Cherry Adair - T-flac 06 (19 page)

Heat flooded Lily, banishing the bone-deep cold she'd experienced moments ago. The warning bells were drowned out by the thundering sound of the blood rushing to her head.

His hands—she swore she could feel the heat of his hands right through the thick fleece of her coat. His breath on her face felt warm. The pressure of his body aligning itself to hers felt hot. Steam was probably erupting from the top of her head.

"You idiot." Lily clung to him with her hands fisted in the front of his coat. "We could have fallen."

"But we didn't."

"Pure luck."

"Not a chance, honey. I worked too hard to earn that kiss."

"Yeah?" She smiled up at him, because damn it, he
had
earned it. "What'd I do to earn it?"

"Born under a lucky star, I guess."

"Egotistical ass," she said without heat.

"I know when a woman wants me." He looked into her eyes. "And I want you. I've never made any bones about that, Lily. I'm done pretending otherwise."

Like a fish wriggling at the end of a hook, she tried, "Sean—" It was halfhearted at best. But she gave it a shot.

"Is dead." Derek cupped her head in his large hands so she couldn't look away. "I'm not. Get used to the difference. Get very used to my mouth on you. And my hands. Hell—start giving some serious thought to what it's going to be like when we're both naked."

Lily's heart did a dip and roll. "God. You're amazing. You say you want me as if that gives you entree to
having
me. Okay. You want me. For how long?"

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"What are you expecting me to say? 'For as long as it takes us to tire of one another'?"

"That would be the honest answer, yes."

"But it isn't the answer I'd give you."

"Isn't it? What's the longest relationship you've ever had with a woman?"

"That has noth—"

"A month? Two months?"

"I was in love with one woman for four years."

"Really? And still no commitment?" She
tsk
ed. "I rest my case. I don't do temporary, and I'm not interested in permanent. Fortunately for both of us, even though Sean is gone, I still consider myself
married
to him, so get it into your head that I still love my husband, and leave me alone."

Oh, Lord. She was going to go to hell for lying like this. But it was better than leaving an opening for Derek to sneak into her heart. She wondered if she had really
ever
loved Sean. Sadly, she didn't believe Sean had ever really loved
her
. His best friend had wanted her, and Sean had moved in and snatched her up from under Derek's nose like a prize at the fair.

More fool her for believing his lies. He'd been a sucky husband. The least he could do in abstentia was let her use him as a shield against Derek.

Sean was probably sitting in that hot place laughing his vain head off at this turn of events, Lily thought a little desperately.

Derek bent his head and brushed his mouth over hers again. This time in a light kiss. It should have been unthreatening, but it wasn't. He gave her an assessing look as he stepped back from her. "Keep telling yourself that bullshit, Lily, if it makes you feel better. You're too smart to be pining over a memory—a not-so-great memory at that. One of these days you're going to have to face the reality of the chemistry between us.

"When Sean was alive I did the honorable thing and stepped aside. When Sean was sick and dying, I did the honorable thing and gave you space to cope with what was happening. Well, Sean's gone now and as far as I'm concerned, honorable is pretty much out the door."

"The door isn't open for you, however."

He shook his head ruefully. "Stubbornness is one of your more annoying traits."

Just because he appeared to be capable of reading her mind, Lily thought, didn't mean he really
could
.

She hoped. "Really? I consider it one of my best assets."

He laughed, and touched her cheek briefly before saying with real amusement, "You would. Right, let's get the hell out of Dodge before the mountain does a nosedive again."

As soon as she was able, she stepped out of his hold. He wanted to grab her up and squeeze her until she begged for mercy. He wanted to wrap her in cotton batting and keep her safe.

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He wanted—

Hell.

He
wanted
.

Nine

The fucking woman had ten lives.

What the hell was he supposed to do? Go up to her, tell the stupid bitch to stand still, then shoot her point-blank between the fucking eyes? How would
that
look like a goddamn accident?

He'd told them,
told them
, that one little stick of dynamite wasn't going to do anything but make a little bang. But they hadn't wanted an avalanche big enough to bury Alaska. Just big enough to take out the bitch. Who would have guessed she'd be lucky enough to survive going over a fucking cliff?

A man could only work with the tools he was given. One fucking stick of dynamite? He needed to bring down half the fucking mountain to kill her.

Fuck, he thought, scratching at the hives on his neck, they were going to be pissed.
He
was pissed. Not to mention sick to fucking death of this unrelenting fucking
cold
. Hell wasn't hot. Hell was fucking icicles.

Hell was snow, miles and miles of snow and frozen feet and a running nose and knives of ice scratching your lungs with every fucking breath. And he wanted the hell out. Except he couldn't
get
out until the bitch was dead.

To make matters worse, there was some other dude skulking around again. He'd caught a glimpse of him this morning up on the ridge. Not part of the Iditarod madness. The guy wasn't even making a pretext of pretending to blend in. He looked like a goddamn albino ninja. Dressed completely in white and tooling around in some high-powered and eerily quiet ski mobile the likes of which he'd never seen before. The thing was like a ghost zooming in and out of the trees, just out of his line of vision. But he
knew
the guy was out there.

Watching. Waiting.

Had they sent someone
else
to do what they figured he couldn't do? He'd take care of this dickhead just like he'd taken care of Croft. Fuck. Had they brought in an outsider?

It was important that Lily die before she could make any more inquiries about the bull cum. He was dreading having to report in at the next stop that not only was the bitch still breathing, but she and macho man had been sucking face out there on the trail. Everyone had liked it just fine when the two of them were barely talking. Now?

Would they want him to off Wright as well?

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Fuck shit damn
. It was hard enough to kill one person, let alone two. And Wright didn't look like he'd die quick and easy. Not that Lily was a Cakewalk either. The annoying bitch from hell.

Never should have taken this damn job. Honor schmoner. Hadn't wanted to do it, and sure as shit didn't want to be here now. Unfortunately, there'd been no saying no. Not to the suits. They wielded kick-ass power, and could and would make his life a living hell if he didn't come through.

If they'd sent the white ninja in to do his job, then he might as well kiss his own sweet ass good-bye. He was dead meat.

He shot a nervous glance over his shoulder.

Nothing there but trees and snow.

But suddenly he felt as though he had a fucking bull's-eye painted on his back in neon.

He smelled the stink of his own fear-sweat and he wanted to puke.

They traveled several hours in relative silence, the kiss they'd shared an unmentioned elephant in the middle of the room.

Derek hadn't been flirting.

God, Lily thought, that was even scarier than falling off the side of the mountain. Derek always flirted. It was in his DNA to flirt. He did it with devastating effect, too. If it were an Olympic event, Derek Wright would have the gold. And knowing that, she'd found it relatively easy to ignore the looks and innuendos for the past few weeks.

Relatively
. God only knew, she wasn't going to let him know just how affected she really was.

But he hadn't been playing games up on that cliff. Not this time. The look in his dark eyes had riveted her in place. He'd been dead serious. There hadn't been a glimmer of amusement there. He wanted her, that look had said, and nothing and nobody would stand in his way. And then, in case she hadn't got the message loud and clear, he'd said the words out loud. And taken the relationship to a whole new level.

I want you.

Flat out. No frills. Unequivocal.

I. Want. You.

She'd felt as though a guided missile had locked onto her, and was prepared to shatter her into tiny atoms when she least expected it if she didn't surrender. And Lily knew, God help her, that throwing Sean up to Derek every time he got close wasn't going to be a deterrent for much longer. The thought made her heart race and her palms sweat with equal parts fear and anticipation.

Still shaken by just how close she'd been to death, receiving that soul-shattering kiss had rocked her to her toes. Now, Lily had to force herself to focus and concentrate, which was proving more dif-ficult than
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she'd thought possible. Usually from race start to race finish, she kept her mind clear of everything and anything not pertaining to the trail ahead and the welfare of her dogs.

Derek had been in the race before. She'd barely noticed. He'd been no more to her then than a fly in the ointment. A minor annoyance.

But this year was different.

Now he was a
major distraction
.

Damn it.

Using the brake often, and spending a lot of time balancing up on her runners, Lily forced herself to concentrate and get to the next checkpoint as fast as possible. Forget about the kiss, she told herself firmly. Forget all about it and the power behind it. Forget about the man and his strong arms and broad chest and hard—
Oh yeah
. Scolding herself had only made the memory more vivid. Good job forgetting.

"Tell me how you and Sean met," she said into the lip mic, keeping her tone cool and casual with effort.

Good idea. Talk about Sean. She wondered if she'd be struck by lightning for using her dead husband as the proverbial bucket of cold water.

"You know how we met," he said flatly in her ear.

"Sean's version." Which knowing what she did now was probably as much BS as everything else he'd told her. Lily didn't give a damn how the two most annoying men in her life had met. Lightning or avalanche. She wanted to put the memory of Sean
the husband
between her and Derek. Unfortunately it was starting to feel like a piece of flimsy cellophane between herself and a wild tiger, as opposed to the nice comfortable shield it had been before the start of the race.