by Jill Shalvis
Chuck was a cat. She bent down and took another peek. Yep. A cat. Sort of. He had whole chunks of fur missing, and the biggest green eyes she’d ever seen, making him look more like a baby ostrich.
“He’s not much of a people person,” Cam told her. “But he won’t hurt you. I won’t hurt you either, Goldilocks.”
“Ha.”
“Come here, kitty, kitty.” Instead of waiting, he stepped toward her, his eyes flashing an assortment of things, most of which made her heart skip more than a few beats.
“Trying to get dressed here.”
“I know.” Stopping just short of touching her, he dipped his head and took a good look at her from head to toe and back again, lingering at her unzipped pants. “Pale pink is my new favorite color.”
She stared into his amused, very heated eyes and felt all her good parts quiver. “You could have seen them up close and personal in the closet. You chose skiing.”
“I’m a stupid, stupid man.”
Their lips were less than an inch apart. She stared into his eyes, then at his mouth.
“Katie.” His voice was low, thrillingly rough as he lifted a hand and ran his thumb over her lower lip. It tingled for another kiss, and she closed her eyes…
He gently pulled off her glasses, then not so gently kissed her, long and deep. Her bones went all soft and gushy, but nothing on him felt soft and gushy, especially not what was pressing into her stomach.
“One more,” he said, his mouth moving down her neck.
“Two would be okay…”
With a low laugh, he slid his warm hands up the back of her sweater, making her want to stretch and purr like a kitten. “God, you feel good.”
“Yeah. Same goes.”
“Skiing,” he whispered against her lips, before removing his hands from her and stepping back. He nodded and let out a rough breath. “Skiing. I’ll wait out in the hallway.”
When he was gone, she let out a rough breath of her own, then stepped out of her pants—removing her boots first this time—and pulled on the ski pants. He’d been right, they did fit.
Like a damn glove.
She moved to the desk and bent down to look at Chuck. “Hey, cutie. What do you think?”
He didn’t even blink. Just stared at her with those heartbreaking eyes.
“Right. I’m asking for trouble.” She reached out a hand to stroke him, but he put his ears back and let out a low warning rumble. “Okay, have it your way, but I’ll charm you yet.”
More than a little self-conscious about the pants, she went out into the hallway, where one tall, dark, and oh-so-gorgeous man leaned against the wall waiting for her, eyes hot. “You look great,” he said.
Her good parts clamored as he handed her a jacket, hat, and a pair of gloves. He watched her add the extra layers. “I’m an idiot to have given you all that to wear.” His sexual frustration was the third person in the room.
Hers was the fourth.
Having no idea where this was going exactly, but suddenly enjoying the ride, Katie straightened. “Let’s do this. Let’s ski.”
Cam had been around the world looking for something to give him a new rush, to kick-start his heart, and he hadn’t found it. And yet here he was, his heart kick-started by a woman.
Clearly, he’d lost his mind.
No, Katie had lost her pants, and then he’d lost his mind. She’d stood there half naked in his office, wearing a snug sweater and those adorably sexy panties and nothing else, looking more than a little frazzled by Chuck.
And by him.
And he’d gotten turned on. So damn turned on.
So had she.
Okay, so that might be a little self-congratulatory, but it sure as hell hadn’t been the cat to make her nipples hard and pouty against the thin material of her sweater.
Now she was covered from head to toe in the best of the best gear available.
Well, hell. He’d come back home to feel something, anything, and it was working. He was definitely feeling something, though not necessarily with his head. At least not the one on top of his shoulders.
He carried his board and her skis, leading her to the equipment garage where he pointed to the Sno-Cat. “That’s the fastest way to get there. You up for it?”
“I’m up for all of it. The question is…” She waggled a brow. “Are you?”
He laughed. “I’ve been ‘up’ since I met you. Get in.”
He watched her eye the machine that just last week had struck terror into her heart. With a deep breath, she climbed into it while he enjoyed the way the ski pants fit her ass, picturing those pink panties he knew she wore beneath…but also feeling a wave of something other than lust, something deeper.
Because no matter what she said, or how big a smile she flashed him, he knew she was still scared of the Sno-Cat.
And still completely handling herself.
The women in his life had mostly fit into two categories: snowboarder groupies and fortune hunters. Katie didn’t fit into either. She certainly wasn’t here to stroke his ego or fawn all over him. And she didn’t seem to want anything from him.
She could have no idea how attractive that was to a guy like him. He climbed up beside her and hit the gas, not missing how she gripped the sides of her seat.
“We’re okay,” he assured her.
“I know. One of these days, though, we’re going to have to do something I’m good at.”
“And what are you good at?”
She flashed him a smile. “Guess.”
Once again, he went instantly hard, which both startled and amused him. “Now you tell me.”
“Hey, this was your idea, big guy. You could be in the closet right now, with me. Naked. And I look damn good naked.”
“I bet you do.”
“I was hoping to see how good you look.”
He laughed, laughed while hard, and he knew right then.
He could guard his heart all he wanted, but it was too late. She’d sneaked in past his defenses and leveled him flat on his ass, and now he was down for the count.
Katie stood at the base of the mountain looking up, up, up to where the ski lift vanished just over the peak, and swallowed hard. The ski resort looked like a European Alps village, pretty and quaint, full of old-school charm and character, and if she hadn’t been scared to death about making her way down the steep, steep mountain looming over it with two skis strapped to her feet, she’d have happily explored the shops and restaurants to her heart’s content.
Cam had given her a lift pass, which hung around her neck. She was holding her poles while he held both his board and her skis. With ease, she might add, using all those muscles she was so fond of looking at. At the moment, however, she wasn’t looking at him but the terrain, so white against a shocking blue sky. The wind was blowing a white mist of powder snow from the very tip of the mountain into the air. It was gorgeous, and terrifying.
Cam laid out her skis for her. She stepped into the bindings while he locked one of his boots into the bindings on his board.
When he glanced at her, she pasted a smile on her face and let him guide her closer, up the small hill to the lift. The young woman running it wore a ski cap low over her eyes, hair flowing to her waist. She was chewing gum and looking bored, until she saw Cam and her entire face lit up. “Hey there, you!”
“Heidi. How are you doing?”
“Good. Better now.” To prove it, she threw herself at him. “I’m so happy to see you!”
Katie would have liked to obsess over the full-body contact Heidi was managing to get with Cam, but she was too busy struggling to stay on the incline without rolling back. There was ice beneath her skis. In serious danger of slipping backward into the line of people behind her, she desperately used her poles to hold herself in place, making her biceps tremble with the strain, threatening to give out while Cam just stood there listening to Heidi babble all over him.
“I’m just so glad you’re back,” she was saying cheerfull
y, arms still loped around his neck.
Or at least that’s what her mouth was saying. Her eyes were saying, I want to lap you up like a bowl of ice cream.
Katie struggled harder not to kill everyone in line behind her, but any second now she was going to slide backward.
And then, it happened. Her poles slipped, and with a gasp she began to go—
Cam’s warm hand settled at her back, miraculously holding her in place, easily nudging her forward and off the ice patch.
She gritted her teeth. “You could have done that a lot sooner.”
“I was never going to let you fall.”
“Now you tell me. My arms are already killing me.”
“Do you exercise?”
“It’s on my to-do list.” At the bottom, but still…
“I’d give you the your-body-is-your-temple speech, but your body…” He paused to look her over from head to toe and back again, causing certain portions of her anatomy to flicker to life. “Well, I’d worship as is.”
Her knees wobbled. “Stop that.”
“Really?”
“No.”
He out and out grinned, and the rest of her body acted fairly predictably.
“Are you ready?”
She took a look at the lift coming around for them at what seemed like the speed of light and gathered her courage. “Ready,” she whispered, and willed it to be true.
Chapter 12
Cam watched the lift come toward them with a heavy dose of his own nerves. His first time back on a board…He’d have wallowed in that, but he caught sight of Katie’s fierce going-into-battle expression, and he managed to forget about himself. “You okay?”
“I think so.” She glanced at him, then frowned. “Are you?”
“Always.”
“Because you look—”
“Scoot a little closer,” he said as the ski lift came around to scoop them up.
Suitably distracted, Katie gave it her all, but the seat of the lift hit her in the back of the knees, ripping a startled “Oh!” out of her and then a cry of distress as she began to go down.
Cam snagged the back of her jacket as he sat on the lift, holding her up as he did, pulling her onto the seat next to him.
“Ohmigod,” she gasped, clutching his arm to her breasts as the lift took off, lifting them up, up, and farther up. “Ohmigod.”
“I’ve got you,” he promised, but she continued to grip his arm with the force of the jaws of life. “Don’t worry, you’re not going to fall now.”
Neither of them was.
“Okay.” She gulped in air, and he felt a little like doing that, too, but then he realized her eyes were closed. “Hey, Goldilocks.”
“Yeah?”
“You’ve got your eyes closed.”
She cracked one open. “I forgot something.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t like heights. Which in hindsight is really, really going to get in the way of my adventures. After this, I’m going with things that don’t require height.” She closed her eye again.
“Hate to break this to you, but mountain climbing requires heights. And to backpack in Europe, you’d have to fly.”
“Good points. I have a backup plan.”
“Like?” He planned to keep her talking so that she’d forget they were now fifty feet up, zooming across the terrain to the top of the peak. Yeah, that was all he was thinking about, keeping her comfortable. It had nothing at all to do with him needing his own distraction. Good thing he wasn’t nearly as honest as she was.
“Besides learning to risk, I’d like to eventually find a place where I belong.”
“Good one? Anything else?”
Eyes still closed, she turned her face toward the late-afternoon sun, and the last of the questionable warmth of the day. The wind played with her hair and pinkened her cheeks. “Actually…” She squirmed a little. “Something new has recently come to me.”
“Spill.”
More squirming, and a visible wince to boot, which piqued his interest. “It’s private,” she finally said. “Are we there yet?”
“Almost.” She was gnawing on her lower lip, which he had the most insane urge to take over for her. “How private?”
“Very private.”
“Can I guess?”
“No.” She opened her eyes. “No guessing.” She took a peek around her and squeaked, “Oh my God.”
Reaching out, he put a finger beneath her chin and turned her gaze back to him, off the view and the drop. “A one-night stand?”
She covered her very red cheeks. “I said no guessing.”
He grinned. “Really? I’m right?”
“Close.”
“How close?”
“Great sex, okay? I wanted great sex.”
He knew she was waiting for a response, but he had nothing. He had shit-for-brains-nothing because all he could think was…I could give her great sex.
She blew out a breath and slapped her hands over her eyes, her face even redder. “You know what? I really don’t want to discuss this anymore.”
“Too late.” Charmed by her embarrassment, and also by her sheer, utter honesty, he leaned in and removed her hands from her face. “Great sex isn’t all that hard to come by.”
“Tell that to the guys in Los Angeles.”
“The guys in Los Angeles must be idiots. And you should know, I’m no better than those Los Angeles assholes.”
“So you don’t get great sex either?”
Christ, she was killing him.
Killing.
Him.
“Listen to me.” He took both her hands in his. “I want you. Make no mistake about that. And I know how to make it good, make no mistake about that either. But—”
“Oh my God.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” He winced. “And that sounded like I was bragging. I wasn’t, I was just—”
“No, I mean, Ohmigod, the lift!” Looking panicked, she turned to him, clutching his arms. “It’s ending!”
“You can do it.” They both could. “You just glide off and—”
“I should have mentioned…” Her eyes were huge. “I’m not good at this part either.”
“No problem. When I say now, just stand up and I’ll give you a little nudge, and you just ski forward and out of the way. Now.”
She glided off, he gave her a little nudge to the small of her back, just as planned. What wasn’t planned was the pole she planted, then ran over with one of her skis, which rudely yanked
