One Wild Night

One Wild Night

[An Enjoying the Chase novella]

By Kirsty Moseley

Copyright © 2014 Kirsty
Moseley

All rights reserved.

The right of Kirsty
Moseley to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No
part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted , in any form or by any means without the prior written permission
of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover
other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being
imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters in this
publication are fictional and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead
is purely coincidental.

Acknowledgements

Cover design by Mollie
Wilson at M J Wilson Design. Mollie, thank you for making the stupid, vague and
totally unhelpful idea I had look totally amazing!

Thank you to my amazing
editors – Emily from Ruston Hutton, and Kristin and Becky at Hot Tree Editing.

Dedication

For no other reason
other than she was beautiful, smart, strong, and loved the occasional F-bomb, I
dedicate this one to my Auntie Pauline who sadly passed away this year.

Rest In Peace, Auntie,
and know that you’ll be missed and never forgotten. xx

All of my author
proceeds and profits from the sale of this ebook will be donated to MacMillan
Nurses for the wonderful work that they do.

[Registered charity
number 261017]

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter One

I really couldn’t procrastinate any longer. After taking one
last look at my girl, I forced myself to walk out of the front door and down
the stairs to the lobby. Tonight was my bachelor party, but I wasn’t ready for
it at all. If I was honest, all I really wanted to do tonight was lie on the
sofa with my fiancée, Rosie, and watch TV, maybe catch a little early night so
I could ravage her body. However, my best friend, Ashton Taylor, had decided I
needed to go out and celebrate my last night of freedom.

As I stood in the lobby waiting for him to arrive, a bad
feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. I had no idea where we were going or
what we were going to be doing tonight – all I knew was that when Ashton had
gotten married a few years back, I had taken my best man duties seriously, and
of course had teased the shit out of him all night long. Tonight was probably
going to be payback.

As the front door swung open and Ashton strutted in with a shit-eating
grin on his face, I groaned loudly. He was wearing a black T-shirt that read: ‘Best
man of the pussy-whipped party’ on the front.

“You ready for this, Nate?” he asked.

“Seriously? You’re wearing that?” I asked, pointing down at
his chest.

He laughed and nodded, throwing his arm around my shoulder. “This
is going to be one wild night, but don’t worry; I’ll get you so drunk you won’t
even remember it in the morning,” he assured me, leading me out of the building

I sighed deeply. I had a feeling I was going to live to
regret ever meeting him by the time morning came. This was probably going to be
the most painfully embarrassing night of my twenty-five years of life. 

When I stepped out of the door, I already wanted to cry.
They were all standing there, all of my friends, waiting for me in front of the
minibus we were obviously using tonight. They cheered and chinked beer bottles,
grinning like morons even though it was barely past lunchtime. All of my
friends were decked out in T-shirts like Ashton’s, but instead, theirs read: ‘Team
member of the pussy-whipped party’ on it. My dad, Evan, was there, too; his
said ‘I’m the daddy’. Even George, my soon-to-be father-in-law, wore one that
said ‘Father of the bride’ on the front.

Something flew towards my face, so I caught it quickly,
looking down at my own T-shirt. ‘Groom’ had been printed on the front, but they’d
crossed it out and written ‘Bride’s Bitch’ there instead. I flipped it over and
looked at the back. ‘It’s my last night being single, please spank me’.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. “I hate you guys,” I
grumbled, but my meagre protests just made them cheer and chink their bottles
again.

“Let the bacheloring begin!” Ashton enthused, grinning.

I sighed and decided just to go with it. I knew I was in for
strippers, drinking, probably some embarrassing display of being tied up naked
somewhere, and whatever else could come out of Ashton Taylor’s warped little
mind.

My friends all started piling on the minibus, and my gaze
settled on the large sign that had been hand-painted onto an old bed sheet and
stuck to the side of the bus. “Son of a bitch,” I grumbled under my breath,
following reluctantly behind them all and climbing on the bus. As I stripped
out of my nice shirt I’d chosen for tonight and pulled on the party shirt
instead, I smiled apologetically at the driver who had obviously been paid to
ferry us around all night long. No doubt, he would see some embarrassing antics
tonight before he dropped us all home.

I glanced down the bus, seeing everyone properly for the
first time. On top of there being my best friend, dad and soon to be
father-in-law, there was also eight other guys. All of whom I was close friends
with; one of them I knew from work.

My eyes settled on Seth; he was grinning like an idiot. “I’m
guessing you were the one who made the huge ‘pussy mobile’ sign on the side of
the van?” I asked, raising one eyebrow at him. Out of all of my friends, he was
the one who was most similar to what I used to be before I met Rosie and
settled down. He was a player. He was the only one who didn’t understand my
desire to marry the girl of my dreams. To Seth, getting married was like the
death penalty.

He grinned and raised his beer bottle to me in toast. “You
guessed right.”

Nodding, I looked around and immediately spotted a case full
of beer on the front seats, along with various other bottles of alcohol and a
couple of duffle bags. My curiosity spiked immediately. Part of me wanted to
know what was in the bags; the other part, the more rational part, told me I
needed to be drunk before I found out.

I plucked out a beer and popped the cap, raising it in
cheers to the group who were watching me excitedly. “To getting married,” I
toasted.

“To the last fling before the ring,” Seth countered, raising
his bottle, too.

I rolled my eyes and George, Rosie’s dad, cleared his throat,
raising a warning eyebrow.

I smiled back reassuringly. “Don’t worry, George, the only
sex I’m having tonight will be some phone sex with your daughter later,” I
joked, winking at him, which just made him groan and shake his head in
disapproval.

I plopped down in the seat next to Ashton. He grinned and
tapped his bottle against mine. “To getting so hammered that we have no
recollection of this in the morning,” he said, grinning wickedly and sipping
his beer.

I closed my eyes and tried not to think about what I had let
myself in for with these guys. Was getting married really worth this afternoon
and night of torture? Rosie’s face popped into my head, and the face of her
little four-year-old son, DJ. They sure as hell were worth all this torture,
worth a lot more, too. I’d literally already walked through fire for them, so
this little night out would seem like a walk in the park compared to that. I
laughed despite myself when everyone in the minibus – including the driver –
started to sing, ‘I’m getting married in the morning’.

By the time we pulled up at our desired destination, I was
already onto my second beer and my nerves were starting to dissipate. I’d
decided to roll with it; they could do their worst to me, so long as I made it
to the church for 1 p.m. the following day. I was only planning to go through
this whole wedding thing once anyway, so at least this night of celebrating
would be a one-off.

As we pulled into the parking lot, George stood up and
gasped. “I thought this was a joke! I thought when you suggested this, you were
just fooling around!” he practically shouted as the colour drained from his
face.

Confused, I turned to look at where we were. An airfield. Panic
made me jerk in my seat. “Please tell me we’re staying in this country. If I’m
late tomorrow, then Rosie’s gonna have my balls! Well, actually, she
wouldn’t
have my balls, and that would be worse,” I joked, looking at Ashton pleadingly.

He grinned and patted my knee. “We’re staying in this
country, just maybe a little higher than usual,” he confirmed, waggling his
eyebrows at me and pointing out of the window.

Looking in the direction he was pointing, a smile crept onto
my face. I loved anything sporty or dangerous. I turned back to George and gave
him a wicked grin. “What’s up, York, you scared of a little parachute jump?” I
teased, laughing as he flipped me the finger.

“Shut up, Nate,” he answered, flopping back into his chair
with his eyes closed. My dad slung an arm around his shoulder, talking to him
reassuringly.

I laughed and turned back to Ashton, my partner in crime,
the guy who was usually at my side when crazy stuff started happening. “This is
gonna be awesome!”

It took a long time for them to run through the training
stuff, how to land and what to do. Luckily, it was a tandem jump, so the guy
strapped to our backs would be doing all of the work. All we had to remember
was to keep our hands out of the way, enjoy falling 12,000 feet from an aeroplane,
and pray the parachute would open.

Once the initial training was done, we met the people who
would be jumping with us. I shook the hand of my guy – a huge guy called Blane.
I looked over to Seth to see him frowning at my dad. When my eyes went that
way, I spotted why he was frowning. My dad’s instructor was a woman, a pretty
one, too.

“No offence, Blane, but how come I get you strapped to my
ass instead of her?” I asked, nudging him with my elbow.

He laughed and rolled his eyes. “You’d be surprised how many
times a day I get asked that. Anyway, tell your friend not to bother, she doesn’t
bat for his team,” he replied, nodding at Seth who was now trying his luck,
complimenting her on her red jumpsuit and asking her if she came here often.

I grinned and slapped Seth on the back of his head, making
him shoot me a dirty look. “You lucked out, buddy. You got the wrong body parts
for that one.”

His frown deepened. “Dammit, really? That sucks,” he
grumbled.

“Life isn’t always fair,” I answered. I flicked my eyes over
to George, who was sitting on the bench, his head in his hands. “All right,
George? You don’t have to do this, you know,” I said, sitting next to him and
patting his back. As father-in-laws went, I got a good one; he was an incredibly
nice guy.

He took a deep breath and looked at me with watery eyes. “I
don’t want to look like a punk in front of your friends. They’ll be teasing me
about it all through the wedding,” he whined.

I smiled. “Just come in the plane with us. If you don’t want
to jump, then don’t,” I suggested. He nodded, closing his eyes and moving his
lips as if he was saying a silent prayer.

When we were all set, we boarded the aeroplane. It took a
while for us to reach the right height, but when we did, the instructors came
over and started strapping everyone to their fronts. George looked like he was
going into a state of panic.

Rick, one of my friends, was bending right forward,
theatrically sticking his head between his legs. “Rick, what you up to, dude?”
I asked, laughing to myself. That looked like a weird position to be in.

He raised his head and looked at me. “Kissing my ass
goodbye,” he answered, laughing. We all burst out laughing; even George had a
couple of chuckles – until the door of the plane opened and suddenly the
laughter died down.

I watched as we lined up into the order that we’d drawn
straws for back on the ground. I was fourth, after George. He was mumbling
something as he sat in front of me. I squeezed his shoulder, trying to reassure
him as we watched Adam and then Wayne throw themselves out of the plane,
laughing as they did it. All of my friends were thrill-seekers, just like I
was. Bungee jumping, rock-climbing, car racing, we did it all.

Needing to mark the moment, I pulled out my cell phone and
recorded a video of George as he waited to go. He was shaking his head, saying
he didn’t want to go, clinging to the side of the door as his instructor
scooted him forward so his legs were dangling off the edge. He was literally
screaming like a teenage girl at a Justin Bieber concert. The instructor looked
back at me to see if he should go or not. I grinned and nodded, pushing him
forward at the same time as he scooted forward and threw himself and my soon-to-be
father-in-law out of the plane. I heard him screaming, and screaming and
screaming. Even over the roar of the plane engines, I could hear it, and I just
couldn’t stop laughing.

I looked back as Ashton as I shoved the cell phone back into
my pocket. “That one’s going on Facebook when we get home,” I confirmed,
slapping him a high-five.

Then it was my turn. This was a first for me. I’d never
actually jumped out of a plane before. I started to get nervous. I tried not to
think about my chute not opening and us plummeting to the ground. I tried not
to imagine the feeling of knowing you were going to die and being powerless to
stop it. I tried, but it just kept flooding my brain.

Blane tapped my shoulder. “You ready?” he shouted over the
gusts of wind that were whipping around my ears. I nodded, knowing if I spoke,
I would sound somewhat like George did a minute earlier. I knew Ashton would be
recording me, waiting for me to scream like a pansy, too. There was no way I
was giving him the satisfaction of that.

I gulped as he scooted us forward, my legs dangling out of
the plane; the wind was whipping about my face making it a little hard to
breathe. A quick glance over my shoulder at Ashton confirmed what I’d suspected
– he was recording me on his cell phone, too.

I gulped and forced a smile, whilst silently repeating the
word ‘fuck’ over and over in my head. I gave him the thumbs up and then Blane
shifted us again. Then I was falling, free-falling from 12,000 feet.

The free-fall lasted for less than a minute, and the whole
time I could feel the adrenalin rushing through my system. My heart crashed in
my chest, but I actually loved it. Suddenly, the chute opened and the straps
tightened around my body as we jerked upwards. I laughed and held onto my
straps as I looked around. From up here you could see everything, the fields
below, the blue sky. It was majestic.

Below us, the other guys were all coasting on their parachutes,
too. George was grinning now. He was pointing out things to his partner,
smiling broadly. I turned my head back and could see other chutes, too,
belonging to the people behind me. I sighed happily. Maybe my bachelor party
was going to be fun after all; it was definitely off to a good start.

When we hit the ground about five minutes later, I grinned
and let Blane unbuckle me before I stood up and looked around. They were
gathering off to one side, so we moved out of the way and watched the others
land, too. George was literally raving about it, hopping from one foot to the
other, suggesting we go again.