It was barely after eight in the morning, and her breath formed small clouds as she breathed. Around her, businesspeople in suits hurried to their offices, their expressions intense, their strides inhibited by dress shoes. For once Jamie didn’t mind being dressed differently. Although she often thought about trying to look like everyone else, right now she didn’t want to be anywhere else. She was happy in shorts and a sweatshirt, no makeup and her long hair tied back in a ponytail. She fit in right where she was-at Zach’s side.
“You’re breathing pretty hard, Jones,” she teased.
He wiped sweat from his brow and grinned. “Don’t worry about me, Sanders. I can keep up.”
The light turned green, and they started across the street. Jamie set their pace. She kept them at a slow jog, knowing Zach wasn’t up to a hundred percent yet. Every step was a fight because she wanted to race around, running hard and fast with the sheer joy of being alive. She’d been happy before; she’d even felt joy. But she’d never experienced this soul-healing sense of being one with the universe, of knowing that it was all going to work out.
She turned and jogged backward. “Thanks for suggesting we come here,” she said. “I love this city.”
He shrugged. “It’s pretty nice. I usually avoid people when I’m at the cabin, but I’ve never spent more than a couple of weeks there at a time. All that solitude starts to play with my mind.”
“So you were suffering from cabin fever, too?”
His gaze met hers. Something wild and passionate surged to life. She felt the heat clear down to her toes.
“Oh, yeah,” he said.
She flushed and faced front again, so he wouldn’t see. Cabin fever brought on by her presence? She hoped so. She would like to think that she got to him.
After all, he got to her in a big way.
As they dodged pedestrian traffic, she thought about last night. They’d laughed about their time with the agency, something that didn’t happen very often. By an unspoken agreement, they’d only shared the funny times. Then they’d returned to bed.
They hadn’t made love. Instead, Zach had held her long into the night. He’d stroked her hair and whispered her name in the darkness. In a way, it had been more intimate than any physical joining. She’d known that time was specifically about her, and not because he had an itch that wanted scratching. She’d also liked that he was comfortable enough not to have to perform. She wanted their relationship to be about more than sex. She wanted to get him to see the possibilities.
She glanced ahead at another signal. “Think we can make it before it turns red?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“Great.” She sprinted to the curb, quickly checked traffic, then darted into the street. When she reached the other side, she was alone. Zach stood on the corner with his hands on his thighs. He was breathing heavily.
After the light turned green again, he started across at a slow jog. “Why don’t you go on ahead?” he said when they were together again. “I don’t have my speed back.”
“I don’t mind.” She jogged around him once, then slowed her pace to his. “I can think of this as my good deed for the day. Helping the elderly across streets and the like.”
He gave her a mock growl. “Thirty-seven isn’t elderly. I have the soul of a teenager.”
She grinned. “Other parts are pretty young, too.”
He raised his eyebrows. They both laughed.
Jamie stayed at his side. Zach was seven years older than her, and he’d been in the agency seven years before she’d joined. That meant fourteen years in the field, altogether. A lifetime. No wonder he didn’t do well in the real world. If she could barely remember what it was like to be a regular person, to him it was probably just a half-remembered dream. Could she change that or was she wishing for the moon?
They turned right at the corner and spotted the hotel a few blocks up. By mutual agreement, they slowed to a walk to start their cool down.
“You did great,” she said.
“It’s getting better.” He wiped the sweat from his face. “At least here the terrain is level. At the cabin, I can’t get away from uphill running.”
“I know. But think of the great workout.”
He shook his head. “I prefer this, thanks.”
She thought about him running in the woods. Every day she watched him go away, then come back. She wanted to believe it would always be like that. Sometimes he would have to leave her, but later he would return. Was that possible, or would he one day just keep going? After all, they had a deal.
She shook her head to banish the question. She didn’t want to spoil their time together. It was enough that they were here and having fun. She wouldn’t deal with the “what ifs” until she had to.
When they reached the front of the hotel, they stretched their aching muscles.
“How do you feel?” Jamie asked.
“Not bad.” He tugged on the end of her ponytail. “What do you want to do with the rest of our day?”
Make love. For a second, she wasn’t sure if she’d just thought the words or actually said them. Zach continued to look at her inquiringly, so she figured she’d only thought them. Fighting a sudden burst of shyness, she could only duck her head and say, “I’m not familiar with the city. What would you like to do?”
He draped his arm around her shoulders and ushered her into the hotel. “I was thinking about a visit to the zoo. How does that sound?”
“I haven’t been to a zoo since I was kid. It sounds great.”
Zach stared at the pacing leopard. Unlike some zoos he’d seen in the past, the Denver zoo emphasized natural habitats. The animal had the feel of being in the wild, although it knew it was confined. The illusion of freedom was something Zach understood. In an odd way, he’d come to pay his respects to those most like him-the caged beasts.
“They’re so beautiful,” Jamie said, leaning against the railing. “Seeing large cats on television is impressive enough, but that doesn’t give you any sense of their strength. Even from this distance, I can see his shoulder muscles bunching and releasing with each step. He could rip a person apart with a casual blow.”
“Then eat you from the inside out,” Zach said.
Jamie glanced at him. “Thanks so much for the share. That’s a cheerful thought I want to carry with me.”
He tapped the end of her nose. “Don’t worry. You wouldn’t be his first choice. Meat eaters prefer to dine on plant eaters.”
Her dark blond eyebrows drew together. “How’d you know that?”
“I’m a repository for useless bits of trivia.”
“All right, answer me this. Are black leopards solid black?”
He turned his attention back to the pacing animal. It moved through the shadows of several rocks. “No. Watch when it comes out into the sun. You’ll be able to see that black leopards are spotted like their lighter cousins. They also have the same squared nose and wide head. With that information, we’ve exhausted everything I know about leopards.”
“It’s more than me,” she said, and leaned against him.
He wrapped his arms around her. She wore an oversize sweater and tight jeans. He rested one hand on her hip and buried the other in her loose hair.
“What do you suppose they think about?” she asked.
“Getting out. But if they’ve spent their whole lives in a cage, they wouldn’t know what to do with their freedom.”
Other people liked different animals at the zoo. The birds, or maybe the primates. Not Zach. The cats had always reminded him of himself. He knew exactly how they felt as they paced back and forth. His cage was larger, and he couldn’t always see the bars, but it was still there.
He was a prisoner of the life he’d chosen, a prisoner of his past. He wasn’t free to come and go like everyone else.
Jamie placed her hand flat on his chest. Desire flickered through him. He liked being around her. She reminded him he was alive and could still experience physical need.