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“I like holding yours. ” He cocked his head. “You’re different every day, you know that? I can’t keep up with you. A week ago, I’d have had to take you through an interrogation to understand something like this. And now you’re initiating the conversation, taking me somewhere we won’t be interrupted. ”
“Or I could be taking you somewhere to take advantage of you,” she pointed out.
“The duck pond is rather private. Though if we have a plane come in to land, or the students go up, they’d get an eyeful. ”
“Or you could be taking me there to drown me. I never know. ”
“Well, you said like you liked my unpredictability. ” She sobered. “You want me to explain this to you. I promised, last night…” She swallowed, met his gaze with an obvious effort. “To be open to you as Master. And as a lover. And I understand that answering your questions is part of that. It’s not easy for me. I’m just trying to do it right. ”
“You’re doing fine. ” He found it difficult to speak, too overcome by the urge to simply kiss her.
The duck pond was inhabited by cattails, lily pads with white blooms and a wooden bench. A group of ducks that were gathered companionably on the banks waddled away at sauntering speed, proving their wary acceptance of human companionship, though quacking their mild displeasure at being disturbed. When she sat down on the bench, he took a seat next to her, stretching out his arm behind. He felt her tension rise, so before she could start speaking he put two fingers under her chin and turned her face to him. Parting her lips with his, he tasted her, then groaned as she opened for him further, taking him in. Her arms came up around his neck, pressing her body against him in the formfitting suit, letting him feel her pleasure at seeing him, being with him. When he eased back, he didn’t know whose heart was beating faster.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “That made it easier. ”
“Any sacrifice to help. ” He tugged on her tail of braids, but she didn’t smile.
“When I first started jumping, it was to make me feel like I was back with David, in those last moments. You know how my brother died. ” Tyler nodded, ran a hand up her arm. “I won’t press, but one day, any day you’re ready, angel, I’d like to know more about him. I know he was
important to you. ” She wasn’t ready to tell him. Marguerite couldn’t tell him that before she’d shared her bed, which meant before she’d met him, she’d had to tie her arm loosely to the bedpost. That way when she tried to sleepwalk, to fly, she’d wake half slumped on the floor, her arm pulled taut. During those quietly despondent hours of the night, she’d sit crumpled on the floor and blearily look up into the night sky, at the stars or various phases of the moon. She’d think how their light was like the promise of a heaven she could never reach, because for some inexplicable reason she wouldn’t free herself to go there. To go to David.
She closed her eyes. “Not today. Today’s too good. ” She opened them, looked at him. “But something changed, as of this week. For the first time, it was about joy. True freedom. The first freedom I think I’ve ever felt. And I shouldn’t be telling you these things, because you’re arrogant enough as it is…”
“Tell me anyway. ”
She reached out, trailed her fingers along his forearm, let her hand be captured and held on his thigh. “I felt like there’d be someone to care, to catch me if I fell. ”
“Next time you might mention when you’re going out, so I’ll know to arrange for that. ”
She gave him a tiny smile. “I know it’s not realistic. It’s just a feeling. ” She bent, unlaced her shoes, removed them and pushed up the fabric of the bodysuit covering her calves. Rising, she moved to the water’s edge.
“So how long have you done this?” He looked up as a Piper Cub buzzed over for a landing.
“About ten years. I could take you up one day. I’m a trained instructor. ”
“Not happening. ”
Her attention flicked over to him. “It’s really wonderful. Falling at over a hundred miles an hour, just you. Sometimes it’s nice with others, too, because you don’t talk.
You’re just up there together, feeling the same thing, not having to explain or understand anything. ” She sloshed her feet in the water and shivered, enjoying the coolness. He enjoyed watching her indulge in the almost childish whimsy and wondered how often she’d had moments like this by herself, these many faces she revealed when no one was there to see.
“I’m afraid I’m just going to have to watch you fly, angel. ” Her brows lifted. “Surely you’re not one of those people who are afraid of flying?
You know they’re safer than cars. ”
“So I’ve heard. And I think that argument is more effective for someone who’s never crashed in a plane. I have. Twice. I totaled a car once. I’m here to tell you that the car crash, as scary as it was, was nothing next to the plane. ”
“Twice?”
“Both in small surveillance planes, bad weather conditions. Both times we went down where we’d have been executed if we were caught. If we were lucky. ”
“Well, it makes it hard to argue, putting it that way. But…” She slanted him a glance beneath those silky lashes. “Did you know there’s such a thing as nude skydiving? A growing chapter. ”
He chuckled. “You think the overwhelming male desire to see a woman naked can overcome any fear?”
“Just about. ”
He grinned. “As long as I can see you naked down here, angel, I’d prefer to enjoy the pleasure on the ground. But I’ll think about it. ” He surveyed the planes lined up on the tarmac. “You know there’s very little I’d refuse you. You just have to ask me. ”
