CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SHANNON
Gabe has refused to remove the blindfold. I sense we’re on a highway. We’re not in the city anymore. I’ve worked out that much.
I shift in my seat. “You’re really not going to tell me where we’re going?”
“It wouldn’t be much of a surprise then, would it?” Gabe replies.
“I should warn you I’m not big on blind dates.”
He laughs. “Neither am I. Matt tried to hook me up with this girl from another high school once. Let’s just say her idea of kissing came with an extra side of saliva.”
“Ew.”
“Moral of the story being, don’t let your brother organize your dates.” The four-wheel-drive makes a turn. “Here we are.”
I wait and listen, only sound to guide me. I hear Gabe get out, the driver’s door closing. My door opens, pressure on the blindfold before it slips away completely.
It’s bright outside. I squint past Gabe trying to work out where the hell we are.
It doesn’t take me long.
“An airfield?” I read a sign on the hanger. “Skydiving?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Is this Jason’s place?”
On cue Jason comes running out from the hanger. He’s excited to see us. “My people!”
He embraces Gabe first before stepping up to help me out of the four-wheel-drive.
I know I said I wanted to go skydiving one day, but ‘one day’ was the key component of that phrase. My legs are already turning to Jell-o looking at the tin can of a plane parked in the hanger.
Jason sees me staring. “Yep, that’s my girl. Her name’s Jennifer.”
“Jennifer?” I question.
“You know,” says Jason, “like J. Lo.”
“You named your plane after a pop star?”
He spans his hands apart. “She’s got a nice ass.”
“I see,” I reply, flicking a look of concern Gabe’s way, but he’s clearly enjoying himself.
“Come on,” says Jason, leading us towards the hanger. “The conditions are perfect to kiss the sky today.”
Gabe takes my hand and squeezes as we walk. “You okay with this? You can back out if you want.”
Given that offer a week ago, I might have, but a lot can happen in a week. I’m not about to go Casper the cowardly ghost on Gabe now.
You’re a strong, badass woman.
Even said in my head it sounds ridiculous.
How hard can it be? You fly up, you jump out. Easy.
Yeah, real easy.
Gabe gives my butt a short squeeze. “The adrenaline rush is incredible, at least the first time.”
“It seems I’m checking off a lot of firsts lately.”
“You’ll be strapped to me if it’s any consolation, which should be interesting.”
“Why’s that?” I ask.
He leans in and whispers into my ear. “One, I don’t usually do tandem, and two, because I’ve never jumped with a hard-on before.”
I push him away. “You’re cheeky. You know that?”
He puts his hands up in surrender. “Can you blame a guy for being horny when he’s got eye candy like you around all day?”
I roll my eyes. “And how many times have you used that line?”
He laughs again. “Like you said, I’m checking off a lot of firsts lately.”
Jason spins and shouts back to us. “Hey, less chit-chat, you two. We’ve got work to do.”
Gabe salutes him back. “Yes, sir.”
*
All this time and it seems I’ve developed quite a few misconceptions about skydiving. I thought you rocked up, were bundled into a plane, and bam, all done, but the reality is rather different. Jason carefully runs me through the safety procedures, the position to take in the air, what to do in an emergency…
It’s old news to Gabe, of course, but he’s enjoying see me go through it all the same, especially the part where I’m strapped up in what for all intents and purposes looks like a sex swing.
Jason moves around me as I dangle in the air. “Yes, that’s right, arms up just like that. A little higher… higher… Yes.”
Gabe’s smirking as I try to keep my balance. “You look adorable, by the way.”
I nod to his black and blue jumpsuit. “You look like an overgrown baby wondering where his big boy pants have gone.”
Jason jumps back stunned. “Whoa! I haven’t witnessed a burn like that since we lit up downtown Mosul.” He turns to Gabe, who’s got a smile so big on his face it’s a wonder it doesn’t rip his cheeks apart. “That’s your girl, huh?”
“That’s my girl,” Gabe replies.
Unharnessed off the sex swing-slash-human pendulum, we head out to the plane. “How, uh, old is Jennifer?” I ask, a butterfly farm of nerves stirred to unrest in my belly.
I feel even more ridiculous in these googles. The pink onesie I’m wearing ain’t much better, but I note Gabe’s eyes wandering, taking me in. I feel a bit more comfortable after that.
We stop by the plane door. Jason stands there addressing us. “As I mentioned, Gabe will be your jumpmaster today, Shannon. Once you’re inside we’ll get you two nice and cozy while I head up to the drop zone.”
The only thing about to drop right now is my stomach.
Gabe has the parachute on his back, still grinning like an idiot.
Inside, harnessed up to Gabe, I give a sharp jerk when the engines start.
“You’ll be fine,” says Gabe, raising his voice to be heard over the ruckus.
It only takes us fifteen minutes to reach the right altitude, but it seems like fifteen hours. The higher we get, the more I’m freaking out.
“Enjoying the ride?” Jason yells back from the cockpit. Yes, it’s that close.
I can only nod in affirmation.
What appears to be a traffic light on the side of the plane’s interior shifts from red to green, an alarm sounding.
Lord, help me.
Gabe starts to waddle us towards the door, sliding it open. Cool air rushes in, nothing but the big blue beyond outside.
I tense up. Oh, hell no.
But it’s too late.
Gabe helps me cross my limp arms over my chest, lifting my feet until I’m literally hanging from him, my head back against his shoulder as instructed. I’m a rag doll, completely under his control.
When he leans out of the doorway and I can see farm fields below, I almost pass out right there on the spot.
I summon my voice to speak, but it snaps shut when Gabe flips—yes, flips—us out of the plane.
The world spins, air rushing past my ears, the goggles pressed hard to my face as Gabe corrects and gets us into position.
We’re freefalling, hurtling through the sky, but it doesn’t feel like falling at all. It’s completely different to what I expected.
We spin slightly and I see Jennifer disappearing above us.
We’re not falling, I realize. We’re flying.
Jason told me freefall itself would last less than sixty seconds. Gabe taps me on the shoulder to indicate touch-down position.
The parachute deploys and we’re snapped to a stop, falling and lifting at the same time. I have the world’s biggest wedgie. I’m surprised I haven’t been cut in two as we drift downwards, spiraling towards a golden field below.
Gabe reaches down to loosen the two links at my hips. Instant comfort follows. “Here,” he says, “hold these,” handing me the parachute toggles. “You’re driving.”
The ride down under canopy takes a lot longer than the fall itself. It’s peaceful, but the ground seems to be coming up awfully fast.
“Knees up to your chest,” Gabe commands. “Now.”
The ground rushes up. Gabe’s feet hit the ground first. He staggers forward. “Stand up.”
My feet find the earth.
Gabe disconnects me and the parachute, the latter laid flat on the long grass behind us. “Perfect landing.”
I look around, stunned.
He helps me out of my harness before stepping out of his own and stretching. “Well, how does it feel?”
I nod, still a touch breathless. “Incredible.”
“Better than this?”
Gabe takes me in his arms and kisses me deep. We spin, my ankle caught up in the harness until I stagger back and fall onto the splayed parachute, laughing.
Gabe lies down beside me on the silk, taking off my helmet and lifting my googles away. “That’s better.”
The midday sun is beating down on us, the fabric of the parachute warm below.
He leans forward to kiss me again, his fingers coming up to pull on the zipper at the front of my jumpsuit.
“What are you doing?”
“Ssshhh,” he replies, the zipper dropping.
He shifts himself until he’s between my legs, lifting me up to peel my jumpsuit away from the shoulders down.
I look around nervously. “Won’t Jason be here soon?”
“He still has to land the plane, and I made sure we got lost a little on the way down.”
Gabe slips off my shoes, tugging the jumpsuit from my ankles until I’m left in nothing but my tank top and panties.
“Gabe…”
He’s smiling hard again kneeling there, hands reaching for the waistband of my panties and pulling until they release from my crotch. He drags them slowly up my legs and hooks them off my feet, my legs dropping back against the silk of the parachute.
He discards my panties and places his hands on my knees, spreading my legs apart. “And now for a dive of a different kind.”
“Ga—” but I don’t get the full protest out, my hands falling on his head as his lips make contact with my pussy.
I relax, my head dropping and back arching off the ground as he licks in a long stroke from the slack opening of my pussy right up to my clit, softly flicking it with the very tip of his tongue.
I moan out, looking up into glowing eyelids as he pleasures me.
He mews and growls against my skin, hands shifting to the creamy underside of my thighs as his tongue spears deep into my pussy, into the hot compression of my slickness.
My mouth opens to take in more air, my fingers raking through his hair. My ass lifts off the ground, grinding against him as he gently sucks on my clit, pulling it in between his lips and letting it slip away, teasing and lashing it until I’m soaking wet.
My pussy starts to pulse against his face, the stubble on his chin rasping against the sensitive skin there. He nuzzles deeper and purrs, clearly enjoying himself.
I smell grass and open air, my own arousal.
My nipples have turned to tight arrowheads under my tank top. I can feel them pointing to the sky—the sky we have just fallen from.
“Gabe,” I moan.
He slips a finger inside me, running it deep while his tongue continues to lash my clit rhythmically above, the constant stirring motion of it bringing me close to climax.
Anyone could stumble upon us out here in this field. It could be private land for all I know, but these thoughts muddle as another finger joins the first, a third sliding up between my ass cheeks to settle against my anus.
I stiffen.
I’ve never had anyone touch me there, never touched myself there, and the taboo, naughty spell of it instantly sends me freefalling into orgasm.
I grunt in release, holding his head tight against my crotch, my fingers digging into his scalp, suffocating him in my sex.
The two fingers inside me curl upwards, the finger below slipping past the tight ring of muscle there. Another orgasm stacks on the first, the pleasure doubled until I’m near blindness—unable to speak, to move, caught in this web of pleasure until finally it all comes crashing down and I go as limp as the grass that sways around us.
I’m still jerking, shaking in the afterglow of my orgasm when Gabe pulls himself away, kneeling to admire his handiwork.
Slowly, I bring myself onto my elbows as consciousness returns. My hair is damp, stuck to my head. “Wow. That was…” I don’t have the words.
“Wait until I take you in the ass.”
A flutter of excitement runs through me at the taboo prospect. “I feel like I should return the favor.”
Gabe shakes his head, licking his lips. “No need. Jason will be here soon enough, and I don’t exactly want him to find us in a compromising position.”
“Alright.” I nod, hunting for my panties on the ground. “You win this round, jumpmaster, but I will return the favor, and when you least expect it.”
He picks up my jumpsuit and passes it to me. “Can’t wait.