Grim Reaper and because of that, I’m not the same anymore.”
“Cancer?” she whispered, and found her hands clutching his arms. “Are you…did you…”
“I’m recovered, heading toward remission.”
She couldn’t take her hands off him, as if he might vanish if she let go, and he seemed to understand the reaction, because he let out a little smile. “I’m okay, Lily.”
“Of course you are.” She tried to loosen her fingers so at least she wasn’t hurting him, but couldn’t. He felt okay, she assured herself. Beneath her fingers he was warm and strong. “My God, Jared. You must have been through so much.” She managed to let go of him to reach up and run a hand over his short, short hair.
“Yeah.” His smile went a little self-conscious as he ran his fingers over it. “That’s all new growth.”
And just like that, right then and there, she felt her heart catch. Oh, God. That couldn’t be good.
She hadn’t realized that she’d put a hand over her aching heart until he took her fingers in his. “Mostly,” he said. “I learned, along with the newfound humility, and how much being sick sucks, that life is damn precious. I missed too much of it, Lily. No more.”
She couldn’t tear her eyes off him either. More, she found she had to hear him say it again. “You’re…fine though. Right?”
“Very,” he assured her.
Still staring at him, she let out a long breath. “Okay. Okay, then.” She breathed some more. “Wow. That word sort of just grabs you by the throat. Cancer.”
“Not many people actually use the word in front of me,” he admitted. “I hate that.”
“Cancer.” She fisted both hands in his shirt. “Cancer. It’s just a word, not so scary, right?”
He smiled, and cupped her face. “I’m really okay, Lily.”
She resisted the childish urge to make him promise. “So…it changed you.”
“You saw my list.”
“Yes.” And now the significance of it made so much more sense.
“I wrote it on the day I decided not to die.”
She wanted to flinch from that word, but refused, for him. She imagined him in the hospital, writing that list, not sure if he was going to live to do those things on it. It grabbed her by the throat and held tight. To combat it, she bent for the two pots she’d cleaned in the river.
“Actually,” he said. “I’ve thought of a new addition to the list.”
“What’s that?”
He smiled and nudged her backwards against the tree again. “To be with a fiercely independent, prideful, tough as hell, prickly, oblivious-to-her-own-appeal woman.”
“Jared-”
“You, Lily.” His gaze dropped to her mouth. “I want to be with you.”
She felt her insides melt away. She’d been so busy trying to be strong, and had always wanted a guy with that same obvious strength. But here the quiet, easygoing guy had turned out to be the one with the strength-the inner strength.
And it was more arousing than any show of muscles had ever been. “By be with, you mean-”
“Well, this for starters.”
And pressing her up against the rough bark, he kissed her, long and hard and wet, and ohmigod, like he was never going to let her go, and at the moment, that worked for her, it really worked.
8
KISSING LILY was like…well, Jared didn’t really know because there was nothing like it. Nothing. He experienced the unique, rushing thrill of hearing her drop the two pots at her feet, as if she couldn’t concentrate on both his mouth and a single other thing.
Oh, yeah, he liked that.
And then there was the way her hands came up and sank in his barely-there hair, tight, like maybe she didn’t want him to get away until she was completely finished with him.
Ditto.
God. Her lips had been a little chilled at their first touch but they warmed quickly beneath his.
Another thrill.
As was the feel of her tongue as it slid to his. Definitely he could drown in her, just let himself go right under, and, happily doing just that, he leaned into her, a move that sandwiched her between the tree and his own body, pressing her snugly against him. His hands free, he slid them up her body, groaning at the hot, tight feel of her, and given the sexy little sounds that escaped her throat, she was drowning, too.
Never coming up for air, he thought, never, and frustrated by the layers between them, he slid his hands beneath her shirt to find warm, silky skin. Oh yeah-
A scream shattered the night, and they both jerked free.
“Shit,” Lily gasped, and shoving her shirt back down, went running back into camp, with him right on her heels.
They skidded into the clearing around the campfire, taking in the situation. It looked as if everyone had dropped whatever they were doing to rush over to Jack’s and Michelle’s tent, including Jack, who was now holding a sobbing Michelle.
“What happened?” Lily demanded, after pushing in front of Rose and Rock.
Everyone started talking at once, including Jack, but Lily held up her hand. “Wait. Michelle?”
Michelle hiccupped and kept her face buried in Jack’s T-shirt.
Jack rolled her eyes, and at the movement, Jared sensed Lily relax. If Jack was annoyed, then Michelle wasn’t dying.
Probably.
“Michelle,” Lily said, dropping to her knees besides them. “Talk to me.”
“A spider,” she gulped, tightening the fisted grip she had on Jack’s shirt, making him wince. “A big, fat, hairy, humungous spider!”
“Okay.” Lily glanced back at Jared, but somehow managed to keep a straight face. “There are a lot of spiders out here, we’re in their territory.”
Michelle shook her head. “You’ve got to get it out of there!”
Jack sighed. “Michelle.”
Lily patted the sobbing Michelle on the back. “Listen, don’t make yourself sick. Where’s the spider?”
“On my pillow! I’m never going to sleep on that pillow again!”
“So I carted it seven miles up this mountain for nothing?” Jack asked.
Michelle pushed him away from her. “This is not a time for jokes, Jack.”
“Who was joking?”
Lily ignored both of them to duck into the tent. She reappeared a moment later.
“Your hands are empty,” Michelle said, her voice tight with panic. “Lily, your hands are empty.”
“It’s gone,” Lily said regretfully.
“Probably your screaming scared him off-What?” Jack asked when Michelle stopped crying to smack him. “That’s a good thing, right?”
“I think so,” Lily said, nodding. “A really good thing.”
Jared glanced down at the door of the tent. “Hey. Look.” He grabbed a stick and nudged the indeed big, black, fat, hairy spider onto it. “Got him.”
Michelle screamed again and buried her face against her husband’s chest.
“I’ll take it into the woods,” Jared said quickly, and moved to the far edge of camp. By the time he’d turned back, Michelle had a new horror-the chances that the spider had laid babies in her tent.
“Doubtful,” Lily was saying. “Very doubtful.”
“Doubtful, but possible, right?”
Lily shook her head. “They don’t lay babies at night.” She said this with an utterly straight face.
