Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71348 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71348 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“After I retired from the Olympics, I spent a few years just traveling around the world and indulging in all my adrenaline-rush whims.”
“Adrenaline-rush whims?” I ask with a laugh. “Now that’s a term I’ve never heard before.”
She chuckles. “Skydiving, bungee jumping, free diving, base jumping, rock climbing. You name it, I did it. The scarier the feat, the more I wanted to do it.”
“Damn, Hart,” I murmur, dropping my hand to her ass and giving a playful squeeze. “That’s kind of hot.”
She grins. “I met Kynan just about an hour before he dove off Angel Falls. Just over thirty-two hundred feet. We became fast friends after I jumped off after him.”
I can’t help the low whistle of respect and appreciation that blows through my teeth. I like the flow of adrenaline, but not sure I like it that much.
“I don’t always appreciate danger,” she says. This time, the smile is gone from her face. She’s being as serious as she can possibly be, and it causes my belly to flip a little. “I might not like hearing it, Bodie, but if you’re worried about the baby in any way as we proceed along, you need to be vocal.”
“I will,” I promise. Why she even needs to tell me this is beyond me, because nothing could keep me silent if my kid was at risk.
This seems to satisfy her, and she gives a grateful nod. That unsettles me… that she seems to need me to be a checks and balances against her. It also reassures me that when Rachel said she was going to let me be involved, she truly meant it.
More than anything, though, it shows me she cares for this baby at least to the degree she wants to carry it to term. An adrenaline junkie such as herself who doesn’t want to be pregnant wouldn’t think twice about risks. That person would roll the dice with a que sera sera attitude.
There are a million ways I could poke at this more, but I don’t want to do anything to make Rachel clam up on me. Right now, she’s happy to let me fuck her and be involved in this pregnancy. I know a good thing when I have it.
But the one thing that has happened since finding out about the pregnancy is that I’ve become infinitely more curious about this woman. She’s smart, beautiful, and sexy as sin. She’s also one of the most capable people I know, and I trust her with my life. She has agreed to carry a baby for me, and I owe her the world because of that. It’s safe to say Rachel Hart has gone to the top of my favorite people list.
And I want to know more about her.
I roll to my back and bring Rachel with me. She gasps in surprise, but doesn’t fight when I arrange her body to lay mostly on top of mine. I even put a hand to the back of her head and force it to my chest. It takes her a slight moment to understand what I want, but she eventually settles down on top of me.
“Okay, you have to tell me how a woman goes from being a winter Olympian to traveling around the world jumping off cliffs?”
Her body shakes slightly against me in a silent laugh. I’m not sure if she’s even aware she’s doing it, but her hand spreads over my chest, her thumb idly stroking my skin there.
“My parents are well off, and when I say well off, I mean I don’t have to work if I don’t want to because of a nice trust fund. But I had some endorsements during my Olympic career, which meant I had enough money to indulge in those whims. I didn’t travel extravagantly, but I did travel the hell out of this world. I’d often just sleep in cheap hotels or stay with friends. I once spent two weeks driving around Australia in an old VW bus that doubled as a bed for me.”
“It sounds very bohemian of you,” I observe.
“I was young and liked the freedom,” she says. “I’d never had to think about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I’d been training since I was a kid for the biathlon. When I finally got tired of it, I had no idea what to do with myself.”
“You deserved a break,” I point out.
“Yes, that’s the way I reasoned it out in my head. But a few weeks turned into months and that turned into years. I chased thrills and lived like a bum for four years.”
“Sounds kind of cool,” I admit a little wistfully. It’s very different from my life of responsibility, whether it was working on the farm since I was probably ten to going right into the Navy after high school. I’d always had obligations I’d never walk away from.