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CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Kate
The aftershock of Damon’s admission continues to rock my body as we hike up the muddied ravine toward the top of Tiger Falls.
I was breaths away from letting him make good on his promise when from behind him, I caught a first glimpse at the unfiltered beauty of this Topican treasure.
“We’re almost there!” I call back to him over the roaring water just ahead.
I pause, squinting to where my cover and our shoes lie on the ground before surveying the top of the falls. The highest point is about forty feet give or take, and a hollowed cave with a black sand beach lies just behind where the rushing water meets a greenish blue pool.
“Isn’t this incredible?” I shout. The edge we’re standing on has narrowed to the point we’re having to sidestep toward the top or risk falling back into the water.
My heart beats fearlessly as my hands sink into the muddy wall, caking the earth beneath my fingernails. I lean in, filling my nose with the tangy scent of dirt and grass before tipping my head up toward the sunshine. The faintest rainbow arches between where Damon and I hike toward the falls.
“Damon?” I twist to find him clinging to the side of the ridge, visibly shuddering with his eyes slammed shut. “Oh my God.”
After scurrying back the six feet of space separating us, I gently place my palm against the muscles between his shoulder blades. They immediately go taut, and I realize now why he was reluctant to start the climb.
Damon ispetrified.
Our hair is slick from the spray of the falls, and his skin has gone ice cold.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m right here with you,” I murmur, lightly running my hand between his bare shoulder blades.
“This is embarrassing.”
I continue stroking his back. “You should have told me you were afraid of heights.”
“It’s not your fault that I can’t handle a little elevation.” He laughs, but the sound is harsh and gritty.
My hand slides up to the base of his skull, mixing a light coating of mud into the water droplets in his hair until his shoulders finally begin to relax.
Convincing myself that I feel nothing for Damon—especially when he’s so vulnerable— is an impossible feat.
He confessed that I was the reason he believed in the magic of this island, and I’m starting to believe he’s the reason I do too.
“We can turn around right now. Just say the word.”
His eyelids crack open with a couple of blinks. He studies me while I massage thin dirt lines over his neck, ear, and cheek.
“No.” There’s a stubborn set to his jaw now.
“Don’t do that thing men do when they’re trying to prove themselves by doing something reckless.”
“No, it’s nothing like that.”
He presses his forehead into a soft patch of grass protruding from the mud and closes his eyes. “I work in one of the tallest buildings in Los Angeles, with an office surrounded by giant glass windows.”
I can’t imagine how terrifying that must be for him every day.
“That seems… counterproductive for a man afraid of heights.”
Humor softens his mouth into the start of a smile. “It’s taken years for me adjust, yet you’re scaling the side of this waterfall like you’ve been climbing your whole life.”
My pulse does that fluttery thing it’s been doing around him lately.
“I used to jump off cliffs like this at my friend’s lake house every summer.” I smile at the thought of a teenage Kate—innocent, yet defiant. “My mother hated it.”
