She laughed. 'Not because I want to be, trust me. Tell me about your work. It sounds more interesting. You fly your own helicopter?'
'I own it with a partner. Wyatt and I both have other jobs, as well. He flies traffic reporters and I fly people with too much money to meetings with other people with too much money. It pays the bills,' he said with a shrug.
'It's a lot nicer than paying them from behind a desk. How did you get into all this?'
'Coast guard. My father and both my brothers are military, too.'
She smiled. 'So you live in quite the testosterone world.'
'Guess so.'
'And yet by the very nature of what you do, you're there for others, saving them. Nurturing.'
He tipped his beer to his lips and took a pull.
She read the irritation in his expression and laughed. 'Oh, sorry. I know a guy doesn't want to hear the word
He ran a finger over the wet label on his beer. 'Same goes.' He met her gaze then, hot and breathtaking.
With a low laugh, she stood up. 'I've got to get back.'
He stood, too, and took her hand, squeezing it gently until she looked at him. 'I'd like to see you later.'
There was nothing she'd like more. Maybe she'd been extra careful this year to fit the mold of resort manager and owner, too much so, but she needed something for herself. Never shy, she smiled. 'Later sounds good.'
'Where do I find you?'
She looked at him for a long moment, her engine revving. 'Down that stone hallway are the employee offices. Past that is another wing. My apartment is the second door on the right.'
He looked into her eyes, and when he didn't say anything, she wondered if she'd jumped the gun. Maybe he hadn't intended for them to rendezvous tonight at all. Or maybe he didn't like aggressive women-
'Later seems too far away, but I'll live,' he said softly and, with one last dance of his fingers over her throat, let go of her hand. 'Tonight, then.'
God, she.hoped so. Her entire body hoped so.
Chapter 7
An hour and a half later, Logan made his way through the common room. The fire was low but still crackling and popping. People milled around here and there: a few guys talking in a corner, a couple holding hands, another man and a woman-Lily's aunt in fact-flirting on the couch in the late, quiet night.
He hadn't expected to still be awake himself after three long, hard, exciting days on the slopes, but that had been before Lily had leveled him with her whiskey eyes and given him directions to her room.
At the startlingly open invitation, he'd been floored, flattered and, even now, aroused.
Three days into his weeklong vacation and he was enjoying himself more than he'd imagined possible, something he'd admitted to Wyatt before dinner when Wyatt had called to make sure he was having fun.
'You get yourself a ski bunny yet?' had been the first thing out of Wyatt's mouth.
'The skiing's good, thanks for asking.'
'Yeah. Good. Just tell me this…is she hot?'
With anticipation humming through him, he made his way down the darkened hallway of the employee offices and into a separate wing, where he came to a stop at the second door on the right.
He knocked, and when the door opened, Lily stood there looking at him with a surprise she couldn't quite hide.
Had she thought he wouldn't show? 'Hey,' he said softly. 'Too late?'
'No.' She let out a slow smile. 'Not too late at all.'
Yeah, she'd definitely thought he wouldn't show. Had there been that many broken promises, that many disappointments?
And why did that tug on the heart he hadn't intended to engage?
She stepped back and made room for him to come in, then made a sound of frustration when her phone rang. 'Excuse me.'
Her living room was small but comfy-looking, with a pillow-filled couch in front of a fireplace. There were pictures on the walls, landscapes of the Sierras and Lake Tahoe and some other intriguing vistas he didn't recognize. She had a small kitchen off to the side, done in bold red and white, and then another door.
Her bedroom?
Phone to her ear, Lily paced in front of the fireplace. 'Yes, Gwyneth, I bolted the bear box.' She listened a moment. 'Well, wasn't that nice of Aunt Debbie to worry about me doing my job. Look, do us both a favor and go to sleep.' She clicked the phone off and drew a deep breath.
Seemed his wild ski bunny was tense, very tense. And not such a wild ski bunny at all. 'Nice accommodations,' he said, wanting to see a smile back on her face.
'Thanks.' She looked around. 'I keep thinking I'll buy my own place in town but I just love to be on site. I'm the only one who lives here full-time, since my grandma died last year.'
His gaze cut to hers, and he didn't miss the quick stab of pain there. 'You were close?'
'Very close- Damn it.' She went to the kitchen counter and picked up her beeping pager. Reading the display, she put a hand to her neck and sighed.
'Trouble?'
'No.' She set the pager down and visibly shrugged it off. 'How about your family? You didn't mention your mom. You close?'
'She left us when we were fairly young.' He lifted a shoulder. 'I don't remember her.'
She studied him for a long, considering moment. 'And as the oldest, you probably did a lot of the raising of your brothers.'
'Enough that even now they enjoy calling me
She smiled, then turned from him and walked over to the fireplace. Crouching down, she took a stack of sticks from a pile and began to crisscross them inside the stone hearth. She still wore the hip-hugging jeans that revealed an extremely nice ass, her wipe apron, that soft, fuzzy forest-green hooded sweater that just barely met the denim and the matching beanie that was squashed down on her head, revealing long bangs in the front and a braid in the back. Casual. Sweet, even. But his reaction had nothing to do with sweet.
She lit a match, waited until the sticks caught, then added a log on top. Standing, she faced him again, fingers linked together. 'Did you want a drink?'
'No, thanks.' He noted she was rubbing her neck again. 'Are you ready, Lily?'
'For…?'
On the corner of the stone mantel sat a basket, its contents catching his attention-not the green toenail polish or the
