The Rock Read online

  He looked down, and when he saw the two big blue eyes staring up at him, the heart that had been in his throat jammed. She was about twenty feet below him, clinging to a small tree that wasn’t much more than a sapling about halfway down the steep embankment. The steep, unstable embankment.

  Damn. From the visible roots and large chunks of missing dirt, he could see that part of the hillside had already come away.

  He followed what must have been the path she’d taken down the hill with his gaze. With the wet rock, mud, and dried leaves, she would have been sliding fast. That thin twig of a tree was likely the only thing that had stopped her from sliding all the way down to the rocky bottom. And it was the only thing preventing her from continuing.

  She could be lying in a twisted, bloody pool . . . God, he thought he might be sick.

  He did a quick scan of her person, and aside from a few scratches, dirt, a missing veil that he could see about ten feet down the slope, and a mussed plait, she didn’t appear to be seriously injured.

  But he didn’t like the look of that tree. Not wanting to alarm her, he forced a lightness to his voice that he did not feel. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded, her eyes getting a little wider. “I slipped.”

  He couldn’t help smiling. “I can see that.”

  “I tried to pull myself up, but I didn’t want to let go.”

  “Don’t!” he said, unable to completely mask his alarm. Then more calmly, he added, “I’m going to come down to get you.”

  “But shouldn’t you get a rope first?”

  Aye, but he didn’t think he had time. The roots of that tree were not very deep and the rain coupled with her weight had loosened the grip it had on the hillside. He could already see the dirt lifting around the base.

  “I’ll be careful,” he assured her, starting down.

  With very little to grab on to that was sturdy enough to support his weight, he half-scrambled, half-slid down the embankment, keeping his body as parallel to the ground as he could, using his right hand for leverage and left for support. With one eye on her and the other on the base of that damned tree, he made his way toward her with precision and speed born not so much of skill but of determination. There was no way in hell he was going to fall—not when she needed him.

  By the time he reached her, he knew they would never be able to climb back up. They would have to go down. It had only been a handful of minutes since he started looking for her, and he knew it would be awhile before Joanna sent someone after them.

  He’d devised a plan, but it was going to take a leap of faith on her part.

  He could see the pale terror mixed with panic on her face as he approached, and it tore at him. The urge to comfort—to protect—her overwhelmed him.

  He stopped a few feet away, not wanting to get too close lest she reach for him or he put strain on that tree. The whole patch of ground looked in peril of breaking away.

  “Hi,” he said, smiling as if they were meeting on a stroll through the forest.

  “Hi,” she replied softly. Her eyes sparkled with the edge of tears. “You found me. I didn’t think anyone would come in time.”

  “Joanna sent me. She was worried when you didn’t return.”

  “I was on my way back but then I saw a baby hare. I thought it had been injured in a trap and tried to follow it. But I guess it didn’t want to be followed, as it led me over this embankment.”

  “I guess not,” he agreed. He paused and thought for a moment. “How do you know which rabbit is the oldest?”

  It only took her a moment to catch on before she smiled. “I don’t know.”

  He grinned. “Look for the gray hare.”

  She giggled, and then scrunched her nose. God, he loved it when she did that. He always had.

  “That isn’t a very good one.”

  “And yet you laughed,” he pointed out. “But if you think you can do better, be my guest.”

  “You’re trying to distract me.”

  “Is it working?”

  One side of her mouth curved up. “A little.”

  “I need you to try to concentrate now—and I need you to trust me.”

  “All right.” She agreed without hesitation, and it made his already compressed chest squeeze a little tighter.

  There was a tree at the bottom of the ravine with sturdy branches that overhung just a few feet from where they were on the hill. He told her what he wanted her to do, and her eyes went perfectly round.

  “I can’t jump!”

  “Yes, you can. It’s only a few feet, and I’ll help you. We’ll do it together. I’m going to come toward you, you let go of the tree, grab on to me, and I’ll do the rest.”

  “What happens if it breaks?”

  “It’s too thick to snap, but if it bends we’ll ride it all the way down to the bottom. All right?”

  She didn’t say anything, just stared at him mutely as if he’d lost his mind.

  “El? I need you to do this. The ground is too slick with too many rocks. It’s too risky to try to slide down.”

  She gave him an incredulous look. “And jumping on a tree limb isn’t risky?”

  His mouth twisted. “Less risky.”

  He’d kept an eye on the tree she was holding and saw it move another inch. She must have felt it, too, because her face suddenly drained again, and she nodded. “We better do it quickly.”

  He looked into her eyes. “Don’t think, just look at me.” He held her gaze. “We go on three. Ready? One . . . two . . . three.”

  He moved, she let go, latched on, and together they leapt. He needed both hands to grab the upper branch, but as soon as he felt the lower under his feet, he let go one hand and drew her in tight against him, until both the branch they were standing on and the one he was holding on to for support steadied. But the wild fluttering of her heart beating against his took a little longer.

  Her eyes held his the whole time, and the knot in his chest grew and grew.

  He knew she was still scared, but a small smile had started to work its way up the corners of her mouth. “I seem to recall being in a similar position once before, except at the time you weren’t quite so tall.”

  He feigned a struggle to hold her. “And you weren’t quite so heavy.”

  Her brows shot up in outrage. “Heavy! I may have put on a few extra pounds the past couple of years”—she sent him a glare—“but you would, too, if you lived with Joanna and all her sweets. I swear, every time I turn around there’s a new cake that I ‘must try.’ ”

  He was trying not to laugh, which only served to further infuriate her. The lass was ridiculous. The only “heavy” places on her body were in exactly the right places. Two in particular were temptingly crushed to his chest. If he looked down . . .

  He didn’t look down.

  She gave him a little huff, and probably would have peered down her nose if she hadn’t been plastered to his side. “Obviously you aren’t as strong as all those muscles make you look.”

  There was something admiring in her voice that heated his blood and sent all jests to the wayside. She liked his body.

  She must have felt the change in him, because the gaze that was turned to his grew suddenly soft. Aroused. Hot.

  Had he not been perched in a tree, with her wrapped around him, he might have kissed her. He would have kissed her. Nothing could have stopped him.

  Instead he shuffled her around so that she was on the inside closest to the trunk. From there he loosened his hold around her so that she could grab the branch.

  “Do you think you can get down the rest of the way from here?” he asked.

  She peered at the grid of limbs below here feet. She only needed to climb down a handful, and she would be close enough to the ground to drop.

  “I think so.”

  “I’ll go first and guide you down.”

  She nodded. They were on familiar ground, and it didn’t take long before they were on solid ground as well.

&nbs