Slow No Wake - By Dakota Madison Page 0,44

time for the final element of the day. The overhead ropes. As we all stood under the massive ropes structure, I wondered what I hell I had gotten myself into.

“There are several ropes elements. Today, we’re going to do the tight-rope walk at the top,” Eddie informed us.

I gulped. I had seen people walk tightropes, but they were in the circus. They had practiced their whole lives and tightrope walked on a daily basis. My feet never left the ground if I could help it.

When I glanced over at Daniel, he looked like he was gleaming. Of course, he’d be excited about a thing like this. He did kite surfing, which was an extreme sport. This probably seemed like nothing to him. Ricky was also grinning. I noticed the twins looked as dumbstruck as I did. Good, at least I wasn’t alone in my lack of enthusiasm and downright fear.

Eddie glanced in my direction and gave me his dimpled half smile. A shiver ran through me. I tried to play it off as fear of the tightrope wall, but deep down, I knew better. Eddie still had the ability to turn me to jelly with just one sexy look.

“You don’t need to worry too much,” Eddie said. “You’ll each be strapped to a safety harness, so if you fall off the rope, which I hope you don’t, you won’t fall to the ground. It’s a safety precaution so you won’t get hurt.”

The thought of being strapped to a safety rope didn’t lessen my fears very much. It was still a very long was up there and it seemed like a long way back down to the ground.

Serenity raised her hand.

“Yes,” Eddie said acknowledging her.

“Can we give it a pass if we don’t want to do it?”

“You can always give it a pass, but I would prefer you didn’t. I’d like to see you move beyond your comfort zone.”

As soon as he said move beyond your comfort zone, Eddie stared right at me. He was definitely outside of my comfort zone, but I wasn’t planning on moving beyond it any time soon.

I glanced over at Daniel and he was staring daggers at Eddie. I guessed he wasn’t too thrilled about the thought of me moving beyond my comfort zone either. Daniel was definitely firmly within my comfort zone. In some ways, he was my comfort zone.

Eddie gave us a demonstration about strapping ourselves into the safety harness. Then he asked for a volunteer to go first. I must have been momentarily possessed because I raised my hand.

I could hear Daniel let out a small gasp. I glanced over at him and he had worry in his eyes. I gave him a reassuring smile, but it didn’t seem to ease his fears much.

Eddie got me strapped into the safety harness and then I climbed the small ladder up to the top of the end pole. I noticed Eddie was climbing up the ladder on the other side to meet me.

Panic set in as I looked down and realized how high up I was.

I could hear Eddie’s voice say, “Don’t look down.”

Too late.

I could feel myself wobble a bit, so I looked over at Eddie and tried to steady myself. For the first time, he wasn’t looking at me lustfully. He wasn’t trying to seduce me. He was actually looking at me more like a friend. And there was something else in his eyes. I couldn’t quite place it because I had never seen it in his eyes before, but it may have been love.

I slowly stepped onto the tightrope and told myself I could do it. I continued putting one foot in front of the other until I was about a quarter of the way there.

Terror gripped me again as I realized I was in the air without the safety of the large end pole behind me.

“You can do it,” Eddie reassured me. Just hearing his voice and seeing that loving look in his eyes was enough for me to gather the strength I needed to make it the rest of the way.

When I got to the other side, Eddie embraced me in a hug. He felt warm and safe.

As good as it felt to be in Eddie’s arms, I suddenly felt uncomfortable when I remembered the rest of the staff, and Daniel, were on the ground watching us.

“You should probably let me go,” I said.

Eddie kept me in a tight embrace. “I don’t want to let you go.”

I knew he meant