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My vehicle pitched forward, heading straight down into the deep gully far down below. The crunch of metal groaned throughout the valley as it rolled. I squeezed my arms around her that much tighter, thankful that her body wasn’t still in that car, broken and mangled along with the rest of it.
Her arms snaked around my neck just as the forest turned quiet. Several leaves flittered down to the ground, but thankfully no more twigs or branches fell.
Silence surrounded us completely. Then a bird sang somewhere off in the distance, breaking the tension and somehow reminding me to breathe.
“We’re okay,” she whispered.
“Your fast thinking saved us both,” I breathed.
“You’re not angry?”
“No. I’m just happy you’re okay.” I shook my head.
The roar of an engine sounded not far off, and she leapt out of my lap. Quickly, she waved her arms in warning.
Seth was driving one of the other two cars. He slammed on his brakes. Vince did the same not far behind them. Tires crunched in the rock and both vehicles skidded to a sudden stop. Seth looked around for ours, only jumping out when he realized there wasn’t one.
“What happened?” he called out.
“Gravity,” Naomi answered quickly. She winked in my direction, and I grinned with my own relief. As much as I wanted to hold her right now and tell her everything would be okay, she was fine.
She impressed me with something new with every day that I got to know her, be it her intelligence, expertise, or ability to keep a steady head in a time of crisis.
Fuck. It made keeping my hands off her that much harder. Not that I’d been that successful thus far anyway.
“Our car decided to take a joyride over that cliff right there.” I gritted my jaw, hating that these other men were here while I just wanted to grab Naomi, strip her bare, and fuck her senseless. With a hesitant glance up, she walked toward the edge where our car had just been not minutes ago. I was about to yell out for her to be careful, but she reached out and grasped the trunk of a tree, using it to hold much of her weight as she leaned forward.
I strode over to her.
The car had fallen several hundred feet below. The only reason I could spot it was because there was a single column of smoke spiraling up from it. I could only see hints of its mangled tan exterior, but it looked like much of it was on fire.
Suddenly it exploded with a fiery boom.
“Well. I guess there won’t be any fixing that,” Naomi grunted.
“Yeah. Even I’m going to have to back away from that one,” I chuckled in amusement.
“What do you want to do?” Seth asked her.
She glanced quickly at me and then out at the horizon. “I need you and your men to load the maps and books into the back of your cars. It might be a bit of a tight squeeze for all of us, but we’ll manage,” she began.
“Got it. Anything else?”
“Let’s backtrack a little. There was a clearing about a mile back that would make for a safe camp for the night. Ryker and I will come up with a plan and we’ll move out in the morning when it’s light again,” she explained.
“Good thinking, Dr. Vaughn,” I grinned.
Her face lit up and I winked at her when no one was looking. She crossed an arm over her shoulder a bit bashfully, as if to hide from me, but nothing took away the delicious pink tint across her cheeks.
She was perfect.
CHAPTER10
Naomi
That night, we made camp in the forest. Ryker insisted on setting up both my tent and his. I felt a need to contribute too though, so I did my best to help. He taught me a few things along the way, like how to decide which way to face the tent to avoid the wind or how deep to drive in the stakes, which I ended up enjoying more than I thought I would.
Off at the other edge of the clearing, the security team had started a fire and were grilling some food over it. They brought over a plate of grilled meat for both of us, but they mainly kept to themselves.
