“So? What do you think?” Tommy asked his friend, Beckett “Coach”
Ralston, as they stood inside the small office at the Waco Skydiving Club
looking out at the group of civilians who would be skydiving in a few hours.
Coach shrugged. “Looks about like the group we had yesterday.” Jumping out of a
perfectly functioning plane wasn’t exactly Coach’s idea of a good time, but he’d
taken two weeks of leave after the kidnapping of his teammate’s girlfriend and
daughter. Emily and Annie were fine, but Jacks, the vindictive ex-soldier who
had orchestrated the entire incident, hadn’t been so lucky. He’d spent a few
days in the hospital recuperating, and was now currently a guest of the State of
Texas. Jacks would be going on trial in a few weeks, and Coach hoped he’d spend
a good chunk of time behind bars.
Coach and the rest of his Delta Force team were taking some time off and Tommy
had been in a bind. One of his regular jumpmasters had broken his leg. He had a
replacement coming, but the other man couldn’t get there for another month.
Since Coach had the time, and nothing else planned, he’d agreed to come and help
his friend out.
Coach and Tommy had met a couple of years earlier. He’d heard about a new
technique for packing a parachute and had wanted to try it out. He’d researched
and found that the Waco Skydiving Club had an excellent reputation and was
already using the new procedure. Coach had gone out to check into the
organization, and they had clicked from day one. Tommy was older, and more
redneck than Coach was used to, but he was a great guy with a heart of gold.
There was no way Coach could turn down his plea for help.
“The three couples have all jumped several times before, we’ve only got one
virgin this time,” Tommy told him, raising his chin, indicating the tall woman
sitting in the front row of chairs intently watching the safety video. She was
the only one paying attention, sitting with her eyes glued on the screen, and
apparently tuning out the chatter from the rest of the group behind her.
Coach chuckled. “As if I couldn’t figure that out on my own.”
“Yeah, kinda hard to miss.”
“Think she’s gonna go through with it?” Coach asked, knowing Tommy had a good
eye for who might chicken out when the rubber met the road.
“Oh yeah. She might be new at this, but she’s got determination oozing from
every pore of her body.”
Coach narrowed his eyes and examined the woman, wondering what it was that Tommy
saw in her. She wasn’t anything special to look at. She seemed tall, but
slender. He couldn’t really tell since she was wearing a baggy T-shirt, but her
legs looked miles long in her jeans, without many curves. Her hair was shoulder
length, a light brown color, and hanging loosely over her shoulders. She was
currently biting her lip and jiggling one foot, watching the television
nervously, pushing up her glasses, which kept sliding down her nose.
“She’ll be with you,” Tommy told Coach. “She’s tall, and she won’t fit
comfortably against the others.”
Coach knew the man was right. At six-five, he was a couple inches taller than
any of the other jumpmasters. The woman could go with someone else, but it made
more sense for her to be with him since she seemed to be the tallest woman of
the bunch. She’d fit against him better since they’d be strapped together from
hips to chest. If he was paired with the smaller women, their feet wouldn’t even
touch the ground once the harnesses were strapped together.
Coach nodded at his friend. “I figured. What’s her story?”
Video game coder, Harley Kelso, thought a tandem skydive would help her make
her latest game more realistic. Instead, it literally put her in the arms of the
sexiest man she’s ever seen. Geeky to the core, Harley is the polar opposite of
big and burly Beckett, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting to play more
carnal games with the sexy soldier.
When Beckett Coach Ralston offers to fill-in at a friend’s skydiving club, he
doesn’t suspect he’ll meet a woman who will change his life and he definitely
doesn’t expect her to save it. But that’s exactly what happens when an accident
mid-air forces Harley to land them both safely. She’s earned Coach’s complete
gratitude, and even more, sexual interest
Until she disappears without a trace.
With Harley missing, a happy ending might not be in the cards for the man who
loves her…especially when he becomes the main suspect.
New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, Susan
Stoker has a heart as big as the state of Texas where she lives, but this all
American girl has also spent the last fourteen years living in Missouri,
California, Colorado, and Indiana. She's married to a retired Army man who now
gets to follow her around the country. She debuted her first series in 2014 and
quickly followed that up with the SEAL of Protection Series, which solidified
her love of writing and creating stories readers can get lost in.
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