Somehow, she knew it had nothing to do with his sexual preferences. The fact that he’d shown her the dungeon and the inner workings of e.Vampire.com laid that theory to rest and he’d never done anything she couldn’t handle. She
liked
playing with him, liked that he kept things spicy and was totally unpredictable. She loved everything about him.
The text came at 8:00 pm. Her heart raced as usual.
Good Evening, Jennifer. Tonight will be a night you will never forget. Wear something warm, a long sleeve shirt and jeans would work well.
It’s Miami. I’ll sweat my butt off
. She texted back.
Not where we’re going. It’ll be cold. Trust me, you’ll like it.
Someplace cold in Miami? Didn’t know there was such a place. I’m completely intrigued.
Then I’ve done my job. Pick you up shortly.
She was surprised when she opened the door for him. He was dressed in a gray sweatshirt and well-worn, tattered jeans.
He didn’t give her time to say anything. He cupped her face in his hands and tenderly kissed her. She kept her eyes open like he wanted and noticed his were closed. His lips lingered on her mouth. She heard him inhale deeply, as if he were breathing in the very essence of her. His hands moved through her hair, caressing it lovingly. He kissed the top of her head.
When he pulled away, she was left breathless.
Opening his eyes slowly
, he was taking in every part of her body. He never said a word. Not then and not when he opened the passenger side door of the Ferrari and closed it. He turned on the engine and off they went to who knew where. He still hadn’t revealed where they were going. He popped a CD into the player.
“Chopin,” she commented. “I love it.”
He looked at her curiously. “Me too.”
After a very long
, awkward silence they pulled down a dirt driveway. She couldn’t see what lay ahead of them.
At the end of the road she saw a sign,
Taylor Skydiving.
“Holy Mary mother of God!
You’ve
got
to be kidding!” She stared at him, certain her eyes were as wide and frightened as a deer caught in the headlights.
A man dressed in a pilot’s uniform approached them as soon as they’d parked. A small wooden building
, which also proclaimed
Taylor Skydiving
above its door stood directly in front of them. A large hanger lay to the left of it. In the distance was the tarmac where a few small planes and one large one rested. Bright strips of light illuminated the runway.
“I told you I was an adrenaline junkie, Jennifer. And this is the
ultimate
adrenaline rush.”
“Oh, then I’m just here to watch you jump?”
He glanced at her sideways, his mouth turned up at one corner in that wicked, mischievous half smile she loved so much. Right then, that smile made her very nervous.
Dorian went to greet the pilot. She shrunk down in the seat, holding onto the sides. She wasn’t about to budge from that spot. Especially if what she thought he had in mind was correct.
“Evening, Mr. Taylor.” The pilot shook Dorian’s hand.
“Good Evening Mark. Is everything ready?”
Mark nodded. “The Cessna is fueled and good to go.”
“Thank you.”
“Come Jennifer, your plane awaits you.” He gave her a dazzlingly white and utterly disarming smile.
She ignored it. Nor did she move or speak. Her seat belt was still snugly secured.
“I can’t do that. Jumping out of a plane? You
do
know I’m something of a klutz by now Dorian. Not to mention, I’m scared to death of heights!”
“I assure you
, sky diving is nothing like you think it is. We’re going to do a Tandem Jump. I’ll be attached to you the whole time. The instructor will go over everything with you and answer any questions you have. You’ll feel as free as a bird. You’ll love it, I promise. I’ve done this numerous times. I’m a very skilled and safety conscious jumper. Now come out of the car.”
She looked into his eyes. They twinkled with excitement and something else. Again, she couldn’t read him. Was it desperation? That couldn’t be right. She was sure Dorian Taylor had never had a desperate moment in his life. Well, other than that awful wolf attack maybe.
“Damn you Dorian Taylor! I just can’t say no to you. I’ll go but if I have a heart attack up there, I’m sending you the hospital bills.”
“I’d never put you in harm’s way,” he said softly.
They walked to the hanger. Once inside she was awestruck. There, on a far wall, was a mannequin dressed in skydiving gear with an opened, red, white and blue, huge rectangle shaped parachute, which Dorian explained was a canopy type chute. Its hands held onto two handles. He told her they were called toggles and were used to steer the direction of the canopy while it was airborne. There were jumpsuits of all different sizes and colors on hangers in a small cubby. Pictures of skydivers in various positions plastered the walls.
On the floor were odd shaped boards with four wheels fastened underneath. They reminded her of wooden ginger bread men.
She wondered what those were for. Perhaps Dorian planned on having his way with her on one of them.
Right now that would be preferable
, she thought.
A very young man with streaked dirty blonde hair and a quick smile came to greet them. He looked like he’d just stepped off a California beach. “Hi I’m Luke. I’ll be your instructor for the next half hour. Feel free to ask me anything. Of course, you can ask Mr. Taylor as well. He probably has more skydives down than most of us here.”
Luke went over the equipment first. “Those wooden boards you’re looking at are called creepers. We refer to them lovingly, and not so lovingly, as the table of pain.
Pain?
Oh-oh,
she thought. “Um . . . why do you call them that?”
“We use them to teach correct body positioning down here before you go up there. For you, your time will be very short on the board. It’s those who do relative work, precision skydiving
, who spend a lot of time on them and it can hurt to keep your body in that position for long periods of time.” He smiled. “You’ll be doing a tandem, so Mr. Taylor will be in control for most of the jump. You’ll basically be going along for the ride.”
Of course Dorian would b
e in control. Nothing new there,
she thought.
The three of them walked over to the mannequin. “The large canopy is your main parachute,” Luke explained. “The smaller one is the reserve chute. It’s equipped with a Cypres, an automatic activation device designed to deploy the reserve if a jumper fails to pull the ripcord by the time they reach a speed of 78 miles per hour and are approximately 1,900 feet above ground
level. Rest assured, we put safety above all else. Who’s going to be pulling the chute Mr. Taylor? You or Ms. Reese?”
“I don’t . . .” Jennifer began.
Dorian interrupted her. “She’s going to pull the ripcord.” He gave her one of his intense stares. The kind that said this wasn’t open to negotiation.
Luke nodded. “You won’t be able to hear each other during free-fall. You’ll have to use hand signals to talk to one another. Watch for Mr. Taylor’s signal indicating it’s time to deploy the canopy.” Luke made a fist and pointed his index finger out. “That’s the signal to pull the ripcord. It’ll come right out. It’s really easy.”
Next, he had her lay on one of those boards with the wheels. “Lay flat and put your arms straight out, bend your elbows so your hands are parallel to your ears, arch your pelvis forward and bend your knees so your feet are facing straight up in the air.”
She did as she was told.
“Nice arch, Ms. Reese. You got it. Mr. Taylor will be above you in the same position, but because you’ll be totally weightless in free-fall you won’t feel him there.”
“Dorian, I have to know you’re there or I can’t do this!”
“I’ll give you a thumbs up, the hand signal letting you know everything is okay a few times to reassure you I’m still there. I’ll put your hand on the rip cord a few times as well so you won’t forget where it is. Trust me. It means a lot to me that we share this.” His voice was soft and reassuring.
They went over a few more things and then she and Dorian put on the jumpsuits. He put on his parachute pack. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably as she tried to zip up the suit. He helped her with it, attached the harness and double checked that it was secure.
She heard the plane’s engine start outside.
I’m going to puke!
She thought as she and Dorian walked to the plane. The pilot was already in the cockpit, lining up the plane with the runway.
“Happy Landings,” Luke called out.
Absentmindedly, she mumbled a thank you.
When they climbed
onto the plane, there was another jumper already on board.
“This is Miguel. He’s going to shoot a DVD of us during our jump. I want you to have it so you’ll remember this night forever.” He crooked a finger under her chin and kissed her quickly.
Jennifer sat by the window as the plane gained altitude, circled around and kept going higher after each turn.
“Why are we turning around so many times?” she asked.
“We need to be at 13,500 feet before we jump,” Dorian shouted.
It was difficult to hear each over the plane’s engine.
Jesus H. Christ! 13,500 feet. I am going to puke. Hell, I don’t even like to go up on a ladder I’m so afraid of heights!
She thought
.
And then the moment was upon them. Dorian strapped her to him, was tight up against her back and the door opened wide. The wind blew on their faces. Dorian had been telling the truth when he’d said it was a lot colder up here.
“Ready?” Dorian asked.
The camera man jumped out first and completely disappeared from sight.
“Oh
hell
no! I can’t do it! We’ll plummet to the ground, I just know it.”
“No we won’t. You won’t feel as if you’re falling at all. It’s not like jumping from a stationary object. The plane is moving and we’ll be moving too. You won’t even notice you’re out the door. You’ll like it, I promise.”
“You
always
say that!”
“And I’m always right, aren’t I?”
She was in front, with him attached to her facing the sky. She felt a slight nudge as he moved them out the door, and then—she was floating on the air. Not falling,
floating
, her body was free and weightless. She felt Dorian’s hands enclose hers, correcting the position of her arms.
This must be what it felt like to be a bird gliding through the air. She relaxed enough to look down. She saw Miami’s night
sky. Her breath caught in her throat at the beauty of it; the bright lights and beyond them, the ocean glistening in the moonlight.
All of a sudden, everything disappeared. She couldn’t see a thing. She started to panic.
Dorian gave her a hand signal; a thumbs up. She calmed down. She didn’t feel him above her at all. It was as if she were truly flying solo, riding the sky. It was incredible. The sky cleared and again she saw the lights, much closer now.
She realized they’d just passed through a cloud. To fall through a cloud, to be caressed by
was indescribable.
Closing
her eyes, she felt the wind pushing at her body from below and looked at the altimeter, 2,100 feet and falling. They’d fallen this far in a mere 60 seconds and she’d never once felt the drop.
Dorian signaled her to pull the ripcord. Her hand fumbled for it, couldn’t locate it. She was
ready to panic when she felt his hand firmly on hers guiding it to the cord. She grabbed it and pulled.
Immediately, they were jerked up into the air as the chute deployed.
After which, they drifted slowly downward. She looked at everything around her. The glide down was so incredibly peaceful. Now, they were able to hear each other.
“You did great, Jennifer. Thank you for sharing this with me.”
“Thank you for, well, being you.”
“Do you know how much I want you right now? If I could’ve figured out a way to fuck you in midair, I would’ve,” he whispered. “Now,
that
would truly be the ultimate rush!”
The camera man had moved away from them when he’d released his own chute, so he couldn’t hear them.
“We’re ready to land. Put your legs out straight and relax. I’ve got control of the toggles. We’ll slide in nice and easy.”
And they did.
Back on the ground, he helped her up and kissed her right there on the tarmac. It wasn’t a light kiss either. It was full of hunger.
“I can barely wait to get you alone,” he whispered in her ear. “Tell me you want me Jennifer.”
“You don’t need to tell me to say that, Dorian. I want you as much as you want me.”