Page 99 of Blow Me Down
“It’s not like I had a whole lot of choice in the matter,” I answered, feeling the back of my head and wincing when my fingers found a small, painful lump. It didn’t hurt unless I pressed on it. “Well, there’s one small blessing—at least with being torn up on the rocks the pain from being whacked on the head has faded.”
He hitched his glare up a couple of notches and indicated he wanted me to roll over. I turned over to my stomach, sighing with relief as he dabbed the soothing liquid on the burning scratches on the backs of my legs. “You could have yelled for help, or used self-defense moves to disable Paul, or done something to save yourself.”
“Save myself?” I asked the pillow, the tight muscles in my back starting to relax now that I was safe. “Where were you, I’d like to know? Why weren’t you saving me? Haven’t you read pirate books? The pirate always saves his lady love.”
“What happened to women not needing a man to save them?” Corbin asked.
“I didn’t need you to save me,” I said, groaning as his hand brushed my thigh.
“If you’ll notice, I saved myself just fine. The point is, it would have been nicer if you had rode up on your white horse and saved me so I didn’t have to get bashed to a bloody pulp on those rocks.”
He dug through the basket of salves and ointments and pulled out a pot of something with a cork lid. He sniffed at it, then dipped his finger into it.
“What’s that?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at him.
“Says it’s a burn salve. Can’t hurt. And I don’t have a white horse.”
“Nitpicker,” I told the pillow, my eyes closing at the pleasure the gentle brush of his fingers on my abused flesh was giving me.
He stopped for a second before getting a roll of gauzy material. Carefully he wrapped it around the worst wounds on my legs, using his knife to cut the ends and tie them in neat knots. “I’m sorry about that, Amy.”
“Hmm? Sorry about what?”
“That I wasn’t there when you needed me. I should have been guarding you. I should have known that Paul would grab you in an attempt to hurt me.”
I rolled over onto my side, tugging him down so he rested on the bed next to me. “Silly man. I don’t expect you to be psychic, Corbin. And I was teasing you for the most part— you’re absolutely right in that I don’t need a man to save me.”
“But it would have been nice if I had?” he asked, his eyes dark with emotion.
“Well… maybe just a little saving.”
His eyes went even darker. “You saved me. You saved my life. I didn’t even know you’d been kidnapped.”
“And that’s why I’m not, at this moment, reading you the riot act,” I said, kissing the tip of his nose. “I couldn’t have saved you if I hadn’t been right there with you, could I? So there’s no reason to beat yourself up for not being somewhere when you had no idea I was in danger. Besides, I like you in my debt this way. It means you have to do anything I want you to do.”
“It does, does it?” he asked, his hand running up the curve of my hip. “And what is it you want me to do?”
“Make mad, passionate, all-night-long love to me,” I answered, sucking his lower lip into my mouth.
“You’re hurt,” he said before his tongue came visiting mine. I squirmed against him, my skin suddenly highly sensitized against the rough texture of his clothing.
“Not that hurt,” I answered, gasping in air as his mouth moved down my neck, leaving behind a trail of sizzling kisses.
“Mind over matter,” he murmured into my breastbone.
“Absolutely,” I answered, a thousand and one nerve endings coming to sudden tingling life.
He made slow, sweet love to me, just as I’d asked, his kisses gentle, his touches giving rather than demanding, building the need in me until I was almost frantic. But when he pulled my knee over his hip and slid into me, I sighed with the pleasure of it all, and bit his lip. “I love you, Corbin. More than any other man. I love you so much my heart may just burst.”
“I know CPR, too,” he said into my mouth, his hips flexing.
“What a romantic answer.” I laughed and gave myself up to the moment, pushing aside all the worries and problems that besieged us, and focused on showing the man I loved just how much he meant to me.
I lay awake late into the night, snuggled up to Corbin’s side, my hand possessively lying on his chest, right over his heart. His chest rose and fell with slow regularity, his heartbeat a gentle thud beneath my fingertips. Corbin had fallen asleep before I had a chance to discuss the latest developments with him, leaving me with an exhausted body and a brain that wouldn’t stop puzzling over things long enough to let me sleep.
What role did Renata have to play in things? It was becoming clearer to me that she wasn’t exactly what she seemed. What did Bart have planned for us? How were we going to catch him, and once we did, was Corbin serious about killing him in order to get us out of the game? What was going to happen to the people of Turtle’s Back if things went wrong? Who would watch out for Bas?
I finally fell asleep with those thoughts swirling around until they merged into one bright, shining problem that seemed to glow with a blinding intensity that consumed everything in and around me.
