Winter Interlude (21 page)

Kate
rolled her eyes and snorted
.
“I could’ve won, if I’d really wanted to
.”

“Not while I’m around.”

She laughed
.
“I can’t believe we both hate to lose
.”
Her skill brought out his competitive nature
,
caused him to take on every challenge she threw his way
.
She understood his motives
.
She felt the same
.
She relished any chance to best him when behind and worked to hold on
to any lead if he was the one in the rear
.

“Yeah,” he said
.
“But I don’t cheat.”

“I only gained a second or two advantage
.”
At least he didn’t have to wait for her, which definitely pleased him
.
They’d spent their morning hiking to pristine powder mountaintops perfect for carving figure eights, moving to other lifts when one run became boring because they ran out of fresh powder
.

The chair reached the top of the lift
.
They exited and skied to the cliff’s edge
.

“Doesn’t look good,” Paul said, nodding at the darker clouds rolling in
.
The snowfall thickened, but they still had visibility
.
“We’ve been lucky so far, but judging by what’s ahead, we only have a few more runs
.”

Kate
pushed off, laughing
.
“Meet you at the bottom.”

Three
-
quarters of the way down, Paul whizzed by her
.
Though breathing heavily and feeling the burn in her thighs, she pushed on, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of seeing her quit
.
He only had to shift that knowing blue gaze, so like Jame
s’
, in her direction and she’d respond
.
Why did it have to be Paul who brought this competitive drive to the surface, when no one else ever had
?
It rankled to admit
she enjoyed skiing with him, but she couldn’t deny the elation rushing through her
.

As she neared
the end of the run,
Kate
realized
couldn’t remember a more exhilarating day, one where she’d been challenged and taunted so much
.

She hurried to catch up with Paul to repeat the process
twice more
.
At the top of the third lift, he said, “Time to quit
.”
The heavens had totally opened up, dumping pure white and hampering visibility
.
“Let’s take this one easier
.
No sense killing ourselves in a burst of speed when we can’t see a foot in front of us.”

She nodded and followed him, barely able to see the dark outline of his coat and only too glad to have him in the lead
.
They’d put in a vigorous five hours and skipped lunch because the mountain beckoned
.
Her muscles ached
.
She was tired
—
a good tired only felt when one had exerted to the point of soreness without overdoing it
.

At the bottom, they both stepped out of their bindings
.
When Paul hefted both pairs of skis onto his shoulders, she shook her head and reached for hers
.
“I can carry my own gear.”

“I got ’
em
.
You grab the poles,” he said, turning and heading for the locker room.

She sighed
.
His resolute expression told her it was useless to argue
.
She picked up the poles and followed, wishing he’d stop being so nice and considerate
.
In all the times she and James had skied together, he’d never carried anything for her
.
Not that she expected it
.
Still, Paul was definitely more courteous in a thousand ways that James wasn’t
.
Now she understood what Judith saw in him
.
Kate
didn’t want to like him,
yet
she realized the more time she spent in his company, the more she did
.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Geez
.
Look at it,” she said, noting the blizzard-like conditions, in an effort to push her attraction to the background of her mind
.
“I think tomorrow might be a better day than today, and it doesn’t get much better.”

Paul looked around and nodded
.

Once they made it to the lodge, he held the door open and waited for her to go ahead of him
.
They’d leave the skis and poles in the locker overnight
, although n
either dared leave their boots
t
here
.
Nothing short of sticking them next to a heater or the fire would dry them out
.
Putting on a damp boot tomorrow was a sure way of spending the entire day with cold feet on the slopes, so it was worth the inconvenience of carting them back and forth.

At the locker, she watched him work the combination lock
.
He unlatched the door, took out each of their bags
,
then placed both pairs of skis inside and turned back to her
.
She passed him the poles.

He closed the door and spun the dial
.
When his hand moved toward her, she leaned away
.

“Hold still
.”
He grinned as
he gripped her shoulder with one hand and brushed her hair with the other
.
“You look like the
a
bominable
s
nowman
.”

She stood stock still, allowing him to sweep the snow off her bangs and hat, then shoulders
.
She hoped
he couldn’t feel her heartbeat pounding out of control
as
the heat of his fingers on her shoulder overwhelmed her with a warm sensation.

“Thanks,” she murmured, risking a quick glance at him
.
His blond hair, darkened from all the melted snow, framed his handsome face
.
He looked so much like James, but he was nothing like him
.
The thought made her smile
.

Paul caught it and his eyebrows shot up.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said,
and turned to grab
her street clothes to change
.
She rushed toward the ladies
’
room as fast as her legs would carry her, feeling her face flame, hoping he hadn’t noticed how red it must be.

In
the privacy of the restroom,
Kate
forced herself to breathe
.
She took her time dressing,
and stewed
the whole
while
.

Their hours together had all but wiped out her resolve to not interact with him
.
Who knew Paul Morrison’s personality would draw her with the force of a magnet
?
His daring taunts and boyish grin were hard to resist
.
She wished she could ignore both
.
Being stuck with him no longer seemed like a chore
, a
notion
that
didn’t bode well, especially since she couldn’t see a way to make it through the rest of the afternoon without
unwittingly revealing her attraction
.

How had she gotten into this position
?
Why did Paul Morrison have to be the one to make her heart flutter now that she entertained the notion of moving on with her life
?
H
e’d have
such a laugh
if he knew
.
After enjoying the man and his challenges for a change, she never wanted to revert to being the butt of his jokes again
.

~

P
aul strode out of the men’s room carrying his wet clothes
.
As h
e stuffed his ski suit into a bag and gathered their boots together
,
his thoughts centered on
Kate
, torturing him with unwanted desire
.
Every provocative smile s
he’d sent his way during their hours
on the slopes had twisted his insides with an incomprehensible need
.
He was certain
his attraction had nothing to do with his lack of sexual activity
.
This was different
.
He’d certainly never felt this way about Judith
.

He turned when the ladies
’
room door opened
.
Damn
!
How had this gotten so crazy
?
He watched her saunter toward him with such attitude and grinned
.
Though tiny, she knew how to move to attract him, as he’d spent the morning discovering
.

T
hat wasn’t all that attracted him
.
Every time she’d state an opinion, something in her voice infiltrated his brain, and his body responded
.
L
ike now,
when
he worked to ignore the hum of awareness that hung in the air
, a
tension that had been present during every lift ride they’d taken
.