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“I like you laying on top of me, and you’re a couple of seconds away from learning how much I like it.” Waggling his eyebrows, he wets his lower lip with his tongue while he pushes his hips up for good measure.
I take a deep breath, then another, feeling something hard stab against my thigh. Definitely his phone. I can’t believe he said that. Did he say it? Probably some snowboard lingo I don’t remember anymore. Doesn’t mean anything. His body’s like freaking granite, but I shouldn’t tempt faith.
“Ace?”
“Yeah,” I say hoarsely. I shake my head, trying to wake from my daydream. “What did you want me to do?”
“Turn over,” he orders, a little darker this time.
“Okie dokie.” I don’t sound too convincing, but I do as he tells me, and then I’m lying on my back. And I said “okie dokie.” I need to be committed.
He stands in one swift movement, brushing the snow from his gloves. And I’m still lying there in the snow like a dumbass, making a pathetic snow angel.
He grins down at me. “Planning on staying out here the whole night? We can pitch a tent and wait for the search and rescue party. If you’re into it, I can get a fire going, roast some marshmallows.”
I hold up my hands. “Please stop,” I tell him.
He laughs. Why do I get the feeling he thinks this whole situation is hilarious? “Why were you going down this hill? You know beginners need to start at the base with the other kids?” he says, biting on his bottom lip and fighting against his smirk that breaks out anyway.
“Yeah, hah hah, real funny. I got on the wrong lift,” I grit out. “I wanted to move because my—” I bite on the inside of my check. Yeah, what should I tell him about Shane? “My teacher didn’t show up. So, I had no other choice but to go down,” I say, motioning to the base of the slope.
“And you thought taking the bump on your quest was the right way to go?” Jesse drawls. “Great choice. I would say aces,” he snorts, and I want to flip him off for messing with me. My stomach makes its way down the hill when he catches my stare, and my cheeks flush in the process. I shake my head. I need to stop with the daydreaming. He probably thinks I’m crazy, or ready to faint.
“It’s a hill.”
“It’s a bump,” he returns. “Four-year-old kids can make that jump.”
“Thanks a lot.”
The left side of his mouth twitches. “I didn’t mean, shit, I meant you could easily ride it after some practice,” he says, scraping his knuckles over his stubble.
“Awesome,” I grumble as my board slides a little, and he pushes his snowboard against mine, stopping me.
Me humiliating myself only seems to bring a bigger smile to his face. So glad to be of service. “For your information, I was planning on taking the thing off, but the stupid strap thingies didn’t work.” I motion to the straps around my boots.
“Bindings,” he says, matter of fact.
I shake my head. “Straps, bindings, whatever.” I raise my eyes to the sky. Who made him an expert? Why is he smiling at me? Probably because I’ve made a total ass of myself, and he can tell his buddies all about it. Rogue snowboarder on the loose, catch her before she messes up the pretty hill. My dad would be so proud.
I brush the powder from my snowboard. “And then I stood, and the board had a freaking mind of his own.”
“Have you ever been on a snowboard before? Or in the snow, for that matter?”
“Yes, of course I’ve been in the snow before.”
“You say it like it’s the worst experience of your life,” he says, crossing his arms.
I take a deep breath. “Probably wasn’t the best of ideas to take the lift.” I motion to the tiny carousel next to us. A couple of little kids laugh when they pass us going up the hill.
He shakes his head, hiding the lower part of his face with his gloved hand. “The kiddy lift?”
“I only fell off once,” I tell him, and he raises one eyebrow in response. “Okay, a couple of times. Took me about an hour to get there.” I motion to the halfway spot between the lift and the first hill. “Where I sat for way too long, having an existential crisis.”
He is still grinning at me. Why do those eyes of his make me blurt out every piece of information racing through my mind? Man, he has a great smile, naughty with a sexy undertone to it. Why am I swooning? He’s some snowboarder playboy with flocks of girls chasing after him. Been around those enough when I was a teenager, my brothers being the “poster dudes” for that movement. I close my eyes, thankful he can’t hear my thoughts. “Let’s not go into the details,” I mumble.
“You’re funny, man, you crack me up,” he rasps, brushing his long blond hair out of his eyes.
“Well, depends on which one of my friends you ask,” I return, taking a deep breath.
