Our boots crunched in the snow as we repeated the same loop. “Would you rather live the same day over for a year, or lose a year of your life?”
“Depends on the day,” I admitted.
“How about today?” he asked, his gaze searching mine.
My board nicked something, and my legs gave out. My arms windmilled and I clutched at Ryder’s jacket, my face smashed into him. My fingers gripped his broad shoulders, and it took everything I had not to let out a groan. Jeez, these were good shoulders. Capable, strong shoulders that I could lose myself in. We slowed to a stop, and Ryder pulled me closer, encasing me in his arms.
“Whoa. It’s okay, I got you.” His fingers stroked the back of my head in a comforting gesture.
Yes, Ryder. You totally have me with your hands that were forged from Thor’s hammer with unicorn tears.
I realized, in that moment, I would do anything to relive this day for an entire year.
Oh dear. Oh no.
His offer to teach me to board had seemed innocent enough. Now I’d seen my mistake too late. I had an easy time saying no to him when we were feet apart, but when my body was pressed against his, there was zero chance I could deny what I wanted…another taste of him. I wanted to rake my hands through his hair, down his back. Hell, I wanted a lot of things right now, and it was not a safe thought. Not when I had so much to lose.
I cleared my throat. “Right, I think I’m okay now.”
Slowly, reluctantly, he eased his grip from my arm and set me back on my own. He took a deep breath and looked down at me with an expression so tender that I momentarily forgot simple tasks such as breathing. And words. What use were vowels and consonants strung together, anyway?
He took my hands again, and even through the gloves, the heat of his skin, the gentle yet firm way that he held onto me, was a promise that he’d keep me safe. Trying new things, especially ones I didn’t excel at, tended to spike my anxiety meter. But even if I sucked at this, hardcore, I was having fun. He made this fun. “You’re doing great. Fantastic, since this is your first time.”
“Thanks. And you’re right. This is nothing like surfing.”
He didn’t say anything to that, didn’t crack one joke. He just continued to patiently work with me, giving pointers every once in a while. We did this a few more times, him helping me down the hill then unhooking my board and walking back up to the top to do it all over again. I’d fallen on my ass more times than I could count, but I had a smile plastered to my face the entire time. Ryder happened to be an awesome teacher, something that I wasn’t expecting at all.
“You’re ready to try it on your own now. I’m going to let go.”
“Okay,” I said hesitantly. I didn’t quite believe him. Without Ryder to catch me, going down this hill seemed an impossible task.
“Remember, bend your knees, move with the snow,” he said, his voice deep and reassuring.
“Be one with the snow; okay, Jedi Master.”
As I started sliding down the hill, I gained speed and began to wobble. I leaned lower, bending into the curve, and managed to stay upright the entire way. My cheer echoed through the bowl of the mountain as I plateaued at the bottom. I gave a victory fist-pump and sank to the ground, unbuckling my boots from the board.
Ryder sped down and sat beside me. “You did great!”
I smiled. “Thanks. I had a great teacher.” I bumped my arm against his. “Not every day I get instructions from a pro snowboarder.”
He shrugged. “Always happy to convert poor, unsuspecting souls to the dark side.”
For someone who loved the sport so much, it had to be hard to watch someone else ride while he sat on the sidelines.
“Are you going to start training again soon?”
His eyes searched mine, and a flash of pain radiated through his features.
Maybe it wasn’t my place to pry. He’d just gotten his cast off a week and a half ago, and there must be someone putting pressure on him to get back on the slopes. There was always pressure when money was involved.
“Eventually. I’m taking it day by day at this point.”
“Are you worried about your leg?” He seemed to be moving fine, but that didn’t mean anything when it came to hard falls. My butt understood this personally.
His Adam’s apple slid down his throat as he swallowed. “Yeah, I’m fucking scared. So are my sponsors. And my coach.”
I swallowed hard as my gaze traced over the strong lines in his jaw, the tiny lines in the corners of his eyes when he smiled at me. “I have a feeling if you want it bad enough, you’ll get it.”
“Does that apply to you, too?”
His gaze searched mine, and for a second those blue eyes pulled me under, to a point where I wasn’t sure what would come out of my mouth if he’d ask me out to dinner again. Okay, bullshit. I knew exactly what I’d say. Skip dinner. Take me home. Now. Heat flushed my cheeks even as the cold air bit into my skin. His thumbs stroked my arms, and time came to a screeching halt. The rush of my pulse throbbed in my temples, and each breath streaked the air with a tiny puff. My lips parted, and I moved toward him, giving him permission.
Do it. Lean down and kiss me. Before I change my mind.
His lips pressed together in response, as if he could tell exactly what I was thinking. Slowly he leaned in, his hands moving to my face, cupping my cheeks with his gloves.
“Dammit, Zoey. I don’t know how much longer I can take not having you.”
“Then answer this: would you rather have me now or later?”
With that, his mouth was on mine. Strong hands coasted down to the small of my back, every inch of my chest flattened against him. More. I couldn’t get close enough. The warm taste of peppermint bloomed in my mouth as his tongue swept across mine. Without his weight pressed into me, keeping me grounded, my body would float away in a boneless cloud.
He eased me back into the snow, and his hands were in my hair, running along my cheeks, gripping the back of my neck, and the tight grasp I’d had on reality slipped through my fingers like smoke. We’d danced around our attraction, using words as ammunition, and now that neither one of us was talking, we could finally hear one another.
I need you, my body screamed.
I’ll give you anything, everything, his body responded, pressing against mine.
Cold seeped into my clothes, and a shiver ripped through me. He pulled away and wrapped his arms around me, tugging me out of the snow, cradling me between his knees. “Can I take you inside?”
“Yes.”
Without a word, he stood, picked me up, and held me to his chest. His mouth was on me again, on my neck, nipping, sucking.
“The guys should be coming back any minute from lunch,” I said, remembering where we were.
“Do you promise to be quiet?”
There was a logical answer to that. I’m sure there was. But all my mind could come up with was Must. Have. Now. I nodded.
In the span of three long breaths, Ryder had me inside the lodge and backed me through the door of the old storeroom at the far end of the resort. He pressed me up against the bookshelf, palming my breasts, his mouth devouring mine.
My mind went blissfully blank as he pulled my hoodie and my shirt over my head and continued feverishly kissing his way across my chest.
“I’ve been thinking about you for months, Zoey. I couldn’t get you off my mind.” Another kiss to the valley between my breasts. “One time was not enough.”
The desperation in his voice had a direct line to the space between my thighs. One more time would never be enough.
His fingers dug into my hips as he ground into me, and I groaned as his erection pressed against my stomach.
More. Needed more. Faster.
I pulled his shirt over his head, and the fabric gave way to hardened muscle, ink splayed across his chest, down his arms. His breath hissed through clenched teeth as my fingers traced over each groove of muscle. This man, always so sure, so damn cocky, fell ap
art under my touch. His eyes squeezed shut, lashes feathering across his cheek.
“Zoey,” he said, my name a plea.
I spiraled, cast out to sea, so far that I couldn’t spot the shoreline anymore.
He brushed a strand of hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear, his palm cupping my cheek. His thick, calloused fingers caressed my skin, and I whimpered, leaning into his touch, and slipped farther out to sea, each wave of need shattering reality.
His lips worked from my neck down to my stomach and stopped at the button of my jeans. I looked down at him, on his knees, his worshiping eyes dilated as they devoured me inch by inch.
“You okay with this?”
“Yes.” But then remembered he’d just gotten out of his cast. “Wait, what about your leg?”
“Flash, not even a broken leg is going to get in the way of me tasting you.”
Well, then. Who was I to argue with the man?
He unfastened the button and pulled my jeans to the floor. I hastily stepped out of them, and his hands returned, cupping my ass, trailing down the inside of my thighs, my ankles. His lips started at my knee and worked along the muscle of my leg until his mouth hit the edge of my panties.
My head knocked into a shelf as he moved the lace to the side and his tongue met the aching space between my thighs. Sparks exploded behind my eyes as I writhed against his touch. His thumbs dug into my hips, stilling me against the bookcase.
His tongue continued at a relentless, maddening pace. Heat spread from my core, scorching everything in its path as I floated on the edge. Only one lick stood between me and complete obliteration.
“I—oh God.” A swirl. A single flick of his tongue and my world turned to a jumble of incoherent words, rough fingers digging into my skin, and my entire being hinging on his mouth’s every move.
My fingers fisted his hair, yanking him closer, greedy to take everything he had to offer. When he groaned, reality sat ten miles below me as I floated, losing myself in his touch.
He sat back on his haunches and smirked.
Footsteps echoed through the empty building, pulling me out of my blissful state.
“Zoey? Are you here still?” someone called.
“Shit.” I slammed back into Earth’s gravitational field. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Work. The resort. My client currently on his knees with my taste on his tongue.
Oh God, what was I thinking?
Chapter Eleven
Ryder
“Put your shirt on. Hurry!” Zoey whispered.
I’d never seen a woman dress so quickly in my life. She managed to get her jeans and shoes on before I’d pulled my shirt over my head.
“Stupid. So damn stupid,” she kept muttering.
“Flash, it’s okay. You’re dressed.”
“No, Ryder. It is not. We’re at my work. What if my contractors had walked in on us?”
“I’m sorry.” This was not how I pictured the aftermath of me getting down on my knees for her.
“I’m going to head out there and see if they need anything. I think it’d be best to take a breather for the rest of the day.”
“Yeah, sure.” I played it off as no big deal, but we had to talk about this. No way in hell would I take ten steps back when it came to her.
She barely waved good-bye as I made my way out to the parking lot.
…
Almost a week later and she hadn’t texted back except to update me with resort progress. I kept mulling it over in my head, replaying the interaction. I still couldn’t figure out what I did wrong. Maybe I never would.
I sat back in my recliner, clicking through channels, finally landing on a The Walking Dead rerun. My phone rang just as my mind began to drift.
I glanced at the phone and muttered under my breath before I answered. “Hi, Grandma.”
“How is the situation with your brother going?”
Didn’t even bother with formalities. All business today.
I paused my show and massaged my temple, waiting for the impending migraine to start. “What situation?”
“Convincing him to sell.”
“If by convincing him to sell you mean starting renovations, then it’s all going to plan. He seemed pleased with the design and made it into work last week.”
Not that I’d admit it to anyone, but the resort was starting to grow on me. I’d made another trip up to Divinity the other day, and with everything cleared out, I was able to see Jason’s vision for the renovations. Right now it was a shell of a place ready to store new memories.
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” my grandmother huffed. “I’ve talked to our lawyer, and he knows someone who is interested in the property.”
“Then you’ll have to run that by Jason.” I didn’t know why Grandma was coming to me with the scheming. I wouldn’t turn on my brother in this lifetime or the next.
Did I want the resort to sell, now that renovations were underway and everything in my personal life was up in the air? Not really. Two months ago, the thought of investing this much time into a project with a woman who was only supposed to be mine for a night would have had me on the next plane to Chile. I waited for it—the urge to run—and nothing came. I wanted to finish this renovation, and I wanted to explore more with Zoey.
Now I just needed to get on the same page with her. My stupidity took us five steps backward in the progress we’d made.
“He won’t return my calls,” she said.
“I’ll send a text. Is there anything else I can do for you?” Normally I didn’t care about my grandma’s antics, but when this directly affected my brother, it was a different story. Not to mention Zoey. If the place sold in the middle of renovations, who knew what would happen with the contract with Zoey’s firm.
“Your grandfather and I will be back in town in the next couple of months. I expect this all to be sorted out then.”
“Sounds good.” My grandparents were delusional if they thought Jason would ever sell the place. It meant too much to him. I hung up and tossed the phone on the cushion next to me.
Today was the day. It’d only been a few weeks since my cast had been taken off, but I wanted to try a run on my board. An easy one, nothing involving tricks, just a little shredding on some powder.
An hour later, I dropped my board in the back of my truck and made my way to one of the ski lodges about fifteen minutes from our resort.
My temples throbbed as I strapped myself in, watching the people riding down the mountain as the lift took me to the top of the trail. I needed this to work, needed some sort of normalcy to return to my life.
I sucked in a shaky breath as I hopped off the lift and rode to the crest of the hill. I sank into the snow and took a second to peer down the mountain. Easy. This was a simple run. All I had to do was manage not to fall on my face, which I hadn’t done since I was just learning how to board. Granted, these weren’t ideal conditions to get back into the swing of things. The snow was fairly packed at this point, especially with no new snowfall in the recent weeks, but I’d boarded in worse.
I was stalling, on something I had never thought twice about.
Before I could psych myself out any more, I pushed up and positioned myself to ride down the mountain. A couple of kids in beanies rode up next to me before I made my descent and said, “Hey, aren’t you Ryder Covington?”
I nodded.
“We saw your wipeout on YouTube. Cool that you’re already back on the slopes.”
I swallowed. “Ride or die.” That used to be my motto, but today I just wasn’t feeling that sentiment.
“Good luck, dude.” They both gave me a quick high-five, and with that, they were off, carving two paths through the snow.
When they were a safe distance away, I tilted my board and started down the mountain. Shooting pain spiked up my left side, and I gritted my teeth, pushing through it. If I fell, it’d only make it worse.
My whole world tilted as I made the descent. With no cond
itioning over the past couple of months, my legs wobbled, unsteady and unsure. Too much of my energy was spent babying my left side. Sweat rolled down my face before I even made it halfway down the trail, and I was so focused on my stance that I came within inches of a tree before cutting a hard right…and face-planting in the snow.
I pounded my fist into the snow and maneuvered my board over so I could sit up. Nothing appeared to be hurt besides my pride.
“You got this. You’ve done this a million times before.”
Right.
The part of me I liked to keep hidden away from the rest of the world was freaked as hell that I’d just fallen while doing something that came more natural than walking.
First time back. Nut up.
Next run, I managed to make it to the end without falling.
Two more times down the trail and my jaw ached from clenching my teeth, and my leg throbbed, so I decided to call it a day.
Even though I’d survived, I was far from competition ready.
Snowboarding was my zone. I used it to tune out the world. I’d take anything as a distraction right now—anything in the form of a designer who had gone MIA.
As soon as I got back to my apartment, showered, and pulled on a fresh set of clothes, I texted Zoey.
Ryder: You alive?
Zoey: Barely. Been swamped with renovations.
Ryder: I saw. It’s looking great up there. About last week…
Zoey: Snowboarding was fun, but my butt still hurts.
Ryder: That sounds like a personal problem. I can think of a way to help you out.
Zoey: You are sick.
Ryder: Your mind is in the gutter. I was going to say ice for 20, then heat for 20.
Zoey: Uh-huh. Right.
Ryder: My hands are available for massages any time you need, though. Just sayin’.
Zoey: Good to know.
Ryder: What’s your schedule like for the rest of the week?
A few seconds passed by then an image of a piece of paper popped up on my phone. It read: To-do list: 9:30-10:00 whine to Ryder about physical ailments. The rest of the week was blocked out with: Spend week at spooky resort.
Ryder: I’ve made it in to your planner? I feel like this is a monumental occasion. Maybe we should celebrate with dinner?
The Rule Maker (Rule Breakers) Page 13
