Page 28 of Snow Balled

My thoughts about Zeus were a little less charitable when he woke me at an ungodly early hour. Well, okay, according to my phone it was seven thirty, but since coming up here, I’d gotten in the habit of sleeping in.

With bleary eyes, I opened the door just enough for the dog to slip out. Someone else could take him outside.

I went through my very small assortment of clothes and decided to wear my hoodie with Drew’s sweatpants. We were in the mountains—it was okay to look baggy like an abominable snowman, right?

No one was in the living room before or after my shower, which seemed a small mercy. I hadn’t had a roommate in years. Even if I wasn’t staying with three hot-as-sin men who made me nervous on several levels, I wouldn’t have enjoyed sharing a bathroom. But at least they weren’t slobs. The bathroom had smelled like aftershave and body wash, but it wasn’t a mess.

I ventured into the kitchen, wondering where the others were. Tristan and Carter might be upstairs. Did that mean Drew was outside with Zeus? I wished I knew if any of them had had breakfast. I couldn’t cook much, but I was pretty good at scrambled eggs. However, I didn’t know if I should make them for myself or for everyone.

While waiting, I popped some bread in the toaster. Then the front door opened. A rush of cold air preceded Carter and Zeus in. The dog made a beeline for me, but Carter took his time putting his bow and arrows away, while I tried not to think about what he’d been doing with them. At least he didn’t have a dead rabbit with him or anything like that. Maybe he was a bad shot? The thought had me biting back a grin.

Zeus danced around my feet when Carter entered the kitchen. He had on a blue sweater and black jeans, and his boots made him look impossibly tall. His cheeks were flushed from the cold, and his eyes, as always, were unreadable. “He wants a treat.”

“Huh?”

“Zeus. His treats are in that top cabinet next to the fridge.”

Oh. It might help me understand Carter better if I stopped jumping every time he appeared, but that didn’t seem to be in the cards. Zeus grew frenzied as he saw where I was headed, but once I opened the cabinet, I had a problem. A large bag of dog treats was on the top shelf. Carter would have no issue reaching up there, but me? Not so much.

My heart sank as I stood on my tiptoes and still couldn’t reach the bag. It had been a long time since I’d had the simple pleasure of giving a dog a treat—well, besides the unauthorized cookie I’d given Zeus down at my cabin. Placing one hand on the counter for leverage, I jumped, reaching upward.

All I managed to do was to bump my hips into the counter and then rebound backwards—directly into a very hard, immovable mass.

Carter grasped my shoulders as I ricocheted back against him. His long, hard body had all the give of a brick wall. He was an entrepreneur—why the hell did he need all those sculpted muscles? They sure as hell didn’t provide a very soft landing place, though, I had to admit, pressing back against him made my blood pump harder.

My instinct was to slip to the side, out of his grasp, but the fridge stuck out too far on my right. Plus, he leaned forward, pressing me against the counter as he reached for the bag of treats.

His scent filled my nose and clouded my brain. It was a heady combination of the aftershave I’d noted in the bathroom, outdoorsy pine, and pure male. Even if he hadn’t pinned me in place, I would’ve been frozen by how intimate the position was.

My back was to his hard chest. My ass was smashed against his tight jeans—jeans that had a decided bulge in them. His arm stretched over my shoulder, pressing against my hair. It was almost like we’d embraced.

Then the bag passed in front of my face as he lowered it down. I took it from him, trying not to tremble, and finally, he stepped away.

Crap.

I couldn’t process my feelings, and there were a lot of them. Annoyance, yes. He could’ve waited for me to clear out of the way before grabbing the treats. But… arousal, too. He had a big, powerful body. No way had I invited it to be smashed against mine, but once it was… wow.

But Zeus was going nuts, so I gave myself a pass on analyzing the jumble of emotions. Instead, I reached in the bag and gave the dog some sort of foul-smelling jerky treat. When that disappeared in a second, I gave him another one.

“That’s probably enough.” Carter was over by the coffee maker. He held up a mug in my direction which may or may not have been an offer to get me some. Either way, I shook my head and stashed the treats on a lower shelf. Zeus watched with hopeful eyes for a few seconds more before slinking away in resignation.

Which left me alone with Carter. “Um, I was going to make scrambled eggs.”

He leaned against the counter, one eyebrow cocked upwards. “And what stopped you?”

You, I almost said. But non-engagement seemed like the best course of action with a man like him. “I didn’t know if you all had eaten.”

“Are you offering to cook?”

Did he have to sound so skeptical? “You all cooked for me yesterday. But I wasn’t sure how many eggs I should use. There’s only one carton left.”

“Make ‘em all.” With that pronouncement, he sat down at the table and took out his phone, as if waiting at a restaurant.

Did all women find conversations with him unnerving, or was it just me? I sighed as I grabbed the eggs from the fridge. Both possibilities seemed plausible. It was true that most women weren’t so skittish around men… but it was also true that he was one hell of an intimidating specimen. He had the body of a Greek god and then some.

The thought made me grin. Maybe he and Zeus should switch names—or was Zeus a Roman god? Not that it mattered.

I felt a little self-conscious at the stove with my back to Carter, but soon, I got preoccupied with my task. Since these were our last eggs, I didn’t want to screw them up. Fortunately, it seemed like I got the right mixture whipped up in the skillet, and I grew absorbed in my task.

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