“Okay. Where’s your board?”
“I left it with your staff. Someone named Jeff,” Carter informed her as they walked to the main ski-rental building.
“He is a huge fan,” Lindsey teased. “He probably set up an altar and lit a candle around it.”
Carter had to laugh. “I doubt it.”
“I don’t. He talks about you and the half-pipe all the time. I guess your latest stunt has really gotten him. He’d probably love some pointers.”
It always floored him when he heard someone talking about his accomplishments as though they were special. He wasn’t being funny, but the stuff he did came naturally to him and always seemed just that little bit not good enough. “Maybe I’ll see if he wants to meet up.”
“He’d love that,” Lindsey said as they entered the building. Unfortunately the kid wasn’t there.
“Hey, is Jeff here? I need to get my board,” Carter said as Lindsey went behind the counter to talk to the other ski instructor.
“He’s going to be bummed you came back while he was gone.”
“Tell him I’ll stop by tomorrow... When does he work?” Carter asked. He found out and made a note in his phone to stop by. It wouldn’t hurt him to chat with the guy. He worked with Lindsey, so it might even help her to see that he was so much more than his bad-boy image.
“Ready?” he asked Lindsey when he noticed she was standing by herself with her skis.
“As I’ll ever be,” she said.
They walked to the ski lift and waited in line to take it to the top. He could tell she was nervous because she kept looking up at the mountain. All he really wanted to do was to hold her in his arms and tell her everything would be okay. But since this probably wasn’t the time or place, he searched his mind for something to distract her.
Then he grinned to himself. Humor. It worked every time.
“Oh, guess what, gorgeous? I’ve added a few things to my resolutions list. I might have to write a thank-you note to the resort for all the ways they are helping me improve.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “What did you add?”
“Kiss Lindsey on the ski lift.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “That’s too bad, because I just don’t see that happening.”
“That’s odd. I totally do.”
She laughed, but as they got closer he noted she didn’t look worried anymore. When it was their turn, they both got on the lift.
“What was your best ski-lift ride?” he asked curiously.
“First time I was going up for a world event. I was so excited. I’d run the course in my mind and was so ready for it. You?” she asked.
This one. But he didn’t say it. There hadn’t been many times in his life that he’d done something without wondering what was in it for him. But this thing with Lindsey? Sure, it brought him closer to her and gave him a chance to tease her about kissing and intimacy, but it really was for her. She needed to be skiing, not teaching kids at a resort.
He knew that and had a feeling that she knew it, as well.
“Same. Right after I had this interview with a pretty girl and she gave me the cold shoulder.”
“I guess that was a common reaction to you back in the day,” she said with a grin.
“Only your reaction. I was determined to get to the top and then wow you with my skills.”
She smiled. “You did when you hit the half-pipe. I’ve seen you run moguls, and you are good.”
“Good enough to let me steal a kiss?” he asked, waggling his brows at her.
“Not today, Carter. Maybe if I make it to the bottom of the hill, I’ll think about kissing you good-night after we hit the clubs.”
“That’s a long time,” he grumbled. “I’m not sure I can wait.”
“I think you’ll do just fine.”
They’d reached the top and got off the lift. She looked over at him, and he remembered his promise. He’d had no idea it would be so hard to leave her. Especially not with that look in her eyes.
“I’m out of here,” he said, but walked over to her and kissed her quickly on the lips before stepping back and putting his boots in his board. He clicked the buckles and pushed off with a grin. “You’ll have to catch me to yell at me.”
* * *
LINDSEY TOOK HER time getting her booted feet into her skis. The kiss from Carter... It had been nice and really not much of a surprise. His confession that he’d wanted to impress her hadn’t been, either. They’d been doing that since they’d met.
She’d counted on her own feelings of not wanting to let him see her freak out to get her down the mountain. She thought of all the runs she’d taken in her life, and this one wasn’t nearly the hardest or most dangerous but it was in her head.
She took a deep breath when she realized she’d been breathing in and out too quickly. She remembered New Year’s Eve when he’d sat at her table and she had felt that tingle of excitement. She wanted to be that woman again.
The one who could take on anything and beat it.
She closed her eyes and offered up her little prayer, and then pushed her sticks in the ground at the same moment as she opened her eyes. She froze and forgot to crouch and was kind of awkwardly bumbling along down the slope until everything sort of clicked together.
She felt the wind on her face, and the poles started to feel right in her hands as she adjusted her stance and leaned into her run. She was skiing. Oh. My. God. She was on skis again and taking a run.
She didn’t do anything fancy, just kept her wits about her and tried not to think of all the possibilities that were opening up to her after this. This was one of the major things keeping her in limbo, and she felt as if she’d just ripped off her last bandage and found that she didn’t have a scar.
She reached the bottom of the run and skied to a stop next to Carter, who was standing there with his goggles pushed up on his head. Then she pushed hers up, too, and launched herself at him.
She caught him off guard, and he fell back onto the snow as she kissed him. Heart thudding wildly in her chest, she feathered kisses all over his face and then lifted herself up to look down into that intense blue-gray gaze of his.
“I skied.”
“I saw you,” he said, his voice husky.
He hugged her close, and she realized without Carter she might not be here. She looked down at him again and saw the man she’d known for all of her adult life, but she also had the feeling she was seeing him for the first time.
She’d had sex with this man, but lying in the snow on top of him after taking a run that she’d never thought she’d be able to again, she finally realized that she’d had him pegged all wrong. This was intimacy. This sharing of something that went beyond the physical.
It scared her, but it also exhilarated her, and there was no way she was going to keep him at arm’s length after this. She wasn’t sure how long the magic of having Carter with her was going to last, but she intended to ride it for as long as she could.
She lowered her head and brushed her lips against his—a soft sort of thank-you to the man who’d pushed her and forced his way past all of her barriers until he got her to do the very thing that had been scaring her for way too long.
He smiled up