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Chapter Seven
Austin
If I take Sierra’s offered hand, I’m just going to drag her down here with me. She’s a welcome sight after what just happened. I have the urge to tug her down here on the ground with me and kiss her until I stop trembling in abject terror.
But studying her face, she’s just concerned for me, an old man who just did a thing he never thought he was capable of.
She’s probably feeling sorry for me as I wince and wave off her help. I come to standing and try not to make it evident that my entire body hurts. Dammit. Forty is not the new twenty, that’s for sure.
“That was incredible,” she says. Her lovely eyes are wide as they gaze up at me.
“Anybody here would have done the same thing.”
She shakes her head. “You were quicker on your feet and…very agile. You saved his life.”
Not going to lie; that does puff up my ego a bit.
“Well, thanks for saying that, I guess,” I say.
She laughs. “No. Thank you for doing what you did. He would have died.”
I shrug. “He probably wouldn’t have died. Most likely would have just slid all the way to the bottom and then fell into the hot spring. Provided he can swim, he would have lived.”
She covers her mouth, but her eyes are laughing. I can’t believe we’re having this conversation three feet away from Isaac and his family.
The Isaac family heads back up to the mountain top, where they will be cutting off their adventures for the day with a ride back to the hotel. Brooks looks pale and shaken.
“Austin, do you mind escorting these ladies the rest of the way down to the spring while I take the family back up to the rim?”
Sierra looks up at me and sees me hesitating. “Try not to squirm. I’m not the worst body to ever wear a swimsuit.”
The truth is I’d rather have my teeth pulled than be forced to see her in a bikini.
Not because she wouldn’t look good. But because she’s fucking gorgeous. And sweet. And too damn tempting.
But, it’s evident to everyone that Brooks needs help, and I’m nothing if not a helper.
“Yeah. Yeah, sure, buddy. No problem.” My voice is strangely dry and more raspy than usual. Grudgingly, I decide it’ll all be okay if her friend is with her. No funny business in the hot spring, then. I can be a disinterested lifeguard; that’s it. I’m a grown-ass man in charge of my urges and desires, after all.
Brooks radios for the golf cart to meet him and Isaac’s family at the mountain top. “All right. I’ll take them back to the hotel. You just radio me when you’re done with your swim.”
“I’ll join you,” Jax says to Brooks. My stomach falls into my feet.
Sierra calls after her friend, “Wait, where are you going? I wanna finish the tour!”
Jax turns around and says, “You and your new friend can finish the tour together. One on one.” She then curtsies and slips her arm through the tour guide’s arm, chattering away as they trek back up the trail.
Sierra’s mouth gapes as she watches them go, then turns to me.
“We can skip the swim if you want,” I say.
She arches an eyebrow. “Listen, I didn’t spend half the day in a humid crater, only to pass up the chance to swim in a volcanic hot spring. I am already in my swimsuit under these shorts. Besides, you’re my tour guide, now. You have to be there to protect me from the island gods.”
Fuck. It’s not the island gods she should be worried about.
The bottom of the trail spills out into a wide landing at the edge of the cloudy blue pool. I’ve visited this spot many times before, but I’ve never seen the caverns through someone else’s eyes.
“This might be the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Sierra says.
