The Winter Games Box Set

by Rebecca Sharp

  “Fuck no, I’m not leaving, Jac,” he uttered, his hand cupping my face. “Not unless you want me to.”

  “N-No.” I shook my head.

  “Good,” he grinned. “Because I wasn’t fucking leaving anyway.”

  I rolled my eyes as he moved off me, letting me slide underneath the blankets. “You’d leave if I told you to or I’d make you,” I muttered defiantly.

  He shook his head and laughed as he went back into the bathroom.

  I wouldn’t tell him to though because I didn’t want him to. I wanted him to stay. I wanted him to stay every night.

  In the morning, I could freak out about how far and fast I’d fallen, I could talk myself back from the edge of tearing down all my walls and giving in completely to his charm, I could convince myself that it was too good to be true and remind myself of the lesson that had taught me the last time.

  But right now, I was going to give my heart what it wanted for the first time in a long time. For one night, I was going to let someone take care of it like it deserved—and like I knew Kyle would.

  “You okay?” he rasped as he slid into bed and pulled me against him.

  I nodded and grumbled, “Why are you so perfect?”

  His chest vibrated against mine with laughter. “Not perfect, sweetheart. Just treating you how you deserve.”

  “I don’t know about that…” I mumbled.

  “I haven’t seen the last two Star Wars movies,” he confessed as proof of his imperfection.

  Hand planted on his chest, I pushed back with a loud gasp of horror. “You’re right. I take it back. Not perfect at all,” I agreed, unable to completely hide my small smile. “Not even close.”

  His head dropped in defeat even as he laughed. His eyes lingered on my chest as they made their way back up to mine, glinting with one more point to prove. My nipples tightened and the heat that never seemed to be completely doused when he was around roared back to life and covered my body with goosebumps.

  “Nope.” He hauled me tight against him and my leg crept up high over his hip, nestling his erection back against my slippery sex. “But still the only one who knows how to treat my princess right,” he growled against my lip, angling his hips to sink back inside me.

  I gasped in agreement. Then moaned it. And later, screamed it. And finally, admitted it softly as we both drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.

  “OH, THERE YOU ARE, DEAR!” Miss Betty exclaimed. “I was hoping to see you before we’re off for the holiday.”

  I tensed at the reminder that Christmas was two days away. A holiday meant to be spent with friends and family, not skis and the mountain.

  A holiday that Kyle wanted me to spend with him.

  My hands paused from drying myself off from my short morning session in the Hydroworx. The time I spent at the gym dwindled to about an hour in the morning just to warm up my muscles and get my blood pumping before I hit the slopes for the rest of the day.

  I turned to see Miss Betty approaching me, her cane hung over her arm like it was an umbrella instead of a walking aid.

  “So sorry to miss you on Monday. I was feeling a bit under the weather,” the older woman said with a smile before asking, “How did everything go at the show?”

  “Good.” I flushed again at the memory, refocusing on drying my legs. “I have your video.”

  “Oh, I don’t care about the video, dear.”

  My head whipped up to glare at her.

  “Oh,” she stammered. “Of course, I care about the video.”

  Liar.

  I bit back a groan. I knew I’d been fooled but still.

  “Well, you’re watching it whether you care about it or not,” I retorted, picking up my cell from the bench and searching for the clip I’d taken.

  “Oh, my,” she gasped. “And here I thought he couldn’t get any more perfect.”

  I was tempted to say, ‘well, you should see him in bed.’ But that was totally fucked up and even though I had a suspicion she would take it easily in stride, I kept my mouth shut.

  “Now, if he would just move his hips a little more like Michael Jackson.” She sucked in a breath. “Now that would be deadly.”

  I silently agreed.

  “So, tell me, how did it go?” she cornered me again.

  “Good. Fine.” Incredible.

  I winced. This was my problem. Things always looked different in the morning when all the doubts and fears that hide in the shadows became visible again.

  We’d woken up early at my alarm. By the time I got out of the shower, Kyle had already made us both smoothies with what he’d found in the fridge. I felt guilty that I wasn’t the one making them. We didn’t have time to sit and enjoy them together, unless sitting in the car on the way to the gym counted, yet every rushed and regimented moment of this morning had felt right.

  Right up until we’d said goodbye… and Kyle asked me to spend Christmas with him and his friends.

  I balked. And mumbled. And then fled without giving him a definite answer.

  This Cinderella had already taken more than her one night, and I was afraid to find out how much borrowed time I could sneak before something catastrophic happened.

  But I couldn’t because no matter how important he was becoming, my dream was important, too.

  Though, as I walked away from his kiss this morning, I’d wondered if I’d taken my precious dream and turned it into an escape, bastardizing its beauty in order to hide my pain.

  “Young lady. I did not graciously step away from Mr. Masters so that you could tell me ‘fine.’” She tapped her cane on the ground like it was a warning shot and I was going to be the next target if I didn’t tell her what she wanted to know.

  “It was really good. Is that what you want to hear? It was too good. He’s too good for me,” I confessed with blunt frustration.

  “Horseshit.”

  My jaw took the gold for how fast it hit the floor.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Don’t make me curse again,” she retorted, raising a hand to fluff her perm.

  “You were right, Betty,” I said with a sigh. “Kyle is perfect, and I don’t do well with perfect. Or I should say perfect doesn’t do well with me.”

  “Dear, I am old. Either you start making sense, or I’ll have to assume that you’re having some sort of mental breakdown in which case I’ll just have to give you a good knock on the head.” She moved her cane to illustrate.

  “Kyle is perfect,” I outlined tightly. “The last time I thought what I had was perfect, I realized perfect was a lie. Not only that, it was a lie because I wasn’t enough. I have a dream, a career, and I’m not ready to give it up. And that means making sacrifices for it. It’s not right or fair of me to expect that of Kyle—or anyone else.”

  She stared at me for so long that I started to wonder if she was okay before she finally spoke.

  “I think you are too hard on yourself, Jaclyn, and you don’t give him enough credit,” she scolded. “You make sacrifices for anything or anyone that you love, it’s part of the deal. I’m sorry that some scoundrel wasn’t willing to sacrifice for you and made you feel like you weren’t worth the effort. I hope you realize that Kyle isn’t like that. I hope you realize just who that boy is and what he’s willing to sacrifice for you. And I hope you realize it before you give up something you’ll regret.”

  I looked away, hesitant to feed the hope that bloomed in my chest.

  Evan hadn’t made sacrifices for me. He saw my success and expected me to make sacrifices for him to compensate, to make him feel better about himself, to make him feel important and let the world know that the superstar skier still served him.

  Kyle was the exact opposite.

  He catered to me and my schedule and my needs because being with me was more important than feeling important. Maybe that was why I made sacrifices for him, too. Breaking my one-night rule, staying up late, going out and off-menu. Slowly, my shell was breaking and allowing me to breath
e and hope and maybe, even love.

  I sucked in a breath.

  That was dangerous territory, jumping from more to love. It was the difference between being an expert skier and being insane enough to jump out of a helicopter to heli-ski. There was a risk to love that made the leap from earth to heaven: possessing a greater reward or a more lethal fall.

  It was more than my feelings that made me wary. There was a past that made me who I am, a past I’d risen up from.

  To let Kyle in meant going back down that path, fighting through the overgrown thicket that walled out my worries and weaknesses. It meant letting vulnerability in with him.

  As Betty walked away, I saw her use her cane for the very first time.

  It was as though my fear had crippled her, too.

  “Hey!” I whipped around with a shocked exclamation, searching for the person who’d thrown a snowball at my ass.

  A brilliant white smile knocked me off my feet—or would have if they weren’t still attached to wooden supports.

  “Isn’t that how you prefer your greeting on the mountain?” he asked with a sexy, quirked grin.

  “Maybe.” I notched my chin up as my arms locked in front of my chest as he closed the distance between us.

  “This is how I prefer mine.” The husky timbre of his voice stoked my desire as it climbed down and pooled low in my stomach as his mouth covered mine.

  Sighing, I opened underneath him, letting his tongue sweep inside to warm itself against mine.

  It was too easy, falling for Prince Charming. No wonder those princesses never stood a damn chance.

  I tipped into him, realizing my feet were still locked in my bindings. His arms came around me and our snow gear made the burning in my body feel like I was about to turn into a pile of ash.

  I whimpered when Kyle pulled away at the loud—very Italian—gasp that sounded like an alarm behind me.

  “Jaclyn!” Danny hissed like I was thirteen, not thirty.

  Kyle cleared his throat and I tried to remember if the cold had weathered his cheeks pink before or if this was Danny’s doing.

  “Who is this? What is going on here?”

  “Danny,” I drawled, using my pole to unclip from my skis. “I don’t know if you’ve properly met Kyle. He works at the gym.”

  To see the short, somewhat squat man march up to stand next to Kyle who was model height and muscular was a mental image I’d have to laugh at later.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you—”

  “Why are you kissing him?”

  I gasped when Danny interrupted him and turned on me for more answers, eyeing Kyle through narrow eyes.

  “I’m kissing him because he’s my boyfriend,” I spoke before I thought… before I realized that I may have skipped a step or two in this whole process of dating someone—like the one where we agreed that we were a thing, that this was happening.

  I didn’t need to look at Kyle to know he was pleased with what I’d said. I could feel the surge of primal possessiveness through my multiple layers of clothing.

  Danny’s face mirrored my thoughts as he just stared at me with his mouth agape, catching a few windblown snowflakes in its trap. He snapped it shut and looked back and forth between the two of us.

  “Sir.” Kyle tried again with that same honest smile that only he could pull off. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’m Kyle. I’ve heard so much about you from Jac.”

  The way the older man looked at Kyle reminded me of Chewbacca, always regarding newcomers with a defensive air of skepticism. My hand came up in front of my mouth so neither of them could see the smile tugging at my lips. Danny was harmless, but that didn’t stop him from acting like he was a seven-foot-tall Wookie.

  Danny stepped toward me and asked with a low whisper, “Is this the reason you’ve been skiing better or the reason you’ve been more distracted?”

  “Yes,” I replied to both without a second thought.

  I was skiing better than ever. I was sure it had to do with Danny and my regimented training and the inclusion of the aquatherapy. But mostly it had to do with letting myself feel again for something more than the mountain or the gold.

  Danny eyed me a second longer, assessing the truth I’d presented before training his stare on Kyle.

  “Nice to meet you,” he drawled hesitantly, and then in what he thought was under his breath whispered, “I’m watching you.”

  “I’ll take good care of her,” Kyle promise even though Danny hadn’t asked and my heart fluttered.

  “Sorry about that.” I waited until my coach was no longer in earshot before apologizing and picking up my skis with a sigh.

  “Don’t apologize, Jac,” he said firmly, his hand reaching for my skis, too. “I want to be a part of your life, even if that means putting up with the Italian mob.”

  We both held onto the skis for another second before I released my grip and let him carry them for me.

  Laughing, I shook my head. “Yeah, he’s not the mob. Trust me. Well, unless he’s their fashion coordinator, but that would be about it.”

  The mountain was clearing off for the end of the day. I couldn’t say I wasn’t purposely waiting within sight of the Ski Patrol building in order to see Kyle. We hadn’t made any specific plans when I’d ran off this morning after the Christmas-question came up. But here he was, still undeterred even though with each step forward, my fear tried to drag me two steps back.

  “Big plans for the night?” I selfishly wondered.

  “It’s Jessa’s birthday… from the gym. Her and her boyfriend, Chance, are the ones hosting Christmas brunch,” he told me with no expectation in his voice as he ran his free, frustrated hand over his hat-covered head. “I told her that I would meet her and her fiancé and their friends at the Pub for dinner and drinks. Do you want to come?”

  I ducked my head trying to hide my disappointment both in knowing that he had plans and knowing I couldn’t join in them.

  I shook my head in the negative. “I can’t. I should probably get my allotted amount of sleep tonight. The competition is next week so probably just a warm bath and a movie before bed for me.”

  That was my excuse for everything: the rules. They kept me from feeling this—disappointment; they kept me from having hopes about things that were out of my control.

  I wanted to invite him over. I wanted to tell him that Marissa had left for her parents for the holiday. But I didn’t want to beg. And I didn’t want to put myself between him and his friends, afraid I wouldn’t be the one chosen.

  “You sure?”

  So, I shoved the hurt back down to where all my feelings should have stayed, now even more excited for a warm bath to melt this all away.

  “Yeah. I have to keep my head in the game,” I murmured with a quick, carefree smile.

  I shivered when he gently rested his fingers against the small of my back. “And what about Christmas?”

  “What about it?” I asked, my heart jumping up into my throat.

  “I want to spend it with you,” he declared, similar to earlier.

  “I should—”

  “Stop running.” He finished my sentence with a growl.

  He was right.

  But before I could confess it, we rounded the building toward the parking lot and a chill sprung up my spine. A few more steps and I realized the chill wasn’t from my heart shuddering in disappointment; it was from my body preparing for battle.

  “Did my eyes deceive me or do I see Jax has a new boyfriend?”

  Her voice was like nails down a chalkboard as my head turned to meet the bland green stare that glowed at me with malice. Andrea Jensen. I always thought her eyes looked like mold which, to me, was fitting evidence of the decaying vacant space where normal people had a heart.

  I had no desire to respond to her—or even pretend like she existed. Unfortunately, pretending she wasn’t there didn’t allow me to walk through her as she sidestepped to remain directly in my path.

  “He’s
cute.” Acid dripped from her stare that looked over him like she was eyeing up a new piece of meat. “Cuter than Evan, I think.”

  My body tightened.

  Kyle tensed behind me, always ready to step in. But this time, I was the one who stepped in front of him. I had armor to deal with her hatred, there was no way I was letting her take down my Prince Charming.

  Only I was allowed to do that.

  “I never thought I’d see the day that anyone would want you after what you did. After what happened to Evan.”

  I wanted to choke her out just to make her stop talking. Or, at the very least, punch her. Instead, I just tightly smiled and moved to the side again to walk around her.

  “Jac, let’s go.” His voice was warm and comforting against the back of my ear, his hand pushing on my back to just keep walking.

  Ignore when she instigates.

  “Does he know?” Her eyebrow arched into a point; it was probably the only point to her life.

  Ignore. Ignore. Ignore. My heart thudded in my chest as it became harder to breathe.

  She didn’t shuffle this time when I stepped to the side and led us around her. I should have known then she was just biding her time.

  As soon as Kyle was shoulder-to-shoulder with her, Andrea murmured loud enough for me to hear, “Good luck there, handsome. She made the last guy who looked at her like that so miserable he killed himself.”

  And then I saw red, a strangled cry tearing from my lungs as I whipped around and reached for her caustic blonde hair.

  I saw that same smile—the one that said she knew she was asking for it. She poked and poked and provoked like there was nothing meaningful left to her life except to defame mine.

  I didn’t care what she said about me, if she wanted to continue to claim that I was a cheater or just a straight-up bitch, that was fine; I’d ignored that for years. But I couldn’t take her saying it to Kyle, especially when she knew the truth. He didn’t.

  I never cared about the lies she told because I never cared about the people she told them to. Until now. Until him.

  That was why I went for her. I couldn’t see anything except the cold sneer on her face like her only satisfaction in life was once again, ruining someone else’s.