by Jill Shalvis
Rock looked over at the two of them and smiled.
Lily waved and began the next omelet as she answered. “And where is it you want to be getting?”
“Preferably in his pants.”
Lily nearly dropped her pan, making Rose laugh. “Come on, I am not shocking you.”
“No. No, you’re not, but jeez, Rose, at least wait until I eat something.”
“Like you don’t want to get into someone’s pants.”
Lily kept her eyes on the pan. “Not before breakfast I don’t.”
“You’re not fooling anyone, you know.” Rose gestured with her chin over Lily’s shoulder to where Jared appeared from his tent; six feet of long-legged, leanly muscled, rumpled man.
With eyes for no one else, he looked right at Lily, and Rose let out a low whistle. “Hold on tight, Lily, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
Lily burned her finger. “Damn it.”
Rose laughed softly. “So you’ve already been there, done that then?”
“Rose.”
“Come on, admit it. The sexual tension between the two of you is enough to ignite the treetops.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“So you deny wanting him?”
Lily turned away, but her bright-red neck gave her away. “I’ve got to get cooking,” she said.
Rose laughed. “Honey, you know you already are.”
YEAH, SHE WAS COOKING. Lily stole another peek at Jared. His lightweight cargos were neat and clean—how the hell did he do that?—his T-shirt wrinkle-free. She knew the outdoor gear was alien to the man who’d lived in an office for so many years, and yet he wore it as if he’d been born outside.
He had something in his back pocket, something she’d bet money was digital, which would normally annoy her, but with him, it somehow made her sigh because it meant there was indeed a rebel in him.
And God, she was such a sucker for a rebel.
He was helping Michelle and Jack take down their tent, and laughing at something Michelle said.
The sound of his amusement drifted over her, into her. In the past year he’d been to hell and back, and yet he looked so carefree, easygoing.
He hadn’t always been that way, she knew that, he’d told her. People changed, and she knew that, too.
Did she want to change?
She was stubborn, set in her ways. A bit of a handful. How many times had she heard that? Her lifestyle didn’t exactly bode well for a relationship of any kind, and hell, she didn’t even know if he was interested in a relationship, but…but if he was…could she?
Would she?
God. It was a cool morning, complete with a chilly breeze, and she was sweating. “It’s hot already, huh?”
Rose laughed. “Baby, that’s all man making you hot. Admit it.”
“Rose.”
“Admit. It.”
Lily laughed. What else could she do? And Rose laughed with her, giving her a one-armed hug while still holding onto her plate. “Ah, look at that. You’re so pretty when you smile. You ought to try it more often.”
When Rose walked away, Lily stared into the fire. Didn’t she smile all the time? Okay, maybe not.
At least, not until the past few days anyway, because she felt as if lately she’d been smiling non-stop, at least when one certain man looked at her.
“Hey.”
Speaking of said man. He was standing right behind her, and she didn’t need to look down at her suddenly happy nipples to know that her body recognized him without even turning around.
When she didn’t respond, he merely turned her to face him. Nope, no avoiding the whole morning-after thing, not with this guy. He was too direct for that.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Fine and dandy. You?”
His mouth quirked. “Fine and dandy.”
“Good, because we’re going canoeing. You’ll need every ounce of energy you have.”
“I’m up for it. Lily—”
She thrust a plate in his hands. “Eat.”
“About last n—”
“You really need to eat, because it’s a big day. We’re going to start at the northeastern tip of the Balsam Rim and end up at its southwestern reach. Hard work, but for a reward, we’ll spend the night on a precipice among giant spruce and Fraser firs. It’s unforgettable.”
“Lily—”
“Oh, and we’ll walk through a forest that only just barely escaped the saw during the area’s former life as timber-company land. It’s a gotta-see, so yeah, get eating. Grab some bacon.” She jerked her chin towards the tray, avoiding his hazel eyes. “There’s melon, as well. Do you like melon?”
“Melon?” he asked doubtfully. “We’re going to talk about melon?”
“Well, we could go back to the whole timberland thing.”
He just looked at her.
“Fine,” she said on a long suffering sigh. “What else would we talk about?” Most men would go running now, she thought grimly. Yep, any second he’d do just that.
But he didn’t go anywhere. “Gee, I don’t know,” he said dryly. “How about how much energy we used up last night, and how good it felt? No, make that amazing.” He stepped close, let her see the heat in his eyes. “It felt amazing, Lily.”
She broke eye contact to study the fire. “I’d rather discuss food.”
“Okay, you go ahead and do that. I can wait you out.”
“Jared.” She closed her eyes. “We can’t do this now. I’ve got breakfast to serve. And then the canoe guy to meet on the river, and…”
And she couldn’t handle talking about last night. She just couldn’t. She took a deep breath, held it, then slowly let it out. “And I don’t think talking about it is going to help.”
Silence from Jared.
“We’re both adults,” she said, filling it. “And what happened between us here in the mountains—”
“Should stay in the mountains?”
Her eyes flew open. Jared was gone.
In his place was Jack, who’d clearly moved in close while she’d been talking to herself, and was looking pretty amused.
Jared now stood on the far side of the fire, holding his plate, chewing on a piece of bacon, watching the flames.
“Damn it,” she said, and ignoring Jack’s soft laugh at her side, she began another omelet.
“Hey, someone should be getting some out here,” Jack said. “I’ve always wanted to make it in the wilds. Tell me, do you get mosquito bites in private places when you strip down, because—”
“Jack?” she said sweetly.
He shoved a bite into his mouth. “Yes?”
“Shut up and eat.” She refilled his plate with more bacon and tried to pretend she wasn’t blushing.
She also refused to look at him again, or at Jared for that matter, and spent the next half hour cleaning up. Then she made sure that Michelle ate so that she wouldn’t be able to complain about hunger a half hour down the river, that Rose didn’t eat Rock for her nourishment, that everyone was happy and content and ready to go.
Because she was—at least the ready to go part. The happy and content? Not so much.
WATER LAPPED at Lily’s canoe, which she was sharing with Jack at the moment. In front of her, Rose and Michelle, who’d not wanted to be with Jack because she wanted to sun instead of paddle. Ahead of them were Jared and Rock.
Everyone was doing well, though her gaze kept straying to Jared. There was nothing more relaxing or soul-rewarding than canoeing down a slow-moving river—that is if she could take her mind off things.
Hope this won’t affect our working relationship. Had she really said that? Yes. Yes, she had, and she winced at the stupidity of it all over again.
Of course it was going to affect their working relationship. He’d watched her strip naked for him. He’d had his hands on every inch of her.
And his mouth. God, his mouth. He’d had that on every inch of her, as well, and she was pretty sure she’d screamed his name.
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Several times.
Feeling her face heat, she groaned and shook her head, trying to dispel the image.
But it stuck. It all stuck—Jared dropping his clothes and driving into the water, then getting her to do the same. And then…and then showing her how to relax and lose herself with a mutually satisfying sweaty bout of sex.
Okay, more than just sex.
Damn it.
“You okay?”
She looked at Jack. “Um, yeah. Fine.”
This was all Jared’s fault. Last night, he’d stood there with the water lapping at his feet, looking so decidedly un-city-like, and incredibly gorgeous. The way he’d crawled up her body as she lay sprawled over the rock. How he’d spread her legs with his, then taken a good long look at her. Then he’d done a lot more than just look…
Now, in the river, paddling away to get out some aggression, she felt her nipples harden beneath her life-vest. Yeah, that was professional.
But it was nothing compared to what was going on between her thighs.
Or beneath her ribs, damn it, in the region of her heart. Now that reaction, that was the scary part.
Jack was looking at her again, and she forced a smile. Still fine.
As she thought it, Jared slowed his and Rock’s canoe until it came even with theirs. Jared was wielding a paddle as if he’d been born to it, and he gave her a look that for once she couldn’t read.
He didn’t say anything.
She didn’t either.
After a moment of the silent stand-off, his mouth quirked, though the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
And then he paddled on.
“Whew,” Jack said quietly. “Is it me, or is it getting hot out here?”
“Funny.” She watched Jared go, her chest tightening. She’d told him she didn’t do regrets, so she had no business going there in her head. It didn’t matter how he’d looked as she’d walked away from him, his hair rumpled, his eyes dark and sexy, his body loose and still damp…
God. Her knees actually wobbled whenever she thought about it, so really, it was a good thing they were canoeing on the river today instead of hiking.
She forced herself to look around her at the tall, majestic mountains, at the utter serenity all around them, and came to an understanding with herself.
She truly did love it out here. She loved what she was doing, loved having people with her to share it with, loved all of it.
And weak or strong, she was meant to be here.
A laugh behind her brought her out of herself, and she whipped around in time to watch Rose flash Rock her bare breasts. She was standing to do so, her top up over her face.
“Rose,” Rock said quickly, clearly torn between looking at the admittedly spectacular breasts and the now unsteady canoe. “Your canoe—”
“Uh-oh,” Rose gasped, because her motions had caused the canoe to rock back and forth, higher each time.
In the same unsteady canoe, Michelle screamed.
So did Rose. “Ohmigod—”
“Rose!” Lily called out. “Don’t make any quick moves, just—”
Rose sat, grabbing onto the sides of the canoe for dear life.
Too little too late. Especially when combined with Michelle’s own frantic movements. The canoe rocked even more. Rose was still screaming as the canoe rocked, rocked, rocked…right over, and settled, upside down.
As Rose and Michelle hit the water in tandem, the screaming abruptly stopped.
“Michelle!” Jack yelled, grabbing the sides of his and Lily’s canoe as he stood, clearly freaking out. “Michelle!”
Uh-oh. They began rocking, too, violently. “Jack, sit!” Lily yelled. Jesus, did no one listen? “You’ve got to—”
Too late. Their canoe rolled over, too, and she and Jack joined Michelle in the brink.
Damn it. Once again cold water closed over her head. She broke the surface and shoved her hair out of her eyes. Jared paddled up next to her and offered her the tip of his paddle to hold on to. “You all right?”
She looked into his eyes and had to shake her head. “Saving me again?”
He smiled. “If I am, does that mean you’ll owe me?”
“Ha-ha.” She struggled to flip the canoes, and Jared slipped into the water to help her. “Thanks,” she said, and at his easy smile, she sighed. “Fine. I really do owe you.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me what I want?”
She shrugged. “I can figure it out.”
He actually looked insulted at that. “Well, since you’re so sure,” he murmured, and then, pulling his and Rock’s canoe free, he paddled away, leaving her to wonder as she watched them go…had she misjudged him by accident, or on purpose so as to further alienate him?
Neither said anything flattering about herself, that was certain.
12
BY THE TIME they stopped for a picnic lunch, Jack was starving. He’d worked up an appetite while watching his wife bounce around in her wet bikini the past few hours.
Rose’s bikini wasn’t bad either. She sat in the grass clearing eating her sandwich, shrugging off her earlier adventure. “Just a waste of a good hair day, that’s all.”
Michelle, however, hadn’t quite found her happy place yet, not that Jack was surprised. The woman had the corner on grudge-holding. “This is so not a vacation,” she said to no one in particular. “Cooking without a kitchen, putting up tents before you can go to sleep, carting everything around that you need—”
“Really?” Jack interjected. “All that cooking, and putting up your own tent is getting to you, huh?”
She sighed. “You know what I mean. You’re not used to this either. You’re much more at home behind a desk and your computer, where everything you need is online at your fingertips.”
“As I recall, the last thing I did online was to put something on one of your fingers,” he said, and all eyes slid to the huge diamond glittering on Michelle’s ring finger.
It had cost him big, but he’d loved, loved, buying it for her. Loved knowing he could. But Michelle lifted a shoulder. “Easy enough to buy something like this with Daddy’s money.”
Jack stared at her, stung. “Probably. If that’s what I’d done.”
She blinked, her baby blues confused. “What?”
“My computer consulting business,” Jack said evenly. “It’s doing well. It’d doing real well. I tried to tell you.”
“But…Daddy told you to use his account whenever you bought me something.”
“Maybe I wanted to buy you something. I am your husband, you know. It’s allowed.”
She looked at him as if he was an alien.
Jack looked back.
Michelle laughed, as if he’d told a joke, but Jack just kept looking at her. “You…bought the ring?”
Jack nodded, and Michelle stared down at the ring as if seeing it for the first time. “Oh.”
Jack touched it, and then Michelle surprised him by entangling his fingers in hers, holding on. When he looked into her eyes, she shot him a tentative smile, but it was real. After a moment, he returned it with a slow smile of his own.
Maybe, just maybe, he thought, this trip would pay for itself yet.
Lily handed out cookies, which everyone devoured on the spot. Jack ate his, and half of Michelle’s, who tossed back her now dry hair. “Yeah, it’s too bad I didn’t get hurt today,” she said, trying to see herself in Jack’s reflective sunglasses. “I could have gotten airlifted right out of here. A first-class ticket back to civilization.”
“Just you, huh?” Jack asked.
“Well, you’re having such a good time…”
He looked around at everyone, no longer surprised that he was. He was having a ball, thanks to the great company, not to mention the lack of his father-in-law. “Well, yeah, actually. I am.”
“But see, you could have a good time anywhere,” Michelle said. “In a Dumpster for God’s sake.”
His stomach knotted all over again, and he set dow
n his drink. “I could, yes. If you were there, too.”
Michelle’s brow furrowed. “You mean…”
“Yeah.”
She looked confused. “That’s…”
“Marriage?” he asked softly.
Michelle stared at him, eyes suddenly suspiciously bright. “Yeah,” she whispered softly, and warming him as nothing else could have, she ran her fingers over his jaw. “Thanks, Jack. You always have a way of making me feel special. Loved.”
“You are,” he said, turning his face to kiss her palm.
“Ah, that’s so sweet,” Rose whispered. She wore one of Rock’s sweatshirts, and sighed dreamily as she reached for his hand. “Young love. There’s nothing like it.”
“Yeah.” Michelle sipped at her soda, eyes on Jack. “Nothing like it.” And she smiled and leaned in to kiss his cheek.
Jack pulled her onto his lap, hugging her hard, thinking ahead to tonight, when maybe she’d show some more of this whole loving thing.
THEY CANOED until the river spilled into a gorgeous alpine lake surrounded by towering pines and staggeringly tall majestic mountains.
For the second day in a row, Jared looked around at the amazing landscape and felt an increasing tug on his heart. He glanced at Lily, who was making camp in their grassy clearing overlooking the water, helping everyone get settled, and marveled.
She was amazing, too. By turns she took his breath and moved him, and looking at her now, he thought maybe he did the same for her. Or hoped he did.
Earlier, she’d met up with a staff member of Outdoor Adventures for the canoe pickup and new supply drop, after which Lily had served stew, corn bread and salad.
Now Jared brought her wood to stoke the fire. “Keith didn’t make the drop this time.”
She watched him dump the wood into the pile. “Hey, you don’t have to haul wood.”
“I like to haul wood.” He squatted in front of her and waited until she looked at him. “No Keith?”
“No.”
“You okay?”
She looked around her, took a deep breath, and smiled. “Actually…yes.”
She said that as if half-afraid it wouldn’t last. Then as if karma was proving her right, a scream split the air.