Into the Woods (66 page)

“Son of a bitch,” Lilly muttered, her anger giving her the strength to reach the top. Her heart pounded as she found the last step and turned on the narrow ledge to face the valley below.

Trees obscured her near view, but fields rolled in the distance. The freshening breeze lifted through her hair, cooling her. She could see the barn and house, a glint of light in the kitchen strengthening her resolve. Her mother had gotten out of the coop. By the time she realized where she’d gone, it would be over.

Her arms ached as she turned to the cliff face and lifted the vine curtain to reveal the opening. Cool air sifted out, the smell of dry dirt barely discernible. Numb, Lilly went inside, finding the lighter where she had left it, using it to ignite the lantern. Two bottles of unopened wine, a corkscrew, two glasses, and a wool horse blanket was all that was left of a broken romance, and flushing, Lilly looked away.

Moving quickly, Lilly wedged a stick of dynamite where it would bring the roof down about ten feet into the cave. Men were not all pigs. She knew this. And she wasn’t looking for Mr. Perfect. Just a nice guy who wouldn’t hit her kids or have sex with the town’s hairdresser.

Pissed, Lilly jammed the last stick right by the opening. Her hand slipped, and a sharp pain lanced through the fleshy part of her thumb. Biting back a cry, Lilly clutched her hand, giving the half-hidden stick a glance before moving to the opening to see what she’d done. It wasn’t bad, and she sucked at the small cut.

Blood is binding, Blood is lure. . . .

Lilly slowly took her hand from her mouth. Feeling daring, she wiped the blood on the edge of the opening with an abrupt defiance. The air was fresher at the opening, and she lingered, standing in the hole in the mountain, watching the air become clear as the sun neared rising. Inside, the lantern hissed.

Frowning, she stepped out onto the ledge, letting the vines fall to hide the opening. Her mother had tricked him once. She could do the same. “Penn?” she called, feeling foolish, then louder, “I was thinking all night about what you said. Can we talk?”

She listened, leaning to the edge. Three birds flew up from the forest below, but there was no whisper in her mind, no breath of wind on her cheek. No honey-eyed spirit to lie and lure her. Nothing.

“Lilly . . .”

The maybe-whisper came from behind her, and she spun, heart pounding. But there was nothing there, just the stark stone face with its trailing vines.

A crack of rock from below jerked through her, and she leaned over the edge. “Penn?”

The tops of a bush shook, and her breath came faster as she saw a masculine silhouette working its way up the switchback path. One hand on her hat, the other on the rock face, she leaned, her expression going sour as Kevin looked up at her, unmistakable in heavy denim pants, plaid shirt, work boots, and a hat and sunglasses.

Kevin? Damn it, what is he doing here?
Frustrated, Lilly leaned back into the rock, jerking forward when it felt as if something gave behind her. “I told you to stay off my land!”

“Leave? But I heard you call me,” Kevin said, the cadence of his words having the sound of the wind.

Lilly started, her expression going slack as she turned back to the drop-off. It wasn’t Kevin, it was Penn. Even his stance was different, poised to move effortlessly, graceful as he took the last switchback, the new sun shining on his stubbled cheeks. He looked even better in the sun than the moonlight. “Y-you,” she stammered, backing up almost into the cave as he lifted himself up the last bit and rolled gracefully to a stand.

Penn held his hands out to the rising sun, fingers spread and smiling. “It feels different up here. Sharp. It almost hurts, the sun rises so fast.” Head tilting, he eyed her. “I had almost forgotten how stunning sunrises can be—with the right woman beside you.”

“But . . .”

He took a step toward her, and she recoiled, holding a hand out in warning. “Don’t touch me.”

Penn stopped short, his gaze going to her hand. “You’re bleeding.”

Lilly froze. His hand slipped into hers, both familiar and new, sending a shiver through her. Was this Kevin, or was it Penn? Maybe she was going crazy after all. “You can touch me,” she said in awe, feeling a cool sensation that seeped under her skin to cool the heat of the day.

His smile dove deep into her, kindling a spark. “I can touch you. Thank you, Lilly, for believing me.”

Her eyes closed as he gently took her in his arms, and they slid backward into the dark, the vines rustling until they were surrounded by the earth. She let him move her, praying that he wouldn’t look up and see the stick of dynamite. His lips touched her neck under her ear, and she exhaled softly. It felt so good to be desired. His touch was gentle, reverent, and she wished it wasn’t a lie.

“I thought about you all night,” he said, and she remembered his eyes, glowing in the dark on her bridge like a wild thing come to seduce her with the promise of life. “Did you think of me?”

She couldn’t stop her shiver as his hand dropped to the small of her back and gently pulled her closer. “I thought about what you said,” she murmured, turning her head to draw away from his lips, but he only traced a line of sensation down her neck.

“You are amazing,” he breathed.

She looked up at him, knowing she was playing with the devil. “I want to believe,” she lied. This was for her children. This was for her mother. She would not allow her mother’s pain to be for nothing.

Still, he smiled, the faint light coming past the vines tinged with red as it struck them. “Believing is the easiest thing in the world. Just ask any child singing in the dusk at the edge of the forest. You, Lilly, will be my everything. I promise. It will be different this time.”

Oh God, he was touching her again, his hands slipping under her shirt to grip her waist, his thumbs pushing at her midriff, massaging, hinting at what he might do.

“You will be my world,” he whispered, his words moving her hair, and she wanted to believe. “I will love you forever, and we will do everything, go everywhere.”

She pushed back, blinking when she saw Kevin’s brown eyes, not Penn’s golden ones, but the confident smile and heat of passion were there, and she knew it was the spirit. “Show me,” she demanded, and his smile widened as he bent to her, lips parted.

She gave in to her desires, meeting his passion with her own, standing in the shadowed sun between earth and sky as he met her mouth, hungry for all, for everything.
To live
, she thought, feeling everything as sharp and new as if she’d never felt the kiss of the sun or caress of the wind. Each touch was a shock through her, each soft sound drove her to more daring, more freedom. His hands were a demanding pressure, and she pressed into him, feeling a rising desire.

His hands rose, a thumb running under the curve of her breast, and she pulled away as a thrill of adrenaline ran though her. Wild, his eyes met hers, enticing, daring, promising more as his hands moved unceasing, and she panted, wanting it to never end. But it would. They all screwed it up in the end. “Do you promise?” she breathed, a trembling hand shifting a lock of hair from his eyes. “I want to hear it.”

“Everything,” he whispered, and she ran her hands down his body to feel him, to see his response, shuddering his delight at her touch.

It was enough, and she hooked a finger in the top of his jeans, pulling him deeper into the cave. Only now did she allow a wicked smile to play about her lips, and seeing it, he held her tighter as they moved, his hands always shifting, changing pressure and demand like the pulse of the world across her. “Tell me you’re not a ghost,” she said as they found the comforting dark of the back, and her shoulders pressed into rock. “That you’ll never leave me.”

The heat of him covered her, and he kissed her neck, his teeth sending jolts through her. “Give me this, and I’ll be beside you every morning. I promise.”

It was what she wanted to hear. His hand tugged at the hem of her shirt, and she moved sinuously, raising her arms and letting him take it from her. The darkness brushed her, raising tingles, and then his lips as he found her. Her head flung back, and she gripped his hair, encouraging him as her leg twined about him.

“You are everything to me, Lilly,” he said, her breast going cool where his lips had been. “Everything. I promise you everything.”

His lips found her again, and she arched her back as his hand ran lower, finding the curve of her back, and then lower yet, tugging her into him. All but oblivious with desire, she found his zipper and lowered it tantalizingly slowly as he pulled upon her, mirroring her tease. She was gasping when the zipper would move no more, and almost she was willing to abandon herself to the lie of Penn to have this . . . forever.

And with that thought, her resolve came rushing back. It was a lie. Nothing was forever.

“Wait. Wait!” she gasped, and he made a growl of frustration, pinning her shoulder to the wall.

“I have waited forever,” he said, his eyes inches from hers, the glow of her passion reflected in them.

“Then you can wait thirty seconds more,” she said, reaching past his zipper to find him. “Wait.”

Eyes shut, he trembled as she touched him. Slowly they opened as she reluctantly left him, and he moved aside and let go of her shoulder to make it clear he was indeed . . . waiting. “I have watched you grow up, Lilly. I have seen your tears, and I have dried them. I will wait,” he said as she pushed herself in motion, her pace unsteady and her pulse fast as she moved from him. Every step was hard, every motion cried out that she was a fool. Yes, men lied. Yes, they were stupid. But the way he had made her feel, the power she had over him . . . The power he had over her . . .

She turned, seeing his eyes glowing gold at the back of the cave. Her thoughts turned to Meg and Em, to her mother a tender fourteen. He was a monster. It would end here.

“But I will not wait forever,” he said, and staggering, she picked her shirt up.

“You won’t have to.” Feet stumbling on the uneven floor, she fumbled for a candle, lighting it from the lantern still glowing by the door.

“Lilly?”

Shaking, she lit the fuse, the sparks as it ignited making her resolute fear easy to see.

“Lilly.”

He was unsure but clueless, and she steadily paced to the front of the cave, her blood cooling and her ardor already ash. “Good-bye, Penn.”

“Lilly!” he shouted, but she ducked outside, putting her back to the wall as the earth shook and a billow of cool dust and rock-chip cloud exploded from the opening.

“Lilly!” he screamed, but she wasn’t sure if it was real or in her mind.

The second explosion was stronger, and she fell, arms grasping for anything, finding nothing to hold as she was thrown down the steep incline. Her breath came out in a cry as she slammed into a tree, and she looked up in awe as the rock face high above cracked and slid down, covering the opening that the first explosion had sealed.

Lilly!

The rumble of earth was only in her memory, and the waving trees stilled. In the near distance, a jay screamed. She stared at the raw cut of stone, seeing the shimmering line of a spider ballooning on the early rising air. The perfect fragility of it was shocking against the raw destruction. It glinted blood red in the sun, going invisible as it touched the stone now covering the opening and seemed to vanish. Another joined it, and then a third.

Lilly turned away. Her shirt was in her hand, and she looked at it numbly. Slowly, arms aching and thigh bruised, she put her shirt back on and turned her face away from the woods and to the sun. Her children waited. Her mother would be worried.

Blinking, Lilly picked her way back to the open meadow. Before her the sun rose like a goddess, powerful, uncaring, and blood-red.

FIVE

T
he creek’s chatter was absent as Lilly emerged from the forest, trudging past the barn to the house. Damp rocks glistened in the bright sun, the bridge spanning an empty gully. The water was gone.

Her mother had not been in the henhouse when she had gone by, and there was a clatter of silverware and cheerful, high-pitched voices coming through the kitchen window. Numb and depressed, Lilly wearily walked up the porch steps, hesitating at the top a moment before going in. The scent of fresh biscuits and eggs drifted out, making her stomach clench.

Pepper whined at the screen door, and her mother looked up from the counter, a damp cloth in her hand and an apron around her waist. Her hair was in an unusual disarray, and she glared at Lilly, understandably angry. Behind her, the kitchen table was empty of all but one place setting. Lilly pulled the screen door open, not responding when the girls at the sink splashed each other. Em was on a stool but still almost chest high with the counter as she studiously washed their breakfast plates.

“I’m sorry,” Lilly said, her eyes rising from the unused plate on the table, and her mother went to the girls, her lips pressed tight as her old hands lightly touched their backs in an expression of security.

“I’ll get the rest, loves. You go on out to the barn. Make a fort out of the straw bales or something. Your mother and I will finish cleaning up.”

In a happy chatter and dropping suds, they flowed out of the kitchen, long hair and cries of “Hi, Mom!” streaming behind them.

The screen door slammed shut, and still Lilly stood, just inside the door of her mother’s house, her arms around her middle. Penn was trapped, doomed to die maybe if he stayed out of a tree long enough. So why did she feel like a little girl who had hidden the broken cookie jar?
He had been so beautiful, so dangerous
.

“I can’t believe you locked me in the chicken coop.” Motions abrupt, her mother went to the sink to finish the dishes.

“I said I was sorry.” Coming in, she tried to wash her hands to help, only to find herself rebuffed. “I didn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Like crawling through that chicken hole was easy? I could have used your help this morning out at Rock Island.”

Lilly’s head came up. “Doing what?”