His eyebrows raised dangerously. “Oh, really?”
Instantly, I knew what he was about, and I turned to run. I was in his arms with my back against his chest before I could make it one step. Our bodies fell backward into the soft snow. I landed with my elbow somewhere on his stomach and heard a satisfied groan from him upon contact. I scrambled off and began flinging powdered snow at him, not taking the time to make them into balls. He sputtered as snow hit him in the face, laughing as he made a dive toward me. He knocked me gently onto my back, snow leaking onto my neck through the collar of my coat. His body was carefully positioned above me and he held both of my hands over my head. Laughing brown eyes met mine. I couldn’t keep the smile from my face if I tried. He was breathing heavily with snow and water droplets all over his face.
“You’re going to pay for that, Spanks.”
He picked up a handful of snow, which he proceeded to wipe gently all over my face. I was squealing by this point and squirming to get away. My cheeks were numb, but my heart beat wildly underneath my frozen exterior. Eventually, the snow in his hands had all been placed around my cheeks and face, and Miles remained hovering over me, his eyes seeming to take in every last freckle spread across my cheeks. Ever so slowly, his hand raised to his mouth, and with his teeth, he held his glove steady while he pulled his hand out.
My breath caught as he drew his hand softly to my cheeks and ever so slowly began to wipe the snow from my face. His eyes pierced into mine, and his warm hand melted the snow as he dragged it off my face. His touch was sensual and warm, as heated as his gaze, and I could do nothing but lie there as each rhythmic ministration left me spellbound.
His eyes drifted down to my lips before meeting my gaze once more. There was a question in his eyes, but before I could answer, a loud revving of an engine tore through the quiet moment. We both turned to see Jett riding the snowmobile out of the barn. He looked over at us and did a double-take before waving somewhat awkwardly.
Miles’s head dropped down for a second before he stood and offered a hand to help me up. He ran a hand through his hair sheepishly before putting his glove back on.
“Enough trying to seduce me, Olive Wilson. We’ve got a sledding hill to get to.”
TWENTY TWO
"You can be too old for a lot of things, but you're never too old to be afraid."
Home Alone
Miles kept his promise.He made sledding the stuff of dreams. He even managed to make it that way with my mom and Russ acting like teenagers, flying down the hill with their arms wrapped around each other. There were times when I rode behind him on the snowmobile as he tore down the hill, picking up sledders and tubes at the bottom, hooking them to the machine, and pulling them back up. He’d tease and joke with the adults and was gentle and sweet with the kids. There were other times Jack would man the snowmobile, and Miles would place me in front of his sled, jump on behind me, and wrap me in his arms as we flew down the hill. The wind in my face and strong arms holding me tight had me feeling very much like I had been living half a life until now. Even when we wrecked, snow and powder flying everywhere as we rolled the rest of the way down the hill, it didn’t stop me from laughing until I cried.
But adventure for one not used to adventuring was exhausting.
Sledding was over. Jack had just hauled a trailer full of rosy-cheeked kids and their parents back to the lodge. I traded in my seat behind Miles’s on the snowmobile to little Ivy, who had developed a healthy crush on him while sledding. He couldn’t resist her charms asking for a ride and sent me an apologetic smile.
The arrangement was fine by me. And not just because watching him with Ivy—the careful way he held her and the way he leaned forward to try and listen to what she was saying to him, the ball on top of her big beanie smacking him in the face every time—did something to me that I wasn’t sure I’d ever recover from.
But now we were back. My feet hit solid ground, and I had a second to breathe on my own. I needed to keep it together. Miles was a charismatic force of fun. But once out of his all-consuming presence, I couldn’t help but feel that I was just an exciting challenge to him during a week of boredom. Get her to talk. Get her to sled and snow mobile. Jump in a frozen pond. He claimed he liked me, that this wasn’t fake for him. And that could have very well been true…here on the mountain, in this cozy bubble we’d cocooned ourselves in. I could feel myself yielding. Being charmed. But the last thing I wanted to be was somebody’s adrenaline rush. Because once the endorphins faded, the crash always followed.
Chloe and Ben jumped down from the trailer. Ben took a sleeping Holly out of my arms while an excited Ivy leapt out of Miles’s arms and ran toward her parents—the little family making their way back toward their cabin.
I started to follow them when Miles rode toward me on the snowmobile, coming to a stop a few feet away.
“Come riding with me,” he called.
My steps slowed. “What? We just went sledding. I’m officially tapped out of adventure today.”
“I want to show you some places.”
My eyes flicked between him and the snowmobile. There it was again. The allure of danger. And I wasn’t talking about the snowmobile. Beneath his gray beanie, his hair draped messily across his forehead while his warm brown eyes were inviting and… I swallowed. “No, thank you.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t trust you.”
He looked mildly taken aback, and a small spot of pride burned in my chest at throwing him off his game. He turned off the machine and climbed down, coming to stand a few feet away. “Why? What did I do?”
“You…keep…making me do crazy things and…kissing me…and…rubbing my face all sexy, and I don’t know what to do with that.” My hands were currently flailing about in a panicked rush, but I couldn’t seem to stop it.
He burst out laughing. “Rubbing your face?”
I lifted my chin, giving him a knowing gaze. “Yes.”
He folded his arms, regarding me with great interest. “What do youwantto do with it?”
I scoffed, my mouth gaping wide open. Seriously, the nerve. I wanted to go back to my quiet cabin, have a bath, read a book, and pretend nothing had happened so I didn’t have to make any decisions about us or potentially get my heart broken and still have to face this man at work every day. It really was so simple.