Freefall (Santa Cruz Skydivers Book 1) by Joanne Efendi Page B

thigh straps. He stood close to me, our bodies only inches apart. I couldn’t breathe, and even though I was nearly puking with nerves, the fact his hands were so close to my intimate parts didn’t escape me. I stood unable to move as his fingers brushed lightly against the inside of my thighs, adjusting the thigh straps so they were sitting snug and tight against my crotch.
    Although he didn’t verbalize it, I’m sure he knew exactly the effect he had on me. I was one hundred percent sure he wasn’t inexperienced like I was in the sex department, after all, he was sex on legs.
    “There we go. Now you’re all ready.” His voice was an octave lower than normal.
    Like before at the check-in counter, he looked at me like he wanted to say something else. He opened his mouth, but closed it again, his eyes reflecting conflicting emotions. We stood toe to toe, silence between us. I could hear my heart beating. He was so sexy it hurt.
    I couldn’t stand the silence any longer. “I’m supposed to give you these.” Just as he had begun to reach a hand toward me, I thrust the insurance forms into his hand.
    “Thanks.” He fisted the forms without even bothering to look at them and glanced at his watch. “It’s almost time to go.”
    “Do I need to watch an instructional video first?” I blurted out, stalling for time. I felt my question was justified, though. In all the movies I had watched with skydivers, I was sure people viewed videos first.
    “Nope, no need to. You got me.” His self assured cheeky smile was back in place. “Come on, let’s go wait outside. We have another tandem with us, Phil, my supervisor, and a paying customer. I’m not sure where they are, but they’ll need to get her prepared and they’ll want this room. I also need to sign your forms and give them back to Frankie at the front counter.”
    “She said you need to read them first.” I chewed nervously on the inside of my cheek.
    “Usually, yes,” he agreed. “But it’s only really if you have any health problems. You don’t, do you?”
    “No, nothing wrong with me.” I forced enthusiasm. I took a couple of panicked deep breaths in quick succession. “Frankie said something about needing to know my weight for the freefall calculations.” Don’t look, don’t look.
    “Only if the person jumping looks like they might be too overweight too jump. Then we need to make sure the parachute will hold their weight. You’ve got nothing to worry about. You’re perfect,” he said. “Now stop stalling. Let’s go wait outside.”
    “Okay.” Relief flooded through me, glad my mantra worked. I followed him with a little spring in my step. He didn’t need to know exactly how much I weighed, plus, he said I was perfect. Whatever that meant, although I was sure it was all just part of the service.

Chapter Eight
     
    Andi
     
    When Levi said outside, I thought he meant on the porch of the clubhouse. Instead, he led me off the porch, through the parking lot, past my Jeep, and kept walking toward the actual runway. To say I was crapping in my pants was an understatement. This was it. No backing out now.
    There weren’t a lot of aircraft to choose from on the edge of the runway. I scoured for what I thought might be our plane and froze, pointing at what was clearly waiting for us on the tarmac.
    “We’re going up in that?” My voice shook with fear while my right hand clamped down hard on Levi’s arm.
    It wasn’t what I had envisioned. Quite the opposite. The white-and-rust-colored decrepit plane was no bigger than my Jeep, the only difference being it had wings and a propeller attached. The name of the skydiving school was faded on the side while the fuselage of the plane had a few dings, and there were numerous scratches in the paint work. It had clearly seen a few years. The overall look did very little to calm my fear of flying.
    Levi laughed loudly, grabbed me playfully around the waist, and kept me moving forward toward the death