“Up higher. Stand right here for a minute. Let me do a little climbing.” He dropped his pack and kept his rifle slung over his shoulder. Then, as if he hadn’t been walking in near-freezing temperatures for the last few hours, she watched Axel grip a rock, then put his foot on the one directly below and climb the side of a hill with the same ease he’d ascend a ladder.
He was so physical and capable. She couldn’t help but admire everything he was and had accomplished. He was probably in his mid-twenties, but had already served two tours on one of the most dangerous battlefields in the world. His mother had left. He lived away from his family. He’d lost a friend today. Nothing broke him. And Mystery admired his courage so much. She wanted to be that brave.
He disappeared up the rock face, then when he reached a ledge, he walked into some opening she couldn’t quite see.
A few moments later, he reappeared and bounded his way back to her side. “This will work. It’s high so that if the bastard who paid for your abduction sends a search party, we won’t be immediately visible. There’s a little bit of an overhang to protect us from the wind. We’ll still have to watch for things like scorpions and mountain lions, but we were going to have to be cautious about those wherever we stopped.”
Some protective rock sounded great, but . . . “How do you expect me to get up there?”
He crossed his arms over his chest as if this point was nonnegotiable. “You’re going to climb.”
Automatically, she shook her head. Yeah, she wanted to be brave, but she knew her limitations. That wasn’t happening. “I can’t. I’ve never climbed a rock like that in my life. I don’t know how, especially in the dark. Isn’t there something else closer to the ground?”
“There might be, but I’m not wasting more time searching for it. We need to eat something, drink more water, get settled, then catch some sleep. You might find that harder as the sun and the temperature come up.”
And he wouldn’t? Then again, she knew from that military film of her father’s that hard-core soldiers like him could close their eyes and sleep just about anywhere. They trained themselves to grab a few minutes of shut-eye here or there, never knowing when the opportunity would come again.
Mystery looked up the face of the rock again. It wasn’t a sheer vertical climb, but it still looked steep and daunting. She tried the honest approach. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m scared.”
His body language relaxed, losing the stiff and authoritative stance. Instead, he bent to her and clasped her shoulders. “I’ll be with you every step of the way. The man who abducted you didn’t defeat you. The desert hasn’t gotten the best of you. A few rocks won’t, either. I’ll take your pack up with me. You’ll do great, princess.”
It had to be the trauma of the last few days, coupled with lack of sleep. She teared up. His encouragement was some of the nicest words anyone had ever said to her. He believed she could do it—whatever she set her mind to. No one expected her to be capable of anything. Her father had always indulged her and told her to do whatever she enjoyed. So she’d shopped a lot, read, hung out with friends, and had done just enough to slide by in school. College had been more for show than anything. Daddy was an implacable, driven man. Kind of like Axel. Suddenly, she was a little ashamed that she hadn’t developed more drive or more spine as she’d grown from a child into a young adult. Maybe Axel was right; maybe she could do this.
“I’ll try.”
“You’ll succeed,” he promised. “You watch.”
She gave him a shaky nod.
He bent a little lower and put his face directly in front of hers. “Be verbal. We’ll need to communicate as we climb.”
She’d forgotten. “Yes, Axel.”
He picked up his pack and slung it over his beefy shoulder beside the rifle, then took Alvarez’s pack, stuffed with a canteen and most of the food, in his hand. “Now grab that rock just above your head. When you set your fingers back deep enough, you’ll find there’s a little dip that will make a nice ledge for your grip.”
He eased the strap of her pack up his arm, to rest in the crook of his elbow, then anchored both of his hands around her hips. As he touched her, pure lightning heat zipped through her body, flashing to her extremities, then conflagrating inward, centering between her legs. She gasped. That had never happened to her. Ever. The few boys she’d had sex with in high school had been ultimately uninteresting and forgettable.
Somehow, she already knew she’d never erase Axel from her thoughts.
“Something wrong?” he asked, releasing her middle from his grip.
“No.” She swallowed and tried to think of a plausible lie. “I just can’t believe I’m going to do this.”
“Believe, princess. You’ve got too much spark to let a rock defeat you. Put your right foot on the jutting section of that stone at knee level. Yes,” he coached as she did what he asked. “Now just use your hands and the muscles in your legs to pull yourself up. It’s not much different than climbing a tree.”
Mystery refrained from mentioning that she’d never climbed trees as a kid. There weren’t many in Beverly Hills not manicured within an inch of their lives. Besides, the nannies her parents had hired when she’d been younger would have had a heart attack if she’d tried to shimmy up some bark to hang out on a limb.
“Sure.”
Axel gripped her hips again, and as she hoisted herself up, he gave her a push, his thumbs so, so close to cupping her butt. Did he think of her as a child? Or had he noticed that she was a woman? The thought distracted her from all worries of falling and breaking half the bones in her body. Suddenly, she stood on the little outcropping and had a better view of the vast landscape all around them, along with Axel smiling up at her with something like pride.
“I did it!” Mystery knew she wore a cheesy grin that TMZ and the tabloid press would make fun of, but she didn’t care.
“Told you. Wait for me there. I’ll coach you through the next level.” He reached for her pack, tossed it up to her, then headed up the face of the cliff again, climbing as if he’d been doing it forever.
She watched in fascination, then felt her body ping when he stood beside her again. The ledge was narrow. They had to stand close. Axel didn’t touch her, but she wished he would.
She sent a smile up his way before she felt heat rush through her, and she pretended to look up as if studying the next part of the climb. “Now what?”
“This part is a bit trickier . . .”
But like before, he coached her up, holding her by the hips and lifting her when the rocks beneath her felt a little crumbly and unstable. They repeated that twice more before she stood at the top of the hill and glanced at the outcropping as he pulled himself up beside her, slinging the last pack onto the ledge below her feet.
“Here we are. You did great.”
She loved the way he encouraged and praised. It seemed unusual for a soldier to be so good at what her father would call touchy-feely stuff. Even his communication skills were amazing. Mystery wondered where he’d learned and gotten so much practice that it seemed as natural as breathing to him.
“With a lot of help from you, thanks. The rescue was harrowing, but the journey since could have been grueling and terrible. You’ve made it really . . . all right.”
He nodded her way, pretending to tip his imaginary hat at her. “Just doing my job, ma’am.”
She giggled. “That is the worst cowboy accent.”
“We all have our limitations.” He shrugged.
In her estimation, he didn’t have many. He’d make a great husband and father someday—if he wasn’t already. OMG, she hadn’t even considered that. She’d been mooning over him and crushing hard, and he might already have a significant other in his life. The thought deflated her. He was too awesome to be alone, and imagining him with a wife or girlfriend tugged her into a sad little exhaustion.