Chapter 28 Hanlon
Hanlon
Things between Stone and me continue to be all gas, no brakes. How I ever managed to survive without knowing what his ass feels like as it strangles my cock is a mystery to me.
Work has definitely picked up, and I’ve had my eye on several storms that are predicted to dump a combined forty-three inches of snow on us over the next seven days. The Christmas crowd has been replaced by the New Year’s crowd, and I will honestly be glad when this week is over.
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and I have big plans for Stone. At least, I do if I can wait that long.
Deacon has been our team pilot ever since Logan caught Stone and me at the Christmas party. It’s been nice not being in the office with Logan, but Deacon asks a lot of questions and is confused about Logan’s request to change.
Stone and I just play dumb.
“Han, are you almost done?” Stone asks at five-thirty.
We’ve already done the end-of-day mountain sweep, but I’m still going over a few things.
“I really think we need to check the snowpack on the western ridge. With the snowfall we got last night on top of the tests I ran last week, it’s a recipe for disaster, especially since we’re not supposed to blast there again for another three days. Are you up for a ride?”
“Last light is in fifteen minutes,” Stone says, pointing out the obvious.
“I know, but if we don’t look tonight, tomorrow it’ll be too late to do anything about it,” I argue.
“Yeah, okay,” Stone agrees with a sigh. “Does your vest still have battery life left? It’s negative twelve up there with the windchill,” he says, glancing at one of the digital thermometers on the wall, always watching out for me.
“Yeah, it should be fine. And if not,” I say, taking a step closer and dropping my voice so Deacon doesn’t overhear, “I’m certain you can find a way to warm me up.”
Stone’s eyes flash to Deacon and then back to me in warning.
I grin, knowing the idea turns him on.
“Fine. But we’re out and back. Half an hour max.”
I laugh. “It takes twenty minutes to get out there in the first place.”
A shadow darkens his features. “Then maybe we should wait, Han. The team just ran tests up there a couple days ago,” Stone says, looking uncertain.
“You know that’s not good enough, and you know Jeremy doesn’t do the tests as well as I do. He overlooks the details. And in this line of work, every detail is just as important as the one before it.”
I’ve learned a lot during my time here, but the truth is, I’m passionate about this field, so I already knew a lot coming into this internship.
The other truth is that, while Jeremy is good at his job, when he tests the snowpack, he’s doing it for the safety of nameless, faceless visitors who play at the resort.
I’m doing it for Stone.
I read into every snowflake and grain of ice, needing the full story because it’s not just tourists and visitors I want to protect, but the man who is quickly becoming my whole world.
Stone huffs a sigh. I know he’s not happy about it, but I also know he knows I’m right.
“Fine. An hour then. Twenty minutes out, twenty minutes for tests, twenty minutes back. Not a single second more, Hanlon.”
“Oooh, my whole name,” I tease, trying to lighten the mood.
He cuts his eyes at me. Pretending to lean around me to grab something, his lips are at my ear. “Be ready to go in five minutes. I want to get back so we can go home and get naked.”
“Yessir,” I salute with a wicked grin.
Holy fucking shit, it’s cold out here.
My arms are around Stone’s waist, and I’m plastered against his back—it’s a far cry from the way our first ride on this snowmobile went—as he steers us up the mountain in the waning sunlight. Every now and then, his hand reaches back to rub my thigh.
Although my core is warm, thanks to the heated vest, my limbs are not, and I can feel them growing stiffer with every passing second.
By the time we finally reach our destination, I can’t just hop off the snowmobile and get to work. I can’t even straighten my legs out. Despite burying my face in Stone’s back, using him as a shield from the wind, and the fact that I have my balaclava pulled up, my face is also numb.
“Screw this, Hanlon,” Stone says as he watches me struggle. I’d tried discreetly loosening my muscles, but my fucking hands are so cold, it was useless. “We’re going back down.”
“Wait! Just let me do one test. I’m getting there.”
I move sluggishly through the snow once I finally make it off the snowmobile. Stone is standing off to the side with a clenched jaw, looking like he did so many times throughout my childhood, and it hits me like a ton of bricks.
“You were n-never angry w-when I would st-struggle as a kid, were you? Y-you were just t-tense, ready to intervene if n-needed,” I point out as my teeth begin to chatter uncontrollably.
He nods but stays quiet as I trudge my heavy limbs through the snow.
“All this t-time, I thought you were f-frustrated that I wasn’t n-normal and c-couldn’t k-keep up.”
Falling in step next to me, Stone says, “You are normal, Han. And…fuck normal, anyway. Who’s to say what that even is?”
“But y-you were w-worried about m-me,” I stammer, not doing a great job at articulating my thoughts as the cold begins affecting the synapses in my brain.
“Of course I was,” Stone agrees. “But it was complicated. I watched Dad and Lana smother you. How were you ever supposed to learn to do anything on your own if they never gave you space to fail? But, fuck, watching you struggle was hard. I’d get mad at your circumstances, but never mad at you, Han. I’m sorry if I didn’t make that clear.”
His words make my heart stutter in my chest.
“You were j-just a k-kid, yours…self, Stone. I should’ve r-realized that s-sooner than right this m-moment,” I confess.
“We can talk about this later. Let’s get these tests done and get you back down the mountain,” he says.
I brought a mix of stuff from the office and some of the new things he got me for Christmas, eager to test them out in the field.
We’re not even to the embankment I want to perform the test on when I feel the snow shift beneath my feet.
“Did y-you f-feel that?”
The sound of our boots on the snow is different, too. Instead of crunchy with a squeak at the end of each step, like solid snow, it’s a heart-stopping whoomph of the unstable snowpack fracturing beneath us.
Mine and Stone’s gazes snap to each other.
“That’s good enough for me. We’ve gotta get out of here.” I nod in understanding, but unfortunately, the spike in my anxiety has made my already stiff, uncooperative body even more so. Stone looks back, realizing I’m struggling, and he squats in front of me. “Get on.”
“St-Stone, I c-can’t. That’s t-too m-much w-weight in one p-place.” My stuttering is getting worse as the coldness seeps into my bones.
“The mountain’s counting down, Han. If we don’t set it off from walking, the snowmobile might, but we don’t stand a chance of outrunning this at all if we don’t get on the machine.”
I do my best to climb onto his back, but my joints aren’t bending like I need them to, and he has to support me by reaching behind him and gripping my thighs.
After placing me on the snowmobile, he takes his seat in front of me and wraps my arms around his waist. By this point, my whole body is shaking. It feels like I’m having a seizure.
“Hold on, baby. I’m going to get us out of here,” Stone says, bringing the vehicle to life. We both hold our breath as the machine rumbles on the fragile snow.
Stone drives slowly in an attempt not to disturb the weakened layers we’re gliding on. When the terrain is decently friendly, he drives with one hand on the handlebars and his other on my knee or clasping my arm where it rests in his lap.
It’s not often that I put myself in a position where my diagnosis wins, but my body is no match for the cold, the wind, the altitude, and the adrenaline dump.
The mountain must have determined that today wasn’t our time to die, though, because we make it back to the office in one piece without setting off any avalanches, but now, we both know what’s looming over this resort.
Stone pulls next to his Tahoe and helps me inside. He starts the SUV, turns on my seat warmer, and cranks the heat before going back to tuck the snowmobile in the garage behind the office and finish up inside by changing the blasting schedule, making the western ridge tomorrow’s priority.
My muscles ache already. Shivering this violently and staying tense this long will make me sorer than any workout ever could.
I try to relax. Try to stop fighting the spasms rocking my body.
But it’s no use, and I feel my limbs begin to contract.
Stone is going to be so pissed.