them on anyway. It was fine, it was her job to show them a good time out here, and she loved doing that.
And in four days they would be gone out of her life, and she’d be onto a new group. That was the beauty of this job, everything being so temporary-but she had the unsettling feeling that maybe, just maybe, temporary no longer suited her. “Let’s go.” She led the way back, stopping along the way at the four men sitting on the edge of the river fishing. They were the first people they’d seen all day, and they had a full bucket of trout with them. For an easy price, Lily negotiated dinner-five trout she could cook to go along with the pasta she had in her gear.
She led her group back up the winding path, dripping water on the switchbacks as she carried the fish. She was in good pain now, and didn’t glance back. She knew the men would make sure Rose got back up the hill just fine.
Honestly. Men were so stupid, letting themselves be led around by their penises. Thank God she was female.
“Hey.”
She heard Jared, but kept walking, wringing water out of her braid rather than have it drip down her back and chill her further.
“Hey,” he said again, and grabbing her arm, pulling her around to face him.
“Don’t worry,” she said, lifting the trout. “I promise they won’t be slimy.”
His mouth quirked at the reference to his list of things to do. His hair was still standing straight up, and at some point today he’d gotten quite a bit of sun, which had bronzed his cheekbones.
He had his shirt back from Rose, but it was wadded in his hand and not on his dry torso, so she couldn’t stop her gaze from taking itself on a happy little tour, skimming over his shoulders, which were broader than she’d have guessed, and his chest, which had just the right amount of hair, not too much and not too little.
Not that she noticed.
Good Lord. Had she bumped her head in the dive? What other reason could there possibly be for her gaze to dip even farther and lock on his belly?
Flat and ridged, it rose and fell from the exertion of the tough walk.
And then there were his jeans.
God, she was a sucker for a man in jeans, and these were still wet and just loose enough that they’d slipped low, dangerously low actually, on his narrow hips, gaping away from his abs with every breath he took.
A woman, if she was so inclined, could slip her entire hand down into that loose waistband and-
“I didn’t realize this had turned into a race back up to the top,” he said.
“Sorry.”
Reaching out, Jared slid his hand along her jaw, lifting her face, which he then frowned into, his gaze locked on her cheekbone.
“What?” She slapped his hand away.
His lips curved slightly. “You just also have a-”
“What?”
He waggled a finger, pointing to her face, then reaching in-
“I’m fine.”
“Yeah, and on that, I’m completely one hundred percent in agreement, but you have a little…” Looking into her eyes, smiling, he pulled something off her cheek. A leaf, probably stuck there with dirt as well.
She swiped at her face, groaning when his smile widened. “I just smeared dirt around, right?”
“If it helps, you look extremely cute with it on your face.”
Extremely cute? She didn’t know quite how to take that. Hell, she didn’t know how to take him. Half the time he made her want to smile, the other half of the time he made her yearn and burn for some nameless thing…Ack, the man made her crazy. Unable to come up with any kind of reasonable response, Lily turned and began walking again.
“Are you okay?” he asked, keeping pace with her.
“Why?”
He was quiet a moment. “Your limp, it’s more pronounced.”
“I’m good.” And to prove it, she sped up. At the top of the hill, she ordered Rose and Jared to change while she made camp and got everyone settled. This involved getting a fire going so she could get a now-chilled Rose warm again. As always now with a fire, she stared into the flames and felt a creepy, unwanted flashback to another fire, one that had almost cost her everything, but she beat that back. This wasn’t a campfire made by some reckless idiot. She knew what she was doing, and there would be no falling asleep until it was as out as it could be.
No flare ups.
“What about bears?” Michelle asked nervously, her teeth chattering along with Rose’s. “Th-think bears’ll find us?”
Jared pulled something out of his pocket. That PDA again. With a couple of taps of his thumb, he looked up. “No bears in the vicinity,” he promised, and showed them the screen. It was a global positioning satellite, complete with a heat-seeking system. “It’d tell us if something alive was around here breathing.”
Nothing was lit up in their vicinity but the six of them.
“Wow,” Michelle said. “I want one of those.”
Jared shook his head. “Prototype.” He glanced at Lily, who was feeling torn between extreme irritation at his toys, and the fact that it had actually seemed to ease Michelle’s mind.
With the fire crackling, and Rose hunched in front of the flames, Lily put Rock on Rose’s tent detail, which thrilled him.
Too bad he had no idea what he was doing, and she had to help him. And then Michelle and Jack as well.
After that, she turned to help Jared, assuming that he, like the others, would have no idea how to erect his tent despite the fact that they’d been given their equipment days ago with directions to practice and become proficient.
Only, once again, he managed to surprise her. His tent was already erected, and as she watched, he came out of it, walking directly behind her to set something on her shoulders.
A large towel.
“What’s this?” she asked.
He tugged playfully on her hair and slid an arm around her, sharing his body heat. “You made sure everyone else changed and got warm, but you never did. You’re still wet.” His hands slid down her shoulders along her arms, big and warm as he gently squeezed, sharing that warmth with her.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“We’ve already agreed that you are as fine as they come.”
His voice tended to do something funny to her belly, and it tightened. Was she…no. She was absolutely not lusting.
Oh, God, but she was.
He ran his hands back up her arms, and she actually shivered again.
Definitely lusting. Big-time.
“See,” he murmured in her ear, his jaw brushing hers, making her eyes want to flutter closed in order to savor the sensation. “You were cold.”
“No,” she said. A lie, of course. Just try me, she’d said to Keith, and now she wanted to say that very thing to Jared.
Just try me…
When he flashed a quick grin that she could feel against her skin, she could have kicked herself.
Because she’d just admitted it wasn’t a chill making her shiver, but him.
Oh, boy. She’d wanted to claim her life again, and she was. Only she was beginning to discover she was getting much more than she’d bargained for.
She clamped her mouth shut tight so she couldn’t inadvertently give anything else away. But it was too late, and he laughed softly. “So if you’re not cold…” His voice was lower now, husky…pleased. “Then it’s me making you shiver.”
Nope.
Not saying a word here, not a single one, not when her brain had so clearly disconnected from her mouth.
His lips skimmed over her skin, in that delicate, oh-so-sensitive spot just beneath her lobe, and damn it, she
