by K. F. Breene
Krista, still shaking, took a deep breath. “I hate you for this, Sean. I don’t even want a new handbag. I just said that to get everyone on board.”
“I know, baby, but you do want to win. So keep coming.”
“It is too airy up here, Sean,” she whined as she inched out, one foot at a time. She grabbed the rope suspended above, one-hundred feet of air, and then gingerly placed her right foot on the rope.
“Good girl. That was the hardest part.”
“Who are you trying to fool?” Krista mumbled.
She stepped with her second foot and inched out, a little at a time. She very nearly closed her eyes to shut out the sight of nothingness around her. Your feet aren’t supposed to feel a breeze beneath them. It wasn’t right.
“Good. Half way.”
A gust of wind shook her, swaying her whole body. Krista tried to clutch to the rope but as she leaned forward, the rope she was standing on went backward. One foot slipped off and the next thing she knew she was confronting her fears—she was dangling.
And then she panicked. And screamed.
“Krista, calm down. Krista, just listen to my voice. Just me and you, baby. Me and you. Stay with me.”
Like the many times Krista freaked out with Sean, he talked her down off the ledge. Only this time, the ledge was real. She closed her eyes and regained her balance slowly. She brought her foot back to the rope and stood there for a minute.
“Take another step, Krista. Loosen those hands and take another step,” Sean coaxed.
“I think I peed myself a little.”
“I…That’s…I don’t know what to say to that. Just keep coming. We’ll get you a Depends when you get down.”
Nearly crying, Krista shimmied her foot out a bit, then shimmied the other closer.
“Great work, baby. A little farther now,” Sean said. He was definitely closer. She could hear it.
“You shouldn’t call me ‘baby,’ Sean. It is sexual harassment.”
“All right sweet cheeks, just a bit more.”
She laughed despite herself. “I hate you, Sean.”
“Love you, too. A little farther.”
She edged out a little more, then a little more. As her foot moved, it hit something hard. Before she could scream she was wrapped in Sean’s arms.
“You did it!” he said as he flattened her to the tree.
She let go of him and grabbed the tree. She felt Sean doing something with her harness, then air, and then a thunk. Then ‘Next’ from below.
“Alright, we need to keep going. You are almost there.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I know. But you have to. Let’s go. Just listen to my voice and trust me, okay? Trust me.”
“Okay.”
They edged along the platform. Sean had his hand on Krista’s back, making her feel marginally safer as she clutched onto the tree. All too soon she felt more draft. A peek told her it was another void.
“Okay, this is a board. Much easier. All you have to do is cross it,” Sean said close to her ear.
Krista opened her eyes to look, but Sean was so close to her face, she couldn’t see anything else besides his lucid green eyes. He leaned closer, and he was kissing her.
She opened her mouth to him, happy to close her eyes again. Sean encircled her with his arms and pulled her closer. Krista lost herself in the kiss and his body. His warmth radiated around her. She felt safe and content…until she got a blast of wind and remembered where the hell she was.
She broke off the kiss aggressively. His eyes were bright and soft, which was not more important than the ground, which was hard and far away.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, outraged. What if she had lost herself completely and pitched over the side?
“Taking your mind off of things,” Sean said quietly.
“Sean McAdams, get your shit together and get away from me. I need to get out of this damn tree! I would push you, but you probably wouldn’t move and I would get dumped over the side!”
Sean smiled, those beautiful eyes twinkling. “Follow me.”
They got to the plank.
Yes, a plank is better than a rope. This plank, however, was not.
“Sean, there’s nothing to hold on to.”
“If you fall, the rope will catch you.”
“Then I’ll dangle one-hundred feet off the ground! What the hell is going on here? Are these people sadists?! Who thinks this is fun?!”
“You’re holding us up, Krista,” Donald yelled from somewhere behind them.
“Shut up, Donald!” she screamed into his general direction.
“You can do it, Krista,” Dean said, nearly right behind her.
Where had he come from?
Sean, seeing Krista terrified but ready, turned toward the plank and walked across. He had great balance and loved heights—nothing to it. Krista put him on her ongoing hit list.
“Krista, you have excellent balance.” Dean edged up behind her. “Just look at Sean, keep your head up, and walk.”
“I’m going to have to look down, Dean. Or else how am I going to see where I am walking?”
“It’s a straight line,” Dean said. “Just walk in a straight line toward Sean. Easy.”
“The next person that says this is easy is going to get punched in the mouth.”
“Atta girl, Krista. Take no prisoners!” Georgie shouted up. He thought this was hilarious.
“How many points am I getting for this?” she asked logically.
“One,” Donald shouted.
“I am doing all this for one lousy point? I have to change my underwear! I might not have any more clean ones. Then what?”
“Krista, you’re getting hysterical. Finish strong,” Sean prodded.
Krista looked up and glared at him. She was answered with a sexual smile. He liked when she was riled up. He liked the sex that followed.
If there was ever a time that she was not in the mood, it was, hands down, right then.
Centering herself, because that was a good thing to do before a person died, Krista inched out onto the board, petrified. Her hands were up for balance, but she didn’t need it. This wasn’t a physical problem she was having, it was all in her head. If that beam were one foot off the ground, she could probably do yoga on it, or dance on it, and never waver. The air beneath her feet had her shaking. But she was braving it. She was facing it. For him. For their team.
She didn’t care that Sean got that loving look. Not right then.
“Damn you all. You’re nothing but a bunch of assholes!” she yelled.
“Half way, Krista!” Georgie shouted.
“I think I peed myself again,” she whined. “I have bladder issues this high up.”
Sean was leaning out toward her with his hand out. Krista inched, slowly but surely. Little by little. One step at a time.
“Almost there, Geegee!” she heard Marcus shout.
“Marcus? What are you doing here?” She asked the air.
“Just watching you on your death bed, doll.”
“C’mon, Krista. Listen to my voice. Almost there,” Sean called softly.
She kept inching to that hand. Then she took a big step and grabbed it. She was quickly reeled in and put on a large, hard surface. She wasn’t held this time. She wasn’t kissed, either. She was sad and glad at the same time. With the audience, though, it wouldn’t have been a good idea.
Krista hugged the tree and waited. Dean showed up two seconds later.
“That was fast, Dean,” Krista mumbled into the bark.
“Yeah. I like heights.”
Dean moved around Krista, hooked up his safety rope to another part of the torture chamber. The next sound was a zzzzzzz and a yodel.
“What the hell is going on?” Krista asked no one.
“Dean just zipped out. Your turn. Or do you want Donald to go first?” Sean asked next to Krista’s ear.
“Just get me out of here, Sean. I need solid ground.
” Krista was out of stamina.
Sean led her along the tree. The platform they were on was the largest yet, though still not large. Two people could walk abreast around the tree in most areas, and there was a long haired man sitting next to a rope leading out into the abyss. He held it out to Krista.
“I hate my life,” she said weakly.
Sean basically pushed her to the man and held her still while he exchanged her safety rope for a zip line rope.
“Okay Krista, choose your flight. You want to sit on the edge and fall off, or jump?” The man asked with a smokers gravelly voice.
“Leaping. Screw it.”
“O-kay. At your pace.” The man sat back on his tiny stool and watched the proceedings in boredom.
At the edge of the platform was nothing but air. Oh, and a bird flapping by. She was standing at the height that birds flew with nothing but a bit of rope and some straps keeping her from falling to her doom. How unnatural was that?
The zip line had a steep fall directly off the platform, then bowed out to a distant tree. Krista had only four words available to her at the sight, “I hate my life.”
Nothing to it. She closed her eyes, prayed, and felt a surge of panic and fear as she forced herself to step off the platform.
The world fell away.
She was falling. Her stomach wasn’t falling with her—it was tossed up into the air, along with all the blood in her body, causing an unbearable tickling sensation. Then the rope caught and she was rushing, zooming downward at a million miles an hour, screaming the whole way. Air was rushing by her head, whipping at her face. Her fingers were painfully clutching the rope attached to her harness, her toes were tingling. She felt like she was in a wind tunnel, falling. Always falling. Falling and zooming. Until she slowed and wasn’t falling. She was climbing. Slightly but not slowly, climbing.
She slowed to a fluffy stop, the wind subsiding and her body recollecting itself.
Then she started falling backward.
“WHAT THE HELL?!”
She zipped back down, eyes still shut tight, until she hit the lowest point in the line again, went up a ways, and slowly started back down again. The demon ride was nearing its end. Krista waited, tensely, until it finally stopped for good, and then with eyes still shut, said, “Someone get me down.”
There was clanking, there was movement nearby, there was talking—Krista saw none of it. She wasn’t opening her eyes for anyone.
“Kay girl, you gotta climb down,” a man’s voice said.
Krista peeked open her right eye. There was a ladder next to her feet with a gruff looking nature man next to her. He had dreads and a shirt with a pot leaf on it.
“I’ll help you on the ladder.” He put his arms in the air for her to grab.
Krista was down so fast she left the guy at the top with wide eyes. She flattened herself onto the ground, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the dirt.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Later that evening Krista was showered, napped, and rested. She’d left the ropes course to a crowd full of cheers—apparently everyone could hear her screaming and yelling from up in the trees, and they wanted to check out the ruckus. Marcus led the cheering team that wanted her down safe. He wouldn’t comment on those who didn’t.
He did comment on Bob being absent, however. Krista filled him in on the way back to her room. He had looked at her knowingly, but didn’t comment. He knew it was coming—apparently everyone did—and his reaction was no surprise.
When Krista got back to her room, she had a good cry. It was an emotionally draining day on top of an emotionally draining weekend. She was making progress, it was true, but it was just so much work. She felt like she was walking the proverbial uphill slope in the snow. And while her team was starting to warm toward her, which was a huge plus, the rest of the managers weren’t. She had a tiny group of supporters in a large crowd. It was draining.
So with the help of a pep-talk over the phone from a riled up Kate, who hated her in any sort of turmoil, she decided to put on her chic, sexy dress and just be Krista. She wasn’t putting her differences in their faces, but she was no longer holding back, either. She didn’t have an angle and she wasn’t hiding—she was coming right at them in normal Krista style.
It was the awards night, and they would hear who won and who placed for the weekend’s events. There were team trophies and individual trophies. Krista didn’t realize about the individual ones, and was glad for it. She didn’t need any more pressure.
Janice came, showered, got chastised by Marcus for her outfit, ignored him, and went. Sean came by to talk to Janice, but when she was leaving, he had no excuse to stay. He gave a farewell to Krista and said he’d see her later.
Speaking of Marcus, he was all for her wearing the dress she chose. It was a black tie affair. Everyone would be in their best. The men in tuxes, the women in evening gowns. Krista’s dress was long, down to her ankles, but there was a slit up one side to her mid-thigh. It was a strapless number, and her bra boosted her boobs up and out. It was a shimmery blue color shifting material. It was unique, expensive looking, and set off her coloring perfectly.
Krista did wavy hair, a soft eye and red lips. Her necklace fell to the tip of her cleavage in most places, but in the middle it toppled on in. The eye helplessly followed and got lost in boob. She had four inch, silver strappy heels that Marcus delighted over, and that made the outfit.
Fifteen minutes after the cocktail hour started, Krista left her room and headed down. She didn’t see anyone on the way to the elevator and she didn’t see anyone in the lobby. She would be surprised how people took in her appearance.
Krista walked into the big open area in a strut. That was another thing Kate said. Walk the walk, honey, strut your stuff into their fucking midst—Kate was on fire with the f-bombs in the pep-talk. You’re a woman, baby, make sure they know it! Girl power!
As Krista neared the bar, she started seeing people glance her way. All of them did a double take and stared hard. Krista kept coming, not faltering in her step. More and more people looked. Now people were talking, and you bet it was because of her. The girls all wore scowls. Krista smiled. She kept coming. No faltering, no slowing down.
When she was in clear view, there were very few heads that weren’t turned in the woman manager’s direction. She was bee-lining for the bar, not bothering to look for a friend, not bothering to worry about anything.
~*~*~*~
Sean, standing with Ron, noticed the people around him go quiet. The hush filled the bar. In confusion, Sean and Ron both followed their gazes until he could just see her, walking toward the bar. Sean stopped breathing.
She was a vision. She was confident and proud and not holding back. She was like a warrior princess marching into battle. She was so beautiful, Sean nearly scrubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
“She feels like she’s got something to prove,” Ron said beside him. Unlike Sean, and most the other managers around them, Ron wasn’t looking at Krista. He wasn’t watching her progression. Instead, he was watching reactions.
He went on with, “She’s shown everyone she can do a man’s job, and now she proves that she is undoubtedly a woman. She’s making us all eat it. Smart.”
“She isn’t doing a man’s job. She is doing a job, period. It doesn’t take a man specifically to crunch numbers and manage people.”
“And now we know,” Ron said with a smirk. “Which I don’t think most of these men did before this weekend.”
Sean huffed and shook his head, unable to stop watching Krista. He wanted to go to her. He wanted to make sure she didn’t have to continue her plight on her own. And he nearly did, but before Krista reached the bar, someone called her name. It was another woman.
Emily stepped forward out of the crowd with a warm greeting and a smile.
“Oh my God, I didn’t know you were here!” Krista exclaimed, giving her a hug and a kiss on her cheek.
“Girl, look at y
ou!” Emily said with a twinkle in her eyes. “I think you found the only way to shut these men up!” Emily laughed as she looked around her. Everyone took that as a cue to quit staring. It was widely known that Emily was not one to trifle with. She had no power professionally, but she had plenty where Tory was concerned. Now everyone knew Krista was on friendly terms with her. It only worked in Krista’s favor.
“All these men are looking at Krista in awe and fear. A couple with lust, of course,” Ron went on, looking at Sean.
The last sentence had Sean looking back. Ron was smiling in a knowing way.
“I talked to her, did she tell you?” Ron continued.
“Yes,” Sean said simply.
“She filled me in about your shared past.”
“It is common knowledge.”
“I didn’t realize she was Krista Marshall. From Dexico.”
“And I hope you don’t tell any others her old last name. I met the reason she moved to L.A. He was…not someone I would ever care to meet again. Extremely dangerous.”
Ron nodded slowly, looking back toward Emily and Krista chatting amicably. “I asked her to come to New York.”
Sean followed his gaze.
Ron went on, “She is still loyal to you. She also has…an interesting ability to withstand my influence.”
Sean barked out laughter. “You tried to strong-arm her?” Ron didn’t comment. “Yeah, she doesn’t respond well to that. You have to beguile her. Give her goals and problems to solve—you have to lay out the logic so she can analyze it, but only give her enough information to lead her to the conclusion you want her to reach. Then she’ll stop at nothing to fulfill it. It’s tricky, because she’s smart; she’s extremely strategic and good at poking holes in someone else’s logic. If you don’t get it just right, you never know when she’ll push back.”
“Sounds like a lot of work.”
Sean shrugged. “I never thought of it as work. It’s a challenge. The end result is always better than I anticipated, and not always because I came up with it.”
“I don’t know that I would work half so well with her. I doubt I could beguile her, as you said. I tell people what to do, and they do it. End of story. Well, she’s not moving. Not to me, anyway. You might watch her, though. She might not be moving to me, but she might not be staying with you, either.”