Chapter 5 #3
“Whose house is that?” She pointed, and he could hear the awe in her voice. His house was a large two-story with a wraparound porch and huge windows. The rock exterior and massive wooden beams made it fit in perfectly with the beautiful valley.
“It’s mine.” He waited, hoping she would ask for a tour.
“Wow, that looks incredible,” was all she said.
Gavin waited a couple more beats, but he wasn’t brave enough to push her to go check out his house, and he didn’t want to be some peacock strutting off his stuff.
He turned the Lexus and headed back down out of the valley.
The air in the car crackled with the tension rising between them.
He liked her. He could admit to that much.
Would it be out of line to not only walk her to her room, but ask her to go out tomorrow, and then lean in for a kiss?
His neck was so hot he had to rub it and take slow breaths to try to calm down.
They quickly made it to the lodge. He rushed around to get her door, and she thanked him. “I’ll walk you to your room,” he said. They walked side by side into the lodge, and for some reason, he felt the stupid need to clarify why he was walking her to her room. “To get my poles.”
“Thanks,” she murmured.
He greeted the night receptionist, Janson, and they headed to the elevator.
“Do you know all of your employees’ names?” Kari asked.
“I try to.”
“That’s great,” she said.
“Thanks.”
They got into the elevator, and the very air felt charged.
Gavin wished he dared take her hand in his like he had at dinner, but he didn’t.
He risked a glance at her, and she was looking at him.
She smiled, an almost shy and much too appealing smile.
He had visions of him pinning her against the elevator wall and kissing her until someone interrupted them.
Instead, he clenched his jaw and focused on the doors in front of him.
They got to the fifth floor and walked toward 506.
The first and second floors were all open spaces: a few offices, conference rooms, and the restaurant.
The third and fourth floors were standard hotel rooms. The fifth and sixth floors were suites.
The sixth-floor suites were two stories and incredibly nice.
The fifth-floor suites were still nice, but they weren’t as big and were more moderately priced.
As Kari used her key card and swung open the door, Gavin caught it.
He wanted so badly to walk in with her, stay for a few minutes or hours, but he didn’t want to overstep any bounds.
“I’ll wait here,” he said.
“Okay.” Was he crazy thinking her voice was full of disappointment?
He watched her walk into the bedroom portion of the suite and could see that her bed was turned down with chocolates and a towel shaped like an elephant on it. The fireplace was also on, casting the room in low lighting. Good, his maid service was doing their job.
He couldn’t peel his eyes from Kari as she walked back toward him, holding his poles. She handed them over.
“Thank you,” he murmured.
“Thank you,” she said. “I had a great day with you and Austin.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“I’m glad.” He met her gaze, and the longing in her blue eyes sent adrenaline pumping through his veins.
He wanted to drop the poles and rush into her room, sweep her off her feet, and see if kissing her was anything like he was dreaming about.
After eleven years without dating or kissing a woman, he’d convinced himself that he didn’t care, he only wanted to be with Austin and raise him right, and Janielle had ruined him for another relationship.
But he didn’t think any of that was true at this moment.
“What are your plans for tomorrow?” he heard himself ask.
Her blue eyes lit up as she lifted her shoulders. “I thought I’d ski every day, but it uses different muscles than running.” She grimaced. “I’m sore.”
He smiled at that and had a great idea. “I’ll book you a massage and some time in the therapy pools at the spa in the morning.”
Her face registered a pleased surprise. “Thank you. I’d love that.”
“Austin has early out Friday. Would you want to go ice skating with us in the afternoon?” He wanted to throw in dinner Friday night, but he didn’t know if he was that brave.
Would he dare ask Mama if Austin could stay with her and Papa?
What would it be like to take Kari on a real date?
Would he even be able to keep up his end of the conversation without Austin there?
He talked to people professionally all the time, but a date? He was suddenly sweating.
“I would love to learn to ice-skate,” she said. “At the arena in Vail?”
“We actually have a lake up behind my house. It’s about a two-mile hike.”
“Oh, yes, please. I ran on the treadmill this morning at the gym because it was too cold to go outside. I’d love an afternoon hike in the mountains.”
“Perfect.” He didn’t mind all this smiling, but his cheeks were sore from the overuse.
He regularly smiled at Austin, but that was more a smile of “my kid is so cute.” This was a shared smile with an incredible woman.
“If I come get you about one-thirty tomorrow, you could ride with me to pick up Austin and we can tell him the plan. He’d love that. ”
“Perfect,” she repeated, grinning at him. “You’re sure you’re okay teaching me to ice-skate? I feel bad you keep teaching me everything.”
“I don’t.” It wasn’t some eloquent line, but it was said in a husky enough voice that she seemed to get the message. Gavin stood there, smiling like an idiot. He should’ve backed up and walked away. He didn’t move.
Kari crossed the distance between them and flung her arms around his neck, pressing herself against him.
Gavin grunted in surprise and didn’t respond for half a beat.
The feeling of her close was so incredible, exhilarating, and exciting, he didn’t know enough cheesy words to describe it, but it felt great.
Kari started to pull back, and fear of losing this feeling—or worse, of losing her—spurred him to act.
He dropped the poles and quickly wrapped his arms around her lower back as if grasping a lifeline.
He pulled her in tight against his chest.
Kari let out a satisfied sigh and cuddled into him.
Her head nestled perfectly in the crook of his neck, and he inhaled her sweet, musky perfume as her silky hair tickled his cheek.
Warmth, satisfaction, desire, and contentment all filled him.
Heaven. That’s what this was. Who knew? Apparently, his brothers, Trey, Jed, and all the other men who had found their match.
Nobody had ever told him, not that he’d asked.
Truly, if any of his friends or brothers had described this to him, he would’ve begged them to stop talking.
Had he found his match? Reality washed over Gavin like he’d been dumped in the freezing lake behind his house in the springtime. He wasn’t trying to find his match, no matter how amazing Kari was. She was leaving on Monday. He released her, stepped back, and cleared his throat. “See you tomorrow.”
Kari gave him a soft smile, but he could see in her eyes that she hadn’t wanted him to pull away.
He hadn’t wanted to either, but he had to be rational.
He grabbed his poles, pivoted, and strode for the stairs.
Waiting for the elevator wasn’t smart right now; any pause would give him a chance to change his mind, and he’d be sprinting back to her room.
He’d see her tomorrow, ice skating with Austin.
That would be fun, giving the guest a wintertime experience.
That was all. He planned in his mind the spa treatments he would set up for her in the morning and the amazing therapy pools that would probably be vacant before the weekend crowd arrived that afternoon, but stray thoughts were pelting him.
See her in the afternoon to pick Austin up from school?
Not if this crazy part of him who craved more time with her didn’t shut up.
He pounded down the stairs and through the lobby, muttered goodbye to Janson, and finally emerged into the crisp, cold air.
He needed to get home, needed to be with Austin, needed to remember his purpose in life.
That gorgeous romance writer was messing with his head.
He didn’t sense any guile in her, but he hadn’t sensed any in Janielle before the night he’d told her he was going to Texas A&M on a football scholarship and detailed his plans of working hard until he got an NFL offer.
She’d worked on him from that night on, and admittedly, it hadn’t been too difficult for her to get him in a compromising situation and take things much too far.
He’d deluded himself that they’d get married and live happily ever after.
She’d disappeared for a better offer, and with his limited funds and experience as a high school senior, he hadn’t been able to find her.
Luckily, Mama had found and rescued Austin weeks after he was born.
Gavin passed a hand over his face. He’d been young and dumb then. He was not young now, but maybe he was still dumb. He hadn’t been able to resist Janielle and see that she was only after the highest bidder. Could he resist Kari?