Hard Lessons by Ashe Barker

Author:Ashe Barker [Barker, Ashe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Erotic Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
Published: 2014-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

I wake late the following morning. The sun’s streaming through the open curtains, and Nick’s watch on the bedside table tells me it’s already after eleven o’clock. Of him, there’s no sign. I make a quick visit to the loo then grab my robe to go looking for him. I have a favor to ask.

A quick tour of the house comes up empty, and I eventually find him outside, enjoying his coffee as he leans on his garden wall at the back of the house. He seems to be staring at empty space. Clutching my robe tight across my chest I walk barefoot across the cropped grass that makes up the back garden and lean on the wall next to him. Nick casually loops his arm across my shoulders and hands me his coffee cup.

“Morning, gorgeous.”

I’m surprised. I hadn’t expected that. The easy familiarity, the intimacy. Which makes my current confusion even more painful.

Yesterday seemed like a turning point for me, a pivotal series of events, of highs and lows. Especially lows. Yesterday, the stark reality of a BDSM submissive lifestyle came home to me. It hit me right between the eyes, so to speak. Nick taught me a hard lesson, and an incredibly painful one. I’m honestly not sure I could ever face that again, no matter how mind-blowing the makeup sex afterwards. Can I really grant someone, anyone, the authority to do something like that to me? I need to think this through. And I need to do that alone.

First, though, I ask him what he’s looking at.

“Skydivers. Over there.” He points up into the sky ahead of us. I follow the line of his arm and see the small plane circling high, about five miles away, and the trail of small dots pouring from it to dangle suspended in the air in its wake. I’ve seen them many times—it’s a popular weekend pursuit, especially in the summer.

“Do you skydive?” I ask him. He seems the sort who might.

“Occasionally. I like to keep my hand in. That’s my plane.”

I turn to him in surprise. “Your plane!”

“Yup. I own Lakes Sky. My plane, my airfield. My parachutes as well. I franchise the running of the business out these days, but I do occasionally fly when they’re short of a pilot. And I do tandem jumps from time to time. Fancy a go?”

I stare at him, and the image of David Carnegie, that ultra-cautious wealth manager from the Euro-millions who lectured me about the dangers of extreme sports, flicks back into my head. He’s there, admonishing me, I can hear his careful, considered voice advising me against foolhardy decisions and thrill-seeking even as I nod and sign that I’d love to go skydiving with Nick Hardisty strapped onto my back. I’m not sure which of us is the most taken aback at my ready acceptance of his offer, but he smiles, a genuinely happy, beaming grin, and hugs me again.

Our easy friendship this morning makes this next part harder, but I need to ask.

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