“Kayne?”
“Mmmm?”
“What do you think would have happened that night if things hadn’t gotten all messed up?”
I smile to myself with my eyes closed. “Exactly what I planned. I would’ve taken you back to my penthouse and fucked you.”
“Would you have tried to tie me up?” I feel her look up at me.
“Probably. Would you have let me?” I glance down at her.
“Probably.”
“Interesting to know.”
SEVEN DAYS. I HAVE SPENTsix nights and seven days with Kayne, and he has me flying high. Like, literally, ten thousand feet in the air. At the moment, I’m being strapped to his body with a skintight harness. To say I’m not shitting myself would be a lie. Skydiving was the one activity Kayne pushed for. When he saw the brochure on Matias’ desk, his eyes lit up so brightly they nearly blinded us. I immediately protested, arguing that if God wanted humans to fly, he would have given us wings. Kayne contested, saying God improvised and gave us parachutes. Only after a lengthy, one-sided conversation of Kayne explaining how he’s probably more experienced than a skydiving instructor, having jumped over fifty times, did he finally persuade me to give in. Which brings us to now, the two of us standing in an open doorway of a tiny plane looking down at turquoise-blue water and the small circular-shaped island of Bora Bora. I think I’m going to throw up.
Kayne is nothing like I dreamed about, but everything I could have ever wanted. Every day together just gets better and better. It’s almost surreal, but definitely not perfect. There’s something missing. Something he’s holding back, which in turn makes me hold back. I know my late-night conversations with Jett don’t help, but what he doesn’t understand is that by me talking to someone else, I allow myself to open up to him. It helps me process and helps me accept. Letting go of the anger and the feeling of betrayal wasn’t easy. But Jett helped me work through it.
I swear he’s a shrink, a sexual connoisseur, and a fashionista all rolled into one.
And as to why we talk in the middle of the night? At first, it was because I couldn’t sleep, but it quickly became because I didn’t want to miss one second with Kayne while he is awake.
“Ready?” Kayne asks with his mouth close to my ear.
“No.” I dig my fingernails into his thighs.
“Relax,” he purrs. “I would never let anything happen to you. Trust me?”
I flash back to the last time he asked me that. I was tied up then, too. The answer is still the same; I just hope the outcome is different. A few short hours after he asked me if I trusted him the last time, the sky fell on me. Now, I’m about to fall through the sky.
“Yes,” I answer faintly with my heart beating so hard it’s leaving an indentation on my chest.
“On three.” Kayne cradles my face against his shoulder and then criss-crosses our arms in front of my chest so I’m pressed snugly against him. “Count with me.” He raises his voice over the hum of the engine.
I take a deep breath and nod with my eyes closed, hoping I find the courage to actually make it to three.
“One!” Kayne yells as we inch closer to the edge. It feels like a vacuum is trying to suck us up.
“Two!” we say together, and then suddenly we’re falling nose first into a wind tunnel. A piercing scream rips from my throat as we plummet downward, cool air whipping right through our clothes.What the fuck happened to three!?!
I know it’s only supposed to last two minutes, but the seconds suddenly feel like hours as the adrenaline pumps triple time through my body. I don’t know at what altitude I finally allow myself to breathe and take it all in, but once I do, the feeling is euphoric; an entrancing split of body and mind.
“Hang on!” Kayne yells as he pulls the ripcord and the parachute deploys, jerking us back only to release us a moment later into a soft glide.
“Holy shit!” I exclaim as my pounding heart echoes in my ears.
“Not too many people can say they saw the island from this angle.”
“I’m sure that’s true,” I reply in awe as we fall slowly, drinking in the indescribable view. From here, you can see everything—the reefs at the bottom of the turquoise lagoon, the dark-green landscape, and the top of Mt. Otemanu surrounded by a ring of white puffy clouds.
“Ellie, I’m releasing the parachute. We’re going to land in shallow water. Be ready for the impact,” Kayne tells me all too soon as he pulls another cord a foot or two over the water. We drop, but land easily as the water cushions our fall. Once Kayne unhooks my harness, I turn instantly and jump into his arms. The adrenaline coursing through my veins like a fast moving stream.
“That was amazing!”
“You liked it?” He laughs lifting me up.
“I loved it!” I kiss him. “Let’s do it again!”
