Reconsidering Riley (12 page)

But did that really matter?
Could
a
woman get over a man because of a bunch of touchy-feely
anti-heartbreak techniques? And if she could...where did that leave
the men of the world, when
they
were heartbroken? Because
after he'd left Jayne, he'd sure as hell felt—

No
. He wasn't going to turn all
introspective and girly and helpless, damn it. The fact of the
matter was, Riley didn't consider himself easy to get over. No man
did. And nothing would make him believe Jayne's self-help stuff
really worked.

"I guess you were surprised to find out I
was the group's leader," Jayne said, breaking into his
thoughts.

He looked at her. "Surprised isn't the half
of it. I actually thought you were here because of a broken
heart."

"Well...I am."

Riley stiffened. He
knew
he'd
detected the signs in her.

"Indirectly, of course," she went on
blithely. "The techniques in my book are inspired by an actual
broken heart." She raised her palms. "I know, I know. You're going
to say I'm not an expert or anything. But I do have a knack for
helping people, Riley. I really do. Talking to the women who've
read my book made me see that."

She twisted an Oreo in half. Closed her eyes
while she carefully scraped off the icing with her bottom teeth.
Licked her lips with delight after swallowing the sweet filling.
Smiled at him when she caught him watching.

Riley experienced an intense urge to become
a cookie.

"And writing my second book—my follow-up
workbook," Jayne went on, "will prove it."

"Prove your knack."

"Yes."
Of course
. "That's why this
trip is so important to me. And it's also why I was so concerned
about your reaction to my leading the group."

"My reaction?" Uncomfortable, he shifted his
shoulders. "I went for a hike after I found out. That's all."

"
Exactly
! That's
all
. That's
all you did!"

"It's not a crime. It's not even that hard.
You just put on some all-terrain shoes and—"

"What about talking? What about sharing?
What about expressing your feelings?"

He felt trapped. "I'm trying to quit.
Ha, ha."

"Oh,
Riley."
Sadly, Jayne shook her head. "Maybe you need some of
my techniques. I think you're seriously out of touch with your
emotions."

He was perfectly in touch with at least one
emotion right now. Confusion.

"Let me get this straight," he said. "You're
mad because I didn't
do
anything when I learned the truth
this morning?"

She nodded, eyes wide. "Of course."

"I will never understand women."

"All we want is some communication!" Jayne
sat straighter, waving her halved Oreo like a chocoholic
relationships cheerleader deprived of her usual pom-poms. "Some
reaction
, and some discussion. You
know
it drives me
crazy when you do...that thing you do."

"When I do...nothing?"

"Yes!"

Riley shook his head. Gamely, even though he
wasn't sure how he was going to manage it, he said, "I'll try to
do...something in the future."

"Excellent." Apparently satisfied, Jayne
squeezed his hand. Her chipper demeanor veered toward full
relationship-counselor mode.

And aggravated him. He wasn't one of her
breakup-ees, and she'd damn well better remember it.

He squeezed back, leaving their fingers
intertwined.

She glanced up, startled. Something sparked
between them, something not forgotten but...delayed. All at once,
he wanted to lean nearer. Wanted to find out if her lips still
tasted as sweet as he remembered, if her body still fit his as well
as he recalled...if her heart would race the way his would if they
came together. He felt an urge to
claim
her for his own. And
he would have, if not for—

"Come on, you two! It's time to play
Twister!"

Mack, Kelly, and Carla were suddenly there,
grinning. They appeared to have every intention of dragging Riley
and Jayne onto the plastic polka-dotted game mat spread in the
center of the common room. Riley didn't know where it had come from
(
he
sure as hell hadn't packed the thing in), but he did
know one thing for certain.

He could duck faster than they could
grab.

He glanced at Jayne. "Race you to the back
deck?"

"You're on!"

Laughing, Jayne collapsed against the
tumbled rock wall surrounding the deck. Riley stopped beside her in
the semi-darkness, not the least bit out of breath, laughing
too.

A companionable feeling came to life inside
her. The intimacy of the late hour, the camaraderie of having
evaded the potentially-embarrassing Twister game, the slightly
naughty thrill of having shed their responsibilities for a while,
all combined to leave Jayne with a surprising sense of
togetherness. With Riley, of all people.

Who'd have thunk it?

She looked at him. In the faint glow from
the lodge's windows, his features took on an unfamiliar cast—one
that temporarily changed him from the man who'd laid her heart bare
to simply...a man. A man who intrigued her, despite all common
sense. He looked dark, a little dangerous, wholly alive.

He looked
good
.

"You're fast," she said before she could get
carried away with this stuff. "I can hardly believe I beat
you."

"You didn't beat me. You tripped me!"

"My slipper came off." Jayne gestured toward
her plush baby blue platforms, both of which she'd restored to her
feet. "It's not the same thing."

"
Then
you elbowed me when I got back
up."

"I was putting my slipper back on. Can I
help it if you ran into my arm?"

"And when we got to the outside door, you
blatantly flaunted your bogus lead by stopping."

She rolled her eyes. "How else was I
supposed to let you be chivalrous? Thanks for opening the door for
me, by the way."

"Cheater."

"Complainer."

They stuck their tongues out at each other.
The childish gesture didn't last long, though. Both of them were
smiling too broadly to sustain it.

Riley slung his arm around her shoulders.
"Ahhh, this feels good. Doesn't it?"

"Just like old times," Jayne agreed,
snuggling closer.

Standing side by side, they gazed out into
the uncivilized landscape beyond the lodge. Silently, they shared a
few breaths. Companionably, their bodies eased together.

It
was
like old times. If she'd
closed her eyes, Jayne could have pretended she and Riley were back
home on the coast, walking along the Pacific shoreline hand in
hand, talking and laughing and loving. Wistfully, she sighed...and
closed her eyes. Only for a moment.

A sweet moment.

"You must be cold." Stepping away, Riley
tugged off his Polarfleece hoodie. Clad from the waist up in his
lone T-shirt, he helped her put on the hoodie over her PJ top. He
pulled her close again. "There. Better?"

"Mmm-hmm." Jayne savored the leftover heat
emanating from the fleece. She let the long sleeves flop past her
fingertips, feeling petite and girlish and grateful. "Much warmer.
Thanks."

He nodded, his arm once again secure around
her shoulders. One of the things she'd always liked about Riley was
his generosity. He never hesitated to share. His clothes. His time.
His cheesy curly fries at lunch when she'd ordered the salad plate.
He wasn't an especially sociable man, but he was a giving one.
She'd almost forgotten that about him.

He cleared his throat. "How have you been,
Jayne?"

"Since I got here? Oh, fine, I guess. The
bathtub shortage is a little extreme, but Gwen's been nice enough
to—"

"No. I mean, how have you been?"

"But I just—oh. You mean, since...?"

Riley nodded. His dark gaze pierced her,
intense with the need to know. Jayne realized, all of a sudden,
that he'd actually worried about her.

She blew out a deep breath. Looked away.
Where to begin?

"I've been...fine. It was rough at
first—"

His arm tightened around her shoulders. She
doubted he was aware of it.

"—but now I'm...okay." Jayne refused to
reveal any more. In a gesture as brave as any she'd ever made, she
turned her face up to his. Lightly, she asked, "How about you?"

"I'm..." His voice broke. For no discernable
reason at all, Riley raised his fingers to her cheek. "Better every
day," he said, and kissed her.

The contact took her breath away, stole her
urge to talk and her ability to do so, all at the same time.
Remembrance swamped her as their mouths met, explored, reunited.
Jayne turned in his arms, knowing dimly she should resist
this...but having no recollection at all of the reasons why.
Riley's lips felt too good on hers, his hands too welcome on her
body, for her to turn away.

A moan escaped him. The husky sound of it
thrilled her, even as she felt his hands delve into her hair,
prepare her; even as he kissed her again. This,
this
was the
reunion they should have had. The reunion Jayne had dreamed of,
thanks to all her most foolish hopes.

And now, Riley was giving it to her.

His hands claimed her, touched her, tenderly
pulled her still closer. The scary dark night surrounding them fell
away, taking Jayne's fears along with it. Being with Riley felt
right. It had always felt right, so right.

Until it had ended.

Ended
.

With an anguished cry, she pushed away from
him. She sucked in a deep breath, trembling all over. "Riley, we
can't do this. It's been too long. Too much has happened, too—"

"
We can
. Why not?"

He captured her cheeks gently between his
palms, making her look into his shadowed face. A kind of intensity
burned there, along with what looked like...surprise? Was Riley as
surprised as she was that he'd kissed her? Or was he surprised to
have enjoyed it...all over again?

Jayne clasped his wrists. Tugged his arms
lower, so his touch couldn't cloud her judgment. "This isn't the
right time."

"What time
is
the right time? When
we're apart? We have a second chance, here. Let's use it."

"Use it? Are you suggesting a
fling
?"

Powerful shoulders shrugged.

"A
fling
?" she repeated, unable to
believe his audacity.

Riley grinned. "You know we'd both enjoy
it."

"Ooooh!" She released his wrists—the better
to swat him for making such an inane suggestion. "Men! You get
within fifty feet of potential whoopee, and you can't think of
anything else."

He stepped closer. Said seriously, "I can
think of how sweet you are."

"Riley—"

"I can think of how much I missed seeing
your nose scrunch up when you're trying not to smile." He thumbed
the telltale crinkle at the corner of her mouth. "Like right
now."

He
would
have to bring up the nose
scrunch thing. She still didn't believe she did it. It sounded
terribly unflattering. Like horizontally-striped Capri pants.

All the same, Jayne felt herself weakening.
"You make me sound like a rabbit," she groused. "A grumpy, whiskery
rabbit on laughing gas."

This time, Riley was the one to smile. But
he didn't back down, and he didn't let up. "And I can think," he
went on, "of how much I admire you—"

Awww
.

"—for actually trying to help the women in
your group."

Okay, he'd been doing pretty good until now.
But that did it.

"
Trying
? 'Trying to help' them?"
Jayne advance on him, jabbing her finger against the hard planes of
his muscular chest. "What do you mean, 'trying to help' them?
Listen, Mr. lone wolf, out-of-touch-with-his-emotions,
kiss-a-girl-in-the-moonlight Davis. If you're implying that my
techniques are—"

"There's no moon tonight. Just us.
Together."

Momentarily distracted, Jayne glanced up.
"Huh? No moon? Then what's that?"

She pointed. Riley looked.

"The glow of Gwen's bug zapper light around
the corner."

"Oh." She frowned. "Poor bugs. They probably
think that nice radiant shimmer is the moon, just like I did."

And other people probably think Riley is
sincere. Just like I did. Once
.

For the first time in her life, Jayne
actually felt sorry for the creepy crawlies. "Poor bugs," she said
again.

"Maybe." He lifted his shoulder. "Deluded or
not, at least they die happy."

"That's a terrible thing to say!"

"Endings aren't bad, in and of
themselves."

"Easily said," Jayne shot back, folding her
arms, "for the person who decides when they happen."

His eyebrows raised. She had to admit, Riley
did a nice imitation of a guy who
didn't
follow the love 'em
and leave 'em code of perpetual bachelorhood. But Jayne knew
better.

"You're trying to sidetrack me," she said,
shaking her head. "It won't work."

"You're the one who brought up the bug
zapper." He spread his arms, palms up. "I was only trying to help.
I
would rather have gone on kissing you."

His gaze dropped to her lips again. The
interest—the remembrance—in his expression made heat flare in her
middle. That really had been some kiss. Hot. Tender. Seductive.
Honestly, no one kissed as thrillingly as Riley did, Jayne thought.
It was as though he devoted his whole attention to the pleasure at
hand...and to making sure she enjoyed herself, too. It was as
though—

No
. There was no point traipsing down
the kissing aisle in the Memory Mart. She had to stay focused.
Determinedly, Jayne backtracked to the subject of their initial
disagreement.