“I can’t keep this up when I go back to New York.” She emphasized her words with a shake of her finger. “Did you forget what I said about how I’m not being the real me, right now? When I ride my pumpkin back home, I’m going to turn back into Cinderella. You don’t think you’ll get bored with me, but I promise, you will.”
He smiled, as his hand moved to caress her cheek. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to give it a try. Who knows, I might like you even more when you’re wearing rags and covered with ashes.”
“You’re a nice guy, Gary. Too nice, in my opinion. Except for maybe the teasing thing… you could back off a little on that. But in every other way, you’re about as awesome as the real Superman.”
He wore a gleaming smile that showed his even white teeth. “I’ll take that assessment.”
“I’m trying to tell you that Superman needs to end up with Superwoman. And no matter what you say, I’ll feel like I can’t be what you need.”
“But Katie—”
“You aren’t going to change my mind.”
“I have another idea… What if we agree to date, to really give this relationship serious effort, but only while we’re here in Indigo Bay.”
“That’s what I thought you wanted to begin with,” she said. “Clone-Katie would enjoy dating Superman as long as he knows she’ll disappear when we get back to New York.”
“In that case,” he said, “Superman would like to kiss Clone-Katie, again. But maybe a short one, since I almost lost control the first time.”
The blood rushed into her face until her cheeks felt like they were on fire. “I have to admit, that was a pretty amazing kiss.”
His voice went husky. “The last time I got an adrenaline rush like that, I was bungee jumping in New Zealand.”
Her pulse throbbed in her ears, drowning out thoughts of anything but Gary, who drew closer, moving at an agonizingly slow pace. When his hands slid into place, sandwiching her face with a gentle touch, she resisted the urge to scream at him to hurry. At last, his lips descended, sending her heart into calisthenics. His lips contacted hers, so gentle, she surged forward, seeking more. And he answered her in kind, firm and demanding, sending starbursts under her eyelids. As he pulled away, she lifted her hands to her happy swollen lips, knowing she’d been forever ruined for any other man.
She rested her head against his shoulder, while his hands caressed her back in light strokes, painting shivers with his fingertips. When she recovered enough to speak again, she whispered, “I think I might like bungee jumping after all.”
11
Katie had hardly been able to sleep that night. It wasn’t nervousness about ziplining that had kept her brain firing, but replaying those two amazing kisses. Subsequently, she was not only keyed up about flying through the air, suspended by a small cable, but also exhausted. Plus, she felt a little bit awkward with Steven around, like she and Gary were teenagers, hiding their relationship.
At the moment, though, her only thought was staying alive.
“Be sure it’s tight enough,” Katie told their zipline guide, Andrew, as he fastened the strap around her waist.
Behind her, Gary chuckled. “Any tighter, and your legs will go numb.”
“I don’t care if I can’t fe
el them, as long as I can’t fall.”
“You need to be comfortable enough to hike from one station to the next,” Andrew explained. “Your weight pulls downward on this when you’re zipping, so it gets tighter when you sit down.” He demonstrated by grabbing the hook on the front of her belt and yanking upward.
“Oh. Yeah, that’s feels plenty tight.”
Standing on the ground in the forest, she craned her head, but saw no sign of a zip line. “How high off the ground will we be?”
“Not too high,” said Andrew as he handed her a helmet. “I promise you’ll have fun.”
“Have you ever had anyone die?” she asked. “Any broken bones?”
“Nope, not ever. No deaths. No trips to the hospital. One lady sprained her ankle while she was hiking. It’s almost impossible to get injured, as long as you follow the rules and stay clipped in. The only way you could get hurt is if you don’t let me do my job.”
Katie decided then and there she would be the most obedient zipliner Andrew had ever had.
“I told you it was safe,” said Steven.
At least he’d arranged for a private tour, so there wouldn’t be an audience of people watching her freak out.