by Rachel Hanna
Something inside of her went red. Furious red. Hadn't done anything to deserve this. Running. Didn't give a shit about these guys.
His attention split. She felt him turn his head to look at the ground behind them.
Hannah lifted one foot and brought it down, scraping the entire length of his shinbone and stomping hard as she could in running shoes on his instep.
Surprise probably more than pain made him bellow.
She heard Knox and someone else coming toward her.
When he guard fell back, she pulled against him, wrenched herself free, kicked back again and connected with something that felt like knee.
She ran. Straight down the hill. Last second before she careened into someone she heard them coming and tried to swerve.
Too late.
She barreled straight into Knox.
His arms went around her like he'd been expecting her.
The Sheriff's Office was notified of the encampment up in the hills. Hannah huddled in the chopper, already strapped in, wanting to take off before something else happened. Even with Knox and his partner there, she was afraid.
She thought it would take a long time to stop being afraid. She was afraid the armed men would rush the helicopter.
That she'd be the reason Knox got himself killed.
Right after she had realized that she loved him.
He came back after he'd radioed in the location of the camp and that her Jeep was there and someone would pick it up the next day. For now they could leave it as a marker. He left the headset, left his partner, came back to her, sat down in one of the jump seats beside her and put his arms around her and pulled her tight against his chest, his cheek resting against her hair.
She could hear the steady beat of his heart.
"Weren't you scared?" she asked. Meaning of the armed men in the camp.
"Terrified," Knox said sincerely, and she thought, somehow, he meant something else.
The chopper took them back to the beach house from which SEArch & Rescue deployed. The Sheriff's Office sent two men to question her. The deputies instantly panicked, trying to call a female down to join them and do the questioning.
Hannah exchanged a confused glance with Knox. Knox didn't look confused. Hannah frowned, then figured it out. Into the phone call one of them was making she said, "I wasn't raped. I wasn't even taken on purpose. I wasn't supposed to be there. They had murder in mind, not rape. Can you just ask me your questions so I can go home?"
She might have rattled them more with that. But she got to go home.
And she took Knox with her.
Epilogue
Knox fed her pizza because it was her favorite. He fed her very sugared tea because she was probably somewhat in shock. When she didn't seem to be, he drank it himself.
Knox wasn't sure but what he was the one who was in shock.
He thought it was maybe more because of his feelings than because of the events of the day.
Hannah talked to Jenna, then to Molly, then to Alexa, then to Jenna again. She finished talking to Jenna when Jenna apparently threatened to come over.
She jumped when the pizza delivery boy rang the bell. They ate, and she jumped at shadows. She talked about it and said it was like relaying a nightmare – everything seemed pretty cut and dried, nothing was outwardly threatening and still, the feeling of menace made it horrible.
He got in her face and told her every bit of the menace had been real, that they had meant to kill her, that she had almost died.
She asked why he was giving her sugar for shock if he was just going to act like this.
He asked her if she was fucking kidding.
She asked if this was his way of taking care of someone.
Knox felt like he was going crazy.
He said, "This is my way of telling you I'm not going to lose you."
She managed not to say anything about Of course not, I'm the world's best running partner.
She managed not to say anything. She could feel how mutinous she looked.
He squatted down beside her and took her hands. When she looked at him, her hands warming for the first time since she'd run into the encampment, Knox said, "This is my way of telling you that I love you."
His eyes searched hers.
She wanted to run more than she ever had before.
He listened to her swallow.
Felt her hands tighten on his.
"I love you, too," Hannah said. Her eyes searched his.
She didn't see anything she needed to run from.
He carried her into the bedroom as if she were injured and she let him, her hands around his neck, her head on his chest. He followed her down to the bed and lay beside her, stroking her face, her hair, brushing her hair from her face, kissing her mouth, her nose, her eyes, whispering her name.
When she moved against him, her arms around his neck, his hands reached lower, stroking her breasts through the jog bra, laughing as together they stripped the thing over her head, eased off her running shorts, and Knox, still dressed, caressed her breasts, her ribs, the long slope of her flat belly, the inside curl of her hip, his hands moving so slow she shivered in delighted tension. His fingers dipped into the V between her legs, circling.
Hannah surged up against him, trapping his hand, biting his neck. Their eyes locked as they moved closer, mouths coming together, tongues touching, teeth grazing lips, his hands moving down her body, spreading her legs, her hands pulling him tight against her, her legs circling his, pulling him inside her.
He started slow, just moving inside her, then when she wrapped her legs around the small of his back, bit his shoulder, he began to thrust, deeper and harder, driving out the fear that still lay coiled inside her with the fact that she was here, with him. She bucked against him, meeting him thrust for thrust, tried to push her way on top and found him pinning her, grinning at her, saying something about the rescuer and damsel in distress and that made her laugh, made her clamp her legs around him, trying to topple him over.
Which made him even more immovable and even harder.
Which made her explode, head thrown back, breath sucked in, the pleasure radiating out through her, her body electric and molten at the same time.
He came as she started to come down, thrusting deep inside her, his head thrown back and teeth gritted as if he hated showing her this much weakness.
The next instant they were forehead to forehead, looking into each other's eyes and there was nothing weak about John Knox.
And nothing weak about Hannah Price.
In the morning, after a phone call with local law enforcement and another with national, Hannah Price and John Knox got dressed.
And went for a run.
Together.
***
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Copyright © 2016 by Rachel Hanna
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