Breathe, Annie, Breathe (21 page)

I look into his eyes and catch him grimacing.

“Does your shoulder hurt?”

“Like hell. But I don’t care right now.”

He moans as I slip my hand inside his boxer briefs, moving my hand up and down until he wants me back on top. I love feeling him pressed up against my body, and I sort of hate that we’re separated by underwear as we take care of each other’s needs. I rock against his hips until I’m seeing spots, pressing my forehead to his when tingles fill both our bodies.

“Yeah, a relationship sounds just fine,” I say, working to catch my breath.

“I reckon this means I finally get to take you on a real date, huh?” he responds with a lazy smile.

“You’d better.”

“How about tonight?”

“Can’t. Kelsey and I are grabbing dinner at the dining hall and then seeing that new Brad Pitt–Angelina Jolie movie where they’re cyborgs trying to kill each other. It’s girls’ night.”

He grins at that. “How about roller blading this afternoon, then?”

“We are not going roller blading with that shoulder a mess like it is.”

He laughs, tangling his feet with mine. “Just kidding.”

I drag my fingertip up and down the surgical scar on his arm and bury my face in the warm hollow of his neck. “You’re gonna take it easy for a while, right?”

“I can’t move my arm. I don’t think I have a choice but to relax.”

“Until you find some new crazy stunt to try next week, you mean,” I say with a laugh.

“I’m not doing any more stunts.”

I can’t control what might happen. All I can do is live. “I don’t want you to give up what you love for me.”

“That’s not it.” He shakes his head. “Don’t you understand how you make me feel?”

“You told me you love me—”

“I’m going to show you how much you make me feel. You’re gonna feel it yourself.”

“How?”

“Do you trust me?”

•••

My body is shaking, my nerves crackling. Sweat pours down my face. I feel like I’m on a beach in a storm and lightning might strike any second.

“Next!” a worker says, and I step forward. Cords and clips dangle off the harness tightly strapped around my body.

I
can
do
this. I can do this.

The zip line employee helps me up onto the wooden platform attached to a tree. I look down into the vast canyon below me filled with pointy rocks and trees.

“I can’t do this.”

“Getting up here is the worst part,” the worker replies. “It’s perfectly safe, I promise.”

I believe him. Regardless that he’s willing to take big risks, Jeremiah would never put me in danger. I let out a deep breath. The worker hooks me to a trolley, tells me to sit down in my harness, and pushes me off the platform.

Wait. He pushed me off the platform!

I scream, holding on to my rope tight. Wind smacks my face. I soar over the canyon. Fear ices my body and my heart leaps to light speed.

“Slow down, slow down!” the guy waiting on the other platform yells. I press the lower line, and I jerk to a stop right in front of the tree trunk.

“Holy shit,” I blurt as the guy reaches out and pulls me from the air onto the platform.

“You did good,” the worker says with a bright grin, hooking my rope to the tree so I don’t fall into the canyon I just crossed. I gasp when I look down. “We’re over three hundred feet high and the line you just zipped is three hundred and fifty feet long. It’s our most challenging obstacle.”

“Why in the world would you make us do the hardest line first?”

“It’s all easy peasy from here on out.” The worker fist-bumps me.

I zip three more lines, each one leaving me shakier than the last. I like the feeling of stress bleeding away when I’m back on solid ground. Not sure I could do this on a daily basis, though.

After the final line, I trudge up the hill to a smiling Jeremiah. I’m at a total loss for words, overwhelmed by the experience I just had—placing all my trust in some ropes and people I don’t know. We stand in silence as he helps me remove my gear. With his good arm, he unsnaps my harness, letting it fall to the deck. Careful to mind his sling, I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him until my heart begins to slow. He massages warm circles onto my lower back.

“Well?” he finally asks.

“That was nuts.” I touch fingers to my neck to feel my out-of-control pulse.

“Did you feel the adrenaline?” he asks.

I nod. Right now I could lift a car if I had to. “I can see why you’re into it.”

He unsnaps my helmet, then looks at me with mischievous glittering eyes. His lips meet mine, and he slips his good hand behind my neck. “I never knew what an adrenaline rush really was until we met. When I first saw you? That was the day all my running finally paid off—because you were on the trails. You make me feel three times the rush of skydiving or bungee jumping…I felt the biggest rush of my life when you said you love me.”

I hop up on tiptoes, bury my hands in his crazy hair, and capture his lips with mine. My stomach leaps into my throat.

When we finally stop kissing each other, he holds me close. “So how about some lunch?”

I draw tiny circles on his chest with my fingertips. “Vanessa is still in Knoxville visiting her boyfriend…how about we go back to my room?”

His eyebrows pop up when he realizes what I’m offering. “You’re sure?”

I answer with a kiss that leaves us both breathless.