Holiday Romance Collection - 6 Books Bundle (Erotic Romance - Holiday Romance) (20 page)

             
Josh usually skied behind them, once in a while challenging one of the boys, but giving Kate and his sons time to ski together and enjoy themselves. On their last run, he had hung farther back so he could ski up to all three and spray them with snow.

             
"Hey!" "Dad, c'mon!" "Yeah, grow up dad!" they all shouted at once, making Josh laugh in his booming deep voice.

             
"Can we swap our skis and go on the cross country trails?" Stewart asked as he unclipped the skis from his boots.

             
"Sure. Stay on the green trails though. Kate and I are going to do a few more runs. Let's say we meet in an hour for lunch at the snack shack. Sound good?"

             
The boys agreed, told Kate it was nice to meet her, and how she was a great skier like their dad said.

             
"Your boys are wonderful. You're a great dad." Kate commented as she watched them head over to the rental hut. Josh motioned to the ski lift and they got in line.

             
"Thanks. Sue, their mom, and I made a huge effort when we broke up to make sure it never affected them. Or at least affected them as minimally as possible. They were 7 and 9 when we split. I wanted to go to counselling a lot earlier in our marriage, but Sue said it was too expensive, or we didn't need it…I should have pushed more, I guess. But in the end I just grew apart and that gap got too big to fix with counselling when she finally agreed to go."

             
Kate mulled that over, thinking about her own therapy sessions, alone first and then with Dan. She thought about the envelope with the connections exercises in it, still sitting where they'd left it. "Yes, some things can't be fixed sometimes."

             
"So, are you up for a challenge?" Josh asked as they skied away from the chair lift at the top of the hill. She smiled as she watched him head towards the familiar out of bounds sign. Not saying anything, Kate skis right past him taking the same route through the tall pines. She takes her time, letting the anticipation build in her stomach and spread through her body. She's not sure if he had a plan, but she certainly does. She's going to take advantage of every minute she has left with Josh.

             
Her perfect memory of 16 years didn't fail her, as the warming hut appears slowly between the trees. Kate skis up to the door, not looking back as she hears Josh ski to a stop a distance behind her. She unclips her skis, props them against the outer wall, and tries the door knob. It opens with a low groaning creak.

             
"Kate…" Josh asks, his voice hoarse and uncertain.

             
Kate peeks her head back out the door. "Coming?" she asks coyly, and retreats inside again.

             
Kate looks around at the shack that had lived in her memories for 16 years. Now that she'd made her decision, she was a bundle of nerves. What if she'd changed. What if Josh didn't want this? She'd felt electricity flow from him all day on the slopes, picked up on subtle signs as he found excuses to touch her back, her arm, brush hair away from her cheek. Those were signs, weren't they.

             
Josh entered the hut and firmly closed the door. He watched Kate for a moment, starting to pace and fidget. He reached back and turned the locking latch and then strode over to Kate, pulling her into his arms.

             
"I swear I didn't plan to stop here, but I'm so glad you did," he murmured into her hair.

             
"Josh…what am I doing? I'm supposed to be at the lodge working on my broken marriage. But instead, I'm with you living a fantasy," Kate pulled back holding him at a small distance. "This isn't fair to you. I'm being selfish coming here with you."

             
Josh hauled her back in his arms, running his hands through her hair, down her shoulders and back to her rounded bottom. He covered it with his large hands and pressed her hips tightly against his groin, pushing forward with his own so she could easily feel his hardness. "I don't care, I don't care about anything except being here with you." His mouth found her neck and nuzzled the area down to her collar bone. "This is our world. Right here and right now. I've never forgotten you, I've never fantasized about anyone as much as I do you."

             
Kate shed the rest of her misgivings and brought Josh's head and mouth to hers, kissing him deeply, thrusting her tongue against his. Her hands slid down to his jacket zipper, tugging it down, shedding his coat as quickly as her hands could do it. Suddenly they were all hands, panting and laughing quietly has they tore of each other's outer wear. Until they stood in just underwear.

             
"Kate…I can't…" Josh muttered in some kind of apology and then pulled Kate to the bed, on top of him. He roughly pushed their underwear out of the way and laid back as he pulled her on top of him. Kate took his swollen erection in her hands, easing herself down on it causing them both to grasp. His hard hands gripped her waist and she felt herself being lifted and shifted, each movement igniting sparks in her breasts that shot straight down through her heated core to her very toes. After many slow erotic thrusts, she guided his hands to her breasts and slid her hands down to the crisp hair on his chest. She loved the feeling of his muscles rippling, and felt his own nipples harden just as his fingers were tweaking her nipples to hard nubs.

             
Suddenly Kate felt the ball of passion build, and she moved herself more urgently over him. He either sensed it or felt the same, because his hands returned to her hips, guiding her more quickly, harder, stronger. Kate felt the warmth lift her and hit her, tumbling through her body to literally drench him as he continued to surge and then call out beneath her. Kate's body was limp, but she kept balanced until his cries ended, then curled down to rest against his chest, their bodies still joined.

             
They lay in a warm, comfortable silence for minutes, letting the satiation fill and soothe them. "I have a confession to make," Kate said against his chest, and then lifted her head to look in his eyes. "You're the best lover I've ever had. Probably ever will have."

             
Josh squeezed her hard in response, but didn't say anything. She watched his face, seeing the smile her words brought, and then watch that contented expression slip away into…something else. She couldn't pin down what it was, but her closest guess would be regret. He look shell-shocked, and Kate realized where they were, that somewhere out on the hill were his boys. She'd pushed all thoughts of them out of her head when he'd pulled her into his arms.

             
With lightning speed Kate jumped up. "Oh my goodness, I should get going." she said nervously, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice. "The boys are probably wondering where you are, and I'm sure Dan is…" she thought of Dan, probably still sleeping last night off, possibly having woken up to relieve himself and take advantage of the empty bed. "Dan is probably wondering where I am too." she finished.

             
"Kate, don't leave. You don't have to go." Josh tried to reach for her, but she evaded him as she threw on her clothes. A quick glance at him drove a steak into her heart. It was there to read on his face—regret. Sadness. The look that says "I want to let her down easy, but I don't want to make her cry." She knew those looks.

             
"I came here to work on my marriage. You have been a wonderful, amazing, incredible experience, but I owe it to my husband to give him my undivided attention. I don't mean to hurt you." Kate finished awkwardly. She really wanted to tell him she was mindlessly in love with him—had been, she now knew, for sixteen years—but she could tell that wasn't what he wanted to hear. Now his face had closed up, cold.

             
"You're right. I don't want to stand in the way of you working on your marriage. Not when you both want to do it. I learned that from my own experience."

             
Without another word, because Kate couldn't bear to actually say the words "Good bye" Kate jammed her toque on her head and left the hut. As she wove in and out of the trees on the way down, she sobbed out her grief and let the wind carry her tears away.

             
When Kate got back to her room, Dan wasn't there. There was a note "Gone for coffee in the restaurant." She pulled out the envelope that had the connection exercises and sat on the bed.

             
"Tell your partner the first thing you loved about him/her," she read out loud. "Tell your partner how you feel when he/she touches you," she read the second question. She laid back on the bed, and as she read through all the exercises, tears slid from her eyes for the second time that day. Sliding the papers back in the envelope, Kate wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She took a look around the beautiful room, and started to pack.

             
Kate heard the card slide into the lock and the door opened. Dan entered, carrying a take-away cup and wearing the most sickly expression she'd seen in a long time. Before she could say anything he held up his hand.

             
"I have a hangover that should rightly kill me. And if you yell at me, I think my head will actually explode," he muttered slowly and quietly. Kate said nothing waiting for him to sit and take in the fact that she was bundled up in her white parka with her carry on suitcase beside her.

             
"I'm leaving." she replied to his confused expression. Getting up, she motioned him to slide over on the couch and sat beside him. She took the coffee away from him, putting it on the side table, and took both his hands in hers. "We got married because we thought I was pregnant. And when I wasn't, decided to try to make it work anyway. We were both unhappy, for different reasons, and we are still unhappy. I think we were meant to be two people who dated and moved on, not two people who got married."

             
"But, I thought…God, I don't know what I think. Are you…are we breaking up? On a trip that was supposed to fix our marriage," he still looked more confused than hurt, and Kate took this as a good sign.

             
"Yes, Dan. We're breaking up. I think it's the right thing. I realized something when I was looking through those exercises. We don't have a foundation to build on, and that's what a marriage is. And I don't think we see enough in each other that we feel a bond with to start building a foundation. So I think we should part ways." They talked for almost an hour, about past mistakes, about dreams not followed, and about hurt. They both cried a little, and laughed a little. In the end, they both silently believed the trip had been a success, if not for the exact reason it started out.

             
As Kate moved through the lobby, she took it all in one more time. Vibrant memories flooded back, that she knew with time would be bittersweet, but that she didn't regret one iota. She noticed looking out the floor to ceiling windows that clouds had rolled in and a light snow was falling. Snow would always remind her of Josh, she realized.

             
Behind her she heard a shout. Turning, she saw Josh sprinting away from the elevators. He looks stricken and Kate's heart froze. Had something happened to one of the boys? She turned to walk quickly towards him, almost toppling backwards when he grabbed her arms and him momentum pushed her suddenly backwards.

             
"What's wrong? Are Matt and Stewart okay?" she asked worriedly. Now he looked a little confused.

             
"What? The boys are fine. This has nothing to do with them," he says, and with a growl pulls her against his body and holds her tight. She puts her arms around him automatically, her cheek buried against the rough wool of his sweater, inhaling his cologne and the intricate scent that is Josh. She can feel the steady beat of his heart, and though it's starting to slow, her every movement makes it rise ever so slightly.

             
"Dammit, I can't let you go again," Josh said as he pulled back just far enough to look her in the eyes, "We're going to find your husband and tell him your marriage is over. Hell, I'll tell him it's over. I can't spend one more second without you."

             
Kate felt tears well in her eyes. "I already beat you to it. But I thought you had regrets. The look on your face in the hut today…I thought you regretted our lovemaking."

             
Josh squeezed her again, laughing with a relief that set his heart racing again. "That look on my face had everything to do with me realizing I was in love with you. You said I was the best lover you ever had…probably would ever had. And I knew the thought of you making love to anyone else would kill me. I had to face what that feeling was, and let me tell you, I've had that feeling deep inside for years. I never saw it for what it was until I saw you again here."

             
Josh put his hands on her cheeks, under her jaw, cupping her face tenderly. "I love you Kate. And I will always love you." He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, deepening their kiss when she groaned and pressed herself even closer against him.