The wind lifted her long ponytail and snapped it like a flag. Her jeans were dirty and her hands were curled so tightly around the guide rail ropes that her knuckles were white. But she was doing it.
He stood below her, watching every step and wanting her to succeed.
“Why does it have to sway so much?” she demanded, not risking a look at him but keeping her gaze fixed, just as he’d told her to, on her final goal. “It’s a rope,” he reminded her, “bound to sway.”
“I don’t understand how this is a survival thing,” she muttered, scooting her clenched fists farther along the guide ropes. Her feet slid forward another inch or two.
“If you have to get to the other side of a river fast, you’d understand.”
“Be faster to swim,” she pointed out and gave him a fleeting grin.
“You’re doing fine. Pay attention to where you’re putting your feet. One in front of the other.”
“I know,” she said, swallowing hard. “Good thing you made me change out of my boots before we left the lodge. Never would have done this in them.”
He smiled to himself and kept pace with her. The dog at the end of the leash he held barked and pranced and in general made a racket as it tried, futilely, to reach Daisy. “How can you concentrate with this dog shooting off its mouth?”
“I’m used to it. Nikki’s very chatty,” she admitted and one of her feet slipped off the rope. She gasped but caught herself before she could fall. “Whoa, boy. That was close.”
“It was.” And he didn’t want to think about the feeling that had jolted through him with her misstep. He’d watched dozens, hundreds of people walk this rope bridge and never once before had he had a vested interest in how they managed it.
Lots of them had taken tumbles, too, and it hadn’t bothered him a bit. Yet damned if he wanted Daisy falling.
Shaking his head, Jericho acknowledged that he was having a problem. He was supposed to be discouraging her from passing these little tests. Instead, he’d helped her as much as he could. Maybe it was because of her brother, Jericho told himself. Maybe he felt as if he owed her something. But then again, maybe it was just because he wanted her.
He could admit that much to himself. And whatever he was feeling for her had only intensified since that morning. He and Daisy had gone to sleep the night before, lying on opposite sides of the fire.
But the nights were cold at this altitude and when Jericho woke up this morning, it was to find a curvy, beautiful, warm woman snuggled up close to him, spooning herself along the front of his body. Which completely explained the dream he’d been having, filled with images of hot, sweaty sex. He woke up to an aching groin and his blood pumping fast and thick through his veins. Ever since that moment of wakefulness, his body had been strung taut as a violin string. “Jericho?”
He snapped out of his thoughts and focused anew. “No more talking. Just concentrate.”
“Okay,” she countered, keeping her gaze fixed on the end of the rope bridge, “if I can’t talk, then you talk to me.”
He shook his head. “You’re unbelievable.”
“That’s not talking,” she said.
“Fine,” he said, tugging on the leash to pull the dog back into line, “I’ll talk. Let’s see…we’ve got a batch of clients arriving end of next week. Only be here for a long weekend.”
“Who are they?” she asked as her foot slipped. “Whoops!”
“Concentrate.”
“Right. I’m good. Fine. Keep talking.”
“They’re part of a law firm from Indiana,” he said. Remembering how the last bunch of lawyers had performed, Jericho wasn’t looking forward to it. Lawyers seemed incapable of unwinding. Even in the wilderness, they were wired, tense. Without their PDAs and cell phones, they acted like spoiled children missing a favorite toy. They didn’t like being in the outdoors and usually resented being sent here by their companies.
“Not looking forward to it,” he said. “Lawyers complain too much.”
“True enough. I’m almost across.”
She was. Close enough to the end that she was liable to start speeding up to get it over with. “Slow down. Careful steps.”
“I am, I am,” she told him in an undertone. “So if you don’t like lawyers why have them here?”
“They’re paying customers, like anyone else.”
“Uh-huh. Did you ever think of opening up the camp to kids?”
“Kids?”
She laughed loud and long, and the joyful sound of it rose up through the trees like smoke. He narrowed his gaze on her and scowled when she set herself swaying wildly with her laughter. “You sound so horrified!”
“Knock it off and pay attention to what you’re doing.”
“Oh, relax! I’m good. In fact,” she added, her voice rising, “I’m done!” She stepped onto the platform at the end of the rope bridge and threw both hands into the air in a victory pose. “I did it! By myself!”
Sure, he thought, not counting his shouted instructions and constant watchfulness. But damned if he could deny her the victory dance. “Yeah, you did. Enough celebrating. Now we go hit the climbing wall.”
“Wow, way to pop my balloon.”
“You want to be congratulated?” he asked. “Do it all, then we’ll talk. Now climb down, take this silly excuse for a dog and let’s hike to the wall.”
“Climbing a wall?” Her features fell like a kid faced with a pop quiz. That only lasted a second or two, though. She lifted that stubborn chin of hers and said, “Fine. Let’s do it.”
“Damned if I’m not starting to like you,” he said and had the satisfaction of seeing surprise flicker across her face.
“Thanks.”
He watched her climb down from the platform and walk toward him with a spring in her step. The little dog on the end of the red leash jumped and pulled, trying to get to her, so Jericho dropped the leash and the poodle raced to Daisy. The tiny dog was scooped up and cuddled while it wiggled in ecstasy.
Jericho thought briefly that he couldn’t blame the animal for the reaction. In fact, he almost envied the ridiculous little dog. “Jericho?”
Her voice sounded confused. “What?”
She smiled at him. “Just wondering where you were. I was talking to you and you just zoned out.”
Well, that was humiliating. “I was thinking about the wall,” he lied.
“Oh. Okay.” She sounded disappointed now, but added, “Let’s go and get it over with then.”
Get it over with. Hmm. That had been his plan in bringing her up here. Walk her through, watch her fail and get her off the mountain. What the plan was now, he wasn’t sure.
“So,” she asked as Nikki trotted ahead of them, “why’d you freak when I suggested you bring kids up here?”
“I didn’t freak,” he said, and assured himself that was true. A man who’d spent as many years in the military as he had wouldn’t be “freaked”