Plus, there was nothing better than spending time with people who knew her almost better than she knew herself. Yesterday they’d gone out snowshoeing during the day and then spent the night drinking too much and laughing more than she’d laughed since their vacation last year.
Between the gorgeous view and a few deep belly-breaths, she finally started to relax. But as the chair moved closer to the top of the mountain, she knew she didn’t have a prayer of relaxing all the way.
She was mere minutes away from having to face her next challenge: skiing down the hill...and getting to the bottom in one piece. In other sports, like tennis and swimming, she was perfectly coordinated, but as soon as she stuck skis to her feet, they went haywire.
She knew Mia was going to offer to hang back with her once they got off the lift, but Colbie couldn’t stand the thought of getting in the way of her friend’s fun, especially when Mia was a black-diamond girl all the way. Last year they’d all agreed to meet in San Diego for sand and sun, something they didn’t get nearly enough of in Seattle. This year she’d been perfectly happy to let the skiing fanatics like Mia decide the location.
"Thanks for joining me on the lift," she said to Mia, "but I refuse to let you babysit me for the rest of the day. As soon as we get to the top, you’re going to go ski to your heart’s content."
Her friend raised an eyebrow. "Look who’s using the dominatrix voice now."
Mia was one of the prettiest women she’d ever met, but Colbie would always see her as that little girl with the messy pigtails and the missing tooth. "Don’t make me get out my whip," she teased.
"Yes, ma’am," her friend said with a jaunty salute that shook their seat a little too much for Colbie’s peace of mind.
She held her breath as the chair scooted closer to the landing at the top of the hill. Forcing her hands to unclench from the bar she’d been holding on to for dear life, she tipped up her skis and hopped off the seat in unison with Mia. A moment later, her friend had slipped on her goggles and was waving goodbye as she gracefully skied away, heading over to the other side of the mountain where all of the terrifyingly difficult runs were.
Mia made it look so easy. Snow was soft, right? How much damage could Colbie do to herself on one little mountain? Maybe this time, she decided, everything would go fine. And for a moment, as her skis actually went in the direction she pointed them, sliding easily through the fresh snow, it seemed like it would.
Until a small child suddenly came careening toward her.
Assuming the little girl with the flying pigtails was as out of control as Colbie was about to be herself when she headed down the hill, she knew she had to at least try to save the child.
Wobbling on her skis, she dropped her poles and reached out for the girl to try to catch her. Seeing this, the little girl simply laughed and scooted effortlessly out of her reach.
At which point Colbie wibble-wobbled all the way over on her skis...and landed flat on her face with a barely muffled splat.
The fresh snow was shockingly cold on her cheeks and chin and forehead. Scratch that—it was freezing every inch of her face that wasn’t covered, including her earlobes and the spot on her neck where her scarf must have gaped open when she fell.
Knowing she needed to get out of the way of the next skier, she tried to get up on her hands and knees, but the snow was too soft and the one ski that had stayed on kept going deeper into the snow, twisting her ankle something fierce.
Yup, no question about it. She was stuck.
A fleeting thought passed through Colbie’s mind that the only thing that would make the situation worse was if some hot, single guy that she could have had a soul-deep love affair with in another reality found her with her butt up in the air and snow plastered to her face.
But even she didn’t have luck that bad. Or at least she didn’t think she did, until a few seconds later when she heard a deep, slightly rough voice say, "Are you okay?"
Chapter Two
She lifted her head up and to the side, trying to put a face to the sinfully sexy voice, but there were too many ice crystals on her eyelashes for her to see much more than a blurry face and dark hair.
And then he was saying, “Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” and his big, strong hands were coming around her waist, lifting her up out of the snow. She made the mistake of trying to help her rescuer, but all that ended up doing was to make him fall, too.
Together they rolled a few feet in the snow, their skis popping off, until they finally came to a stop.
Colbie’s back was to the snow and the stranger’s weight was heavy on top of her. But oddly, after she caught her breath, she realized she wasn’t the least bit uncomfortable. Her head was cradled by the stranger’s chest and he was holding her so tightly she could hear his heart beating through his partially open ski jacket. Her arms were wrapped around his neck and her legs were entwined with his.
Mmm, she thought as a low moan slipped from her throat. She loved this feeling of being so close with a man, to hard muscles and heat that radiated all the way through her chilled body.
She looked practical on the surface, but at her core, Colbie was a true sensualist. She loved the finest silks and lace against her skin and happily spent way too much on the perfect, evocative scent. It had always been her dream to open a store that sold luxury products for women...but in the same way that she’d rarely been able to justify such luxuries for herself, she’d also never been able to justify giving up a good job to chase a dream. Not until last month, when in the wake of the disaster with her ex, she’d finally decided to take charge of her life and had signed the lease for her new store: Indulgence.
As the warm arms around her quickly melted her chill away and she instinctively snuggled in closer, it occurred to Colbie that she hadn’t been this close to a man since the last time she and Rob had made l—
A sharp sting of pain at her ex’s betrayal had her stiffening beneath the man who had pulled her out of the snow.
Hadn’t she vowed to keep her distance from men until she was strong enough to tell a good one from a bad one next time? It was not only completely inappropriate to be lying in such an intimate position with a total stranger, but she definitely shouldn’t be pulling him closer.
One, she didn’t know this man’s name.
Two, she didn’t even know what he looked like.
Three, she’d sworn off men!
She needed to get up, say thank you, somehow ski down the impossibly high mountain she’d so foolishly climbed in the ski lift…and then drown her complete and total embarrassment in a glass—or three—of wine back at the resort’s bar.