Rescue Me (25 page)

Her shoulders ached with the sudden release, her entire body screamed with pain as her stiff joints suddenly shifted.

"Are you… are you going after Jake's gun?'

"Darlin', the way my head's spinning I'd probably fall flat in his lap. Let's just get the hell out of here,"

Seth whispered, tucked theLeatherman back in his boot and rolled to his feet.

And immediately dropped flat on his face.

"Oh, God." Elena bent down to help him up. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah," he said weakly, and on a wobbly effort rose to all fours. With her help, he pushed to his feet.

Staggered and sagged against her. "I… I can walk."

She glanced back toward the boulder, certainCravets would appear any second and level the gun on them.

"Come on." Seth let her sling his left arm over her shoulder to steady him. "Go, go, go."

With one hand latched onto the wrist hanging over her shoulder, her other arm wrapped around his waist, Elena moved.

He weighed a ton and she knew he was struggling to stay upright but she didn't care. Adrenaline spiked through her body in huge, fortifying waves, giving her the strength she needed to carry not only her weight but a good share of his.

The night was dark, the ground uneven and mined with rocks, spindly clumps of brittle bushes and barrel cactus. More than once, she tripped, caught herself then rushed ahead. She had no idea where she was going. Away. That's all she could think was get away from them.

And then she heard it. A foul curse. The echoing anger of a heated argument and she knew that Benny had returned to the camp, found them gone. Awakened Jake.

"So much for our head start," Seth said, sounding winded. "Head for the river."

Elena swallowed hard. The river. Her stomach dropped like a skydiver in free fall. She had an awful feeling she knew where this was going.

A gunshot rang out in the dark, immediately followed by the jump of earth at their feet.

She ran faster, ignoring Seth's moan of pain as he struggled to keep up with her.

"Stop right there!" Jake roared and fired again.

Missed again. Cursed and howled like a wild animal.

A series of rapid gunshots followed. Shots in the dark. Any one of which could hit their mark any second, but they jumped in the earth around them, ricocheting off rock formations.

"Move," Seth demanded and somehow found the strength to dig a little harder, move a little faster.

"You can't get away from me!" Jake shouted, sounding winded and pissed and a whole lot desperate. "I won't let you get away from me!"

He was less than a hundred yards behind them now and closing fast. His voice grew closer every second.

Just as the river had grown closer. They'd reached the end of the line. Stood on a precipice overlooking the swiftly running current forty feet below.

"Tell me you can swim," Seth said.

Elena nodded. "I can swim."

The next thing she knew she was freefalling in midair, arms flailing, her scream caroming off the canyon walls as she plummeted off the cliff toward the muddy depths of the wildColorado .

Chapter Six

The first thing that registered was pressure. On his lungs, in his ears. The next was the current. Swift and reckless and strong. And then the cold set in. And finally snapped Seth to his senses.

Sensing he was about at the end of his capacity to hold his breath, Seth kicked his way to the surface.

Burst through on a gasp only to have the current suck him under again.

This time he was ready. He pushed, clawed, muscled his way above the water line, sucked in air and searched the dark ahead for something—anything—to grab on to as the river propelled him forward at warp speed. He found it in an uprooted tamarisk tree, snagged a root as the river whisked him by, determined to wash him all the way to the gulf—or drag him under again or beat him to death on the rocky rapids in the shallows farther down stream.

Hanging on for his life, fighting for breath, he searched frantically for Elena. Could see nothing but the rush of water and dark shadows stretched out like ghosts along the shore on either side of him. And then one of those shadows moved.

"Elena!" he yelled above the low baritone rumble and hissing roar of the rapids less than a hundred yards downstream.

"Seth!"

She was within a few feet of him, clutching a bolder while the water waked around her like liquid in a blender, trying to dislodge her from her precarious grip and drag her further away.

"I… I can't hang on much… longer!"

"You can!" he shouted above the rushing water. "You can do it! I'm coming."

Head cleared by the cold and by panic for Elena, he worked his way toward her, grabbing the next root, letting go, hand over hand, floating quickly to her side.

He wedged himself against the boulder, grabbed for her outstretched hand. Missed.

Grabbed again.

And latched on just as her other hand let go.

"I've got you! I've got you!" he assured her, slowly pulling her in while cascading water washed around his head and the current did its damnedest to tug her away.

Finally, he reeled her to his side, shifted until she was wedged between him and the boulder while the coldColorado washed around them in a swift, deadly caress.

"You hurt?" he asked against her soaking hair, yelling to be heard above the roar of the rapids ahead.

She shook her head, her body quaking with cold against him. "N… no. Fr…reezing ."

Not really freezing, but close enough. Hypothermia was a real possibility with the water temp running a very cold fifty-something.

"We need to get out of here. Hang on. Just hang on."

He searched the shoreline. Less than two yards of wildly rushing water lay between them and relative safety. He reached for an overhanging tamarisk root. Missed. Stretched and tried again. This time he caught it.

"Turn around," he ordered. "And hang on to me."

Very slowly and carefully, her limbs stiff with cold and fatigue, shemaneuvered her body against the boulder until she was facing him.

"Attagirl. Now wrap yourself around me like a monkey. That's it. Don't let go. Whatever happens, do not let go, okay?"

Shivering uncontrollably, she nodded, clung.

He paced himself, puffed in several deep breaths and took the plunge. With only the root to hold them both, he swung their weight toward the shore. The root snapped when they were halfway there. They dropped back into the current like stones and theColorado had them in her grasp again.

The water sucked them under as they swirled and spun, at the mercy of the river intent on claiming them as her own.

And then he hit solid rock, felt the air burst out of his lungs on a rush, gasped on a spear of pain as his ribs took the brunt of the crash. Never letting go of Elena, he wrapped his free arm around a stone spire that rose out of the water like a tree trunk and saved their lives.

"We're okay, now," he panted into her hair. "We're… okay."

Several deep breaths later, he mustered the strength to drag them the rest of the way out of the water and up onto the damp, sandy bank.

Where he collapsed. Flat on his back, beyond feeling pain in his head or ribs. Barely believing he was on solid ground with Elena spread out on his chest. Panting. Gasping. Choking up water and battling to catch her breath.

His hand felt like it weighed a ton as he lifted it, cupped her head. "So… that was refreshing, huh?"

She breathed deep. Managed to lift her head. "You've got a… strange sense ofhumor , King."

He smiled into the night. "And you like it."

She made a weak sound of exasperation. "Yeah. I like it."

He wrapped his arms around her, held her trembling body tight. "We're not out of the woods yet, you know that, don't you? They're going to come looking for us."

"May… maybe they'll think we… drowned."

"Maybe. But they'll still look."

She was quiet for a long moment as she squirmed closer to the warmth of his body. "Howfff … far downstream do youththth … think we rode the river?"

"Hard to say. Half a mile if we're lucky. Less if we're not. Can't figure they'll try to find a path down in the dark. At least we've got that in ourfavor . Jake andCravets are not outdoorsman. They aren't dressed for hiking. They'll lick their wounds until morning. Start their search at first light."

The violence of her shivering alarmed him.

"In the meantime, we've got to warm you up."

"And you're going toddd … do that how?"

"You know how."

"Oh,nnnn … not that old cliché," she sputtered, but there was a faint smile in her voice.

"Yeah, that one," he said, admiring her grit. "Lucky for me. Can you sit up?"

Her entire body trembled as she pushed herself up and sat on the rock shore beside him.

"Come on. I'll help you."

She didn't say a word. She just lifted her violently quaking hands over her head and let him strip off her wet shirt. Huddled into herself when he went to work on her boots then tugged them off along with her sodden socks. Lifted her hips after he'd worked the zipper on her fly and let him shimmy the wet cloth down her legs until she was shivering in her bra and panties.

"Hang on," he said gently as he stood and tested his balance. Iffy, but better than he'd expected.

As quickly as he could, he stripped down to his boxers then spread their clothes out to dry on the branches of spindly willow and salt cedar limbs and on rocks that still held the residual heat from the sun.

Then he hurried back to her side.

"Black," he said easing down beside her where she sat on a small patch of coyote willows and horse tail grass in her black bra and bikini panties. "Even better than red."

"One… track…mmm … mind," she stuttered between chattering teeth as he drew her tightly against him, fusing their flesh together so their body heat would combine and draw from each other and eventually increase both her body temp and his.

"Sorry my hands are so rough," he apologized as he briskly rubbed her back, her arms, her legs where she'd knotted them with his in an effort to speed the warming process.

"F… friction. Good," she managed and already he felt her skin warming beneath his hands.

"Elena. Beautiful," he grunted back in his best caveman voice.

"Okay. Withth … at remark you officially hit in… my definition of certifiably in… insane."

"Why?" He kept up the constant rubbing, relieved to feel a slight decrease in the severity of her tremors,

"because you think you're not sexy as hell—even though you're half drowned?'

"Because notfff … five minutes ago, we almost died and you'resss … still coming on to me."

He smiled against her wet hair. "A man's got to do what a man's got to do."

"Seth… do me afff …favor , will you?"

"Anything."

"Shut up."

He grinned. God, the woman had guts. He hugged her tighter. She could be bitching and moaning and working herself into hysterical tears. Instead, she endured.

"You've got spunk, you know that,Martinez ? I like that in a woman."

"King," she said in a leading tone.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." He kissed the top of her head. "Shutting up now."

HEAT. WEIGHT. PRESSURE.

All good. All wonderful.

Elena fought against the pull toward consciousness. She liked where she was just fine—drifting between sleep and wakefulness.

Heat. Weight. Pressure.

The force of it reassured her. Warmed her. Stirred her.

Heat
…

Weight
…

Pressure…

In all the right spots. In all the right ways.

Seth.

Holding her. Warming her. Protecting her.

She opened her eyes. To a moon riding high and bright over a broad, bare shoulder and the jutting, jagged peaks of the canyon walls. To the strength of his big body sheltering her in the night.

Delicious heat.

Substantial weight.

Exquisite pressure.

She moved her hand. Across warm skin covering sinew and muscle and bone.

She turned her head… and realized he was awake and watching her.

"Hey," he whispered, a gentle query, a concerned hello.

"Hey," she whispered back, that single word telling him much more.
I'm okay. I'm
…
aware. And yeah,
I'm probably going to regret this in the morning
.

"Did you get warmed up?" he murmured with a gruffness in his voice that forewarned her of the erection growing long and thick against her belly.

"Um," she murmured and rocked her hips against him, "Yeah. But not warm enough."

He smiled. "I'm giving it all I've got,darlin '."

She smiled, too. "Well… no. I don't think you are," she said with meaning.

He searched her face in the moonlight. And saw exactly what she wanted him to see. He saw the welcome, the wanting and the urgency there. Recognized the need in her to be something other than frightened and vulnerable and raw. The desire to stall the truth of their situation. They'd almost died.

They could still die and she needed validation that right now, this moment, she was alive and vital and desperate for something other than fear to get her through the rest of this night.

With exquisite sensitivity, he forked his fingers through her still damp hair. "You sure about this?

She held his dark gaze. Nodded. "Very sure."

He lowered his head tentatively. Touched her lips with a tenderness that almost made her weep. Moved against her with an intimacy that damn near made her beg.

Elena didn't sleep around. No time. No proclivities to muck up her life. No illusions about love and romance and sex having anything to do with each other.

But there was something… something about Seth that dared her to forget about her own rules, toss caution to the wind and take anything and everything this man could offer her.