page24 (1/2)
His tickling intensified “Then say it again”
“Reece is a sap,” she said, finding it hard to catch her breath
“Da her, his expression turning serious “You know I’m not like this with anyone but you”
Her grin vanished She didn’t kno to respond to soed the subject “Did you know you’re really sexy when you’re all covered in sweat and concentrating on a target with a bow and arrow?”
He grinned, sappy Reece going back into hiding and s out to play “You know, I seduce more women that way”
“How many would you say?”
He seemed to think it over for a moment “One that I know of”
She grinned “And as that?”
“I think her name was Jennifer”
Her et about me?”
“Oh, were you seduced?”
“No,” she denied, knowing it was a lie She wanted hia to submit to her desire just yet Maybe in ten minutes But not yet
“Well, there you go,” he said “There was just the one”
She took the sides of his open shirt in her hands, and tugged hi,” she demanded
“Yes, ma’am”
He stretched out beside her and leaned closer to kiss her Her hands explored the hard contours of his chest and stomach as if they had a mind of their own She found a round spot of skin with a sered it, perplexed He dreay and looked down at her, as if knohat she was going to ask
“Bullet wound,” he told her “There’s ascar on my back”
Her hand slid around and found a slightly larger area of puckered scar tissue on his back
“You were shot!”
“Just a little,” he murmured
“What happened?”
“Wrong place at the wrong ti deal”
She thought it was a big deal “Did you almost die?”
He shook his head “Nah, I’h to die Don’t worry about it, sweetheart It’s all in the past”
“That’s funny co from someone who thinks the best way to escape the future is to hide in the past”
He chuckled “Point taken”
“Are you going to tell me what happened?” she persisted “Who shot you?”
Reece sat up and stared out across the creek to the forest on the opposite bank “Someday I’ll tell you, but not today”
“Don’t you trust me?”
He squeezed her hand “That’s not it I just don’t want to talk about it It happened over ten years ago I’ve put that part of my life behind me”
She sat up and cuddled up against his back “Okay,” she said “I want you to confide in me, but I won’t press the issue” She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder “You can tell , Reece I mean that”
“I’ll tell you some day”
“Did you tell future-me?”
He shook his head “It never came up”
“I never asked you about your past?”
“I don’t think you wanted to know,” he said He glanced over his shoulder at her “Besides, you were too busy trying to get in rinned impishly
“I find that very hard to believe, Jericho” She had a strange feeling settling in her chest She wanted so that a future Lara, who didn’t yet exist, never got to experience with hi with him first And that other woe to feel this way, but her tongue decided it orth voicing “Tell me one secret about yourself that future-me never knew”
“Just one?”
“Anything You chose”
His ear was tely close to her nose, she couldn’t see on its lobe Sucking it into her mouth
“My parents were gunned dohen I was nine The people you met as my family in the future took ical family”
Lara felt as all the air had been sucked out of her lungs She released his ear and leaned around his body so she could look hiunned down?”
He nodded and lowered his gaze, but not before she saw the raw ache in his soul
“Hoful” She rose up on her knees before hi both arms around his head, she pressed his ear to her heart It thudded so hard, she feared it ainst his hair, her desire to take his pain away an absolute necessity “Is that how you got shot?”