Her stomach plummeted. A cliff. An honest-to-God drop that ended either into the roiling river below or the ominous rock formations that lined its shore.
“Please tell me we’re not going to do what I think we are,” she pleaded. Behind them, the shouts of Diego’s men got louder. But Penny’s gaze was too focused on Rafe’s apologetic look to care that they were running out of time.
“You do realize I have a fear of heights, right? If I had a problem with a chopper that supposedly receives regular maintenance, what makes you think I’d be okay with free-falling off the face of a cliff?” Her throat dried as she glanced over the edge at the churning water. “What if we hit a rock?”
“Actually, I’d be more concerned with what’s living in that water.”
Before she could yell at him, he pulled her in for a hard kiss. “We’re doing this together, Red. Side by side.”
“We really have no other choice?” A bullet zinged into the tree to their left. “I guess not.”
Penny squeezed his hand with everything she was worth and got into position. If it had been anyone else telling her to jump, she would’ve gladly pushed them over herself and watched their descent. But this was Rafe. With him by her side, she felt as if she could do anything…maybe screaming like a banshee while she did it, but anything nonetheless. “If we die, I’m still kicking your ass.”
“That’s one beating I’ll enjoy, sweetheart. On three.” Rafe smirked, the damn-crazy fool of a man. “One. Two.” He squeezed her hand, flashing her a wink. “Three.”
*
From far away, the sound of Penny’s name echoed in her head. She groaned, burrowing her face into her hard pillow as her sleep-addled brain slowly connected a trail of dots…the smell of earth, of sweat…of cold, rushing water.
Penny sat up with a start. Her head cracked against something solid, making her wince.
“Damn, sweetheart.” At the sound of Rafe’s low curse, she lunged in his direction. He caught her and pulled her into his lap, still rubbing the spot where her head connected with his jaw. “If I didn’t already guess it, now I know you have a hard head.”
“Where are we?” She blinked repeatedly, squinting into the darkness. “Oh God. Are we dead? Did something eat us when we dove into the water?”
“If we’re dead, someone should really talk to the Big Guy Upstairs about his accommodations.” Rafe brushed his hand over her cheek, pushing a strand of wet hair off her face. “We jumped. We lived. We’re fine.”
Everything slowly started coming back to her. The bullets. The kiss. The damn freaking cliff. When they’d managed to swim their way to the bank of the river God only knew how many miles from where they had jumped, Penny had been ready to pass out from exhaustion. And it looks like she had.
“You’re fine?” she asked. “No bullet holes? No missing limbs?”
“I’m whole and intact. Right as fucking rain.”
Good. Because she’d hate to hit an injured man. She swatted his chest, making him chuckle. She went to smack him a second time, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a kiss. As far as methods went for silencing someone, she favored this one. By a lot.
Anger at being forced to leave him behind evaporated, or maybe it washed away in the river, because with one brush of his tongue, she kissed him back with everything she had. Tongue. Teeth. The shift of her body. The embrace was short but loaded with so much electrically charged heat that it took a while to register that she was still drenched from head to toe.
The kiss turned salty. She tried to pull back, but Rafe slipped a hand into her hair, ensuring she didn’t go far as his thumb wiped away the errant moisture on her cheeks. Lip to lip, his mouth brushed against hers as he said, “Please tell me you’re okay.”
Now that he held her, she was hunky-dory. As the fear that she’d never see him again slowly poured from her body, her heart rate leveled. Penny was in more trouble than just being stranded in the middle of the jungle with no charted way out. Because if she hadn’t thought it before, she knew it now. Her risk of falling hard for Rafael Ortega had grown exponentially.
“Red?” Rafe asked again, pulling her from her own thoughts.
“What was it you said? Right as fucking rain?” She forced a quivering smile. When compared to the possibility of future heartbreak, the persistent throb in her leg was nothing. “But what about you? Are you sure you’re okay?”
With Rafe’s body as her guide, she ran her palms over his shoulders and down his chest. She’d worked her way toward his abdomen and waist when he caught her roving hands.
“Keep doing that and you’re going to see just how okay all my limbs are, sweetheart.”
“Oh.” Warmth flooded into her cheeks. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to do…that.”
“You do that a lot without meaning to. It’s become my permanent physical state when I’m around you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.”