Page 40 of Not Your Average Vixen
She sucked her teeth. What did she mean?
“I don’t know. But it sounded badass,” she replied, doing her best to sound like a badass.
“It kind of did sound badass,” he admitted as the crazy lust tractor beam pulled them in—again!
She closed her eyes and surrendered to their super-magnetic attraction. Perhaps it was the altitude, but once she was within kissing distance of this creep, she lost all rational control.
“Birdie! You’re here!” came her sister’s bubbly voice as she and Soren pulled apart like oil repelling water.
Lori came down the mountain house porch steps dressed in her ski gear and shielded her eyes from the bright midday sun. “Oh, and I see you’ve met…”
“Hello, Lori,” Soren said, sounding as slippery as a snake—because he was a snake. A wedding disrupting snake. She needed to remember that.
“Scooter!” Tom called, emerging from the house.
Soren grinned up at his friend. But when Tom took Lori’s hand, the man’s expression dimmed a fraction. What was this? Kindergarten? Could Tom not have a fiancée and a best friend?
Tom leaned in and wrapped her in a friendly embrace as Lori attempted to hug Soren. The wedding crasher acquiesced with the most robotic hug ever recorded.
“It’s good to see you, Birdie. This place is great. But Lori says it’s changed a lot since the last time you two were here. What do you think?” Tom asked.
She hugged her sister, then glanced up at the majestic mountain house. Thanks to the hate-kissing-upon-arrival session followed by the whirlwind meet and greet with the pint-sized Cole and Carly, she hadn’t had a moment to take in their destination.
“The house looks the same to me,” she said, inhaling the crisp mountain air as she observed the weathered log cabin. With a large gathering area in the center, the guest rooms lined one side of the structure while the kitchen and mudroom used to store skis and other outdoor equipment ran along the opposite side.
“We’re so happy that you both are here,” Lori said, taking the high road with Soren—because that’s who her sister was. A good person. No, a great person.
“But you look a little disheveled,” Lori continued with a crease between her brows.
Bridget brushed an errant lock of hair behind her ear and pasted on her bestI wasn’t just making out with anybodygrin. “I do?” she asked innocently.
Now, it was Tom eyeing them. “You guys look a little scruffy. Scooter, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you so…”
“So, what?” Soren asked, stone-faced.
“I don’t know. You guys look like you’ve been roughed up,” Tom replied, sharing a look with Lori.
No, no, no! Nobody could know about what they’d done last night or five minutes ago in the car.
Bridget glanced up at Soren, who must have been thinking the same thing. He gestured toward the children, who were tossing snow at each other between the trees.
“The kids, they wanted Scooter rides,” he said with a nonchalant wave of his hand.
Good save! If she didn’t hate the guy, she’d have thanked him for coming up with that excuse.
Lori cocked her head to the side. “Did they want Birdie rides, too?”
“Um,” she began, because, unlike Soren, she was a terrible liar.
“I need a second with my sister,” Lori said, hooking their arms and guiding her a few paces away from the guys.
“Birdie?” her sister whispered, stretching out the syllables.
“Lori,” she replied, because when she was singsong echoing, she wasn’t lying.
“You did it, didn’t you?” Lori whispered.
Oh no!
