Ian’s best friend and their lover were lost to the depths of their pleasure, struggling to breathe. Ian, a spectator, a facilitator, felt as if he was ten feet tall. Focused on Alice, he and Ken had found that soul-deep connection the uncles had said they should find if they did things right.
He ignored his raging hard-on for the moment and kept his attention where it belonged. Slowly, he helped Alice to straighten up. When Ken opened his eyes, Ian released their woman to him.
The two held on to each other, and Ian believed this kind of a moment after loving was just as important as every moment that had led up to it.
“I vote we head to the hot tub right now.” The heat might annoy his erection, but his woman needed the hot soak to ease her back. And while they soaked, he’d ask her if she had energy enough left to suck his cock, too.
“Somebody had better carry me.”
His laughter—his and Ken’s—echoed off the glass walls. He’d had it right. Well, almost right. He added one word to his personal litany.
Richer. Deeper. Perfect. Forever.
Chapter Nine
Alice thought the only test to her courage was what she’d just experienced. She soon found out, however, there was one more little interesting surprise ahead of her.
They’d arrived bright and early at the first attraction they were checking out, one near Austin. This was going to be their first outing for Edgers, Waco, and Alice had been looking forward to it—intellectually speaking, of course.
With her feet once more firmly planted on solid ground, she gave an exhilarated sigh of relief. The zip-line ride she’d just taken had been heart-poundingly beautiful. To fly through the trees, with nothing else around her, quite simply took her breath away. Suspended only by her connection between her safety vest and the strong cable, Alice had first needed to shove her more anal, analytical part aside and pull out her little daredevil within.
Oh, she knew the attraction was safe. But humans were delightfully—or annoyingly, depending on one’s point of view—adept at ignoring head knowledge and falling back on those feral emotions and instincts that lived inside each and every one of them.
“That was a blast!” Ian, all smiles, joined her and Ken. Ken, of course, had gone first, giving in to his anal side, and she wondered, as she’d watched him as he’d taken that step out into thin air, if he would enjoy the journey, or not.
With Ian, who’d taken his turn after her, there had been no question. He’d flown toward them with a huge “woohoo!” and his arms fully outstretched. Like he wanted to gather all the joy, all the wind, the entire moment, and hold it close forever in his memory.
“Are you all right, sweetheart?” Ken asked.
“Yeah.” Her heart rate finally came back to normal. “That was scary-fun. I’m good.”
“You’d never zip-lined before,” Ian said. “It wasn’t too scary for you?”
And how sweet was he to put away his own glee and focus on her?
“No, not at all. You know that heart-racing sensation while you’re waiting on the platform for the thumbs-up to step out into nothingness? That bit of anticipation is at least half the fun, if not more.”
“Neither of us thought to ask you if you had a fear of heights,” Ken said.
He looked so worried about it that her heart melted just a little. “I don’t, especially if I feel secure. I felt very secure, as that vest was nice and snug. The cables looked substantial, too. I’ve ridden in airplanes plenty of times, no problem. A helicopter? I tried that once, and it was one of those bubble-glassed sight-seeing ones. Never again. I know it was safe, but it felt as if I was hanging by a string being buffeted by the winds. This? Doing this didn’t feel nearly as….as tenuous as that helicopter ride.”
Ian reached for her hand. He held it up and kissed it then rubbed his kiss into the back of her hand. “I thought we’d take at least one more ride on the line, if you’re interested. And then, I know we didn’t answer you earlier when you asked us where we were staying tonight. Well, there’s an accommodation on this very resort that we’ve booked for the night.” He leaned forward. “It’s only a king bed, but we’ll make that work for us. And it is a very private accommodation. No neighbors close by at all.”
“I’ll try to tamp down my impatience, then, for our accommodations. As to another ride? Yeah, let’s do that.”
By her third trip down the cable, she dared to copy Ian—arms outstretched and wallowing in the moment.
Ian wasn’t kidding about the privacy level of their accommodations! There wasn’t another structure in sight. Alice looked ahead to where the guide was leading them. She thought she knew their destination, what looked like an isolated cabin all by itself on the edge of a bit of a cliff. But their guide didn’t stop when he reached the front of that building. Instead he appeared to step around it. When she and Ken caught up to him and Ian, the young man did something entirely unexpected. He stepped onto a suspended bridge.
Alice stopped and knew she looked like a fish. Her jaw had dropped. Never had she imagined she’d ever spend the night in a treehouse!
“It’s five hundred square feet,” the guide said. “Built between two very sturdy cypress trees, the Vesta is completely safe. The house is suspended twenty-five feet in the air, above a natural creek.
“It’s constructed with local and sustainable materials. The minimalist design makes this treehouse a spot of eco-friendly luxury amongst the cypress tress.” The young man turned back to look at her and grinned.
The rounded-front building they’d passed turned out to be their bath house. It was separated from their accommodation for the night, the treehouse, by a suspension
