With a gentle touch, he turned her over on her back and was relieved to see her stir. “Heather,” he said forcefully, and then more sternly, “Heather, open your eyes.” For once, she listened to him and opened her eyes.
A smile slowly surfaced, seeing Quinn staring at her, his dark eyes full of concern and anger.Anger? Quinn rarely grew angry. She was about to ask him what was wrong when he snapped at her.
“Do not dare move until I see if you suffered any harm.”
“Rhys,” she said softly, recalling what had happened and not surprised to see him there. “You followed me down the hole.”
He leaned closer to her. “I would follow you to hell, if necessary, though I do not believe they would want you there, since you would not obey the devil himself.”
“I obeyed you; I remained in the keep.”
“And when I told you to move?”
“I did not want you to get hurt,” she said and attempted to sit up. Pain shot through her shoulder, and she let out a moan.
Rhys let out another slew of curses beneath his breath for arguing with her when he should be tending her, and he snapped, “Do not move!” And when he saw a tear gather in the corner of her one eye, he silently cursed himself again and went against his own command. He gently slipped his arms under her and lifted her onto his lap to sit back against the stone wall and cradle her in his arms.
She rested her head on his chest with a sigh.
“You are in pain?” he asked.
“Only my shoulder,” she said, wincing as she gave the shoulder not tucked against him a lift.
“Do not move it,” he ordered.
“It probably took the brunt of my fall and is already bruising.”
Rhys brought his hand up to rest on her shoulder, then caressed it slowly to see if he could feel anything.
Heather almost sighed aloud with how pleasurable his tender touch felt until he touched one particular spot. Pain shot through it, and she bit back the gasp that hurried to rush out. She did not want Rhys to know. He would forbid her to do anything, but rest and she wanted to do anything but that.
“I do not feel anything. Nothing else pains you?”
“Nothing, but what of you?” she asked concerned that he had suffered an injury in the fall.
“I am fine,” he insisted and moved his hand off her shoulder to rest at her waist. He wanted nothing more than to simply sit there and hold her and know she was unharmed.
“Are you certain?”
He squeezed at her waist. “I will let you run your hands all over my naked body and see for yourself as soon as we get out of here.”
The image of her doing just that had her saying, “We should hurry and leave here.”
“First, we must determine wherehereis.”
Heather brought her head up off his chest and looked around. “Is this the secret passage?”
“I am assuming it is, though the lack of care and age has taken a toll on it.”
Heather got to her feet with some help from her husband and they both stood and looked around. Their fall had been cushioned by a pile of blankets and a variety of garments. Heather yanked one out, holding up a cloak and seeing it had been a feast for rodents with its many holes. She tossed it back on the pile.
After taking in all of the small space, Rhys said, “From the looks of it, this is a spot where the family could wait out a siege in relative safety and take their leave if it should prove necessary. Time, dampness, and lack of care took its toll on the wood.”
Heather dropped her head back to look up through the hole. “How far do you think we dropped?”
“Most times you find thicker wood planks closer to the bottom of the keep than the top, so I would say we are somewhere nearer the bottom.”
“Rhys!” The strong shout echoed down the hole.
