Leaning back, she let the sun beam down on her face and her breasts, and that felt good. She supposed she could just hang on and sunbathe for a few-

Crack went the branch, and broke.

LILY WENT OVER the second falls, plunging beneath the surface, held there for an interminably long moment by a vicious current.

Pain blossomed through her body, each muscle screaming in protest at the activity.

It’d been a while since she’d swum in pure snowmelt, and she was less than thrilled at doing it now as the cold seeped into her newly repaired bones, making them stiff, leaving them hurting like hell.

She was going to kill Rose, if the river didn’t do it first.

Kicking to the surface in the deep river, she gulped in air as she searched around her for the other woman. It wasn’t hard to find her, she simply followed the sudden scream echoing and bouncing off the rock canyon walls.

Lily sped up her stroke toward the sound. Why couldn’t people follow directions?

Then the scream abruptly cut off.

Oh, God.

Heart in her throat, Lily whipped around a curve in the river, nearly decapitating herself on a fallen log.

But then she was treading water, in shock as she focused on Jared-not where she’d left him and told him to stay, but on the river’s edge-holding a naked Rose in his arms.

Obviously he hadn’t listened to her any more than Rose had, an epidemic today, which really pissed her off. He’d clearly run back down the trail-at the speed of light if he’d gotten here that quick-and had jumped into the river to save the screaming, misbehaving Rose himself.

Rose practically climbed up Jared’s body to glue herself against him tighter than shrink wrap. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she was saying over and over, kissing his face, still bare-ass naked, mind you, with breasts she’d most definitely not been born with bouncing all over the place.

Jared, not seeming to mind, sank to the ground, his arms full. He’d lost his glasses and was squinting like crazy when he lifted his head and looked over at Lily with a smile. “Got her.”

Yeah, she could see that. She wouldn’t have guessed he’d have the strength for it, but he’d proven her wrong. He’d probably laugh, and say she was judging a book by its cover again, and she’d definitely have to agree.

She was going to have to start redefining what she saw as strength.

It definitely didn’t have to come from muscles.

Gritting her chattering teeth, she began to swim to the edge, her body protesting by shooting pain through every inch. The current was a bitch, and she could definitely see how Rose had gotten herself in trouble. She was breathing like a misused racehorse herself, though a good part of that was adrenaline.

And temper.

Oh, and pain.

Setting her feet down, she made her way out of the water. Jared looked at her as he tried, unsuccessfully, to pull Rose’s arms from his neck.

Probably Rose was practically strangling him. Good. “What if you’d fallen in, too?” she asked, collapsing exhausted to the shore before he could see she was trembly. “I’d still be out there, trying to save both of you.”

“You’re welcome.” Jared had either dropped his outer shirt before he’d jumped in, or he’d lost it in the water. He pulled off the T-shirt that was clinging to his every inch, tugging it over his head with the one easy motion that guys were so good at, and then handed it to Rose.

“It’s wet,” Rose said in a voice that said she wasn’t thinking about the wet shirt so much as his bare chest, which she was now practically lapping up.

“It’s a cover,” Jared pointed out, standing there just a little bit attitude-ridden and a whole lot more tough and less skinny than Lily had thought.

Like Rose, she took a second look.

And okay, maybe a third and a fourth, because, um, wow.

With a low oath, Jared tried to stuff Rose into his T-shirt himself. He was blinking rapidly, and without his glasses, still squinting.

Lily watched him shove Rose’s arms into the sleeves, wondering why the hell she cared if he had to touch Rose’s nude and extremely gorgeous, lush body to do it.

Because she absolutely did not care.

Not one little bit.

Nope, she had other things to worry about, thank you very much. Things such as the fact that for the first time, she’d come close to losing someone on her watch. What did that say about her ability to do this? Not much. Shoving her hair out of her face, she put her hands on her hips. “And what the hell was that, Rose? The taking-off-your-clothes-and-jumping-off-a-cliff thing?”

Rose smoothed down the T-shirt that now covered her to mid-thigh, clinging to every inch of her curvy body as if she’d just been in a wet T-shirt contest. “Yeah, sorry. That got a little crazy.”

“A little?”

She shrugged. “The water looked so inviting.”

“You might have gotten Jared killed.” The thought made Lily’s blood run cold, and she whirled on him as well. “And you…”

He blinked some more.

“I told you to stay.”

“Again, you’re welcome,” he said, squinting adorably.

“Damn it, your glasses. Did you lose them?” That was all she needed, him half blind for the next four days.

“No, they’re fine. I dropped them at the top with my pack.” He shook his head like a dog, and water droplets showered around him. He shoved his fingers through the short mop, but all that accomplished was to make the dark ends stand straight up.

Jack and Rock came running into the clearing then, having clearly made their way down the path. In Rock’s hands were Rose’s clothes, and he skidded to a stop in front of her, panting, sweating, utterly speechless at the sight of her in Jared’s wet T-shirt.

Apparently knowing exactly how stop-traffic-amazing she looked, and probably having caused more than her fair share of speechlessness before, Rose patted his arm in understanding and sympathy. Yeah, she seemed to be used to making men into stupid blathering idiots. “Thanks, sugar.” She winked at him as she stepped into her mini skirt and shimmied it up her hips. “Sweet of you.”

Lily looked up both sets of falls to where she could just make out Michelle’s outline, undoubtedly anxious. Not necessarily for Rose’s health, but her own, because she wouldn’t like to be alone.

Not that she’d risk a second climb back up the hill in order not to be alone. No, staying up there by herself was apparently the lesser of two evils. “All right,” Lily said wearily. “Let’s get back up to our stuff. We’ll just camp there for the night and regroup.” And take a bottle of ibuprofen. “Start fresh-” she looked at Rose “-and dry, in the morning.”

Rose had the good grace to look chagrined. “Yeah. Sorry about that, honey.” She snuggled into poor Rock for some of his body warmth, making his expression go from worry to looking as if he’d won the lotto.

Lily sighed. She’d known coming into this thing that this group had little wildness experience and she’d taken them on anyway. It was fine, it was her job to show them a good time out here, and she loved doing that.

And in four days they would be gone out of her life, and she’d be onto a new group. That was the beauty of this job, everything being so temporary-but she had the unsettling feeling that maybe, just maybe, temporary no longer suited her. “Let’s go.” She led the way back, stopping along the way at the four men sitting on the edge of the river fishing. They were the first people they’d seen all day, and they had a full bucket of trout with them. For an easy price, Lily negotiated dinner-five trout she could cook to go along with the pasta she had in her gear.

She led her group back up the winding path, dripping water on the switchbacks as she carried the fish. She was in good pain now, and didn’t glance back. She knew the men would make sure Rose got back up the hill just fine.

Honestly. Men were so stupid, letting themselves be led around by their penises. Thank God she was female.

“Hey.”

She heard Jared, but kept walking, wringing water out of her braid rather than have it drip down her back and chill her further.

“Hey,” he said again, and grabbing her arm, pulling her around to face him.

“Don’t worry,” she said, lifting the trout. “I promise they won’t be slimy.”

His mouth quirked at the reference to his list of things to do. His hair was still standing straight up, and at some point today he’d gotten quite a bit of sun, which had bronzed his cheekbones.

He had his shirt back from Rose, but it was wadded in his hand and not on his dry torso, so she couldn’t stop her gaze from taking itself on a happy little tour, skimming over his shoulders, which were broader than she’d have guessed, and his chest, which had just the right amount of hair, not too much and not too little.

Not that she noticed.

Good Lord. Had she bumped her head in the dive? What other reason could there possibly be for her gaze to dip even farther and lock on his belly?

Flat and ridged, it rose and fell from the exertion of the tough walk.

And then there were his jeans.

God, she was a sucker for a man in jeans, and these were still wet and just loose enough that they’d slipped low, dangerously low actually, on his narrow hips, gaping away from his abs with every breath he took.

A woman, if she was so inclined, could slip her entire hand down into that loose waistband and-

“I didn’t realize this had turned into a race back up to the top,” he said.

“Sorry.”

Reaching out, Jared slid his hand along her jaw, lifting her face, which he then frowned into, his gaze locked on her cheekbone.

“What?” She slapped his hand away.

His lips curved slightly. “You just also have a-”

“What?”

He waggled a finger, pointing to her face, then reaching in-