I can’t believe I did that. I really cannot believe I did that. That’s two things in two days that I never in a million years would’ve imagined doing. Ever.

But here I am, occasionally breaking into giggles as I step out of the shower Wetsuit or not, the Delaware is the Delaware and it was freezing cold. I remember again the unbeatable thrill of falling through the air, nothing under me, and the splash as my body hit the water. That awesome, adrenaline-shot moment when I knew I had made it all right, and hadn’t died on impact, or wasn’t about to drown. That beautiful moment when I knew I had done it.

Trent is right. I’m pretty unstoppable when I put my mind to it.

Mom is asleep when I get downstairs. Not a surprise, since it’s after dinner and she usually spends most of the evening dozing. I wonder if it makes me a bad daughter, being slightly glad she’s asleep. There are times when I miss being able to live in my head without having to constantly answer questions, or check on another person’s welfare. I didn’t spend much time living on my own, but the two years I had to myself were nice. I felt independent. I was doing my own thing. Living in my own little apartment. Yeah, it was small but it was mine. I felt I was building a life.

But as soon as Mom got her diagnosis, I felt wracked with guilt. I was immediately sure it was my fault. There had to be something I could’ve done to help her stay healthy. Anything. Within days, I was back in my old bedroom.

I don’t regret it, not for a minute, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t times when I miss living the way people my age do. Going out, drinking, dating, having little adventures. Things like what I did with Trent last night aren’t in my repertoire of experiences and I don’t want them in my life on a day to day basis, but it was great to test my limits.

I guess my life can be described as boring, but I never minded having to grow up faster than all my other friends, or taking on all the extra responsibility of taking care of a sick parent. It only bothers me sometimes. Like tonight. When I come home bursting with energy and adrenaline and I’m all alone. There’s nobody to share it with.

The doorbell is ringing. I run out from the kitchen in time to get the door before it rings again and wakes Mom.

It’s Trent.

“You!”

He’s standing there on the porch, leaning against the wall beside the bell, a jackass eating cactus grin stretched on his face. Only the grin doesn’t reach his eyes. His gorgeous eyes look deadly serious. “Yeah, me.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to pick you up. There are things we need to talk about.”

“I—I don’t know if I can just leave.” I throw a glance over my shoulder. He can’t see Mom and her bed from where he’s standing, but I sure can.

“You have company?”

“Sort of. Not the way you think. It’s my mother.”

“Ah. Mommy doesn’t like you going out with strange boys.” One corner of his mouth quirks up in a sexy smirk. “Especially, strange boys who ride motorcycles.”

Oh, so he’s brought that, has he? Sure enough, it’s sitting on the curb, just as sleek and shiny as ever. “I really don’t know…”

“Yes, you do.” His eyes meet mine and he doesn’t flinch. “You do. You need to come with me.”

He’s right. I do. Mom’s stirring as I reach for my coat and purse. “Do you need anything, Mom? I’m going to go out for a little while, if not.”

She smiles. “Go. Have fun for once.” The sandwich I made for her dinner is still there, waiting, along with a pitcher of water.

“Okay, I won’t be long. I promise.” Can I really make that promise when I don’t even know where he’s planning to take me? “It can’t be long,” I say as we’re going to the bike. “I mean it. I have to be back here for my mom.”

“Sure. We won’t be out all night. Just give me an hour or two. Okay?”

When he smiles at me the way he is, I can’t even think of saying no. Actually, what woman in her right mind would?

Instead of answering, I swing a leg over the back of his motorcycle and link my hands in front of his navel. Before I know it, we’re speeding off through the night while raw adrenaline pumps through my veins. I’d better be careful before this rush becomes an addiction.

We don’t go far. Just to a motel around ten minutes from my home. By the time we pull in, I know what he has in mind. Not the most romantic scenario, and the fact that he already has a room key means he’s already paid for the room, which means he’s planned this out.

I don’t care.

I’m glad.

I’ve wanted this since last night. No, since before that. Since that moment after we ran from the restaurant without paying and he stood so close to me I thought he might kiss me. That was the moment when I stopped thinking about him as the competition. The enemy.

It’s almost scary how it never occurs to me to question him on anything or make even a token objection as we walk into the room and he locks the door behind us. Maybe it’s the naughty, irresponsible, sexy me that he’s unlocked or maybe there aren’t any questions that need to be asked. We are just a man and a woman who are hungry for each other.

He pins me to the wall and his mouth is on mine before I even have a chance to look around. His big powerful body crushes me, but I don’t care. I want it to. I need it to. I tangle his hair around my fingers and pull his face closer to mine, kissing him back as hard as I can, until it hurts. And even the pain is good.

And still, he kisses me, breathless and grunting. Like an animal. A dog in heat or a shark that has scented blood. His tongue sliding in and out of my mouth in time with the thrusting of his hips against me. The passion is like wildfire. So much promise, so much to come. It’s so hot and savage because it has been building from the moment I set eyes on him in the parking lot.

He lets go of me long enough to peel off my coat and drop it to the floor. “You taste of cherries.” His hands are under my sweater and lifting it over my head. He runs his fingers through my hair and tugs my head back so the whole length of my throat is exposed to his lustful eyes.

“Jesus,” he mutters thickly, before his mouth descends.

Then his mouth is all over my jaw, my throat, the side of my neck, my collarbone. Burning me, devouring me, making my head spin and waves of delicious pleasure to course through my body. I feel his mouth suck on my throat. I know what he is doing. He is branding me. Telling the world I’m his. And I let him. I let him leave his mark on me.

“Yes…yes, please…” The words pour out of me in a raspy whisper that doesn’t sound like me.

He lifts his head and looks at my neck, his eyes dark with lust and feral satisfaction. “Now you’re mine,” he says.

I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on tight when he cups my butt with both hands and lifting me easily, carrying me to the bed. He lowers me and stretches out on top of me.

I clasp my hands around his neck, lock my legs around his hips, and bring him closer to the center of my wet, throbbing heat. I’m aching to draw him inside. I crave him. I slide a hand between us to take a tentative stroke of that bulge.

He groans and goes stiff. He’s so hard, scary big, practically bursting out of his jeans.

Clenching his jaw, he lets out a shaky breath. “I don’t know how much of that I can stand,” he growls before descending on me again, leaving a trail of wet, hot kisses down my chest. His fingers hook into the cups of my bra to pull them down, exposing my nipples to his greedy eyes. I arch my back, pressing myself to his mouth, moaning his name between gasps of pleasure. I lose it then. His mouth sweeps me up into an oblivion beyond words, beyond thinking.

I lift my hips when his hands reach my waist. He helps me wiggle out of my jeans and then strokes up my legs, admiring them, trailing soft kisses from ankle to thigh which makes me whimper helplessly. My head rolls from side to side as his skilled tongue flickers over the crease between my inner thigh and my plump lips.

When he picks up the scent of my yearning, he growls like a starving animal. “Jesus, the smell of your pussy is driving me crazy,” he grunts as he pulls my panties aside and tastes me again.

It’s bliss, even better than the first time because now it’s just us. I grind my pussy against his face and cry out. I don’t have to hold it in this time. I can tell him how much I love it, how good it feels, how good my body feels when he runs his tongue between my swollen lips and around my pulsing clit.

“Yes, yes, right there,” I beg, straining, hips off the bed.

Then my climax hits and I go flying over the abyss. Never in my life has my orgasms been like this. It goes on and on.

His mouth is warm on my inner thighs as he pulls my panties down and I hear the lowering of his zipper. That makes me open my eyes. I want to watch as he strips down. His body is as chiseled as I guessed, strong and muscular. I could bounce a quarter off it. Heat begins to spread again in my core, and I lick my lips in anticipation when he frees his massive dick and rolls a condom down its thick length.

He moves between my legs, and I let my eyes take in the size and strength of his shoulders, arms, chest and thighs. Our eyes lock and I see pleasure in his, and lust. Need. For me. The thought makes my fire burn hotter. When he pushes forward, pressing the bulging head through my wet entrance and slides deep inside, my eyes widen with shock.

“You’re so damn big,” I gasp. I’ve never felt so stretched and full in my life.

“You’re so damn tight…” he breathes, a tick in his cheek is going crazy.

He pauses to allow my muscles to relax around him before he pulls back and pushes in again. And again. We find an easy rhythm, working together, and every sure stroke of his cock brings me closer to the edge again. I close my eyes and let him take me away. I’m his. He can do whatever he wants.

He sits back on his haunches and pulls me up into his arms. Turns out I like this position even better. The friction against my clit as he moves inside me is amazing. His mouth sucks one nipple, then the other. His big, sure hands move up and down my back, over my butt, then to my hips where he guides me up and down his length.

I sit up, pulling him to me by the back of his neck for another deep, breathless kiss.

“Fuck, you’re so fucking hot,” he groans as his mouth moves over my neck and shoulders, nipping, licking and sucking, his breath is hot but not the same glass melting heat building in my core. He’s losing control and I love it, knowing I can do this to him that I can break through that shell of confidence and control, bring out the animal side of him that grunts as I thrust harder. This is really happening, this is us—just us, losing control in each other’s arms and oh, my God…!

“Yes! Yes, Yes!” I scream as I collapse in his arms, sweaty and exhausted.

He takes his last powerful thrust and explodes deep inside me. For a long while, we stay entwined while his breathing normalizes. He touches my forehead with his. I kiss the side of his head. He kisses the love bite he put on my throat.

My fingers move to the spot I’ll have to hide with makeup. “Why did you do it?”

He shakes his head slowly. “I don’t know. I’ve never done it to a woman before.”

I climb off him, suddenly achy and awkward. I hope it was alright for him. He came, but it doesn’t take much for a guy to do that. He must have had dozens of women in his time. Did I measure up?

He ties off the condom and turns to me with a sheepish grin. “Sorry, about the sleazy motel. It was the closest place to your home. I was going insane. I just couldn’t help myself… I had to have you. Even if it meant we had to hide out here to do it.”

“I got the impression you like doing things you have to apologize for,” I reply looking around the room for the first time. “It’s not that bad anyway. It looks pretty typical.”

“You deserve better.” He’s not smiling anymore. “But I didn’t want to run the risk of getting recognized in a high-traffic area.”

“No, no, you were right. This is just fine. Seriously.” What matters more than anything is who I’m with, but I don’t have the courage to say that out loud. I only cuddle up next to him and hope he understands.

“Are you sure you have to be back for your mom so soon? I have the room all night,” he murmurs with his mouth against my ear.

I shiver as his breath hits my skin, but I sit up. It’s time for a confession. “You told me to remember my reason back in the helicopter, remember?”

He nods.

“You were right. I do have a reason. A very important one. Although you’d be surprised how many thoughts can go through a person’s head in such a short amount of time.” I laugh. “Or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised, since you went through the same thing.”

He chuckles, nodding again. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure my whole life flashed before my eyes.”

He’s so different now. So relaxed. It makes him even more handsome than ever, or maybe that’s just because we’re naked, in bed, and he’s mine right now. All mine. “My mom is the reason I’m doing all of this. It was her I thought about throughout the jump.”

He touches my hand, and a frown wrinkles on his forehead. “What’s the matter with her?”

Instead of looking at him, I gaze down at our hands, the way they touch. If I look him in the eye right now, I’ll break down. I know I will. “Lung cancer.”

“Oh, Dakota. I’m so sorry.” His fingers curl around mine and squeeze gently, tenderly, and that simple gesture gives me the strength to continue.

“It doesn’t have to kill her, if she can get the right treatment. You know the commercials they have on TV for those special treatment centers? They, you know, take a holistic approach to treatment instead of just pumping a person full of chemicals. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but for her it would just be a delay of the inevitable. The doctors at this center can help her. They already told her so. They have a plan in place for her care. All she needs is—”

“—the money,” he finishes in a flat, toneless voice.

“Exactly.”

“That’s why you’re going through all this craziness? Because you want to save your mother’s life?”

“What else is there?” I look at him, blinking, waiting for an answer.

“I don’t know. Everybody has their reason. Yours is pretty strong.”

I hope he’ll tell me what his is, why he needs the million dollars so badly that he’s willing to humiliate himself in public.

Only he doesn’t. What he does is slide his hand away from mine.

And I understand something—he wishes he hadn’t asked.

Because now he knows, he’ll be thinking about my mom at the end of the competition, when it’s only the two of us left. He doesn’t know what to do with that.

I understand something else, too…I don’t want to ask him now. I don’t want to know. If I can imagine something tangible, a gang of loan sharks out to get him, a family business about to go underwater, even a sick relative like mine, I might hesitate when the time comes for us to stop working together and turn against each other.

I can’t do that to my mom. No matter how I feel about him, no matter how much fun I’m having and hope we continue to have because that was the best sex ever, I love Mom more. End of story.

“Thank you for today,” I whisper instead of asking him to spill his guts.

“For what? What did I do?”

“You were kind. You could’ve bullied me into it. Forced me. Screamed at me. You didn’t. You eased me into it and reminded me why I was there in the first place. And that I had the strength inside me to do something that absolutely terrified me. I would’ve fallen apart if you hadn’t done that. I really would have, and I’d be disqualified by now.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do. I know myself. I was right there on the edge, and it could’ve gone either way. You pushed me in the right direction.” I giggle. “Besides, you were holding my hand so tight I didn’t have a choice but to jump.”

He chuckles, pulling me to him. “I’m glad you did.”

“If I hadn’t, we wouldn’t still be in the game.”

“Actually, if you hadn’t jumped, I was going to push you.”

My mouth pops open. “You wouldn’t have?”

“Since you jumped, you’ll never know, will you?”

I gasp when his lips brush against my throat and send shivers of pleasure down my spine. Reflex takes over and my arms wrap around his shoulders, leaving my hands free to roam over his back.

“But I’m glad I got to see you like that,” he whispers. “You looked so…happy. No, not just happy. Joyous.”

“Wanna see me looking joyous again?” I murmur. He kisses my earlobe before nipping it, teasing me. I close my eyes and giving myself over to him. Like I have a choice. Like I want one.

“First, I want to eat your sweet pussy again…”