Courage Under Fire (Silver Creek #2) - Lindsay McKenna Page 0,100

more than this moment out of time to be with him. Cari would never forget this one act of loving between them. Ever.

“Sleep, sweetheart,” he rasped, kissing the top of her ear, “sleep with the angels, because you are one. I’ll be here and I’ll hold you safe . . .”

Those were the last low, rasping words Cari remembered hearing, the strength of Chase’s arms holding her, his one hand against her hips, pressed against his hips, feeling as if they had melted fully into one another forever. And her last fragment of a thought was that she wanted forever with this man of Nature, who was as rough and rugged as the land he had tamed, and yet, with her, the most tender and thoughtful of lovers that she’d ever had.

It didn’t matter how much danger swirled around them anymore. No matter what happened, Cari would hold this sacred moment in her hands and heart. Every second, every touch, every breath, was remembered and sealed not only into the memory of her heart, but a part of her soul. No one could take that from her. Not even Dirk. What she had just experienced and shared with Chase was beyond anything she could have imagined or expected. The act of loving her had been him unselfishly making her first, the priority, giving her the pleasure that she not only deserved, but that he wanted to tease out of her willing body, and give back to her. How many men were there like him on this Earth? Not many, from Cari’s experience, and certainly her girlfriends all had bad experiences just like her. No, Chase Bishop was a rare find. He treated her like a human, not a sex object, not something to be used, hurt, abused, and then thrown away without care, with the selfish intent of not sharing anything with her.

He was a model of a twenty-first-century man who valued his woman as an equal, and with deep, abiding respect for who she was. Her man, Chase Bishop, was a dream come true, and that was the last thing Cari remembered, cossetted in his arms, warm, well-loved and adored as an equal.

Chapter Fifteen

June 19

“Are you ready?” Chase asked Cari in a low voice. They had awakened and reluctantly left one another’s arms. To have her warmth, the softness of her breath as she slept against his neck, made him feel like he was in heaven. A heaven he’d never experienced before and he wanted so damned much more of it, too. Forever, with Cari.

“Getting there,” she muttered sleepily, sitting on the floor, pulling on her second boot and lacing it up. She looked up, seeing bare dawn light out of the hole in the ceiling of the cave.

“Still sore and stiff?” he asked, zipping up his go-bag.

She groaned. “Worse this morning.”

“Me, too. It will be a week before it all leaves. Getting out and walking twenty miles will definitely ease the soreness because of the blood circulation.” He grinned, even though he was pretty sure Cari couldn’t see it. The light in the cave was barely there in the pre-dawn hours.

“Are your feet and knees feeling strong and good?” he asked, standing, pulling his knapsack over his shoulders and buckling up.

“I’m fine,” Cari said. She stood, dusting off her butt, the sand fine, like sugar granules, poofing and floating to the floor of the cave.

“Let me help you,” he said, opening the straps to her go-bag, easing it across her shoulders. Luckily, they had worn clothes in layers. They didn’t have a jacket between them, but in the coolish cave air, they’d had one another to keep warm during the night.

“Thanks,” she said, sliding her arms through the openings. Chase handed her the baseball cap and she put it on. “I’m ready.”

He picked up her hand, placing it against the nylon belt of the go-bag. “I’m going to walk slowly. You hang on here and we’ll thread that narrow passage to the cave below us. Remember how I taught you to walk silently?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Let’s employ it until we get out of this cave complex. All right?”

“I’ll do that. Do you think anyone is down there?”

Hearing the trepidation in her low tone, he said, “Nothing . . . so far . . .”

“This is scary,” she muttered, slipping her fingers beneath his belt.

“We’ll be all right,” he soothed. “Let’s go . . .” Chase wasn’t going to tell her that most of the night, he’d remained awake, listening