She was fighting for control. The same way he was.
He sipped his drink. “Man, no whipped cream.” He stared into his cup, recalling last night when she’d licked the white foam from her finger. “I like yours better,” he added.
“Me too,” she said with a slightly uncomfortable laugh.
“So how is it you were the one who got the responsibility of the resort? What about your mom or siblings?”
“My mom and dad are divorced. Have been since I was eight. Mom is remarried and lives in Nashville. I don’t think she would care one way or another if the resort failed. And I’m an only child.”
He nodded. “So that leaves just you to care for your dad.”
She drained the rest of her cup. “Yep. Just me.”
It was the sad way she said the words that caught him in the gut. She seemed so vulnerable. The subject got to her. But he understood how family could make someone feel that way.
He rose, poured himself another half-cup of cocoa and held the thermos out to her. “More?”
“No, thanks. Too sweet.”
He took her cup. It was the excuse he needed to move closer to her, he realized, as he chugged his drink. She tilted her face up at him, and for the first time he noticed a small friction burn on the side of her jaw. With her complexion as fair as it was, she was the poster child for rosy cheeks in winter, but on closer inspection, he could make out the scrape.
He plopped the cups down, scooped up a handful of snow, and formed it into a loose ball.
“You going to start a snowball fight?”
“Don’t tempt me.”
She laughed.
He did, too. “I don’t want you to bruise.” He slid closer to her, his knee knocking against hers. Gently, he held the makeshift icepack to the burned spot on her jawline. “To keep it from swelling.”
She winced. “Oooh.”
He searched for a topic to distract her. “What about your paintings?”
“My paintings?”
“Yes. You’re very good. Do you sell them?”
“Sometimes, but I haven’t for a while.”
“I’d like to buy one.” He lifted the ice, peeked at her face, and shifted his weight closer.
“I can hold that.”
“I know.”
He looked into her eyes and saw the same heat that was rushing through his body. He sensed he could lead her down that path to temptation, but he didn’t want to push her. “We’re going to need to share a ride back.”
“Yes. Rob will return for the broken sled,” she said, her voice holding the same throaty rasp that first drew him to her singing.
As a lengthy pause lingered between them, his thoughts obsessed on the stimulating ride back with her front pressed against his back.
She swung one leg over, straddling the snowmobile, facing backward, then patted her hand on the pleather in front of her. “Have a seat.”
Jared swallowed hard. “You sure?”
She nodded.
He stared at her, hesitating. She was so damned attractive, so inviting.
He slung his leg over, opposite her, and settled in. Face to face, knee to knee, body to body. He dabbed the snow to her face again.
“What painting interests you?” she asked, tension in her voice.
“The one of the woman in the water.”
She thought for a minute. “Oh. That one’s not for sale. I love that painting.”
“May I commission one like it, then?”
She paused. “Are you humoring me?”
“Not at all.”
“I’ll have to think about it.”
He examined her face again.
“Will I live, Doctor?” she asked jokingly.
“You will.” He tossed the snowball aside and tenderly touched her jawline. “But I’m not a doctor anymore, I’ve given that up, remember. I live much more dangerously now.” She had a gorgeous face. He languidly ran his thumb along her cheekbone, gazing into her big, beautiful eyes. Her soft sensuality in that moment triggered his heart to beat harder in his chest. As he brushed a slip of hair from her forehead, he wondered if she tasted as good as she smelled.
“So, Mr. Dangerous, you interested in helping a girl experience a long-desired fantasy?” She grabbed him by the arm and tugged him closer. “I need a little body heat.”
He couldn’t come up with a reason to deny her, possibly because he didn’t want to deny her. So he leaned in and absorbed the wonderful feel of her body against his.
In the intimacy of the moment, he lightly touched his lips to her injured cheek. He was moving in for a second take when she turned her head and caught his mouth with hers. God, the tenderness of her lips was delightful, intoxicating.
She moaned softly against his mouth, and his brain stopped working altogether. He deepened the kiss, angling his mouth over hers, dipping his tongue in to taste her. Chocolate. A delicious flavor meant to be shared.
She pulled back with unsteady raspy breaths. “This is the best way to ride out the weather I’ve ever found.”
“Mmm, I agree.”
He gently cupped her face with his hands, then threaded his fingers into her hair. At last experiencing the silky texture of the curls. With one hand moving to the back of her neck, he pulled her to him again for another long kiss.
She leaned in to meet him, but after several delightful minutes drew back. “Ugh, winter clothes. Too much.” With a naughty, mischievous stare, she sank her teeth into her plump lower lip and lifted a shoulder. Was she daring him to stop her as her hands moved to the zipper of his jacket? Her gaze shifted to his chest as she dragged the tab down.
Jared suppressed a smile.
“About that body heat—” Her voice trailed off, letting actions communicate her thoughts.
He undid his coat and held it open, inviting her closer. Without hesitation she snuggled into his embrace. He suppressed a groan as her round breasts nudged against his chest. A second later, she eased her hands beneath his coat, too. She trailed her fingers up under his sweater and against his hot skin.
She sighed.
He sensed this was something rare, something new for her. The tentative way her hands moved along his ribs with such an exploratory touch, told him that and more.
The knowledge that it was happening with him under such dubious circumstances pricked at him, but as she slid her hands to his back, he sucked in air and the thought disappeared. Then she lifted her legs so they draped on top of his and scooted closer.
“This is some fantasy,” he said.
“Every girl has at least one.”
“You have more?”
An adorable, flustered blush suffused her cheeks. Amazingly, only the first time since he’d kissed her. That could be due to the cold, though.
“Maybe,” she admitted. “It’s exciting getting—um, physical outdoors. I always knew it would be.”
He reached around behind her, under the hem of her jacket and grasped her hips, shifting her and pulling her onto him. “I’ll say.” He rocked her delicately against his swollen crotch in case there was any doubt how excited she’d made him.
She groaned, arched, and he guided her backward until she lay against the handlebars, pillowed by the flat plains of the headlight casing.
Though it was cold outside, he barely felt it as she stretched out in front of him and he began undoing her jacket. “Summer would be a better season. Not so many clothes.”
“No snowmobile then,” she said with a tiny smile.
His anticipation rose with each undone barrel-shaped button. As did his heart rate. In those infinitesimal seconds before he folded the material back, his hands shook.
The movement of her chest drew his attention to the line of miniature buttons down the front of her sweater. He groaned, it would take way too long and require much more patience than he had to undo them. “I’m going to buy you sweaters without buttons,” he said.
With an indulgent twinkle in her eyes, she lifted t
he sweater until he could see a patch of skin up to her ribcage. His mouth went dry at the sight of tiny hooped ring in her bellybutton.
Oh. Yes. He cupped his hands, blew into them, and rubbed his fingers to warm them. “Don’t want to freeze you.”
He followed her lead, sliding his hands beneath the soft knit, feeling the smoothness of her skin. Pushing the sweater up, up, until it bunched high over her chest. His breathing grew rapid as the delicate lace of her bra was exposed. With the tips of his fingers he caught the upper edge of lace and followed the arch of the under-wire, sweeping the lacy fabric down until her breasts were free.
The chilly air instantly brought her nipples to puckered peaks. How he wanted to suckle them, yet, he resisted, instead savoring the soft texture and luscious feel of her. “Definitely too many clothes,” he whispered.
As his body lusted to experience her fully, completely, his mind interrupted, cautioning him that he didn’t have time for a relationship. Especially with a woman who could be at fault for his sister’s accident.
CHAPTER EIGHT
God help her, this was what she’d wanted from the first moment she’d set eyes on Jared Michaels. Not when she met him in the resort office, but even before that, when she’d seen him at the hospital with his sister. Perhaps it was a combination of his hot looks and the concern and caring he showed for Tiffani that got to her. Whatever it was, her body practically hummed, so utterly aware of him she was.
Had she ever experienced this before?
She swept her tongue over her suddenly dry lips. No. And the embarrassment she’d felt at first dissolved like the snow that had melted in his hand.
With each stoke of his fingers caressing her breasts, a butterfly pulse skimmed her lower abdomen, between her legs, and down her inner thighs.
“Kelsey?”
Closing her eyes, she reached up and out to the sides, clutching the hand grips and using the leverage to drive the most sensitive part of her against his erection.
“Kelsey.”
“Hmmm?”
Using his strong hands beneath her back, he raised her, pressing his mouth along the column of her neck, dipping a path down to the swell of her breasts. “We can’t do this now.”
With about as much control as stars have over the moon, she moved on him. “But—”
“I know. There’s nothing I’d like more. It’s just that I don’t have any protection with me. We’re in the middle of nowhere, and I wasn’t planning—”
She stilled as a small whimper escaped her throat. “What?” What was he saying? It took milliseconds for his words to sink in. She was floating on a nimbus cloud of pleasure, and he was…calling a halt?
“Come here, darlin’. Trust me,” he said, looking deep into her eyes. “You’re close, aren’t you? Let me take you higher.”
He suckled her breast while rolling her on his hardness, making her feel like she was about to burst, and then he slid his knuckles between them, rubbing the seam of her jeans against her sex. She gasped and shuddered as waves of pleasure lapped and radiated through her torso and limbs like a pebble splitting water. She collapsed into his arms, which immediately encircled her and held her gently to him. His hot breaths feathered her neck, and with her mouth pressed below his ear, she whispered, “Maybe, I could—”
“No,” he half-growled without letting her finish, seeming to anticipate the delightful proposition she was about to offer.
Her bubble fizzled and popped. She felt robbed because she couldn’t share his ecstasy the way he had hers.
He set her back from him, fixed her bra and sweater. “As much as I’d like that, I don’t think that would be a good idea now.”
He kissed her, a hungry I-don’t-want-to-part kind of tongue-tasting that somehow segued into a goodbye kiss. She pulled back and sucked on her lower lip, disheartened, sure she’d just missed out on a spectacular experience. “Promise me—promise me we’ll finish this at another time,” she said.
“Definitely.”
She closed her eyes and swallowed a moan as disappointment, embarrassment, and, yes, regret wrapped into a huge yarn-ball of frustration. Definitely wasn’t the same as promising.
The radio hissed static. She cradled it to her chest as if it could protect her.
“How ’bout it, Kelsey? Has it stopped snowing where you’re at?” Taylor inquired.
“What timing,” Jared said as he got off the snowmobile and walked in a circle around it.
Peering through the trees, she muttered into the radio, “Yes. It’s clearing. So we’ll be heading back now. But I’ll be sending a crew back out to pick up my sled. I had a minor breakdown.”
Jared hitched a brow at her understatement.
There was another short spurt of static. “Wow. You okay?”
“Yes. We’re fine.”
“Good. See ya soon.” Taylor disengaged the call.
She leaned down, making a quick snowball. “Hey.”
He spun around.
“Need to cool off?” She briefly wondered if it was really better to hide stupid behavior behind even stupider actions, but she threw the clump at him anyway.
The snow fell apart as he deflected it with his hand. He winked. “I’d need a truck full of snow to do that.”
Unable to believe that she’d brazenly thrown herself at him, she tried to smile. But the catch in her throat prevented it. Why did he have to be so damned chivalrous? Oh, she knew he was right, but she didn’t have to like it. And something about his attitude screamed that despite the “another time” he’d agreed to, she feared it wasn’t going to happen.
The ordeal of her parents’ divorce spun through her memory like a tornado heading for a trailer park. Her palms grew moist, despite the cold. Better it end now than later. She slipped her gloves back on. Maybe this was for the best.
Jared repacked the thermos into the satchel. “We better get going,” he said, and her heart fell.
* * *
The ride back to Chalet Romance’s equipment barn was fraught with tension. His, that is. For as much as he knew he’d logically made the right call, his body was physically giving him hell.
His muscles tightened as she hugged him from behind, her sweet breasts pressed against his back while she held on tight, sharing his snowmobile. Thank God for the layer of winter cloths. Still, his memory of minutes earlier more than filled in the missing sensory info.
Hot blood sluiced through his veins, his body still aching for hers, still hard, still demanding fulfillment. He shifted his weight onto his feet to better absorb the rough ride…and to direct the motion of the sled away from his far-too-eager cock.
Frankly, he needed a cold shower. And even that probably wouldn’t do the trick.
He managed, with great effort, to put aside the memory of what almost happened. Or so he told himself. Fifteen long, grueling minutes later they pulled into the equipment barn. Thank. God.
Rob greeted them when they arrived. “What happened? Taylor said you broke down.”
“Kelsy’s sled lost a ski.” Jared said, eager to have anything on his mind besides what his body was doing to him. “She took quite a tumble, but she’s tough.”
Kelsey shot him a blistering glare, then clarified to Rob, “We were able to ride back together. No big deal.”
“I’m so sorry,” Rob said. “This should never have happened.”
“It’s okay,” Kelsey said. “It’s not your fault.”
But Rob’s face burned with a frustrated shade of crimson. “The hell it isn’t. I’m responsible for the equipment. I don’t know how this could have gotten past me.”
“It’s all right. Just send someone to the Eternity slope to fetch the snowmobile. Repair it and we’re good.”
“With the ski off,” Jared added. “I doubt it’s towable on its own, so you’ll need another means to get it back here.”
Rob nodded. “Thanks for the heads up.” Then he narrowed his eyes, peering at the scrape on Kelsey’s cheek. “Are
you okay?”
She patted him on the shoulder as she passed. “Yes. I’m fine.”
Outside the barn, she paused meeting Jared’s eyes, not quite knowing what to say. She shoved both hands into her jacket pockets. “What next?”
He shrugged. “I’ll speak to the paramedics and see what they have to say.”
She just nodded and walked away. She moved deliberately, taking her time, aware of the heightened sensations between her legs. Aware of his eyes watching her.
Her pulse was racing, and it wasn’t due to exercise. Jared made her feel so—alive. Before she went into the main lobby, she paused to rest on a park bench and gather her thoughts. Was it possible to fall in love in just one day? Her heart said yes.
But the rest of her wasn’t so sure. She relaxed into the seat and simply absorbed the lovely landscape, allowing nature to calm her.
At last, she stood ready to go inside. Amy would have questions and Kelsey mentally prepared herself for that. She began directing her thoughts to what else she needed to do today. On the top of the list was to tell Taylor to pick up a new television when he went into town and deliver it to Jared’s chalet.
* * *
Jared climbed in his SUV, slammed the door, and gripped the steering wheel. The floral scent of her still clung to him. He’d come damned close to losing control. One more dimpled smile and he would have stripped them both and plunged deep inside her. Condom, or no.
He hit the keyless ignition of his Escalade, then shifted into reverse.
What had he been thinking?
Tires crunched over salt dusted road. You were raised better than that, son. His father’s words echoed in Jared’s mind as if the pines he was driving past had tongues. No, he didn’t seduce women. He wasn’t a saint, just careful about his relationships. Selective.
But then again, he’d never experienced such spontaneous combustion.
No doubt, he shouldn’t have allowed their lust to run away with them like that. Way to handle things, man.
Besides, this trip was supposed to be about Tiffani.
He blew out a disgusted sigh, cutting onto the road toward town and the paramedic squadron. He’d called first and one of the guys who had attended Tiffani was on duty right now, which was good because he could use a lucky break.
Winter Heat, Part 2 Page 3