“As if you’re about to hug someone.”
She smirks. “I wouldn’t mind peeling off these layers and hugging you. Naked.”
I belly laugh. “God, I didn’t realize the snow made you so horny, Ms. Hayes.”
She purses her lips. “I’m trying to distract so we can make a new game plan.”
I relax, setting a hand on her arm. “Look, we don’t have to do this, I just thought it would be a fun way to get your mind—”
“No, it’s fine. I’m just giving you a hard time.”
I look down at my groin. “Hard is right.” Then smacking her butt, I add, “No more jokes about stripping out of our clothes until we get down the mountain, okay?”
“Bossy,” she deadpans. “I like it.”
I shake my head, laughing, as I explain that she needs to feel her weight evenly on the balls of her feet and heels. Charlie may talk down about her ability, but she is relatively coordinated as she uses the poles to help push her forward after she has a grasp of how to stand.
“You’re doing great, babe.”
“Well,” she says with a good-natured grin. “If it takes us until lunch to get down the mountain, I’ll sign up for a lesson. Deal?”
“Wow, already underestimating my abilities to teach you.”
Minutes later we’re at the front of the line for the ski lift and climbing aboard. Two lines merge as one, and before we know it, Winslow is joining us.
“A little snug for three?” Charlie asks as the attendant keeps the line moving, sending us up.
“I called for you back there,” Winnie says. “You must not have heard me.”
“I was pretty occupied.” I look at Charlie and grin. “Who are you here with anyway?”
She rolls her eyes. “Connery begged me. His family planned a ski trip, and his twin brother is here with his fiancée. So, our Connery needed a fake girlfriend.”
I snort. “That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard you do,” I tell her, meaning it.
Charlie pipes up, “What’s the catch?”
Winslow shrugs absently, but I see the sparkle in her smile. “He’s writing my thesis.”
“Typical,” Charlie says, rolling her eyes. I bite back a laugh. I haven’t seen Charlie quite so snippy with Winslow before and I like it. The girl who threw a glass of champagne in my face has returned.
“We can’t all be spoiled princesses, can we?” Winslow says as the lift comes to a stop, the irony in her words apparently lost on her.
Before I’m able to respond, Winslow is darting off down the mountain in her sleek black attire, and I turn to the cutest marshmallow I’ve ever wanted to take a bite of.
“I got you,” I tell her as she gingerly gets off the lift, taking her time when they stop it for her, much to the annoyance of the people behind her. But I don’t care. I glare at them. “Cool it,” I snap in their direction. I’m not rushing Charlie into anything.
I want to of course - rush it all. I want to get back together. Not for a hook-up, but for real. I want to confess my love, offer her my heart.
But I know that we need to take things slow.
Baby steps. Bunny slopes.
As I stand waiting for her, Charlie whips past me, laughing as her skis glide through the snow. “Come on, slowpoke,” she hollers.
I shake my head in wonder, knowing I’ll follow her anywhere she wants to go.
17
Charlie
The day could go so many ways - there’s a moment before I get off the ski lift, when Winslow zips past us, that I really think I am going to end up at the bottom of the mountain in a marshmallow-y heap.
But then Spencer takes my hand and helps me off the lift, glaring at the people behind us, his gaze not on Winslow in her perfect little ski suit - but on me.
His eyes so full of concern and care and devotion, that it gives a spark of confidence in myself, but also in us. Spencer and I have been through hell and back, and here we are, on the top of the mountain, together.
We can make this work. I want to make this work. So I forget about messing up and twisting the skis and losing the poles and instead I just have fun.
With the man I am crazy, head over heels for.
The man who patiently waits as I slowly but surely make it down the mountain in one piece.
“You were incredible,” he says generously.
“You are so patient with me.”
He kisses me then, under the blue skies and bright sun, the white mountains so bright and his gloved hand holding me in place. “You make it easy, Charlie Hayes.”
I feel like a princess. His princess. And yes it is cheesy, and I’m certainly not wearing a ball gown and these long skis are definitely not glass slippers, but here, with him, I feel like I’m his princess. Like I am his.
“Should we go up again?” I ask, not because I am trying to be a good sport, but because Spencer was right. I need this. To move my body and fill my lungs with this fresh mountain air - to push aside thoughts of my mom and dad and school and jobs, and just be here, in the moment.
He gives me a wide smile. “God, you make me happy.”
The simple truth of it makes me laugh. Reminds me that Spencer Beckett is more than Ivy League royalty. He is the man that somehow stole my heart.
* * *
In the bathroom, I strip out of my wool socks and thermal underwear and slip a thick robe over my shoulders. As I step out of the bathroom, I groan dramatically. “Every muscle aches. Literally, every one.”
Spencer has on a robe too and is pouring us glasses of champagne. “Maybe I pushed you too hard?”
I shake my hand, taking the flute he offers me. “No, I’m glad we stayed as long as we did, even if we might pay for it later. It was a lot of fun.”
“So you’ll come up here with me again?”
I bite the corner of my lip. “Yes, I will. You were a good teacher, Spencer.”
“You were a good student.” He laces his fingers with mine and gestures outside. “There’s a hot tub outside on our private veranda. Might relax your muscles.”
“I didn’t bring a suit,” I say, immediately realizing how dumb that sounds.
He grins. “I think we can manage without.” Spencer steps outside and then turns on the jets to the tub as I grab the bottle of champagne to top off our glasses.
“It’s so cold,” I say jumping from one foot to the next. “The ground is so cold.”
He takes the bottle and glass from my hand, setting them on the side of the tub, then takes my hand and helps me across to the steps. “Easy does it.”
I slip off my robe and step into the steaming water. “Oh my god, you’ve gotta get in here,” I moan, turning back to face him. His eyebrows are raised as he watches me sink into the water. “What?”
He looks me over. “You just...you look like...”
“Like what?” I ask, immediately doubting my sense of security. Spencer has been with so many women, so many model-worthy women. Here I am stripping for him without a second thought. Maybe he forgot what I really look like. It’s been awhile since we’ve been together.
“You’re so beautiful, Charlie. Sometimes it takes my breath away.”
I shake my head, wanting to accept his words, but knowing that right now there is nothing that ties us together beyond our past. We aren’t dating, we’re...friends. Friends who like to flirt and kiss and get naked.
We aren’t just friends. I know that. But what are we?
Spencer sets his robe aside, and steps toward the hot tub. My body tingles - and it’s not from the hot water - it’s his everything. He is so chiseled, a ladder of abs that makes my fingers itch with need. They long to run over him. My eyes move downward, taking in his thickness. My core tightens with want as I watch his perfect form walks toward the steps. His muscles tensing as he moves.
“You don’t just take my breath away,” I tell him as he climbs in. “You make me forget how to breathe.”
He smirks. “You want to make m
e blush?”
I shake my head. “No. That’s not what I want.”
Our eyes meet and my words hang in the air. He sits opposite me, and I wonder why he didn’t pull me into his lap. Why he didn’t set me down on his cock and take me here and now.
I want him to.
Instead, he clears his throat. “Can we talk?” he asks.
“Sounds serious,” I say, fully aware of how hard my nipples are, how my clit has begun to throb in anticipation.
“It is.”
My brows furrow. “What is it?”
“I want to ask you something, Charlie. And I want you to answer me honestly, without holding back.”
“What is it? You can ask me anything, Spencer.”
“Would you consider giving us another shot? A real chance. An all in, no second guessing, give it our all, shot?”
I blink. “My body knows what it wants - but that was never the question.”
When Spencer and I come together, everything makes sense. Our bodies are in sync, it’s like they know the same beat, we’re made with the same rhythm.
It’s everything else that was our problem. Our families, our futures, our dreams.
His friends, his ex, his fear.
My scholarship status, my job, my insecurity.
“I know last time I let other people get in the way of us, but I won’t let that happen again.”
“What are you saying?” I ask, moving toward him. Closer, I see the knot of worry in his eyes. He wants this. Me. He’s scared of it not happening.
“Tonight could go a few different ways, Charlie.”
I lick my lips, still sitting across from him, but close enough that he could take me in his arms if he wanted.
“How could it go?” I ask.
He pulls me closer, his hand on my neck, drawing me to him. My body pulses with want as his thumb runs over my lips. “We could fuck all night,” he tells me. “I could make your pussy so happy. I could get you off until you forget your name. I could make your toes curl and your voice go hoarse.”
I close my eyes, wanting all those things so badly. He kisses my ear, his hot breath sending a current of want over me.
“You could sit on my lap, Charlie, right here.” He takes my hand and places it on his growing cock. I stroke him, wanting this. His hard length teases me in all the right ways and my poor little pussy is already crying for relief.
“You could ride my cock until your sweet pussy tightens around me, until your tits are bouncing against my chest, until your back arches as you orgasm the way your perfect little body was made to do.”
He runs his tongue over my neck, plucking my nipples until I’m whimpering. Already I’m jelly in his hands.
“Or?” I ask, breathlessly.
“Or it could be about more than sex. About more fucking until we pass out.”
He pulls me to him, into his lap. It’s the place I want to be, and I know he knows it. I close my eyes tighter, scared to look in his eyes because there is only one thing I really want.
A future.
Our future.
“It’s okay, Charlie,” he says. “You can look at me.”
“I’m scared,” I say, wrapping my arms around him. Pressing my cheek to his chest. I want this. All of it. And I need him to say it. To want the same thing as me. I’m scared because my heart is his, it wasn’t even a choice. It just happened. And the idea of not having his heart in return? It’s terrifying.
“Don’t be scared, listen.” He lifts my chin with his finger, his cock pressed to my belly, my core desperate to be filled. I look at him, hating that I feel both on the verge of tears and ecstasy. “You’re my favorite person to be around,” he tells me. “You make me laugh and smile and have hope. I want to go all in with you, Charlie Hayes.”
“You do?”
He nods. “So fucking bad.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“Be my girlfriend.”
I lick my lips. “That’s what you want?”
“It’s all I want.”
My chin quivers. “It’s all I want too.”
“You sure?” He presses my hand to his cock again. “I’m pretty sure I see something else in your eyes.”
I laugh, unable to help myself. It’s Spencer. My Spencer. The man who makes me crazy and happy and horny all at once.
“So this is happening? We’re like, together?” I ask.
He nods, and then he kisses me. It’s different than all the kisses that came before. Now we have more than a past, we have the promise of a future.
“I want you to fuck me so bad,” I tell him in between kisses. “I want your cock inside me.”
“I like it when you talk all dirty,” he says, his fingers opening me up. I inhale sharply as my tightness expands for him. My core is already on fire, desperate for him to make me come.
We move together, my body opening as his cock begins to fill me. I’m already so close. I move my hips in a small circle, anxious and greedy. “Oh Spence,” I moan, wanting to do more than come. I want to fall. I want to crash.
“You feel so good,” he tells me.
And the feeling is more than mutual.
My pussy tightens as he fills me up, as he thrusts deep inside me, as I kiss him harder, our lips parting as we inhale one another.
When we come, it’s fierce; it’s fire and force and I’m screaming his name.
“Yes, Spence, yes.”
I know I’m loud, but I don’t care. I’m not just having sex. Right now, my boyfriend is getting me off, and it feels really freaking good.
18
Spencer
“I wish we could stay one more day,” Charlie murmurs against my chest as we lie in bed and watch the sun rise over the ski hill.
I kiss her forehead, drawing her closer to me. “We can if you want.”
She sighs. “I do, but I have a paper due, and a quiz on Thursday that I have to study for.”
“Have you made any plans for summer vacation yet?” The question has been on my mind for a while now. And since we’re really together now, I can’t imagine ever being apart.
The idea of spending months without her slays me.
She rolls over, her chin resting on her palms and studies me. “Usually I go home, work as much as I can. But my dad already had an offer on the house so...” She gives a small shrug. “I don’t know...probably find a cheap place to rent and see if I can pick up extra shifts at the restaurant.” Her brows draw down and a deep worry line forms between them. “I mean if I get into the master’s program. It’s weird that I haven’t heard yet.”
“You’ll get in.” I brush a strand of light brown hair away from her cheek.
“I hope so.”
“What about you? Have you decided who you’re going to intern with?”
“No.” Tension makes my muscles go stiff, because I honestly still have no fucking clue what I’m going to do after I graduate. I know what my parents want me to do, and I've already had offers - good offers. But none that sit right in my gut.
“I guess you still have time to decide.”
“I actually did something...” I wince because I’m not sure how she’ll take it when I tell her I already got my acceptance into the Ph.D. program last week. I’d applied just for the hell of it, not really thinking about accepting the offer, but now...If she’s going to be here at Princeton, it’s where I want to be too.
“What?” she asks when I don’t continue.
I shift in bed, sitting up. “I was thinking about staying.”
“Staying?”
“At Princeton. At least for another four years.”
“It’s a little late to apply for the doctorate program.”
“Yeah.” I rub the back of my neck. “Actually, I did already. And I got in.”
“Oh. Wow. That’s...amazing. Right?”
“You’re not upset?” I pull her onto my lap.
“Why would I be upset? So are you going to take it?”
/> “I haven’t decided yet. My parents...” I let out a heavy sigh. “They won’t be happy.”
“That you’ll be a doctor?” She shakes her head. “That’s just so...bizarre. But wouldn’t having a Ph.D. help in politics?”
“That’s the thing, I’m still not sure if I’m headed in that direction. I want to make a difference, but in my own way.”
“You’re amazing, you know that?”
I chuckle, “Yeah, you told me that a few times last night.”
She wraps her arms around my neck and smirks down at me. “When you asked me to be your girlfriend it got me a little … excited.”
“Is that what we’re calling it?” I ask, remembering the way she orgasmed. It was so loud and so fucking hot that my cock aches at the memory alone. I pull her to me, running my hand over her bare skin. “God, you feel so good.”
She licks her lips. “You feel pretty good too.” She begins to stroke my shaft, run her fingers over my balls.
“I missed you, Charlie. When we were apart. We can’t let that happen again.”
She looks up at me, stirring a primal need inside of me. Maybe it’s her long lashes and tousled hair, her pouty lips, her wide eyes. But it is more than that. It transcends lust, physical attraction. MY desire to take care of her reaches deep inside me, to my core.
I won’t let anything happen to her.
“What is it?” she asks.
I kiss her, hard. My mouth on hers, making a promise. One I don’t need to say aloud, but I’m making the vow all the same. I won’t let her down. Ever again.
She senses the shift in the mood, my longing to be with her, and she moves down the bed, her tongue running along my length, twirling over my tip where hot cum escapes. She swipes it away with her little pink tongue, and my cock hardens, grows. It knows what it wants. Her.
She takes me in her mouth, fully, sucking me and it’s not enough. I need more. Everything. I pull her around, needing her ass in my face, wanting to lick her sweet pussy as she sucks me off.
“Oh Spence,” she whimpers as I breathe hot air against her. She begins to move faster, her sucking tight and tender as I squeeze her perfect ass. I lick her, loving her taste, her scent, loving the way she squirms as I mouth-fuck her, making her nice and wet and ready. Her pussy drips for me, but it’s my cock that is losing control.
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