Page 17 of Exposing Adonis

The stars centered me, giving me a sense of direction. Though, now I looked at them, I thought of my woman and her love of Greek myths. Everything seemed to circle back to Lea in some way.

I remember her whispered, “Come back to me”. It floated in the back of my mind, like a tinnitus hum. Did she mean it? Or did lust make her soft? Was I making a mountain out of a small, insignificant comment like a schoolboy with a crush?

It was hard to think logically when it came to her, and the way she drew me like a magnet. The moment she showed up at my home with tired eyes, and pleading lips, I was a goner. A woman who wanted - no,needed -my skills was a stroke to my ego. But when the woman requesting it washer, a woman of action, it inflated my chest in a way that I had never felt before. I was a God. I could have pulled the sun across the sky like Adonis, so long as she kept looking at me with those eyes that believed in me.

In all the times Pippa, or any number of women, had asked me forthingslike jewels or my company, I had obliged because I wanted to be a gentleman. But for Lea? Her wish was my feral calling.

It stirred up a desire so ancient and deeply ingrained, like the mountains of my homeland. It awoke something in me I had repressed under a veneer of civility.

My thoughts were cut short when the engine went quiet, severely reducing our speed.

“Are you ready?” I yelled over the sound of the wind as we looked over the bomb doors.

Leo nodded, but did not speak.

The red light turned green.It was show time.

Instinct that made me pace to the edge of the opened doors and jump into the abyss. The movements needed to turn my belly to the wind as we dove out the ass end of a plane was something deeply ingrained into muscle memory. I kept my eyes trained on the plane’s tail as it flew out of view. The serenity of free fall and the act of balancing as we descended to the ground at 200 miles per hour relaxed me. I barely noticed my need to compensate for the giant weight strapped to my stomach who was absolutely paralyzed, and stiff as a board. The loud wind, even through the helmet, muffled his scream.

I wanted to laugh, but at the same time, appreciated how he was diffusing the wind that was hitting him full force across his body as we descended. It was like diving into frigid water, and he was breaking the surface for me. But the surface lasted about 30,000 miles.

I pulled the chute when we were close enough to the ground that I could have counted the number of branches on the trees below. The sparse treasure reached up to us, their spiked edges like knives ready to impale us like spears.

The ride under canopy moved us from being belly toward the earth, to suddenly upright. Leo dropped down in the harness, his feet dangling, and kicking as his shouts and screams dissipated.

I raised the visor on my helmet, which let in the far more rhythmicthwap-thwapof the wind moving the silks above our heads. I reached down and pressed on the buttons on the side of Leo’s visor to let that up too so that he could get some air on his face.

“You alright champ?” I asked, with a grin that he couldn’t see, but I bet he heard it. “If you keep screaming like that, you’re going to alert the whole mountain that we’re here.”

“How do you and Lea like this?” I could feel his breathing ease considerably. He was taking shallow breaths. His shoulders rose and fell with a deep, pranayama breath. The relaxation of his body made us sail through the air a little easier, now I wasn’t combating his tense, wooden muscles. We were like a ribbon floating on the wind, versus a plank of wood, brittle and jagged in a hurricane.

“I don’t know.” I was referring to his earlier question. “It’s peaceful.”

“You and my sister were made for each other.” He grumbled, barely audible.

“You think so?” I didn’t mean to sound so eager when I responded, but I was. Leo’s approval would go a long way with getting his sister in a more permanent arrangement.

“Don’t take it as a sign that I like you, you ginger bastard!” He tilted his head a little in my direction. “I’m still not thrilled that you threatened our parents to make her go on a date with you.”

“Fair enough.” I admitted.

He was right, of course. That was a lousy move, but I couldn’t make myself apologize for it. I hadtastedher mouth that night, and it would live forever in my memory.

“While we’re on the subject of women,” I asked, deflecting. “What’s with you and Chloe?”

“We worked together.”

“I gathered that,” I chuckled. “But she didn’t tell me she was seeing anyone.”

“We’re not seeing each other. We’re friends.”

“Ah,” I said, whistling low in realization.

“NoAh,” he said, mockingly. “She’s a good person, and she doesn’t deserve to be left out here alone.”

“And if she decided to see you afterwards, you wouldn’t be opposed to it?”

“Would you be?”

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