Page 72 of Wild Child
I hooked an arm around her neck and reeled her in. "You like it, do you? C'mere. I'll give you a big whiff of it."
Her weak attempts to shove me off told me she wasn't really upset. She sobered when I pulled away, the lines between her eyes thickening.
"Maybe Daniel will be concerned," she said. "I normally check in via satellite text message every night. This will be the second night he hasn't heard from me."
"Can he track your location?"
She nodded. “My phone and radio are with my pack, though.”
I shrugged. "Maybe. Doesn't change the fact that we have another night in the mountains, we're hungry, we're tired, our stream is dwindling, and we need to get some sleep. In other words, it's cuddle time."
A weary smile replaced the vague uncertainty in her gaze. She tugged me to a cozy little spot under quaking aspens and bushes. Spiny branches dug into my sides and back when I slithered inside, then pulled her back to my chest. We hid in the foliage where the lack of exposure might help us sleep better.
With Ellie in my arms again, I dropped into sleep.
* * *
The next morning, a bird fluttered through the branches overhead with a high-pitched squawk that brought me firmly out of a dead sleep.
With a groan, I stirred myself awake. I lay on my back, a rock jutting into my ribs. My right arm had fallen asleep where Ellie lay on it. She curled into my side as much as possible, her body tucked into my arm. The fan of her eyelashes opened against my neck with a gentle tickle.
Joe's repeated slamming into me, and a few well-placed punches, still kept me sore now. My stomach simmered angrily, sharp with hunger. I shoved away thoughts of breakfast burritos. Ellie untangled herself from my arm, her hair tumbling onto her shoulders as she surveyed our area through sleepy eyes. Early dawn unfolded around us a crisp, cool scent. We'd ended the day on a high, emotional level, but the cobwebs had cleared overnight.
"Sleep okay?" she asked.
I nodded blearily and rubbed the sleep from my eyes with the heel of my hand. "Yeah. You?"
She nodded. "Thanks for keeping me warm."
I gave her a roguish grin reminiscent of our high school days. "Anytime you need a man to snuggle, you know where I am."
She disappeared into the forest after a quick whack on my shoulder. I staggered over to the stream while my body attempted to wake up, and stared into the sky with a less emotion-cluttered mind.
Ellie had been right to stop us from making decisions while so tired, even if it had been frustrating. Now that morning had come, another plan hatched in my mind and unfolded slowly. When Ellie returned, her hair had been slicked with water and twisted into a braid that lay on her shoulder. She looked a little less disheveled, but her eyes were still bright.
"Thank you," I said. "Not deciding last night was the right thing to do."
Her lips quirked a little. "I know."
Her arrogant wink sent my heart into a whirl. If she did that too much, I'd kiss the breath right out of her, and then where would we be?
Right where I wanted us.
With a little mental slap, I shook that thought away and glanced overhead. "What if we find higher ground and survey where we are? Maybe we can see something that we recognize and go from there."
She nodded. "It’s what I was going to suggest. I have no idea where we are," she murmured. The admittance seemed to cost her, because she winced. "There's a ridge over there that would get us high enough. It's a good plan."
She pointed to the west. A tower of rocks jutted through the trees with a daunting climb up the backside of it. That sort of ridgeline and ascent would surely take a lot of energy out of us. At least an hour of climbing up, I'd guess. Slipping, uncertain spots could be treacherous. Sleep had given me a boost of energy to take advantage of, so there was no need for both of us to waste energy.
"I'll go," I said. "You stay here. Conserve your strength."
She shook her head. "We do it together. You don't know what you'll find up there. Both of us should have our eyes on it."
I hesitated, but seeing the firm look of her eyes, didn't protest. Instead, I held out my hand.
"Then let's go."
* * *
