He just stood beside her, not making a move to touch her, and he said again, “Do it now, Kelly. Take a full breath.”

Something in the authority of his voice triggered an innate instinct to breathe. Her throat relaxed enough for the next breath she attempted to work. Her lungs filled with air again, and the strangling eased in the aftermath.

She stayed on her hands and knees on the dirt trail, as broken as she’d ever been in her life. But she could breathe again, so she did.

“Tell me what happened to your father,” Caleb said, after giving her a minute to recover.

“He was…he was shot. He was…he was killed.” With one last, desperate effort, she managed to stop herself from blurting out the whole truth, giving away her last hidden secret, the one she could never tell Caleb. She kept herself from saying he was murdered.

“Why was he killed, Kelly?”

She was sobbing helplessly, and she huddled down into the fetal position. If she didn’t get out of here soon, she was genuinely afraid she might die. She managed to remember the story she’d told Caleb before. “Hunting…accident.”

She was too overwhelmed to sense anything from Caleb. He was just an unmoving presence nearby. But he felt strong in a way that contrasted sharply with how she was feeling herself, so she finally lifted her head and looked at him blindly. “Please, Caleb. Help me.”

She heard a strange sound. A guttural sound that must have come from Caleb, although her mind wasn’t working enough to begin to process it.

Then she was being lifted up to her feet.

Her knees buckled immediately and she fell back down.

“Damn it, Kelly,” he muttered. “Damn it all to hell.”

She had no idea what he meant. What anything meant. She just reached out to him because she needed him, and he was right there beside her.

He lifted her to her feet again, and this time he didn’t let her go. He swung her up into his arms, and he started to carry her back down the trail, out of the woods at last.

She buried her face in his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him as tight as she could get. And then, finally, they were breaking out of the trees, back in the sunshine again. She expected him to set her down on the ground, now that they were out of the woods, but he didn’t. He carried her off the trail and down the hill and into a secluded little hollow out of sight where there was a stream and several large rocks.

Only there did he lower her to the ground. He lowered himself too, sitting on the grass where he could lean against one of the rocks. He pulled her toward him, and she came willingly, taking comfort in him, in the sunshine, in the safety of the fresh air and clear sky.

Eventually she stopped crying, but she couldn’t pull away from him. She felt so battered that she couldn’t move. She just lay in the grass with her head in his lap.

He stroked her hair and didn’t say anything.

She had no idea what he was thinking, but she was really glad he was here.

After what felt like a really long time, her trembling had stopped and her tears had all dried. She still couldn’t raise her head, but she said, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Caleb.”

“What are you sorry about?” His voice sounded weird and cracked.

She was sorry for everything. Absolutely everything.

“I…” She couldn’t say it, not if she had any hope of making all of this worthwhile. “I tried to be strong enough, but I’m not.”

He didn’t say anything. Just kept stroking her hair.

“Maybe eventually I’ll be able to face it. Thank you.”

“For what?” His voice still sounded strange, but everything seemed strange to her at the moment.

She took a deep breath and managed to sit up at last. “For trying to help me. For caring about me that much.” She leaned toward him, reaching out to pull him into a hug.

He returned it, his arms so tight they were almost painful.

When they finally pulled apart, it didn’t feel like enough, so she pulled his head down into a kiss.

“Thank you,” she murmured over his lips. “I love you, Caleb. I love you.”

He made a hoarse sound and started to pull away.

She didn’t let him. “I love you,” she said. “Please let me show you how much.”

“How?” he breathed, their faces a breath apart, his brown eyes intense and questioning and almost wild. He stroked his knuckles down her hot cheek. “How will you show me?”

She gazed at his face—the strong, well-chiseled features, the powerful jaw, the deep eyes. Before she knew what she was doing, she put one hand on his chest, stroking it down over his gray T-shirt.

She stared at her hand as it caressed lower down his body and she saw that he was looking at her hand too.

Soon it was at his belly. Then at the top button of his jeans.

She paused there intentionally, giving him a chance to stop her if he didn’t want to do this too.

He didn’t stop her.

So she lowered her hand even more and cupped his groin.

He was partly erect already, and it must have happened suddenly, since she knew very well he hadn’t been aroused earlier, when she’d been a broken mess. Her head had been in his lap. She would have known.

His response now must have happened quickly. As quickly as her desire to show him how she felt.

Her pussy clenched as she palmed him, a deep intensity of feeling building up inside her.

When she glanced up again, she saw his gaze was devouring her with an aching intensity that was somehow different from what she was used to seeing from him.

She squeezed his erection gently and saw when he sucked in a quick breath.

“Kel—” He broke off when she squeezed him again, his expression twisting in pained pleasure. Then he continued, “Are you sure? After what just happened, you want to…”

“Yes. I’m sure. Let me show you.”

“Kelly,” he repeated on a taken breath, his eyes falling closed as she massaged him. “Show me.”

“I will.”

He wrapped his arms around her and then kissed her, hard and fast and hungrily.

It felt like they were alone in the world, here by a stream in the middle of nowhere, all of the twisted brokenness that had made them who they were and brought them together lost in the blurred edges of the woods—woods that were too far away to matter anymore.

It was just them. Kelly and Caleb. Clinging to each other, finding a bond, a security that had never existed before they’d come together.

Caleb leaned back against the rock, letting her push him into a stabler position as they kissed deeply, urgently. She straddled him, never breaking their embrace. She rubbed her arousal against the hardness of him—the denim between them another layer of sensation.

Their kiss grew more passionate, and then both of them were fumbling at their jeans, taking hers off completely and unfastening his so they could free his erection.

Still in her panties, Kelly straddled his lap again. She let Caleb pull her up enough so he could kiss a wet trail down her neck to her right breast, taking her nipple in his mouth through her shirt. She moaned and let her head fall back as she felt tugs of sensation tighten between her legs from his suckling.

“Show me,” he murmured against her skin. His hands were stroking down the long line of her back, the tight curve of her bottom, and the muscles of her thighs. “Show me how much you love me.”

She gazed at him, living a lie and the absolute truth at the same time. Then she leaned down into another kiss, surrendering to it completely. To him. Completely.

“Oh, God,” she breathed, pulling back from his mouth just an inch. “I want you to make love to me, Caleb.”

With a guttural sound, Caleb readjusted, flipping them over so quickly she lost her breath. She was abruptly on her back with Caleb poised on top of her, supporting himself on one arm.

“You really want me to?” he rasped.

“Want you to what?” She was breathless and so aroused she felt almost dizzy.