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All I can do is moan in reply. My eyes close. I feel enveloped—inside and out—in hot velvet and silky steel. The storm outside is forgotten. The swing of the car only adds to the sensation of fierce freedom. Of achieving an impossibility. I’m secure in his embrace yet it’s the wildest moment of my life. Finally it overwhelms me. I cry out as I come so hard I don’t know anything any more. There’s total body annihilation. I hear his words—filthy and fierce—as he thrusts hard into me, harder than ever, and grips me to him. The moment is more sweet than I could have ever imagined possible.
I don’t know how long it is later when I realise I’m slumped over him, my head resting on his chest. We’re still intimately connected. I never want to move.
‘Imagine if the cable breaks now,’ he mutters. ‘What a way to go though, right?’
‘Embarrassing if people found us locked together,’ I mumble.
He nudges me gently. ‘Worth it? Not worth it?’
‘So worth it.’ I lift my head and smile at him.
In the dim light cast from his phone I see him smile back and—
A screeching sound startles me. The cabin jolts severely and suddenly descends a few metres along the cable. His grip on me tightens to stop me from falling from his lap. The cabin lights blink a couple of times and then return to full power and Dain’s arms loosen. I scramble off him and quickly tug down my dress, refasten the buttons at the neckline and scramble for my panties. My cheeks burn. So do other parts of me.
There’s no camera in the cabin—thank goodness—but there is an intercom and it suddenly crackles, emitting a calming pre-recorded message saying we’ll be at the ground soon and not to panic.
Dain swiftly does up his trousers and retrieves his phone from the floor. His shirt is half unbuttoned, his face flushed. He looks more than dishevelled—dissolute. As he glances up at me his muscles visibly tighten. I almost liquefy into a puddle on the floor. Apparently I’ve discovered my inner nymph.
But I gulp air, striving for nonchalance. ‘We should probably—’
His phone beeps with a series of messages. Then it actually rings.
He glances at the screen and answers immediately. ‘Simone? You okay?’
I can hear his godmother’s tone but can’t make out what she’s saying. My heart kicks. Family loyalty matters to me. Well, some of my family. I would never not answer an invitation or call if my sister Ava needed me.
‘Fine. I’m fine.’ His gaze is trained on me as he talks to her. ‘Everyone up there okay?’ He nods reassuringly at me as he listens to what she says.
I smooth my hair and sit back down, grab my backpack and hold it on my lap in front of me like a protective shield.
Dain ends the call with Simone. ‘Talia—’
‘No regrets,’ I quickly whisper.
His phone rings again. I see his frustration at the interruption but I’m relieved and gesture for him to answer it. I don’t want to talk about what just happened. I don’t want to analyse it or ruin it in any way. He lives in a different country. He’s a billionaire and I’m a barista. This is over.
We’re at the bottom of the gondola before that second call ends, before I can believe it. I can’t believe anything about tonight. As the doors slide open there are five huge guys in firefighting gear waiting for us. I take advantage of the crowd and chaos to escape.
‘Talia!’
I ignore his call. I run into the night—taking control—because I don’t want an awkward, embarrassing goodbye. There’s nothing to say. This was a moment I’ll never regret, a moment I’ll always treasure.
But nothing will ever come of it.
CHAPTER FOUR
Dain
AS MY PILOT brings the jet in to land I gaze at the mountain to the right. I’m not in the cockpit—my licence is more hobby than necessity—but if I had to take over the controls, I could. The mountains are snowy and majestic, the southern lakes sapphire, yet it’s the gondola complex glinting in the sunlight snagging all my attention.
It’s almost a year to the day since I was trapped in a suspension car with an annoyingly unforgettable woman. Almost a year since I last had sex.
Yeah, I can’t believe that either. Trust me, I’m not happy about it.
My sexual appetite has simply...dried up. When I returned to Australia, I met other women but never took any home. Opportunities they offered, I ignored. I worked harder and longer hours until basically becoming a workaholic hermit.
In the decade before this last year I had many lovers and remained on good enough terms with most. I was upfront with what I offered—never more than a few nights’ ultra-discreet fling—private islands, private hotels, no prying eyes. Definitely no cameras.
