“I want you more than anything, Tory,” he growled as he placed slow, wet kisses down the column of my neck.

  Now was probably the time to tell him I’d never done this before, but I was worried he’d stop if he knew how inexperienced I was. “I’m right here, yours for the taking.”

  My words shredded whatever remained of his control, and he surged deep in one powerful thrust, his body going still when he was anchored deep inside. “Shit, baby. If I’d known you were a virgin, I would’ve been more careful.”

  A few tears spilled from my eyes and trailed down my cheeks as I breathed through the pain. When he realized I was crying, he kissed my tears away and murmured, “Shhh, baby. I’m so sorry.”

  When it started to feel better, I whispered, “I should’ve told you, but I didn’t want this to end.”

  “It’s okay.” He circled his hips, and I moaned in pleasure. “No way in hell am I going to stop unless you ask me to.”

  I did an experimental wiggle before wrapping my legs around his hips. “That’s not gonna happen.”

  “Good,” he grunted. “Because your virgin pussy is wrapped so damn tight around my cock that I’m almost ready to blow. But I don’t want to go without you.”

  He started at a slow pace, pumping his hips with shallow drives until my nails were digging into his shoulders. I had gotten wet enough that it was easier for him to drive in and out of me, the cot trembling beneath us with the force of his thrusts. The pleasure he was building in me was bigger than anything I’d ever felt before, my body bowing off the mattress while I held his muscular body.

  “That’s it, baby. Come for me. Give me another one so I can fill you with my come.”

  Between his raspy command, his thumb circling my clit, and the hammering of his cock in and out of my body, I flew apart. “Yes! Oh, yes, Gavin!”

  He thrust into me a few more times, and then his body stiffened above mine as he groaned in my ear while come jetted from his dick and filled me to overflowing. When he was done, he flipped our positions, so I was sprawled on top of his chest. We stayed wrapped around each other, and I wanted our time together to last forever. But sometime soon, our snow-cased bubble was going to burst, and we’d have to return to reality.

  Chapter 6

  Gavin

  With Tory’s naked body pressed against mine, I was in no rush to go anywhere. But duty called, and I couldn’t ignore my responsibilities since people’s lives depended on me doing my job. I’d been lucky to get eighty hours with her all to myself, the past fifty-five spent almost exclusively in bed together exploring each other’s bodies and talking about our lives. “I’d love nothing more than to stay shacked up here with you.”

  “Oh, my gosh. That’s hilarious,” she gasped, her laughter filling the air. “Shacked up in a shack, get it?”

  “Yeah, baby. I get it.” I chuckled and brushed a kiss against the top of her head. I’d never grow tired of the sound of her happiness. I loved how she found humor in the smallest things.

  Keeping one arm around Tory, I reached out for my cell phone with the other. When I pulled up the weather radar app, I saw that the worst of the storm had passed. “I need to radio the lodge and get someone to come up the mountain to help shovel us out. Now that the winds have died down, the snowfall is light, and visibility is back to normal, guests are going to be chomping at the bit to hit the slopes again in the morning. But the lack of groomed runs will increase the odds of injuries.”

  “I guess I can’t complain too much. I figured our little bubble was going to burst much sooner than this.” She sighed and rubbed her cheek against my chest. “It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced a winter storm like this. I forgot how long they could last.”

  “There was nothing normal about this storm. Most blizzards are over in four to ten hours.” I captured her mouth in a deep kiss, thankful that this one had gone on a lot longer than that.

  She climbed off the cot and padded across the floor to grab her T-shirt from the back of a chair. “Then I guess we got lucky, huh?”

  “Damn fortunate,” I agreed with a grin before I got up to grab my two-way radio. I clicked the push-to-talk button to call for help.

  Jack was the one who picked up, “Damn, boss. I was starting to wonder if you had too much fun over the holiday and weren’t going to make it in today. Did your mom forget to tell you she spiked the eggnog? That shit will give you a killer hangover that can last a few days.”

  I met Tory’s gaze and shook my head. “Nah, I never made it off the mountain on Christmas Eve.”

  The teasing note was gone from Jack’s voice when he replied, “Wait, you mean you’ve been stuck up there all this time?”

  “Yeah,” I confirmed.

  “Dude, you should’ve radioed for help way before now,” he chided. “Levi could’ve easily skied in to get you.”

  Levi was a ski instructor at the resort and lived in a cabin near the lodge. “It was Christmas. I didn’t want to bother him.”

  “You didn’t want to bother him for three days?” Jack sputtered, making Tory giggle. “Hold up, do you have a woman there with you?”

  I heaved a deep sigh, knowing full well how much shit he was about to shovel my way. “Yeah.”

  “Is she the one you let use the ski patrol cabin?”

  Tory grinned at his question, and I shook my head. “Yeah, man. Good job letting her know I was talking about her enough that you remembered her.”

  “Oops.” I could practically hear his grin. “And now I understand why you didn’t want to bother anyone until now. Which warming shack did you end up at?”

  “The one closest to Scrooge.”

  “Ten-four. We’ll be there in a jiffy,” he confirmed before clicking off his push-to-talk button.

  “So, you talked to the guys about me, huh?” she asked, twining her arms around my neck.

  “Maybe a few times,” I conceded with a brush of my lips over hers.

  “I like that. A lot.”

  Any embarrassment I felt disappeared after her confession. “Okay, it was way more than a few times.”

  She winked at me. “If I’d been on speaking terms with Stephanie, I’m sure I would have talked her ear off about you, too.”

  “We better get moving.” I swatted her ass, which was currently only covered in her panties since her shirt didn’t reach that far. “The guys will haul ass up here, and I don’t want any of them to see your perfect, naked body.”

  Her gaze darted over to the cot, and her cheeks filled with heat. “I better do a little cleaning up then, too.”

  By the time three of the guys showed up to start shoveling us out, she had the inside of the cabin looking almost as good as it did when I first got here. Normally, I got pissed if anyone left a mess behind in one of the shacks, but I was sad to see the proof of our time spent together erased. I was nowhere ready for it to come to an end.

  “Want to shred the gnar with me after we get out of here?” It was great to be able to use ski lingo with Tory without needing to worry that she didn’t understand what I was saying.

  “But the slopes aren’t open yet, right?”

  I pointed at the white cross on my red jacket. “One of the biggest perks of being on ski patrol is the chance to get freshies in the morning, especially after the mountain gets dumped on overnight.”

  “Count me in,” she readily agreed.

  It didn’t take long for the snow to disappear from the doorway, and I reluctantly introduced her to the guys I worked with. They quickly got the hint and took off to check the other warming shacks, leaving me free to ski down the mountain with Tory.

  Some of the guys on ski patrol had a revolving door to their bedroom for guests at the resort, but I couldn’t remember the last time I had been with a woman before her. And I’d never taken a date on the slopes—skiing was too important to me. But I loved chasing Tory down the black diamond run. Watching her carve a line added to my joy of hitting fresh powder.

  “You’re one hell of a ski bunny.” She lifted her goggles and quirked a brow, tilting her head to the side, and I realized that I’d just put my foot in my mouth with that one. “I did not mean that how it sounded.”

  “Uh-huh.” She set her poles in the rack near the entrance to the lodge and then rotated her right heel to take her boot out of her plank before doing the same with the other foot.

  I mirrored her actions. “No, really. Around here, when we use the term ‘ski bunny,’ we mean—”

  “An attractive female skier,” she finished for me with a laugh.

  I tugged her against my chest and mock-glared. “That was mean.”

  She tapped her index finger against her chin. “I don’t think I’ve ever been accused of being mean before, except all the way back in elementary school.”

  “It must be my influence.” I flashed her a satisfied grin. “I bring the sass out of you.”

  “Probably because you need some sassiness to keep you in line,” she teased.

  She was practically glowing with joy. “Bring it on, baby. I’m happy to handle whatever you want to toss my way.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  I didn’t want our time together to come to an end, but I was going to have my hands full for the next long while. “Want to come hang out in my office while I check in with my team and start getting crews out to groom the runs and dig out the lifts?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Her answer was exactly what I wanted to hear.

  Chapter 7

  Tory

  After spending three and a half days with Gavin, Stephanie was the last thing on my mind as we walked into the lodge. My happiness with him overshadowed how angry I had been with her. A dozen mind-blowing orgasms apparently did amazing things for your perspective on life. Gavin had left me too blissed out to do anything but grin when I spotted her on the other side of the lobby, but my smile faded when she glared at me as she stomped over.

  My karma was a confusing paradox. On the one hand, I must’ve done something awesome to have the good fortune of being stranded with Gavin during the blizzard. My time with him had been the best of my life, and I didn’t have a single regret...except that it was quickly coming to an end. Conversely, I also apparently couldn’t venture out of the cabin without bumping into the one person I had no desire to see.

  “Incoming,” Gavin murmured, wrapping his arm around my back.

  I heaved a deep sigh. “I know.”

  “Maybe she’s pissed because she didn’t hear from you during the blizzard and has been worried about you?”

  I loved how he tried to make me feel better, but I doubted that Stephanie had thought about my safety during the storm. Out of sight was out of mind with her, as she proved by not calling me at all during our first two days in Winter Falls.

  Curiosity gleamed from her eyes as her gaze bounced back and forth between Gavin and me. “Where have you been?”

  A kernel of hope that Gavin had been right about her being worried took root inside me. “I got stuck on the mountain after I went night skiing the last time I saw you.”

  “Oh.” She glanced at the cross on the upper right chest of Gavin’s jacket and nodded. “You had to be rescued. That sucks.”

  “Not exactly.” I was hesitant to give her any details about my time with Gavin. Not only had she destroyed my trust in her—and her reaction to my “rescue” was underwhelming, to say the least—but I was also feeling selfish about my newly discovered happiness. The time I’d spent with Gavin in the warming shack belonged to just the two of us, and I wasn’t looking forward to sharing him with other people after having him all to myself.

  Apparently, I was overthinking the whole thing because Stephanie barely blinked at my lack of answer before she shifted gears. “I thought maybe you were ducking my calls. The cell lines were down, but I tried calling the cabin you’re staying in since the landlines were the only thing working until this morning.”

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and showed her the black screen. “I forgot to power down my cell, and the battery was drained after the first day. So, I couldn’t have answered even if it was working.”

  “Huh.” Her nose scrunched. “That isn’t like you at all. You normally treat your cell as though it’s another limb or something.”

  Her words landed like a blow to my chest, proving how little she paid attention to what was happening in my life. Nine months ago, she would’ve been right, but I’d barely used my cell since my dad died. It wasn’t as though I got a ton of calls or anything. Juggling the rigors of my doctorate program and my mom’s disease hadn’t made it easy for me to maintain friendships over the past few years. Stephanie and I lived together and still didn’t spend a lot of time hanging out. That was another reason I’d been looking forward to this trip—the opportunity for us to reconnect as friends.

  Gavin’s arm tightened around me. “How did you get the number to the cabin?”

  “The front desk gave it to me.”

  He shook his head. “Try again. We don’t give out phone numbers to guest rooms, let alone the cabins our staff uses. That’s a complete violation of the resort’s security protocols.”

  “Yeah, well, it took asking a few times before they finally caved, which was completely ridiculous,” she huffed, pointing between her and me. “It’s not as though they can’t see that we know each other since the reservation for my room has both our names on it. But they still turned my question into a whole thing.”

  I heaved a deep sigh and leaned into Gavin’s side. “So, you pestered the poor front desk staff in the middle of a blizzard until someone finally caved.”

  “I needed to talk to you before we check out of the lodge,” she retorted, crossing her arms over her chest in a defensive gesture.

  I hated the reminder that I was scheduled to fly out in about twenty-four hours, so my tone was snappish as I asked, “Really? Why?”

  She looked at me as though she thought her answer was obvious. “Because you never gave the front desk your credit card.”

  I squinted at her, unsure why she was bringing this up. “Yeah, because I’m not staying at the inn. Gavin is letting me use the snow patrol’s cabin, remember? There’s no reason for me to give anyone my credit card information, except maybe him.”

  “No way in hell am I taking your money, baby,” he murmured, giving me a little squeeze.

  Stephanie didn’t have the same qualms. “You were supposed to pay for half of our room.”

  “And I would have, if I had actually stayed in it,” I drawled, speaking slowly to emphasize how ridiculous I found this conversation. “But you wanted to room with Brad instead. You don’t have to be a math major to do the math on this one—there are two of you, so you can split the cost of the room in half, just like we were going to do.”

  “We are,” she huffed, planting her fists on her hips.

  I was getting even more confused, which was saying a lot since she’d already lost me when she first brought up the subject of my credit card information. “If you’re all set for the cost of what was supposed to be our room, I don’t understand why you’re asking me about this.”

  “Because of Chuck. He was expecting that Brad would pay for half of his room, and he can’t really afford the whole tab all by himself. It isn’t fair of you to bail on us and leave him with a hotel bill that’s twice as much as he was expecting,” she ranted.

  “Wait a second.” I held my hand up, my palm facing her. “Are you trying to ask me for a thousand bucks to pay for half of a room I didn’t stay in because I wasn’t comfortable sleeping with some random guy?”

  “Oh, please.” She rolled her eyes again, her reaction pissing me off even more. “Nobody said anything about you sleeping with Chuck. The room has double beds, and it isn’t as though you have a boyfriend who’d get mad about you bunking with another guy.”

  “Except she does have one now.” Gavin brushed a kiss against my temple. “And I’m not the kind of guy who would force her to choose what I want over the safety of one of her friends. It’s too bad you can’t say the same when it comes to your boyfriend.”

  Stephanie’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “That’s not what happened at all. Chuck is Brad’s best friend. He’d never do anything to hurt Tory.”

  Feeling the tension in Gavin’s muscular body, I slid my hand down his back and tucked it into the back pocket of his ski pants to give his butt a little squeeze. “Relax, babe. I’m fine, and this mess turned out to be a blessing in disguise.”

  “Wait. Are you guys for real?” Her gaze bounced between Gavin and me. “This isn’t like...a holiday fling? Or a way for you to yank my chain because of what I said about you never having a boyfriend before?”

  If I hadn’t already told Gavin about my lack of a dating life, I would’ve been embarrassed by her blurting that information out like that. Shaking my head, I murmured, “Not cool, Stephanie.”

  “What?” She pasted a phony innocent expression on her face. “It’s the truth.”

  “I’m not put off by the fact that I’m the first guy who caught Tory’s attention.” His lips curved into a smug grin. “In fact, I’m fucking thrilled that she’s all mine, and I intend to keep it that way. Some people just get lucky the first time around, I guess.”

  Stephanie’s head jerked back in surprise, and her cheeks filled with a pink flush. I had to stifle a not-so-nice laugh. The same couldn’t be said for her and Brad since they’d broken up and got back together more times than I could count, which was saying a lot since math was my thing. “What’s happening between Gavin and me is none of your business.”

  “But I’m your best friend,” she sputtered.