Falling for Heaven (Four Winds) (22 page)

A PIPE!  She grabbed a pipe that was sticking out of the ground and held on tight.  She had no idea what purpose this particular pipe held, except that at this moment, it was saving her life.  Now if I can just hang on…  Her feet slipped again, as they desperately scrambled to find purchase against the slimy wall.  It felt like the wall was made of stones, which would make something there for her to grab with her, wouldn’t it?

Her hand was hurting, and she tried to hold the pipe with both hands.  It wasn’t a big pipe, and since she couldn’t really see what it was connected to, if anything, she didn’t want to grab it with both hands and put all of her eggs in one basket.  She tried her best to hold still and not jiggle anything that would make her fall all the way into the well.

Claire’s head and shoulders were still above ground level, but the rest of her body had sunk through the rotten, water-logged plywood “covering” this giant hole in the ground.  She tried to feel around with her free hand to see if any of the rest of the wood was sturdy enough to hold her.  No dice.  Everything her hand touched, crumbled and fell into the abyss below.  Apparently, she grabbed a nest of some sort, because hundreds of tiny spiders crawled around on her hand.  She shook them off, while holding on to the pipe with her other hand.  Terror filled her veins as she screamed again.

“Hang on, I got you.”

Relieve flooded her body, as enormous arms wrapped around her ribcage, and lifted her out of the hole.  She looked up at her savior.  And up, and up…until her eyes met the caramel colored eyes of…Adonis.  He pulled her back out of the hole, tripping over her beloved pipe, and tugged her down with him as they ended up a tangled pile of limbs in the weedy yard.

She had no idea who this magnificent specimen of a man was, but he was her hero, having just saved her from a horrifying death.  Well, possibly.  If she hadn’t died, she certainly would have been extremely uncomfortable for who knows how long.