Page 1 of Grumpy Special Ops Bear: Ep. 1
Chapter 1
Trinity
The door slipped open,and air rushed into the compartment. We were high in the sky, the land below specks of farms and roads. This always left me breathless, but not in a bad way.
I was definitely doing this by choice.
The adrenaline pumped through my veins as I pictured myself jumping out of the plane. My palms started to sweat. The wind blew across my face as I pulled my goggles down and grinned from ear to ear.
Moving forward, I shouted through the door in my excitement, “Damn, I love this shit!”
I checked over my parachute pull one last time. With a salute to the men running the show standing near the doors to assist the rest of the jumpers and me, I leaped out of the airplane and tumbled through the air.
“Yeah!” I yelled in triumph as I went.
Skydiving had always been one of my favorite activities to do with clients who wanted a real nail-biting rush. Shit, I knew it always started my blood pumping. I was an unabashed thrill junkie.
Gazing up, I saw the rest of my party taking off after me into the open sky, one after the other.
Soon the air filled with falling rainbow-colored bodies in jumpsuits. They hollered and screamed as they plunged, and I once again realized how damn lucky I was. This was my highly prized corner office, with a sky-blue backdrop all around me. The wind caressed my skin, and I had all the freedom that came from falling through the air, knowing that only my parachute would stop me from crashing into the ground.
Everything about my life was perfect—well, almost perfect.
I enjoyed the fall.
When we were at the point where we should pull our chutes, I signaled the rest of the party. Once they all got the message, I pulled my rip cord. My chute opened beautifully, and I glanced over my shoulder to watch all the others open. We coasted on the wind, guiding ourselves toward the designated landing area.
A few minutes later, I touched down smoothly, running a bit to let my parachute fall behind me. I waited for the rest of the party to do the same.
The second we were all on the ground, one jumper pulled off his goggles and waved at me. His tanned face glowed from the jump, and he was grinning like a boy on Christmas morning. “Trinity, that was by far the best thing I’ve ever done. I can’t believe I’ve never thought to do this.”
I laughed, removing my goggles and hood. “I’m so happy you loved it, Neal. Now you need to do this every few months, and you and your board will never be as stressed out over profit margins and new product launches again.”
Neal—the tall, lean CEO who’d hired me to lead his group on this little adventure—laughed so hard he doubled over. “I might take you up on that—as long as you’re there to jump with us.” His eyes skated over my body with interest. “Now, if I could get you to agree to have dinner and drinks with me tonight…” He grinned.
Truth be told, I actually got a kick out of being around him, which was new for me. The majority of my billionaire clients were cocky and obnoxious, spending most of our outings trying to grope me or boring me with how big their bank accounts were. Neal was quite the opposite. He was a big lovable guy who enjoyed flirting with me, but there was no way I would break my no-fraternizing-with-clients rule.
His fingers caressed my elbow. “I can regale you with tales of my many adventures in slaying snarling board members consumed with world domination. And you can explain again why such a bright and beautiful woman like you isn’t in a relationship.”
I pressed my lips together as I looked pointedly at his roving fingers. He snatched back his hand.
“As much as I love your company, Neal, I’ll have to decline the dinner and drinks invitation,” I answered, stepping away from him slightly. “Until our next adventure.”
We shook hands as the rest of the group came over to say their goodbyes to me as well. When I finished thanking them, three black SUVs drove up to take them all back to the city.
I steered toward the huge SUV where my assistant, Halle, was waiting, smiling as usual.
Halle jumped out of the driver’s side before bouncing over to me. “Damn, that was a pretty wicked dive. I watched most of it from the live feed on your helmet.”
“You have to try it,” I answered. “How about this weekend?” I waggled my brows.
Halle shook her head. “Hard pass. You know I don’t have the stomach. I’ll stick to being your well-paid minion.”
I loved working with Halle, a fresh-out-of-college student who’d always go wide-eyed with every stunt I finished. It made me miss the young exuberance I’d had coming into this business years ago, but at thirty-six, I’d done a lot of living, both good and bad.
“All right. But you don’t know what you’re missing,” I joked while stretching my muscles, which had built over the years from performing stunts. I stepped out of my flight suit. All I wanted was a long, hot soak, a glass of wine, and a marathon of mind-numbing reality shows.
I looked over at Halle. “Is that it for the day?”
