“I’m not too weak to save you, Terra. Although, I didn’t have time to set up my gear, so this could be a bumpy ride up.” He lifted his face. “Okay, Owen!”
The rope lifted them higher, and Jack used his legs to practically walk up the cliff so they weren’t slamming against it. They reached the ledge. Jack continued forward from vertical to horizontal without even stumbling. He stopped and Terra climbed from his back. She bent over her thighs to catch her breath and slow her racing heart.
Owen sat on a horse where the rope had been tied to the saddle horn, using the horse as an anchor. Owen grinned as he hopped off. “Basic cow horse training.”
Jack laughed. “Owen came up with the idea to use the horses. He called them, and they followed his voice and brought the gear I packed.”
“See? I told you he was like a horse whisperer,” she said.
“Not like. He is.” Jack’s gaze turned dark as though he only now contemplated their near-death experience.
“You came for me.” She swallowed the tears building in her throat. “Thank you.”
“Did you have any doubt that I would?”
“I wasn’t sure you would even know...”
Terra’s knees shook. She assisted Jack in freeing himself from the ropes, though maybe he didn’t need her help, but it was the least she could do.
“Terra.”
The way he said her name, she lifted her gaze to meet his. The wind whipped around them, but his strong, steady form was unyielding, and it shielded her. In the moonlight she could make out his chiseled features and the longing in his eyes.
“I never stopped thinking about you,” he said.
Though barely detectable, she didn’t miss his sudden wince.
“You’re in pain.” She finished disentangling him from the gear.
No one ever would have known the guy’s agony or just how significant it had been for him to scale the cliff to Terra, even with Lilly lowering him slowly down the ridge. He kept in such good shape that the strength of his entire body made up for his injured arm.
She looked up into his eyes again, her breathing ridiculously fast. The strength in Jack’s heart and mind had to make up for his past mistakes.
She saw that now.
Would it make up for her mistake of telling him she couldn’t go there with him?
Jack stepped back and moved to Briggs, leaving a cold vacuum in the space where he’d been. She feared that he wouldn’t be willing to risk pursuing a relationship with her, after all. And this time, that was all on her.
Owen took Jack’s place and stood near Terra. “Are you all right?”
Terra hugged her brother, holding back sobs of relief.
“I’m glad you’re okay, Terra,” Owen whispered in her ear. “You should go to Jack. He needs you.”
She eased from Owen, surprised to hear that from him. He released her. Terra had to make the first move. Jack was leaving that to her. She turned and strode to Jack, who knelt next to Briggs.
Rising to his feet, Jack sighed. Terra rushed to him and wrapped her arms around him. Without hesitation, he held her good and tight the way she liked as she pressed her face into his chest and breathed in his masculine scent of mountain and pine and sweat. She shuddered as adrenaline rushed out of her.
Terra started to pull away, but he wouldn’t let go. She could handle that. Finally, he relaxed enough that she eased away, though she could have stayed in his arms forever. She needed to talk.
“I’m sorry for what I said to you in the hospital.”
“I understand being afraid of losing someone. I almost lost you on this mountain, Terra.” He held her at arm’s length. “I lost you before, too, because I was stupid, and I walked away from the best thing in my life.”
I love you enough to let you go. Because he’d loved her enough to sacrifice. But how did he feel about her now?
She pressed her hand against his cheek. “Stop. You were wounded. Trying to prove yourself. Trying to prove something you didn’t need to prove. Besides, I forgive you.”