Chapter Twenty – Out Of Nowhere #2
“I called 9-1-1,” Chuck said, his voice shaky.
His face was almost as pale as Fallon’s as tears streamed down it. He nervously wiped the back of his cheek as I knelt beside her. I fought every urge screaming at me to pull her into my arms and yell at her to fucking wake up.
Instead, I assessed her carefully from head to toe.
No blood. Thank God! There was no blood and no hole torn through her clothes.
She hadn’t been hit with a bullet, but she had a massive knot at her temple that was already turning an ugly shade of black and blue.
She was breathing, chest rising and falling, but she looked so still and lifeless it was terrifying.
“What happened?” I demanded.
Chuck’s voice was full of fear and awe as he explained, “She was like a superhero. She launched onto Sue’s horse and pulled Sue back into the saddle before reining in the horse. They’d both just gotten off when another gunshot…” The teen’s voice disappeared.
The woman Fallon had saved took over. “The horse freaked out. It reared up, knocking her in the head with its hoof. She went down like… I’ve never seen…” She broke into sobs again.
A head wound. A nasty damn head wound.
Her neck needed to be secured. She needed an MRI.
But, hell, the relief swam through me because it was better than a hole in her chest.
I looked around at the group, who still hadn’t moved. They were standing there in shock. Tense and scared. “Go. Damn it. Get on the horses, and head back to the hotel.”
Chuck stood, looking down at Fallon again with tears still streaming. “I’ll t-take them.”
“Make sure the EMTs know where to come, and tell them to send a backboard.” I gave the kid a firm look, one that said do not fucking fail me .
He pulled his shoulders back and got the guests mounted and moving.
The woman Fallon had chased down just stood there.
“I can’t… I can’t get back on…” she cried.
Chuck took her by the elbow. “Come on, Sue. We’ll walk the horses back.”
“What if we’re shot at again?” she wept.
“The shooter left,” I growled. “But the safest place you can be right now is at the hotel.”
As soon as Chuck had the two of them heading toward the resort, I planted my ass on the ground and grabbed Fallon’s hand. “Wake up, Ducky. Wake the fuck up before I’m forced to call Rafe. You and I both know you’d hate that.”
Nothing. Just the continued slow rise and fall of her chest.
Guilt, anger, and fear all washed through me in a heady mix that made me want to pound my boxing bag until my fingers bled. I slammed my fist onto the ground.
“Wake the fuck up!”
Her pupils danced behind closed lids.
I’d wasted so much time with her. I’d spent the last few years running as hard as I could the opposite way. I’d put as much distance between us as possible. For what? For honor? For a promise I’d made when we were fricking teenagers?
Because I’d lacked the courage to make us something unforgettable. Something timeless.
I’d denied us the pleasure and relief of sating the hunger that crawled through us whenever we were together.
I’d denied myself the comfort of coming home to someone who cared about me more than they cared about another living soul.
I’d pushed and shoved and refused her dares when all I’d really wanted was to give in to the fire that burned between us.
And I’d nearly lost her.
My throat closed.
I could still lose her if she didn’t wake up.
If I lost her without ever really having touched her, without ever truly making her mine, I’d hate myself more than I ever would for breaking a stupid promise I’d given as a green-ass cadet.
She needed to know she was much more than a duty.
She needed to know I cared about her. Cared was a stupid word.
What I felt was a need so deep it was greater than the necessity for air.
I brought her palm to my mouth and placed the softest of kisses there. “Don’t you fucking leave me before I can accept your dare, Fallon. Don’t even think about it.”
A flutter of eyelashes sent my chest into a dizzying spiral.
I leaned in, brushing my lips gently along her cheek. “Open those goddamn eyes, Ducky.”
A wild and unrestrained relief soared through me when she did just that. Confusion danced through them.
“What happened?” she croaked.
She tried to move, and a pained groan escaped her.
I put my hand on her chest, stopping her. “Stay still.”
Her free hand went to her temple. “My head.”
“Took a nasty kick,” I said. “Don’t move until the EMTs get here.”
Fire returned to her eyes. “You did not call an ambulance!”
Her furious response eased the pain and torture inside me. My chest lightened. Thank God.
She tried to move again, and I let go of her hand to hold her down. “It was Chuck who called them, but I’m glad he did. You shouldn’t move until an EMT can check you for a neck or spinal injury.”
“I got smashed in the head with a hoof, Frogman, not kicked in the back.” She fought me, and instead of hurting her more, I let her sit up.
Her eyes swam, and she closed them, swallowing hard as nausea overtook her.
“It’s embarrassing. I know better than to get kicked by one of my own goddamn horses. ”
“You were being shot at. That makes people do all sorts of things that are out of character.”
Her eyes flew open. “You went after them—”
“Got away on an off-road motorcycle. I sent Lance to the old fire road to see if he could catch up with them.”
She swore under her breath. Then, she gripped my arm. “Help me up.”
“Fallon.”
“Help me up, Parker. I need to walk back on my own feet if I’m going to withstand this humiliation. And the guests…” She shook her head and went even paler than before. I wasn’t even sure how that was possible. She touched the enormous knot, wincing.
Debate warred inside me. She needed to be checked out. While the hit had been to her head, it didn’t rule out spinal damage. The fall to the ground could have injured her as much as the kick, but I knew that expression on her face. The fierce determination. She’d get up on her own if I didn’t help.
I gripped her elbows and eased her to her feet.
She swayed, unsteady, and my arms surrounded her.
I drew her into my chest and said gently, “Give it a minute for everything to stop spinning.”
Fallon wasn’t the only one who needed the reminder.
My entire world was spinning. Relief mixed with fury for whoever had done this, and behind it, fear lingered like an ugly aftertaste.
Not just for her and her safety, but for me.
For the wash of feelings and thoughts that had flooded me when I’d seen her on the ground.
When, for a few seconds, I’d been forced to imagine my world without her and found that idea more terrifying than even the idea of not returning to my platoon.
I’d thought nothing would make me give up my spot on the teams and the promise I’d sworn to my dying grandfather. Not a damn thing. And yet, I’d been a breath away from making a bargain with the devil to do just that if it meant she was okay .
I didn’t know what to do with this new information. And I always fucking knew what to do.
At least, I had until Will had died and flipped my world upside down.
Since then, my life had taken steps further and further away from what I’d planned. Seeing Fallon sprawled on the ground, feeling the intense loss of something I’d never had the courage to make mine, had sent my world spiraling another dozen steps away from what I’d envisioned for myself.
I would have stood there, wrapped around her, until the EMTs arrived, if Fallon hadn’t moved.
She pushed against my chest and took a tentative step back.
I instantly wanted to drag her into my arms again.
I wanted to hold on until I was convinced she was strong enough to aim fire and brimstone at me once more.
Confusion danced in her eyes as they met mine. “When I was knocked out…did you…” She swiped her cheek and then shook her head and winced again. “Never mind.”
She turned slowly, inhaling sharply before she took another step away from me. She whistled, and Daisy immediately trotted over to her. Fallon would have leaped into the saddle if I hadn’t caught her by the wrist. “Don’t even think about it.”
Her eyes met mine, flashing with heat again. “Excuse me?”
“You need to get checked out before you go bouncing around on the back of a horse. No more jiggling that beautiful brain of yours until a doctor approves it.”
“I’ve taken plenty of falls off my horse. I always get back on.”
“Except, this wasn’t a fall off your damn horse. You were unconscious, Fallon—for at least five minutes, if not longer. You need a full workup. MRI, CAT scan, the entire shebang.”
She started to argue, and I did the only thing I could think of to stop her—I put my mouth on hers.
I forced myself to be gentle, to savor the softness as I barely brushed our lips together.
But it sent a cataclysmic wave of heat and longing spinning through my chest and straight to my groin.
Warning signs danced in my mind, and I started to pull back, but her hand fisted in my hair, pushing our mouths together more.
She kissed just like she did everything in her life. With a rush of energy. With an intensity that screamed power and control and confidence.
I lost my hold on reality, on the fact she was injured.
I slanted my mouth to take better possession, slipping my tongue between her soft heat, where I encountered heaven.
Salty seas and sweet yarrow and coyote mint blooms. A burst of ocean and land.
Being lost in her was like being lost in sunlight dancing over the water, sparkles of light shimmering and blinding you for a brief moment.
A moment you’d never forget. A moment you savored.
And I did just that—treasured the minutes spent kissing the one woman I’d promised myself I never would. That brief mouth-to-mouth in a bar years ago was nothing compared to this, and that had been a fire I’d never quenched.
The longer I spent with my body and heart and soul tangled with her, the deeper I fell.
I was lost in a well I’d never be able to climb out of, that I’d never want to climb out of, because now that I was here, now that I’d tasted perfect bliss, I never wanted to leave.
I needed to keep this feeling. I needed to keep her and make her mine forever.