His head was tilted back and his eyes were closed. He was still breathing, so that was good, but otherwise she was on her own. Tera had never rowed a boat before, but her adrenaline was still going strong and she managed to figure it out. Thankfully the water wasn’t too rough. She got far enough that she couldn’t see the island behind her and stopped paddling. She put the paddles in the boat and crawled over to him. His wound had stopped bleeding, thank God.
Feeling that she had done all she could at the moment, she went back and took the oars again. She resumed rowing, trying to set a steady pace.Note to self, get more exercise in case of future kidnappings.
Tera didn’t know how long she had been at it; her arms were starting to hurt but she didn’t dare stop. She saw the twin islands that he had talked about and felt a surge of gratitude.
CristOF stirred and opened his eyes. “The suns will be rising soon.”
“I think we’re going to have to stop,” she told him. Her arms were starting to feel like spaghetti noodles.
“We can’t, we need to get to my team.” He pulled himself to a better sitting position and reached for the oars.
She frowned at him. “CristOF, you can’t…”
“I can. The nanos did wonders. Let’s switch positions.”
It took some effort, but they did manage to switch positions without tipping the boat over. CristOF took the oars and began rowing with strong, efficient strokes. They moved faster through the water than she had managed. She grimaced and rubbed her arms.
He noted the movement. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not used to this kind of activity. My arms hurt a little, but nothing serious.”
“You should have told me, I would have given the nanos to you.”
She snorted. “Your gushing stab wound was slightly more important than a few aches in my arms.”
“I don’t like to see you in pain,” he growled out.
Tera felt emotions almost choke her. “I never want to see you almost die like that ever again.”
He stared into her eyes. “I want to take you into my arms and hold you.”
She smiled at him. “We’ll have plenty of time for all that once we get these assholes taken care of.” Tera couldn’t help but shiver and wrap her arms around herself.
“You are one of the bravest females I have ever met.”
“I don’t feel very brave. I kept worrying that I would lose you. I can’t lose you, I just found you.” She whispered the last part, but he easily heard her.
“I feel the same about you. When I saw those males dragging you into the camp my heart nearly stopped. Then they took you into the cabin and I nearly lost my calm and control. I wanted to attack them, tear them apart.”
“I nearly lost it when I saw you get stabbed. I wanted to hit the guy even more, but I had to get you off the island.”
“When this is all over, I would like to spend time with you...alone, just the two of us. Without the danger looming over us.”
Tera smiled again. “I want that too.” She just hoped they lived through all this to get to that point.
