Page 53 of A Girl and HER Prince
“Are you kidding me?” He was upset at how vulnerable that would make her. “You’re going to need that fabric as cover when we’re rock climbing.”
“Are you going to help me or not?” she snapped. “You’re bleeding! Those look really bad, Venice!”
He stared down at himself. Already, he’d jostled his injuries by moving around. Blood dripped down his arm and legs. If he wanted to make it out of this bowl without fainting, he’d better throw his reservations aside and accept her help.
And still, this would take some doing. The sleeve would work for his throbbing forearm, and the extra support would help his climbing too. Using the jagged rock, he got to work on a spot just below her shoulder, seeing that the piece of granite she’d found was actually serrated and good for cutting.
That would feel like torture on their bare feet when they started scaling those rocks.
Careful not to cut her too, he sawed at the fabric until he ripped off the last thread. Retrieving the sleeve in her smaller fingers, Livvy simply slipped the band onto his forearm. The material was so tight and stretchy that it worked like a bandage without tying anything in place.
It was genius.
The bottom part of her wetsuit shirt would work the same way. Feeling like a louse, he touched the end of her shirt. “How much, do you think?”
“Let’s go to the waist,” she said. “Maybe we can just slip it onto you the same way.”
That would save her other sleeve, at least. Taking a deep breath, he was careful not to take too much. “You couldn’t wear your Greek dress while diving?” he joked under his breath. “Thatwould’ve gotten us more bandages.”
She smiled tensely, her color high as he tried his hardest to keep her safe from the rock’s sharp edge, and still that meant his hands were all over her. Forgetherhigh color—his cheeks were burning too.
He met her blue eyes—they seemed almost turquoise next to this water. “I’m sorry, Luvvy.”
She motioned towards her shirt. “Hurry. We don’t know how long we have.”
He knew he liked her. Deedee would be screaming herself silly. Then again, maybe Livvy was just in shock, and still, no woman in his acquaintance would be so cool under this stress. Bris would have his head by now.
Oh, Bris… what would she do if he died in all this? The culprit behind this attack could very well be on their boat with her. His mind wrestled with his suspicions. He struggled against blaming any of his friends—or in Deedee’s case, his frenemy—and yet the evidence was horrifically damning.
One of them was a killer.
He ripped the material away from the last threads, and when Livvy stood, he was grateful to see that her shorts had a high waist. Her stomach would be safe against the rock wall. Those bare legs, on the other hand, didn’t stand a chance. Her skin was so soft and flawless. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen.
She helped Venice step into the shirt then tugged it around his side so that it fit tightly against his stomach like another bandage. If anything, the fabric would stop the bleeding while he climbed. None of this was perfect, but it would have to do for now.
Livvy wiped the blood on her hands off on her shirt. Her eyes drifted to the water where they’d scrambled free to escape the crocodile after them.
“We’d better go,” she said.
Chapter Seventeen
Livvy was trying to keep her mind off the danger that loomed below them. She’d never been that happy with heights, but she wasn’t that happy about getting stabbed to death either, and that killer would be after them.
Venice moved beside her. She noticed that he’d taken the tube from the secondary air supply to sling the flashlight over his chest. “See that little ledge up there?” He pointed above her head. “We climb that way.”
Sure enough, there were little breaks and protrusions in the rock above it and she could trace a pathway, more or less, to the branches of a pine tree. Ugh, those needles would hurt.
There were other hiccups to his plan. “How do we reach that first ledge?” she asked.
“I’ll boost you.”
And then how would he get up? “What about you?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve done some free climbing before.”
Not after he’d been stabbed twice, he hadn’t, but she knew better than to argue by now. He was almost as stubborn as she was. Nodding, she turned to him. “Give me your knee then.”
“You ready to climb out of this fish bowl?”
