Jess could see one tall, fair-headed boy and another slightly shorter one with dark hair.
They had music pumping out of the stereo system at the base of the lift. It blasted the mountain, drowning out all other noise, including the engine of the chairlift. Jess watched as the boys danced to the beat as they lifted the little kids onto the chair and chatted and flirted with the mothers.
The fair one drew her attention. He moved easily, in time with the music, relaxed, unselfconscious and comfortable in his skin. Jess couldn’t ever imagine dancing in front of strangers in broad daylight. She wasn’t comfortable in a crowd. But there was something erotic about watching someone dance from a distance. She wouldn’t normally stare but she was emboldened by her anonymity. He didn’t know her and from behind the security of her dark sunglasses she could watch unobserved. Like a voyeur.
Kristie shuffled forward in the line and Jess followed but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the dancing towie. Watching the way his hips moved, she felt a stirring in her belly that she recognised as attraction, lust, desire. Watching him move, she could imagine how it would feel to dance with him, how it would feel to be held against him as his hips moved in time with hers. She found her hips swaying to the beat of the music, swaying in response to this stranger.
The song changed, snapping her out of her reverie, and she watched as he mimicked some rap moves that had the kids in front of her in stitches. The dark-haired one was chatting to a mother while the fair one lifted the woman’s child onto the seat before giving him a high five. He lifted his head as he laughed at something the child had said and suddenly he was looking straight at Jess.
Jess’s pulse throbbed and her stomach ached with a primal, lustful reaction as his eyes connected with hers. They were the most brilliant blue. A current tore through her body, sending a shock deep inside her all the way to her bones. She was aware of Kristie moving into position for the lift but she was riveted to the spot, her skis frozen to the snow. She was transfixed by eyes the colour of forget-me-nots.
‘Careful. Keep moving unless you want to get collected by the chair.’ It took Jess a second or two to realise he was talking to her. He had an Australian accent and in her bewildered and confused state it took her a moment to decipher it and make sense of his words. While she was translating his speech in her head he reached out and put one hand on her backside and pushed her forward until she was standing on the mat, ready to be swept up by the chairlift. Jess could swear she could feel the heat of his hand through the padding of her ski suit. She was still standing in place, staring at him, as the chair swung behind her and scooped her up, knocking into the back of her knees and forcing her to sit down with a thump.
‘Have a good one.’ He winked at her as she plopped into the seat and Jess felt herself blush but she kept eye contact. She couldn’t seem to look away. Let me off, she wanted to shout but when she opened her mouth nothing came out. Her eyesight worked but she appeared to have lost control of all her other senses. Including movement. She was enchanted, spellbound by a boy with eyes of blue.
‘They were cute,’ Kristie said as the lift carried them up the mountain and Jess forced herself to turn her head and look away. Maybe that would break the spell.
‘I guess,’ she said. She felt like she had a mouthful of marbles as she tried to feign indifference. Kristie would have a field day if she knew what Jess had really been thinking.
‘What do you think?’ Kristie asked. ‘Worth a second look?’
The girls had the quad chair to themselves but that didn’t mean Jess wanted to have this discussion. She knew if she agreed it would only serve to encourage Kristie’s foolish plan.
‘You’re not serious!’ she cried. ‘I don’t think they’re my type.’ She suspected she’d have nothing in common with them. She knew she wouldn’t be cool enough.
‘Why not?’
‘You know the reputation those guys have.’ The towies—usually an assortment of college students taking a gap year, locals and backpackers—had a reputation as ski-hard-and-party-harder people.
But Kristie was not about to be deterred. ‘So …’ she shrugged ‘… that all adds to the excitement and the challenge.’
‘I’m not going to hook up with a total stranger,’ Jess said. Obviously the lessons of her upbringing were more deeply ingrained in her than she’d realised. Her movements were carefully orchestrated, her whereabouts were always mapped out, and she’d never really had the opportunity to mingle with strangers. Prince Charming was going to have his work cut out for him.
‘I know your parents want to know where you are every minute of the day but they’re not here,’ Kristie replied, ‘and despite what they tell you, not every spontaneous situation is dangerous and not every stranger is a psychopath. I’m not saying you have to marry the guy, just have some fun.’
‘He looked too old for me,’ Jess protested.
‘You’re always complaining about how immature boys our age are. Maybe someone a bit older would suit you better. Shall we head back down? Take another look?’
The quad chair took them to the basin where all the other lifts operated from. No one skied straight back down to the bottom of this lift unless they’d forgotten something and needed to return to the village. Jess didn’t want to be that overtly interested. She needed time to think. ‘No. I want to ski,’ she said as they were deposited in the basin.
The slopes were quiet at this hour of the day and it wasn’t long before Kristie decided she was overheating from all the exercise and needed to discard some layers. Jess suspected it was all an act designed to invent a reason to return to their apartment and hence to the quad chair, but she was prepared to give in. She knew she didn’t have much choice. She could have elected to stay up on the mountain but they had a rule that no one skied alone and she had to admit she was just a tiny bit curious to have another look at the boy with the forget-me-not-blue eyes. After all, there was no harm in looking.
But by the time they had changed their outfits and returned to the quad chair there were two different towies on duty. Disappointment surged through Jess. It was silly to feel that way about a random stranger but there had been something hypnotic about him. Something captivating.
They rode the lift back to the basin where they waited in line for another quad chair to take them to the top of the ski run. As they neared the front the two original towies appeared, each with a snowboard strapped to one foot as they slipped into the singles row and skated to the front of the line.
‘G’day. Mind if we join you?’
Jess and Kristie had no time to reply before the boys had slotted in beside them and Jess found herself sandwiched between her cousin and the boy with the tousled, blond hair and amazing blue eyes. He shifted slightly on the seat, turning a little to face her, and the movement pushed his thigh firmly against hers.
‘Have you had a good morning?’ he asked her. ‘You were up at sparrow’s.’
‘Pardon?’ Jess frowned. His voice was deep and his accent was super-sexy but the combination of his stunning eyes and his Aussie drawl made it difficult to decipher his words. Or maybe it was just the fact that she was sitting thigh to thigh with a cute boy who was messing with her head. Either way, she couldn’t think straight and she could make no sense of what he was saying.
‘Sparrow’s fart,’ he said with a grin before he elaborated. ‘It means you were up really early.’
His
