She watched as Max positioned himself and then leaped. Like a nimble panther. Sleek, sure. Why not? she thought grudgingly. He probably spent half his life swinging from one tree or another.
Standing at the base of the tree, Max raised his arms and stretched his hands out toward her. “Nothing to it. Your turn.”
“Okay.” She crouched first, then straightened again, judging her chances, unable to get a good feeling about either position as a springboard.
Max waited patiently as she repositioned herself several more times. He knew that the longer she took, the worse it was for her. “Like they say in the sports ad, just do it.”
About to jump, Lily stopped and looked at him in surprise. “You get commercials up here?”
“Yup.” He scratched his head in an exaggerated motion. “And we been getting them-there talking pictures in the theater now for almost a year,” he drawled.
She flushed. She supposed she had that coming. It was just that everything looked so rustic, so uncomplicated around Hades, it was hard thinking of the twenty-first century actually existing up here. “Sorry, didn’t mean to insult you.”
He laughed the thought away. “Take more than that to do it. I’ve got a thick skin.”
It hadn’t felt thick to her. Not to the touch, at any rate. Lily pressed her lips together, telling herself that now wasn’t the time to think about the feel of his skin or the fact that his anatomy felt hard and taut each time hers slid against it. If she was distracted, she might wind up breaking her neck.
Taking a deep breath, she announced, “Okay, I’m coming down.”
“I can hardly wait,” he cracked.
Annoyed, she bent to try to reach his hands. Her foot slipped out from under her and she lost her balance. A high-pitched scream accompanied her descent as Lily found herself falling out of the tree and directly on top of Max. Losing his own balance, Max fell backwards.
He landed on the grass, she landed on him. Lily had the softer landing. Aching, Max still thought he got the better of the deal.
Trying to catch her breath, her hair hanging in her face, Lily jerked her head up. The rest of her remained where it was. Sealed against him. Electricity shot tingling tendrils all through her.
“I thought you said you’d catch me,” she accused hoarsely.
“I did.” He grinned, trying not to laugh at the picture he knew they must have made. “I just didn’t happen to mention what position I’d be doing the catching in.” Without giving it any thought, he closed his arms around her, holding her steady. “You all right?”
She nodded, still trying to fill her lungs with air.
The laugh faded and the grin slowly receded from his lips. Max was aware of the way her breasts felt against his chest as she struggled for air. Was aware of the way his own body reacted to the feel of her lying like this on top of him.
If he didn’t make her move, he knew there was going to be hell to pay. A man only had so much restraint allotted to him and then his supply ran out. His had become painfully low.
His eyes caressed her even as he kept his hands still. “Ready to get up?”
Why did she suddenly feel so dizzy, so disoriented? “Yes.”
Looking at one another, neither of them made the first move.
And then he did.
Threading his fingers through Lily’s hair, framing her head with his hands, Max raised his head from the ground just enough to brush his lips against hers.
Needs exploded within Lily, including the need to regain the confidence she had lost. Allen’s infidelity had made her feel undesirable, less than a woman. It was that feeling she was running from by coming up here. That feeling she was trying to bury.
Like a woman on fire, Lily took the lead, deepening the kiss that he’d begun into something vast and endless and all-consuming.
She heard him groan, felt him become rock-hard beneath her. Felt his hands roam the length of her body as she kissed him over and over again. The fire within her grew completely out of control, enveloping her.
He wanted her.
Wanted her to the point that he was almost mindless. Max knew that was far from good. He’s always had control over himself. Always knew exactly what he was doing as he was doing it.
This sensation, this woman who had come into his life with the suddenness of a thunderbolt, had him tottering on the edge of an abyss that threatened to take all control, all thought, away from him.
Her Ice Princess pose had completely melted against him. Her movements were edgy, urgent, frantic, as if she were driven beyond desire. Driven by something that had possessed her as much as this hunger had taken possession of him.
The thought suddenly occurred to him that she was going to regret what she was doing here with him at this moment.
Regret it badly the instant it was over.
She wasn’t making love to him, Max realized. It didn’t have to be him. He could have been anyone. She was making love with someone to spite the man who had hurt her. This was phantom payback.
He couldn’t let her do that to herself. Couldn’t let her use him that way to get back at someone who had never really counted.
It was incredibly difficult, but with the last ounce of his self-control, Max caught her shoulders and pushed her back, away from him. “I think you should get dressed.”
Stunned, Lily stared at the man she had been so willing to make love with.
He was rejecting her.
After giving her every sign that he was interested in her, after all but seducing her with his looks, his kiss, he was rejecting her.
Hurt beyond belief, her dignity completely in tatters, Lily scrambled to her feet. The moment she was upright, she ran. She wasn’t sure just where she was heading, hopefully to the SUV, but at all costs, it had to be away from him.
“Lily!”
Max was on his feet and chasing after her in an instant.
“Lily, damn it, you’ll get lost! Stop!”
Shouting after her did nothing. She didn’t even hesitate or attempt to look back. Catching up to the woman wasn’t as easy as he’d thought it would be. She was faster than he’d given her credit for. Lengthening his stride even more and giving it his all, he finally managed to overtake her.
Grabbing Lily by the waist, he almost succeeded in bringing both of them down. But at the last moment he caught himself and remained upright.
Breathing hard, he held on to her tightly as she squirmed. What the hell was wrong with her?
“Why are you running away? Damn it, woman, did you forget? There’s a bear still out there. And I’m betting that he’s probably not alone.”
“I don’t care,” she shouted. “I’d rather take my chances with the bear.” Yanking, Lily tried to pull free, but his grip was just too tight for her. Her eyes narrowed into dagger-like slits as she twisted around to look at him. “What? You change your mind?”
He knew what she was saying.
“No,” he said, his voice lowering, his eyes on hers. Desire beat a heavy tattoo in his chest. “I haven’t changed my mind.”
He hadn’t changed his mind. He still didn’t want her, Lily thought angrily. Here she was, all over him, throwing herself at him, and he didn’t want her. How insulting was that? She didn’t know whether to cry or to hit him. She opted for the latter.
He let her do it once. The impact of all five fingers stung his flesh, going beyond the imprint left behind. But as she raised her hand in frustration again, Max caught her by the wrist.
“The first one was free,” he told her. “I figured you had to get that out of your system. But that’s it. No seconds, Lily. I’m nobody’s punching bag. I didn’t do this to you.”
Enraged, she hardly heard his protest. Was he telling her now that he hadn’t come on to her? Hadn’t gone out of his way to make her want to make love with him?
“The hell you didn’t.” As Max slowly released her wrist, she dropped it to her side. Rubbing it with her hand, she glared at him. “Oh, I
forgot. You like them younger.”
It was his turn to not be able to make sense out of what was being said. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Vanessa.” She spat the name out, not even knowing why any of this bothered her. Who cared who this man slept with? “That’s her name, isn’t it? That young thing that keeps following you wherever you go, drooling in your wake?”
He was well aware of Vanessa’s designs on him. As aware of them as he was of the fact that he had done nothing to encourage them and that, like it or not, the girl needed to be protected from herself before she self-destructed.
Taking a chance, he appealed to the maternal side of the woman in front of him, not even sure if she even had one.
“Vanessa is going to get into a lot of trouble if she isn’t careful. She doesn’t know what to do with what she has and she’s an accident waiting to happen.”
If he believed that, he was more naive than she thought. “Oh, she knows, all right, Lawman, don’t you doubt it. That girl knows exactly what she’s got and how to use it.” Here she was, standing in the middle of nowhere, wearing nothing more than an oversize blouse and his belt on her hips, arguing about the supposed virtue—or lack thereof—of a potential man-eater. She hadn’t a clue as to what was going on here. “Your Vanessa doesn’t exactly strike me as a train wreck.”
“She’s not my Vanessa,” Max told her evenly. “Accidents take all sizes and shapes. And you’re wrong, Lily Quintano. I don’t like them younger.”
He took a step toward her. A warning step he expected her to heed. She surprised him by standing her ground.
Or maybe she didn’t surprise him, at that. Maybe he expected her to do just that.
“I like them with fire in their eyes and a go-to-hell attitude.” He allowed himself just one touch of her hair. Taking a long strand, he sifted it through his fingers before dropping it again. “I like them with shining black hair and legs so long they make you want to fall to your knees and thank God you’re alive.”
Damn it, her heart had shifted again. Now it was in her throat, making it hard to breathe. Still, she raised her chin defiantly. Willing him to do something to prove her wrong.
“I don’t believe you.”
He shrugged as if it made no difference to him one way or another.
“Believe what you want.” He shoved his hands into his pockets to keep from grabbing her and pulling her to him again. To keep from burying his face in her hair and getting lost in her scent and taste, the way he sorely wanted to. “But while you’re at it, believe that what I don’t want is for them to use me to get back at someone I don’t even know, and from all indications, they’d wasted their own time knowing.”
Because he’d hit far too close to home, Lily finally took that step back from him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He indicated the lake’s edge. Somehow, she’d managed to run exactly where she’d hoped to. Her clothes were still laid out on the bush where she’d left them. “Then it’ll give you something to think about while you’re getting dressed and going home.”
Home?
“To Seattle?” Was he playing the heavy-handed sheriff and running her out of town because she’d cast aspersions on the chicklet that lusted after him? Was that his game?
“To Alison’s,” he corrected. And then, because looking at her standing there like that, with the sun outlining her nude body beneath the blouse, was making it hard for him to breathe, he added, “And while you’re at it, think about this.”
Catching hold of her shoulders again, Max pulled her to him and kissed her. Long and hard and with every bit of the pent-up energy he was trying so hard to contain and hold in check.
For her sake as well as his own.
Because the floodgates had never been opened within him. He wasn’t sure he could close them again once they were opened, or even what the outcome would be if he did let himself go.
But even as he touched his lips to hers, he could feel that same pull he’d felt before, except more urgently now. He could take her right here, right now, without a second’s hesitation.
Damn, but she was confusing the hell out of him.
Releasing Lily’s shoulders, he forced himself to take a step back. He studied her face, not sure what he was looking for, not even vaguely certain he’d know it if he saw it.
“All right, now maybe you should get dressed before I forget every damn thing I just said to you and take you here and now—bear in the vicinity or no bear in the vicinity—because woman, you have stirred up something inside of me I’ve never felt stirred and I think that for both our sakes, we walk away from this right now, before we both do something that there’ll be no walking away from.”
She stared at him for a long moment, the feel of his lips on hers. Temptation whispered in her ear, caressed her body with urgent fingers. She clenched her hands at her sides, steeling herself.
The next moment she turned and hurried toward the bush where the rest of her clothes lay.
Chapter Eight
Biding his time, Max stood a discreet distance from the chest-high bush Lily had ducked behind a few minutes ago, taking her clothes with her. It wasn’t easy pretending to be interested in the cloud formations overhead when every fiber of his being was centered on the woman behind the shrubbery.
He knew more than a handful of men who would have hooted at him for being so chivalrous, especially when the lady had all but thrown herself at him. But he’d grown up with a house full of women, his sisters, his mother and his grandmother. That kind of company put a fine point on a man’s conscience when it came to the opposite sex.
Opposite sure was the word for it, he thought. He’d never run into a woman as contrary as Lily Quintano and he hoped to God he never would again. Once was enough, thank you very much.
“Here.”
He looked up to see that Lily had emerged from behind the bush and was walking toward him. She was holding his belt out as if it were a dormant snake, about to wake up at any second.
“I think this is yours.”
“None the worse for wear,” he commented. Taking it from her, he threaded the black belt through the loops of his slacks, his eyes never leaving her. “I’ll drive you back.”
It took everything she had to keep a civil tongue in her head. All she wanted to do was to get away from this man. When he was around her, she didn’t know if she was coming or going.
Going seemed like the logical choice.
Her sister’s vehicle was just exactly where she’d left it. Mercifully, the grizzly hadn’t decided to sit on it or to take out its wrath on the inanimate object.
“And do what,” she wanted to know, “strap your vehicle to your back? Or does it just come when you call?”
The town paid him to keep his temper, but right about now, Max figured he was being paid way too little money for the feat. Still, he managed to ignore the sarcastic edge to her voice.
“I’ll have someone bring me back later to pick up my car.”
“Don’t bother.” Striding ahead of him, she reached Alison’s vehicle quickly. Lily climbed in behind the steering wheel. “I can get back into town. I don’t need to be baby-sat.”
He put his hand on the wheel to keep her from going anywhere. “Nobody’s talking about babysitting, Lily. This is unfamiliar country and even natives have been known to get lost. The last man who got lost and died of exposure lived here all of his life.” He didn’t add that it was at the height of a snowstorm in the middle of December. The woman was argumentative enough without giving her extra ammunition.
She shoved the key into the ignition and turned it on. “Why don’t we just compromise? You lead the way and I’ll follow.”
Max studied her for a moment. He wasn’t sure that she wasn’t just perverse enough to take off on her own again if they went in separate vehicles. But he supposed that everyone deserved a chance, even headstrong females from Seattle.
His mouth curved. “I
didn’t think you believed in compromise.”
She hated it when he looked at her that way, as if he were sizing her up. “I believe in anything that’ll get me what I want, and right now I want to get back into town with Alison’s car and with my dignity. Now if you don’t mind, you’re standing in my way.” Max was standing right in front of the SUV. She looked at him expectantly. Waiting.
“Don’t see anything wrong with that,” he finally commented on her declaration of intent. He got out of her way, but the next moment got in on the passenger side.
Lily stared at him. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
He indicated the ridge up ahead. He’d left his Jeep on the other side of it. “Having you take me to my vehicle.”
She read his mind instantly. Lily’s shoulders stiffened. She left the vehicle in park. “What do you think, I’m going to run away the second your back’s turned?”
His eyes met hers. He knew the smile infuriated her. He widened it. “The thought crossed my mind.”
“Why would I do that?” she asked innocently. “We both want to head into Hades.”
Doing his damnedest, he blocked out her nearness and the desire that throbbed within him, insisting on giving him no peace. Instead, he pointed toward the ridge again, as if silently prodding her to drive.
“Lily, I haven’t the slightest idea why you do anything. It’s not my business to know. It’s just my business to keep you safe while you’re here.”
Safe.
The word echoed in her head and she almost laughed out loud. He certainly hadn’t kept her very safe a few minutes ago when he’d kissed her. She felt as if she were one of those silly cartoon characters she remembered watching as a child. The ones that suddenly realized they were standing in midair with nothing under their feet, about to free-fall through space.
That was how he’d made her feel. As if she were free-falling through space and hadn’t a prayer of landing on her feet.
But somehow, she had. Because here she was, sitting beside him, both of them acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Except that it had.
She wasn’t sure if she’d ever disliked any man half as much as Max. Not even Allen.
Lily and the Lawman Page 9
