Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Kristoffer
The next morning at breakfast, I couldn’t stop my leg from bouncing under the table.
I’d quietly slipped out of Little Red’s room in the wee hours of the morning before anyone else woke up.
But I didn’t go back to my room. Instead, I went to the gym, worked out and swam laps and after my final lap, I looked up and saw David and his surprise looking down at me.
I was instantly aggravated and had to do twenty-five more laps before I could relax my jaw again.
David and I had argued when Charlotte took Emily into the ornament shop the previous night.
I should have told him the truth then, but I couldn’t.
Instead, when he’d asked me for one good reason why he shouldn’t surprise Emily, I’d clamped my mouth shut.
I couldn’t give him one. Not without breaking Emily’s confidence and outing us, and not without causing a rift in the middle of my best friend’s wedding festivities.
Fuck. I was brooding. I was so much more infatuated with Emily than I thought since our night together, and she was about to spend the rest of David and Charlotte’s wedding festivities with someone else – someone who deserved a fist to the mouth.
Infatuation. My inner voice snorted at the word. Dude, you’re head over fucking heels.
I scrubbed my hands over my face. If I’d only sent Emily home alone in a cab that first night, I’d be fine.
But no, my dick had to get involved and now, my fucking heart decided it was suddenly capable of being in charge after being on the bench for forty-five years.
I picked up my coffee cup and waved it impatiently at our waitress across the room.
She scrambled when she saw me, and I knew I was being an asshole boss scaring her.
But dammit, I needed a refill. Actually, what I needed was some fucking scotch and a time machine.
But even on our first night together, I knew I felt something with her I hadn’t felt with anyone else.
I just talked myself into thinking I’d imagined it.
But after spending these last few days with her…
the doubt was gone. She was still being cautious though, and I was okay with that.
She’d just had her confidence shaken, if not her heart a little broken.
But I knew, one hundred percent, I wanted more with Emily, a lot more.
Not just some hot fling like she seemed to suspect.
I had been willing to let her come to her own conclusion about us, at least until—
“Hey, buddy, how’s it going?” Lucas asked, slapping me on the back. I ground my teeth.
I wasn’t afraid of a little competition, no, that wasn’t the problem.
It was Lucas himself that was the issue.
On the outside he was perfect for Emily.
He was in his early thirties, a pro golfer, charming, handsome, and rich.
Not stupid rich, like me, but rich enough to give Emily a very comfortable life.
But on the inside, he was exactly what Emily thought I was — a player.
A twisted fuck that got off on using naive woman who were looking for love.
And when that game wasn’t enough of a thrill, he fucked his friends’ girlfriends behind their backs.
“You’re not still mad about Clara, are you?” Lucas asked as he sat down beside me.
My jaw cracked with the pressure so I eased off the tension and picked up my orange juice to take a drink.
“You didn’t want her anyway. She was a nice piece, but there was no future there for you two.
I did you a favor, buddy. And she came to me.
Told me she was waiting for you to pop the question, asked me if I ever thought you would.
” He held up a hand. “I set her straight.” He grinned then. “And then I consoled her.”
“Do David a favor and crawl back under whatever whore you came out from under.”
“Buddy,” he said elongating the U. “You weren’t interested in anything beyond a mutually beneficial sexual relationship. And we both know it.”
His laugh grated on me, and I fisted the hand that sat on my knee beneath the table. We’d always had this friendly rivalry thing, but until recently I thought it was only with athletics and bank accounts. Apparently, I was wrong.
“Move along.”
“Pardon?”
“Fucking move along to the other side of the table before I make a scene and tell our friend what an absolute dickhead you are.”
Lucas had the nerve to snicker at my words making my gut boil. “Go ahead and I’ll tell him you’ve been fucking his sister.”
My eyes snapped to his.
“Yeah, couldn’t get a room at your hotel so David told me to sleep on the couch last night.”
My heart pounded. “I saw you and Emily come in last night. I might have taken a tour of the chalet a little later and heard some interesting things.” He shrugged. “She sounded into it, bro. Way more than ever Clara was.”
I shot to my feet knocking my orange juice glass over. “I need to see to something,” I blurted, but just as I turned to leave, I saw two things. Charlotte trying to catch my eye and Emily walking in.
“Emily!” David stood then as well. “Come here.” He waved her over.
“You okay?” Emily whispered as we crossed paths. “You look like you’re ready to strangle someone. It’s not a wedding issue, is it?” She suddenly looked worried.
“I’m fine,” I replied, and forced myself to relax and give her a smile. “Just have to check something. I’ll be right back. Then we need to talk, okay. Promise we’ll talk after breakfast.”
“Yeah, okay, I actually wanted to talk to you as well.”
I nodded, giving her arm a squeeze and watched her walk to our table, growling under my breath as Lucas’s eyes roamed over her. I suddenly couldn’t walk away and leave her alone with him, so I aborted my fake mission and walked back to the table.
“Lucas, this is my baby sister, Emily! Memmy, let me introduce you to your surprise!” David threw an arm around Lucas’s shoulder. “Your date, and my close friend, Lucas Wise.”
Lucas’s eyes found mine and his grin widened. My gut churned. It was a disgusting leer disguised as a smile and I knew it.
Little Red searched the table as if trying to assess if the turn of events was a prank.
When her eyes landed on mine, I noted they seemed to question if this was what I’d wanted to talk to her about, but before I could give her any indication, she turned to look at her brother and the attractive man under his arm.
The chatter around the table that was going strong only moments ago all but died in an instant. Madeline’s head snapped toward her brother and her eyes shuttered. When they opened again, the shock they held turned to annoyance. Maybe she’d be an ally, I thought, as if this were a war.
“Excuse me?” Little Red, squeaked. “My what?”
“Yeah, David, her what?” Madeline demanded.
He looked between his two sisters, and his expression was clueless. The dumbass had no idea why this was a bad idea. I groaned inwardly. How could a man be so clueless?
“This was the surprise?” Charlotte whispered. “Oh, David, you should have checked with me.”
“What?” he asked, still looking confused.
But Lucas didn’t read the room and closed the gap between him and Emily and tugged her into a tight hug.
“Oh. Uh. Hi.” Her face reddened and my jaw shifted.
“I’m a lucky guy if you’re my date.”
“Uh, I… had no idea.”
Tell him, Little Red, tell him you’re already with me, I prompted with only my eyes. She did look at me again, but not long enough to get my message apparently, because when Lucas pulled out one of the two free chairs next to each other, she sat. I growled under my breath.
“Excuse me, Kristoff,” Lucas said, using the name of that dude from the cartoon movie he loved to annoy me with. I never used to take the bait, but now it made me irate and if I knew the name of the asshole in the story, I’d call him that. That’s how fucking petty I was feeling.
“Kristoff?” Emily asked. “As in the guy from Frozen?” She glanced at me, then bit her bottom lip and I scowled.
“Lucas, meet my bride.”
“David, how come none of your friends have ever met Charlotte?” someone asked.
“Must not have wanted them to steal her away,” Lucas answered, and laughter rang out from around the table. I wasn’t laughing though. Neither was Madeline, Charlotte, or Emily.
“Real friends wouldn’t do that,” I said and stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I actually do have to check on a few things after all.”
Emily stood then too. “I need to send a few emails myself.”
“Emily, don’t be rude,” David scolded.
Madeline shushed him. “Leave her alone. You’re the one that caught her off guard here.”
I’d made it to my office door before Little Red caught up to me.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I said, not wanting to alert her to any issues between me and Lucas. “Just have a few things to deal with.”
She narrowed her eyes on me. “I thought you needed to talk to me.” She grabbed my wrist. “Are you jealous? Because I didn’t ask him to do this.”
“I’m not jealous,” I said, but it came out harsher than I intended. I softened my expression. “I know you didn’t ask him to set you up.”
“Well then what’s going on? And don’t deny there’s something going on.”
“That’s between Lucas and me. But, Little Red, I hope you know you have no obligation to either of us.” I saw the instant I said it; she took it wrong.
She huffed. “And before all this bullshit I was going to tell you I was ready to tell my brother and sister about us.”
“Emily, you misunderstood.”
“Last night meant something to me, Kristoffer. You meant something to me.” She spun on her heel and stormed from my office doorway. “But apparently it was one-sided.”
“Emily!”
I called after her, but she only held up a flatted hand and walked faster.
“Don’t follow me.”
Later, when everyone met up at the ski lift, Little Red looked less irritated with me, so I skied over to her. She was wearing the adorable toque she’d been wearing when we went skating and a puffy pink ski jacket with black ski pants.
“You look adorable. May I ride up with you? I want to apologize for earlier.” I thought she was going to say yes, but then her eyes went to something behind me.
“My date is riding with me. Sorry, dude,” Lucas said, butting in and throwing his arm around her shoulder.
I gritted my teeth. Especially because Emily didn’t seem to want his arm around her. I started to speak up for her when she gave me a look and stepped forward making his arm fall off her.
“Right,” I responded, hopefully sounding as civil as I intended.
Emily opened her mouth to say something, but Lucas guided her to the open lift chair, and they were gone.
“I don’t know why the girls are so pissed at me for setting her up,” David said as he skied up on me. “I did it for her own good. She can’t choose a decent guy to save her life.”
I shook my head, shooting him an exasperated look as I loaded myself on the next lift. “Must be genetic,” I mumbled and was swept off.
“What? You don’t like Charlotte?”
“No, you can’t choose a decent guy to save your life.”
He scratched his head through his toque, looking confused.
When I was near the top, I saw Lucas. He was hard to miss with his one-piece neon-green ski suit.
Pointing toward the double black diamond run, he stepped aside, and I saw Emily jabbing a backward thumb toward the green run.
It made sense she’d want to do a green run first even if she could handle the blue. She’d said it had been a while.
I cursed the slow lift as I watched Emily change to point toward the blue run as if she was negotiating, when Lucas began tugging on her arm.
Thankfully, she dug in her heels and ripped her arm out of his grasp.
Lucas shook his head and left her where she wobbled and fell on her ass.
I’d never been so relieved in my life as I hopped off the lift and skied toward her.
“Thank god!” I said sharply, startling her. “I thought he was going to drag you to the black diamond. Jesus, that would have been insane.”
“I handled it.”
I smiled. “Yes, you did.”
“I’m okay, Kristoffer, you don’t need to play papa bear and protect me from him. We had our fling, it was a great time, but it’s over and it doesn’t obligate you to be my bodyguard.”
“It wasn’t a fling. And I’m not playing papa bear; I’m playing Santa Daddy.” I looked to the top of the run he went down and frowned. “And he’s on my naughty list.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“I want more, Emily.”
“More?”
“Yes, as in let’s tell David and Madeline we’re together.”
“Am I still on your nice list?” The corner of her mouth crinkled.
“Always.” I held out my hand. “Let’s go skiing. We’ll go down whatever run you want.”
Her brows rose. “Even the double black diamond?”
“If you want… but if you make it to the bottom alive, I’m dragging you back to the chalet and spanking you for real for doing something dangerous because you do not have the skills for a black diamond, let alone a double black diamond.” I held up a finger. “Yet!”
She narrowed her eyes. “For real?”
“Yeah, as in, when my girlfriend does something dangerous, I don’t put up with it. I teach her with a real old-fashioned spanking that her safety is my number one priority.”
She grinned, her eyes lighting up as if I’d given her a diamond ring. “Girlfriend, huh?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Wait what did you mean by yet?”
“If you want to do double black diamond runs, I will spend as long as it takes teaching you to be confident on those.” I point at her booted feet.
“Really? You’d spend this trip teaching me?”
“This trip and ten others, yes.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “So, which one are we doing? Blue or green?”
“Green, then blue, and then whatever my Santa Daddy thinks. And after we’re exhausted and cold, I’m going to find my brother and sister and tell them about us.”
“Are you sure?”
“Are you sure about me being your girlfriend?”
“A hundred and fifty percent,” I replied confidently, and I meant it.
“Then yes. I’m sure.”