Page 26 of Mountain Trial

“Will you have dinner with me tonight?”

Her teeth worried her bottom lip for an instant before she replied. “Only if you win,” she said, her lips curling up in the sexiest smile.

Chapter 11

Kat

The butterflies in her stomach wouldn’t let up.

What if he doesn’t realize I’m kidding?

“What’s that, Kat?” Jens asked. He ran a hand through his thick blond hair. He’d been working hard all day―he’d stabilized a handful of fractures, one or two from competitors, most of them from spectators who’d fallen while skiing nearby, before sending them down to the hospital.

“Nothing. I said something stupid to Luc earlier.”

“What, like, break a leg?” Jens asked, barking out a laugh.

Kat glared at him until Jens raised his palms in apology.

“Sorry. I think your friend would find the humor in that, even if you don’t.”

“Let’s not test that working hypothesis.” She shook her head. “I told him I’d go out to dinner with him if he wins. But I didn’t mean it. It was a joke. In fact, the more I look at that jump―”

Jens’s eyes softened. “Hey, Kat, relax. I’m sure he took it as a joke.” He looked down at the program. “It’s going to be his turn soon. Why don’t you go over and―”

His words trailed off, and Kat turned to look at the starting point. Luc was on his sit ski, ready to go. Beneath him, the jump looked dangerously huge. She wanted to turn away, but at the same time was afraid to even blink―as if, by watching, she could protect him from danger in some way.

There were so many things she could have told him, instead of telling him she’d have dinner with him if he won.

The truth about why I didn’t make more of an effort to look for him, to start with. That I was too scared to do so.

Or the fact that our evening together was the closest I’ve been to a man in―

“Breathe, Kat, or you’ll end up on my stretcher yourself,” Jens warned behind her. “It’s only the first jump. He’s probably not going to take too much of a risk on this one.”

And then Luc was off. Kat watched him fly down the mountain, gaining speed as he did so. And then he was flying through the air, up and up and up―then suddenly leaning back.

Why is he leaning back?

He’s going to―

Kat’s hand went to her mouth as she realized what Luc was going to do. She watched, as if in slow motion, as he flipped back in the air, his arms windmilling tightly in the air.

Her heart seemed to stop until, moments later, Luc’s ski touched the ground, and he skidded his way to a swift stop.

He just landed a backflip.

Kat gasped. The crowd roared. In response, Luc raised his outrigger poles in the air.

“That was massive,” Jens commented drily.

The commentator’s voice was loud against her ears, going wild about the new generation of adaptive skiers who were putting sit skiing on the competitive map. It seemed, listening to the man, that Luc’s jump had just made him a solid winner for today’s adaptive skiing event.

“I guess he thought you were serious.”

“What?” Kat asked. Her mouth felt funny―or maybe it was her stomach that was still in the wrong place, after watching that jump.

“About making sure to win if he wanted to have dinner with you tonight.”