Just Try Me... Read online

  He answered with a smile and a wicked gleam.

  “Do you really think it’s a good idea for me to jump back into your bed?”

  “Or yours. I’m not picky.”

  She laughed at his audacity and smooth confidence, then her smile faded. “Keith…”

  His smile faded, too. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

  She took his hand. “I took the job because I was lonely and hurting and afraid I’d lost myself.”

  “You don’t look lost to me.”

  “That’s because being here reminds me of the woman I was back then: strong, confident, ready to take on the world.”

  “You were—are, an amazing woman.”

  “Keith…”

  He took in her expression. “Ah, hell. I hate the truth.”

  “I’m not that same woman. And maybe the sooner I face that, the better.”

  “Maybe that’s true. Maybe you’re not that woman anymore, maybe you’re better.”

  She let out a low laugh. “Better? Uh, no.”

  His gaze went on a slow tour of her, from head to toe, and back again, stopping at each spot in between. “You’re looking just as fine as always.” He looked her in the eyes, then leaned in and kissed her cheek. “And I hope you end up seeing that.” With a sigh, he tipped his head back to the gorgeous night sky, lit up with the glow of a million stars. “It never gets old, that view, does it?”

  “No.” On this one thing at least, they were in complete agreement. “It doesn’t.”

  “We were here once together, near this exact spot actually, beneath a night just like this.” He flashed a grin. “Remember?”

  Her second expedition, as a matter of fact. He’d set her up in a tent that they’d never used. Instead they’d spread out a blanket and lain beneath a sky just like this one. He’d pointed out all the constellations, telling her stories about each one, and her eighteen-year-old heart had sighed.

  She’d fallen hard. “I remember.”

  “We were good together, Lily.”

  “Were.”

  “Ah.” He nodded. “It’s someone else you’re thinking of now.”

  Jared. God, it was true. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, Lil.” His gaze went to a spot over her shoulder, and then, reaching out, he put a finger over her mouth, ran it over her lower lip in a caress. “One more then, for old time’s sake.” He kept his eyes locked onto hers as he slowly leaned in and kissed her.

  Her first thought—he felt warm and comfortable, nothing more. Her second, and far more unsettling thought—that she could think at all meant she wasn’t feeling anything close to what she’d felt when Jared had kissed her. It was shockingly simple. For Keith, she felt a mix of affection and youth, all of it firmly past tense.

  In the present, right here, right now, she felt…nothing, and she pulled back. “Keith, I—”

  His gaze was drifting over her shoulder, and she found that just odd enough to turn and see what it was that he kept looking at.

  Jared had come back into camp. He dropped a load of wood, brushed off his hands and his shirt, but even with the fifty yards separating them, and the dark night, Lily could feel his shock.

  “You did that on purpose,” she said to Keith.

  His gaze cut to hers. “I’m thinking, someday, you’ll thank me.”

  Lily whipped her gaze back to Jared. He looked at her, then turned away and went back into the woods.

  UP UNTIL that moment when Jared had seen Keith kissing Lily, he’d found the act of dragging fallen logs and branches through the woods incredibly cathartic. Better than sitting on a bike in a gym. Much better than running laps at the high-school track.

  Maybe not quite as good as a marathon bout of up-against-the-wall sex, but then again, he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d had that, so he might be remembering it better than it really was.

  But he doubted it.

  And then he’d gotten that one-two sucker punch to the gut at the sight of Keith with his mouth on Lily.

  Damn, that had hurt.

  He dumped a whole armful of logs near the fire, and Jack, sitting on top of one of his own previous hauls, held up a hand. “Whoa. We’ve got more than enough.”

  “Yeah.” Jared kicked a particularly large log, and felt the pain sing up from his toe to his shin. “Shit.”

  “Yeah, the trick is not to let them get to you, dude.”

  “The wood?”

  “Women.”

  Jared slouched against a tree. “How did you know?”

  “It’s all over your face.” Jack twisted to where he could see Lily still talking to Keith. “Can’t blame you either. She’s hot.”

  At Jared’s long look, Jack lifted his hands. “Hey, just because I’m hitched, doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good look now and then. But listen, when it comes to women, you’ve got to take a big mental step back or they’ll get you in the heart every single time.”

  “Yeah? How do you take a step back?”

  “You keep yourself just a little removed, you know? I mean, sleep with ’em. Marry ’em if you have to. Just don’t hand over your heart on a silver platter.”

  “So you never gave Michelle your heart?”

  “Hell, no. She’d have killed me a long time ago.”

  Jared watched Lily say something to Keith that made his smile fade.

  Good.

  Then Keith shook his head, said something else, and Lily touched his cheek and walked away.

  Jared liked the look of that even better.

  Keith walked away, too, and the knot in Jared’s insides loosened slightly so that he could let out a deep breath. He hadn’t felt so tense since…since he’d been sitting in the hospital staring in shock at the doctor whose mouth was forming the word cancer.

  Crazy. Crazy that he felt so strong so soon.

  Lily, at her tent, turned, and unerringly, across all the yards that separated them, found and locked her gaze on Jared’s.

  Neither of them moved for a long beat, and then finally she crawled into her tent, which she firmly zipped closed.

  Jack let out a breath. “Some tension there, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  Lily’s tent shook a little as she moved around in there. Jared pictured her stripping down for bed—an image not helped by the fact he’d had his hands on her now, and wanted them on her again. “You know,” he said to Jack. “I think there might be something to opening up and letting a woman in. Really in.”

  “Sure,” Jack explained. “It’s called certain death.”

  “Not every time.”

  “Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time, then.”

  Jared shook his head, still looking at Lily’s tent. It’d gone still. What was she doing now? “Might be worth the risk.” He had to think it was. He hadn’t been to hell and back to live life the way he’d used to. There had to be more than that, he believed it with every single ounce of heart and soul he had. “Because when you get it right, there’s nothing like it.”

  “Yeah?” Jack looked at him curiously. “And has it ever been right for you?”

  “Not yet.”

  “I rest my case.”

  “I’m not giving up.”

  Jack shook his head. “You’re in for a world of pain, dude. Seriously.”

  “It’s worth the risk.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because without it, why bother at all?”

  Jack cocked his head to the side as he absorbed that, looking thoughtful now, instead of all-knowing. “To avoid the pain?”

  “But one of these days, when it’s right, there won’t be pain. And then you’ll have it all.” Jared shrugged. “I just think it’s worth the try, that’s all.”

  “Huh.” Jack looked at the tent he shared with Michelle. “Yeah, maybe.” Standing, he brushed off his hands. “See you in the morning.”

  Jared watched him vanish into his tent and wished he had the right to be heading toward Lily�€