“Do you hate me?” I cringe at the desperation in my voice.

“Hate you?” Hunter leans so his mouth is right next to my ear. “I should ask you the same.”

“Of course not. I’d never have”—gotten naked and almost had sex with you—“done all that stuff if I hated you.”

“But you think I would. Is that it? You think I’m some idiot jock who wouldn’t recognize one of his best friends and would fuck around with anyone with tits. I get it. Do you think I did the same with Amanda? Or any of the other women?”

It sounds so bad when he says it. Am I really that self-absorbed?

I don’t have an answer.

Up until now I’ve been able to compartmentalize things. This Hunter is the same Hunter as the one I loved for years, but knowing it wasn’t going to last, I didn’t have to think about him as a real person.

One I might feel guilty about fooling.

“Here, hold these a second.” He pulls the toggles down and puts them in my hands.

“What? No! I don’t know what I’m doing!”

“Just hold them steady. It’s not brain surgery, and I’m right here.” He waits until my fingers wrap around the handles and then lets go.

I clutch them like our lives depend on it. Because they do. “This is crazy. Take them back before I crash us!”

“Relax, I know what I’m doing.” He shifts, and his hands run down my body. One slides to my stomach, holding me tight against his body, the other strokes my side. “Do you feel this?”

It’s not just his hands. Hunter thrusts his hips against me, and I can feel the outline of his cock pressing against my ass. My world spins faster than it did when he hopped out of the plane.

He slides his hand up over the outside of my shirt, the parachute straps getting in the way, but not enough that I can’t feel him as he strokes his thumb over the bottom of my breast. “We’ve both changed. Some of the changes I like.” His palm passes over my hardened nipple. “Some I don’t.” He wraps a hand in my hair, tugging. “Like the lying.”

“It wasn’t like that.” Arousal rushes through me. I’m terrified of what’s going to happen once we land, but at the same time, I want him. Badly.

“We’ll see,” he says dismissively, dark promise dripping from his words. “Do you know how hard it’s been to know you were sleeping just a few rooms down and not be able to do anything about it? Knowing you were right there, but that I couldn’t have you? Not the real you.” One of his hands teases my breast, while the other moves between my legs, cupping me. His cock is a hot brand against my back. “You made a mistake.”

I moan as he pinches my nipple between his fingers.

“I bet you thought you were safe up here. You’re not.”

His hands vanish, and he takes back control of the handles. I arch against him, trying to reclaim his touch, but it’s too late. We’re just above the tops of the trees.

There’s a small clearing ahead, surrounded by jungle. A couple large rocks stick out of the ground, and less than a hundred yards away is Fool’s Drop. I barely have time to think about what could happen if we overshoot, before we touch down.

I know exactly where we are.

The huge trunk of Giant Bob is right in front of me.

As ageless as it was the day of our first kiss.

W
e touch down, soft and smooth. A textbook landing, and then the parachute collapses on the ground behind us. I hate having to lose the feeling of Liz’s curvy body pressed against me, but it won’t be long before she’s back where I want her. I’m making sure of it.