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“Thank you. It’s just, I wouldn’t have been rushed if—” I clamped my lips together. Several thousand feet above the ocean was not the time to get into the whole Amazon betrayal. Mainly because I didn’t trust myself enough not to push Coop out of the airplane before he finished rigging back up.
“If?”
I stepped into the loosened leg straps of my lucky pack. As I hiked it up, Coop suddenly was directly in front of me. I swallowed and tried to remember what I’d been saying. “Um…I hadn’t planned on you—”
I sucked in the rest of my sentence as Coop’s large hand reached between my thighs.
“Let me help you with that.” His deep blue eyes flicked down to mine as his fingers brushed just shy of center. He curled them under the bunched nylon strap, stroking it smooth as his heated breath teased across the nape of my neck.
He wrapped the tail of the strap in his fist and yanked, testing the clasp. The force rocked my body forward into his solid one. “You hadn’t planned on what?”
“You…” I held my breath as he started repeating the intimate sequence on the other leg. I feared he’d feel the evidence of my body’s reaction to him as his hand slipped between my legs again. The intense passion between Coop and me, even during the simple act of rigging up, was undeniable.
After he tugged again, he repeated the question with a knowing smirk. “You hadn’t planned on me doing what exactly, Presh?”
I stuttered out a moan as his ribbed knuckles swiped over my hardened nipples while he thoroughly adjusted the chest strap. He turned me around and checked from behind, then swatted my ass to let me know he was finished with me.
So much for keeping it professional.
I whipped back around to face him, determined to resist his annoying charm and panty-dropping sexuality. “I hadn’t planned on you…strong-arming me into working this job with you.”
“Strong-arming?” He pressed his lips together and scrunched his brows in a doubtful grimace. “Is that really what I’m doing to you, Presh?”
My mind flashed back to the war room and the deliriously intense orgasm he’d given me. My kus throbbed, eager for more.
“With the job,” I clarified. Everything else I’d been eager and willing and excited for. Even my active imagination hadn’t prepared me for our connection in real life.
Maybe Hayes was right to bypass me and go straight to Zaki. My head clearly wasn’t in the game and hadn’t been for a while now. For all I knew, my panties weren’t the only thing Coop wanted me to drop. Was it like Hayes thought? Was Coop using my crush on him, my body’s overreaction to him, to get my guard down?
“How exactly did I strong-arm you, Presh?”
“You knew what you were doing. Going to Zaki.”
“Oh! He’s the reason you came. Right.” Coop quickly geared himself back up.
I was thankful he let the conversation drop, because I sensed we were getting close to the wreck site. I could feel the nervous energy buzzing in my bones. A muscle memory of sorts.
Fragments of the past shuffled quickly through my mind like a deck of cards in a dealer’s hands. Fighting. Gunshots. Death. An out-of-control amusement park ride. Blood. Darkness. Soaked clothing. Soaked skin. The smell of the slick orange rubber life raft. Hands reaching for mine. Drowning. The intense taste of salt. The certainty of death.
A flash of red brought me back to the plane with a start. The light by the exit door.
“Two minutes to DZ,” Coop called out, breaking my trance. “Check equipment.”
Coop scooped up Titan and clamped him into position on his chest, then slipped the dog’s goggles over his eyes. I stroked the shepherd’s forehead, then Coop and I double-checked each other’s rigs while Leo and Nik buddied up on theirs.
Thea looked scared but excited. I shot her a thumbs-up and said over the helmet comms, “Don’t worry, you’re going to love it!”
The light turned yellow, signaling we were a half mile to the drop zone. I crowded up alongside Coop, like a kid cutting in line for cake.
“Going first?” Coop laughed as he rolled open the door.
I nodded.
“Be safe,” he said as I turned around to exit backward. He motioned with two fingers from his eyes to mine, to let me know he’d watch my back. I’d always been able to count on him, which was why this rogue shit didn’t make any sense. But right now all I wanted was to shed the weight of worry from my shoulders.
Jessie backed the propeller speed and torque off. “Exit, exit, exit.” Her voice carried through the fuselage as she turned the light to green.
I launched with my gaze hooked on Coop. Dropping away from the opening in the Twin Otter, I felt weightless. After I watched Coop shove an unappreciative Leo out the hatch, I laughed and spiraled away.
During free fall there was always a sense of motionlessness, the air simultaneously holding me while also speeding past. But really it was the air that was motionless as I fell toward earth at over a hundred miles per hour. Moving much too fast to think, time stood still, the Earth stopped rotating. I arched my body, twirling and dancing in space.
Total freedom would barely last a minute or so before I’d have to pull the ripcord on it.
Below me the gold strip of earth waited. Not far was the yacht we’d be working off of. And somewhere deep below the ocean’s surface were all of my secrets.
They all could wait a couple seconds longer.
