Page 137 of Her Reluctant Hero
“Mal.” A lump rose in his throat and he swallowed. “Maybe there’s a better way?” When she looked up at him, he flicked his eyes to his lap.
She followed his gaze and scowled. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I can’t help it my body doesn’t know we’re divorced.” Hell, part of the reason he was aroused was because he hadn’t been with anyone since he left their house in Pensacola.
She wasn’t looking at him anymore, but he could see her blush along the part in her hair. “Your body should know you just got bitten by a moray eel.”
“My body prefers pleasanter sensations.”
She jabbed the needle in a little sharper than he cared for. “Tell your body to get control. We have a long way to go here,” she said through her teeth.
Forty-two stitches. Mallory flexed her cramped hand against the rail of the boat and glanced at Adrian, who rested with his head against the pilothouse and his eyes closed, his skin pale beneath his tan. He needed to get into town, to a real doctor, though she hoped her stitches wouldn’t have to come out. She didn’t want him to endure that pain again.
Part of her had relished the revenge of sticking a needle repeatedly into the man who had hurt her, kind of a direct voodoo effect. Part of her—the part that she wasn’t ready to set free—wanted to bury her face in his chest and take a deep breath, feel his arms around her while he assured her he was all right.
Funny how easily her old instincts kicked in. All of them, especially the ones she felt around Adrian.
But now Adrian wouldn’t be able to dive for a few days; the muscle in his arm was damaged. He’d be short a diver and they’d fall behind schedule. They couldn’t afford to do that, either time-wise or budget-wise.
“We need to go into town, today. Get you checked out by a doctor and get those divers.”
He opened one eye. “Afraid you might lose your investment?”
She drew back. “That’s a pretty awful thing to say.”
He groaned and twisted away, keeping his arm still at his side. “Yeah, I’m an asshole. I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”
“No, I didn’t. And if you weren’t in so much pain, I’d pop you in the arm.”
He sucked in his breath through his teeth. “By the time we get to the city, it will be too late. The doctor’s office will be closed.”
“It’s barely ten in the morning.”
“I can’t drive standard, not with this arm.”
“I think I can find the way.” Whoa. Had she just volunteered to take him? To be alone with him not only for the eight-hour round-trip drive, but overnight as well? They couldn’t go and come back in one day. Driving back through the jungle tonight would just be foolish. “Or Toney could go with you. Or Linda.”
“Linda gets lost the minute she steps out of camp.” His voice was slurred, either with exhaustion or the poison. Mallory knew that no matter her protests, she would be the one to go with him. “And I need Toney here to watch the site. It won’t be so terrible, you and me. Like the old days.”
