Her bedroom door was open, but the bathroom door was shut. He figured he had a fifty-fifty chance and the bathroom was one step closer.
“Chrissy!” he burst into the room without knocking.
If he’d thought he’d been scared when he saw her walking up that dock with blood streaming down her arm, nothing compared to the sheer terror that gripped him when he found her lying in the tub, her head tilted to one side so that her forehead pressed against a shampoo bottle.
“Fuck!” He was on his knees next to her in an instant.
A towel sat on a wicker stool. He threw it on top of her to protect her modesty, and knocked over the teacup perched on the edge of the tub in the process. It hit the floor and shattered, but he barely spared it a glance before threading one arm beneath her legs at the same time he wound the other around her back.
She was limp as a ragdoll when he hoisted her out of the now-tepid bath. The drenched towel and her wet body cascaded water onto the floor. He slipped as he turned toward the door, the tiles squeaking beneath his flip-flops. But somehow he managed to stay on his feet.
At the back of his mind, he registered the air in the bathroom was cleaner than the air in the rest of the house. Thanks to the closed door, no doubt. But it was quickly filling with fumes and there was a motherfuckingcandleburning on the back of the toilet.
He blew it out on his way through the door. Then he was running for fresh air.
“This way!” Officer Ryan waved him toward the back door, holding it wide.
Wolf wasted no time barreling onto Chrissy’s back patio. The rain, which moments ago had felt warm, now chilled him to the bone.
Or maybe the goose bumps raising the hairs on the back of his neck were due to Chrissy lying lifeless in his arms. Or…notlifeless.
When the fat raindrops hit her face, her brow furrowed. Her eyes scrunched up right along with her mouth. Then she was blinking at him in confusion.
“Wolf?”
“I gotcha, darlin’.” He didn’t slow his pace until he was at her back fence, as far away from the house as he could get. Turning, he pressed his back against the wooden slats, and sank down until his ass was planted on the wet ground and he could cradle her in his arms, rocking slightly. “It’s okay. Everything’s goin’ to be okay.”
She looked down at the towel covering her body. Her chin jerked back.
He triednotto think about her being naked beneath the terry cloth. Triednotto picture her bare butt sitting directly atop his denim-covered cock.
“What’s going on?” Her eyes were the size of the paper targets they’d used when doing small arms training back in BUD/S. “Why are we outside in the rain? Andwhyam I naked?”
“First things first.” He pulled his T-shirt over his head and transferred it overherhead. He didn’t bother with her injured arm, letting her keep it close to her body. But he helped her snake her uninjured arm through the sleeve.
Chrissy wasn’t a small woman. But she was a far sight smaller than he was. His shirt swam on her, hitting her mid-thigh and covering up all the parts of her he knew he’d be revisiting in his fantasies. Then he pulled the sopping towel down until it protected her legs against the rain’s continuous onslaught.
The sound of the big, ploppy drops hitting the water of her plunge pool was a dull hum that competed with the harsher, hissing sound as they fell on the palm fronds overhead. He had to raise his voice to be heard above the cacophony.
“How are you feelin’?” He searched her confused eyes. “Are you dizzy? Got a headache? Is there ringin’ in your ears?” His own brain had cleared now that they were in the fresh air.
Her eyelashes were spiky with rainwater. When she blinked, the droplets fell onto her cheeks and slid over her lips.
“I-I’m a little dizzy,” she admitted. “And I’m really groggy, but I think that’s from the pain meds.”
She crossed her arm over her chest, covering the protruding points of her nipples, when Officer Ryan darted through the back door. The policeman looked around, and then headed in their direction once he spotted them through the deluge.
“Got all the doors and windows open,” he huffed from exertion. “And blew out the candle burning on the coffee table.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Wolf fixed a dark stare on the man. “It’s a wonder the whole place didn’t blow.”
“I feel awful.” Ryan squeegee-ed the water off his face only to have it immediately replaced. “I should’ve—”
“No way you could’ve known. I didn’t smell it either until I opened the door.”
The policeman nodded. “Should be safe to go back inside in ten minutes or so. I’ll take up my position on the porch unless y’all need me for anything else.”
“No.” Wolf shook his head. “We’ll hang back here until the fumes dissipate.”
