Rebellion of a Chalet Girl: (A Novella) (Ski Season, Book 5)

by Lorraine Wilson

  “Are you sure?” Holly whispered.

  “I’m a big girl now Holly.” Tash smiled.

  Holly squeezed Tash’s arm and released it, turning to reply to something Scott had said.

  Tash caught Nate’s eye. He stared at her hard, as though getting her measure. Just as she was about to look away he winked and grinned. The cheeky smile transformed his face, making it more playful, relaxed, flirtatious…

  Tash closed her eyes briefly.

  I have to get out of here.

  “Excuse me, I just have to…” She murmured to whoever might be listening. Thankfully a loud discussion about Verbier’s best bars was now in progress.

  I could slip out to Bar des Amis.

  After all, she’d be at the W tomorrow night and Holly hadn’t actually asked her to stay in tonight. Tash had just decided it might be good to stay sober given she had to play tour guide tomorrow. But now a drink or two seemed like exactly what she needed. Maybe even some company.

  No, scratch that. You know there’s only one man you want to go to bed with…

  She grabbed her jacket and was slipping into her boots when she felt a hand pressing against the small of her back.

  “Going out?” Nate’s voice behind her made her jump.

  She swung around. A mistake, as now she was face to face with him. Too close.

  “I’m meeting a friend,” she said. It wasn’t exactly a lie; she would be bound to see Sophie, Sophie just wasn’t expecting her.

  “Shame,” he raised an eyebrow. “So you didn’t like my attempts at small talk?”

  “No, I…” Tash stared down, nervously fingering the fabric of her jacket.

  He laughed. “Relax.”

  She looked up then, directly into his eyes. “Are you kidding?”

  He stroked the side of her face with surprisingly gentleness. Then he lowered his mouth, his lips lightly brushing hers.

  Unable to resist she parted her lips and he increased the pressure.

  She reached up and kissed him back, her tongue meeting his.

  Her body fizzed, all the reasons she didn’t want to do this became hard to remember now. His hands on her back felt strong and masterful. It was easy to imagine what else they might be capable of. Then she heard the murmur of voices from further down the hallway.

  What am I doing?

  She pulled back, suppressing the disappointment that he let her go without protest.

  “I need to get going.” She shrugged her jacket on, not meeting his eye.

  “I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” Nate replied, his tone calm. “It should be fun. The Snowpark I mean.”

  Tash slipped out of the door, heart pounding and nerves jangling.

  She was going to need that drink.

  Nate put his snowboard in the rack and couldn’t help grinning at the stunned expression on Tash’s face. He’d known exactly what she had thought of him when they met. He was good at summing people up. His first impression was invariably correct. He knew that right now the discovery he was a better snowboarder than her was absolutely killing her.

  “So where did you learn to do that then?” Tash asked, lips tight, slinging her own snowboard into the rack as she gestured back towards the Snowpark jumps. “I thought work was…your only focus.”

  He shrugged. “Why Natasha, your small talk skills are really coming on.”

  Nate’s grin widened at the barely disguised outrage flashing in Tash’s catlike eyes. Watching her efforts to control herself and plaster a polite smile on her face was really very funny.

  She was so easy to wind up and she was definitely bringing out the devil in him, the part of him that liked to play. He was attracted to her, but there was something more than basic sexual attraction going on here. She had a barely disguised wildness and deeply ingrained irreverence he found extremely refreshing.

  He liked her. He’d been struck by the spark of intelligence and humour in her eyes. He’d met girls like her through his charity projects. Girls who’d been overlooked or thrown a curve ball by life - they wore a brittle hardness like body armour but that toughness nearly always disguised a massive insecurity. Tash was tough, intriguing, infuriating and pretty damn sexy.

  The dash of vulnerability thrown into the mix made her irresistible.

  He almost wished she wasn’t. There was a tonne of work to do on the book if he was going to meet the publisher’s deadline. It was important he got it right. He also had to keep a close eye on the mentoring programming, as well as appraising the potential of the luxury chalet investment scheme.

  There simply wasn’t the time for a shagathon.

  Because if he took Tash to bed there was no way he’d make do with a quickie.

  Although, looking at her now, her eyes flashing and cheeks flushed from the winter sun…Well a quickie seemed like a very good idea. He felt like taking her right here on the snow behind the snowboard rack, or finding a deserted hut somewhere.

  “My name is Tash,” she ground out. The effort to be polite looked like it was killing her. “No one calls me Natasha.”

  He merely raised an eyebrow, mentally storing away the information that this was something that seriously bothered her. It piqued his interest. In his experience girls who changed their names and dyed their hair weird colours had seriously complicated stuff going on inside their heads.

  Complicated was something he really didn’t have time for. So, logically, he should take a step back, stop flirting.

  I don’t want to stop. I need this. You know what they say about all work and no play…

  And oh boy, did he want to play with her.

  “Okay Tash, in answer to your question I used to ski in the French Alps but I haven’t had much opportunity to snowboard lately. I’ve been too busy and the scarcity of mountains in London is a bit of a problem.” He grinned. “So I’m a little bit rusty.”

  “Hmm.” Tash narrowed her eyes but the corners of her perfect lips twitched and he wondered what it would be like to taste her, or to have those lips circling his cock.

  He stifled a groan at the thought, his gaze raking Tash for a green light to see if she was up for it. Her pupils were certainly dark and dilated, there was no doubt she wanted him too. No amount of pink eye shadow and smoky eyeliner could disguise the sexual desire smouldering in her eyes.

  And sex with her would be fantastic. He was sure of it.

  Wasn’t it a bit of a cliché though, sleeping with the chalet girl?

  Oh who gives one? Since when did I care what people thought about my personal life?

  “So…are you saying you never have time for…fun?” Tash arched an eyebrow. Her lips parted a little.

  So, she was teasing him now was she?

  “If there’s a good enough incentive then I make time.” He shrugged. In his peripheral vision he could see the others staring at them from the deck of the mountain cantine where they waited for Nate and Tash to join them. He knew Madeleine’s expression would be one of disapproval, but then she didn’t do fun, not that Nate could tell. She was good at her job which was what mattered and she knew better than to verbalise her disapproval.

  Let them speculate. I really don’t care.

  “So, you need an excuse to do what you like then?” Tash asked, hunger flickering in her eyes.

  It was a craving he knew exactly how to sate, a hunger that wouldn’t be satisfied with a helping of cantine apple strudel.

  “No,” Nate said, making a snap decision. He wanted Tash. At this rate wanting her could easily become more of a distraction than sleeping with her ever could. Adrenalin trickled into his veins and his muscles tensed with anticipation. “I have to prioritise, but sometimes I do exactly what I like. I have…fun. How about you?”

  Tash opened her mouth to answer but then the other chalet girl, the posh blonde one, strode across the snow to where they stood and Tash abruptly closed her mouth and looked away, staring at the mountaintops.

  “Come and join us, we’re ordering vin cha
ud, such a cliché but you need the full Verbier experience.” The blonde girl grinned a little maniacally, nervous and probably unaware she was intruding on a private moment.

  What was her name? Becky…Becca…

  “Rebecca?” Nate took a guess at her name and when she didn’t correct him he assumed he’d got it right. “We’ll be right over, thanks.”

  Rebecca hesitated, biting her lip.

  “Order a couple of glasses for us.” He added more firmly, aware of the tension in the atmosphere but not sure where it was coming from, after all he’d barely exchanged two sentences with Rebecca since he’d arrived.

  Rebecca walked away, frowning and Nate raised his eyebrows. “I think we’re in trouble. Going AWOL will not be tolerated.”

  Tash grinned. “I’ve spent my whole life in trouble and believe me, it’s not all that bad.”

  He laughed and walked with Tash over to the cantine decking.

  Madeleine was tight lipped with disapproval when they arrived and sat down at the trestle table but then she and Tash were polar opposites in their lifestyle choices. Greg and Rob seemed oblivious to any tension; they were drinking vin chaud, enjoying the warm winter sun and why not? They’d all been working hard enough recently to deserve some downtime. Having the odd afternoon of relaxation wasn’t going to kill him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a holiday. Anyway, didn’t most people take two whole days off each weekend?

  “So what’s in the schedule for this evening?” he asked.

  “After dinner we’re going to show you Verbier at its most stylish, the aspirational scene we’re trying to sell to all our prospective clients,” Rebecca said, with a slight arch of her eyebrow.

  “In other words we’re going to the W,” Tash cut in.

  “The cocktails are to die for.” Rebecca added with an eager smile. She reminded him of a puppy.

  Must be all that breeding.

  In his world, over bred pedigree puppies were plentiful. Wildcats like Tash were much rarer.

  And much more fun to tame.

  “Yeah, you die of shock when you see the bill.” Tash laughed. “Well normal people do anyway.”

  Normal people?

  “Sounds like my kind of place.” Greg smiled at Tash. “Looks like we’re going to have a fun night.”

  Tash choked on a mouthful of vin chaud and caught Nate’s eye.

  A sharp jolt of connection passed between them and caught him off guard, sending a pulse of sexual electricity straight to his groin.

  Cocktails, a hotel and some downtime with Tash. Now that sounds like a plan.

  Tash sipped at her champagne cocktail while glancing around at the clientele. Most were dressed in outfits costing more than she made in six months, even more if you counted the handbags. It was après ski but not the kind she could afford or was accustomed to. There wasn’t a ski bum or any of the instructors she knew in sight, instead there were chic groups of trustafarians and wealthy older couples dressed in head to toe cashmere. All quaffing champagne or expensive cocktails.

  Rebecca had already bumped into three people she’d known at school.

  Typical.

  Chilled music filled the room and the seating areas covered with soft faux-fur throws were comfortable. Too comfortable. It would be easy to get used to this.

  She stared at Nate. He’d merely nodded his approval at the ultra trendy, luxury hotel rather than been bowled over by it. But of course he would be used to this.

  We come from different worlds; I need to remember that.

  And yet, couldn’t she pretend, for just one evening, that they were here at the W on an equal footing? Just a man and a woman who’d met and felt an…attraction for each other.

  I mustn’t be naïve. I’m way down the food chain from Nate.

  She couldn’t help but feel flattered. Nate was easily the most striking man in the Living Room, the main bar of the W Verbier. Not necessarily the most handsome man but his aura of power added to his attraction. Wherever they’d been today heads turned in his direction and now the hotel guests and bar clientele stared as though wondering who he was, sure he must be someone they should know.

  And he had chosen to sit next to Tash, so close their thighs were touching. He and Greg were discussing the stability of the Swiss franc and Tash had tuned out, aware only of the warmth of Nate’s leg burning her through the fabric of her little black dress.

  Not that it was her LBD. She hardly ever wore dresses so had borrowed it from Lucy. As Lucy was only five foot two and Tash was five foot six the hemline rode daringly high up her thigh. Holly had nodded her approval when she’d seen the outfit and told her to have fun.

  Fun. There was that word again…

  It wasn’t as though Holly and Scott banned them from sleeping with the guests. Their view had always been that what consenting adults got up to was their own business. But this felt like new territory.

  Tash was well and truly out of her comfort zone.

  She took another sip of her cocktail, a divine concoction of fresh strawberries and champagne, savouring the taste. Then she caught Rebecca’s baleful stare from the seat opposite her where she sat next to Madeleine. It was loaded with accusation. Tash knew what the look meant. You said you weren’t interested so what do you think you’re doing making a play for him? He’s mine…

  Except of course he wasn’t Rebecca’s. Tash doubted he’d ever be anybody’s. He was, quite simply, his own man. She’d never got what that phrase meant until now. Self-contained and supremely confident, he inspired in you a desire to impress, to capture his short, ‘suffer no fools,’ attention span. Because, when you were the focus of his attention, it felt like basking in a sudden patch of sunlight with champagne cocktail fizzing through your veins, electrifying your nerve endings.

  Tash guessed if you didn’t rate with him in the first thirty seconds of conversation he’d move on. Politely of course, he was a gentleman after all. He’d be respectful but you’d have lost his attention, that full on blaze of charisma.

  “Rebecca?” Nate turned towards Rebecca with a smile.

  “Yes?” She leant forward in her seat, lips slightly parted, petulance forgotten. Maybe she was hoping to be asked her opinion on the Swiss franc?

  “Would you do me a favour and take Madeleine, Robert and Greg for a look round the hotel?” Nate asked, easy charm in his smile. “I know Madeleine is very keen to see the spa.”

  Madeleine’s pursed lips and minuscule nod didn’t exactly exude keenness. She’d barely spoken to Tash and didn’t seem to approve of her. But Madeleine couldn’t sour the excitement now building in Tash.

  “Of course.” The instinctive response had escaped Rebecca’s lips before she seemed to register this would leave Nate and Tash alone. Her smile slipped.

  “I’d be very grateful,” Nate added, upping the wattage of his own smile.

  Rebecca’s expression softened.

  Nate was good.

  And I’m going to be alone with him. He doesn’t waste much time does he?

  But then weren’t entrepreneurs supposed to be risk takers? They saw what they wanted and they went for it. Her stomach flipped at the thought and delicious anticipation bubbled inside her, fizzing like the exquisite champagne cocktail on her tongue.

  Right now she’d do anything Nate wanted.

  Anything.

  Rebecca had no chance of resisting his will.

  Tash didn’t meet Rebecca’s eye as Rebecca left with Madeleine, Robert and Greg. Guilt mingled with resentment inside her. No. Rebecca didn’t get to have ‘first dibs’ on Nate because they weren’t sixteen-year-olds. Rebecca wasn’t entitled to Nate; she already had the large home in Surrey, the wealthy parents, the choice to work ‘for fun’ and even an effing pony.

  Nate pressed his thigh harder against Tash’s leg and she exhaled sharply.

  “So.” Nate turned to face her, his grin so confident that part of her wanted to walk out, just to show him he wasn’t all that.

/>   Except he was all that.

  She’d googled him this afternoon and read how he built up his businesses from nothing and all about his charity work supporting young entrepreneurs. He’d set up a mentor scheme so young people with no connections, money or academic qualifications could turn their lives around. He probably rescued orphaned puppies in his spare time and helped old ladies across the road too.

  Damn.

  How could she resist him? She’d wanted to dismiss him as a stuffy suit, or as a greedy businessman but it turned out he reinvested a large percentage of his profits back into his charity work. And he’d never been part of the privileged trustafarian crowd she despised.

  In fact he made her wonder what the hell she was doing with her life. He had six years on her, sure, but when he’d been her age he’d already made his first million.

  What had she to show for her life so far?

  “So?” She mimicked him, raising an eyebrow. Even if she didn’t feel cool, she could act it. There was no need to show him how out of her depth she felt. ‘If in doubt, just wing it’ was a policy that’d served her well in the past.

  “Do you want to do that small talk thing now then?” he asked, casually draping an arm over her shoulder and drawing her closer. His warm fingers brushed against the bare skin of her upper arm, making her tingle.

  “Um, not really.” Tash blinked, flattered he felt able to be so direct with her but distracted by the head spin that was being physically close to Nate.

  Why am I making such a big deal out of this? It’s only sex.

  Usually she prided herself on being forward thinking and hang-up free when it came to sex. But there would be nothing ‘only’ about sex with Nate, she was sure of it. This felt like a really big deal. But a good big deal. She might only have him for one night but it would be worth it.

  Would Holly definitely be okay with this?

  She doesn’t need to know.

  Tash dismissed the vague sense of unease. Keeping Nate happy had to be a good thing surely?

  She dismissed her concerns and turned her full attention back to Nate, to the amused twist at the corner of his lips and the wicked glint in his eyes that made her want to drop her knickers here and now.