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He moved closer and Lacy held her ground. Probably dumb, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of thinking that she couldn’t handle being near him. Especially since she couldn’t.
“If those kids hadn’t come crashing around the corner, we’d still be having at each other.”
“Call it fate,” she said with a shrug that belied the tension still coursing through her. “Someone somewhere knows that this shouldn’t have happened and they were cutting us a break.”
“Or trying to kill me,” he said, and one corner of his mouth lifted, though there wasn’t a sign of humor in his eyes.
“The easy answer is,” she pointed out, “keep your lips to yourself.”
“I never did ‘easy.’ You should know that.”
“Not fair,” she said, shaking her head and giving him a hard look. “You don’t get to do the ‘remember when’ thing with me, Sam.” She backed up a step for good measure, but when he followed that move, she didn’t bother backing up farther.
“It’s our past, Lacy,” he reminded her, his voice dropping to a low, sexy rumble.
“Past being the operative word.” Lacy sighed and told herself to gather up the wispy threads of what had once been her self-control. “There’s nothing between us anymore, so you shouldn’t have kissed me again.”
“Wasn’t just me,” he reminded her, and a cold wind whipped around the edge of the building and lifted his dark hair. “Won’t be just me when it happens next time, either.”
The band finished one song and the pause between it and the next hung in the sudden stillness. When the pounding beat of the drums kicked in once more, Lacy forced herself to say, “It won’t happen.”
“You said that the last time and yet, here we are.”
She had said it. At the time, she had meant it, too. Lacy didn’t want to get drawn back into the still-smoldering feelings she had for Sam. Didn’t want to put herself through another agonizing heartbreak. It was just a damn shame that her body didn’t have the same resolve as her mind.
“Why are you kissing me at all, Sam?” She asked the question again because she still didn’t have an answer. “Why do you even want to? You left me, remember? You walked away from us and never gave me another thought. Why pretend now that this is anything more than raging hormones with nowhere else to go?”
He looked at her, but didn’t speak. But then, what could he say?
With her words hanging in the cold, clear air, Lacy turned and walked hurriedly back to the safety of the crowd, losing herself in the mob of people.
* * *
By midnight, the party was over. Everyone had gone home or to their hotel rooms and the mountain was quiet again. The Snow Vista crew had taken care of cleanup, so all that was left to clear out in the morning were the booths that would have to be disassembled and stored until the next time they were needed.
The mountain was dark, but for the sprinkling of lamplight shining through windows at the main lodge and surrounding cabins. The sky was black and starlit, leaving a peaceful, serene night.
In contrast, Sam felt like a damned caged tiger. He couldn’t settle. Couldn’t relax. Just like he couldn’t get Lacy out of his mind. She remained there, a shadow on his thoughts, even when he knew he shouldn’t be thinking of her at all. Even when he knew it might be easier for all of them if he just did as she asked and left her alone.
But hell. Easier wasn’t always what it was cracked up to be. He’d grown up skiing the fastest, most dangerous runs he could find. Memories crowded his mind. But they weren’t of skiing. They weren’t of him and his twin, Jack, chasing danger all over the mountain. These memories were all Lacy. Her kiss. Her touch. The way she laughed one night when they’d walked through a snowstorm, tipping her head back and letting the fat flakes caress her cheeks. The shine in her hair, the warmth of her skin. All the things that had haunted him for the past two years.
Every moment with her stood out in his mind with glaring clarity and he knew he wouldn’t be able to stay away from her.
Leaning against the doorjamb of his cabin, he looked through the woods toward Lacy’s place. What had once been their place. There were lights in the windows and smoke curling lazily from the chimney.
His guts fisted. This was the hardest part of being home. Facing his family had been tough but being close to Lacy and not with her was torture. Leaving her had torn him up, coming home was harder still. A couple of kisses had only fed the banked fires inside him, and yet, all he wanted was another one.
