When Summer Ends

by Isabelle Rae

  He smiled, seeming unconcerned. “I thought it would, but you wanted me to be honest so I didn’t lie like I normally would have done if a girl had asked me that question.” He leant forward and cocked his head to the side, obviously waiting for my reaction.

  I didn’t know how to react. Yes, he’d just admitted he was a player, but, on the other hand, he also told me the truth knowing I would react badly to it. So what did that mean exactly? Damn, this boy is just confusing!

  “Well I guess we’ll see how hard you’re willing to work now then,” I said, grinning. He seemed to relax a little when I said that, maybe he was expecting I demand he take me home or something. “Besides, I’m interested to see what your favourite thing to do is, if it’s not women,” I added, smirking at him.

  He laughed. “Hopefully you’ll like it; if not then we can go see a movie or something.”

  Thankfully the food came over then which gave us something else to talk about. We talked and flirted over dinner. We talked about movies, music, and random likes and dislikes. I’d actually had an extremely enjoyable time with him. Plus the food was incredible; I would undoubtedly come back to this place again.

  When we were done eating, he led me to his car, pulling out of the restaurant parking lot with a big grin on his face. He was obviously excited about whatever we were going to do now. When the car stopped I looked up at the building shocked. “An indoor ski slope?” I mused, looking at it nervously. I was more than a little intimidated by the vastness of the building, and that was only the outside.

  He laughed and climbed out of the car, walking round and opening my door for me before heading to the trunk. He pulled out a thick black fleece sweater and held it out to me. “It gets a little cold in there,” he said, nodding at the building. I took if and pulled it on, swallowing loudly. I’m so going to break my leg I can just see it happening. I silently thanked Amy for suggesting I go for flat shoes tonight in case we were walking anywhere.

  I watched as he pulled on a sweater and held out a hand to me. I looked at it and smirked at him. “Oh no, you’ve still not made up for teasing me,” I declined, crossing my arms. He laughed and put his hands on my shoulders instead, pushing me towards the building. My nerves grew more pronounced with each step.

  Once inside, he led us past the counter. “Hey, Mac, we’re going on for a while okay,” he called as he led me through the ‘staff only’ door.

  I glanced at him confused. “Do you work here?” I asked, looking around nervously. No one seemed to be yelling us to get out of the staff area so he must.

  He nodded. “Yeah, I give lessons.”

  Lessons? “Really? What sort?” I questioned as he walked us past a huge rack of snowboards.

  He shrugged casually. “Skiing, snowboarding, and I also supervise the tubing sessions, which is what we’re doing tonight.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. Okay, what the heck is tubing? Sounds kind of painful. He grinned at my obviously concerned face. “Don’t worry, Cutie, I’ll look after you,” he vowed, smirking at me as he flicked my nose. He turned and walked over to a huge stack of black rubber rings.

  “Oh man, really?” I muttered, turning my nose up at them.

  He laughed and grabbed two rings, nodding towards another door. I opened the door and walked through; cold immediately attacked my system making me draw in a sharp breath and pull my elbows in against my side, hunching my shoulders. I thanked him silently with my eyes for giving me the fleece.

  He nodded around the corner so I walked in that direction. As I turned the corner, I stopped again, my mouth popping open in awe. There was a huge hill of snow, people were skiing and snowboarding down it. There was a snow blower going at the top making it look like it was snowing inside. It was beautiful.

  “Holy crap, I didn’t even know this place was here!” I cried excitedly. “Is it real snow?” I immediately bent down, grabbing a handful, expecting it to be that fake plastic snowflake stuff they use in the movies. It wasn’t though, it was real powdery snow and it instantly made my fingers cold. I laughed and squeezed it into a ball throwing it at his back as he walked past me.

  “Er, Chloe, no throwing snowballs or I’ll have to ask you to leave,” he scolded, nodding at a large sign that was mounted on the wall. It had pictures of all the prohibited things on it. Right at the top was snowball throwing, second was snow angels.

  “Oh man, you can’t even make an angel?” I pouted. Shoot, I was just about to do that!

  He shook his head sternly. “Rules of the house. Come on.” He grinned and stepped onto an escalator that was slowly moving up the hill. I jumped on behind him, rolling snow around in my hands, resisting the urge to throw it at his edible little behind.

  When we reached the top he set the rings down. I looked down the hill immediately hit by a wave of vertigo. We were so high that my stomach seemed to quiver. I was the type of person that could break bones in the most unlikely events like dancing, so this was just tempting fate. “Um, this is really high, I don’t think I can,” I whimpered, backing away from the edge, shaking my head.

  “Chloe, I promise you’ll love it, you just need to try. If you don’t love it then we’ll leave,” he persuaded, walking up to me and bending to look into my eyes. His beautiful grey eyes were boring into mine, it was as if he was trying to hypnotise me or something.

  “I can’t,” I whispered, looking back in the direction of the hill. I can’t sit in a ring filled with air and push myself off that hill, no way.

  He smiled reassuringly. “I give lessons to kids as young as six. Everyone loves tubing. Come on, I promise you’ll be fine. You just need to trust me.” He took my hand and pulled me closer to his chest. Oddly, his smell was somewhat calming. “You can trust me,” he whispered, cupping my cheek with the other hand.

  Oh man up, Chloe, you’re making yourself look like a wimp! “Kids really do this?” I asked, watching his face to see if he was lying.

  He nodded. “Kids do it all the time.” He leant in closer to me. His eyes flicking down to my lips made his intention clear. Just as his lips were about to touch mine I turned my head so he kissed my cheek. He laughed and shook his head. “Still not made up for the teasing, huh?”

  “Damn right.”

  “Come on, Cutie, let’s give it a try. Want to go together? You can sit in my lap if you don’t want to go on your own,” he offered, raising an eyebrow. He looked so sexy that my insides did a little dance.

  “Don’t push your luck, Will,” I scoffed. “Come on let’s get this done before I change my mind. If I don’t like it then we go watch a movie, deal?” I bargained.

  He nodded and held the smaller of the two rings still for me to climb in. “Stand at the front and open your legs, relax, and then kind of sit back onto it,” he instructed.

  I laughed wickedly. “Right, and you say that to all of the girls I bet.”

  He laughed. “Only the beautiful ones,” he replied, winking slyly at me.

  I lowered myself into the ring gripping the handles for dear life. “Oh crap,” I muttered over and over. I tried to ignore Will chuckling at me. He was just about to push me off the edge when I screamed, grabbing hold of the leg of his jeans. “No! Aren’t you coming too?” I squealed, giving him my begging face.

  “Damn, that’s a cute face,” he said, laughing and shaking his head at me.

  “Please! Can’t we go at the same time?” I begged, struggling to get out of my ring. I frowned. Wow, getting out of one of these isn’t the easiest thing to do in the world.

  Will put his hand on my shoulder, pushing me back down into the ring. He leant over me, smiling wickedly. “It’ll cost you,” he whispered. His face was inches from mine, his eyes flicked down to my lips for a split second. I nodded quickly and grabbed the front of his sweater, pulling him forwards so his lips crashed to mine. He smiled against my lips and pulled away smirking at me. “I was thinking more like five bucks but hey that works too,” he joked, laughing. He pressed his lips to mine again for
a second and then stood back up.

  I watched as he settled himself into his ring, using his foot to stop him from going over the edge. He grabbed my hand, interlacing our fingers. “Ready?” he asked. I nodded. Immediately he lifted his foot. His hand jerked against mine and suddenly we were both hurtling down the hill. We were going so fast I could barely breathe, but I couldn’t stop laughing with that amused fright that you get on roller coasters. I probably hurt his hand because of how tight I gripped it, but he didn’t complain.

  Within a few seconds we were at the bottom. I couldn’t stop laughing. That was awesome! I clambered awkwardly out of my ring, jumping up and down, squealing excitedly. “Oh God, I want to go again! Can we go again?” I asked, giggling and turning back to him. As soon as I turned, a snowball smacked me right in the leg. I squeaked from the shock of it and looked up at Will, confused. Did he just throw that at me? “I thought you said it wasn’t allowed?” As soon as the words left my mouth another snowball sped towards me. I barely had time to turn around and cover my face before it smacked into my back. “Oh game on!” I called, grabbing a load of snow and lobbing it at him.

  We had a huge snowball fight at the bottom of the hill. One of my throws hurtled straight past him and smacked straight into a young kid on skis. The kid looked up shocked; I giggled and pointed at Will, blushing like crazy, trying to look innocent. Will was laughing his ass off. The kid started to laugh as he kicked off his skis and joined in the fight. After that almost everyone in the whole place joined in, taking off skis and snowboards, running around trying to pelt each other with snow.

  We quickly divided into two teams, boys verses girls, which I must say was pretty fair in my book considering there were almost twice as many girls. I threw a couple at the kids and a few at the dads, but my attention was firmly fixed on Will - who actually seemed happy just to hit as many people as possible, boys or girls, he didn’t seem to care.

  I crept up behind him and tapped his shoulder. He turned back to me, laughing. “Hey,” I whispered, biting my lip trying to look sexy. My plan must have worked as his eyes flicked down to my lips. I raised one eyebrow and he grinned before bending down and placing his lips against mine softly. I almost forgot what I was trying to do because the kiss was so sweet.

  When I regained my composure, I grinned against his lips and pulled away quickly, smashing my handful of snow on the back of his head. I giggled uncontrollably when the snow started to fall down the back of his sweater. He gasped and jerked forward. His wide eyes held a mixture of accusation and amusement. The shocked look on his face made me laugh so hard I could barely breathe.

  He composed himself quickly and grabbed me, tackling me to the ground gently. His body pressed against mine as he pinned me down with his weight. I tried to wriggle out from underneath him, but he just held me still easily, grabbing my arms and pinning them above my head. He freed one of his hands and scooped up a handful of snow. Still pinning my hands down, he bent his head, pulling the fleece up with his teeth, exposing my stomach.

  I squealed and laughed like a lunatic as his hand rubbed the cold snow onto my stomach. “Stop, stop!” I squeaked breathlessly.

  He did stop, but not because I asked him to. His hand stopped moving and I felt him fingering my belly button, looking at me a little shocked. “You have a piercing?” he inquired, letting go of my hands and pushing himself up so he was straddling me still pinning my legs to the freezing floor. I could feel the wet seeping into my clothes, but I didn’t care, all I could focus on was the lustful expression on his face as he lifted my top higher to have a look at the platinum bar I had through my navel. He definitely liked it, and I liked him liking it. My whole body was starting to get warm as my mouth started to water; he still hadn’t taken his eyes, or fingers, off of it.

  I took advantage of his distraction and twisted to the side, throwing him off of me. I squealed and jumped up, running as fast as possible to the little group of girls off to one side. I could hear him laughing behind me.

  After another half an hour my hands were stinging with the cold. I could see Will crouched down with a group of boys and their dads on the other side of the arena. There were about fifty snowballs all made ready in front of them, just waiting to pounce.

  Oh man, I’ve really had enough. My whole body was shaking with the cold, my clothes were soaked, my perfectly straightened hair was now dripping wet and hanging in rats tails around my face. I must look extremely attractive!

  “Will, I’ve had enough!” I shouted. I purposefully stayed hidden in my little safe spot where I was crouched behind one of the fences at the side of the slope.

  “Okay, come on then, let’s go,” he shouted back. His voice had an amused, yet challenging twang to it.

  He doesn’t mean that at all, he just wants me out of my safe place. Damn competitive boy. “Seriously, I’ve had enough, I’m cold.” I turned and peeked out, looking in the direction he was hidden. A snowball whizzed in my direction. I just managed to get my head back in behind the fence in time. Jeez, he’s a good throw.

  “Will, please, can we leave? I promise I’ve had enough,” I begged.

  “Is this a trick?”

  “No, I promise,” I vowed. “I’m now stepping out.” I pushed myself out, stepping out with my hands up in surrender. Almost immediately about ten snowballs all flew over towards me. I screamed and jumped back behind the fence. I groaned. I don’t want to stay here all night! “Will, I need to pee!” I whined.

  I could hear him laughing and talking to the boys on his team. “Okay come on then, come out and we’ll leave,” he called, sounding more genuine this time. I chanced a peek over the fence. Nothing flew in my direction so I pushed myself up slowly. I breathed a sigh of relief when nothing happened, and smiled as I walked over to him. He was standing on the side waiting for me by the staff door.

  I was half way across the slope when the boys team let rip. There was no cover at all. All I could do was turn my back and cover my head as I was pelted all over with snow. Suddenly arms wrapped around me, turning me to the side. I turned my head to see that Will had wrapped himself around me so the snow missiles were hitting him instead. He was laughing which made his chest vibrate against my back as he pressed his cheek to the top of my head, covering me completely.

  “It’ll stop in a minute, they’ll run out then we’ll make a run for it,” he assured me, still laughing.

  “Was this your plan? Get me out in the open?” I accused playfully, pressing into him further, loving the feel of his warmth against my cold body.

  “No, I told them we were stopping now, we agreed, then they all started throwing when you got halfway,” he replied, shaking his head. “It’s slowing down; get ready to run for the staff door.” After another few seconds he pulled away from me and grabbed my hand dragging me along at full speed towards the exit. “Same time next week, guys,” he shouted as we got to the door. He pushed me in first and slammed the door shut as a few snowballs hit the door causing loud bangs.

  I burst out laughing. “That was seriously fun,” I admitted, shaking my hands, trying to get them warmer.

  He walked up to me and cupped my face in his chilly hands. “You look like you have frost bite.”

  “I feel like I’ve got frost bite. My fingers are numb,” I pouted.

  He smiled and took hold of one of my red hands, raising it to his lips, putting two fingers into his mouth. It was so warm that I gasped in shock. His eyes never left mine as he pulled them out and inserted another two. I had another idea about how to warm the other hand so I pushed my hand up his shirt, putting it on his stomach, trying desperately not to show any reaction to the muscles I could feel there. He grunted and his body stiffened, his eyes went a little wider as I warmed my hand on his body while he sucked on my fingers. I could feel my body starting to warm up, the trembling easing up a little.

  He pulled my hand away from his mouth. “Better?” he asked. His voice was so husky and sexy that my body immediately star
ted to tremble again, but it wasn’t from the cold this time.

  I nodded. “My lips are a little cold,” I teased.

  He smiled. “Really? Mine too,” he whispered, bending his head and pressing his lips to mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck, gripping my hands into his wet and icy hair, pressing my body to his. He pushed me against the wall gently, kissing me deeply. His kissing was so beautiful that it almost made me lose myself in it. One of his cold hands found its way under my top, his fingers playing with my belly button again.

  I smiled against his lips and he pulled away, pressing his forehead to mine. His eyes were shining with lust and passion. I could tell it was hard for him to stop, but he was probably trying not to rush me after what I said about him being a player. “I should probably get you home before you catch pneumonia, your clothes are soaked,” he suggested, looking me over slowly.

  “You’re wet too,” I commented, brushing some ice from his shoulder.

  “That’s what she said.”

  I rolled my eyes and tried not to smile. “I hate those jokes.”

  “Yeah so do I, I actually can’t believe I just said that.” He shook his head, laughing. When he stepped back, he held out a hand out to me again, looking hopeful. I smiled and placed my hand in his. “So you’ve forgiven me for the teasing now?” he asked as we walked out of the building into the cold night.

  I narrowed my eyes at him jokingly. “Not really, you still have some making up to do.”

  “Awesome. That’s what I was hoping you’d say,” he replied, grinning as he opened the car door for me to get in.

  “Yeah? What does that mean?”

  “Means you have to see me again.” His cocky smirk was back again in full force as he started the engine, turning the heat up to full blast and aiming both of the air vents at me. I chewed on my lip because that was a sweet little move he’d made. On the drive home I warmed my hands and melted the ice crystals from my hair.