Page 22 of Swept for Forever
Nope. My brain absolutely did not jump to other uses for a man who knew his way around anatomy.
Nope. Not at all.
I gulped, trying not to picture anything involving bedsheets. “What do you do?”
He glanced up at me. “Well, I was a lawyer,” he said.
Backstroke for a second. When exactly did Harvard, or wherever he’d gotten his degree, start admitting beefcakes?
I masked the whiplash with a grin. “I should’ve known! You distracted me, then ambushed my shoulder. Classic lawyer move.”
“Hey, don’t judge,” he said. “I was a damn good one, you know. Morally gray sometimes, sure, but all in the interest of my clients.”
“Huh. And you saidwas?”
He shrugged, casually. “I retired. As of, well, yesterday.”
I squinted at him. “You retired at your age?”
“Yep. Can you believe it? I’m a man of leisure now,” he quipped. Then he cast his eyes on my leg again. “Anywhere else hurts?”
By now, that first injury—my twisted ankle from way back—barely registered. It was just a bruise compared to everything else.
“No.”
Thunder rolled again.
“We need to move,” he said, scanning the slope and the downed trees littered like matchsticks.
I nodded, though the gesture felt hollow. My head was still fogged, my limbs reluctant passengers.
“I’ll help you climb,” he said, unfastening the shirt he’d used as a harness before reaching for the first aid kit to pack it away.
Climb? With one leg screaming, one shoulder half-dead, and a storm about to dump itself on our heads?
“I…Dom, I don’t think?—”
“You can,” he cut in gently. “I know you’re hurting, and I know how much this sucks. But it’s our only shot before this storm hits.”
I looked up at the ridge, my heart sinking. What had looked manageable from above now loomed like a vertical death wish. Maybe I’d been delusional. Or maybe I’d just been that damn thirsty.
Dom stepped in close, his arm steady at my side. “I will not let you fall.”
I gave him a nod. Tiny. Shaky. But it was all I had.
The rain came first, heavy droplets hitting the dirt, turning it slick.
Then came another rumble of thunder.
“So how does this work?” I said, fiddling with the harness as my vision blurred.
Before he could explain, a wave of dizziness knocked me sideways.
“Autumn? Autumn, are you with me?”
Soon, nausea slammed into me.
Oh God. No.
