“Go.”
Dominic slid off and easily skied to the right, like he’d directed her. Kate, however, was still frozen to the seat, clutching the arm for dear life. The lift started to curve and within a few seconds she was facing back down the mountain. The lift came to a bone-jarring halt, almost throwing her from the seat.
“Kate. Kate.” It was Dominic, she realized. And he looked like he was trying not to laugh. Another guy showed up at his side and from the emblem on his jacket, he must be an employee of the resort. “You’re going to need to let go. Come on. I’ll catch you.”
Kate looked around and noticed the dozens of eyes on her. The whole freaking lift was stopped as everyone waited for her to get her ass off the seat. Mortified, Kate made the decision that nothing could be worse than this and let herself slip off the seat and down to the powdery snow below.
She was wrong. She fell hard on her butt.
“Okay. We’ll work on that,” Dominic said and offered his hand to help her up.
Coming to her feet, Kate found the skis slipping, and she started falling back again, but this time Dominic’s strong arms wrapped around her and steadied her. Even through the layers of their clothes, she could feel the furnace of his body. It was hard not to nestle up to his natural heat and she leaned in to him a little longer. “Remember what I taught you. Snowplow.”
She nodded and reluctantly pulled away. She turned her heels out so the fronts of her skis almost crisscrossed in front of her.
“That’s it. But first we need to move out of the way.” With his arm firmly around her, he helped her slide off to the side and to the top of the slope.
Kate looked down just as the wind picked up, blowing the powdery snow around like a small blizzard, almost making it impossible to see anything. Except for what looked like a sheer drop to the valley below ahead of them. From the way Dominic was pointing, she was supposed to head that way.
Oh. My. Dear. God. Save me.
“I can’t do this, Dominic. I don’t know what I was thinking. Is there another way off the mountain?”
His lips quirked up. “Only one way. You’re going to have to ski it. Come on. I’ll help you.”
With surprising patience, Dominic began talking to her, explaining how to twist and glide her skis in motion and then, if she lost control again, to bring them in front of her and snowplow to decrease her speed and gain control. She followed his instruction and after a few minutes, found she had moved a few feet down the hill—granted, very slowly—and had managed to turn her skis and was now sliding in the opposite direction.
And then she did it all over again. She was doing it, she was actually skiing.
Wait…
Shit. She was going too fast. Her arms flapped and her skis slipped
dangerously fast across the surface of the snow.
What the hell was that tree doing in the middle of the slope?
There was only one way to save herself and she felt her ankle twist underneath her as she turned to the side and fell not so gracefully into the snow. She coughed out chunks of snow and tried to wipe the crystals from her mouth.
Dominic sashayed over to her, not looking even mildly alarmed that she had almost died. He was actually smiling. “You’re getting it. No worries. Come on. Let’s try again.”
Again? Was he insane?
Dominic held his hands out to her and in a moment had her on her feet. Only he didn’t release her hands immediately, holding her steady so she didn’t fall back down. She had to admit, in his hands, she felt safe. Her worries almost washed away.
“Kate? Is that you?”
The vision from her goggles was slightly obstructed from the snow that her graceful fall had kicked up and she wiped away the moisture, even though it was unnecessary. She knew who was bearing down on her.
That’s right. What was hell without more abject humiliation?
“Hi, guys,” she said and tried to smile. She wiped away a few chunks of snow clinging to her hair.
Michael was shaking his head in disbelief. “I would never have believed it if I hadn’t heard that bloodcurdling scream from clear over on the other run”—he pointed to another slope adjacent to the one they were on, where people were whipping by at alarming speeds—“and had to come see for myself. You. On the slopes.”
Kate looked over at Nicole, who still managed to look cute and chic in slim-fitting white snow pants and an ice-blue parka. Kate was wearing an oversized pair of black snow pants and a frumpy parka they’d found for sale in the resort’s gift shop that made her feel more like the abominable snowman than a ski bunny.
“You always insisted you couldn’t ski. No matter much cajoling I did,” he continued, actually managing to sound affronted.