The Courage Tree - Diane Chamberlain [105]
He grinned at her. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
“Living for the moment,” she said with a smile. “Seizing the day, and all that.”
He stood up and drew her into his arms for another kiss, and she tasted the sugar on his lips, the coffee on his tongue. She thought of all the times she’d imagined making love with him. Without a moment’s hesitation, she took him by the hand and led him to her bedroom.
The bed was unmade, the down comforter piled in a heap on the sheet. She pulled off her sweater, then his, and he watched her as though intrigued by what she would do next.
She touched his splint.
“Can we take this off?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No,” he said, “but everything else is fair game.”
She lifted his undershirt over his head, then reached for the buckle on his belt. He made no move to stop her, but she found herself unable to continue undressing him when he slipped her bra from her shoulders and leaned down to stroke his tongue across her breast. Her legs instantly gave out from under her, and she let him take over, feeling as though she had no choice in the matter. She was going to be made love to by a man who knew how to make the most of every moment.
Afterward, she lay in his arms, awash in a sense of peace that felt alien and new. They had not had intercourse. That had been his call, since she was not taking the Pill, and she had both admired and been grateful for his self-control. Instead, he’d pleasured her with his hands and his mouth, and she’d done the same in return.
“Thank you,” she said.
He lifted his head to look at her. “For making love?” he asked.
“No, for the Christmas present. For giving me back my life, and Sophie’s. For reminding me what’s important.”
Lucas’s simple counsel had changed the way Janine had lived her life these past few months. She’d found time every day to do something fun with her daughter. She’d rejected any treatment that might give Sophie a few more months of life, only to make those months miserable. And she began arguing with Joe over the best medical care for Sophie. He did not share her newfound appreciation of taking joy in the moment, and he’d looked at her blankly when she tried to explain it to him.
As she spotted Lucas’s car turning into the parking lot of the small airport, though, Janine wondered how it could be possible to find any joy in a day like today, when Sophie was lost in the woods, probably sick and undoubtedly terrified.
She walked across the tarmac to meet Lucas. Once out of his car, he hugged her hard. “Still no news?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said.
“Forgive me for last night,” he said, holding her, pressing his lips to her temple. “For not being with you. I know it must seem as though I’ve got my priorities screwed up, but—”
“It’s all right,” she interrupted. “I know you would have been with me if you could have.”
“You are a very understanding woman.”
“Forget it,” she said, shrugging off the compliment. “Let’s just get up in the air.”
“Were the dogs able to pick up Sophie’s scent again?” he asked, when they were hovering over the site of the accident. It looked so different now than it had only a few days earlier. The car was gone, of course, and the rain had brought new growth with it, the fresh green color masking much of the charred earth.
Janine shook her head. “Not yet,” she said. “They figure the rain must have washed away her scent. But I checked at the trailer before going to the airport this morning, and Valerie said they were still trying. They haven’t given up.”
“Lucky for them,” Lucas said. He leaned over to kiss her cheek. “They’d have to face Janine Donohue’s wrath if they did.”
Flying directly west of the accident site, they were able to locate the creek where Sophie’s scent had been found—and lost. Janine flew out from that