Slope of Love (Love in Bloom: The Remingtons) (7 page)

He moved to the leg press and loaded up the weights, competing against the worries racing through his mind. What if Jayla lost her ability to compete? How would she handle it? What would happen when America no longer saw her as the strong, talented, smart, beautiful woman he knew she would always be, regardless of if she was a competitive skier or not, and started to see her as a washed-up Olympic champion going through an identity crisis? Because life as she knew it would change if she couldn’t compete. And that scared the hell out of him, which meant it probably petrified her.

Which is exactly why you’re keeping your injury from me.

THEY WERE HALFWAY through the third class of the day when Jayla noticed Coach Cunningham standing by the lift watching her. She ran through her motions for the past ten minutes and couldn’t remember flinching or rubbing her shoulder. No, she was sure she hadn’t, despite the intermittent twinges of pain. She’d been so focused on the kids that she’d been able to almost ignore the ache. She tried to distract herself from the coach’s scrutiny and cast her eyes away from where he stood, catching a glimpse of Rush talking to Suzie Baker’s mother.
Not exactly the distraction I’d been hoping for.
Kelly Baker had been vying for his attention all morning with stupid questions that could have waited until the class was over.

Rush glanced over and rolled his eyes. Even though it stung knowing that he’d probably take the woman’s phone number, she loved that she and Rush could make light of the way women chased him. The sharing of those intimacies that were usually reserved for same-gender friends reiterated their trust in each other. She loved that they didn’t hide things from each other, or pretend they were something they weren’t.
Except my injury, but that’s different.
She took a second to convince herself of that and then pushed it aside and went back to the scene between Rush and the blonde unfolding before her. Soon he’d lean on his ski pole with a seductive look in his eyes and turn back to the class, but not before lingering on the blonde’s eyes just long enough that the woman’s pulse would kick up—and Jayla’s heart would ache.

Why do I do this to myself?

She couldn’t help but watch a minute longer. Rush’s eyes now darted away from the blonde, like he was looking for an escape. Jayla’s pulse kicked up at the thought, though she was sure it was just him playing hard to get or some other type of ploy.

He walked away and didn’t look back. In fact, Ms. Baker was staring after him with an angry look on her face. Rush locked eyes with Jayla and gave a curt nod before flashing the crooked smile that knocked her world off center.

At the end of class, they headed back into the lodge to warm up. Built of cedar and stone, with a round stone fireplace in the center of the room, the lodge had high ceilings, two full walls of windows, a full bar, and a host of tables in various sizes. It felt cozy despite its large size. Jayla grabbed a table while Rush ordered their food. He came back with two steaming bowls of soup, baguettes, and bottled water.

“Thanks.” She pulled off her gloves and set them on the empty chair beside her as Rush took his coat off.

“What’d you think of the classes?” He took off his hat, and his short hair tousled into a sexy state of bedhead.

Jayla reached across the table and patted his hair into submission.

“That bad, huh?”

“Someone has to make you presentable or those MILFs won’t be after you anymore.” She ate her soup, trying to ignore the nagging twinge of jealousy.

“You know I have no interest.” He leaned back and stretched his arms over his head.

Jayla couldn’t help but notice how his biceps strained the sleeves of his shirt. Unfortunately, neither could about ten other women in the restaurant.

“Until after next week,” she challenged.

“I don’t think so.” He held her gaze.

His response caught her off guard. What was this new restraint all about?

“All of a sudden you’re picky about your conquests?” She looked around at a woman who was still staring at Rush and sighed.

“Maybe I’m done seeking conquests.”

Right. And maybe I’m not holding on to my career by a very thin thread
.

“You up to the trail that wraps around the mountain?” Rush ate his soup with his eyes trained on her, even with the other woman practically salivating over him at the next table.

This focus on her was new, and it made her a little nervous. “I think I’ll wait for our team practice.” She dropped her eyes to escape his narrowing gaze. “Thanks for coming over last night.”

He nodded. “It was fun. Besides, I love to listen to you snore. Wanna hit the gym?”

“I don’t snore. You already went to the gym this morning. I saw you when you went back to your cabin.”

“You snore like a chain saw, but it’s kinda cute.” He crossed his arms, and his eyes shifted to her shoulder.

She dropped her spoon into her soup with a
clank!
“What?”

Rush shrugged. “No skiing? No gym? You tell me.” He picked up his empty bowl and walked it over to the trash.

Apparently, you already know
.

“I’m going to head out to the slopes.”

“Rush.”
Why do you always make me face everything?
“Sit.”

He did, right beside her.

“It’s not what you think.”
It’s worse
.

“Tell me what I think, Jayla, because I can only think of one reason you’d ever keep a secret from me.” He crossed his arms and pinned her to her seat with a dark stare.

“Oh, please. I have lots of secrets.”
One. One secret. My injury. Does that count? And my crazy crush on you. Okay, two secrets. That’s considered lots in my book.

His crooked smile nearly slayed her right there in the lodge. She imagined herself sliding bonelessly from her seat to the floor and the EMTs hovering above her.
It’s that damn crooked smile. It does it every time.

“Okay, maybe I don’t, but damn it, don’t assume you know everything about me, because you don’t.”

“Maybe you’re right. But I do know that my friend Jayla, the one I know hates when guys call her Jay-Jay and who loves flannel sleeping pants more than lingerie, wouldn’t keep something as big, or as little, as an injury from me. So either the therapy band I saw was a precaution, or you’re an imposter.”

“
Pfft
.” She tossed her napkin on the table. “It’s nothing.”

“Is that your opinion or the doc’s?”

She rolled her eyes and looked away.

Rush moved closer to her, and she turned the other way. Other than her crush—which she could only hope she’d been successful at hiding from him—she’d never been very good at keeping secrets from him, and right then, she hated him for it. A bolt of worry seared through her.
What if he’s known how I feel about him all along and he’s just pretended not to notice? Oh God. Please just kill me now.
She fought against the thought. No way could he have ignored that and still remained as close to her as he had.

“Even when you look away, I see you worrying,” he said quietly.

“I’m not worrying. I’m annoyed that you’re pushing me so hard over nothing.”
I can handle this
.

“Well, can I judge nothing for myself?” He ran his hand through his hair. “Did you tell Marcus what this
nothing
is?”

She thought she heard a hint of jealousy. “Why would you even ask that? Do you think I’d tell Marcus anything I didn’t tell you?”

“I’ve never shared your bed.”

That doesn’t mean I never wanted you to
. “Is that jealousy I hear?”

He lowered his voice. “Is that evasion I hear?”

She was breathing so hard she couldn’t concentrate.

He draped his arm over the back of her chair, and she closed her eyes for a second, wanting to lean in to him and tell him everything, but that would mean admitting it to herself, and she was sure there was a chance that the docs were wrong. Maybe another shoulder injury really wouldn’t mean the end of her career. That’s the hope she was hanging on to as if her life depended on it.

“What’s going on, Jayla?”

“Nothing. I’m just doing exercises to keep my shoulders strong.” She kept her eyes trained on the table.

Rush cupped her cheek and drew her eyes to his. “Promise?”

No
. How could she look into his trusting eyes and lie? He was the one person who had always been there for her and put her needs above even his own. And why the hell was her heart beating so damn fast?
Think “friend,” think “friend.” What is happening to me that I can’t get a grip on myself?
She took a deep breath and tried to calm her racing heart, hoping he didn’t notice.

He leaned forward and whispered, “I know about you and your battery-operated friend. I think I can handle the truth about an injury.”

Her entire body shuddered. “Keep…”
Oh my God, why does that turn me on?
“Keep my…
friend
…out of your mind. I don’t bring up your secret pleasure.”

Rush sat back and cocked his head. “My secret pleasure? Nothing about my pleasures are secret. I tell you everything.”

She whispered, “Oh, so other women have walked in and found you beating off to pictures of Victoria’s Secret models?”

“Jesus.” He looked around, assumedly to see if anyone heard her. “I was nineteen years old.”

She shrugged. The distraction worked like a charm.

“Besides, I seem to remember that it didn’t send you running from the room.”

“I…it…”
Shit
. He was right. In the space of a second she’d realized what he was doing, and in the next second she’d been intrigued. It wasn’t until the third second hit that she realized she’d been standing there two seconds too long and had left his room.

He flashed a mischievous crooked smile, obviously pleased with himself.

“I gotta go back to my cabin and take care of a few things.” She pushed to her feet.

“I bet you do.”

JAYLA STOOD BEFORE the mirror and stepped on one end of the Thera-Band and held the other end in her right hand. She raised her arm slowly, gritting her teeth against the pain.

“
Never shared my bed
. Of course you didn’t share my bed,” she said to her reflection in the mirror.

She lowered her arm and repeated the motion again.

“You never wanted to share my bed.”

She wrinkled her brow. “Did you?”

“Oh my God. Could I have missed that?”

She dropped the band and took a step closer to the mirror.

“Are you that stupid?” She sighed. “No. You’re not that stupid, and he’s a big player. No. No. No way.”

She sat on the floor with her legs out straight and wrapped the band around the balls of her feet, then drew the ends toward her with her elbows parallel to the floor, thinking about Rush’s biceps.
Stop it
. She winced through her reps and thought about what he’d said about her
battery-operated friend
, which sent a little thrill through her. She should have lied about
that
two years ago when they were punchy after staying up until four in the morning and played a silly game of Truth or Dare. How many times had she used the damn thing while thinking about Rush? A tingle of arousal had her releasing the band.

She’d used it too many times to count after thinking of nothing
but
nineteen-year-old Rush, lying on his bed, his muscular body still wet from a shower, his big hand wrapped around his even bigger erection, and a magazine open with half-naked Victoria’s Secret models on display. She hadn’t thought twice about walking into his room without knocking, and once she’d seen him in such a compromising position, forcing herself to knock in the future took a concerted effort.

She sank into a warm bath, imagining what might have happened if she hadn’t left his room that night. She’d replayed the scene a million times since that day so long ago, and her fantasies always ended the same way. Now she closed her eyes and slid her hand down her hip and between her legs, remembering how he looked back then, when she’d walked in on him. She could retrieve the memory so easily, see him so clearly—his thick thighs, tense hills of perfectly sculpted muscles, and his rippled abs expanding upward to his broad chest and shoulders, droplets of water from his shower still clinging to his skin. Before he’d caught sight of her, his head had been bowed, his eyes slits of desire beneath the fringe of his hair, his jaw clenched. His arm moved swiftly, expertly. The muscles in his biceps and forearm jumped with his efforts, and his formidable erection primed, craving release. A sigh escaped her lips as she sank a little deeper into the water, her fingers slick and warm inside her as she brought herself to the edge, struggling to hold herself on the verge of release, until she could no longer take the tingling in her limbs, the tightening of her inner muscles, and the longing for the man she’d never have. With one final tease, she came apart. Rush’s name slipped from her lips, and an ache for him squeezed her heart.

She was drying off when her phone vibrated with a text from Kia.
We’re going into town to a place called Fingers. Wanna go?

Fingers?
Heat flushed her cheeks. She texted back.
Bar? Restaurant? When?

Still warm from her thoughts of Rush, she pulled on a pair of skinny jeans and a sheer camisole, then dried her hair. Kia’s response came through a few minutes later.
Both, with dancing. In twenty mins. Come with?

It sure as hell sounded better than sitting around in her cabin trying not to think about Rush.
Oh crap. Rush.
She texted back.
Who’s going?

A minute later she had her answer.
Me, Teri, and Patrick. The other losers are going to a bonfire the resort is having.

The resort was having a bonfire? Now she was faced with a real dilemma. There wasn’t much Jayla enjoyed more than dancing or a bonfire. How could she possibly choose?

She went to the kitchen and reviewed the resort events flyer that had been on the counter when she’d first arrived. She’d been so wrapped up with Marcus and her injury that she hadn’t had a chance to look it over yet. Two nights of bonfires. Perfect, she could go tomorrow night. She texted Kia back.
Sure. How are we getting there?