I planted a foot on a big sturdy rock. Damien kept his hand outstretched, his brow arching impatiently. “If you’d just—”
“I said I’m good.”
I took the nearby vines in hand and pushed my weight to the foot on the rock. I didn’t need him to save me, even though my hands were raw from grabbing tree roots and wild vines to hoist myself up to the next step. I got through the quick moving shallow water with ease, smacking my hands together as I sent Damien a satisfactory smile. We now stood a mere a foot apart, him a little higher than me on the dirt. Lush greenery peppered the hills and cliffs, and every other bush seemed to have a new color of bloom.
Damien shook his head at me, that brow still perked high with opinion. “You just can’t let yourself relax, can you?”
“What?” Hell if that wasn’t about the same thing Dax had said on the drive.
“You just have to be the best, the strongest.”
“No, I do not.”
“The one who’s always right.”
I narrowed my gaze and sighed. Well, I huffed. Like a bull seeing red, scratching its hoof in the dirt. “I am right when I’m right. That’s not always.”
“You’d like it to be though.”
“Oh,” I grunted. Damien really got to me, and it wasn’t just because of these playful, flirty moments. It was also because of what we did the night before. I guess I was sort of over things being weird or taboo between us, but it didn’t mean it was okay. I’d slept with them all and enjoyed them all just the same. We didn’t have much longer in Hawaii, though, and it’d all end soon enough. I couldn’t keep letting myself feel the way I was feeling about them.
I took a step up the dirt bank, but the water had turned it into a sloppy mud and sand mixture. The second my weight shifted toward my front foot, I felt myself slide. “Oh no!” I scrambled to grab something, anything, that could help me from crashing into the water and rocks. So many sharp little rocks! Thankfully—or not, depending on how I looked at it—Damien was still close enough and willing to help. Ah hell, he was waiting for me to fall. Begging for a moment to swoop in and save me from despair.
“Is everything okay?” Dax called from down the path. He and Daniel were running back toward us.
“Why is she screaming?” Daniel demanded an answer from his brother. As if I wasn’t able to speak for myself.
“She slipped,” Damien informed them. By the time I got my footing, I realized Damien’s arm was around my back, holding me firmly against his body. He said, “I’ve got her. She’s safe.” His words were sweet, but the way he spoke them, the gentleness in his tone and how his eyes stayed with mine as he talked, was just insane. It was such an intimate moment that we somehow shared with Dax and Daniel.
“Alright, no more walking across the rocks alone,” Daniel swore as he reached out for my hand and pulled me up to dry land. I didn’t even have a second to think as he whisked me out of Damien’s arms and into his.
“So demanding,” I teased. The look on his face told me he wasn’t in a laughing mood.
“I’m not letting you get hurt.” His hands snapped to his hips as he stared over me with that dignified demeanor that only knights and warriors should have. “If that’s demanding, then yeah. I’m demanding.”
“Well, then.” I strutted up ahead and walked alongside Dax. “Is he always like this?”
Dax shrugged, then his eyes got big as he looked down at my leg. “Oh, damn. You cut your leg.”
“She what?”
Ah sheesh. I nudged Dax hard in the arm.
“Ouch, Parvati.”
“Why did you make it so angry face would hear?”
Dax’s eyes softened as he took my hand. “Sit here. I have some bandages.” He tugged off his backpack and started going through the supplies. “You have to be careful out here. There are bugs that you don’t want in a wound.”
I was stilled by his words. I leaned back on the log and turned my leg to face him. Damien, poor guy, looked like he might throw up. It was just a small scratch, but the blood kept oozing. “Don’t like blood?” I called.
Damien waved me off, walking down the path for some air. Out the corner of my eye, I caught Daniel. He looked pissed.
“Why did you even come if you’re going to be all brooding and stuff?”
His brow lifted slowly. He was genuinely surprised at me, but it only lasted a few seconds. “Listen,” he said as he marched toward me, “I’ve seen too many people get hurt by being stupid, so I’m not mad—”
“You think I’m stupid for accidentally cutting my leg on the same path you walked on?” I slammed my fists on the log and immediately felt a splinter jab into the pad of my palm. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from making a noise, but Daniel... damn, it was like he could read my mind.