Page 181 of Her Reluctant Hero
“Let me look at your arm.”
“Inaminute,” he mumbled, letting his eyes drift closed.
“Adrian, I need to see if it’s stopped bleeding.”
“Burns like hell,” he said.
She straddled him and tugged at the zipper of his wetsuit. He closed a hand over her wrist to stop her, but she barely had to twist her arm to break his grip.
“I wish we had blankets,” she murmured as she spread his wetsuit open to reveal his wet T-shirt, red with his own blood.
“We’ll be okay. Just rest a bit, then we’ll see how to get out of here.” He grunted, pain slicing through him as she tried to ease the stretchy neoprene down over his shoulder. “Mallory, leave it.”
“Can’t.” She put her facemask on her forehead for the light and leaned down close to the stab wound. “How did you swim with this?”
He tried to twist his arm to get a look, but the skin tugged and hurt too damn bad. “How bad is it?”
“About two inches long, God knows how deep.”
He closed his eyes again and let his head fall back to the rock. “All the way through my arm.”
She looked up at him sharply.
He lifted his good shoulder and even that took too much effort. “The tip of the knife went all the way through my arm and poked me in the side.”
“Adrian!” Her voice echoed off the cave walls.
He opened his eyes to look at her. “Well, what did you want me to do? Surrender?”
“You could have died.”
Why was she scolding him? He was too tired to fight. “I was pretty fucking determined not to.” He forced himself to sit up, to show he wasn’t weak. He squeezed his eyes closed against the lightheadedness that accompanied the movement. “I’ll be all right.”
Mallory had drawn her knife and aimed it at his stomach. He sucked his gut in automatically.
“Christ! What are you doing?”
She rolled her eyes. “Cutting a strip off your shirt so I can at least wrap it up. It’s still bleeding. Sluggishly, but I think it needs to be protected.”
She sliced into the knit fabric, pulled off a strip, then skimmed her hand over his belly, making him jump. She smiled at his reaction but was all business again as she wrapped his arm. Leaving his arm out, she zipped up his suit as far as she could.
“Where’d you get the knife, anyway?”
“Toney gave it to me. No telling where he got it.”
Adrian grunted. “Come here.” He turned onto his good arm, hooked his bad one around her waist and pulled her to him so her back nestled against his chest.
Finally Mallory’s pulse began to slow as the realization that they weren’t going to die sunk in. “Ade?”
“Yeah?” His voice sounded like he was on the verge of sleep.
She twisted under his arm to face him, even though she couldn’t see him in the darkness. “When we were down there, when I thought we might not make it, I promised myself if we did, the first words I would tell you were that I love you.” She cupped her hand over his rough jaw. “I don’t know what would have happened if I’d died without being able to tell you that one more time.”
He didn’t answer, instead lifted his hand to her face, stroked his thumb over her cheek and lower lip. He knew her so well, he found her without fumbling, drew her mouth to his.
The sweetness of the kiss swept away the fear of their swim, the worry of what they’d do next. They were together. They’d get through this. She couldn’t live without him again. And when he whispered, “I love you, Mal,” she started to cry.
Adrian woke facing the ceiling, shivering, to find Mallory huddled against his side. They’d removed their wet clothes from beneath their wetsuits and put the suits back on, but the chill from the rocks and water still permeated their bones.
