Page 46 of Hunting for her Heart
Maybe that’s why she’s hesitating; she doesn’t trust me to keep her safe in the water. My heart aches at the thought of my mate not trusting me. I start to lower my hand as I tell her, “I will get Bo to take you swimming when he returns.”
Her head tilts up, and her beautiful hazel eyes meet mine. “What?”
I gesture toward the cave opening. “When Bo returns, he can take you in. I know you feel safer with him.”
“Hawk, no,” she says, shaking her head. “That’s not why I was hesitating.” A small glimmer of hope starts to ignite within me, and I stay silent, hoping she’ll continue explaining. “I was just thinking about my sister, Izzy.”
Even though it pains me to say, I remind her, “We will help you find her after the Mating Hunt.”
She bites her lip before asking, “Even if that means returning to my world?”
I nod.
A myriad of emotions cross her face, as if unable to settle on a single one. “You’d let me go?” Her voice wavers on her whispered words as her worried eyes stare deep into mine.
I reach for her hand and kiss the back of her fingers before I tell her, “No. You misunderstand me, angel. We’re not letting you go. If you choose to return to your world, we will come with you.”
The second the words leave my lips, I know them to be true. Her eyes widen. “You’d leave your home to come with me? To my world?”
Unable to resist touching her, I reach my free hand out and cup the side of her face. “You’re our home, angel. We’d follow you anywhere.”
I see her swallow heavily as she stares back at me in stunned surprise. When I realize I’ve rendered her speechless, I drop my hand from her face and squeeze her hand, gesturing toward the water.
“How about that swim?” She nods her head, still speechless, and I lift her onto one of the large rocks surrounding the small pond. “Take a seat here while I get in.”
She sits down, her feet dangling in the water as I sit beside her and push myself into the pond. I move around to test the depth, finding the deepest part is in the center. I can still stand with my head above the water, but she won’t be able to anywhere in here.
Stepping in front of her, I try not to ogle her beautiful body. She’s still far too thin, but I can already see her looking healthier than she was only a couple of days ago. “Come here,” I say, reaching up to grip her under her arms as I lift her into the water.
Her hands fly to my shoulders, and she lets out a small hiss as the cool water covers her skin. She instinctively wraps herself around my front, and I’m unable to stop myself from hugging her tightly to me, one arm under her backside with my hand on the very top of her thigh, partially on her ass, and the other on her back, near her neck.
I gently sway us a little back and forth as we get used to the temperature, but the heat from where the front of our bodies are pressed together is scorching.
She’s uncharacteristically quiet, even for her, so I find myself gently pulling my head back so I can look at her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she says with a little nod. “The water just makes me a little nervous.”
“I won’t let any harm come to you,” I remind her.
“I know,” she says, offering me a small smile.
“We don’t have to stay in here if it makes you uncomfortable.”
“The water feels nice. I’ve never been in anything like this before coming to your world.”
It’s hard to picture her upbringing. She hasn’t told usmuch, but what she has doesn’t sound appealing at all, and I’m desperate to know if her entire world is like that, or if her situation is unique.
Either way, I will do everything in my power to make sure she’s never treated like that again, even if that means giving her skills that will make her less dependent on us.
Selfishly, I like taking care of her. I like that she doesn’t know how to swim, so I have to hold her in the water. I like that she doesn’t have shoes, so I have to carry her through the woods. But I also realize how dangerous both of those things are.
At least I can continue caring for her in other ways: feeding her, keeping her warm, protecting her.
“Would you like me to teach you to swim?” I ask, going against my instinct to keep her latched onto me like she is.
She glances around the pond, then nods, looking nervous.
“Okay, what you need to know is that moving your arms and legs is how you stay afloat and how you move. First, I’m going to hold you around your waist, and I want you to gently move your legs back and forth, almost like a slow kicking motion. Ready?”
