Page 48 of Beyond the Rules
It hit me like an RPG coming out of nowhere: our brilliant hacker chick had no idea how much we wanted her, no real understanding of her own worth, no real expectations from us. Was she blind? Her selfless choices. Her brilliance. Her dry sense of humor. The laughter that filled the house when she was around. Could she not see that in the sixteen days and twelve hours since her arrival, she’d snared not only our minds but our heartsaswell?
Fuck this. Even Zar was smitten with her, although he wouldn’t admit it. We had to do a better job. I was gonna have a serious talk with the guys. We were goddamn SEALs for Christ’s sake. Failure was not anoption.
“If you’re done with your breakfast,” I said, rising to my feet. “I wanna show yousomething.”
“What?” she asked, but she was already on myheels.
“You’ll see,” I smiled at her over my shoulder and took the stairs down to the bottom floorrecroom.
As soon as we entered the room, her stare shot up to the high beam above. Her gaze took in the ceiling-mounted bracket and the carabiner before it slid down the long full set of ruby red silks hanging from the rescueeight.
She gasped. “Oh, my God. Aiden. You didn’t.” She jumped in place and clapped her hands together. “I can’tbelieveit!”
Her reaction had me grinning like a fool. It was only a long piece of folded Tricot Nylon rigged to the ceiling, but by Nina’s reactions, you’d think I’d given her a diamond crown and akingdom.
“Thank you.” She leapt up on the tip of her toes and gave me bright, effusive hug. “How didyouknow?”
“I saw your membership fee at Aerial Gym. I ordered the stuff and hereweare.”
She circled the long curtains hanging from the ceiling, fingering the long ribbons of soft fabric. “I can’t believe you did thisforme.”
“Well, inasmuch as I’d love to take credit for the entire thing, I’ll admit that Tanner and Zar helped with the installation. It’s the best rigging that money can buy.” I stepped up to the silks, roped them together and climbed up to the ceiling, testing the contraption with my full weight. “It’s solid. See?” I fast-roped down to the floor and landed next to Nina. “Wannatryit?”
“Are you kidding?” Nina’s eyes glowed with excitement. “Of course I want totryit!”
“I got some rosin for better grip.” I grabbed the can standing among my tools on the coffee table and handed ittoher.
She took the can from me and sprayed her hands, then stepped up to the silks, grabbed the fabric and wrapped some of it around her right leg, deftly creating a loop around her foot. Stepping up on the loop, she climbed up the silks with the grace of anacrobat.
“How about some music?” shecalleddown.
I found the remote for the sound system and clicked on myGlobal Mayhemplaylist. The music added to the spectacle of Nina’s aerial dance. The sport wasn’t for sissies. It required courage, daring, strength, flexibility, and concentration. Wrapping her hands, feet, and legs in the silks in various ways, she executed a flawless routine, backbends, inversions, straddles and splits, a sequence of artistic climbs that showcased her body’s agility andelegance.
“Be careful.” I cringed when she somersaulted in the air. “Zar and Tanner will skin me alive if yougethurt.”
“Don’t worry.” She laughed me off. “I don’t fall very oftenanymore.”
Very often? Anymore? I wiped the sweat off my palms on my ragged blue jeans. I’d fast-roped from hovering helicopters under enemy fire more times than I cared to count. I’d ejected out of submarine torpedo tubes, repelled down dark, bottomless caves, and climbed up the gunwales of ultra-large container ships taller than most skyscrapers. I’d done more than my share of HAHOs, High Altitude, High Opening parachute jumps, and HALOs, High Altitude, Low Opening jumps, particularly sketchy in the dead ofnight.
But the fear I’d faced was nothing compared with the terror knotting my guts as Nina swung up there. On cue, the flashback struck. The sound of helicopters roaring overhead almost sent me diving to the ground.Plink, plink, plink. The bullets hit all around me. I looked up and saw Nina’s lifeless body dangling from the beam, the blood gushing in crimson streams out of her head. My stomach hit the floor and my heart shot up to my throat.Shit, shit, shit. Realornot?
“Hey Aiden,” Nina’s voice broke the clatter. “Watchthis!”
Nina unraveled from the silks in a height-defying drop. I dashed to catch her, but she slipped through my arms, laughing as she swung through the air. Her giggles brought me back. Dead bodies don’t laugh. Fuck, I’d almost lost it. In front of her. And if she dropped like that again, Imightpuke.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and swallowed around the lump my throat. “Can you stick closer to the groundmaybe?”
“Hang on,” she said, knotting the silks in a way only she understood, balancing on one leg in an aerial stretch that sent shivers of wonder and dread stabbing down myspine.
“Please, come down.” My voice sounded thin. “I need to ask yousomething.”
In one smooth motion, she tumbled down, executing a straddle inversion that left her hanging upside down with the silks wrapped around herwaist.
“Voila, the little inverted Buddha.” She crossed her legs, stretched her arms at either side and smiled up at me. “I want to ask you a question too.” She stretched out one long, gorgeous leg, toes pointed, quads lengthening before they contracted to fold the leg back. “Youfirst.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets, moistened my lips and just said it. “Would you come out on a datewithme?”
“A date?” Her brows lifted toward the floor, since she was upside down. Her expression was one of total surprise. “Youwant to takemeonadate?”