Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
CHASE
I wasn’t letting Elena’s silence deter me.
In addition to working as a ski instructor—which I was fucking crushing, by the way—Tessa and Elliot had agreed to let me work construction with Mike and his crew on the cidery. The extra income would help, because I had my eye set on an apartment.
I would get my shit together. For her.
“Good work today, Holly.” I’d just finished up a session with a local teenager and was done for the day. The work was fun as hell, but it could also be exhausting.
“Thanks, Chase! See you next week.”
Back in the ski shop, I tucked all my gear away, clocked out, and waved goodbye to Jeff before I headed over to the lodge for a hot cup of coffee.
“Hey, Vick,” I said to the barista when I rolled up to the counter.
“Hi, Chase.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. We saw each other almost daily now that I worked here, but every time, she blushed. “Your usual?”
“Please.” I spun around to people watch while I waited for Vicki to pour my coffee. The sight of long dark hair, big brown eyes, and teal scrubs stole the breath from my lungs.
Elena.
She was standing in the lodge lobby looking my way and smiling.
What the fuck is she doing here?
“Here you go,” Vicki said from behind me.
I grabbed the coffee from her without breaking eye contact with Elena. “Thanks,” I muttered, stepping away from the counter and walking briskly toward the lobby.
I hadn’t heard from Elena in weeks, and now she was here, standing in the Sable Point Resort and Spa. I could hardly believe my fucking eyes.
I wanted to drop to my knees right here and now, beg her to never leave again. Because after one morning with her on the slopes, I missed her.
I missed her feisty attitude and her quiet calm, her cutting barbs and her comforting reassurances. She was a study in contrasts, and I was drawn to it all. Sucked in until I could barely breathe.
“Hi,” she said, peering up at me through dark lashes.
“Hi,” I responded.
We stood there for a few moments, quietly taking in each other’s presence.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Her next words were so quiet, I barely heard her.
“I couldn’t get you out of my head either,” she said, finally responding to my last text—but in person.
“Is that so?” I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face.
Elena nodded slowly, biting her plush pink bottom lip. My cock swelled at the sight. Fuck, but I wanted to bite that lip.
“I was just heading to check in. Will you—” She faltered a bit, and her gaze darted around the lobby, like she was looking for someone. “Will you come up with me?”
Holy fuck, it’s happening. Elena had just invited me to her hotel room. It was showtime.
Play it cool, dickwad. Don’t fuck this up.
“Yeah, sure.” I grabbed the strap of the duffel bag on her shoulder. “Let me take this for you.”
“Thank you.” She offered me a small smile as we made our way across the lobby toward the front desk of the lodge. “Hi, I’m checking in for Elena Stone, please.”
“Of course. I’ll just need to see an ID and credit card please.”
Elena finished checking in and getting the keys to her room while my mind whirred.
What the fuck does this mean? What’s going to happen when we got upstairs?
I know what I wanted to happen, but what’s the deal with her husband?
Stone is her married name. Is she divorced now?
Divorce takes time. Maybe she started the process a while ago and it’s finally official. She could have kept his name.
We stood side by side in the elevator, staring at each other through our reflection in the shiny metal doors. Neither of us said a word.
When the elevator dinged and the doors slid open on the fifth floor, I stuck my arm out the keep the doors from closing and let Elena pass. Her vanilla and burnt sugar scent floated up and caressed my senses.
God, I’d love to bottle that scent and take a bath in it.
I followed Elena down the long and narrow hallway, the dark wooden beams framing the walls like the bones of some great cabin.
The air carried that familiar mix of pine and smoke, laced with the crisp scent of melting snow tracked in by skiers dragging themselves back from the slopes.
Soft lantern-style sconces cast pools of golden light against the log-paneled walls, their glow reflecting off framed vintage ski posters.
The corridor was quiet, except for the occasional muffled thud of footsteps behind one of the heavy wooden doors.
When we finally reached the door for room 509, Elena waved the keycard over the scanner. The light turned green and the lock disengaged before she pushed it open.
It wasn’t my first time in a room at the Sable Point Resort and Spa. I used to come here a lot with some of the guys. Sometimes, we’d head home. Sometimes, we’d find a tourist to spend the night with.
But entering this room felt different.
I set Elena’s bag on a chair, and she walked to the room’s only window, keeping her back to me.
“Elena,” I said.
She didn’t so much as flinch at the sound of my voice.
“I’m gonna need you to tell me why I’m here, Sweetness.”
Slowly, so fucking slowly, she turned to face me. God, she was fucking stunning. She looked sadder and thinner than the last time I’d seen her, but no less beautiful—even in her scrubs.
Had she come straight here from the hospital in Detroit? It was a six-and-a-half-hour drive. I’d looked it up on one of the days I’d contemplated hopping in my truck and hunting her down.
“Does it bother you that you’re alone in a hotel room with a married woman?”
Well, that answers that question.
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether you’re happily married.”
Her eyes bounced between mine.
“Are you happy, Elena?”
She shook her head slowly.
Fuck, this was dumb. What was I getting myself into? Did it even matter? I was so fucking gone for this woman, and I’d hardly spent any time with her. I’d made plenty of dumb decision in the past. What’s one more?
“I’m gonna need you to gimme a little more here. I’m tryin’ not to cross any lines, but fuck…”
She chewed on her bottom lip.
I sucked in a long breath and released it. “I can’t believe you’re here right now.”
My brain must have severed ties with my feet in that moment, because next thing I knew, I was closing the distance between us. She was so close, I could touch her.
But I didn’t.
Still had that brain-to-hand connection, apparently.
“Tell me why you’re here.”
More lip chewing. More bouncing eyes.
If she needed time to sort through her thoughts, she could have it. I wasn’t going anywhere. I’d wait.
Finally, she spoke. “I had a few days off from work and from…” She trailed off but didn’t finish the thought before moving on. “I wanted to be somewhere I felt safe.”
The vulnerability in her eyes nearly brought me to my knees. She wanted to feel safe, so she came here. To Sable Point.
To me? We’d be circling back on why she felt unsafe in the first place, but I needed to know where I fit into all this.
“Was it just a happy accident that we bumped into each other in the lobby?”
She shook her head again. “I was waiting for you to get done with work.”
The breath whooshed out of me. Fuck.
“What do you need from me, Sweetness?”
I reached out a hand and ran it through the silky strands of hair at her temple. Her eyes fell shut and her entire frame relaxed by a fraction, but I saw it. She seemed almost touch starved.
She all but confirmed it with her next whispered words.
“Kiss me.”
Who was I to deny her? I’d comply with her every demand.