The Player's Club: Finn (24 page)

“Jonesy,”
George spat. “The guy with the plan. The guy who conned me.” Now he sounded as if he was about to cry. “He knows you guys hacked into the network. He knows you’re figuring it out. And I think…I think he’s going to try to kill you. You and Diana both.”

Finn’s blood froze, his heart stopping. “Diana? What’s he going to do to Diana?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what his plans are for her,” George said. “All I know is, he said something about skydiving today…an accident. I don’t know how he’ll get to her, but…but I don’t want you guys to get killed.” He was definitely crying. “I didn’t want anybody to get killed. I just…I just wanted what was mine.”

Skydiving.

Diana.

Finn floored the accelerator. The car screamed forward, tearing up the pavement.

“If anything happens to her, I’ll kill you myself.” Finn clicked off the phone, then frantically tried dialing Diana’s phone, Lincoln’s phone. Anyone.

No one answered.

DIANA TRIED TO wipe her palms, then wondered if the sweat would leave stains on the bright blue nylon jumpsuit she was wearing.

The sound of the plane was deafening—it wasn’t that big, but the noise was simply insane, between the engines and the wind and everything. Finn told her that they used to do large group jumps, suggested that if she wanted, she might find it fun. She sincerely doubted it.

Lincoln leaned close to her ear. “We’re about ready,” he said, gesturing to her to stand in front of him. It was disturbingly intimate. He made sure that they were hooked together, since he’d be doing most of the actual “jump” part.

She’d merely be doing the plummeting-to-the-ground part.

Finn said this would be life-changing.

She wanted to see what Finn saw. She knew that he had his own reasons, that he was living each day as if it were his last because he didn’t know if or when the cancer would decide to come back. She liked that he didn’t seem to worry, only lived one day at a time. She didn’t want to worry about how she was going to get another job, or dwell on the pain and stress of what Macalister’s betrayal had done to her. She glanced at the open door of the plane and swallowed hard.

Well, she sure as hell wasn’t worrying about all of that
now,
was she?

“I don’t think I can do this,” she murmured, but over the screaming wind, nobody heard her.

Lincoln had her all rigged up, and he held tight. It would’ve seemed almost romantic except that he was basically bellowing in her ear.

“All right, we’ll move to the door now, okay?”

She didn’t trust herself to speak without doing something embarrassing, like throwing up. So instead, she nodded. Then still had to be strongly nudged to get to the gaping door, with the air rushing by as if it were coming from a humungous industrial fan. Even the elements were telling her to stay in the damned plane.

You can do this. Just jump, quick, and get it over with. Hold your breath, close your eyes, and jump.

Oh, God. She swallowed hard, clutching at Lincoln behind her. Diana stared at all that ground…and all that empty space between it and her.

“Ready?” asked Lincoln.

She bit her lip. Held on tight. And then…

17

FINN’S CAR SCREECHED into the parking lot of the landing field. He had one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the redial button of his cell phone. He’d tried calling Diana, tried calling Lincoln. Had called the air control tower. “Tell them that there’s a problem with the parachute! Tell them to cancel!”

They’d hung up on him, thinking he was a crackpot, which he no doubt sounded like. Finn was terrified.

He saw a plane high up in the distance. He thought he could make out the bright flash of a nylon jumpsuit. Were there two of them? A tandem jump?

He shut off the Porsche mindlessly and clambered out.
“No!”

Like they could hear him. Like it would make a difference. He was running blindly. He saw them, circling, doing lazy loops. Almost a ballet. And any minute, they were going to try…

The chute opened, and they started spinning crazily, out of control. He held his breath. His lungs burned painfully. He couldn’t look away.

They were twirling sideways, fast enough to cause nausea, disorientation. Then one of them put his hand up, and the chute was cut, flying away…and they were falling again. Falling like stones.

No, no,
he thought
. I’m going to watch her die. Watch them die. Right now, right in front of me.

His stomach seized up, and he fell to his knees. Another parachute opened. This time, the chute blossomed like a rose, blooming to its full capacity. They started dropping slowly now, still a little too quick, but they would be safe.

He released a long breath, then gulped in air, but still felt sick. He stood up, started running. It took countless minutes to get to where they’d finally tumbled, hitting the ground hard. He ran up to them.

“Thank God, I thought I’d lost you,” he said, pulling the chute off and lunging to embrace them.

“We thought you’d lost us, too, mate.” A thick Australian accent surprised him. “But unless you’re going to buy me dinner, I’d say stop hugging so tight.”

Finn stepped back, dazed. Unless Diana had grown a handlebar mustache and Lincoln was black, he had the wrong people.

“Sorry,” he said, staggering away. “I…I thought…”

The guy with the mustache nodded, getting to his feet. “You’re thinking we were somebody you loved. I get it.” He shook his head. “Nope, just us. But there’s a plane landing over there…maybe she’s on that?”

Finn waved his thanks, and dashed toward the other aircraft. If there had been an accident, a skydiving fatality, there would be emergency vehicles here, his mind reasoned, even as his legs pumped faster. Or was the parachute thing a mistake? He wouldn’t care if George was messing with him. Wouldn’t care if it was an elaborate hoax. All he cared about was Diana being all right.

The plane taxied to a stop, and Finn froze again, his mind racing, his body paralyzed with fear. The door opened, and Diana stepped out, her blue nylon jumpsuit still on. Lincoln exited behind her. She looked tearful, but her chin went up.

“I didn’t jump,” she said immediately, as she walked up to him. Her tone was defensive. “I couldn’t. I was terrified. And I know how much the Club means to you, and I know how much you wanted us to be this thrill-seeking couple. But I just…”

She shut up when he crushed her against him, needing to feel her in his arms. Needing to physically know she was okay. “Finn. I can’t breathe.”

He eased off a bit, and knew his eyes were watering a little.

“Finn,” she said, as she noticed, stroking his cheeks. “Are you all right?”

He glanced over at Lincoln, who was also staring at him with concern. “It was George,” Finn said. “George and someone else set Diana up. Somebody else with more brains and less scruples.”

“Easy to find the former,” Lincoln mused, “not so easy the latter. So?”

“So George’s associate managed to have your parachute sabotaged.”

Lincoln’s eyebrows went up, and Diana paled. Finn held her tighter. “I thought I was going to lose you,” he said, and his voice broke. “I have never been so scared in my life.”

“Nothing happened,” she said, kissing him, hugging him back fiercely. “I’m fine. I’m not going anywhere.” She held his face in her hands, her eyes bright. “I’m not leaving you.”

He held her for a long minute. Then he needed to show her, and himself, just how alive they both were. He took her hand, all but dragging her to the car. Lincoln simply laughed. Finn didn’t care.

“FINN, I’M ALL RIGHT,” Diana reassured him, but her heart was pounding. She’d felt so close to death herself at the open hatch door, with the world so far below her.... She suddenly, overwhelmingly, wanted to be with Finn.

Next thing she knew, they were sprinting toward his car, pausing only to take her jumpsuit off and leave it at the hangar. She shivered in anticipation.

“I don’t think we’ll last the hour drive it’ll take to get to one of our houses,” Finn rasped, his eyes dark with desire. “I feel badly, but…maybe a motel?”

“Anywhere,” she said breathlessly. “Just
hurry
.”

She stroked the inside of his thigh, tracing the inseam up to his crotch.

Finn let out a strangled sound. “
Now
you get the adrenaline rush.”

She laughed. He moved his hand to place her palm on the hard length of his cock beneath the denim of his jeans. She purred.

“Damn it,” he breathed. “We’re not even going to make it to a motel.”

They drove about ten minutes, then he pulled off onto a dirt road, the car bumping along the uneven surface. They stopped behind a barn, and a series of empty corrals well out of sight of the road. Finn shut off the engine.

“This place only opens for the rodeo, and this is the wrong season,” he said, reaching for her. “I don’t think they’ll mind.”

She giggled, unbuckling her seat belt. “Ride ’em, cowboy,” she invited, undoing her jeans.

He groaned…then immediately made a sound of pain as he got caught on the stick shift. They both burst into laughter.

“Backseat,” he muttered, getting out. She clambered over the reclined seat, shimmying out of her pants on the way. Given how she was feeling, the whole world could have been watching from the rodeo bleachers, and she wouldn’t have cared. She felt reckless, wild, excited.

Finn shucked off his jeans, eyes gleaming as he got into the backseat.

“Touch me,” she said, opening herself to him. And he covered her, fitting himself between her spread legs. He entered her in one slow glide, filling her completely, and she moaned in gratitude, wrapping her legs around him.

He withdrew, then drove her deeper into the leather seat. She gripped him tighter, clawing at his naked back. She could feel the seams of the seat pressing into her skin. They bumped against the interior, her head hanging slightly out of the open door. She didn’t care. It felt primal.

Finn licked and kissed her collarbone, and increased his tempo. She raised her hips to meet every thrust. He was bucking now, their bodies moving like mating animals. Her breathing was punctuated by sharp sighs of pleasure as he massaged her breasts and rolled his hips in the way that made her mindless with need.

Unable to hold it in any longer, she called out to him, the orgasm sending her over the edge. Immediately, he paused—his whole body tense—to let her ride it out. When she had, she got onto her knees, and he entered her. The friction felt different. Though the same desire coursed through her. He pulled her hips flush against his pelvis and buried himself in her, she backed against him, wanting him. His chest covered her, and he slid over her, time and again, as he pushed and withdrew, rubbing her breasts and stroking her hips while she arched her back.

His breathing was growing uneven now—he was close. She moved hard against him, rubbing her own clit and moaning his name. She felt the second orgasm beginning to roll through her like thunder. He thrust hard inside her, his hips moving like a piston as he came.

In the aftermath, they collapsed in a heap.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked, gasping.

“That’ll tide me over till we get home.” She laughed like a kid, too loud and a tiny bit hysterical. So this, she thought, was what it felt like to be invincible. She sent him a loopy, glorious smile.

“I love you,” he said, stroking her face.

She was surprised that tears pricked her eyes. “Finn, you…”

“I didn’t understand, not until…” He shook, as if he couldn’t bear to say it. “I love you. I wouldn’t have gone through all this with you if I didn’t, and I don’t ever want to think about losing you.”

“Even if I don’t do the things you do?” she said, feeling foolish.

He nodded. “I love you for who you are. Not for what you do.”

She felt a warm sense of happiness expanding in her chest. “I love you, too, Finn.” She kissed him, softly, with deepening intensity, until he pulled back.