“Think so.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“In one piece?” She shook a little and I tightened my hold. Shit. She didn’t have a coat on. “Can you move?”
She nodded against my chest.
“Come on.”
The trip back up was tougher—as I’d known it would be. A dozen steps through dry, tufted grass, to the bottom of the rock face.
“You climb?”
She shook her head.Shit.
“Okay. You go first. Put a foot here.”
She moved to do it, then stopped, swayed for a couple seconds, and grabbed my hand. I gripped it hard. “Lost a shoe.”
Not only had she lost one, but the other was a high heel—pointy and red and totally useless out here. Useless anywhere.
“Kick it off.”
She did it quickly, then turned to the rock. She’d never make it in that dress—a short, tight, sparkly number. I was about to say something when she yanked it up over her hips, giving me an unexpected glimpse of her rear.
I turned away.
“I can do this,” she said more to herself than to me.
After a couple false starts, she got a few feet up and stopped.
“Stuck.”
“Next foothold’s there.” I glanced up, forcing my eyes to focus past her body to the rock itself. “About three feet up.”
She bent her leg, pushed up on it, and reached, but it was too far.
“I’ll help you. Just be ready to shove up with your legs and grip.”
“Okay.”
I put one hand on her butt, the other hovered behind her back—just in case—and pushed. “Go.”
For a millisecond, she teetered and looked like she’d fall straight back, but finally her balance changed, she hugged the wall, and she was up. Almost. Another half a minute and she was over the edge. I followed her to the top and found her sitting huddled in on herself.
“Let’s go.”
“Oh. Right.” She blinked down to where her car was gone—where she’d almost bit it herself—and let out a choked little laugh. Even in the dark, I could see the shell-shocked expression of someone whose mind hadn’t caught up with events. “I might need a rest first.”
“Yeah. Just not here.”
I leaned down and offered my hand. “Let’s go before you freeze your”—I cleared my throat—“butt off.”
It wasn’t until she struggled to standing and pulled her minuscule dress down around her hips that I remembered her lack of shoes.
Hell.
I bent, grabbed her wrist with my right hand and put the left through her legs, before hauling her over my shoulders.
3
