by Jill Shalvis
and was weighing the odds against it when he felt her hand on his back. Nearly leaping out of his skin, he turned and found her standing in front of him.
Naked.
Beautifully, gloriously naked, except for her glasses, and he had the most ridiculous urge to grab her close and hold on, like he’d never held on to anything in his entire life.
“So,” she said very softly, still standing there, “you’re looking a little panicked.”
“I can’t find my shirt or my shoes.”
She walked over to the foot of the bed and picked up his T-shirt and his outer shell, still entangled since he’d ripped them off together last night. “No comment on the panicked thing?” she asked.
No. Again, he was going with the Fifth. And since she appeared in no hurry to give him his shirt, and also if he didn’t get out of here right this very second he was going to suffocate, he turned and headed to the door without it.
“Cam.”
“Yeah, I’m late. Very late.”
“I see.” Some of the softness went out of her voice, and he was quite certain, with a sudden sick dread, that if he looked into her eyes now, he’d see that the light usually in them, the precious light in those shimmering whiskey depths, would be gone.
“Late for what?” she asked. “The rest of your life?”
Yeah, something like that. Christ, he really was an ass. But knowing it didn’t alleviate one ounce of his sudden, irrational, undeniable panic.
Or the need to run. “I’m sorry,” he said with utter inadequacy.
She didn’t answer. Hating himself, he opened the door; then because he couldn’t stand it, glanced back at her over his shoulder as he did.
His two shirts hit him in the face. Pulling them down, he mumbled “sorry” again and turned to the very bright, sun-shiny morning, which hurt his eyes and hurt his gut. Hurt every damn thing as behind him the door slammed, nearly knocking him down the steps.
“Hey, genius.”
Annie stood on the path. She wasn’t alone. Of course she wasn’t alone, because hey, why should he face this moment of The-Biggest-Most-Stupid-Move-He’d-Ever-Made in private, when he rarely did any of his spectacularly stupid stunts in private?
Nick stood next to Annie, and there was Stone, and oh, perfect, T.J.
And…Riley, their office manager? “You’re back?”
“Not officially,” Riley said. “Just wanted to come by now that we’re back in town and see how your temp was faring, see if she needed anything for these last few days of her time here. But it seems as if you have it—and her…” he said wryly, “handled.”
Cam ignored that and moved down the walk to greet his brother, bracing himself to be questioned and grilled on his year-long absence, maybe hounded about his lack of responsibility during that time, because being the oldest, T.J. had always drilled that home.
But T.J. didn’t do any of that, or even say a word. He simply grabbed Cam and pulled him in.
It had always driven Cam crazy when people so easily and casually touched each other, and yet he found himself wrapping his arms around his brother and holding on.
With a low sound of relief, T.J. hugged him hard, then shoved him away to get a good look at him, his eyes suspiciously bright. “Damn, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”
“Yeah.” Cam’s throat was tight, too tight, and he shifted on his feet, uncomfortable with the audience and the emotion. “Same goes.”
Annie’s hands were on her hips as she regarded his appearance, reminding him he stood there in only his unfastened pants, still holding his T-shirt and outer shell, his feet freezing.
“Where’re your boots?” Nick asked. “Man, you’re not supposed to let a woman keep your boots.”
“Oh, for God’s sake.” Annie turned to Nick. “Are you kidding me, you’re still mad I took your damn boots?”
“Hell, yeah. Those were my favorite boots, and you threw them away. I found them in the trash.”
“They were a hundred years old and smelled like rotten eggs.”
“My favorite,” he repeated. “My dad gave them to me.”
“He did?” The temper drained from Annie’s face. “Oh, Nick. I didn’t know.”
Nick lifted a shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“No,” she said softly, “it’s not. I was wrong.”
“Wait.” Nick lifted a hand and cupped it around his ear. “What?”
“I was wrong, dammit.”
Nick smiled. “Yeah, I heard you. I just wanted to hear it again.”
T.J. stepped in front of Nick so Annie couldn’t kill him, though he hadn’t taken his eyes off Cam. Neither had Stone. Nope, they both stood there looking at him freezing his balls off. With a shiver, he worked to turn his shirt right side out. “What the hell are you all doing out here?”
“Besides watching you take your walk of shame?” Stone asked. “Coming to tell you T.J.’s back. Didn’t realize you were busy getting dumped.”
“Yeah.” Cam pulled on his T-shirt. “Thanks.”
“So how did you fuck things up in one night?” T.J. asked.
Cam yanked on the outer shell next, wishing for his boots. Or socks. Or a hammer to hit himself over the head. He wanted to say something scathing, but his teeth were knocking together.
“Men are so stupid,” Annie muttered, just as Katie opened her front door. Everyone turned and looked at her.
She tossed out Cam’s boots, then shut the door with a rather loud finality.
Annie shot Cam a see look.
Yes, men were stupid. And he was their king.
Then the door opened again, and one more time everyone looked at Katie.
She had her gaze locked on T.J. and Riley.
“Hi,” Riley said. “I’m your counterpart Riley. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too,” Katie said slowly, clearly surprised. “Did I mark your return date wrong on my calendar? I thought I wasn’t leaving until Sunday.”
Sunday, Cam thought. Four days from now.
How had that happened?
“Just visiting,” Riley assured her. “Unless you want out of here early.”
She hesitated, and Cam’s knees actually went weak. All he’d wanted was a moment to think, to breathe, to…process his feelings for her. The thought of her going early killed him.
Her gaze touched his for a long, torturous beat, during which time he held his breath. “No,” she finally said, “I don’t need out of here early.” She turned to T.J.
“Hi. I’m the smart brother.”
Him she offered a genuine smile. “Nice to finally meet you in person.”
Cam shoved his freezing feet into his boots and then turned to look at her, but she waved at everyone except him and then went back inside her cabin.
The click of the bolt sliding home echoed in the morning air. Yeah. That sounds final. He followed Annie and the others up to the lodge and into the kitchen for breakfast, which he happened to desperately need.
Fucking up his life made him hungry.
Annie had already made the fixings for breakfast burritos. Cam threw one together for himself, took a big bite, then paused when Katie walked into the room, headed directly for the pot of coffee to pour herself a mug.
“Morning,” Annie said to her.
“Morning,” she said back, nodding to Stone and T.J. while completely ignoring Cam. Which seemed about right. He’d ignore his sorry ass if he were her too.
Annie looked at him like say something, but Cam didn’t know what he could possibly say in front of everyone: Sorry I don’t know how to think and look at you at the same time. Are you sorry you kicked me out of your place in the subfreezing morning without all my clothes?
She didn’t look sorry as he drank in the sight of her, and when she met his gaze defiantly, the room fell quiet.
Not to mention the temperature dropped by ten degrees.
Nick sipped his coffee with a slurp.
Stone rocked his head to whatever
beat he had going on his iPod.
T.J. cleared his throat.
And Annie sighed, then shoved Riley, T.J., and Stone toward the door. “Go.” Then she turned back to Cam with a look that said “fix this now” before vanishing herself.
Katie grabbed a tortilla, slapped some eggs and sausage into it, her irritation level high enough that even Cam, reigning King of the Stupid Males, could read loud and clear. “Katie—”
“I’ve got work.”
He managed to catch her at the door, barely, and she frowned down at his hand on her arm. “Sorry,” she said, “I don’t need my itch scratched right now.”
“Katie—”
“In fact, I don’t need anything from you; but if that changes, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
With that, she tugged free, and with her nose so far in the air that she was in danger of getting a nose bleed, she took off.
Cam looked at the empty kitchen, feeling just as empty. It wasn’t a new feeling. In fact, the emptiness had become an old friend, even before his accident. In the past, he’d combat it by getting on the mountain, or finding someone to keep his feet warm for a few hours.
But his old habits didn’t appeal. Oddly enough, for a guy who’d spent his entire life avoiding conflicts, the only thing he wanted to do was go after Katie and have it out with her.
Katie didn’t go upstairs. She was going to be late, and for once, she didn’t care. She needed a moment alone, away from Stone’s knowing eyes, Annie’s prying ones, and now there would be T.J.’s as well.
Good Lord, he looked just like the rest of them, all big, bad, sexy, and wild.
The Wilders were made of some pretty fine genes.
Damn them anyway.
Still gripping her burrito, she went out the front door and was promptly blasted by the icy air. No problem, it could cool off her temper. Nibbling on her breakfast, she walked around the back of the lodge, past a set of picnic tables. She didn’t feel like sitting. It looked as if it might snow any minute, but that didn’t stop her. Even given how she’d spent her night, she had an excess of energy that she needed to get rid of. So she hit the trail that led past the storage sheds and cabins, the one they’d snowshoed all those nights ago, which wound along the bluff high above the valley. She needed the gorgeous view with no one talking, no one charming, no one looking at her from a set of green eyes that tended to melt brain cells, heart, and panties with equal aplomb.
The trail had been gone over with the snowmobiles many times since their last storm, so she was able to walk it in her boots without sinking in, but it was still tough going. One thing about hiking with a spiked temper, the chill vanished. The crunch of the snow beneath her boots soothed her, as did the whistle of the pines in the light wind.
Someone was following her. She knew it was Cam, but he kept his distance, so she continued to hike and finish off her burrito while she was at it. She was going to see her pretty view, and when she was no longer steaming, she’d go back to work.
But Cam’s booted footsteps began to catch up with her. “Go away,” she said.
“I’m sorry, okay? Come on, Katie. Stop. We should talk.”
Ha! “That’s pretty funny, coming from you.” She sped up.
“Katie, seriously, wait up. You need to slow down—”
“Why, so you can charm my panties off again? No thank you.” She craned her neck to look at him while picking her pace up to a full-blown run now, which turned out to be a bad plan because in her brilliance, she ran right off the trail.
And slipped down the hill.
Chapter 24
“Katie.” Heart going off like a jackhammer, Cam ran to the edge of the drop-off where she’d vanished. “Katie!”
“Not good. So not good.”
At the sound of her voice, he took a deep, steadying breath, because holy shit. She’d slid off at a sharp incline, which during summer would have been a nasty fall, but now, in the dead of winter, the snow had softened the angle and the landing. She was about twenty feet down, way too still, which had his relief short-lived. “Are you okay?”
When she didn’t answer, his gut tightened because he knew it was her worst nightmare coming true all over again. “Hang on, okay? I’m coming.”
He eyed the best way to get to her without falling and possibly smacking into her and then knocking her farther. He could take the trail another hundred feet where there was a more gentle slope, than traverse back to her. Which, without snowshoes, was going to be tricky. “I’ll be right there.”
“Breathe,” he heard her say to herself as she set her forehead to her knees. “Oh, God. Just keep breathing.”
“I like the sound of that.” He said this lightly, while feeling anything but light. “Don’t move.”
“Brilliant idea.”
Okay, she was joking. Joking was good too. He ran up the trail, then left it to climb down to her, which was every bit as challenging as he’d known it would be. It had begun to snow now. Covered in it by the time he reached her, he crouched in front of her, gently cupping her face to lift it to his. She was shaking like a leaf and breathing hard, halfway to hyperventilating, alternately clenching and unclenching balls of snow at her sides. She had a little cut over her eyebrow, which wasn’t so much a concern as the egg-sized bump behind it. “Okay, slow it down a little,” he said, taking slow, deep breaths of his own so that she could mimic him and hopefully not pass out.
But she only squinted at him, making him realize she’d lost her glasses. “I’m trying not to freak,” she panted. “There’s no fire.”
“No fire, baby, I promise.” He looked up above her, saw the rock exposed from this angle, and his stomach knotted. That’s what she’d hit her head on.
“I really, really want off this cliff.” She looked over his shoulder at the valley far below and went a little green. “Oh, God. Goddammit.”
“We’re going to get off in just a minute.” He probed at the cut over her eyes. “What’s your name?”
“Stupid city girl.”
He let out a low, relieved laugh and ran his hands down her trembling legs and arms.
“Effing pathetic.” She was completely out of breath. “I’m going to freak now, just so you know. After the fact.”
“Nothing wrong with a little panic now and again.”
“Says the man who knows.”
Yeah, he knew. When he got to her shoulder, she hissed out another breath. Dammit. “Squeeze my fingers.”
Shivering wildly now, she did.
“P-pretty impressive, you managing to c-cop a feel during a r-rescue.”
He pulled her into his lap and tugged her close, trying to give her his warmth. “If you didn’t want to be rescued, you could have stood up and met me at any point during my climb down.”
“It l-looked like hard work.”
“Admit it. You didn’t because—”
“It’s not because of the b-bridge,” she said tightly, shuddering. “I wasn’t that hurt then, I was just stuck. Literally stuck. If I c-could have gotten out, I would have—” Her voice broke a little, and so did his heart. “I w-would have tried to h-help the others—”
“You couldn’t have.” He hugged her resisting body as close as he could. “You were too far down the hill, and you know now that even if you weren’t, there was no one alive to save.”
She sniffed, her face buried against his chest. “I didn’t know that then.”