Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 93942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
“Better,” I said, my hands still on her hips. I should probably let go, but I didn’t want to.
“Like this?” she asked, trying one more time.
“Yeah. Exactly like that.” I finally dropped my hands and moved back alongside her. “Let’s try again. And remember—loose hips, let them move.”
We continued down, and yeah, she still fell once more before we hit the bottom, but she was getting it. Slowly.
Asher had been out of sorts when he arrived yesterday—grumpy as hell after the drive up. He’d described Zoe as frigid and stuck-up, which I’d filed away as useful information and possibly a fun challenge. But the woman I’d seen this morning, staring out at the view with her mouth slightly open, hadn’t been frigid. She’d been awed.
And unless I was completely off my game, the awe didn’t completely stop when she looked at me.
So, frigid and stuck-up? Not what I was seeing. Terrified and really bad at skiing? Definitely.
So, I did my best to be patient. Picked her up when she fell. Didn’t let my hands linger too long on that shapely little body, even though I wanted to.
When we reached the base, she looked ready to kiss the snow-covered ground in relief.
“Want to try again?” I asked, expecting her to bail.
To my surprise, she said yes. She was a determined little thing, I’d give her that.
I lifted her back on the chairlift and sat down beside her. She was quiet on the way up, staring straight ahead.
“You scared?” I remembered to ask this time.
“No. Just angry.”
Shit. What did I do? I tried to see her eyes through the goggles. Had I made her cry? That had happened before in Colorado. Management had never let me forget it. No wait there had been two times. Jesus, no wonder I had a reputation for being bad with beginners. “Angry at me?”
“No. I just don’t like not knowing how to do things.”
I blinked. “Everyone starts at the beginning.”
“But I don’t have to like it.”
“If you were never a beginner, you’d never learn anything new.” I shifted to look at her. “You’re a student, right? Don’t you like learning?”
“Yes, but I prefer to do it myself with nobody watching.”
The phrasing put my mind straight in the gutter. My cock twitched despite the cold. I could tell she had no idea she’d said something suggestive—or maybe she hadn’t, and I just had a dirty mind.
Probably the second one.
“You’ll get better the more you do it, and soon you won’t mind if people watch.” There, that worked for both the G-rated and the R-rated meanings. I couldn’t help smirking as the ski lesson continued.
7
ZOE
After I changed, I reported back to the reception desk, hoping to work with Stanley, the front office supervisor. When I’d met him on the way in, he said that he sometimes helped out when regulars were checking in. It wasn’t hard to read between the lines and realized that he meant extremely wealthy returning clients. But whoever the VIP was, they hadn’t arrived yet, and Stanley was bent over the computer, typing rapidly. He appeared to be in his early thirties, but he typed like he was trying to set a world record.
Movement off to the side made me look up, but it wasn’t an ultra-rich guest. Kai leaned against a wall over to the left. He’d taken off his jacket and the ski boots, but otherwise he looked the same. His jeans obviously hadn’t got wet because he hadn’t fallen in the snow unlike me.
And now I could see that his gray shirt was long-sleeved and hugged every muscle in his biceps, chest, and abs. It wasn’t very professional of me to notice that, but hey, after facing death on the mountain, I deserved a little treat.
“Hi,” I said, feeling a little unsure as he strode over. We’d spent the whole morning together, but I didn’t know why he was still here. Then it dawned on me. “I left the ski suit and the boots back in the employee area. I’ll go get them.”
He reached over the counter with one long arm and stopped me before I could turn away. “Keep them. You might want to hit the slopes again.”
Was he crazy? Had he just witnessed the same disastrous ski lesson I had?
Kai grinned at whatever he saw on my face. “A few more lessons, and you might even be able to get on and off the chairlift.”
That almost made me laugh, but I was very conscious of the front office supervisor right next to me, but Stanley had only nodded at Kai once before continuing his work. I spoke softly anyway when I answered Kai. “You might want to set your expectations a little lower.”
“I like my expectations right where they are.” Kai’s smirk was arrogant, like Asher’s. However, it wasn’t as annoying as Asher’s had been, thank god.