CHAPTER 4
AS LILY CHECKED and rechecked each person’s pack and straps, Jared moved to the front, just next to the trailhead sign. With some amusement, he watched his group’s fearless leader take control of the trip with clear-cut and concise directions and expectations for her guests, her fawn-colored hair pulled in a single braid that fell between her shoulder blades.
He loved how she looked, wearing cargo shorts low on the hips, fitted, but with enough pockets to outfit a third-world country, and two tank tops layered over each other, the top one with Outdoor Adventures’ logo over a breast. She was the picture of efficiency and completely in charge.
She did like to be in charge, his Lily.
He understood the need. In his life, which until recently had been consumed with work, he’d always been in charge, as CEO of an international, billion-dollar corporation that created and built parts for all things digital.
Until that control had been taken from him.
“Any last questions?” Lily asked, coming up next to him.
“Yeah.” He slid on his sunglasses and smiled. “Are you going to hurt me?”
She glanced at Michelle, flapping her lips at her husband, at Rock tying and retying his boots, at Rose applying lip gloss, and she sighed. “Somehow, I don’t think you’re going to be the one hurting.”
This close, he could see that there was something in her eyes, that light of vulnerability he’d seen last night, and also…nerves. “But you are,” he said. “Hurting.”
She looked away. “I’m fine.”
Yeah, she was pretty damn fine. But no matter what she said, she’d been hurt—the limp attested to that—and she wasn’t all better yet. He felt a hard tug of empathy, because he knew what it was like to want to get better, to try to prove everything was normal when it wasn’t. Yeah, he’d been there, done that and bought the T-shirt.
They began to walk, Lily in the lead. Her pack covered much of her from view. There was a light morning breeze that had loosened some silky strands from her braid. They flew about her head like a halo, which he imagined would piss her off but he liked it. He could see her ass, which was sweet, and her legs churning up the path ahead of him, although a bit unevenly, as if she had something to prove.
He thought maybe she did.
They all followed beneath a nicely warming morning sun touching down on the jagged peaks all around them, the rays gilding the treetops. Jared looked up and felt surrounded by them, a huge awe-inspiring circle of rocky, remote mountains he hoped to know a lot more about before he got back.
“This region is one of the most geologically young and tectonically active in North America,” Lily said, looking in charge of her world as she turned to face them, walking backward.
Their eyes met and Jared felt the bolt he’d experienced the first time he’d seen her. Hell, every time he saw her. At first, it had been a purely physical sort of bolt, and there was still plenty of that, but somehow also more.
Much more.
Which suited him just fine. It’d been a very long time since he’d felt such a punch of attraction. Granted, he’d had other things on his mind—like surviving…
But he was past that now, and living life to its fullest, going after everything he wanted.
He wanted her.
Or he had before she’d kissed her boss…
“Are there volcanoes?” Michelle asked Lily, sounding nervous.
“Not here,” Lily assured her. “Though this mountain system does straddle several of the earth’s moving plates, huge forces that continuously build this sweeping arc of mountains—see how rugged and craggy the peaks are? It means they’re still very young, comparatively. Just babies, really.”
“Pretty big babies,” Jack said beneath his breath, making his wife laugh breathlessly in agreement.
“Were there dinosaurs here?” Rose asked.
“Oh, yes,” Lily said. “Back in the day.”
“The Mesozoic Era,” Jared offered, then smiled when Lily looked at him, clearly startled at his knowledge.
“I’m impressed,” she said. “What else do you know about this area?”
“Other than there are big bears and that I shouldn’t feed them? Not much.”
Michelle scooted closer to Jack, a bright yellow spot of sunshine in her raingear. “Bears?”
“Don’t worry,” Lily said. “No one’s going to be bear bait on this trip.”
“So how high are these babies anyway?” Jack asked, pointing to the highest peak ahead.
“Nearly fifteen thousand feet at the top.”
“That’s like, three miles high,” Rock said, with a low whistle. “Man, we’re going to be huffing and puffing.”
They were already huffing and puffing. Jared sure as hell was. But the exercise felt good. Actually, it felt amazing, especially after so many months of being able to do so little. The air held a silence that he never heard in the city, and that felt good, too. Not having to think, work…
Gradually, the distance between the group members widened as they moved up the trail that took them to breathtaking heights, along stark ridges and drop-away cliffs.
He kept up with Lily with surprising effort. “You’re looking pleased with yourself,” she said, breaking a long silence.
“I am pleased,” he said. “To be here.”
She smiled, a real one, he realized with some pleasure, and it lit up her entire face. “I know. Me, too. I’d—You know what? Never mind.”
“No, what?”
“I’d worried that I wouldn’t be able to hold up,” she admitted.
He nodded, knowing that was quite a confession for her. “You and me both.”
She smiled at him, and it was a beautiful thing.
“It’s such a perfect day for this,” she said. “Not too hot, not too cold.”
“I’m definitely just right.”
She looked him over, and bit her lip.
“Go ahead,” he said on a laugh. “Mention the clothes.”
“Okay, so you had the right clothes after all.”
She was genuinely amused, and he liked the look on her, very much. She was naturally fair-skinned, which meant she had an adorable smattering of light freckles over her high cheekbones and nose, though he doubted she’d appreciate the word adorable. Her eyes, so light brown they looked like crystal-clear amber, or a very expensive whiskey, sparkled. “Are the jeans brand-spanking-new?” she asked.
“I’ll have you know, I’ve owned these for years.”
She fingered his crisp T-shirt, worn beneath an open long-sleeved blue chambray shirt. “You ironed this.”
“No.” But probably his housekeeper had. “Maybe.”
She laughed and eyed his hiking boots. “Those aren’t—”
“Not new. They’re broken in, I promise.” He grinned at her inspection. “Let’s hear it. Any complaints?”
She took her gaze on a tour along his body. Did those eyes heat as she brought them back up to his, or was that his hopeful imagination?
“No complaints,” she finally said, sounding just a little breathless now.
Not his imagination…
The words dissipated any last chill from the morning air, that was for damn sure. He might have been sick this last year, very sick, but apparently certain things, like a healthy lust, never left a man.
Thank God.
That’s when the digital ring of a cell phone pierced the air.
His.
“Oh, no, you didn’t,” she said.
“Sorry.” He pulled the cell out of his pocket, eyed the ID, then sighed as he flipped the phone open. “Hey, Candace.”
“Hey right back atcha,” his fearless and irreplaceable assistant said cheerfully. “Just calling to say it’s not too late to come to your senses. I could have a helicopter there to get you in half an hour.”
“I’m doing this.”
She sighed. “Thought you’d say that. All righty then, have a safe trip. Oh, and don’t get bitten by a rattlesnake. We did not nearly lose you this year to watch you go down so easily.”
“I’ll stay away from snakes, I promise.”
Lily’s pretty eyes were narrowed when he shut the phone. “How did you get service up here?”
“Satellite.”
“No cell phones on this trek.”
“Is that a hard-and-fast rule?”
“It’s just that you’re paying me a lot of money to take you away from all that. If you’d wanted to talk to the girlfriend, you should have just brought her with.”
“Assistant, not girlfriend.”
“Oh.”
Was that just a smidgen of relief on her face, he wondered, or his own healthy imagination? “Don’t worry, Lily. I’m ready to be taken away.”
She looked at him for a long moment, then back at the others, who’d slowed to their own various paces. He knew she was going to move away from him and go check on each of them in turn, that he was nothing special to her, but he wanted to be. “I’m curious. Why do you guide?”
“Uh…” She looked back at him, distracted. “Because they pay me?”
“I doubt it pays that well, which means you must really love it.” He looked around at the towering trees, the mountains, the sky. “I admit, it’s beautiful, but you probably end up dealing with a lot of spoiled people.”
“Yes, but I get paid to wander the wilds all day long…trust me, the pros outweigh the cons.”
“I bet. Especially for a person with wanderlust.”
She glanced at him, a long stray strand of hair across one eye. “Judging the book by its cover?”
His finger itched to touch that silky strand, to stroke it back behind her ear. Instead he laughed. “Are you going to deny you’ve got wanderlust?”
She looked away. And then, after a moment, sighed. “You have a way of seeing things I don’t want you to see.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.” That said, she gestured him ahead of her, then slowed to talk to the others.
Rock stopped her, pointing to his boots. Lily slipped out of her pack to bend down and take a look, saying something that made Rock relax a bit and even smile.
Above them, the sun continued to warm.
Lily straightened with a hand on her back and a wince on her face, which made Jared take a good long second look at her. She was hurting more than she’d let on. Hadn’t he seen her do her best to hide a limp that couldn’t be hidden? The woman clearly had pride in spades.
He knew all about pride. After the cancer there’d been people who looked at him differently, with pity and constant worry, treating him with kid gloves, and he hated that, so yeah, whatever her issue, he understood, and when she glanced at him, he looked away to give her a moment.
It wasn’t a hardship to take in the scenery. Despite having lived in San Francisco all his life, he’d actually never been in the Sierras before. Funny, considering he’d been to Europe, South America, even Australia… But those trips had been all business and little else.
Up until recently, his entire life had been about business and little else. A classic workaholic, he’d worked around the clock, running his world with easy precision.
Now for the first time, he was allowing someone else to run his world, at least for the next four days. He glanced back at Lily, still messing with Rock’s boots. If he could have drawn his fantasy woman, she’d have been it. Five-sevenish, she was fit and tight and toned. He doubted if she had an extra inch of flesh on her. And yet something about her was soft, warm…with that dash of vulnerability among the secrets she held.
As he watched, she hoisted her pack back up, which he knew damn well weighed a great deal more than any of theirs. Another wince as she set the thing on her shoulders, adjusted it, clicking the straps in just above her breasts and around her waist.
Jack and Michelle approached her about something. Lily reacted with some doubt, then went around to behind Michelle, adjusting her pack for her, while Jack just shook his head.
Rose had stopped to rub some suntan lotion on her legs, bending over in that short-short skirt, which had even his eyes crossing.
Rock’s eyes didn’t just cross, they about popped out, and he turned his head, glancing up at Jared with a sort of helplessly caught expression.
Lily walked past them all, moving back to the lead. “Rose, if any of the guys walk off this trail and fall, you’re going to conduct their rescues.”
“Oooh,” she responded with glee. “Do I look that good? Really?”
“Yes,” Rock said reverently.
Jack nodded.
Michelle smacked him. Then she looked at Lily. “How far are we going today again?”
“Seven and a half miles,” Lily said.
“That sounds far. How much of that have we already done?”
“Uh…maybe a half mile.”
“Maybe?”
Jared pulled out his PDA, thumbed a few controls, then looked up. “Point seven.”
Lily gave him a long look, and with a smile, he slipped the PDA away.
She sighed, then turned back to Michelle. “Look. See way out there…” She pointed across to a neighboring peak, a long rock formation jutting out of the hillside. “We’re going to camp there. It’s got a grass floor. Very soft, very comfy.”
Michelle looked intrigued. “Really?”
Lily smiled, though it looked a little bit like an athlete on a losing team trying to be a cheerleader. “And wait until mile two, you’ll see huge trout in the river below. Dinner is going to be amazing.”
Michelle swallowed hard. “Trout.”
Jack leaned in. “Vegetarian alert.”
Lily’s cheerleader smile didn’t slip. “Right. So you’ll skip the trout. I have lots of food, never worry. Soon we’ll be walking beneath hundred-year-old lodgepole pines, through big-buck country. Trust me, you’ll love it.”
“Okay.” Michelle zipped up her raingear. “I’ll trust you.”
They all kept moving, up, up, up. Now they were several hundred feet off the meadow floor, with the river winding far below.
As the sun rose, the heat made little pillars of steam rise off the rocks, vanishing into thin air. They passed several impressive waterfalls that thundered and crashed to the valley floor. It was all both alien, and gorgeous. Jared inhaled deeply, the air feeling sharp and pure against his lungs. He’d never imagined himself doing this. As a confirmed city rat, he’d never given it much thought.
But, as he’d learned recently, life was about changes. Thankfully, he thought, this was a good one.
And still they walked…
It actually took him a while to settle into doing nothing with his brain, but once he did, his mind finally slowed. Relaxed.
Enjoyed.
He drew in another breath, and the scent of pine and sage and clean, fresh air filled his lungs again, without a hint of smog or gasoline, without the noise of traffic on busy city streets, without pain.
He really liked that part.
But the part he liked the best…was being right behind Lily. She practically quivered with determination, which he now knew to be a facade for her own nerves.
The woman was a walking marvel.
Even with her pack on, even with the limp, he enjoyed watching her body move. She had a way about her—utterly economical movements, no time wasted, nothing unnecessary, and yet she was so innately feminine, he just wanted to nibble on her.
But more than that, he wanted to hear her story. He had a feeling it would only strengthen her attraction for him.
The trail began to come down a bit in altitude, and he welcomed the easier going. They all settled into the cadence of Lily’s stride. “Look,” she said, and stopped, pointing to prints on the ground. “This one’s a deer, and there are the wolves, trailing it.”
Michelle gasped. “Oh, my God. Did the wolf eat Bambi?”
Jack rolled his lips inward and looked at Lily.
Lily looked at Michelle for a long moment. “No,” she finally said, and Michelle beamed.
They cut through a field of mossy grass high as their waist, filled with wildflowers, the splashes of color so bright the scene looked like a painting.
Jared couldn’t believe he’d gone so many years without doing anything like this. After so many years of nothing but work, and then nothing but waiting for fate to decide whether to give him a second chance, just walking all day felt…wonderful.
The day was glorious, not a single cloud in the brilliant azure sky. The jagged, starkly beautiful peaks jutted high and proud, some still white-tipped, as unbelievable as that seemed.
Birds chirped. Squirrels chattered. Beneath their feet the fallen pine needles crunched. From somewhere out in the woods surrounding them came a howl, which Jared could admit, gave him a moment’s pause.
And still they walked.
“I get the feeling I should have taken my wife on a cruise instead of a hike.”
Jared looked over at Jack, who’d caught up with him. “It said ‘strenuous walking involved’ on the brochures,” Jared pointed out.
Jack sighed. “Yeah. Michelle didn’t get the brochure.”
“Well, then, I’d sleep with one eye open tonight if I were you.”
Jack laughed, but the sound was mirthless. “I didn’t pick this trip. See, Michelle’s father…he’s trying to save our marriage.”
Strange way to do it. “Can it be saved?”
Jack glanced back over his shoulder at Michelle, who was muttering to herself about her shoes, about the altitude, looking very unhappy. She’d removed her yellow rain jacket, and tied it around her waist. “She’s a mess,” Jack said. “A sexy, gorgeous mess. Life would certainly be easier without her.”
“You might be finding that out sooner rather than later, especially if she gives up.”
“If we don’t complete this trip, together, then her father is cutting her off. Allowance, trust fund, credit cards, all of it, bye-bye.”
“Harsh.”
“It’s his money.” Jack gave another shrug. “I couldn’t give a shit about it. But she gives a shit. A big one.”
“So you’re doing this for her?”
“I guess I am.”
“Maybe you care more than you think you do.”
“Yeah.” Jack sighed and glanced back at Michelle again, his expression softening as he did. “You know, call me an idiot, but just looking at her makes me ache.”
Jared had been in relationships, but none had lasted. Candace moaned and groaned it was because he’d always worked too much, but honestly? He simply hadn’t met the woman, The One, or at least nothing close to the love he’d witnessed between his parents for thirty years. They were a tough act to follow, and his relationships, while lovely and fun and exciting, hadn’t been magical, or ever made him ache. He’d begun to figure it might never happen for him, but that had been before the Big Change.
Or so he called his near miss with the Grim Reaper.
Now he looked ahead, his gaze snagged on Lily’s trim, purposeful figure as she led them along, her hips swinging as she went.
Now…he was determined not to miss out on anything, especially a chance to find the woman to make him ache. But truthfully?
He had a feeling he might have already found her.
* * *
LILY KEPT TURNING back to face them, talking about the types of trees and plants and wildlife in view. He caught little of what she said, what with his gaze snagged on her sweet ass. As if she sensed it, she craned her neck, and caught him in the act. She did an almost comical double take, as if not quite sure that she’d seen what she thought she had.
He smiled, effectively but silently admitting that yeah, he’d been looking at her.
A breeze blew that stubborn strand of hair across her eyes, and she impatiently shoved it free, then with another long, adorably befuddled glance, turned forward again. Then her fair coloring gave her away when the skin on her neck pinkened.
He was in midgroan over that when from behind him, Michelle screeched.
* * *
JACK RAN TO his wife. By the time he got to her, Michelle was dancing around in circles, waving her hands. At her scream, his heart had jumped in his throat, but she looked okay to him. “Michelle? What’s the matter?”
“Did you see it?” she cried, practically crawling up his body. He liked that part. A lot.
“It just ran across my feet. A rat, a huge rat!”
“Not a rat,” Lily said, coming up to them.
Michelle pulled her face from where she’d plastered it against Jack’s throat. “Well, it wasn’t a squirrel!”
“Probably just a marmot.”
“Oh, my God! A marmot?” She looked at Jack, panicked. “A marmot!” She turned back to Lily. “What’s a marmot?”
“They’re harmless. He’s probably scurrying around, snacking on leaves and bark.”
“He was fat.”
“And happy with it, I’m sure. Don’t worry, he doesn’t eat much.”
Jack laughed, and Michelle shoved free of him. “It’s so not funny.”
“A little bit it is.”
They all started walking again.
“Jack,” Michelle said after a few minutes. “Are you tired?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
Jack sighed. “Remember when you said I was getting a spare tire around my middle?”
Michelle swiped at her forehead, panting for breath. “I was just kidding.”
“You were?” Perplexed, he glanced at her. Would he never understand her? “I didn’t know that. I started running.”
She blinked. “Is that where you go before the crack of dawn? Running?”
“I always tell you where I’m going.” Always. He’d made sure of it. “Where did you think I was?”
Michelle gnawed on her lower lip.
“Michelle.”
She rolled her eyes and turned away.
Oh, no she didn’t. He grabbed her hand, tugging her around, shocked. “You thought I was cheating on you. Jesus. That’s flattering.”
“With Theresa.”
“The maid? She’s like eighteen!”
Michelle jerked a shoulder and swiped her forehead again.
Jack couldn’t believe it. “I would never…”
“Okay.”
He watched her trying to catch her breath. “Look, why don’t I lighten your pack a little?”
“I’m fine.”
“I thought your Pilates classes were helping you.”
“I, um, haven’t really been taking Pilates classes.”
Jack’s heart stopped again. “So what have you been doing? Or is this one of those things I don’t want to hear until we’re in divorce court?”
“Shopping,” she admitted. “I haven’t been cheating on you either. I’ve been shopping.”
“Shopping.” He chewed on that a moment. “But we’re on a tight budget. Which means…” Ah, hell. “You’ve been using your daddy’s money again, when we agreed we wouldn’t.”
“Isn’t that better than what you thought I might be doing?”
Jack sighed, and gave up. But why the hell was he so filled with tension and resentment if neither of them had been cheating?
* * *
THE DAY WARMED. As they continued along, insects began to buzz. The dew dried and fallen pine needles crunched more loudly beneath their feet. Lily was hurting, but no more than she’d be at home, after physical therapy.
She had no idea how she’d feel tomorrow, which did not loosen her knot of nerves.
Looking back, she watched as Rose picked a wildflower, and tucked it behind her ear, smiling at Rock.
Rock smiled back, and then she picked him a wildflower, too, making him blush.
Lily glanced at Jared, just a quick look, and he caught her. Damn it.
But she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d like to tuck a wildflower behind her ear and claim her as his. Or if he’d rather take the flower and run it over her body, and then follow that path with his mouth…
She had no idea where these thoughts were coming from. No idea at all.
Okay, she knew. But that didn’t mean she had to give in. “Almost time for lunch,” she announced.
“Don’t suppose we can radio for takeout,” Rose joked. “Maybe some Thai?”
“Don’t worry,” Lily promised with a laugh. “I’ve got a lovely, luxurious lunch planned. No one is going to be hungry.”
Jared’s gaze met hers, and held.
She knew just how hungry he was, and exactly what he was hungry for.
Oh, boy.