Chapter 9
HAYDEN
“Last run,” I huffed. “Last chance to beat me.”
My breath was white frost, hanging in the late afternoon air. My heart was pounding, the sweat from my body creating a layer of wet insulation deep within my snow jacket. I should’ve been cold. I should’ve been exhausted.
But there was no way in hell I was letting any of them win.
“Remember the stakes,” warned Carter. “Three wishes. No excuses, no going back on—”
“Yeah, yeah,” I interrupted him with a wink. “You’ll each owe me one, once we reach the lodge.”
“Or we’ll each get one,” Sawyer pointed out. He adjusted his goggles, then scratched at his sexily stubbled face. “That’s the bet we made. That’s the—”
“Ready set GO!”
I shoved off, then snapped my back foot into its binding as I pointed my snowboard down the hill.
I’d probably gotten a two second jump on them, but fair was fair.
It was three against one, and they’d been riding my ass all day.
One or two of them had even come close to beating me, that’s how tired I was.
Then again, I’d slept like a baby in Sawyer’s big, strong arms.
I’d expected a move. A kiss. A hot and heavy makeout session, nestled securely beneath the warm blankets of his soft bed. Instead, I’d woken to his hard body still draped protectively around me. We’d fallen asleep in exactly the same position. We hadn’t shifted an inch.
Well, that’s not entirely true.
I took the next series of moguls with a secret smile.
Something had definitely shifted a significant amount of inches during the night, because I’d woken up to Sawyer’s absolute railroad spike of a hard-on, pressing deep into the soft flesh of my rounded bottom.
He was still sleeping when I pulled back the covers and slipped quietly away, not wanting to wake him.
But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t squirm back against it for a minute or two, just for kicks.
“CHEATER!”
It was Sawyer’s voice that I was hearing now, somewhere over my shoulder, as I shredded the next turn in a fan of sleet and ice.
The slopes were packed down now, after thousands of runs.
The fresh powder had turned to fine granules of pure water crystals.
Everything was faster now, especially on the steeper slopes.
It made speeds like this much more dangerous.
Breakfast had been a feast of butter-soaked carbohydrates and crispy bacon, as well as a whole ocean of coffee.
I’d endured sideways looks from Carter and Bodie, who seemed none too happy that I hadn’t slept in my room.
I wondered how much of that was directed at me, for having ditched my bed, or at Sawyer for having broken some secret ‘hands off the new girl’ pact.
Either way, I could only shrug and keep eating.
And now here I was, empty again. Running on pure adrenaline, as I raced to the bottom of the mountain, and sweet victory.
The bet had been Carter’s idea. He’d suggested some kind of stakes if one of them were able to beat me today, and I’d readily accepted.
Only we had no idea what to bet. That is, until Sawyer suggested that the loser grants the winner’s wish.
“But it’s three on one,” I’d told them. “Those stakes don’t add up.”
“Fine,” Sawyer had said, with a shrug of his sculpted shoulders. “If you win, you get three wishes, then.”
That had sealed the deal for me, especially because I was feeling good. I’d rented a board I’d used a thousand times before. My boots fit snugly, my bindings were perfect. The wind was at my back. The mountain was glass. Everything was exactly as it should be, except…
As I skidded to a stop at the base of the mountain, my mouth dropped open in shock.
“HOW!?”
Bodie was there, arms folded, ski poles already stuck in the snow. Shit, he wasn’t even breathing heavy.
“But you never passed me!” I cried.
He laughed. “Nope.”
My eyes narrowed, skeptically. “You took a different route down, didn’t you?”
“Sure did. Hayburner to Candy Side. Less moguls. More speed.”
“That’s cheating,” I grumbled.
“I beg to differ,” Bodie replied calmly. “The bet was ‘first one to the base of the mountain.’” Pulling his gloves off, he flashed me his dimpled, ladykiller smile and shrugged. “I’m first.”
I wasn’t sure whether to hate him for winning, or admire his out of the box thinking. But the longer I looked at him, the less angry I was.
“Shit,” I conceded with a grunt. “I had my wishes all picked out, too.”
Bodie’s grin widened. “Lucky for you, the others are sweet on you.”
“Meaning?”
He shrugged. “Play your cards right, and maybe you’ll get one or two of them anyway.”
I shook my head at the thought, and swallowed my pride.
“And what about you?” I asked, my pulse quickening a little.
His handsome, Superman-like expression was all innocence. “What about me?”
“Are you sweet on me, too?”
Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out his glasses and slipped them on. In his best Clark Kent voice, he fumbled:
“Oh, I don’t know, Lois. Am I?”
Just then the others skidded up, spraying snow everywhere. Sawyer looked furious. Carter, on the other hand, noticed I still had my gloves on… and Bodie did not.
“You beat her!?” he noted, excitedly.
“By at least half a minute,” Bodie preened.
His look dared me to call him out for cheating. My return glance laughed at him for even considering it.
“He wins,” I sighed, stepping out of my bindings. “So I guess, you all win.”
Sawyer clapped his hands together. “Good shit!”
The wind swirled, sending a fresh spray of snow and ice crashing against our faces. It was past dusk now, and getting dark. The lift lines were empty, except for a few stragglers trying to eke out one last run.
“We’ll settle up at the house,” said Carter, gazing into the sky. “Once we grab some food, and get the fire going again.”
My stomach growled. A warm feeling stole over me at the very idea, as the boys stepped out of their skis, picked up my board, and began stomping back to the lodge. I couldn’t help but notice they looked even more beautiful; in the day’s dying light.
And that’s when I realized — wounded pride aside — that granting a trio of wishes to three hot guys might not be such a bad deal after all.