Chapter 22
Avery Hunter’s Reporter Notebook: Flying through this honeymoon with the greatest of ease.
I slept like the dead, dropping off to sleep after we returned to the cabin.
I didn’t even remove my clothes, so I woke up feeling stifled early this morning.
Only by the clothes. The warm, sexy man curled around me made me feel more comfortable.
I awoke to his hand rubbing light circles over my belly and hip, slowly making its way underneath my clothing.
I was getting hot and bothered, and if I didn’t get up to take a cold shower, I would likely do something stupid, like jump my husband.
Ever so slowly, I slid out from under Warren’s arm and leg and rolled off the bed as silently as possible. Then, I tiptoed into the bathroom for that cold shower.
When I say cold shower, I mean lukewarm shower because I’m not a lunatic.
It gave me time to think about someone who was a lunatic. My father. I grinned into the water as I pictured his face when I told him I married his former law associate, the one he did dirty. Maybe I’d tell him about all the dirty things Warren had been doing to me.
I frowned.
I knew my father was cutthroat, but I had no idea how far he would go. Somehow, this new information did not surprise me. Which in and of itself surprised me.
The water eventually turned icy cold and left me with a problem.
I had forgotten to bring clean clothing into the bathroom.
I wrapped a towel around my body, and not for the first time I wondered why I bothered.
Warren already saw me naked in the light of day and acted like he wanted more.
I sat on his damn face for crying out loud.
Why was I trying to hide behind a towel?
Vulnerability, my mind whispered.
I whispered, shut the fuck up, right back.
I listened at the door but heard nothing. He might still be asleep. I cracked the door and peeked through the one-inch opening. Nothing. The coast was clear.
I opened the door all the way and came to a standstill.
In the middle of the room, Warren Atwell was in a headstand facing the bathroom door. His face was calm, and his eyes were closed. I heard the steady rhythm of his breathing and watched as his gloriously sculpted abs rose and fell while he maintained his balance.
My mouth watered as I realized the man was doing this headstand naked as a jaybird. And whatever he was thinking about was turning him on because his dick pointed straight at me like a freaking sundial.
Warren popped open an eye. “What is so funny?”
I covered my mouth with one hand while clutching my towel. “Nothing.”
Upside down, that glorious frown looked like a smile and nearly made me laugh again.
“If you say so, wife.”
He closed his eyes and returned to his calm breathing. If it weren’t for his dick getting harder, I’d swear he was ignoring me. But, maybe he was thinking of someone else and he was ignoring me.
That caused me to frown.
“I can hear your mind whirring from over there. What has you thinking so hard?” Warren opened both eyes to look at me.
“You seem pretty, um—” I waved toward his crotch. “Excited about your headstand.”
His mouth quirked up on the side. “The exact opposite, I am afraid.”
I perched on the edge of the bed. “Do tell.” My towel fell open slightly.
Lust flared in Warren’s eyes before he closed them. “I woke up to my erection reacting to you singing in the shower. Nothing I could do would make it go down, so I thought I might try some headstands to get the blood flowing in the opposite direction.”
I snorted. “Did it work?”
He blinked a few times at me. “It did until you exited the bathroom in nothing but a towel.”
I felt my skin heat and squeezed my thighs together.
Warren flipped onto his feet and stood before me, sighing greatly. “I shall go to plan B.”
“Plan B? Cold shower?” I asked.
He nodded as he headed into the bathroom. “We only have a half hour before today’s activities commence. Not enough time to do to you what I planned to do last night before you fell asleep.”
The infuriating man chuckled as he closed the door behind him, knowing that would only turn me on and flip my curiosity switch.
Damn it.
Now, I needed another lukewarm shower.
My eyebrows rose on their own as we entered the main hall. A giant net covered much of the middle area and curved up to the sides of thick poles that nearly reached the peaked ceiling. Platforms jutted out of the towers about halfway up. And pinned to their side? Trapeze bars.
I heard Warren suck in a breath, and I immediately clasped his hand. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”
“Why is it always heights?” Warren grumbled.
Gerald entered the room, followed by Dominic, clad in a head-to-toe spangled bodysuit that left nothing to the imagination.
“I wonder if he’s wearing a cup?” I mused.
“What?” Warren turned toward me, his Viking side flashing in his eyes. I could tell he momentarily forgot about his fear of heights.
Mission accomplished.
“Nothing.”
“Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to acrobatics,” Gerald announced with the flair of his former ringmaster profession. “Today is about trusting your partner to catch you or let you fall and know everything will be okay.”
A gasp escaped Megan’s lips as she clutched her hands together. Jack folded his arms and glared at the trapeze. Taney and Keegan whispered to themselves. Irv and Eula simply stared at the contraption.
Warren’s leg bounced as we listened to Gerald talk about how this exercise would build trust and open our marriages to new heights, pun intended. But my husband didn’t seem to be paying attention. He turned greener by the second. My attempts at distraction weren’t helping.
“It’s okay if you want to sit this out,” I whispered.
“No way,” Warren whispered back without taking his eyes off the trapeze. “I am not letting you go up there by yourself.”
“Letting me?” I raised an eyebrow.
He relaxed and turned slightly toward me. “You know what I mean.”
I narrowed my gaze. “I do not. Tell me, Mr. Macho. What do you mean?”
Warren glanced at the trapeze before looking back at me. “I just want you to be safe. That is why I will attempt this exercise with you. I want you to know I have your back or front or whatever side you need me to have.”
Ugh. Why did those words turn me on? I was trying to be mad at him.
“Fine,” I relented. “But the second you don’t feel well, you have to let me know, okay?”
He nodded, but his skin paled even more.
“I mean it, Warren.” I grabbed his chin and forced him to look at me. “If there’s even one iota of doubt, you tap out or stay here. Indecision is the kind of shit that gets people killed.”
For a second, I thought Warren’s eyes might roll back in his head, and he would faint, but thankfully, he kept it together during the safety instructions.
“Everyone climbing the rig will have one of these,” Dominic explained, holding up a heavy-duty carabiner attached to a rope that led to the poles.
“This is an ascender. You’ll be wearing a belt during the exercise.
Before you climb the rig, clip the ascender to the back of your belt.
It moves with you up the ladder, and if you fall, it will stop you from hurting yourself. ”
Warren cursed under his breath. I squeezed his hand.
“One of you will be the flyer, and the other will be the catcher,” Dominic continued. “The catcher will be on that side of the rig, hanging upside down by their knees in the first position on their bar. When the flyer is ready, they’ll fly to the catcher, and the catcher does what?”
“Catches!” Keegan hollered.
“Good! Very good,” Dominic said.
Keegan beamed, and Taney rolled his eyes.
“We have some extra gear for the flyers and catchers before we get started,” Dominic continued. “So, who wants to go first?”
Warren yanked my hand down when I went to volunteer, and I wisely decided to hold back. After all, I volunteered to go first yesterday and it didn’t turn out so well. Well, on the ropes course. The after part was pretty freaking awesome.
To my surprise, Eula and Irv stepped forward.
Dominic set them up with hand wraps and chalk before the couple climbed their towers to their catch-and-fly bars.
Irv took hold of his bar, swayed back on his platform, and swung easily through the air while clutching the bar.
We all held our breath as he pumped his legs a few times and flipped around to hang by his knees.
“Easy peasy, lemon squeezy,” Irv called from his bar, clapping toward Eula. “Now you, sweetheart!”
Eula winked at him before swinging out on her bar. The woman was graceful as she pumped her legs back and forth to get some height. Across the rig, Irv maintained a steady sway to his bar.
I thought we’d see them swinging on the bars indefinitely until Irv yelled, “Hup,” and Eula let go of her bar, and was momentarily airborne before Irv caught her around her wrists. Her peals of laughter echoed around the room.
“Excellent! Excellent, Irv and Eula. Eula, can you execute the return?” Dominic called up to her.
“Sure thing, circus man,” Eula shouted.
We watched Eula pump her legs to give her and Irv more height. Then suddenly, Eula shouted, “Hup!” Irv let her go, and Eula turned and grabbed the fly bar with the ease of someone who’d been doing it for years.
I blew out the breath I’d been holding since she first jumped and felt dizzy. I swayed a little, but Warren caught me.
“You have to breathe, darling,” Warren murmured against my ear.
I felt like swooning for a second time.
Eula fell into the catch net instead of returning to the platform and climbing back down. Irv swung back to the platform and not-so-gracefully stepped onto the wood square before descending the swaying rope ladder. When he reached Eula, she hopped into his arms, peppering kisses all over his face.
“That.” Kiss. “Was.” Kiss. “So.” Kiss. “Exhilarating!”
Gerald laughed and patted the couple on the back while shooing them to the side. “Okay, okay. Yes. That is exhilarating. And can be a turn-on for some couples. So, as the kids say, get a room.”
“No shame in my game, Gerald,” Eula called back to him before landing an NSFW kiss on Irv.
“I don’t know whether to look away or pull out the popcorn,” I admitted to Warren,
“Perhaps they would prefer some privacy,” Warren said.
“Not so sure about that, War,” I replied. “Some people like an audience.”
“Do you?” Warren raised an eyebrow.
A devilish grin spread across my face. “What if I did?”
Something flashed in his eyes. “I would make that happen for you.”
“Duly noted.” I nodded. That was the correct answer. Not that I wanted to have sex in front of a bunch of people, but if I did, my husband would make that happen for me.
Husband.
That word felt so right and so itchy at the same time.
That sensation on your skin when you haven’t rinsed off all the soap, and now it’s dry and stuck to you, and no amount of scratching will get rid of it.
It started at my sternum and spread. Scratching only made it worse.
It was as if the itch was deeper than my skin, and nothing I could reach with my hands.
“Who’s next?” Dominic asked the crowd.
I turned to Warren. “Remember when you said you’d make something happen because I wanted it?”
He blinked at me. “That was fifteen seconds ago. Yes. I remember.”
“Well.” I waved toward the rig. “I want to do this.”
“I meant I would do anything you wanted sexually. This does not count.”
“Doesn’t it, though? You saw Eula and Irv. What if this was the foreplay I needed in my life? What if this was the foreplay you needed in your life?”
“I highly doubt that.”
“Please?” I held my hands in prayer pose and batted my eyelashes at him. Did I think it would work? Not really. Was I willing to try? Hell yeah.
He sighed. “You know I have difficulties with heights.”
“I do,” I admitted and felt ashamed of my inner blatant hussy. “Sorry. I didn’t think this height would be that bad. It’s barely six feet off the floor.”
Warren eyed the rig. “More like ten. High enough to cause injury, I would think.”
“That’s what the ascenders are for. And the nets.” I pointed out the safety equipment. “And as you saw, Eula and Irv already tested it for us. But if it’s too much, we can sit this out.”
Warren tilted his head back, eyes closed, and sighed heavily. When he glanced back at me, I could see the resignation in his eyes. “Okay. We shall try this.”