“Don’t worry.” He grinned at Connor. “I have both radio and cell with me and the clinic doesn’t open for an hour.”
“Good.” Connor nodded. “You’re going to love what he’s set up in there NV. Have a good session.”
Savannah looked from Nicoletta’s burning face to Austin’s grinning one, her own face impassive. “Nice to meet you Nicoletta.”
Nicoletta forced another smile and walked with Austin out of the Lodge.
“How did you know I was going to see the new training center?” she asked as he released her to shove his hands into the pockets of his thick jacket.
“You’re an athlete. Figured it’d be the first thing you thought of when you woke this morning.” He eyed her speculatively. “And now you’re blushing even more.”
She was blushing because that so wasn’t the first thing she’d thought of and he damn well knew it. “I was embarrassed meeting Savannah. I don’t usually spy on people having sex,” she muttered. But that wasn’t the real reason for the blush either. It was all Austin.
“You could hardly see anything through that gap in the curtains anyway.”
Uh, she could see enough. “What does she do in Summerhill?”
“Works in a bar in the village.” Austin walked alongside her. “Connor wants her to work at the Lodge. They’re still negotiating. You still jealous?”
“Not of her specifically, no. I already explained that.” She breathed in the crisp air, but her face still felt like she could fry an egg on it.
They walked for a few minutes along the tree lined curving path that led from the magnificent Lodge to the town. It was a two minute ride in a truck, less than a ten minute walk. She needed the walk badly.
“So. New coach, huh? Why aren’t you in Europe getting on with it already?”
“She trusts me to begin prep on my own.” She still had a fortnight until she was into it properly—and she’d wanted these last two weeks to do her own thing.
“And where are your parents?”
She stiffened. “They’re in New Zealand, moved there permanently. They’re setting up an Academy in Queenstown.”
He nodded. “And that’s good?”
“Dad’s been my coach for most of my life. Now he can just be my father. And mom can just be mom.”
“I imagine that transition might have its challenges.” He glanced at her. “Big changes for everyone.”
“And that’s why they’re in Queenstown and I’m here.” She forced a smile. “I’m twenty-four years old Austin. Not a spoilt child anymore. I don’t need a chaperone.” She didn’t need to be told what to do. Not by her marketing manager mother or her ski coach father. For so long she’d been so ready to do whatever they’d said. But after the Brandon mess… it had been beyond time to break out. She might not know what she did want—but she knew what she didn’t.
“And now you’re drinking tequila and asking a man you don’t even like for sex. Because that’s very adult.”
“I never said I didn’t like you.”
“Yet you once screamed at me not to touch you.”
“I didn’t want you to touch me like that.” She glared at him. “And now you know why.”
“You waited almost a year to let me know that.”
“I have a very busy schedule.” She glanced away. The sky was lightening, bringing the spectacular scenery into view. “Maybe I haven’t handled a few things very well.”
“What do you want from me Nicoletta?” he asked bluntly.
“You know.”
“If I knew I wouldn’t be asking.”
That’s when her courage failed her.
She’d thought she could forget about him. That once he was out of her life—no longer in the squad and she no longer had to see him every day—that she’d get over it. A crush, right? Just lust. Hormones.
Trouble was it was more than hormones. She’d liked him. She’d liked the way he made everyone laugh. He put everyone at ease, diffused tensions with quick wit and that hint of wickedness in his smile. She saw the focus he had for his patients. The time he took with them and the determination to help his athletes perform to their very best.
But he’d looked right through her. He’d not seen her as anything but a prospective patient. And that had pissed her off. It wasn’t what she’d wanted from him at all.
She’d been warned he wasn’t up for any fooling around. He’d come from the juniors team and the younger ones there had said he flatly refused any advances. Damn good thing as most of those girls were under age. But she’d been arrogant enough to think she’d catch his eye. She was NV—used to being looked at. To people wanting something from her.
And she’d never felt want the way she did when she first met him. She’d ended it with Brandon within days of Austin’s arrival—only Brandon had needed to push back that public announcement until after his latest film release. And she’d agreed.
But Austin was the one thing she couldn’t have. Not in that situation. So she’d ended the situation. She just hadn’t realized the full ramifications of her refusal to work with him.
“I’m sorry about what happened last year,” she said gruffly. “I had no idea what it would mean when I refused to have you as my doctor.”
Austin didn’t look mollified. “So now you’re offering me your body in penance?”
Yeah, because one look across the bar was all it had taken to take her right back to Crush Street. But now she glared at him. He was clearly still pissed with her. Well she was still pissed with him for walking away from her last night. Right at the moment when she’d realized he did want her.
“Cat got your tongue?” he drawled, all sarcastic edge.
She stepped up to the challenge. “Alright Austin. It’s the morning. I’m sober. My tongue wants to lick, not talk. I still want to have sex with you.” She winced at her tone—so bald and unsexy and that bit broken.
For a second he just stared at her in silence. Then he huffed out a pained breath. “And we both have to go to work.”
“Not for another ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes?” He muttered something unintelligible.
“I don’t have time for a relationship. I spend most of the year on the road. I can’t get distracted.” That was the bottom line.
His eyes narrowed. “I never mentioned the word relationship.”
“Good,” she snapped awkwardly. “And I don’t want anyone to know about this.”
“Why?”
“They’ll make it a big deal.” She needed to keep it close. Precious. Not something for everyone to gossip about and tear apart.
“And it’s not?”
“It’s just sex. Right?” She glanced away from him. It had to be because it was all she could have at this stage in her life. “The modeling thing has gotten out of hand. The media interest that comes with it is too much. I’ve shut down all my social media accounts. I don’t want this tangled up in all that noise.”
“So we’ll stay secret to satisfy the sponsors. Got it,” he said bluntly.
It wasn’t about sponsors. It was about her privacy. About not having every aspect of herself available for public speculation and consumption.
He tilted her chin so she was forced to look up at him. “Any other rules you got?” he asked softly.
She shook her head and swallowed back her growing apprehension at the coldness of this ‘negotiation’. This wasn’t anything like what she’d expected. She had no freaking idea what she’d thought would happen when she saw him again but she’d hoped for more than this. She wanted more of that hot, outrageousness like his ice-cube action of last night.
“I’ve got some rules,” he said low and rough. “I got plenty of rules for you.”
“Oh?” She eyed him warily.
“You come every time. You scream my name every time.”
Shock hit her. Then a wave of heat. “Your ego needs that?”
“Yes,” he nodded somberly. “It does. And you tell me exactly
what you want in the dirtiest way you can think of.” He leaned closer, spoke quieter, but looked all the more dangerously wicked. “Then I’ll fuck you till you can’t take it any more. Not just the once, Nicoletta. This is no lame one night stand. Certainly not ten fucking minutes. This is days. The whole two weeks you’re in this town. We’re at it every which way, every night, until you can no longer stand upright on your damn skis and you’ll be leaving here for a month long holiday.”
Nicoletta struggled to breathe. That’s what she wanted. His recognition of this intense sexual attraction. That it was as undeniable and unstoppable for him as it was for her. Last night had lit the fuse and now it had to blow up between them.
Her pulse pounded. She turned to keep walking, because if she didn’t want anyone to know, she needed to get away from him right now. Before she gave in to her urges and did something filthy crude on the street.
He grabbed her arm and turned her back to face him, his eyes searing—seeing all. “You’re turned on now?” More statement than question.
“Yes,” she choked.