She winced when she saw that it had traveled down a little farther, and she increased the size of the incision and dug around for the other end. Once she had it she connected the two ends of the catheter, and then she released the clamp.
Blood filled the tube and began to flow, and tiny black spots danced in front of her eyes as she let out a shaky breath.
"We've got six pints of blood left to get us to shore," Axel said. "Well done, mate," he said to Tess appreciatively.
Tess tried to respond, but found that her mouth had gone completely dry. She was covered in blood, and she looked down at her hands as if they belonged to a stranger. She looked at the incisions and the crude rig she'd made of Colin's leg. It was a messy job, but he was alive. Deacon had the forethought to clean him up a bit and give him a new compress at each incision. The blood was much slower to seep through.
"I'll take watch and call you if something happens," Elias said. "You look like you could use a stiff drink and a week's worth of sleep."
"And a shower," she said. "That's a must. I don't know how y'all deal with the constant back-and-forth of an extreme adrenaline rush, to the crash that comes after, and then back again for another rush. I'm exhausted." And she really was, a sort of bone-deep exhaustion that left her knees shaking and her head aching for a pillow.
Or for Deacon's strong warmth.
"Your body will adjust," Axel said.
"And there are ways to ride it out and get your body back on track," Elias said, smiling.
"What kind of ways?" she asked.
Elias and Axel chuckled and Deacon took her by the arm.
"I feel like I'm missing something, but I'm too tired to care. Show me the nearest shower and a bed."
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The living quarters on the submarine were like dorm rooms. Luxurious dorm rooms. She guessed that was the difference between being funded by the government and funded from an off-the-books account.
She'd staked out the rooms earlier when she and Dante first boarded the submarine. She'd been looking for a place she could crash for a few hours because Deacon hadn't let her sleep the night before, but lying in bed had been futile. Her worry for him outweighed her need for sleep.
Most of the rooms shared a bathroom and had single beds, but she'd found a larger room at the end of the hallway with a double bed and a private bathroom. It also had a sitting area and a desk.
"I, uh . . ." she said, the adrenaline crash making her brain slow. "I picked this room."
She opened the door for him and he looked around. The strain and exhaustion was evident in his own expression, but she could practically feel the energy pouring from his body.
"Good choice," he said. "Captain's quarters."
He pushed open the door, never letting go of her hand, and then the moment it closed behind them he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her-hard. The minute his mouth touched hers, the exhaustion slipped away and was replaced with a need so fierce it took her breath away. She responded to him eagerly, his kiss seeming to replenish her strength as he probed and prodded with his tongue.
"That was the most incredible, terrifying thing I've ever experienced in my whole life," she breathed out when she broke away from him. "Any step of the way, one of you could've died. And all I could do was sit there and watch. And do nothing."
She bit his earlobe and he groaned. And then she tugged at the Velcro fastenings of his flight suit to the zipper beneath. Her fingers found the zipper and she pulled it down slowly, revealing the wetsuit underneath.
"I didn't realize getting you naked was going to be such a challenge," she observed.
"You're doing a good job. Don't be intimidated." He bent down to untie his boots and pull them off, and then he shrugged out of the flight suit so all he had on was the wetsuit.
It hugged him like a glove-everywhere. "That looks uncomfortable," she said, nodding to his obvious erection.
He barked out a laugh and turned around so she could pull down his zipper. "It's about to get a whole lot better. I need a shower. And I'm probably going to need help scrubbing my back."
"And your front too, I hope."
He peeled the neoprene suit from his arms and shoulders and let it hang at his waist. "You're falling behind," he said, pushing her toward the bathroom.
"Right," she said, breathless. "It's just that once you start taking your clothes off it's hard to think about anything else. Your body makes me crazy. I've never been lust crazy before, but when I see you naked I pretty much want to throw you on the ground like a she-wolf and have my way with you."