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Lydia sat up. Backed up farther. Put her hands on his legs. As she rubbed up and down his thighs, he could tell that she was keeping her touch light, and he wished he didn’t appreciate the awareness. He wished he didn’t need it.
“What,” he said as she didn’t reply.
“I’ll absolutely meet her. I know it’s important to you. But why the mountain?”
Daniel swallowed a curse, though he wasn’t frustrated with her. He just knew what she was thinking. “I can make it up there. The Wolf Study Project has an ATV, right—and I know the gas pan was fixed because I was the one who repaired it. We’ll just park at your work and take it up the trail.”
“Did she say where on the summit?”
“Where the overlook is, I’m assuming.” He shook his head. “I know you hate that hotel across the valley. I do, too, but we can suck it up for an hour.”
He was pretending that the sight of that enormous monstrosity of a resort was the problem. And thefact that he didn’t have the energy to argue about whether he had enough energy to make it up the elevation on a four-wheeler, much less meet with some stranger over something as stressful as Lydia being left alone in the world, was probably the best commentary on his fitness for the plan there was.
But it was amazing what you could do when you had to.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “Honest. We’ll just get the ATV and—”
“That fuel pan didn’t stay fixed, but you know what we can do? Take one of C.P.’s SUVs up the back side. I’ll just run over to the lookout and bring her to you and the car. The view is not the point.”
“No, it’s not. But…”
The urge to argue was so strong, he opened his mouth, except then he realized something. How often had he fought against her just because he hated his own limitations? A lot. And she, just like everyone, gave him leeway because he was sick and he was a for-now-still-living tragedy. How many lines had he pushed through simply because he was frustrated… and what had it cost Lydia on the other side?
His illness made him a suffering saint of sorts, giving him a Teflon coating when it came to being reasonable.
“You know what,” he said softly. “I think that’s a really good plan.”
The easing in Lydia’s body was immediate, thetension flowing out of her shoulders, her breasts rising and falling as she exhaled.
“It’ll be great,” she said. “I promise—”
Crack!
The sharp impact shocked him out of his thoughts.
“Oh, no! Your phone.”
With a lurch, Lydia leaned to the side—and then she slipped off the bike, her synthetic hiking pants offering no resistance to the black paint job on the tank. He tried to catch her, but with his useless hands, she slipped right through his grasp—
The lithe way she threw out her palm and stopped a face-first crash was something he envied. But it was too late for his phone. The screen was splintered in the corner that had taken the brunt of the hit.
“I think it still works.” She curled over on her side and tilted the unit up. “Oh, it lights up. Good.”
Extending her arm, she held the iPhone out to him.
That was when they heard the helicopter.
As he took the cell back, they both looked in the direction of the thumping noise even though they couldn’t see anything as there were no windows around. The sound was unmistakable, however.
“Guess the boss is back,” he said.
“Guess so.”
He looked back down at his woman. “Can I be honest, too?”
Lydia nodded, even though fear crossed her face. “Yes. Of course.”
“I want to keep kissing you. I want to lift up that shirt of yours… and I want to suck on you while I strip those fucking pants off you and rip your panties off. I want… to trade places with you, and have you sit on my bike with one foot on the muffler and the other on the turned tire… and I want to eat you out until you come against my face.”
