Just Try Me...

“It’s nothing.”

A ghost of a smile curved his lips. “You don’t feel it.” He shook his head, laughed at himself. “Right. I should have figured that part.”

Within sharing-air distance as they were, he was close enough that she could see gold specks dancing in those hazel eyes, filled with disappointment now.

Damn. She’d have thought she’d feel this attraction for Keith, had meant to feel this for Keith, but the truth was, she hadn’t wanted to stare into Keith’s eyes, and she sure as hell hadn’t wanted to press her face to Keith’s throat and inhale deeply. Yeah, time to go. “Good night,” she said. “I’ll see you at the trailhead. In jeans, I hope.”

No smile tugged at his mouth this time. “’Night,” he said, and dropped his hands from her.

With a nod, she turned away and headed for the stairs, and then realized something. She’d come here to find herself, to find some semblance of the person she’d been.

But that person she’d once been would have never shied from anything. At that thought, she stopped. “Jared.”

“Yeah?”

“I…”

“You…”

“Feel it.” She shook her head. “I just don’t want to.”

“Huh. Have to admit, I’m not sorry.” His gaze lit with something that looked like both heat and laughter as he came toward her.

She stood her ground, her nose quivering because God, he smelled good, he smelled heavenly, and she was sniffing at him. “I really do have to go. I have to go to my room, I need to look over some maps and—” And think about you…

“I’m sure you’ve planned out this trip to the nth degree.” He snagged her hand. “You deserve a night to relax before four days of work.”

Relax? She’d been doing nothing but lying around healing for months, and if she hadn’t managed to relax by now, it wasn’t going to happen. In fact, if she stayed down here with him, with his hand downloading little electric currents of lust into hers, she knew she’d start sniffing him again, and then…who knew. “I really…” She trailed off when he waited patiently. “I really have to go.”

“All work and no play.” He laughed softly when she frowned. “I wouldn’t have guessed that about you. Come on, Lily. What’s your poison?”

“Excuse me?”

“What would you like to drink?”

“You don’t have to serve me.”

“How about, I want to?” He was close again, and she looked away because, oh boy, just looking at him smile was like looking at an unopened bag of barbecue potato chips—both irresistible and extremely bad for her.

Very bad.

“Wine?” he asked, looking at ease, looking confident, looking so freaking sexy it took her breath. “Beer? Soda? Painkiller?”

“Um, what?”

“The limp. You must be in some pain.”

“Oh. That.” The reminder slammed home all of her fears about this trip. “It’s nothing. A beer, I’ll take a beer.” She took a step back, came up against the wall with a crash. “I’ll take it to go.”

“Lily—”

“No.” She looked into his disconcertingly gorgeous eyes, and took a big step back—thankfully missing the wall this time—and an even bigger mental step. “Really. I’m sorry, I need to…” Get my bearings. “Go.”

She accepted the beer he bought her, thanked him, and ran upstairs, where she put herself to bed.

Of course she dreamed of him again. That was getting extremely unsettling, she told herself at 3:00 a.m. after waking up sweaty, hot and bothered for the second night in a row. Why did her attraction to him bother her so much she wondered.

Because she’d expected it to be Keith?

Yeah, that. She punched her pillow, flopped over, and told herself to dream about something more worth her time—such as the fact she had four great days ahead of her.

Please God, let them be great.

She gave her pillow one more punch for emphasis, and then closed her eyes. Mountains, she told herself. Think of the mountains, the wild animals…

Only problem, her brain didn’t obey, not one little bit. This time she dreamed about not taking her beer to go, but sitting downstairs with Jared, then making her way to his room, and then…

Oh boy, and then.

She should have taken Keith up on his offer for a drink with whatever else that might have entailed. It would have been easy, familiar, fast…and done.

Certainly if she had, she’d at least be sated by now.

And not still thinking, wondering, yearning about Jared.

3

JUST PAST DAWN, Lily stood at the trailhead at the basin of Balsam Peak and stared up at the vista of glory around her.

Doubt was killing her but she tried to swallow it. She could do this.

She could.

The summer hadn’t been a particularly dry one, and as a result, the green mountains seemed to pulse with life. The Sierras didn’t have a fancy name, or a photogenic centerpiece like other mountain ranges did, but man oh man, it was, in her opinion, one of the most fascinating combinations of jaw-dropping beauty and unique geology on this side of the Great Divide.

Being here, breathing in the thin but crisp, clean air, she felt great, and even greater when she realized she was way ahead of schedule.

That was old habit, being prepared beyond any shadow of a doubt. She credited that slight anal tendency in an otherwise carefree, wanderlust existence to the two years she’d spent as a Girl Scout as a young girl, when she’d been directionless and desperate to please. Her mother had worked around the clock, her father had been living in Europe somewhere, which had left her alone much of the time.

Too much of the time.

But she’d grown up fine. Or so she told herself. She was her own woman who didn’t need approval from anyone. Knowing it, she opened the tailgate on her truck, and also the shell, and began checking through the supplies she’d brought, dividing it into piles that she could help her guests load into their packs as well as her own.

“Looks heavy.”

Craning her neck, her gaze collided with Jared’s. “Not too heavy.”

He’d lost the business wear but was no less put together in his expensive-looking jeans and polo shirt. He wore hiking boots, which she sincerely hoped weren’t new, even though they looked it. His designer sunglasses were firmly in place. “Need any help?” he asked.