Page 31 of Suddenly Tempted
“You can do this,” Darcy said. She’d vanished, but she was close by, the sleeve of the jacket still hanging there. “I know you, you’re the strongest person I’ve ever met. But you have to believe in yourself. Just fight past the pain, past the fear. You can do it.”
Right there was something that made perfect sense to him. Darcy. He gripped the rock with his bad arm, groaning at the sickening wave of pain that rolled through him. He fished for the jacket sleeve, wrapping it around his wrist twice and then clutching it hard. Then he took a breath and called up.
“I’m ready.”
“I’m ready,” she called back.
He crouched slightly, his knees grazing the rock. Then he jumped. He felt the jacket tighten around his wrist and he pummelled the rock wall with his feet, scrabbling up into the light of day. He managed to grab the edge of the crevasse with his bad hand, screaming as he planted his other hand down, too, but he didn’t have the strength to hold on. He felt himself slipping, then Darcy was there, her hands on his, pinning them to the rock. He managed to dig his toes into a crack, pushing with everything he had. Darcy pulled, screaming with the effort of it. He got his stomach over, then his legs, then he was wrapping his good arm around Darcy and holding on to her as though she was a karabiner and the only thing keeping him safe.
For what seemed like for ever, he lay there, Darcy wrapped up in his terrified hug, on the mountain that had almost killed him.
The mountain that still might if he didn’t get a proper hold on himself. Devlin knew he had made a fatal error. He’d been blindsided by pride and shame and all the other emotions that he kept in a locked box inside his chest. He was ashamed of his past, of his abusive dad, and his caring but permanently frightened mum. He didn’t want people to know, because if they thought badly of his life, then they would think badly of him too. They would think that he was somehow weak, somehow scared. Darcy knew all of this and that put him at a disadvantage. She could use it against him.
It was better to be a mountain, to be strong and unmoving. Sure, it meant you had to build a rock wall between yourself and other people. You had to stay aloof and uncaring. But so long as you didn’t let people in, then there was no way they could hurt you.
But look at where that got me.
He’d been an idiot. He hadn’t been able to hear Darcy’s steps behind him and he knew she was probably fuming and staying as far away as possible. Why on earth would she want to be near him after the way he’d behaved? He’d acted like a child, like a baby.
In other words, he’d acted just like Devlin Storm.
But he’d heard a noise. That’s what had distracted him. He’d been studying the map when he had heard something overhead, a deep, distant throbbing that had pulsed through the air.
A helicopter.
He had squinted into the sun, seeing a black speck between two neighbouring peaks. It had been flying right towards them, and even though it was too far away to possibly see him, he had jumped up and down, dropping the case so that he could wave his arm. He had been standing on rocks, in a grey coat, practically invisible, so he’d been reckless and dashed onto the slope, his feet crunching in the snow as he waved furiously at the chopper, shouting for it to see him. And then he had fallen. He’d been so focused on the helicopter that he hadn’t seen the ravine.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Devlin allowed himself to breathe. The rush of fear and adrenaline slowly ebbed away, to be replaced by a warmth he hadn’t expected. He was okay now. Safe. After what felt like for ever, Devlin loosened his grip, pressing his lips to the top of Darcy’s head.
“Thank you,” he whispered, his voice full of emotion he hadn’t let himself feel until now.
But something was wrong. Darcy wasn’t moving. Her body, still in his arms, was cold. Too cold.
Panic flooded him as he pulled back, looking down at her pale face. “Darcy?” he whispered, fear lancing through him.
Chapter 16
DARCY
It was Devlin’s voice that brought her back.
She stirred, her mind as numb as her feet, as numb as her fingers. She was so exhausted, and the last few minutes had taken every last ounce of energy and strength from her. There wasn’t a fibre of her body or mind that didn’t ache from the effort of pulling Devlin up from the crevasse.
But shehadpulled him up. She had done it.
He’d rolled over and laid beside her, his eyes closed, his mouth open as he sucked in breath after breath. He clutched his bad arm with his good one, his forehead creased with pain. When he opened his eyes, though, it was relief that she saw there. Relief and an intense, moving gratitude.
“Are you okay,” he said, his voice little more than a whisper. “You saved my life.” Darcy shook her head.
“I’m fine. You didn’t need me. You would have got out of there.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” he said.
He groaned as he tried to sit up, and she helped him. He was shaking uncontrollably, his teeth chattering. She was, too, she realised. She looked for her coat but couldn’t see it, wondering if Devlin had accidentally kicked it down into the ravine as he was escaping. She hoped not. Without it, she would freeze.
“What happened?” she asked, getting to her feet, and scanning the nearby snow. Her coat was nowhere to be seen and she tried not to let the panic grip her too hard.
Devlin stared at the sky, the rise and fall of his chest slowing.
