“That’s right, I win,” she said, smiling. This was good. Competing against Carter reminded her of all the things that were usually between them.
“Now you have to tell me the one habit you are hoping to break this year,” she said. They’d been playing loser-tells-all for their resolutions.
“Fair enough, but I’m going to ask you about sexual positions. Sure you don’t want to know about them?”
“I don’t have to win a game to get you to tell me about them,” she said. “Now, what habit is it that you want to quit?”
He scratched his chin. “I think I’d like to quit... Wait—does it have to be a vice?”
“Not at all. You get to choose.”
“Well, then, I will quit answering these questions,” he said insolently.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s already your habit. And we both agreed to the terms. You have to answer.” He leaned back in the chair so his expression was visible now. She looked over at him, trying to figure out what was going on behind his handsome face. He was too sexy for his own good. It would have been better if he’d been average looking with that personality of his. He was used to charming anyone—man or woman—into doing whatever he wanted. She was determined to be different.
Hell, that had been her attitude from the beginning. Had she been attracted to him all this time?
“Well, if you must know...” he said. “I’m going to give up pulling all-nighters. I think I’m past the point where I can keep drifting through life.”
She almost laughed, but she knew he was being sincere. He was one of the top athletes in winter sports and he thought he was drifting through life. She kind of got it because that was how she felt now that skiing had been taken from her.
“So what does a serious Carter Shaw look like?” she asked.
“Ah, that, gorgeous, is a second question, and I’m afraid you’ve only earned one,” he said with that half grin of his that she found way too irresistible. “Besides, that’s not on the resolutions list. I might answer it if you win again.”
“So deal,” she said. Now that she was getting the hang of the game and she’d won, she was ready to keep winning. It was a sort of safe way for her to find out more about Carter. Learn all the intimate details about him while keeping her own secrets safe.
“Don’t forget there is a little thing called beginners luck,” he warned as he dealt her two cards.
“I’ve never relied on luck. Just skill and grit. Something that I guess a drifter like you wouldn’t understand.”
“Touché.”
Her cards weren’t so good this time. A five and a nine. Fourteen. It almost felt as if she should stay, but she wanted to win again.
Carter had a three showing.
“Hit me.”
He flipped a card up in front of her. A three. Not what she’d been hoping for, but she smiled as if it was the only thing standing between her and twenty-one and gestured that she’d stay.
“That good, eh?”
She shrugged. “Like I said...no luck needed here.”
It was funny, but she’d forgotten how often she’d had to use her press face with people in the real world to mask what she was really feeling. And now she was doing it playing cards. She’d never tell him, but Carter was giving her back little pieces of herself she hadn’t even realized she’d lost when she’d stopped skiing.
Things such as bluffing, which didn’t seem to have much in common with her skiing life but actually did.
He took a card and got a nine. “I’ll stay. What have you got, gorgeous?”
She flipped up her cards. “Seventeen.”
“Aw, that might be enough to beat me if I didn’t have...”
He flipped his card over. An eight.
An eight!
“Looks like I win.”
“Looks like you do,” she agreed. “What are you going to ask me?”
He leaned forward, that blue-gray gaze of his intense—so intense she couldn’t look away—as he took her hand in his. “Will you give me a shot, or is this just a one-night stand?”
* * *
HE HADN’T MEANT to ask her that, but now that he had, he knew that was exactly the only thing he wanted an answer for. Today had been one of the best of his life. But there was a part of him that realized she had pegged him into the casual category and he knew he wanted more.
He had to know what he was up against. Just like each time he stood at the lip of the half-pipe and took a breath before taking his run. Each half-pipe was different. Each run unique. And he prepared for the different mountains and the different events as if he’d never taken a run at it before.
Lindsey was like an unfamiliar run. This was his first time with a woman who mattered. She mattered. The words echoed around in his brain as he sat at the table trying to be cool. Or as cool as a guy could be wearing just his underwear while playing cards.
It had felt right until this moment when he’d laid everything out in front of her. He saw in her eyes the moment she thought she’d come up with an answer. She tipped her head to the side and gave him that smile he’d seen on her face in photographs a million times.
“What kind of shot?” she asked coyly.
“One where you don’t wear a fake smile,” he said.
Sure, he loved games, but not with her. Or at least not with her at this moment.
“I honestly don’t know what to say.” She released a breath. “I think it’s a bad idea to take this any further. Because like I already told you when I left your hotel room this morning, I’m dealing with some stuff. It’s not fair to get involved with anyone at this moment.”
He nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Fair enough.” He wanted to argue but he knew that he wasn’t going to change her mind. Not right now anyway.
“That’s it? I was expecting an argument or some passionate plea to give you a shot,” she said.
“Do I look like I have to beg a woman to be with me?” he asked. But that was pride making him stupid. He shouldn’t have said it and knew it the moment the words had left his mouth.
“No, you look like a guy who has too many women saying yes... I think I’ve had enough of games for today. Why don’t we call it a night?”
Damn. He should say something—apologize—but she’d slammed him hard in the ego and he wasn’t ready to let her know that. Doubted he ever truly would be.
“Good idea,” he said.
Carter left her kitchen and went to the hallway, where his clothes sat in a pile, and got dressed. He’d pushed too hard, he knew it, but could see no way to back out of this without admitting he was an ass.
He heard her in the hallway and looked up to see her hovering in the doorway. The expression on her face was unreadable, and he wondered if there was anything he could say. He wished he was better at interacting with people, would give up his ability to do a 360 for the chance to make this right.
“I— Thank you, for today,” she said quietly. “Thanks for the fun in the snow and...everything else. I needed it. You’ve helped me kick off this year with a great start.”
She was classy. He had to admit even when showing him the door, she did it in such a way that he almost didn’t mind. He had sensed from the first moment they’d