Page 141 of Whirlwind

Tag leapt out, Stone in tandem with an instructor. Along with Lars they somersaulted in the air. Lars grinned, but Tag’s face told a different story. Tranquility, satisfaction. His ultimate.

I shot Beck a final look. His eyes flashed at me from behind his goggles. All the good things of the past week came rushing through me. Every little thing. I loved being with him. I loved being here. I loved…

Underneath me, Mike, my tandem partner, moved us. We scootched to the edge. The edge of the fucking open door. This was happening.

My body was curved forward under him. With a hand under my chin, he lifted my head up and pointed to the camera on the wing of the plane. I grinned. A final testament to the me before THIS.

Our feet left the door. We heaved forward.Oh my God.Heaved into the void.

Into the sky.

Into the sky.

A woosh like sensation as the air snatched us away from the plane door. I held my breath. I tried to breathe. Wind and light blasted over us. But I wasn’t falling. I was flying.

The air underneath us supported every surface of my body, pressing lightly on my stomach, my legs, my face and hands. Mike made adjustments and we turned around. My heart flew at the sight of Beck and his tandem partner floating over us. He waved at me, and I waved back. We soared. The ground, the sea, the shore were so far away and we were above them all. Tag and the guys frolicked in the air, their effortless acrobatics made my soul leap.

Tag was in another world, in his bliss. He cartwheeled, posed, made faces, utterly relaxed. He had entered another realm.

The logical part of me was immediately swept away. There was no sense, no words. I gave up. I gave in. It was all so fast, so fast. So blinding. I gave in. The tightness of my fear was gone, and instead I was consumed by wind, by light, by me and Beck together in freefall. Flying, soaring, blasting. Free, no boundaries, none.

Free. Over the deep blue Aegean. The rocky, jagged shoreline. I tasted the blue, the salt. I was saturated.

I found Beck’s eyes again, and my heart expanded and took in all the air, all the wind. Both of us grinning.

Pure joy. Pure ease.

On the other side of my fear, there was the best thing, the best thing ever.

Just as the trainer had told us earlier, within moments, our speed seemed to steady, we were no longer accelerating. We floated. We flew. Together in this insane purity. No boundaries, no limits. Only this, now.

My body tugged up. Yanked, we jerked up. Mike had opened the parachute.Already?

Our velocity slowed, slowed. We were now in control. My eyes widened as we aimed for land. The ground got closer and closer and closer. And I still felt light.

Breathless, I grit my teeth, my insides tightening to prepare, as if I knew what it would feel like. Landing on land with my own two feet.

People appeared on either side of us and held onto our straps. We were back on earth. We were still. My face tipped up. The sky was way above me, the sky where I’d just been.

“Violet? Are you okay?” Mike’s Greek accented English cut through my frenzy of thoughts and emotions. “What did you think?” He steadied me.

I burst.

“That was amazing!” I shouted, my hands flying to the sides of my head. I hopped up on my toes like a kid. Mike laughed as I hugged him. “Thank you, Mike.” All the guys whooped and hollered around us, high-fiving each other, making victory gestures, hugging. Beck disentangled from the straps and he ran. Ran, ran to me.

And I rushed at him. We slammed into each other, clutching each other tightly. “Did you like it?” His hands cuffed my neck, my heart beat racing wildly. More than adrenaline. This was pure, pure elation. Pure ecstatic thrill joy.

“I can’t believe it! I can’t believe we—I—” My words cut. I couldn’t form words. Laughter shook from me, my body shaking, vibrating.

His hands gripped my arms. “You liked it?”

I sucked in a huge breath, my eyes widening. “I loved it! I loved it!” I pounced on Beck, his arms a steel vice clutching me to his steel body. “I loved being up there with you, reaching for you in the sky. I loved everything about it.”

His eyes gleamed, and he kissed me. A kiss, fierce, hot, and pounding.

* * *

“Keep working. Keep learning,”said Lars on a quick hug. "Most of all, have fun.”

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