The Billionaire's Courageous Lover (Bold, Alaskan Men Book 3) (9 page)

“Listen up, Andie.  You are not going to tell me when you are ready to go on your own, understand?” And he kissed her.  A hard, decisive kiss that was over before she could truly enjoy it.  But he was holding her waist and she was losing focus.  “So we’re going over to that lift and you’re going to do it again.  Got it?”  She felt his callused hand against her back, his fingers moving against her skin and she shivered, wanting so much more! 

But such was not to be!  Drat the man!  With that command, he went back to his skis and snapped them back on, then nodded his head towards the slopes again, silently telling her to move it. 

With a sigh, Andie headed back to the slope and got in line.  Thankfully, it was still short and the wait wasn’t very long. 

By the end of the run, she was feeling pretty good with her skills and was still thrilled when she made it to the bottom. 

“Okay, lunch,” he announced, and helped her take her skis off and store them by the rack. 

Unfortunately, he was holding her legs while unsnapping her skis and his hand was on her thigh.  With a burning sensation running through her legs and his body so close, she had trouble walking.  And then he stood up.  Goodness, he was close. 

“I thought that kissing was a bad thing,” she whispered when his lips were close to hers. 

“Kissing isn’t bad,” he told her.  “But for you and me, kissing isn’t good.” 

She grasped onto the small detail, eagerly anticipating his reaction.  “So I can kiss anyone else, but kissing you would be very bad?”

As expected, he growled, his hands tightening on her waist.  “Don’t go there, Andie,” he told her, but his lips moved closer. 

Looking up into those green eyes, she could practically feel the heat shooting right back at her.  Breathless, her whole body tingling, she decided to poke the bear.  “Don’t go where?  I just want to fully understand the ground rules.  Because every time you kiss me, you tell me we shouldn’t do it.  But if I say it was a mistake, then you…”

She couldn’t finish that statement because he was kissing her.  And she was loving it!  Andie loved the way this man kissed, but she couldn’t figure out how to make it go beyond a kiss!  No matter how much she tried, Knox still pulled back. 

Just like this time. 

She sighed as she watched him pull away even when she could see the smoldering desire in his eyes. 

She saw the way he gritted his teeth, felt his fingers clench against her skin and suspected that he was feeling the same painful desire that she was.  Why wouldn’t he let it go further?  Oh yeah, because he thought she was a delicate flower and needed to go “home”.  She almost laughed.  If he only knew what her previous home life was like, he wouldn’t let her head back there.  No way! 

“Lunch,” he told her, interrupting a very nice fantasy about him being naked.  And her next to him, his fingers not just touching her waist but…everywhere.

She nodded her head, defeated for the moment.  But she wasn’t giving up!  This man was…he was hers!  She just knew that the two of them could work things out, if only he would give in and accept that she wasn’t going anywhere! 

Miraculously, all of them met up for lunch at the same time.  While all laughed and ate, Andie watched Knox, wondering what she could do to make him give up his belief that she was too soft for this life. 

She loved the way he seemed so relaxed, joking with his friends, teasing Violet and Tyla.  He didn’t tease her.  But his body language shouted out that they were a couple.  His shoulders were tilted so that there was almost a circle between the two of them.  His chair was closer than it needed to be, almost as close as Saeger’s was to Tyla’s, and Creek’s was to Violet’s.  But not quite close enough.  When his arm moved to rest along the back of her chair, she trembled, wanting more.  Wanting his hand to be along her shoulders, his hand to slip under her hair and touch her neck the way Saeger was doing to Tyla.  Or she wanted him to hold her hand and rest their clasped fingers against his strong thigh the way Creek was holding Violet’s hand.  They were a real couple. 

What she had with Knox…?  Well, she couldn’t really define it.  She knew that he wanted to keep a distance, he wanted to think of her like an older brother.  But he kept kissing her!  And touching her!  And that streak of possessiveness never relented. 

His non-verbal messages were screaming that he wanted her, but his verbal communication told her the opposite. 

She sighed heavily, her mind still trying to understand the man. 

“Are you okay?” he asked, leaning closer so that the others couldn’t hear their words. 

Andie looked up into those green eyes, trying not to react to his warm breath against her skin, against her ear.  “I’m fine,” she lied.  She wasn’t fine!  She felt like her skin was on fire and her whole body ached, had been aching for too long.  She wanted him but she couldn’t have him.  He wanted her, she just knew it!  But he wouldn’t let himself move forward. 

Such a conundrum, she thought. 

As soon as lunch finished off, she noticed that Knox was waving his friends off, and she wasn’t going to have any more of that.  Walking over to him, she poked him in the stomach, ignoring the slight pain since there was no “give” in that region of his body.  “Knox, you go with your friends right now.  Otherwise, I won’t ever go skiing again.  Do you understand me?”

He shook his head.  “Andie, we’re going to spend the afternoon working on your turning.”

She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest.  “Nope.  You’re going to go on that crazy helicopter and do whatever it is that they were doing this morning.  And I’m going to…” she thought quickly, not wanting him to hold back for her.  She knew that skiing with her wasn’t nearly as fun as whatever his friends were doing.  And if she weren’t here, he would be going with them.  She was holding him back.  “I’m going to sit over there and relax with a cup of hot chocolate.  I’m not moving another inch.  My thighs are aching and my eyes hurt from squinting into the sunshine with the wrong kind of glasses. So go!”  She waved her fingers in the direction the other three men had gone.  “Have a blast doing whatever it is that you guys are doing.” She guessed that they were simply flying over the snow and seeing what the mountains looked like.  But she also knew that there wasn’t enough room for five of them. 

Knox looked over at the nearly empty lobby area with the massive fireplace, then back at her. “Are you sure you don’t want to ski any longer?”

Andie nodded.  “I’m done.  But thank you for your help this morning.  It really was a lot of fun.”

She almost laughed when he looked down at her as if he didn’t believe her.  Smart man, she thought, trying to keep the truth out of her eyes.  She just didn’t want to hold him back.  He’d been so wonderfully patient all morning, but he needed to have his own time.  “Go,” she waved again when he hesitated. 

His lips compressed as if he were about to say something, but she shook her head.  “I’m going to have extra marshmallows.  Want me to get you one too?” she teased.  She would actually love to see him drinking a large cup of hot chocolate.  But she wanted him to go do his own thing instead. 

When he sighed.  “Fine.  I’ll go with them.  If you’re sure you don’t want to keep practicing.”

“Nope.  I had my fun.  My legs are aching and I’m not putting on those torture devices again today.”

He latched onto those words, moving even closer as if he needed to help her stand.  “Your muscles will build up.  We’ll come back next weekend and try it again, okay?”

She thought he was the sweetest man!  “Go,” she urged, before she reached up and kissed him. 

Finally, he walked away, catching up with the other three men, but Andie waited until he was gone.  Even this, the view of seeing him walk away, watching the men take off in that small helicopter caused her breath to catch in her throat.  But she was glad that they were doing something that was exciting.  She had zero desire to fly in that thing now that she realized she didn’t even like the ski lift height. 

When he was finally gone, she looked up at the beginner’s slope, bathed in bright sunshine now, with determination and excitement.  She was going to conquer that next slope all by herself.  Surely that would prove to Knox that she didn’t need coddling.  She was an adult, and knew how to take care of herself. 

As soon as she was alone again, she grabbed her skis and figured out how to latch them by herself.  It took some trying and a lot of most-likely undignified twisting and turning, but she eventually got her skis reattached to the torture devices, commonly called ski boots. 

She started on the beginner’s slope but, wanting to prove something to herself, she moved on to the next slope.  It still wasn’t as high or as steep as the one Violet and Tyla were doing, but it was more difficult than the beginner’s run, and she had to concentrate on her turns, on controlling her downward movement.  She was thrilled when she made it down all the way without falling.  Violet and Tyla were still on the more advanced slopes so she didn’t have any one to be excited with, but she still went right back up. 

The runs on these two slopes were shorter, so she was able to go up several more times.  It wasn’t until later in the afternoon when disaster struck.  She was tired but still exhilarated at her success, truly enjoying the new sport, and wanting to keep going.  She loved sliding down the mountain on the snow, the sunshine overhead and she really was getting better. 

Unfortunately, another skier, one who probably shouldn’t be on this run, wasn’t quite as competent.  Andie was making her last turn before the final stretch to the bottom and just happened to glance behind her.  A teenage boy was coming towards her, his poles up in the air as he tried to find his balance, but obviously failing since his whole body tipped precariously to one side, then the other.  He was obviously out of control…and coming right towards her. 

She saw the look in his eyes and her stomach clenched as gravity laughed.  Perhaps she shouldn’t have been on this slope either, because a more experienced skier would know how to get out of the poor kid’s way.  But her only movement was her mouth falling open as she realized what was about to happen. 

Mere moments later, the teen crashed right into her, and her only thought was that Knox was going to have more ammunition to try and convince her to leave Alaska.  Darn it! 

After that, it was really just a bunch of arms, legs, poles, and skis amassed in the air and snow.  When the crash was over, Andie opened her eyes and catalogued her body parts.  Legs?  No pain.  Well, except for the burning in her thighs because of the ski boots.  Arms?  They seemed okay.  Back?  No serious issues there either!  Thank goodness.

Carefully, she extracted her body parts and equipment from the crash site and looked at the other guy.  Instantly, she knew something was wrong. 

“Are you okay?” she gasped, trying to sit up.  She awkwardly got her skis off just as a couple of other skiers swooshed up to them.  “You guys okay?  That was a bad one.”

Andie knelt next to the guy, her eyes looking at the boy’s leg.  She wasn’t an expert, but she was fairly certain that legs weren’t supposed to go at that angle.  “I don’t think he’s okay,” she told the others.  “Can someone flag down one of the ski patrols?  I think this guy is seriously hurt.”

A few moments later, the ski patrol swooped in and took over.  Andie stepped back while they loaded the poor guy onto one of their motorized snow mobiles and got him down the mountain.  They insisted on bringing her along so that she could fill out the paperwork, and even asked several of the witnesses to do the same. 

Andie nodded, feeling horrible for the kid.  He looked to be in a lot of pain and when they reached the bottom, his parents were right there, eyes worried and anxious.  She was glad that the guy had someone there for him, someone to watch out for him. 

Her thoughts instantly turned to Knox and dread filled her stomach.  Oh, please don’t let him be coming back from his adventure right now!  He’d see the lights, and know that something was wrong. 

Knox had come down off of the mountain, an exhilarating run from the top, which left all of them laughing with an endorphin rush.  It was a hard, crazy run from the top of the mountain, but it produced a rush that was unlike anything else.  He loved skiing and the adventure of pushing himself.  The only way to reach the top of the mountain was the helicopter ride. 

No matter how good the run though, he still would have preferred to stay with Andie. 

As soon as he’d stored his skis and changed out of his ski boots, he went in search of her, wanting to see her and make sure she was okay.  Something in his gut was telling him that something was wrong.  But what could have gone wrong with her sitting in the lodge by the fire?  It was pretty hard to choke on marshmallows, he thought with an inner chuckle. 

The red lights of the ambulance were his first clue and his stomach plunged with fear.  “Andie!”  He picked up his pace, moving through the doors of the lodge, his eyes scanning the crowd.  It was mostly empty at this point in the day, so it should have been easy for him to spot the brunette beauty, but Andie wasn’t there.  That feeling in his gut worsened. 

The ambulance! 

That was when Andie spotted Knox barreling around the lodge, his eyes bright with rage and even his nostrils flaring out.  Goodness, he would make an excellent dragon, she thought as she stood up.