Page 14 of Rescuing Nathaniel

The second was that she felt better.

Not great, but her skin no longer felt like it was on fire and like it had been stretched too tightly over her muscles.

Despite feeling better, she couldn’t seem to put a stop to the anxiety now buzzing through her system.

“Nathaniel?” she called out as she opened her eyes to find light streaming through the front of the cave where he’d brought her when they reached the shore.

She’d wanted to look for a phone so she could call Prey and tell them what had happened to her and where she was. Or, at the very least, she’d wanted to find a vehicle of some sort that they could use to drive back home. Basically, she just wanted this whole ordeal to be over so she could find out what those people had stolen from her, how badly it was going to affect her life going forward and then start moving on.

But Nathaniel had been worried that someone from the ship would have alerted the closest land-based team that she was missing and they might be patrolling the beaches. He seemed to think she needed a little time to rest before they figured out their next step, and who was she to argue with his plan?

He was the Navy SEAL, and she was the computer geek.

For a second, she didn't see Nathaniel, didn't hear him, and was convinced that he had abandoned her and she was alone in the cave and would have to figure out how to get herself back home, but then a shadow shifted near the cave’s entrance.

“You okay?” he asked, concern in his voice as he moved toward where he’d tucked her into the back corner of the cave. “Are you feeling worse? Hurting?”

“Actually, I’m feeling better,” she quickly assured him. It was sweet of him to care but she didn't want him to worry about her. He’d already done more than enough. More than she’d been hoping for when she climbed into that raft.

Part of her had been so sure she was going to die alone at sea, but that would have been preferable to the long, slow death she would have had if she hadn't gotten herself off that boat.

Now, though, she had a chance to live and it was all because of the sexy man kneeling beside her with his brow crinkled with worry.

“You're very handsome,” she blurted out as she reached out a hand to smooth out the creases in his forehead.

Immediately, a flash of embarrassment hit as she realized what she’d just said.

Why, oh, why did her mouth not always connect with her head?

Ava had a bad habit of blurting out what she was thinking. Not in a mean way, she knew how carelessly spoken words could not just hurt but leave a lasting impact. But she tended to ramble a little, and when she was nervous, she would say the first thing that popped into her head. That had led to her finding herself in a whole bunch of humiliating circumstances, but this one had to take the cake.

“Oh, umm, can we just forget I said that?” she mumbled, snatching her hand back. It wasn't okay to touch people without their permission, even if she was just stroking her fingertips along his brow.

A hand clamped around her wrist when she pulled back, startling her. Nathaniel didn't look like he was upset with her touch, in fact, the corners of his mouth had curled into the most wonderful smile.

“I don’t think we can,” Nathaniel said, amusement dancing in his dark eyes.

“Why? Sometimes I just blurt things out when I'm not thinking clearly, and that was definitely something that got blurted out without me thinking. Because I'm sick,” she reminded him even though her being sick had nothing to do with her mouth forgetting to check in with her brain before opening.

“That’s a shame.”

“It is?”

“Yep. Because I think you're beautiful.”

The words seemed to catch him by surprise like his own mouth had started talking without his permission.

Clearing her throat because something needed to break the spell, and cast out the heavy emotions that suddenly seemed to fill the small cave, Ava pushed away a wave of regret. She had no time for heavy emotions right now. She’d just been kidnapped by an organ trafficking ring and lost an organ. She had no idea what her life was going to look like going forward. While it was a safe assumption they hadn't taken anything she needed to live, her guess would be that it was one of her kidneys that had been stolen, she didn't know that for sure.

Her entire life might be about to be upturned.

“Maybe we don’t forget, maybe we just move forward,” she suggested. If they’d met in another place at another time then she would have been open to the idea of flirting with Nathaniel, maybe even seeing if something real could develop between them. But now wasn't that time or place, even if Nathaniel was exactly the kind of down-to-earth guy she could see herself falling in love with one day.

“Sounds like a plan.”

It didn't go without notice that he released his hold on her wrist, slowly, one finger at a time, almost as if he were trying to memorize the feel of her skin beneath his, and then shifted back, putting some distance between them.

Almost immediately she missed his steady presence and the warmth radiating from his body, even if there was only a foot between them now. Nathaniel had saved her life, and he hadn't left her behind like he could have if he wanted to. Just because she had possible inside information on the ring didn't mean he could defy orders and not complete his mission.

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