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Bailey felt her skin heat as she watched Noah standing in the shallow waves later that afternoon. After a morning of making love, she was deliciously sore. Sated. Not to mention starving. What she wouldn’t give for room service right now.
Not that deserted islands exactly offered that option.
She watched Noah dive into the waves, getting soaked, but he stood up without any fish. Her gaze tracked to the fire he’d lit up at the top of the beach. The driftwood had finally dried out enough to catch fire, and when he’d struck a match and she’d seen the flames and smoke rise, she had a feeling their rescuers would find them today after all.
Noah splashed around some more, diving into the water, and then he finally jumped up, triumphantly holding a fish between his hands. He whooped and hollered, jogging through the incoming waves to head up the beach to her.
“My hero!” she teased, smiling as he grinned from ear to ear.
He chuckled. “I rescue you from the ocean, hold you all night long, make love to you for hours—and this is what makes me your hero?”
“Amongst other things,” she teased.
The sound of chop-chop-chop-chop suddenly filled the air, and Noah and Bailey both turned to the water in surprise.
“It’s a helicopter!” Bailey shouted, clapping her hands and jumping up and down. “They found us! They found us!”
Noah whooped and hollered, dropping the fish he’d just caught onto the sand as he waved his arms back and forth in the air. “Hello!” he bellowed. “Over here!”
Bailey ran over to the emergency blanket they’d weighed down, grabbing it and waving it around. The helicopter headed straight for them, and as it got closer, she could see the orange paint of the helicopter with the words “Coast Guard” written in bold, black letters.
Noah grabbed her hand roughly in his, and they waved together, watching as the helicopter circled around above them.
“Can they land here?” Bailey asked, growing worried. “I don’t think there’s enough room on the beach.”
“Not in high tide,” Noah said. “They’ll probably have to lower a basket to us. Or the rescue swimmer might be lowered down, and we’ll strap you to him.”
She gulped nervously, squeezing his hand tighter. “Are you okay, sunshine?” he asked, glancing down at her.
“Yeah, I just—I’ve never been in a helicopter before.”
“It’s perfectly safe,” he assured her. He lifted her hand to his mouth, briefly kissing the back of it as her heart fluttered. “I’ll strap you into the basket, signal them, and they’ll raise you right up.”
They saw two men peer out of the opening of the helicopter. “That’s the flight mechanic and rescue swimmer. It looks like he’s coming to us,” Noah said. He grabbed his backpack from the ground, glancing around to see if they’d gotten their few belongings.
It was kind of strange after making this their temporary home for the past twenty-four hours to just be up and leaving like this. It was an abrupt ending to their entire adventure. Bailey’s mouth dropped open as one of the men was lowered from the hovering helicopter. Noah shook his hand when the man reached the ground, shouting above the noise.
“Up you go, sunshine,” he said, helping to strap her to the Coast Guard lieutenant. Bailey nervously glanced at Noah, and then the man signaled to the guys in the helicopter, and she was being lifted into the air.
She gasped as the ground fell away beneath her, Noah and the island becoming smaller and smaller as they rose high up in the air.
Just as she was beginning to feel dizzy, a pair of hands was tugging her inside the hovering helicopter, unfastening her harness from the rescue swimmer. The lieutenant who’d rescued her unstrapped himself as well, and they lowered the empty harness down to Noah.
Bailey crouched down on the far side of the helicopter, wrapping her arms around her knees. They handed her a pair of headphones, and she tugged them over her ears. “Are you okay, ma’am?” the rescuer asked as he knelt beside her.
“I’m fine—just a little shaken up.”
“No injuries?” he asked, glancing over her with a clinical, assessing expression.
“None. I’m fine.”
In a few moments, Noah would be up here with her, and everything would be okay again. The flight mechanic hovering by the opening reached out, and a second later Noah was climbing in, a grin on his handsome face.
He probably loved that, she thought wryly. Hadn’t he bragged that he loved jumping out of airplanes?
Noah unhooked himself from the complicated-looking harness, shaking hands with the two men. He nodded at the pilot and took the headphones handed to him, crossing the helicopter and crouching down beside her. He took off his backpack and pulled her to him, enveloping her in his muscular arms.
“We did it, sunshine,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “We’re going home.”
She sniffled, her emotions overwhelming her. All the adrenaline from the rescue and the anxiety she’d felt earlier were coming to head, and a few tears rolled down her cheeks. Noah hugged her more tightly to him, hauling her into his lap as the other men shut the door, and the helicopter turned, heading back toward land.
Noah’s large hand rubbed her back, and she shuddered in his arms, crying. As her tears finally slowed, she inhaled his scent and warmth, finally beginning to relax in his strong arms.
She was emotionally drained and exhausted, and at the moment, she wanted a long, hot bath. And her own bed.
Neither was possible right now. They’d probably want them to go to the hospital or something to get checked over. And their flight back to Virginia wasn’t until tomorrow. Briefly, she wondered if Noah would stay in her room tonight, or if they’d go back to their separate beds.
A few minutes later, they were landing on a helipad, the helicopter rotors slowing as it came to a complete stop. She took off her headphones, letting Noah help her stand. The Coast Guard officers introduced themselves, and she shook hands with them, sticking close to Noah’s side.
She climbed down out of the helicopter and heard Taylor shouting her name.
A moment later, Taylor and Mason were both rushing toward them. Her best friend threw her arms around her and squeezed her tightly. “Oh my God—we were so worried!” Taylor said. “I can’t believe they found you! Are you guys okay?”
“Fine,” Bailey said, swiping at her tears. “Just shaken up a little.”
“We looked for you in the water after Noah dove in after you. The storm was just so bad, we couldn’t see anything. And then even when it blew over, we couldn’t find you.”
“Viper,” Mason said, shaking Noah’s hand and pulling him into a one-armed hug. “We rode out the storm and then couldn’t get back to shore. The engine up and died on us and the radio was bad. We couldn’t even radio for help.”
“How’d you get back?” Bailey asked.
“My buddy notified the Coast Guard. They sent a boat out and found us last night—towed us back in. It was too late to do much of a search for you two then. They did check the immediate surrounding area, but hell. You guys were a couple of miles away.”
“A couple of miles?” Bailey asked in surprise. “How’d we get so far?”
“The ocean current,” Noah said. “It was strong in the storm and carried us away from the boat. We were lucky as hell to end up near one of the islands.”
“And you found your gear?” Mason asked, nodding at his backpack.
“It must’ve gotten swept right along with us,” Noah said. “Bailey spotted it in the water.”
“We’ve been so worried about you,” Taylor said, her eyes watering. “The Coast Guard has been searching all day. Mason even went out there with them earlier. They wouldn’t let him join the helicopter search though.”
The Coast Guard Lieutenant walked over, greeting them. “We spotted the smoke from the bonfire from a couple of miles away. As soon as we went to investigate it, we hoped it would be you.”
“We tried lighting one yesterday, but the rain started up again. Then this morning we had to wait for everything to dry out before we could relight it,” Noah said.
“Can we go home?” Bailey asked, looking up at Noah.
“There’s an ambulance waiting over there,” the Coast Guard Lieutenant said. “They can check your vitals, and if you don’t want to be treated at the hospital, you’ll have to sign a waiver for your release.”
Noah wrapped his arm around Bailey’s shoulders, and they headed over to the ambulance together. Thirty minutes later, she was nestled beside him in the back of the convertible as they headed to the condo.
“Do you want me to change our flight?” Mason asked, glancing at them in the rearview mirror. “I don’t know if anything is going out tonight. We were worried we’d have to push our flight back from tomorrow if we couldn’t find you.”
“We can fly home tomorrow,” Bailey said. “I just want to sleep in a bed with a roof over my head tonight.”
Noah chuckled beside her. “It wasn’t that bad, sunshine. You had me to keep you safe.”
Taylor turned around from the front passenger seat. “I was so scared. Mason kept telling me Noah would save you, Bailey, but that storm was awful. Even if he got to you, I wasn’t sure how you’d both survive when we couldn’t find you in the water.”
“It was bad,” Noah agreed. “Bailey did everything right though. And finding my backpack was a real stroke of luck. I had some supplies, food, even an inflatable life vest.”
“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Noah,” Bailey said.
She yawned beside him, and he ducked down, brushing his lips against her hair. “Close your eyes, sunshine. You’re safe now.”
