Chapter 7 Zoe #2
Kai jumped off the board, and it slipped off the cylinder with a clatter. He kicked it aside as he shook his head. “Once you get to know me better, you’ll find out I’m always moving. As for showing off—I only do that some of the time. Okay, most of the time. But that’s better than always.”
Despite myself, I felt my lips twitch.
“All right,” he said, moving closer. “Let’s get you started.”
Unease crawled up my spine. I didn’t know how to use any of this equipment, and I really didn’t want a professional athlete watching me fumble through more things I was terrible at. That had already happened enough today. “You want me to work out?”
“I want you to learn to loosen up your hips.”
Of course he did.
A few minutes later, I found myself standing on what Kai called a lateral ski trainer—a platform with two separate foot plates that slid from side to side. My legs kept wanting to slip out from under me, and I had to grip the handles in front of me just to stay upright.
“You’re fighting it again,” Kai said from somewhere behind me.
Then his hands were on my hips, warm and firm through my jeans, guiding me into the side-to-side motion. My breath caught.
“Pretend you’re going downhill,” he said, his voice close to my ear. “You’d have ski poles in either hand, so you need to get lower.”
“Lower how?”
“Lean forward. Bend your knees. Stick your ass out.”
I started to straighten up, bristling. “Excuse me?”
His hands tightened slightly on my hips, keeping me in place. “Believe me, I’m not just being a pervert. This is how it works.”
Maybe he could tell I was skeptical—or embarrassed—because he kept talking.
“At the gym in Aspen, they’ve got this whole setup with a screen in front of you.
Makes it look like you’re doing a real downhill course.
The owner wanted to rig it all up in a VR headset, but it made everyone get dizzy and fall over. ”
While he talked, his hands stayed on me, guiding me through the motion. And slowly—grudgingly—I let myself relax into it. Bent my knees. Stuck my butt out. Brought my chest down like I was leaning into a slope.
After a moment, he stepped to the side, watching me continue the movement on my own.
“How am I doing, coach?” I asked after a minute or two, trying not to sound winded, but this was harder than it seemed.
“Looking good.”
With that low, rumbly tone, I couldn’t tell if he meant my form or something else. Heat crept up my neck.
“How much longer do I need to do this?”
“Ready to try something else?”
“Yes. Unless it’s jumping on that box or standing on that balance board.”
He chuckled and reached up, offering me his hand. I took it and stepped down, my legs feeling like jelly. “I’ll let you keep your feet on the ground,” he said, sounding as if he was making a great concession. “Since this is your first day.”
My only day doing this, I thought. But I found myself wondering what the rest of the internship would be like. Would I even see him again? He’d be off giving ski lessons to other guests, and I’d be running around the resort, learning everything I could—if Mrs. Greer ever let me do real work.
I’d at least see him in the staff quarters at night. What did people call it again? Oh yeah, the hideaway. The thought of sitting next to him in the dark, on the sofa in front of the fire wasn’t exactly an unpleasant one.
Kai led me to the far wall where those straps I’d noticed earlier hung from the ceiling. “TRX suspension trainer,” he said. “Great for core strength and balance.”
He grabbed the handles and demonstrated, lowering himself down in a controlled motion.
Even through his shirt, I could see his abs tighten, every muscle defined as he held himself there for a beat before pulling himself back up.
He made it look easy, but I suspected he’d engaged a lot of his powerful muscles.
“Your turn.”
We switched places, and he adjusted the straps for my height, showing me where to grip. “Start with pulling the straps down. Just straight down and keep your core tight.”
I reached up, grabbed the handles, and pulled. My arms shook as I tried to pull the handles down with some degree of control.
“This is harder than it looks,” I muttered, managing two more reps I eased the straps up to the starting point.
I kept my arms up, gripping the straps. “I really need to get back to my actual job. I’m not here to increase my upper body strength.”
“The goal isn’t to give you biceps of steel.
We’re trying to help you loosen up and move fluidly—both out on the slopes and in here.
You’re holding your muscles so tight. Your shoulders are hunched, and it’s affecting every step you take.
” He paused. “There’s a sauna upstairs. You should check it out sometime. ”
An image flashed through my mind—Kai with a white towel wrapped around his waist, steam curling around him—and heat flooded my face.
His eyes darkened like he knew exactly what I’d been thinking. “But if you don’t have time to work out anymore, or hit the sauna, or get a massage...” He took a step closer. “I know another way to help you loosen up.”
The hunger in his expression was unmistakable, and my breath caught in my throat.
He was just standing there, maybe a foot and a half away, but I couldn’t move. Not frozen with fear, frozen because I didn’t want to move. Not when he was looking at me like that.
He took another step closer, slow and deliberate, giving me plenty of time to step back or tell him to stop. My heart hammered against my ribs, but I stayed exactly where I was, my hands still gripping the straps above my head.
Then he was right there, so close I could feel the heat radiating off his incredible body. He cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing across my bottom lip, and his blue eyes were impossibly bright up close.
He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.
I closed my eyes and gave into the incredible sensation.
I’d been kissed before—on dates or by the one boyfriend I’d had sophomore year—but it had never been like this. Never made my knees go weak or my stomach flip or my entire body light up like I’d been plugged into an electrical socket.
Shivers ran through me as he took his time, holding my head in his hands, pressing himself against me. I pressed back, and somewhere in the back of my mind, a voice whispered that I should stop this and that I barely knew him.
I ignored it. This felt too damn good to stop.
His arms wrapped around my waist, and his hands slid lower, squeezing my ass, cupping it, then sliding lower. When he lifted me off the floor, I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist, twisting the straps above me around my wrists.
God, his body felt so good against mine, and there was something really erotic about the way I was stretched out, totally supported by him and the equipment above me.
He was so strong. I could feel his hard muscles where my legs were wrapped around him.
He kissed down the line of my throat, and I tilted my head to the side, giving him access. I was getting more and more turned on, heat pooling low in my belly, and that voice in the back of my mind got a little louder—What are you doing? You don’t know this guy—but I pushed it away.
This felt too good to even think about stopping.
He leaned back slightly, and his hand slid under the bottom of my sweater, his palm flat and warm against my stomach. The fingers of his other hand threaded through my hair, and it made my scalp tingle in a delicious way.
Kai looked me in the eye, his hand on my stomach, and waited, giving me a chance to object.
I didn’t.
He slid his hand up and cupped my breast through my bra.
I moaned, letting my head fall back, and he fisted a handful of my hair, holding me in place as he kissed me again.
By this time, his talented fingers were teasing my nipples, and it all felt so deliciously primal.
Like I didn’t need to think, like all I needed to do was let him show me how good he could make me feel.
He cupped my ass again, pulling me even closer, and I felt it then.
A hard bulge in his jeans. It felt big, not that I had much to compare it to.
I’d never let myself go like this with anyone.
The truth was, I’d never even been with a man.
Never had the time and hadn’t met anyone who tempted me the way Kai did.
Because now I could see what I’d been missing.
He caressed my breast through the thin fabric of my bra, his thumb brushing over my nipple, and we kissed until I couldn’t think straight. Then he was holding me close, nibbling against my neck, and he whispered against my skin, “You feel so good. You taste so good.”
I ground my hips against him, and in some corner of my mind, I noted that he’d been trying to get me to move my hips all morning—and now I was.
Kai as he nipped at my earlobe. “Let’s go back to my room.”
I was so lost in in the way he was touching me that I barely registered the words. He repeated himself, his voice rough with need. “Let’s go to my room, baby girl. You know you want to.”
I enjoyed the sensation for one more second, maybe two, and then I froze.
Baby girl?
I couldn’t move for a long moment and then I pulled back from him, staggering a little as my feet thudded to the floor. I let go of the straps. They bounced around near my head as I took a step back, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
“I’m not your baby girl,” I said, staring him in the eye.
He held up his hands in defense. “Sorry. It was just—I got caught up in the moment.”
My gaze dropped, and I could see he was hard. “I can see that.” And a moment ago, I could feel that.
He didn’t even look embarrassed. “Can you blame me?”
“No,” I said flatly. “I blame myself. This isn’t why I came here.”
This internship was a big step toward the career of my dreams. I wasn’t here for skiing, flirting, or making out in a gym. And most of all, I wasn’t here to let a man I barely knew refer to me as baby girl.
I strode past him and headed for the door, my face burning, my heart still pounding, my entire body aching from the abrupt halt to the erotic sensations.
But I didn’t look back.