Free Fall Read online

  She yanked off her gloves, too, then stuck her hands down the back of his ski pants, beneath his shorts, making him yelp at her frozen fingers. Laughing, he surged up on his knees, pulling her up, as well, his ass now frozen solid, along with another essential part of him. “Not here.”

  “Where, then?” She looked over her shoulder at the cabin, and he wasn’t so far gone that he couldn’t see her trying to figure out where. Now.

  He laughed again and shook his head. He wanted warm, thank you very much. “I’ll give you two choices. Your room or mine.”

  THEY WENT TO HIS, AND LOGAN had barely gotten Lily inside before he stripped her out of her clothes. His, too, and though she tried to touch, he pulled her into his shower. She wanted him beyond belief, beyond thoughts, knowing only that it wasn’t just the hot water beading down on them that was restoring feeling to her extremities.

  Her eyes drifted shut while he soaped her up, murmuring in her ear the whole time, telling her exactly what he was going to do to her as soon as she warmed up.

  “But I’m warm now,” she whispered shamelessly, and wrapped her fingers around his erection.

  “Here, then,” he said with a shudder. Backing her up to the wall, he lifted her and thrust home, making her come instantly. Instantly. Then, before she could get over the shock of that or even float back to herself, he kissed he, and, using the tile as leverage, took her hard and fast, bringing her to another screaming orgasm before he let himself go.

  Afterward, with her body still trembling, he carried her to his bed and started again, slow and dreamy and seductive this time, until her breath sobbed in her throat, his name tumbling over and over from her lips, her heart both aching and pounding.

  And it still wasn’t enough.

  AN HOUR LATER SHE MADE IT to her office feeling a little bit like the naughty schoolgirl caught sneaking late into class. At least all of her tension had been released by some seriously mind-blowing orgasms. Thank you, Logan.

  Debbie was sitting on her desk, filing her nails. “Look who the cat dragged in.”

  Carrie came in and set a huge stack on her desk, then blew a strand of hair from her eyes. “Sorry, babe. But you’ve got to go through that.”

  Debbie looked smug. “Ha.”

  Lily sighed. “Is it all stuff you and I have discussed?”

  “Mostly,” Carrie said.

  “Then you can split it with me.” Lily divided the stack in half and got down to it, thinking it couldn’t take that long. She’d be back outside in no time. “Did you find the missing ad file?” she asked Carrie, hoping that whoever had messed with the file had merely moved it, rather than actually taken it.

  Debbie fingered the messy desk. “How can you find anything?”

  “Do you have a reason for being here?” Lily asked.

  “Yep.” Debbie hopped down. “To offer my help.”

  “That’s funny.”

  “I mean it. I want to help.”

  “Fine. You can help me find the ad.”

  “Okeydokey.”

  But they couldn’t find it anywhere. Damn it. Starting over would take forever and cost them a late penalty. If they didn’t get into the trade magazines, they could lose potential business for next year. “I know it’s here…”

  “Lose something else?” Gwyneth came into the office and perched a hip on the corner of her desk. She reached out to unbutton and then rebutton the blouse Lily had put on incorrectly only a few minutes before when she’d run to her room for dry clothing. “Someone’s been dressing in a hurry. A nooner today with the ski bum?”

  “Jealous?”

  “You know, given the wattage of your smile, I just might be.”

  “Good. And I told you, he’s not a ski bum.”

  “You keep defending him, little sis, and I’m going to get even more worried. Oh, and don’t worry about finding the ads now. Deadline passed. We lost the opportunity to be in any California trade mags next season.”

  “I had those ads done. They vanished.”

  “If that makes you feel better.”

  “What would make me feel better is you out of my face.”

  As Gwyneth disappeared in a huff, Lily dived into work.

  No ads meant they’d have to work extra hard to reach the trade markets next year, which meant extra work for her. This was beyond just a trick—it could hurt the lodge’s profits. And if it wasn’t some totally weird, out-of-this-world coincidence, if it was the same person who’d removed the out-of-bounds signs…

  Hell, they were lucky no one had injured themselves, or worse.

  She was going to be keeping her eyes wide open from now on, watching for anything remotely suspicious—and she had her patrollers doing the same, only she’d justified it to them by using the sign incident. For now, though, she had a stack of work to get through and a damn good incentive to get it done. She and Logan had arranged to meet for a late-night walk on the frozen pond to the east of the resort, and as she worked, she watched the clock. At the right time, she left the office and made her way outside.

  And when she saw him waiting for her, leaning against a tree with that long, leanly muscled body she knew every inch of now, the tension shifted again, into a sexual pull, a desperate need, and a softening of the heart.

  Oh, boy. Gwyneth was right, she was in trouble. Big trouble.

  Because she was falling for him.

  Or at least her body was.

  Not her brain, though. No, her brain was far too smart for that.

  12

  THEY TOOK A MIDNIGHT WALK beneath a full moon that hung over them like a magic ball, casting and reflecting a white glow over the snow and ice around them, making Logan feel once again as if they were alone in the world, just him and Lily.

  “Up there.” She pointed to a small outcropping to the east of the lodge, thick with snow. Below was a deep basin of more rocks and snow. “If we can climb up there, the view is incredible.”

  He eyed the hill, sharp with rocks and what was sure to be ice and powder, and slowly shook his head. “It’s a death trap. We’ll slide, all the way to the bottom.”

  Which, he didn’t point out, he couldn’t even see.

  “It’s safer than it looks. Believe me, I’ve done it. I wouldn’t be stupid out here. Chicken?”

  He craned his neck and eyed the climb, then Lily. She was bundled up in a thick jacket against the night’s chill, hood up, with only her face showing and a cocky grin curving her mouth. “Chicken?”

  She flapped her hands and made the unmistakable squawk of a hen. He’d never backed down from a dare or a rescue or anything dangerous in his life, but he had to laugh because this woman made him want to do just that. Back down. Keep her safe.

  Obviously he was losing his mind. She didn’t need anyone to keep her safe.

  Or to fall for her the way he suspected he was beginning to.

  Yes, definitely, he was losing it. Something he was all the more sure of when he actually climbed up to the peak with her. They were both huffing and puffing by the time they got there, and damp with the snow, not to mention freezing, but at the top, he went still at the sight sprawled out in front of them. Above them, the moon lay low and full and stunning, lighting a vast, softly glowing valley surrounded by sharp, sky-scraping mountains. “My God.”

  “I know. I never get tired of the view.” Awed, turning in a slow circle, she took it all in.

  “Me, either,” he said, not taking his eyes off her.

  She turned to him and touched his face as she smiled. “Do you mean to make me melt?”

  “Just a bonus.” He pulled her toward him for a kiss, but one taste wasn’t enough, and the next thing he knew, they were leaning against each other, panting with need. “Now,” she demanded, and all but dragged him down the mountain and back to her room, where he gladly ravished and cherished her body with his, with everything he had, the cliff and the view forgotten as he struggled to hold back the words and emotions that suddenly wanted to fly from his mo