I would just close my eyes and pretend I was going down alone.
But then he touched me.
A million tiny tingles washed over my skin as Jay’s hands reached out to help connect my harness to his. We were so close, I was mere inches from his body. Tony was helping us get all the clips secure, and sure, he was standing right there—but all I could focus on was Jay’s hands as they came to lightly rest on the curve of my hips. He was holding onto the straps at my waist as Tony instructed for safety reasons, but even so, when his hands semi-touched me, something happened.
I couldn’t stop it. It was impossible to halt it in its tracks.
I felt the undeniable rush of goosebumps down my spine, making me shiver.
“Are you—” His hand shifted on my hip, causing me to suck in a sharp breath. “—trembling?” he finished, and I could practically hear the smile in his voice.
My cheeks flamed, an undeniable blush spreading across my face and clear to my ears.
I whipped around to glare at him, but he was alreadylooking down at me with that infuriatingly confident, all-knowing expression—the one that said he was enjoying this way too much.
“I am not trembling,” I hissed.
“Mhm.” He leaned in a little, and I felt the heat of his breath wash over my neck. “If you say so.”
“Jay—”
“Hey,” he murmured. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
My stomach dropped, and we weren’t even going down the zip-line yet.
Tony clapped his hands. “Alright! Last line! You two ready?”
I was, in fact, not ready. But I nodded anyway.
Tony grabbed the handle attached to our harnesses, yanked it hard, and sent us flying down the zip-line. The sound of the cable zipping across the wire was all I could hear, along with the wind whipping across my skin. But this was the only line where I wasn’t focused on how high we were, or how fast we were going, or what the scene looked like around me.
Instead, I spent three minutes focused on how Jay’s chest felt pressed against my back.
Gravity made it impossible for us not to touch each other as we went down the line. The few inches of space we’d had before immediately vanished once the momentum set in.
And then, it was over.
We collided with the stopper at the bottom with a little jolt, and with a few snaps and clips, we were no longer connected and both able to stand.
I refused to acknowledge his existence behind me as I unclipped and headed toward the tree circle where we’dbegun our tour. Ty and Macey were there with the others, and when they saw me, they both smiled and came over.
“Wasn’t that last run crazy?” Macey said, jumping up and down with excitement.
“Yep. Pretty crazy,” I let out a shaky laugh.
When I sat down on one of the logs to start undoing my harness, Ty came over to sit beside me.
Are you trembling?
“You okay?” Tyler asked.
“Yeah.” I gave him a weak smile, shoving Jay’s words from my mind and banishing thoughts of his hands gripping the harness at my hips. “Just ready to be done.”
He nodded in understanding. “Well, the good news is, it’s over, and we can eat now.”
“I’m starving,” I admitted, and Ty gave me a little nudge.
“Hey, you did good. Seriously.”
