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“Visibility is shit right now, so I need you to move closer to the lights. I’m coming down for you.”
There was a pause of silence. “Don’t be ridiculous. Just call for help or something. You come down here and we’ll both be stuck trying to climb up a mudslide.”
Rafe’s lips twitched. “Have a little faith, would you?”
“I have plenty of faith in AAA. The fire department even. Not some random wannabe hero.”
Even with the rain dripping into his face and the cold air puffing out of his lungs, he had to stifle a laugh. “Listen, lady, you want to stay down there longer than you have to? It’s cool. I’ll call the fire department, and we’ll wait the extra twenty minutes it will take them to get out here. Or I can come and get you now, and by the time they get here, you’ll already be safe. Then it will just be a rescue mission for your car. I mean, it’s cold and rainy, but it’s really up to you.”
There was another beat of silence. And then her voice came again, this time sounding as if she spoke through clenched teeth. “Okay, fine.”
“See, I knew you could be reasonable. Give me one minute.”
Rafe couldn’t be sure, but he was pretty certain he heard her say, “You better know what you’re doing.”
He ran back to the driver’s side and pulled his car up several feet, then threw it into park and engaged the hand brake. Next he ran to his trunk and pulled out his rappelling gear. He had his harness on in seconds. He just hoped she didn’t ask too many questions about why the hell he had rappelling gear. What would he say to that? Oh, you know, I just like to do a little building scaling on the weekends. And this was why he could never have a normal life.
Once he had the harness on, he dropped the rope as close to the lights as possible. When he was secured in, he steadied himself on the ledge and stepped backward. Then, foot by foot, he dropped gently, calling out to the woman down below. She was right; the mud was slippery as hell. When he reached her, she was only a few feet up from where the car was. She wore only a thin dress, and her feet were bare.
Shit. She was lucky she
didn’t have hypothermia. “Hi. I’m Rafe. I’m going to help you out of here.”
Even wet, shivering, and resembling a tiny drowned animal, she was beautiful. Those dark eyes of hers bore into him as she stared at him. “You were serious about coming down for me?”
Rafe rolled his eyes. “You know, as rescue-ees go, you are a tad ungrateful.” Rafe had the harness around her in seconds and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close. He inhaled for a moment and caught a whiff of vanilla.
So not the right time to realize she was cute and smelled amazing. Focus, man.
Her lips twitched as she met his gaze. “Oh, I’m grateful. I just think you’re crazy. You better have a whole army up there ready to pull us up. Because this mud—”
“Do you always talk this much?”
She opened her mouth, very likely to give him some kind of scathing retort, but then he pressed the electronic switch on his rope ascender and they were zooming up. Definitely not as fast as the system was capable of, given his weight and his rough approximation of hers, but it would do. He had to physically pull them up the last couple of feet, but she helped, mostly by not getting in the way and just clinging to him tightly.
Once they were on solid ground, she still clung to him and Rafe let her. For several beats they stood like that, with her wrapped around him and him encasing her in his arms, giving her some of his warmth.
But then she pulled back. And that mouth of hers started again. “So, are we going to talk about why you have burglary equipment handy?”
Despite himself, he laughed. “So, this is you being grateful? And for your information, I’m a rappeller. It’s a sport.” It was the best he could do in a pinch.
“This is me making sure I haven’t been rescued by a serial killer.”
Rafe rolled his eyes. “I promise you, I’m not Dexter. Why don’t you sit in the car and warm up while we wait for an ambulance to come and check you out.”
Her eyes went wide. “I’m fine. I don’t need an ambulance. Just point me in the direction of downtown, and I have it from here.”
“Are you crazy? It’s miles to Manhattan.”
She squared her shoulders. “So? I’m strong. Thank you very much for your rescue or whatever. But I can take it from here.”
Rafe stared down at her. She was tiny. At least compared to him. “You’re insane if you think I’m going to let you walk. And have you not noticed that you’re barefoot?”
She looked at her feet and wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m fine. I don’t need your help. I’ll just call an Uber or something.”
Rafe stared at her. “Oh yeah? With what phone?”
She narrowed her gaze at him but stayed silent. When she turned her back on him and started walking in the wrong direction, he fought an inner battle with himself. The fact that she didn’t want medical attention and was insistent on walking away from this told him she was in trouble. And the last thing he needed was trouble in his life.
