“About thirty feet up to your left, there’s a small ledge. If you look carefully, you can see it’s a cave”
She’d be alone all night in a cave with Mack and his steely gray eyes and hard muscles. “Can we find somewhere else?”
“You have a better idea?” Yeah, anywhere that didn’t involve her being trapped in close proximity to a man who sent her heart into a tailspin every time he looked at her. She still hadn’t figured out her strange reaction to him.
With John, everything had been so natural, as if fate had lined up for them to be together. Everything in their perfect little life had gone according to her master plan—right up until he died. She’d spent years silently grieving not only the loss of her husband and Maddie’s father, but also the loss of her dream. John had been exactly like her. He had paid attention to details, made plans for everything, and run through life like a well-oiled machine.
Marley had mapped out her next fifty years.
And then a random roadside bomb had destroyed all of it.
She’d been silently struggling to find her footing ever since, carving out her new existence as a single mother, remapping and redirecting her life plan. And that new plan did not have a place for a man.
She hadn’t even really considered the opposite sex—until Mack Grey. And why him? He was overbearing, egotistical, and obviously thought his word was law. He acted too quickly for her liking, not taking the time to fully analyze a situation before making a decision. Rash decisions led to death. Her father had hammered that fact into her head since childhood, and her commander had done the same. But this guy and his team jumped out of airplanes. They climbed hundred-foot trees and dangled from ropes with as much ease as she used a crosswalk. But those rash decisions had also saved her life more than once. There seemed to be a reason to their mayhem and madness.
Maybe she should give Mack the benefit of the doubt. “Okay, let me study the wall for a minute, figure out the easiest route.”
Marley took a step back. The giant rock face shot straight up and the massive, bright green vines braided together across its surface were interspersed with huge, pink and yellow, tropical-looking flowers that smelled almost sickly sweet. Everything here seemed stronger, bigger—even the plants.
“There’s a gap about ten feet above our heads. I say we start here,” Marley breezed past Mack and his inquisitive look to touch a thick vine the circumference of her forearm. “And angle up to the left.”
“It took you five minutes to figure that out?” Mack arched his brows and his lips curled at the edges. The look gave him a boyish appearance that was charming . . . on the surface. She chose not to put too much thought to the sarcastic undertone in his words.
“Acting without a plan increases risk. Risk is what gets people killed.”
Mack closed the distance between them. His palm covered the back of her hand. Electricity zinged up her arm and she felt every callous, every rough crevice, and every ounce of this man’s strength in that connection.
“Sometimes the risk is worth the reward.” Mack leaned in and Marley stood there, her stomach floating around in a mass of nerves. This man was as bold and striking as the jungle. And equally dangerous.
As light as a feather, he brushed his lips across hers, the barely there contact sending shivers down her shoulders and arms.
“You’re not talking about heights, are you?” she whispered.
Mack hooked an arm around her body and yanked her to him so that every ounce of hard packed muscle was pressed to her curves. He brushed another featherlight kiss on her lips before answering, “I’m talking about this.”
Mack let out a low growl deep in his throat, and she felt the vibrations through her torso. That sound awakened her senses, goosebumps spread across her arms despite the heat, and her toes curled inside her boots. With this man, the risk might very well be worth the reward.
