Abandoned by All I Took It All Back novel Chapter 283

A sharp pain shot through her ankle, and Wendy winced, biting her lip.

Finch steadied her, his face filled with apology.

"This is all my fault. If I had pulled you away sooner, you wouldn't have twisted your ankle. Look, it's already scraped."

As he spoke, he crouched down to examine her injury.

He found a spot for her to sit, then pulled a small first-aid kit from his backpack.

He took out some antiseptic and cotton swabs, carefully disinfecting the scrape before applying a bandage.

The other scrapes were minor, but her ankle throbbed with pain.

"Just bear with it for a second. It'll be okay," he said, his movements incredibly gentle, afraid of hurting her.

Other colleagues had minor scrapes as well, but nothing serious.

"Wait here for a minute," Finch said after packing up the first-aid kit.

Wendy didn't pay much attention; the pain was making it hard to speak.

Finch returned quickly, his face flushed and beaded with sweat from running. "I've already spoken with the manager. We're going to head down first. Come on, I'll take you to the cable car."

At this point, all Wendy wanted was to go back and rest. Her ankle was hurting more and more, and she was worried it might be broken. She never wanted to see this stupid mountain again.

"Okay, thank you," she said, her eyes welling up. She fought back the tears, but the pain was intense.

Finch put one arm around her waist and held her hand with his other, slowly guiding her toward the cable car station.

She could only walk on the tips of her toes on her injured foot, leaning almost all of her weight on him.

She was past caring about propriety; she just wanted to get down the mountain as quickly as possible.

But the cable car station was still over two hundred meters away. Walking like this wasn't going to work.

Worried about making her injury worse, Finch stopped and crouched down in front of her. "Get on. I'll carry you."

His words were so unexpected that Wendy momentarily forgot the pain.

Get on?

But not getting on wasn't an option either.

As she hesitated, torn, Finch spoke again.

Oh, god.

This was overwhelming.

It was her first time being so intimate with a man, and her mind was a complete mess. She didn't dare look up, keeping her head bowed the entire time, her face burning.

If her friends could see her now, they would never let her live it down.

As they neared the cable car station, Wendy kept her head down.

"You... you can put me down now!" she stammered, her cheeks scorching hot.

She didn't know if it was the sun or something else, but she felt like she was wrapped in a blanket of heat.

The man's breath ghosted over her flushed earlobe as his muscular arms held her steady.

She was wrapped in his scent—clean soap with a hint of something warm and male.

Wendy kept her head lowered, counting her own frantic heartbeats, completely unable to hear what he was saying.

She thought she heard him say, "Okay."