“Mock all you like, but it’s the truth.”
“I’m not mocking,” she said quietly, a small shiver rippling through her.
“Come on. Come and sit up here.”
She climbed into the helicopter but swivelled to sit side on, so she was facing him as he clicked out of his skis.
“Tell me more.”
He yanked on a polypropylene base layer—striped thermal leggings. He stared at her for a second, his hands low on his hips. Still rocking that ginormous hard-on, he looked like an over-sized Christmas elf who’d escaped from an x-rated fantasy advent calendar. “I’ll tell you a story, okay?”
She nodded.
“When Logan and I were kids, we really pushed it skiing. There was a huge amount of pressure. Dad wanted Olympic Gold to hang in the Great Hall. For the Hughes name to be etched in glory… you know, the total over the top, Summerhill thing.” He grimaced and then turned, picking up his skis and loading them into the helicopter, along with her snowboard. “So we’d been choppered up really high, just the two of us. Then we were racing. I crashed out badly. Ripped up on an exposed rock. Logan had no choice but to go get help. I was clinging to the side of this mountain for hours. Bleeding. Alone. In and out of consciousness. I think I pretty much died a couple times. But you know what? I wasn’t scared. Not for a moment. It was my home.”
“You love it.”
“And it’s my life. I made a pact with the mountain—let me survive, and I’ll spend the rest of my life taking care of you.” A bashful expression crossed his face and he couldn’t quite look her in the eye. “I guess I communed with the mountain gods…”
“You’re a romantic,” she said softly. An idealist.
“Perhaps.” He shrugged. “But it got me through. And I’ve wanted to look after the beast ever since.”
He was a romantic. Who’d have thought the chilly-gazed, workaholic actually had such a huge heart? “What about your family? Do they feel the same about it?”
“My family?” His smile hardened. Then died. “You were right about one thing Savannah. One part of the perfect Summerhill package is a mirage. Our happy family is a total facade. My parents are the most unhappily married people. He’s cheated on her so many times. That’s where he was the day I had that accident. He was in a chalet with his assistant instead of coaching us. He’d been through a number of assistants…”
“Oh,” Savannah felt truly chilled for the first time all morning. “I’m sorry.”
“So was I. But I wasn’t going to sit back and let him throw all this away because he got distracted by his uncontrollable lust.” Frowning he stomped round to climb into the helicopter. “He has lust for everything. Women. Status. Land. Money.” He hoisted himself into his seat and turned his head towards her. “For the record Savannah, he invested in that company he told your dad about. He lost money too. If it makes you feel any better.”
She closed her door and curled up her legs so she could turn round to face him. The thought of Rex Hughes losing money? Maybe it should have made her feel better. But it didn’t.
“I’m sorry your family has had its troubles,” she said, wriggling up onto her knees. “But I’m glad you have the mountain. You’re a good caretaker for it.”
He looked at her. Stilled.
But there was nothing more for her to say.
She crawled past the controls and climbed right onto him. He still didn’t have a shirt on and it was cramped. That didn’t stop her kissing him.
“Savannah…” he muttered, his hands automatically setting to work on arousing her more. “You’re so beautiful.”
She kissed him again. Needing to silence him now too. The sweet murmurings more dangerous than any dirty talk.
“You can’t silence me.”
He knew what she was trying to do? He could read her too easily. So she returned to her prickly persona. “Stop being so damn bossy.” Wasn’t that her job?
“Make me.”
Her mouth parted in surprise. Before he’d been happy to let her lead their sex play, but now he was challenging her explicitly?
And daring her to silence him? Master him?
Yes please.
She saw the challenge burning in his eyes. He, like she, liked it fierce. Liked the battle between them. They both exhilarated in the unpredictable. She pulled a condom from her pocket.
He laughed. “You think it’s going to be that easy?”
“Not in this space, actually. No. But just because something’s not easy, doesn’t mean it’s not going to be worth it.”
“What is it you like about vehicles?” He groaned, long minutes later when she finally rolled the condom down his erection. “Is it the promise of speed?”
She kissed him to shut him up again as she slid down onto him.
But he knew her now. Knew what she liked. Knew how to push her quickly to her edge.
Only more and more often, he held her there for longer. Teasing her for longer. So when release came, it was all the more intense.
And this time? On his lap, facing him in the broad light of midday?
There was no closing her eyes. No avoiding the intensity. Looking at him, with his cock locked deep inside her, she found she couldn’t move. Couldn’t ride. She could only feel.
He shaped her butt with his broad palms, not breaking the intimate eye contact. He lifted her a fraction, enough for him to thrust up into her. So forcefully she sucked in a sharp breath. Then sighed. Then moaned.
And so he did it again.
Over and over. Harder. Faster—just as she liked. Until they were both groaning with each thrust, both flushed and steamy, both fighting to reach the finish line together.
And then he pulled her closer still, so she rested against him, her face turned into his neck. She could feel the rapid pace of his heart starting to slow.
“Savannah.”
She liked it too much when he murmured her name like that.
“You do everything to your very best, don’t you?” he muttered.
Yeah. She put everything she had into everything she did. Which was why she needed to be so careful with him. “So do you.”
And together they did sex, very, very well. So well, she was sleepy now.
“When you’ve seen out our seven nights, what are you going to do?” he asked quietly, running his hand over her back in a gentle after-play.
She didn’t think she was going to last seven nights. Aside from needing to check on her father, she wasn’t sure she could handle Connor in charming mode. “Find someplace else. Find work. What else can I do?” she shook her head slightly. “I don’t have any money.”
“Why don’t you? Your father would have made money on the hotel sale?”
“Sure. More than enough to pay the bank debt,” she muttered. “And then he gambled every last cent of it away.”
She felt Connor’s muscles tense beneath her. “He’s a gambler?”
“For the last few years.” She closed her eyes as the memories surfaced. The slow decline, then rapid fall to rock bottom. “He gambled his money. All of it. And then mine. Until there was absolutely nothing. He lied to me. I gave him that money on trust, but he lied.” And it still hurt. She lifted her head, looked into Connor’s serious blue eyes. “And for all that time, I’d heard nothing but how amazing Summerhill was, and what a freaking oracle Rex Hughes was… and when everything fell apart, I guess that became my fixation.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.” She finally stepped up and admitted it. “It wasn’t.” She’d been wrong to blame his family.
“It must be hard for you.” Connor said. At least he had the grace not to gloat. If anything, he looked more grim than he ever had.
“I’m over it now.”
“So where’s your mom?”
“She and dad broke up a few years ago.”
He nodded. “But she has a new partner.”
“Clearly,” she drawled, hiding her hurt. “Dad wanted to ge
t her back... That’s why he was so determined to make the hotel such a success. Why he modelled himself on Rex. But it was never going to happen.”
“The hotel? Or getting your mother back?”
“Both.”
“She’d already met that someone else?”
Savannah nodded.
“What happened?”
She wanted to curl up and hide. She never talked about this. But Connor pulled her close so she rested her head on his broad shoulder again. He wrapped both arms around her, his hand gently rubbing her back. She closed her eyes, breathed in the scent of sun and snow and sex and him. “We went on a school trip. You know how you do. A week in Washington, seeing the sights. She came as a parent help. And he was my history teacher.” Savannah explained.
“No.”
“Yes. Fresh out of college, he’d only just gotten registered. He was the hot new history teacher. Nearer my age than hers.” She chuckled, it was that or cry. “Every one knew. They were off fucking around with each other, while my father was home alone and clueless. While I’m there. Ostracised by the rest of the class. They’re all giggling. And then bullying. Are you as easy as your mum? The guys asked. Do you come like a banshee the way she does?” Savannah winced, drawing more tightly into herself, but Connor’s arms now cradled.
“My few girlfriends walked. You know how kids get—they operate in packs. If you’re the weak one, you’re attacked. And I was now the weak one. Brad—mum’s hot history lover—stayed teaching at the school for a while. It was hideous. Then they moved to a town an hour or so away. But my friends were no longer my friends.” She hadn’t felt like she could trust any of them again. She drew in a deep breath.
“What about boyfriends?”
“Didn’t have one for ages. Not ’til I’d left school. When dad’s problems really started to impact… he decided he couldn’t handle it.”
“Did you love him?”
“I thought I did. But he bailed.” All those she’d trusted had bailed. “So I guess we both know what it’s like to be let down by those we love…”