One Intrepid Seal

“I’m okay,” Reese said, forcing the words out from between her teeth.

Diesel’s arms wrapped around her midsection and held on tightly. “Clearly, you aren’t.”

“You don’t have to hold me,” she insisted, hating herself for her reaction and the need to feel his arms around her. “I can manage on my own.”

“I’m afraid to let go. You might shake yourself right out of this tree.”

“I’ll manage,” she insisted. “Please. Let go.”

When he moved his arms away from her, Reese let go of the tree long enough to hug herself to ward off the chills threatening to take over. When she touched her arm where his hand had been, she felt something warm, wet and sticky. Blood? She felt around, but nothing hurt.

Because the blood wasn’t hers.

“Hey.” She half turned. “Were you hit?”

“I got nicked. But it’s just a flesh wound. I’m fine,” he said. “I’m more worried about getting us out of here and away from our friends with the AK-47s.”

“You should let me look at your wound.”

“It’s not like you can see in the dark, and I’m not willing to risk turning on a flashlight for a little scrape.”

Reese would bet her best pair of hiking boots the wound was more than a mere scrape. “At least let me apply a pressure bandage to stop the bleeding. Where is it?”

“It’s okay,” he said, his tone sharp.

“Look, you dripped blood on to my arm. If you’re still dripping, you might leave a trail for the goons to follow.” She grabbed the hem of her shirt and, carefully and as quietly as possible, ripped off a section. She tried to turn on the tree limb and nearly tipped over the side. Her heart clattered against the walls of her chest.

Diesel held on to her arm to steady her. “Wait until we get down from here.”

“For all we know, we’ll be up here for a while.” She shook her head. “Let me feel for myself. Where is it?” She touched his wrist and moved up his arm.

“Higher,” he said.

Reese ran her hand up his thick, solid forearm to the bicep. When her fingers encountered fresh, warm blood, she knew she’d found the source of the leak. “It’s more than a scrape. You might need stitches.”

“I don’t. But if it makes you feel better, you can wrap it up to keep me from bleeding and leaving a trail.”

“Damn right I will.” Pushing her fear of heights to the side, she maneuvered herself around to face him, her knees touching his, making it hard for her to reach his arm. She bent close, but still couldn’t get to the spot she needed to reach. “Could you lean closer?” she asked.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake.” He grabbed her hips, lifted her off the tree limb and deposited her onto his lap, her legs straddling his hips.

Heat rushed into Reese’s cheeks and farther south to her core. She’d never sat in a man’s lap quite like this before. The angle of their contact was more than intimate, and completely befuddled her thinking. Thankfully, it also took her mind off the fact they were over twenty-five feet in the air, perched on a tree limb.

With his arms holding her firmly around her waist, she went to work wrapping the fabric around his injured arm. The fact he could move it as well as he did was proof it wasn’t as bad as she’d thought. But any injury in the jungle and subsequent blood loss could be life-threatening, especially if it became infected. She did the best she could in the dark. The sooner they got her rescuer to a health-care facility, the better.

“That’s as good as I can manage, without seeing the actual wound,” Reese said. “You can let go, now.”

“And if I don’t want to?” he said, his voice rich and thick like smooth heated chocolate, spreading into every pore of her skin.

Reese’s breath lodged in her lungs, and a thrill rippled through her, culminating at the point where her bottom rested on his thighs. Good Lord. She could not be having lusty thoughts about a complete stranger, while facing one of her most irrational fears in the canopy of a jungle tree.

Diesel’s arms tightened around her for a moment and then loosened. “I’ll balance you, while you turn around.” He grabbed her around her waist and eased her backward.

Reese rested a hand on his broad shoulder, until she was forced to release it and turn to clutch at the tree’s trunk.

A second later, Diesel moved from behind her and dropped to the limb below. Once again, he wrapped his strong hands around her waist. “When I lift you, wrap your arms around my neck and slide your body down mine. Your feet will land on another limb.”

“C-can’t we wait until morning?”

“The more I consider it, the more I’m afraid that if we wait until morning, the men in the camp will see us. We need to get as far from them as possible tonight.”

Reese knew what Diesel said was valid, but climbing down from a tree was so much more frightening than going up. The warmth of his hands gripping her waist gave her the courage to let go of the tree trunk and transfer her hold to his neck. She wrapped her arms around him so tightly, she was sure she practically strangled him.

He settled her feet onto the limb in front of him and urged her to ease up on the stranglehold around his neck. Once he had her sitting on the lower branch, he leaned close. “See? Not so bad.”

“Easy for you to say,” she grumbled. But it wasn’t so bad. She still couldn’t see the ground, and maybe that was a blessing.

“I’m going all the way to the ground,” he whispered into her ear, his warm breath stirring the loose hairs against her cheek. “Don’t move a muscle, until I return with the all clear.”

She nodded, wanting to tell him to be careful, but knowing it was a wasted sentiment. The man was obviously trained in tactics and evasion. He knew how to steal through the night like a shadow.

He slipped away before she could change her mind or cling to him and beg him to stay. While Diesel was gone, she counted her breaths, praying he didn’t walk into a trap and get himself killed.

He was gone for what felt like an eternity. When she’d about given up hope of his return and started to consider her own descent from the tree, she heard the soft rustle of fabric and a gentle grunt. Diesel pulled himself up to the limb below her, his head on level with her thigh. All she could see was his black silhouette against the dark backdrop of the jungle and the pale whites of his eyes.

“Miss me?” he asked.

She snorted. “Hardly,” she lied. “What took you so long?”

“I went back to the camp. The men there had settled in for the night. The ones that took off on the boat hadn’t returned.”

“God, I hope they didn’t catch up to the rest of your team.” She prayed Ferrence made it back to civilization without further incident. Then, at the very least, she wouldn’t be responsible for his death.

“Don’t worry. There are enough of them to take on anything those rebels have in store. It’s you and me I’m worried about.”

“Any ideas?”

“We head north, following the river. Hopefully, we will run across someone who can help get us to safety. But first, we have to get you out of this tree.”

“I can do it by myself,” she said with a lot more confidence than she felt.

“Okay then. It’s tricky in the dark. If you need to hold on to me, I’ll be here.”

Taking a deep breath, Reese leaned on to her belly and dropped both legs over the side of the limb she’d been sitting on.

A hand on her bottom steadied her and helped guide her to the branch below. Once she had her feet firmly on the thick limb, she dropped to a sitting position. Using this method, she slowly eased herself to the lowest limb.

Diesel dropped to the earth and touched her thigh. “Swing your other leg over and drop. I’ll catch you.”