Page 22 of One Snowy Seduction
“I’ve always loved the snow. I went on my first ski trip—”
“In the tenth grade with your cousin’s young adult church group,” he finished.
She couldn’t help but smile. Not because he’d finished her sentence, because they used to do that to each other often. But because he remembered. There were so many things he recalled about her, things she barely remembered telling him. It was like he’d stored everything about her in his mind, for…what?
“Would you have ever reached out to me again?” she asked. The question had crossed her mind a couple days ago, but she’d told herself that wasn’t important. She hadn’t wanted to read more into this than she should.
“Honestly,” he said and then shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
Her heart sank.
“I mean, I used to think about calling your parents to figure out where you were after we graduated, or just popping up at their house to ask about you. But I thought that might be a little weird. Plus, I wanted to give you your space.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “And you were afraid I’d go through with my threat of making you regret it if you ever said another word to me again.” That had been the last thing she’d said to him. Looking back and knowing what she knew now, she wished she could take back those words.
He chuckled. “Nah, you didn’t scare me away, Tee. I just figured I’d pushed you enough. I thought I’d been doing the right thing and for a while I was kinda pissed that you didn’t see it that way. Then I got busy with work and my aunt.”
“And your wife?” She hated saying that word as it pertained to him. When he’d first told her about Natasha she felt a spurt of jealousy, then, once he said they were divorced she’d decided she didn’t want to know anything else. But then she’d googled him and had seen lots of pictures of him and his gorgeous ex. That’s when she decided she hated the bitch and never wanted him to speak her name again. Especially since she could tell by the way he talked about the demise of their marriage, that Natasha had disappointed him.
He nodded. “Yeah. Life goes on,” he said. “What I’ve learned is that no matter how bad things may be going for you, life goes on. That bad can turn really good when you least expect it.”
“You’re talking about this trip.” She agreed with him. “I’ve had a really good time this week.”
“Oh, wait, no, no you don’t. It’s not over yet. We still have tonight and my flight doesn’t leave until late tomorrow.”
“I have a morning flight and the car service is scheduled to pick me up at nine.” Now, she wished she’d had more say over the terms of the trip.
“Then we’ve got tonight. So, my little snow queen, if you’re finished skiing down your mountain for the day, I’d like to have dinner with you.” He tried to lean in to kiss her, she suspected, but their skis clashed and he almost toppled them both over.
“Whoa, be careful. I’ve already fallen in the snow because of you once.” She warned him with a joking glare.
He righted himself and his skis and after a few seconds said, “That was all your fault, Ms.-I-can-walk-into-town.”
She laughed because that had been ridiculous.
“I missed hearing you laugh,” he said. “I like it.”
“I like hearing you laugh too,” she told him. “But you know what else I like?”
“What?”
“Beating you to the lift!” she yelled and then took off down the rest of the incline toward the lifts. Of course, he followed, racing toward her chuckling when he passed her. By the time they reached the lifts and climbed into their seats they were both laughing so hard.
Kendrick took her hand as they rode across the valley toward the chalet and she held tight to it. The view of Méribel Valley from above was breathtaking but sitting next to this man she never thought she’d see again, a man she’d never imagined being intimate with, a man she’d loved as a close friend for four years, was so much more. She closed her eyes to that thought, praying that it didn’t mean what she thought it meant.
CHAPTER10
“When did you call the personal chef?” Teesha asked later that evening when they sat wrapped in plush blankets in front of the fire pit on the back deck.
Kendrick wanted to tell her that he called the guy last night after he’d decided that tonight needed to be special. As for when he’d figured that had to happen, well that was somewhere around the time he’d slipped inside her again.
“This morning when you were in the shower,” he replied.
“Well, that was smart thinking because I didn’t feel like cooking when we came in from skiing.”
“Me either.” Truth be told, the only thing he’d wanted to do when they returned was exactly what he was doing now, holding her.
He’d gone back and forth over how tonight could play out. What she might say and how he might counter it. He knew for a fact that he wasn’t going to let her just walk away, not without explaining all of his points to her this time. She was too important to him. He should’ve realized that nine years ago, but he’d been young and dumb. Now, he was older and wiser, at least he liked to think so. What good did it do to go through things if you weren’t going to learn anything from those struggles?
