When Summer Ends (6 page)

I pulled the door open and there he stood, looking
impossibly hot in a pair of ripped jeans and a white fitted T-shirt with a
checked blue shirt over the top. He wore it unbuttoned so you could see how the
T-shirt clung to his toned body. I could barely breathe; I was so excited that
I shifted from one foot to the other, not knowing what to say.

“Wow you look incredible,” he complimented, looking me over
slowly. “I got you these.” He held out a bunch of assorted multi-coloured
flowers.

Flowers? This is already the best date ever.
“Thanks,
Will, that’s incredibly sweet, you shouldn’t have.” I took them from him,
smelling them and smiling gratefully.

“I didn’t know what your favourite flower or colour was so I
went for one of each,” he admitted, laughing.

Aww, could he get any better?
“Thank you. Let me just
put them in some water and then I’ll be ready.” I opened the door wider,
motioning for him to come in. I headed to the kitchen and grabbed a vase,
putting them in and filling with water. I’d arrange them properly when I got
home. Will was leaning against the counter, watching me. “So where are we going
anyway?”

“Well, I thought we could go for dinner, and then maybe, if
you’re up for it, we could go and do my favourite thing in the world,” he
replied, smirking at me.

I gasped, looking at him shocked that he would be that
blunt. “I’m not having sex with you after dinner!”

He grinned and came closer to me, putting his hands on the
counter either side of my body, leaning in and pressing his body against mine.
My breath caught in my throat as he inched his head closer to mine. I could
smell his aftershave. The spicy, masculine scent filled my lungs and made me
lean in unconsciously. My whole body was trembling with excitement, waiting for
him to kiss me. I closed my eyes when his mouth was barely an inch from mine. His
minty breath blew across my lips. Time seemed to stand still as I waited and
waited for his lips to connect with mine.  

Finally, his lips brushed against mine, so softly that I
could barely feel it. “You really have a dirty mind, Chloe, now why would you
instantly think about sex?” he whispered, moving away quickly and flicking my
nose.

My eyes snapped open as he stepped back laughing wickedly. I
blushed like crazy and slapped his chest. “That was teasing.” I frowned and
pouted.

He grinned, shrugging. “Sorry I couldn’t resist. Honestly
though, you’re such a pervert, your mind snapped straight to that. I bet you
even dreamt about me last night, didn’t you?” he inquired.

Actually, yes I did but I’m not admitting that to you,
buster!
I made a scoffing noise and shook my head. “Will, do you want to go
out tonight or not? At the moment I’m considering changing my mind.” I raised
one eyebrow challengingly, hoping that would change the subject before he
figured out that he had hit the nail on the head with his line of questioning.

“Way to avoid the question, Chloe,” he teased. “And yes, I
want to go out with you tonight. Now that I know what a pervert you are I’m
eager for the end of the night,” he added, winking at me.

I gasped and giggled. “I’ll tell you right now I’m not the
type of girl who puts out on a second date.”

“What a coincidence, I’m not that type of girl either.” He
grinned, his eyes sparkling with humour. I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Anyway,
come on, pervert, before they give our table away,” he suggested, holding out a
hand for me to take.

I waved it off and smirked at him. “You’ll need to get back
in my good books before any form of physical contact happens again. Punishment
for teasing me,” I rejected, walking to the door and laughing at his pout.

He followed behind and waited while I locked the door. We
walked to his car in silence. I stole a glance at him only to see he was
already looking at me. When our eyes met, he smiled his beautiful smile making
my heart speed up. As we approached the car he opened the door for me. “My lady,”
he said in a fake British accent, doing a little bow.

I smiled and laughed as I climbed in. While he walked around
to the driver’s side, I waved to Amy who was watching from my bedroom window.
She didn’t wave back so I assumed she couldn’t see very well into the dark
night.

Will climbed in the other side and buckled his seatbelt. “Do
you like Mexican food? If not then we can go somewhere else,” he suggested,
starting the car, looking at me worriedly.

“Seriously? I love Mexican food,” I exclaimed. I was even
more excited now. Mexican was my all-time favourite.

We drove to the restaurant he chose. It was an extremely
cute little rustic place. There was only one other couple in there. “This is my
favourite restaurant ever,” he told me as we looked over the menus.

“Yeah? So what’s good here?” I asked, scanning the menu. My
mouth was already watering at the thought of enchiladas and tortilla chips with
sour cream dip.

“Everything’s good so order whatever you want,” he replied,
grinning and putting his menu down barely even glancing at it.

“What are you having?” I asked a couple of minutes later,
still undecided.

“Cheese and tomato quesadillas for starters, then chicken
fajitas,” he answered, grinning happily.

Finally, the waiter came over to take our order. He was fairly
young and was flirting shamelessly with me the whole time he stood there. At
one point Will had to clear his throat dramatically to divert the waiter’s
attention from my chest. The guy eventually scurried off. I laughed wickedly.

“Was that really necessary?” Will asked, grinning.

“Was
what
necessary?” I asked, pretending to be
confused.

He sighed and shook his head. “I can see you’re a handful.
I’ve got my work cut out for me to bag you, haven’t I?” he stated, leaning back
in his chair, narrowing his eyes at me.

“Bag me? Is this some kind of kinky term I’ve not heard of?”
I asked, confused.

He laughed and shook his head. “No, pervert, it means you’re
going to make it hard for me to win you over and make you fall for me,” he
explained, smirking at me.

I smiled, taking a sip of my coke. “Well if something’s
worth having, it’s worth working for.”

“I like a challenge. Once I see something I want, I don’t
quit until I have it,” he warned.

I leant forward, looking at him curiously. “You’re not a hit
it and quit it kind of guy then, like I thought?”

“You want me to answer that honestly?” he asked, raising an
eyebrow. I nodded. I genuinely wanted to know if he was player or not, because
sometimes I thought he definitely was, and other times he seemed really sweet
and genuine. “I’ve never had a serious girlfriend, and yeah I’ve played the
field quite a bit. I just never met anyone I wanted to be exclusive with before.”
He seemed to be watching my reaction as he spoke.

I was a little shocked at his answer. I never expected him
to admit that to me. He surely must know he’d just made it harder for himself
now. “And with that little speech you’ve just made it harder for yourself to
bag
me
, as you called it,” I said confidently. All thoughts of putting out were
entirely gone from my mind now. I would certainly make him work for it.

He smiled, seeming unconcerned. “I thought it would, but you
wanted me to be honest so I didn’t lie like I normally would have done if a
girl had asked me that question.” He leant forward and cocked his head to the
side, obviously waiting for my reaction.

I didn’t know how to react. Yes, he’d just admitted he was a
player, but, on the other hand, he also told me the truth knowing I would react
badly to it. So what did that mean exactly?
Damn, this boy is just
confusing!

“Well I guess we’ll see how hard you’re willing to work now
then,” I said, grinning. He seemed to relax a little when I said that, maybe he
was expecting I demand he take me home or something. “Besides, I’m interested
to see what your favourite thing to do is, if it’s not women,” I added, smirking
at him.

He laughed. “Hopefully you’ll like it; if not then we can go
see a movie or something.”

Thankfully the food came over then which gave us something
else to talk about. We talked and flirted over dinner. We talked about movies, music,
and random likes and dislikes. I’d actually had an extremely enjoyable time with
him. Plus the food was incredible; I would undoubtedly come back to this place
again.

When we were done eating, he led me to his car, pulling out of
the restaurant parking lot with a big grin on his face. He was obviously
excited about whatever we were going to do now. When the car stopped I looked
up at the building shocked. “An indoor ski slope?” I mused, looking at it
nervously. I was more than a little intimidated by the vastness of the
building, and that was only the outside.

He laughed and climbed out of the car, walking round and
opening my door for me before heading to the trunk. He pulled out a thick black
fleece sweater and held it out to me. “It gets a little cold in there,” he said,
nodding at the building. I took if and pulled it on, swallowing loudly.
I’m
so going to break my leg I can just see it happening.
I silently thanked
Amy for suggesting I go for flat shoes tonight in case we were walking
anywhere.

I watched as he pulled on a sweater and held out a hand to
me. I looked at it and smirked at him. “Oh no, you’ve still not made up for
teasing me,” I declined, crossing my arms. He laughed and put his hands on my
shoulders instead, pushing me towards the building. My nerves grew more
pronounced with each step.

Once inside, he led us past the counter. “Hey, Mac, we’re
going on for a while okay,” he called as he led me through the ‘staff only’
door.

I glanced at him confused. “Do you work here?” I asked,
looking around nervously. No one seemed to be yelling us to get out of the
staff area so he must.

He nodded. “Yeah, I give lessons.”

Lessons?
“Really? What sort?” I questioned as he
walked us past a huge rack of snowboards.

He shrugged casually. “Skiing, snowboarding, and I also
supervise the tubing sessions, which is what we’re doing tonight.” He waggled
his eyebrows at me.
Okay, what the heck is tubing? Sounds kind of painful.
He grinned at my obviously concerned face. “Don’t worry, Cutie, I’ll look after
you,” he vowed, smirking at me as he flicked my nose. He turned and walked over
to a huge stack of black rubber rings.

“Oh man, really?” I muttered, turning my nose up at them.

He laughed and grabbed two rings, nodding towards another
door. I opened the door and walked through; cold immediately attacked my system
making me draw in a sharp breath and pull my elbows in against my side,
hunching my shoulders. I thanked him silently with my eyes for giving me the
fleece.

He nodded around the corner so I walked in that direction. As
I turned the corner, I stopped again, my mouth popping open in awe. There was a
huge hill of snow, people were skiing and snowboarding down it. There was a
snow blower going at the top making it look like it was snowing inside. It was
beautiful.

“Holy crap, I didn’t even know this place was here!” I cried
excitedly. “Is it real snow?” I immediately bent down, grabbing a handful,
expecting it to be that fake plastic snowflake stuff they use in the movies. It
wasn’t though, it was real powdery snow and it instantly made my fingers cold.
I laughed and squeezed it into a ball throwing it at his back as he walked past
me.

“Er, Chloe, no throwing snowballs or I’ll have to ask you to
leave,” he scolded, nodding at a large sign that was mounted on the wall. It
had pictures of all the prohibited things on it. Right at the top was snowball
throwing, second was snow angels.

“Oh man, you can’t even make an angel?” I pouted.
Shoot, I
was just about to do that!

He shook his head sternly. “Rules of the house. Come on.” He
grinned and stepped onto an escalator that was slowly moving up the hill. I
jumped on behind him, rolling snow around in my hands, resisting the urge to
throw it at his edible little behind.

When we reached the top he set the rings down. I looked down
the hill immediately hit by a wave of vertigo. We were so high that my stomach
seemed to quiver. I was the type of person that could break bones in the most
unlikely events like dancing, so this was just tempting fate. “Um, this is
really high, I don’t think I can,” I whimpered, backing away from the edge,
shaking my head.

“Chloe, I promise you’ll love it, you just need to try. If
you don’t love it then we’ll leave,” he persuaded, walking up to me and bending
to look into my eyes. His beautiful grey eyes were boring into mine, it was as
if he was trying to hypnotise me or something.

“I can’t,” I whispered, looking back in the direction of the
hill.
I can’t sit in a ring filled with air and push myself off that hill,
no way.

He smiled reassuringly. “I give lessons to kids as young as
six. Everyone loves tubing. Come on, I promise you’ll be fine. You just need to
trust me.” He took my hand and pulled me closer to his chest. Oddly, his smell
was somewhat calming. “You can trust me,” he whispered, cupping my cheek with
the other hand.

Oh man up, Chloe, you’re making yourself look like a
wimp!
“Kids really do this?” I asked, watching his face to see if he was
lying.

He nodded. “Kids do it all the time.” He leant in closer to
me. His eyes flicking down to my lips made his intention clear. Just as his
lips were about to touch mine I turned my head so he kissed my cheek. He
laughed and shook his head. “Still not made up for the teasing, huh?”

“Damn right.”

“Come on, Cutie, let’s give it a try. Want to go together?
You can sit in my lap if you don’t want to go on your own,” he offered, raising
an eyebrow. He looked so sexy that my insides did a little dance.