over him.
“I’m just so glad you’re back,” she was saying cheerfully, arms still loped around his neck.
Or at least that’s what her mouth was saying. Her eyes were saying,
Katie struggled harder not to kill everyone in line behind her, but any second now she was going to slide backward.
And then, it happened. Her poles slipped, and with a gasp she began to go-
Cam’s warm hand settled at her back, miraculously holding her in place, easily nudging her forward and off the ice patch.
She gritted her teeth. “You could have done that a lot sooner.”
“I was never going to let you fall.”
“Now you tell me. My arms are already killing me.”
“Do you exercise?”
“It’s on my to-do list.” At the bottom, but still…
“I’d give you the your-body-is-your-temple speech, but your body…” He paused to look her over from head to toe and back again, causing certain portions of her anatomy to flicker to life. “Well, I’d worship as is.”
Her knees wobbled. “Stop that.”
“Really?”
“No.”
He out and out grinned, and the rest of her body acted fairly predictably.
“Are you ready?”
She took a look at the lift coming around for them at what seemed like the speed of light and gathered her courage. “Ready,” she whispered, and willed it to be true.
Chapter 12
Cam watched the lift come toward them with a heavy dose of his own nerves. His first time back on a board…He’d have wallowed in that, but he caught sight of Katie’s fierce going-into-battle expression, and he managed to forget about himself. “You okay?”
“I think so.” She glanced at him, then frowned. “Are you?”
“Always.”
“Because you look-”
“Scoot a little closer,” he said as the ski lift came around to scoop them up.
Suitably distracted, Katie gave it her all, but the seat of the lift hit her in the back of the knees, ripping a startled “Oh!” out of her and then a cry of distress as she began to go down.
Cam snagged the back of her jacket as he sat on the lift, holding her up as he did, pulling her onto the seat next to him.
“Ohmigod,” she gasped, clutching his arm to her breasts as the lift took off, lifting them up, up, and farther up.
“I’ve got you,” he promised, but she continued to grip his arm with the force of the jaws of life. “Don’t worry, you’re not going to fall now.”
Neither of them was.
“Okay.” She gulped in air, and he felt a little like doing that, too, but then he realized her eyes were closed. “Hey, Goldilocks.”
“Yeah?”
“You’ve got your eyes closed.”
She cracked one open. “I forgot something.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t like heights. Which in hindsight is really, really going to get in the way of my adventures. After this, I’m going with things that don’t require height.” She closed her eye again.
“Hate to break this to you, but mountain climbing requires heights. And to backpack in Europe, you’d have to fly.”
“Good points. I have a backup plan.”
“Like?” He planned to keep her talking so that she’d forget they were now fifty feet up, zooming across the terrain to the top of the peak. Yeah, that was all he was thinking about, keeping her comfortable. It had nothing at all to do with him needing his own distraction. Good thing he wasn’t nearly as honest as she was.
“Besides learning to risk, I’d like to eventually find a place where I belong.”
“Good one? Anything else?”
Eyes still closed, she turned her face toward the late-afternoon sun, and the last of the questionable warmth of the day. The wind played with her hair and pinkened her cheeks. “Actually…” She squirmed a little. “Something new has recently come to me.”
“Spill.”
More squirming, and a visible wince to boot, which piqued his interest. “It’s private,” she finally said. “Are we there yet?”
“Almost.” She was gnawing on her lower lip, which he had the most insane urge to take over for her. “How private?”
“
“Can I guess?”
“No.” She opened her eyes. “No guessing.” She took a peek around her and squeaked,
Reaching out, he put a finger beneath her chin and turned her gaze back to him, off the view
She covered her very red cheeks. “I said
He grinned. “Really? I’m right?”
“Close.”
“How close?”
“Great sex, okay? I wanted great sex.”
He knew she was waiting for a response, but he had nothing. He had shit-for-brains-nothing because all he could think was…
She blew out a breath and slapped her hands over her eyes, her face even redder. “You know what? I really don’t want to discuss this anymore.”
“Too late.” Charmed by her embarrassment, and also by her sheer, utter honesty, he leaned in and removed her hands from her face. “Great sex isn’t all that hard to come by.”
“Tell that to the guys in Los Angeles.”
“The guys in Los Angeles must be idiots. And you should know, I’m no better than those Los Angeles assholes.”
“So you don’t get great sex either?”
Christ, she was killing him.
Killing.
Him.
“Listen to me.” He took both her hands in his. “I want you. Make no mistake about that. And I know how to make it good, make no mistake about that either. But-”
“Oh my God.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” He winced. “And that sounded like I was bragging. I wasn’t, I was just-”
“No, I mean,
“You can do it.” They both could. “You just glide off and-”
