time I laugh, but then I mentally kick myself for missing my chance to cop my own feel when he had his arms around me.
“I really am sorry.” He frowns. “I shouldn’t have touched you.” The sincerity edging his voice relaxes me.
“Don’t worry.” I give a wave of my hand to dismiss the incident. “I’m not going to report you.” Not only because it was an honest mistake, but because I damn well liked it.
He blows out a relieved breath. “Good. I need this job.” He lets go of my hand, and it falls to my side.
I glance at him again, admire his too longish hair, and athletic frame. “Ski instructor?”
“Nope.”
“Oh, I would have thought...” My words fall off as I let my gaze travel the length of his long, hard body. What would it feel like to have all two hundred pounds of him on top of me, or better yet, beneath me?
“Would have thought what?” he asks, his voice snapping me back to the present. God, girl, get it together. You’re acting like a sex-starved idiot. While that description might be fitting after meeting Tate, I certainly don’t have to act it.
“You’re just so fit and athletic.” Head tilted, I hold my hand out, wave it down the length of him. “I mean you look like a professional. Not that I know what a professional skier looks like,” I say. “This is my first time on a slope.” I glance toward the bunny hill, catch sight off all the children conquering it. “Those kids are going to put me to shame. Honestly, I don’t even really like heights. Couldn’t even look out the window during the plane ride.”
Okay, Summer, stop rambling.
“You’ve never skied before?”
I shake my head. “You seem surprised.”
“It’s just that...” His eyes narrow as they move down my body, a slow inspection that sparks something low and needy in my stomach. “You’re so fit and—”
“You can’t tell that,” I blurt out, and glance at my puffy white coat and snow pants. “I look like a big marshmallow.”
He grins, takes a small step closer, his scent once again surrounding me as blue eyes lance mine. “I love marshmallows.”
Omg, he’s flirting with me, too.
“And I would have thought you were a ripper, given your top-of-the-line gear,” he says.
“Ripper?”
“Ski slang for an accomplished skier.” He nods toward my clothes. “You’re dressed like one.”
I frown at the skis, boots, poles and clothes I’m wearing. They were in the penthouse suite waiting for me when I arrived, compliments of my generous patient. “A friend bought them for me.”
“Nice friend.”
“Very nice,” I say, and glance around. “So where’s this friend you were looking for?” Before I can stop myself, my gaze goes to his left finger. He’s smiling when my eyes move back to his, totally aware I was checking on his marital status.
Subtle, Summer. Real subtle.
He glances around. “I guess she’s not here yet.” With a nod he gestures toward my friends, who are staring at us. “Looks like your friends are waiting for you.”
I let out a slow breath. “They may have to get used to waiting for me this week.”
He grins, then says, “Listen, I really am sorry about grabbing you. Why don’t I make it up to you?”
The needy girl in me perks up, ready to suggest all kinds of ways he can make it up to me.
“I work the bar at Diamond’s Peak.” He jerks his thumb over his shoulder. “Just across the road. Come on by tonight, let me hook you and your friends up with a drink. It’s the least I can do.”
The least.
I twist to see my two friends grinning. “I, ah, should probably go. My friends.”
He holds his hands up, like he’s ready to grab me again if I should fall.
Oh, how I want to fall.
“No more dizziness?” he asks.
“I don’t think so.”
“You’ll be okay?”
“Yeah,” I lie. The truth is, after being in his arms, being subjected to that sexy, panty-melting grin of his, I’m not sure I’ll ever be okay again.
Tate
I GLANCE AROUND the busy bar, the thick scent of cigar and perfume clogging the air as I take in the sea of people milling about. Most are talking about the trails they skied today, or worrying about the storm that’s supposed to hit midweek. I’m hoping I’ll be out of here by then, back in Manhattan, no longer worrying about my grandfather getting taken advantage of by Summer Love.
I may have put this plan together quickly, but before following through with it, I tried calling Granddad to ask once more about Summer. Again, I didn’t get any straight answers from my grandfather, who has swung between acting like a moony teen and being purposefully evasive on this topic. This isn’t like him, and if I can’t rely on him for information, I need to get it myself.
Honestly, he’s always been a generous man, always loved younger women, but something about this whole situation just isn’t right, and I’m not so sure I can blame it entirely on his mental deterioration. I visited him last summer, before he got sick. Since getting pneumonia last month, he lost his sharpness but two days ago, when he dropped this bombshell on me, there were times when he seemed like his young self, quick with a response, his mind as bright and agile as I remembered.
Truthfully, when I was little, I thought he’d live forever, but I guess age and frailty catch up with all of us, eventually. Guilt niggles at me for up and leaving him, right after returning home. I fibbed and told him I had some urgent out-of-town business. I guess it wasn’t that much of a lie. He waved me off like he wanted me to go, telling me he was fine, that he had in-house care every day and didn’t need me fussing.
I reach into the fridge behind me and grab an imported beer, then glance at the door to the bar. I’ve been watching it for the last hour, but Summer has yet to arrive with her friends. Maybe she changed her mind and isn’t going to come. Disappointment takes up residency in my gut. Not because I want to see her again, to continue our flirting and easy banter from earlier, but because I need to get close to her, get her into my bed, prove she’s only after my Granddad for one thing. Not that I plan to carry through with the seduction. No, I just need to strip her bare and expose her for the con she really is.
I uncap a beer and slide it across the smooth mahogany bar top, before turning my attention to the next customer. As
