Page 67 of He Loves Me Knot

“Who’s ready to go down?” Carlos asked just then.

There were eight of them, in total, with Carlos and his assistant, José, a spry Costa Rican teenager who’d already shown off his impressive rappelling skills and now waited at the bottom.

“She will,” Callum said, giving Liddy a nudge.

“No, no?—”

“Perfect, a volunteer.” Carlos gave her a wink. “She can test the ropes. Make sure they’re not fraying too badly.”

Everyone else in the group laughed.

Liddy turned and gave Callum a wide-eyed stare. “This is not making me feel better.”

“Aquí, negra.” Carlos pulled her over toward him. He tapped the top of her helmet. “You’re going to get a little wet, so I hope you don’t melt, okay?” Then he helped her get strapped on and into position.

Liddy’s hands started shaking in the large orange gloves they’d given her. She looked up at Callum as Carlos brought her closer to the edge of the canyon.

Is this really happening?

She was about to jump from the top of a perfectly lovely waterfall and descend via a rope, hoping it would hold her.

“Callum, I’m going to kill you.”

He knelt beside Carlos. “You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to?—”

“I don’t want to.” She clung to the rope, not breaking eye contact with him.

“But if you just let go and do it, you’ll find yourself at the bottom of that waterfall, Liddy. The only thing holding you back is you. Nothing else can stop you.”

She nodded, shivering slightly. Her feet were already getting wet in her tennis shoes, as water sluiced down her legs. “Thanks, Coach,” she said, a nervous laugh leaving her.

“Okay, here we go,” Carlos said. “One, two, three!”

She didn’t know quite how he’d gotten her started, but she was on her way down in an instant. Not a free fall. Just . . . a well-paced descent down the side of a waterfall, her feet scraping against the stone every few meters, then going farther.

She focused on the dark rock in front of her. How many times had these tour companies taken people down these ropes and falls? They did it every day.

I’m going to be fine.

She would be better than fine.

I’m rappelling down a waterfall. In the middle of the jungle.

Like she was an explorer or Lara Croft or something.

Maybe it was crazy, but she was doing it.

And she’d never felt more alive.

As she reached the bottom, José reached for the harness at her back and pulled her to safety. He unclipped her with a wink, then helped her step to the side of the rope. She stepped back, her body reeling as she sank into the pool at the bottom of the cascade.

I did it.

She wanted to dance. To jump. To do a victory leap.

Callum was on his way down next, and she laughed as she looked up at him. The harness that went around his thighs up to his waist was making his well-formed backside seem particularly, erhm,nice.Granny was right. He had a fantastic ass.

And he looked incredibly hot coming down that rope, even with the goofy helmet on.