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When he got to where I was, his smile looked like a permanent fixture on his handsome face.

“God, that felt good.” Serenity unclipped him. “What did you think?”

Did the man realize his harness snuggly fit him and I saw everything he was packing? I did my best not to look, but holy crap I could see where he would be slightly confident in the man whore department. Clearly he had a reason to strut his stuff.
Focus Annabelle.

“Uh, I uh . . . ” Clearing my throat and closing my eyes for a brief moment to gather myself, I opened them and met his crystal blue eyes head on. “It was an interesting feeling.”

“Interesting good, or interesting bad?”

“Interesting, and I’ll leave it at that. There are how many more of these things? I’ll let you know when we are done.”

He chuckled. “Okay, fair enough.”

I nodded.

“So you wanted the little boys to see your underwear, huh?”

Oh God, I was so caught up in everything that I forgot I spit that little bit of knowledge out. My cheeks felt warm, and I bit my lip hard, trying to hold my composure. Why must he talk about embarrassing things when I have no place to escape too? Probably part of his plan, the asshole.

“I was under pressure. You asked and it was the first thing I could think of. Don’t judge.” I snapped, trying to hold back an embarrassed smirk.

He held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, I’m not judging. I am just shocked is all. Let me guess, you wore those cute little ‘days of the week’ underwear too.”

My eyes got wide. “What did I say about judging?”

Turner burst out laughing. “It was a wild shot in the dark. I had no clue you really did.”

I slapped at his arm. “Alright, sir, turnabout is fair play. Tell me something about you.”

“Let me think about this one.”

I shook my head. “Oh no. You don’t get to think about it. You made me answer under pressure. Well, here’s your pressure, Mr. Tell Me Something. Three . . . two . . . one.”

“You drive a hard bargain, Annabelle. Okay, I almost joined the Navy before I headed off to college. I wanted to become a Navy SEAL.”

Whoa, I was slightly impressed. “Why didn’t you?”

“Another question, another line. Let’s go, pretty girl, ask me at the bottom.”

Serenity clipped Turner onto the next line of the course. “Ready to go!” she announced.

He took no time flinging himself off the edge. This section seemed a little shorter than the last one. He did this so carelessly and freely. I doubted that by the end of the course, I’d feel confident enough to step off without thinking of every possible way I could die. My brain just didn’t work that way, or allow me to relax. But, at least this time, I knew what I was expecting when I would let myself fall. I saw Turner reach the bottom and give a thumbs up. Guess it was my turn. Getting clipped in, I lowered myself to a seated position and allowed gravity to do its job. No running starts for me.

I heard Turner say a little “whoop” for me when I was near the platform. When I got to him, I was successfully stopped by Joe, and unclipped.

“You’re getting good at this,” Turner commended.

I rolled my eyes. “Did I really have a choice? Seems to be the only way down at this point.”

“You have a point.”

“If I go on another date with you, I swear I’m going to need in writing and possibly a blood fingerprint what you’re plans are. No more of this surprise freaking Annabelle out stuff.”

He laughed. “But you’re doing it aren’t you? Are you enjoying it?”

I thought for a moment. “I think I’ll find it enjoyable
after
I get home and realize I’m safe and sound from your crazy antics.”

“Oh, Annabelle, these aren’t crazy antics. Unless I take you skydiving or bungee jumping, this is quite tame.”

My eyes got round. “I will never throw myself out of a perfectly good airplane for shits and giggles, Turner Brooks. So count me out.”

“Noted.”

He was amused by me. Joe was standing back allowing our moment and not interrupting our date. I kind of wished he would keep us moving so we could get this over with. Wait a second . . . this was the third platform. Didn’t Serenity say this was the one that would be interesting?
Crap
. I looked around for anything that was different about this one versus the last two. That’s when I saw it. There was a small wooden bridge that extended outwards about six feet. A cable went across it but it looked just like the ones we’d just traveled on. Maybe we were supposed to walk out and step off. Why in the world would we do that instead of doing it from right here? The bridge looked unsteady.

“Are we going?” I asked, ready to keep moving.

Joe came into my line of sight. “Yep, but here’s where you have two options. You can either go down this one like you have the others,
or . . .”
his “or” sounded ominous. “You can walk out on this little plank here like a pirate, and take a leap of faith.”

Turner wagged his eye brows at me. “Argh!” He tried to sound like a pirate.

“Not funny.” I glared at him. “What do you mean a leap of faith? As in, just step off? Do you slide down the line still?”

Joe shook his head. “Nope. This one is a little simpler than that. You jump off the edge and once you’re at the bottom, you walk to the next station.”

I gulped. Were they insane? I already thought the was the worst idea ever was throwing myself over the edge of a hillside, but now they are asking me if I
want
to plummet eighty feet to the bottom? No way, no how. I already knew my answer. I was barely comfortable with this whole zip lining thing, this was just insanity to me. And of course I didn’t need to ask Mr. Daredevil if he planned on jumping. He was.

“You going to do it?”

“Hell no. I’m quite fond of my legs and arms being intact, thank you very much.”

Turner stepped into my little bubble again. Why does he do that? His woodsy aftershave washed over me and made me slightly dizzy. Men should not smell this good. He brushed his hand down from my shoulder to my elbow leaving a little trail of goose bumps in its path.

“It’s not really the kind of free fall you’re thinking it is. The line catches you and lowers you halfway down.”

I met his blue eyes head on. “That halfway is still too far for me. I’ll go the ‘traditional’ route.” I gave air quotes.

“You’re very stubborn, you know that?”

“Ha! So says the king of Stubborn Land.”

Then he did something I didn’t expect. He bent down and lightly kissed the tip of my nose. My poor heart went into over drive. Until now, Turner had yet to make any move to actually kiss me. Sure he’d kissed my hand at the end of our other date, but that didn’t count. Not like this. And, of course, he chose now to plant a sweet delicate one on me when my nerves were already a hot mess. I’ll give him credit though, it did shift my attention to other things. Like how tender he was. How in that split second I could tell his lips were silky soft. And now how I wanted to grab him by his collar and pull him down to me and kiss him the way I’d been thinking about for the past two weeks. I felt flushed all over and I shifted on my feet. Needing a little air, I cleared my throat.

“Well, you better make the plunge to your death. Your mom’s number is in your phone right?”

He gave me another full bellied laugh. “Yes, it’s in my phone.” He started making his walk out on the very flimsy wooden boards. The further out he went the more it wobbled. “Annabelle?”

The sound of his voice calling my name felt like it was a shot straight to my soul. Why was I feeling this way?

“Yes?”

“There’s more where that came from.”

He leapt. My God, could the dude get any more brazen or cocky? Did it make my heart leap for joy? Yep. But that wasn’t the point here. Clearly he thought he could do whatever he wanted if he sweet talked enough, or put me under his little spell and got close enough. No wonder all those women fell for him. He was like a little devil in scrubs.
Err . . .
well actually khaki shorts and a t-shirt that all fit him entirely too well. The bastard.

Looking over the edge, he landed on a black cushioned mat that was well worn from other jumpers.

“You proud of yourself?” I called down.

“Yes, ma’am. You really should try it. It’s more fun than you think.”

I gave him the “ok” hand sign. “I’m good.”

Joe hooked me up to the traditional line and told me Serenity was waiting for me at the other end. Only difference between the last two times I’d gone, and this time, I noticed my nerves weren’t in full effect like they had been. I zoomed down the line thinking of nothing but Turner and his adorable mouth. I questioned if I would allow him to kiss me again if he tried. And if he did, would it be on my nose again, or on the lips. I was getting wrapped up in the thought of him when my feet touched the bottom. Turner was climbing up a ladder on the side to meet up with me.

“Was it a good one?”

Okay, was he referring to the ride, or the kiss? Certainly not the kiss, it was just on my nose.

“It was enjoyable.”

He smiled. He knew I was
questioning what his he was really asking. I rolled my eyes.

We spent the rest of the morning bantering back and forth, with quite a bit of heavy flirting. We exchanged information about one another that was completely meaningless and yet I found it interesting and fun. There was a bit more to Turner Brooks than I’d previously given him credit for. He more than intrigued me. When we were making the long drive back to my
house, I’d come to the conclusion that I may actually
like
him. Sure it made me uncomfortable, but that was merely because I hadn’t allowed myself to like or crush on anyone in years. Never saw the sense in it. But today, I opened myself up to the possibility of actually seeing where this could go. Granted, not if it meant putting my life at risk every time. But still, I liked him.

Once we made it to my door step, Turner looked down at me with wonder in his eyes.

“I want to go out with you again, Annabelle.”

I laughed. “Why do you look like it amazes you that you’re even asking me?”

His smile wowed me like it always did this close up. He was so beautiful it nearly knocked me off my feet.

“Because it does.”

“You’re an odd one, you know that?”

“Well, I could say the same about you. So what do you say? Another date?”

I tried to make him wait for an answer, I really did. But my answer came out faster than I planned.

“I’d love too. But wait . . .” I
held up my finger. “I refuse to go anywhere that makes me jump off things, go faster than seventy miles per hour, or anything in general that I have to sign a paper stating I may die.”

He snickered. “It’ll be low key.”

I turned my head slightly to the side showing him I was skeptical. “Okay, sir. Well, be careful heading back home. And again, thank you for today.”

It got quiet. Like tense quiet. I was looking at him and he was looking at me. There was a moment in time where you knew he was going to kiss you, and you just had to be ready for it. I wasn’t ready, but I’d take it. Turner bent at the waist. I went up on my tippy toes. Just when I thought our mouths were going to meet, he went left, and I felt his warm lips on my cheek.
My cheek?
Squeezing my hand and releasing it, he stood at his full height and wished me a good day. When he was gone, I went to sit on my back porch to ponder the whole date. I was really starting to get a complex. Turner had kissed me three different times now and not a single one of them was on the mouth. Not a single one of them was full of the passion or ferocity that I pictured him giving the other women he pushed into the supply closets at work. Was he even in to me? Was I his type? Maybe he was looking at me like a buddy, or someone cool to hang out with. I never got the friendship vibe from him, so was I reading him wrong? Maybe. That kind of stung a little. I guess the next date we had I would have to try and pick up on his cues a little more. I didn’t want to invest too much more of myself in him if I was only friend material.

I waited for him to call and tell me what we were doing next.