Page 41 of Some Like It Hot
“I’m fine. And by the way, Darryl’s not in jail. He broke out while working on my fire.”
Orion just looked at him, the tiniest frown crossing his face. Then, “You’re a smokejumper.”
“Mmmhmm. And I do need to get back to that fire.” His gaze flicked to the massive black cloud over the horizon.
He took a step, and suddenly the world spun.
“Hokay,” Orion said. “Not quite yet, maybe. Let’s drag the body to the cabin, then take a look at your wound.” He turned to Larke. “I could use your help at my place. And your supplies, if you have them.”
“They’re in my truck,” she said and glanced at Riley. “You okay to travel?”
“Where you go, I go,” he said, eyeing Orion. Definitely.
She gave him the smallest of smiles, something almost of relief on her face.
And it made him wonder who got whom into trouble.
* * *
Riley could have losthis life. Protecting her.
Larke tried not to let the memory of him crouching over her, his jaw tight, his eyes in hers as he waited for a bullet, or more, to rip through his body.
Dying, for her. Because of her. Because she’d dragged him to her house call. And no, certainly she couldn’t have predicted that some lunatic might be lying in wait to ambush them, but…
What was it about her that made every man determined to throw himself between her and danger?
“Larke, are you okay?”
Riley’s voice swept her out of her thoughts, and she glanced at him, blinking. He held a bloody dishcloth to his shoulder, his jaw tight as she drove her truck, following Orion’s truck down the rutted road that led back to his place, even deeper in the woods than Alicia’s A-frame.
Orion Starr’s family had owned his homestead for the better part of a century, and the road might be rutted, but it was wider, the tracks deeper, balder. Orion drove a beat-up Ford Ranger, avoiding potholes, and she followed his exact trail. Mostly to keep Riley from moaning in pain.
Larke might be moaning enough for both of them, everything inside her bruised, from her bones to her stupid, too-easily-wooed heart.
She could not love Riley McCord.
“Larke?” Riley frowned. “You’re sort of freaking me out.”
Oh. She swallowed. “Sorry. I just keep thinking about—”
“I know. Just breathe. We’re okay. I’m sorry—I should have never let it get that far. I should have —”
“What? Tackled him? Because I remember him holding a gun on me, and frankly—” She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Riley’s chest rose and fell hard as he stared out the window, clearly unsure if he should give her the silence she wanted.
Yeah, well it was silence or screaming.
He didn’t want to see screaming. Because if she started, she might not stop.
Again, she’d come perilously close to watching another man she…well, not loved, but okay,couldlove…die. Literally, in her arms.
At best, Riley was in terrible pain, given the way he grunted when the pickup jolted through a pothole. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she said quietly, unable to stop herself.
He looked at her now. Frowned. She saw it out of her periphery.
“Done…what?”