Page 49 of The Fate Factor

She closes her eyes and blows out a slow breath. I see the muscles in her neck and jaw tighten, then slowly go loose. “I am putting so much trust in you right now.”

I know she is, and damn if it doesn’t puff my chest right up.

“Alright, come on.” I maneuver her forward, keeping my hand firmly on her hip for as long as I can. “Up you go.”

“I have to go first?”

“This way I’m between you and the ground. Just in case.”

Her eyes flare, then narrow when she sees my grin. I’m kidding her, of course. I’d never put her in danger.

I wait while she weighs it, prepared to abort this mission if she really puts her foot down, but eventually she starts climbing. When we get to the first landing, the air is noticeably cooler, tinged with salt. There’s still a potent ache in my side when I fill my lungs, but I suck it in anyway. It’s a small price to get this kind of oxygen hit.

In front of me, Noel’s skirt flutters in the new breeze. “This better be worth it,” she mutters. “My hamstrings haven’t had this much action in a long while. Oh my God.” She stops short, and I bump into her back. “Your knee must be killing you.Jamie!”

“It’s fine. Better. We’re almost there now, anyway. No sense in turning back.”

She swallows and keeps going, but her grip on the railing has turned white-knuckled.

“Doing okay?”

“Fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” she snaps, but she turns to look at me instead of where she’s stepping, and her toe catches the next tread. She pitches forward.

“Woah.” I grab for the railing with one hand and catch her with the other, pulling her tight against my chest.

“Oh my God. Oh myGod.”

“You’re okay,” I tell her.Better than me. I set my chin on her head and squeeze my eyes shut against the throbbing pain where her elbow caught my side.

“I almost fell to my death.”

“You didn’t.”

“Why do you sound like that, then?” she demands. And yeah, I sound like I can’t pull in a full breath because my vision is white with pain. My knee might be on the mend, but my ribs are still sore as hell, and that was a direct hit.

“This was a ridiculous idea. I don’t know why I even—”

“Noel. I will concede the point, but I need a second. I’d rather not pass out this high off the ground.”

“Oh,” she says, looking over her shoulder. “Oh!” She spins toward me and claps a hand over her mouth.

“Fuck,” I choke out, gripping the railings on either side of us and letting my head drop.

“Are you okay?”

“Yup.”Nope. “I will be. Just gotta breathe through it for a second.”

She seems to forget she’s mad, fussing over me instead. She’s two steps above me, and bent over like this, the top of my head is in her cleavage which is, quite frankly, confusing. I discovered that night on her porch that pain doesn’t seem to dull my reaction to her, and it’s fifty-fifty whether a pair of broken ribs are worth this little bit of concern she’s showing me.

“You’re a terrible patient,” she says quietly. “Your doctor should fire you.”

I laugh, then wince, and her fingers leave my forearm, brushing the hair off of my forehead where I’ve broken a sweat from the exertion of managing this much pain. The gesture is so sweet, so gentle, and my heart is lodged in my throat as I watch all of my laughable lies flutter away into the night air, the ones that involve this being some sort of business-related friendship.

If that were true, I wouldn’t have been so irrationally angry about my failed dinner plans tonight. If that were true, I wouldn’t be thinking about using what little bit of strength Ihave right now to kneel down in front of her on these steps and touch her as sweetly as she’s touching me.

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