Page 32 of Rule Number One

Ethan came around the car and slid his arm around my shoulder, pulling me in close. As his arm encircled me tight, a shiver of excitement flickered down my spine. I closed my eyes for a beat and imagined what it must have been like to be wrapped up in those arms writhing between the sheets with him.

Damn it. Why can’t I remember that?!

“You can do this, Ivy,” he said, shaking me from my attempt at remembering the hot sex I desperately wanted to relive. “But once you conquer your biggest fear, everything else will seem small in comparison. It will be worth it. Trust me.”

There it was again.

Trust me.

And once again, I had no reason to trust this stranger who I’d barely met, and yet, I did. Like he waved some magic spell over me every time he uttered those words, I took a deep breath and gave a sharp nod of my head. “Okay. Fine. I’ll do it.”

“That a girl. You’ve got this.”

My stomach twisted and turned at the thought of plummeting thousands of feet toward the ground, but I dug down into the newfound resolve to be bold and exciting. Adventurous and carefree. A new Ivy. An improved Ivy.

Ivy 2.0.

Well, Ivy 2.0, if I survived this ordeal to become a new badass version of me.