ChapterSeventeen
If the shooter in the helicopter didn’t kill Davis, Sunny would. He placed his pack over her. The thing probably had some kind of armor or something, and, in that case, the dumb lug should keep it. Strap it to the front of him.
He made to crawl toward the opening, and the loneliness that had dragged her down the last year threatened to rip her apart from the inside and consume her. She pushed the pack off to the side, pressed her front to Davis’s back, and wrapped her legs around his waist. His hands pried at her knees, but she hadn’t spent years wrestling with her brothers and taking martial arts for nothing. She hooked her feet together, then snaked her arms around his and clasped her hands behind his head so his arms couldn’t move.
Could he break out of the hold if he wanted? Probably. But she would clamp on for dear life, and him escaping would most likely hurt her. She was betting he wouldn’t do that.
“Sunny.” He grunted as he bent forward, trying to break her hold.
She locked her fingers tighter. Climbing mountains for a living made them strong. There was no way she would let go. She couldn’t let these monsters kill someone else she cared about.
“You’re not leaving me, so knock it off.” Her muscles burned, begging for release.
Bullets exploded, further away than they’d been.
“Shh.” She froze, making sure not to release him. “Are they leaving?”
The roar of the helicopter’s rotors no longer thundered directly above them. More gunfire peppered down, but it wasn’t anywhere near them. Had she and Davis really evaded them?
“Okay, you can let go now.”
Cringing at the anger in Davis’s voice, she inwardly sniffed. Let him be miffed. Being around growly people wasn’t foreign to her. It was like family, though Davis’s gruffness seemed deeper than her siblings. She smirked, then focused on the cranky man still trapped in her limbs.
“You done playing Rambo, saving the world on your own?” She squeezed her legs to emphasize her point.
He grunted.
“Is that superhero-speak for yes or no?”
“Yes.” The word practically rumbled from him.
He relaxed against her, however she knew all about faking an opponent out. Her brother Tiikâan was the master of pretending to give up, only to pounce when she let her guard down. She adjusted her grip on her sweaty hands.
“Promise?”
Davis’s sigh reached all the way to his toes. “Yes, I promise.”
Back to three-word sentences? She didn’t care, as long as he wasn’t filled with bullet holes. Biting her bottom lip, she let her hands go. Davis spun so fast she didn’t have time to react. His weight and heated gaze pinned her to the ground, thrumming excited adrenaline through her blood that burned the terror away.
“I don’t want to save the world. Just you.” His ragged voice had every one of her nerve endings on fire. “Only you.”
His kiss was hard and desperate, filled with so much desire, yet tinged with undeniable fear. She wrapped her arms around his back, holding him as tightly to her as she could. Her own desperation and worry trembled through her fingers as she gripped the back of his shirt.
He trailed his lips along her jaw, his touch transforming from frantic to gentle, leaving her feeling cherished. His palm cupped her neck and his thumb rubbed her cheek. His shuddering breath against her ear raced a shiver of delight across her skin.
“I can’t let them hurt you.” His anguished tone and sucked inhale made stinging tears spring to her eyes.
She leaned her cheek against his and whispered, “And I’m not letting you go. Never again.”
Kissing below his ear, she pressed a path through his tickling beard to his strong lips. No longer fueled by anger and fear, she lingered in the kiss, exploring the depth of her love in slow, vulnerable caresses.
Love?
Davis’s fingers trembled as he trailed them along her cheek and through her hair, making that hole of loneliness in her heart close completely. Yeah. Her love may be new, like fireweed blossoms blooming low on the stalk, but the hope of it was there in her heart.
How could she prove to him she didn’t need saving? That if they stuck together, they could conquer any obstacle or foe against them? Maybe telling him how much he meant to her would help him see that throwing himself in front of bullets would only break her.
She flinched at the thought and pulled back to look into his eyes. How could she have let herself fall in love so fast again? Hadn’t she learned her lesson the last time? Her eyes stung, and she closed them, grasping for the fragments of strength being alone had cocooned her heart in. As much as she tried to pull her protective shield up, she couldn’t.
Davis sighed and kissed one closed eye, then the other. “I’m sorry, Sunny.”
He pressed his lips to her cheek, then her mouth. They tasted salty. Her forehead creased, and she opened her eyes to a blurry version of Davis.
“I don’t need saving.” She swallowed the sob that threatened to force its way out of her burning throat.
Davis closed his eyes and shook his head.
Maybe she hadn’t learned from her past. Yet, everything in her screamed she had. That this man differed from the others—was someone she could trust with her hopes.
With her heart.