Elle James - Navy Seal Captive

Quentin chuckled. “Damn, she beat me to it.” He turned toward Sawyer. “Are you going to let a girl shame you?”

Sawyer crossed his arms over his chest. “There’s no shame in preferring to keep my bones intact.”

The redhead nodded, her gaze on her friend as she disappeared into the dark green jungle below. “That’s what I told Carly.” She glanced back at Sawyer. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for adventure.” Jenna bit her lip. “Or, at least, that was the point of this exercise.” Turning toward the cliff, she straightened her shoulders. “And, for the record, I’m not boring.”

“Didn’t say you were. Actually, you’re far from it,” Sawyer agreed, admiring her curvy figure and the shock of auburn hair that refused to be contained in the ponytail.

Quentin performed a sweeping bow in front of the woman. “Allow me.”

“Sure. I’m not in a hurry to plunge to my death.” She stepped back, this time bumping into Sawyer.

He wrapped an arm around her, absorbed the impact of her body and breathed in the flowery scent of her hair. Nope. Not boring at all. With her small body pressed close to his, he forgot all about the zip line and his argument with Quentin.

“Sorry,” she mumbled and stepped to his side and out of his embrace, her cheeks flushing a soft pink.

Everywhere she’d touched him still resonated with the warmth of her body. Sawyer’s groin tightened.

“Nothing to it.” Quentin allowed the attendant to hook his D-ring to the pulley and held on to the cable with his gloved hand. “See you at the bottom, if you have the guts to do it.” He winked, lifted his legs and took off, sliding to his doom in the jungle, whooping and hollering as he went.

Jenna drew in a long breath and let it out on a sigh. “I did come to Cancún to start over and be more adventurous.”

Sawyer smiled. “You don’t have to do the zip line to be adventurous.”

“No?” She glanced at him hopefully, her face brightening. Then her brows drew together, and she stiffened. “Yeah, but I don’t ever want to be accused of being boring again.”

“I take it someone called you boring,” Sawyer said.

She lifted her chin. “My ex-fiancé.”

“He must have been blind.”

“And a cheating bastard.” She stepped up to the attendant. “I’m going.”

“You want me to go with you?” Sawyer offered.

She shook her head. “No. I’ll be fine. If Carly can do it, so can I.” Jenna stared at the attendant, biting her lip. “I’m ready.”

The attendant gave her the same instructions he’d given to Quentin and Carly.

Jenna closed her eyes and said, “Could you give me a little push?” Her hands shook on the line hooked to the pulley as she drew in a ragged breath.

The attendant nodded, a smile teasing the corners of his mouth, and gave her a hefty shove. Her small body flew out over the cliff and raced to the bottom. A long, high-pitched scream ripped through the air, fading the farther away she went.

“Damn.” Sawyer checked his nylon web belt, which fit snugly around his legs, and stepped up to the attendant. “Guess I’m going, too.”

He turned to the man behind him, hoping that one last person would talk him out of taking the plunge.

The tall, muscular man with light brown hair and steely gray eyes stared right through him.

Nope. There’d be no help on that front.

When he stepped up to the edge, the attendant blocked him with his hand. “Wait until the senorita makes it to the bottom.”

The attendant waited a full minute before he snapped Sawyer’s link onto the line, repeated the instructions and left Sawyer teetering on the edge of the cliff, praying the cable held and the glove would do its job and slow his descent. In the back of his mind, he hoped that he’d find the woman he’d held in his arms for that brief second to thank her for shaming him into jumping off a cliff when his gut told him he was crazy.

He jumped.

Sawyer fell into the jungle, his speed picking up as he swished past treetops, the wind clearing his head and sharpening his mind. As he dropped below the canopy of trees, he could make out the base and Quentin standing at the bottom.

But he wasn’t slowing, and at the pace he was going, he’d crash into the pole at the bottom. How had he let his teammate talk him into sliding down a cable he hadn’t personally inspected? If he lived through this, he’d have a word or two with Quentin.

He gripped the line with his gloved hand, slowing a little, enough to give him a slight amount of reassurance he could stop himself before he crashed into the pole at the other end. For the first time since he jumped off the upper platform, he glanced around at the jungle below. When he looked back at his destination, his heart leaped.

The distance closed faster than he expected and before he knew it, he was careening the last fifty feet into the base. Sawyer grabbed the cable with the gloved hand and squeezed. The wind no longer whipped past him, and his descent slowed the closer he came to the bottom. He couldn’t remember being that terrified since his first fast-rope experience out of a fully operational helicopter hovering thirty feet from the ground.

Ten feet from his feet touching the ground, the cable jolted in his hand. Sawyer bounced in the harness and then dropped like a ton of bricks to the ground. He tucked and rolled, absorbing the impact, and then sprang to his feet. What the hell had just happened?

The attendant at the bottom yelled something in Spanish and threw himself into the jungle. Quentin followed suit.

Sawyer spun in time to see the cable springing back toward him, detached from the pole at the other end. He dived to the right and ducked behind a tree. The cable whipped through the treetops like an angry snake and finally lay still on the ground.

His heart pounding like a bass drum, Sawyer leaped to his feet and yelled, “Everyone okay?”

Quentin climbed out of the brush, pulling leaves out of his hair. “Holy crap. Did you see that?”

Sawyer’s jaw tightened, and he forced himself to take a deep breath. “Saw and felt it.”

“If you’d been a couple seconds later on that cable...” Quentin shook his head and clapped Sawyer on the back. “Damn, buddy. I hate it when you’re right.”

Sawyer brushed the dirt off his hands. “In this case, I wish I hadn’t been right.”

While the zip-line attendant scrambled to his feet, swearing in Spanish, Sawyer unbuckled the nylon straps from around his legs and let the harness drop. “Next time you want me to slide down a zip line...”

Quentin held up his hands. “Don’t worry. There won’t be a next time.” He felt his pockets and cursed. Then he dived into the brush and came up with his cell phone. “The good news is I got it all on video. The guys are gonna die when they see this.”

Sawyer snorted. “I almost died living it.”

Quentin shoved the phone into his pocket and turned toward the exit. “I have to admit, I was surprised to see you coming. But even more surprised when the redhead came down first.”

Sawyer glanced around and didn’t see the woman named Jenna anywhere. “I take it Jenna arrived safely at the bottom.”

“She did. She and her pretty friend left, claimed they needed to get back to find a piece of missing luggage. The redhead told me to tell you thanks for the encouragement.”

Disappointed he’d missed her, but glad she’d gone before him when the cable was still intact, Sawyer asked, “You didn’t happen to catch her full name, did you?”

“She didn’t offer a last name.” Quentin turned back to Sawyer. “Why? Are you interested?”

Again, Sawyer shrugged. “Just wondered.” Hell, yes, he was interested, but he’d be damned if he let Quentin know. He’d pick at him incessantly.