Page 113 of Her Reluctant Hero
Chapter Five
“Mallory!” He lunged, flinging himself on his stomach and throwing his hands out, grabbing blindly. He caught and released a handful of weeds, of brush, before closing around skin.
Bony skin. Her fingers.
Scrambling forward on his stomach using his elbows, hanging onto her slipping fingers, he edged over to the side of the road. A trench of mud where the road had slid out from underneath her led him to Mallory. He looked down into her wide eyes, bright with terror.
The drop to the beach below was maybe fifteen feet, survivable, but it would hurt like hell sliding through the brush to get there. He reached down and grasped her wrist. She swung her other arm up to grasp his forearm, her manicured nails gouging his flesh.
“Dig your feet into the side of the hill,” he said as soothingly as he could, to calm her. “I’ll pull you up.”
She nodded frantically, tears streaking down her face.
“You have to help me now.” He tried to transmit a serenity he didn’t feel. “Put your feet against the hill.”
The tension vibrated through her arms as she swung her feet until she could brace them against the cliff. She started walking up, but one foot slipped and she fell free, dragging Adrian forward. Her nails scored his arm as her grip slipped.
“Adrian!” Her voice was strangled with fear, and he fought back his own.
“I’ve got you. I won’t let go.” With one hand, he tugged at his belt, hoping the webbed fabric was strong enough, wishing that he hadn’t already sent everyone else to camp.
“Adrian.” His name came out in three syllables as she struggled to once again brace herself against the hillside. “What—are—you—doing?”
“Wait.” With no little difficulty, he pulled his belt free and slung it about the trunk of a nearby bush. He looped his free arm through it to secure himself, then slithered closer to the edge of the cliff. “Ready?”
“No. I think—I’ll—enjoy—the view—a little longer.”
“Smart ass,” he muttered and reached down. Together, her climbing, him pulling despite the mud that threatened his grip and her safety, they got her to the top of the cliff. Adrian flung himself on his back and she collapsed on top of him, breathing heavily, much, he thought, like after a bout of sex.
He closed his arms around her, absorbed her trembling and offered her his strength.
Finally she lifted her mud-smeared face to him. “Thank you,” she whispered.
He wanted to kiss her dirty mouth, wanted to stroke her mud-and-twig-tangled hair. But he had no right.
He released her abruptly and took advantage of her weight shift to sit up. “Can’t have the bride walking down the aisle on crutches, can we?”
The shock on her face had him pulling farther away, then standing.
“If you’re up to it, we can head to camp. There’s work to do.”
Slowly, bracing herself against the side of the truck, she stood. And damn it, her knees sagged. He stepped forward to catch her. She stiffened the minute he touched her.
“I’m okay.” She splayed her hand against his chest to push him away. “Once I get the mud out of my bra, I’ll be just fine.”
He forced a laugh past the image she’d painted in his mind, and once again released her. “We can hope the shower didn’t blow away.”
“There’s always the ocean. I’m fine, Adrian, really. Just a little shaky. Good thing you’re a good driver or we might have all gone over last night.”
“I hate to tell you, Mal. The road was about six feet wider last night.” He nodded toward the cliff. “We could’ve gone down in a mudslide.”
Cautiously, she crept back to peek over the side and gasped.
“There will be a lot of that until things dry out a bit. So till then, you’re stuck here with me.”
Mallory limped into the camp, eschewing any help from Adrian, and grimaced when she saw the destruction. She couldn’t identify her tent from the others. All of them sagged with rainwater and lay tangled against the sand dunes that separated the camp from the sea. Twisted aluminum poles stuck up from the sand, marking the places the tents had once been.
Linda was directing cleanup, which at this point meant finding someplace that didn’t have standing water so they could set up the mess tent. She turned when Adrian walked up, looked him over, then turned to Mallory.
