by Tessa Clarke
Zoey’s lips turned up in a smile. “At last,” she sang.
This time the words came easily, and she sang the first few lines of the song to Flynn without hesitation. Then she stopped and kissed him.
“You are mine,” she said. “And I am yours. Forever.”
And as Flynn laced his fingers through hers and kissed her deeply, she felt a sweetness and a rightness rise up and envelop her. Her shifter. At last.
Nightfall
The Cat Shifters of White Peaks
Book Four
Chapter One: Astrid
Astrid Delacour wiped the worst of her mascara from beneath her eyes as the raucous sounds of Alissa and Cade’s wedding party echoed in the bathroom door. Flynn was gone. He’d announced his love for Zoey, one of Alissa’s bridesmaids, a woman he’d literally just met, and then he had just up and left the wedding, taking all of Astrid’s hopes for the night with him.
She’d anticipated Cade and Alissa’s Valentine’s Day wedding forever. This was supposed to be the best night of her life—the night she got together with Flynn, and it was rapidly turning out to be the worst.
Damn Flynn Weir. Why did she find him so attractive, aside from the obvious washboard abs and electrifying grey eyes?
Jolene Winters, her boss Dylan’s new girlfriend, popped in the bathroom, her blond hair swept up into a stunning updo and her blue eyes sparkling. Astrid had always envied curvy women like Jolene with their big breasts and rounded buttocks that men seemed to find so attractive. Zoey had curves too. That was probably what had so enraptured Flynn.
Astrid eyed her own more athletic body, with her broad shoulders, wide hips, and solid legs, and turned away from the mirror in disgust.
“You okay?” Jolene said.
Astrid scowled, and then relented. Jolene was Zoey’s friend, but Jolene had been very nice to Astrid the previous night and wasn’t really to blame for Flynn’s choice.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“You’ll find the right person someday,” Jolene replied. Jolene knew about Astrid’s crush on Flynn. Astrid had been more than a little drunk at the pre-wedding party the night before. She was more than a little drunk right now.
“There aren’t many hot bachelors left in White Peaks after you and your two friends swept through,” Astrid said tartly, but then smiled to show she wasn’t mad at Jolene.
It was true though. There weren’t many men of the same level of sexiness as Cade, Dylan, and Flynn, whom Jolene and her two friends Alissa and Zoey seemed to have stepped into town and mesmerized. Astrid considered the list of remaining eligible men. There was really only Chance Trainor, the freeskier, and Elijah Cooke, who’d been master of ceremonies for the wedding. Astrid and Chance were good acquaintances, and she’d never met Elijah, although everyone knew who he was. He was kind of quiet though.
She straightened her dress.
“Guess I better get back in there,” she said. “Party girl can’t miss the party.”
Jolene approached hesitantly and then linked her arm in Astrid’s. “That’s the spirit. I have to say, Flynn is a little short for you anyway.”
Astrid realized that Jolene only came to her shoulder. “Ugh, don’t remind me. Being almost six feet tall sucks. Men do not find it appealing.”
Jolene smiled. “I’d give anything to be statuesque. Just channel your inner Amazon. You can come and sit at our table if you want.”
Astrid exhaled in a shaky little snort. “Nah, Dylan will just give me a hard time, and I just about got into a fight with Cade’s mother, remember?” Astrid cringed at her behavior. Had she really thought that releasing the doves for the wedding with Flynn earlier meant that Flynn was interested in her? Enough to challenge Cade’s mother Renate to a fistfight? Real classy, Astrid, she thought.
No more. Flynn was obviously not the one for her. She’d forget about him and move on. She’d find someone who appreciated her. She squared her shoulders as Jolene threw open the door to the bathroom.
A sea of whirling and jumping bodies appeared before her, dancing under a sky of sparkling fairy lights in the beautiful Timber Wolf Lodge. The thunder of base and feet on the floor echoed in her ears and beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows of the lodge lay a glorious canvas of stars and the black jutting angles of mountains all around them.
Despite a few hiccups—like her almost-fight with Renate—nobody could say that the first big wedding up in the Lodge had not been a brilliant success.
Chance Trainor slid to a stop in front of them, his blond shaggy hair flying, and his shirt already unbuttoned, exposing some seriously sexy pecs. He had shed the colorful dinner jacket he’d worn to the wedding, and in his jeans and turquoise sneakers looked every bit the freeski champion that he was.
Astrid had sworn she’d never date a freeskier. She’d been on the circuit for a bit. She knew how hard they partied and how many women chased them. And Chance was the hottest of the hot—a superb athlete who flew off jumps and cliffs with the grace of a cat, making him the national freeskiing champion year after year. Add in his surfer good looks and there wasn’t a woman in the room whose panties wouldn’t melt just thinking about him. She was even getting a little warm looking at those pecs.
He had the wild look that suggested he was having a great time and had probably downed more than his share of the new signature White Peak shooters that had just been brought around on trays. He’d also thrown back many beers at the ski patroller table earlier.
“Tris,” Chance declared, using his inexplicable, but sort of cool name for her. That was the trouble with the name Astrid. It was really hard to come up with nicknames. “I’ve been looking for you. You look like you need to dance.”
Without waiting for an answer, he dragged her away from Jolene out onto the floor into the hot and sweaty press of bodies and the pounding beat.
Astrid shrugged and started dancing. If she couldn’t have Flynn, she might as well have a good time.
She and Chance danced energetically for several songs, jumping, bouncing, and swaying as appropriate. They high-fived and threw their arms around friends who joined them on the floor, as everyone got down to some serious partying. Cool winter air wafted in every so often as someone opened the doors to the outside, pushing aside the cloud of sweat and perfume that cloaked the dance floor. Astrid thought about Flynn occasionally, but mostly she let herself be lost in the music and the flashing strobe light that played across everyone’s faces and made them look sexier, happier, and more alive, as she threw herself into the evening with abandon.
She expected Chance to head off into the crowd after a few dances, but he remained attentive, retrieving her a gin and tonic and staying by her side while she consumed it, his giant body seeming to form a shield, protecting her from the prying eyes of some of the guests, especially Renate. If Astrid was one of the largest women present, Chance was easily the largest man, with broad shoulders and remarkable height. Next to him, she felt tiny and insubstantial, almost dainty.
What would he look like naked, she wondered, this god of a man? What would his cock be like? She blushed thoroughly at the direction her thoughts had taken. The air had turned sultry with body heat, and the undeniable scent of sex hung in the air.
She was being bewitched by the night, by the dance, and by the music.
But so too, it seemed was Chance, because he didn’t leave her side. When a slow song started up, he guided her out onto the floor with a practiced and casual hand, and as he took her into his arms, she could feel the hardness of his erection through his jeans against her thigh.
Was Chance coming on to her? Looking for a one-night stand with a ski buddy? As much as Astrid had a reputation as a party girl, she didn’t do one-night stands. She would have to tell him that before this went too far.
At the same time, feeling his hard body pressed against hers was more than remarkably pleasant, and that hot feeling welled between her thighs again. The way he was watching
her with his green eyes was completely unnerving and electrifying. Would it be totally unreasonable to revise her one-night stand policy just once? Her friends had one-night stands all the time, and she hadn’t ever felt this way about a guy after just a few hours. But then she thought about the reasons for her policy on one-night stands and hardened her resolve.
She would have a good time dancing with him, but that was it.
The ski patrol and freeski crew remained on the dance floor long after Cade removed Alissa’s garter with his teeth, and Alissa tossed her bouquet almost straight to Jolene, and the old and very young started to say their goodbyes and retreat to the gondola to go back down the mountain. They remained after the band played their last song and turned the floor over to Elijah Cooke to deejay. They remained after Renate swept across the floor, making a big show of her departure. They remained after the staff started to strike tables, and the lift manager, Ed, came in to announce the last call for gondola rides.
The last gondola ride mattered little to them. All of the patrollers and freeskiers had brought their skis up to the top and intended to take a moonlit run down the Starfall Bowl at the end of the night.
It was pretty much only ski patrol, freeskiers, and other diehard resort regulars left after the gondola shut down. They danced in a circle, their arms upraised, bodies bathed in sweat, and faces shimmering in the strobe light. Someone set up a limbo line and drink after drink was downed as the White Peaks resort officially let off steam. Alissa had exchanged her wedding dress for a short and sleek white cocktail dress that hugged every curve. Astrid found herself again staring in envy. Flynn and Zoey returned and joined in the revelry. She tried not to be jealous. They both seemed to glow with so much happiness.
Chance caught her staring and beckoned her over to where he’d been chatting with some other patrollers. He slung his arm around her and fit his hand into the small of her back, brushing against her damp, exposed skin. A thrill of excitement snaked down her inner thighs. Chance probably just wanted a lay for the night, she reminded herself. He’d been engaged to the stunning Susie Vonn, a freeski champion who’d died in a tragic accident three years ago. He couldn’t possibly be interested in Astrid for anything other than sex.
She couldn’t believe she’d been so fixated on Flynn that she hadn’t noticed how unbelievably hot Chance was until tonight. She’d always felt gigantic next to any guy she’d dated, but Chance was so tall and broad. The thought of spending more than just one night with him made her a little weak in the knees. But there was no way he wanted that. He was drunk and looking for a little fun and Astrid, as a known party-girl, fit tonight’s bill. But Astrid just liked to drink and hang with the guys. She didn’t sleep around.
One of Astrid’s favorite songs started to blast through the speakers. Chance saluted Elijah with his beer. “Dude, I love this song.” He traced a finger up her back, sending shivers down her spine. “Tris, you’re mine.”
He pulled her out onto the floor and started dancing energetically. Astrid laughed and joined in. She was relieved to see Chance looking so happy. It had been horrible to watch him on the freeski circuit the first two years after Susie died. He still won everything, but he always looked so devastated on the podium. He’d been a bit more upbeat the past year after he’d moved to White Peaks for good. She’d skied with him a few times. They’d always been decent friends, part of the same ski-hard, party-hard crowd, but they’d never been close.
She was still trying to decide whether she wanted to sleep with Chance or not if he did ask her to come back to his place, when Elijah announced he was playing the last song of the evening.
It was a slow one, and Chance pulled her into his arms in a mock waltz, swinging her into the air as he spun her around and then dipping her as if she weighed nothing. Although he was laughing as they engaged in wilder and wilder antics on the dance floor, his eyes never left hers, and there was an unrelenting hunger to his gaze… almost like a predator…
When the song was almost over, hundreds of white and red balloons dropped from the ceiling, and suddenly it seemed like she and Chance were alone in their own private little room of balloons. He seemed delighted by the balloons and dropped his lips to hers in a sultry brush of a kiss that sent a wave of desire down her body.
The balloons stopped falling, and they separated, her lips still burning. He swept her back into their hilarious waltz as soon as the chorus started again, and she found herself laughing again. And watching his lips. His completely sensuous lips. What had started as one of the worst nights of her life was becoming one of the best.
Cade and Alissa had two more White Peak shooters for the road, and Cade made shooing motions with his hands at those who still occupied the lodge as he and Alissa made their way up the grand staircase to their secret room at the top of the lodge. What would it be like to be rich enough to have a luxury suite in your own ski lodge at the top of your own mountain? Everyone cheered and showered them with silver streamers and rose petals, and Jason, the lodge manager, pointedly started turning off lights, while other staff members hustled around cleaning up the sound system.
“Time to go, Tris,” Chance said, grinning at her lazily. God, why hadn’t she ever noticed how perfect his teeth were? Did he mean time for everyone to go, which it clearly was, or time for them to go? Everyone was pulling ski gear from carefully stowed packs. Astrid would have to go to the washroom to change.
She gave Chance the most brilliant smile she could muster. “Yup, time to go.”
She scurried off to the washroom with her ski pants slung over her shoulder and her mind in a whirl. Several of her female ski patrol friends had already thrown her the elbow and raised eyebrow of approval for landing Chance. Was she really going to not sleep with one of the most eligible bachelors in White Peaks if he asked her to?
Even if it was only for one night.
Chapter Two: Chance
Chance watched Astrid’s retreating body, the sway of her ass and ripple of muscle across her broad back as she flung her pants over her shoulder. He hadn’t expected her to be so shy, so uncertain of herself. After all, she’d challenged Cade’s mother to a fistfight just a few hours ago.
He knew the Astrid of spit and fire, who would arm wrestle with any man on the ski patrol and could ski like a dream, but who also knew her stuff and was reputedly a champ on evacuations. He’d thought she might be all over him with her hands down his pants as soon as he showed the slightest interest. He’d at least expected her to meet him halfway. She was a party girl after all.
This blushing, almost retreating Astrid had caught him completely off guard. Perhaps she was still too in love with Flynn to be with him. After all, he knew what it was like to have to get over someone. Losing Susie, his mate, had cut him to the core and left him an empty shell for more than two years. But now he was finally ready to put that sadness to rest. To start something new.
It was good to be back in White Peaks. To be home and back with family, such as it was—he needed to pay his brother a visit sometime soon. It was good to be trying his hand at love again.
He’d been watching Astrid for a few months. He’d heard that finding a second mate was a different experience. Unlike the first time, where shifters just knew as soon as they saw their mates, as he had with Susie, finding a second mate could take time. But now that he’d spent more time with Astrid, and listened to her laugh, seen her fierceness and determination under pressure, and heard about her tenderness and passion with injured skiers and the ski patrol dogs, he was convinced she was the one. Her delectable scent—a blend of sweat, cedar, and tangerine—nearly drove him wild.
He just needed to bed her to be sure.
He’d been staying out of the way for the last few weeks, trying to assess her relationship with Flynn, but now that he was sure there was nothing going on, he planned to waste no time in getting to know her better. Flynn was totally not right for Astrid. Chance would make her forget she ever had any in
terest in him.
He’d love to take her home tonight, undress her, taste every bit of that hard body of hers, and then fuck her until she cried out, but he wasn’t sure if she’d be ready for that.
One step at a time.
He just hoped she’d be as much of a firebrand in bed as her personality suggested. The good thing is he wouldn’t have to worry about crushing her, like he did with many women.
He pulled out his own ski pants, stripping down to his boxers in the lodge unselfconsciously. He’d always been like that. Completely happy to show off his body. It was after all, just skin.
He thought of Astrid’s tanned skin and the lines of muscle on her long legs. His cock thought about them too, and he pulled on his pants in haste. Showing off his muscled quads was one thing. Showing off his hard dick was quite another.
Astrid emerged from the bathroom in her turquoise White Peaks ski jacket. She glanced at him as if to enquire whether he was still waiting for her, and he waved her over.
“You wouldn’t leave me to ski down alone,” he said in a flip tone.
“Never,” she said. “It’s not safe to ski alone.” There was a hint of flirtation and a hint of seriousness in her voice.
The mass of people had already moved outside and Chance could see people snapping into their bindings and adjusting their headlamps in preparation for the descent. It had been snowing for the last few hours and everyone was excited. Astrid, he noticed, had washed off most of her makeup and bundled her long brown hair into a ponytail, the way he liked it.
“Where do you want to ski?” she asked. “The rest of them are splitting up to head down the chutes in groups of four. Apparently everyone wants tracks.”