Free Fall

_{Chapter 12}

They took a midnight walk beneath a full moon that hung over them like a magic ball, casting and reflecting a white glow over the snow and ice around them, making Logan feel once again as if they were alone in the world, just him and Lily.

"Up there." She pointed to a small outcropping to the east of the lodge, thick with snow. Below was a deep basin of more rocks and snow. "If we can climb up there, the view is incredible."

He eyed the hill, sharp with rocks and what was sure to be ice and powder, and slowly shook his head. "It's a death trap. We'll slide, all the way to the bottom."

Which, he didn't point out, he couldn't even see.

"It's safer than it looks. Believe me, I've done it. I wouldn't be stupid out here. Chicken?"

He craned his neck and eyed the climb, then Lily. She was bundled up in a thick jacket against the night's chill, hood up, with only her face showing and a cocky grin curving her mouth. "Chicken?"

She flapped her hands and made the unmistakable squawk of a hen. He'd never backed down from a dare or a rescue or anything dangerous in his life, but he had to laugh because this woman made him want to do just that. Back down. Keep her safe.

Obviously he was losing his mind. She didn't need anyone to keep her safe.

Or to fall for her the way he suspected he was beginning to.

Yes, definitely, he was losing it. Something he was all the more sure of when he actually climbed up to the peak with her. They were both huffing and puffing by the time they got there, and damp with the snow, not to mention freezing, but at the top, he went still at the sight sprawled out in front of them. Above them, the moon lay low and full and stunning, lighting a vast, softly glowing valley surrounded by sharp, sky-scraping mountains. "My God."

"I know. I never get tired of the view." Awed, turning in a slow circle, she took it all in.

"Me, either," he said, not taking his eyes off her.

She turned to him and touched his face as she smiled. "Do you mean to make me melt?"

"Just a bonus." He pulled her toward him for a kiss, but one taste wasn't enough, and the next thing he knew, they were leaning against each other, panting with need. "Now," she demanded, and all but dragged him down the mountain and back to her room, where he gladly ravished and cherished her body with his, with everything he had, the cliff and the view forgotten as he struggled to hold back the words and emotions that suddenly wanted to fly from his mouth. When they'd both come explosively, they lay back, gasping for breath.

Naked, damp and looking quite sated, Lily sat up. Logan groaned and rolled to his stomach, oddly exhausted. Lily shoved her hair from her face and slapped him playfully on the ass. "Your body is so hot. I just want to gobble you right up."

He didn't move a muscle. Couldn't. "If you're looking for round two, I need a second."

"Actually…1 was wondering something."

He could hear the hesitation in her voice-this from a woman who never hesitated which made his stomach sink. Had he said something in the moment, something stupid and unforgettable? Gathering his strength, he lifted his head and looked at her.

"I was just wondering why you always seem to look out for me," she said softly.

"What?"

She ran a finger down his spine and sighed. "Seriously. I just want to bite you. Why, Logan?"

"Why do you want to bite me?"

"Why do you look out for me?" She sat cross-legged at his hip and dug her fingers into the knotted muscles at his shoulders. This ripped a groan of pleasure from his throat. "I should have offered you a massage before now," she murmured, massaging the kinks left by days of hard skiing and wild sex. "You've given me one. You've hung out with me at the rescues, skied with me whenever you could, taken care of me both in and out of bed…" She sighed.

"What's the matter? Hard to keep it just light and fun?" he asked, giving her back her own words.

Her fingers went still for a telling moment. "Yes, if you must know, because with you, Logan, it's not just light and fun. It's more." She sounded baffled. "And I guess what I'm asking is why go to all this trouble, why hook me in like this when you're leaving in two days?"

In her voice he could hear the worry, the angst that she'd kept from him until now, and it moved him enough to temper the frustration her words caused. He wasn't the only one who was struggling to keep it light and easy. She was in, her heart was in, and it scared her. Feeling unexpectedly tender, he rolled over, slid his arms around her and pulled her over on top of him.

Her gaze met his, waiting. Only problem, he didn't have a ready answer. All his life he'd taken care of others. Truthfully, it seemed like second nature to him. Now there was Lily, a woman more than capable of taking care of herself, more so than anyone he'd ever met. That in itself was incredibly refreshing, and also terrifyingly attractive to him. He didn't have to take care of her, she could do it herself.

And yet he wanted to. Wanted to keep her safe and happy. Always. A seriously worrying thought, because his life wasn't conducive to a relationship, much less a long-distance one.

She was staring down at him, trying to read his thoughts. He slid his hands up her spine, sank his fingers in her hair. "You think it's trouble to want you? To want to take care of you?"

"You're leaving in two days." She sat up, straddling his hips with her bare legs. "I guess what I'm saying is don't forget that."

He cupped a breast, skimming his thumb over her nipple, loving how her breathing changed, how her body reacted for him. "I won't forget." And if for long moments he did just that, he'd deal with it, because she was right. This was enough, it had to be. Knowing it, he pulled her down for a long, deep kiss, his heart kicking into gear at the feel of her soft, supple, nude body against his.

When she lifted her head again, her eyes were heavy and filled with heat. "Are you trying to shut me up?"

He gripped her thighs, opening them farther, groaning at the feel of her wet, creamy heat gliding over his growing erection. "No. You can keep talking."

"Okay, because I- Oh. Oh, yeah…" she murmured as he eased inside her. Her eyes closed, her head fell back as her hips rocked to his. "I forgot what I wanted to say."

"That's okay, too," he said, and let her take him.

On Logan's second-to-last day a snowstorm hit. Luckily for Lily, Chris ended up short-staffed, so she used that as an opportunity to work ski patrol in the morning. Logan skied along with her. After lunch, she had to get back to the office. Logan walked her there, kissing her goodbye-a kiss that led to her dragging him into her bathroom and enjoying the body she could not seem to get enough of.

Afterward, she staggered to her desk with a grin on her face. She had to attend several nap-inducing meetings, one for guest services and one for accounting. The first ended with Sara moody and teary, the other with Gwyneth demanding and critical. Aunt Debbie attended each as a member of the board of directors-a position Lily's grandmother had given her to keep her in the loop but not actually in charge of anything. She sat back, looking quite pleased with herself and her lack of responsibilities.

It drove Lily crazy. The meetings turned into one long excuse to be critical of her efforts, and the lost ad file gave her sisters plenty of ammunition. Since they didn't believe that she'd actually drafted the ads in the first place, she figured that revealing her suspicion that someone was messing with her on purpose was totally useless. Besides, who could she possibly point her finger at? One of them? They might think she was incompetent, but neither of them would sabotage her on purpose. A disgruntled staff member? But she knew every single staff member, in the lodge and on the hill, and none of them fit the bill, either. Most of them had worked for the resort for years, and those that hadn't had been screened. No one had been fired lately, or even disciplined.

Could it be an unhappy customer? She'd certainly annoyed the hell out of those two identical twins who'd been fighting, but they wouldn't have the access they needed to her office-or the brains needed to pull off a sustained effort like this. She was drawing a blank on suspects and motives and frankly, if she wasn't being targeted personally, she'd have trouble believing it herself.

The glow of wild, animal sex long gone, Lily did her best to put them all out of her thoughts. By that evening, she was chomping at the bit. She'd promised Logan she'd meet up with him at the bar. Already late thanks to another computer crisis, she ran through the cafeteria and got caught by a frantic Carl, who had a hot date and needed help with cleanup. Sighing, she grabbed two large bags of trash and walked down the long driveway around the back of the bar and cafeteria. Lugging a bag in each hand, she admired the dark night around her as big fluffy snowflakes fell from the sky, thick as a soft, gauzy white blanket, utterly silent.

Walking alone, with the lights of the resort behind her, only a flashlight tucked under her arm for guidance, bobbing a thin beam of light up and down, she felt chilled on the outside but dreamy and sated on the inside, thinking about the night ahead.

She'd enjoyed their eight minutes in her office bathroom. She probably still had the faucet impressions in her butt from where he'd pressed her back while he'd pounded himself into her, but then again, he most likely had her fingernail impressions in his.

In the dark, quiet night, she grinned, and then laughed. God, he made her feel good. Sexy and shameless, too, and that was a little scary because he was out of here soon-but suddenly that wasn't nearly as scary as the big lump that rose between her and the Dumpster. The big lump that suddenly stood up on its back paws and towered over her.

A big bear the size of a small VW Bug.

Oh, shit. Shit. All the bear rules flew through her head as the flashlight hit the ground, bouncing once before extinguishing itself. Don't whirl and run, she told herself in the dark. Don't scream. Don't look aggressive.

But it was one thing to remember the bear rules, another entirely to follow them in a calm, clear manner when there was a bear looking at her, licking its chops. Oh, God. She dropped the trash bags.

And though she couldn't see clearly, she imagined the bear made eye contact, held it.

She didn't blink. Hell, she didn't breathe. In the dark came a low grumbling. A growl. Her stomach dropped, her entire body went rigid. She'd run into bears before. Once she'd seen a mama bear and her two cubs, but from a nice, cozy distance. Another time she'd been hiking and had nearly stumbled over a big brown bear lying right in the center of the walk, sprawled on his back, the sun on his belly. He'd tipped his head back and studied her from his upside-down pose, a look on his face that said, It's your lucky day, lady/cause I'm too fat and lazy to come eat you.

But this bear didn't seem fat and lazy. He'd rumbled to his feet quickly, as if she'd startled him, which was the last thing one ever wanted to do to a bear. Now he stood only a few feet from her, close enough to take a good swipe at her with a massive paw.

"Hey, big guy. You want the trash? Take it." She nudged it closer with her foot. "Here." •

He didn't move, not a twitch, putting them at an impasse she'd never wanted. "I'm just going to go away now." She lifted a foot to take a backward step, but another rough growl erupted from his throat and she froze.

Her heart was pounding so loudly she was surprised he didn't cover his ears in pain.

He took a step toward her, snapping his teeth at her, a sign of aggression.

Despite the frigid night, she felt sweat trickle down her spine. Close as she was, she could see his sharp canines glowing. His mouth was watering. She imagined he had bad breath from his last victim.

She didn't want to be his next one, she really, really didn't. Even as crazy as her world got sometimes, hanging off a cliff trying to make a rescue, for example, she rarely thought about dying.

She thought about it now, about the things she'd miss. The lodge. Her friends. Her sisters, crazy as that seemed.

She'd miss her last night with Logan. She'd miss that a lot.

A loud metal-on-metal noise clanged through the air, and the bear jerked. Lily jerked, too, but the sound kept coming. Someone was banging, trying to scare the bear off for her. The large animal craned its head away from her and she used the opportunity to take another step backward, not daring to whirl and run yet.

The clanging grew louder, accompanied by a shout.

The bear started, then began moving quickly, lumbering right past Lily, so close she felt his snow-covered fur brush her arm and leg.

And then he was gone.

She didn't remember sinking to the snow, but that's where she was when Logan hit his knees in front of her. "Lily. My God, he was huge. Are you okay?" Without waiting for her to answer, his arms came around her hard.

She discovered another thing she'd miss-his hands on her. She'd miss that a lot, too. "Was that you making that noise?"

"Yes."

"I'm okay."

"I'm not. Hold on to me a minute."

She could feel his heart pounding hard, or maybe that was hers. In either case, she did as he'd asked and held on. In fact, she considered never letting go.

From behind them came voices now, where before there'd been only eerie silence. A handful of people rushed toward them, led bv Matt.

"Tell me the whole lodge didn't see that," she said.

Matt crouched beside them and tugged on a strand of her hair. "Just a few guests, and they're still inside."

"I think he's gone."

"Yeah."

"I'm glad he's not busy eating you."

"Because you'd miss me?"

"Because you'd have given him indigestion."

"Ha ha."

Sara pushed in beside Matt and threw herself and her big old belly right at Lily, who just barely managed to catch her. "Oh, my God, Lily Rose! You were nearly eaten alive!"

Lily patted her sister's bump. "Don't get too excited, I'm still here."

Then Gwyneth pushed her way through. "Heard you were almost bear bait," she said, toughlike, then folded like a cheap suitcase as she sank to the snow and hugged Lily hard. "You enjoy giving me gray hair, don't you?"

"I live for it. Sorry you didn't inherit tonight."

Gwyneth looked around at the resort and sighed. "Yeah. Next time make sure to scare a hungrier bear, could you?" Then she hugged Lily again, hard.

Aunt Debbie joined them. "Look at you, front and center, as usual."

"Yeah, I'm so desperate for attention, I asked that bear to meet me at the trash bin."

"You didn't ask to be Grandma's sole heir either, but that's what happened."

Lily's smile faded. "True enough."

Gwyneth, either oblivious or trying to relieve the sudden tension, sighed at the scene. "Would you look at the mess?"

One of the two garbage bags had ripped, spilling some of its contents onto the ground, already getting covered with snow. And yet it wasn't the bear or their guests on Lily's mind now.

It was Aunt Debbie and her quiet resentment. Gwyneth and her not-so-quiet resentment.

And the fact that Lily herself felt a sudden and nearly overwhelming resentment toward them all. She looked into Logan's warm, concerned eyes and shook her head to his silent question. She was fine. She always was.

But for the first time in her life, it wasn't the mountain making her fine. No, a man was doing that.

A man who was leaving tomorrow.