Their Divine Doctor(Divine Creek Ranch 9)(22)

“Uh-huh!” She looked around self-consciously at the other occupants of the small plane.

“Can you tell me?” he asked, pointing to his ear as he leaned down close to her. Gus approached, looking ready to hook Emma’s harness up to his. Duke held up a hand, and Gus nodded and stopped to talk to one of the other instructors.

She glanced at the others again, who were all lining up near the open door, waiting their turn, then turned to him and said, “What if I pee?”

“Huh?”

“What if I freak out and wet my pants?”

Duke schooled the smile on his face, not wanting her to think he was laughing at her. He recalled being pissing scared the first time he jumped out of an airplane. “Do you have to pee?”

“No.”

“Then I doubt you will. But if you do, we will say we encountered a duck up there and he peed on you.”

In the height of her adrenaline rush, she seemed to mull that over for a moment and nodded her head. “Okay.”

“Is there anything else that has you worried?”

“Besides jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?” She adjusted her goggles and smiled sheepishly and said, “Thank you for not laughing at me.”

Duke grinned and wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her reassuringly. They’d made love for the first time the weekend before. Unfortunately, his and Gage’s work schedule had taken them out of town on a surveillance and investigation job with Ace and Kemp that had wound up lasting most of the week. The frustrating thing about it was that the job had been mostly sitting around, watching and waiting, which left him with a lot of time on his hands. The same was true of Gage, who had been even more quiet than normal.

The only good thing about the time away from Emma and Divine was that it gave them ample opportunity to talk about the intricacies of a ménage relationship. They’d known from the outset that last Sunday night wasn’t a one-night stand, and Duke had made it clear to her afterward because he knew Emma was prone to worrying.

She’d been disappointed about their trip out of town but had understood completely and reminded them that her hours could be just as strange and brutal at times. If they were willing to deal with that, then so was she.

They’d made it up to her as much as they were able by calling her several times in the evening during the week. Her sexy, velvety-toned voice on the phone had a torturous effect on both him and Gage as they’d taken turns talking to her. They talked about all sorts of things, but her soothing voice kept him semierect the whole time. One night, when they’d talked about the ménage, he’d needed relief in a hot shower afterward and wondered if she’d felt the same way.

Perhaps she’d opted to play with the unusual sex toy they’d watched her purchase while they’d been doing surveillance work at Discretion. Thoughts like that had only served to fuel his own fantasies of catching her in the act and providing her with the real thing.

While away, he’d also set up the little adventure they were now on, crossing off the second item on the to-do list since she didn’t consider making love to both of them separately in one night to be a true ménage. That was okay by him. They’d get to it eventually, judging by the twinkle in her eye.

When it was nearly time for them to jump, Emma asked, “Gus, how many times you have done this?”

Gus had hooked up to her harness and made sure she was secured properly, and then they’d scooted closer to the doorway as skydivers began exiting the plane. “Doc, I’ve made six thousand jumps in the last ten years.”

Duke grinned because he could tell she was doing the math in her head when her fingers twitched slightly. “That’s a lot.” The notion seemed to settle her a little. “Duke, how about you?”

“One hundred and thirty-three jumps in the last five years. Gus took me on my first tandem jump.”

Emma smiled and seemed much more at ease. She reached out a hand to Gage and said, “And you and I are the newbies, huh?”

Duke laughed when Gage rolled his eyes and grinned back at her. “That’s right, angel. You and I are the newbies.”

Emma snorted, beckoned him close, and said something in his ear that caused him to laugh and nod.

Soon it was their turn at the door. Duke was wearing a wingsuit and packing a drogue to help control his speed to give Emma and Gage a chance to catch up to him before they had to deploy their chutes. Their group moved to the door, Duke took his position, leaned back for a kiss with Emma, and then leapt into thin air.

Exhilaration filled him as he flipped and held his arms out to brake slightly. He watched Emma’s mouth open wide as she and Gus jumped.