Save Your Soul (Body & Soul #2) Read Free Page A

vertical would work. A tree was something I could work with if I leaned back on it so the bark couldn’t damage her skin. I caught myself considering a tree about twenty feet ahead of us when I realized what I was doing.
    Down boy! I needed to get my head out of her panties and back on the mission before she paid the price for my distraction. Once she was safe, I could think about making her mine. After I made sure she was comfortable—checked over every delectable inch of her body to make sure she hadn’t sustained any serious injuries, got some much-needed water into her and gave her as much food as she could handle. She was still a fucking knockout, but she’d lost enough weight since she’d been taken that it was clearly visible. Her cheekbones were more pronounced and her tits weren’t nearly as full as they’d been in the photo her dad had given me. The same picture I carried with me because I couldn’t bear to let go of it.
    Shoving the raging desire I felt for Hadley down, I trekked forward. There was no sign they’d detected her disappearance from the camp yet, but I couldn’t bank on our luck holding much longer. We needed to put as much distance between us and them as possible. I felt like shit for doing it, but I set a grueling pace which I knew would be hard for Hadley even if she’d been one hundred percent. I heard her breathing quicken behind me, but she didn’t offer a word in protest and kept her hand wrapped tightly in my shirt.
    We made it about a mile before I heard her muttering underneath her breath, reciting the periodic table. The check I’d done on her had revealed she was a chemistry major, biochemistry to be more specific. A little bit of extra digging had uncovered her intention to make her career in cancer research. If my reaction to her photo had been strange, the pride I felt about her life goals was even odder. Respect for her desire to help others would have made sense, but what I’d felt was deeper than that. It was similar to the reaction I was having to how she was handling our march through the jungle. My precious girl was one hell of a woman.
    Another half mile later, Hadley stumbled.  I stopped and turned to make sure she was okay. She managed to stay upright, but I could tell she wasn’t going to be able to make it much further. When she waved me on, letting me know she was fine, I marched forward once again but at a slower pace. I kept an eye out for a good place to rest and heaved a deep sigh of relief when I spotted a fallen tree trunk on the ground fifteen minutes later.
    “We need to take a break,” I explained, leading her to the spot and helping her sit down.
    “I know I do,” she sighed. “But I’m pretty sure you’re part robot and could keep walking forever.”
    Her eyes were lit with humor and held a hint of female appreciation as she looked up at me. Her skin was shiny with sweat, her face bright red from the heat and exertion, bug bites were visible on her hands and neck and yet she sat there cracking jokes. My heart swelled with that unfamiliar feeling once again. Had there ever been a more perfect woman to walk this Earth than Hadley? It was hard for me to imagine there was.
    I dropped my pack to the ground and dug through it for supplies. “There were many occasions when I was in the Army when being part robot would have been a big help.”
    “You were in the Army?” She laughed lightly, looking surprised by my response.
    “Yeah.” I kept my answer simple, not wanting to get into what I did during my time there. The training I’d received and the missions I’d gone on provided me with invaluable experience that I was putting to good use with my company, but I didn’t want the things I saw and did back then to touch Hadley in any way.
    She took the canteen I held out with a shaky hand, drinking from it greedily. “Slow down,” I murmured, wrapping my fingers around the hand holding the canteen and moving it away from her plump lips. “If