Free Fall (12 page)

He and Lily paused beside the sled as Mary chose the dogs, speaking quietly to each in turn. She harnessed them one by one, hooking them up to the long leads that were stretched out in the snow in front of the sled. When two of the dogs already harnessed began to bicker, snarling at each other, she quickly stepped between them giving their collars a little shake, and then talking them down.

“They're so eager to go that their energy spills
over,” she explained. “And there's always one that wants to better its position in the pack.”

“Kind of like people,” Lily said, sharing a grin with him that warmed him right through.

As soon as the six dogs were in place, Mary unwrapped the end of the reins from where she'd staked them, holding them tight as the dogs jostled, tails and ears held high, straining against the leather straps.

She handed the reins to Lily, who held them similarly tight. “You know the drill. Enjoy yourselves!”

He and Lily sat on the sled, low to the ground, with Lily's back snug to Logan's front, her hips between his, their legs stretched out in front of them.

Nice,
he thought, and wrapped his arms around her, slipping his hands beneath her jacket and sweater and indeed finding another soft camisole. He slipped beneath that, too, and felt the bare skin of her stomach tremble at his touch. Everything within him trembled right along with her.

“Put on your gloves,” she said.

“Why?” He let his hands roam, enjoying the way he affected her breathing.

“Trust me,” she managed. “You'll need them.” She adjusted the reins and said something to the barking, excited dogs, but his mind wasn't on the leisurely dog sled they were about to take, it was on Lily's warm, beautiful body so snug to his, and he slid his hands up and covered her breasts.

Her back arched, her head grinding into his shoulder as she thrust her soft curves into his hands, her nipples boring into his palms while her bottom rocked to his crotch.

Oh, yeah. She wanted him every bit as crazily as he wanted her. This was going to be an extremely nice, leisurely, seductive ride.

Then she yelled a command and the dogs leaped forward, barking like a frenzied wolf pack. The sled jerked into motion, faster than any roller-coaster ride, made all the more stomach-dropping because of their close proximity to the ground, which rushed by Logan's eyes so fast he couldn't even take it all in.

And she just laughed, his fearless warrior. It was all he could do to let go of her breasts and wrap his arms around her, holding on for dear life. “My God, does this thing have brakes?”

“Brakes? We don't need no stinkin' brakes!”

He would have sworn his heart was in his throat as they took the narrow, windy trail, and he gripped her with white knuckles, making her laugh some more.

But truthfully, her joy spilled over, catching him up in her exuberance. With the wind in his face, his arms full of a slim, strong, lovely woman and the emerald forest whipping past them at staggering speeds, he felt his own laughter bubbling up as they climbed the trail.

They came to a small lake, the surface made of smoothest ice, circled on all sides by awe-inspiring peaks. On the north shore was a waterfall, frozen solid. It felt as if they were alone in their very own world.

When Lily steered the dogs onto the frozen water, he held his breath. She slowed down, and all around them a silence reigned, suddenly broken by an earth-shuddering
crack
, which echoed between the mountaintops like bullet fire.

“What the hell?” he gasped.

“It's just the ice cracking.”

“Oh, is that all?” His arms tightened on her reflexively, and she turned her head and bit his jaw.

“Scared?” she asked.

Spitless
. “Nah.”

“Don't worry.” She grinned.
Grinned
. “It'll hold us.”

“That's good,” he managed. “Can we admire this from the shore now?”

“Baby.” But she steered them back. Logan didn't let out a slow breath until they were once again on the trail.

“You okay?” she asked.

He slid his cold hands back beneath her clothes. “I am now. How about you?” He plucked at her nipples.

Her hands jerked on the reins but as he well knew, she couldn't possibly let go, so he did it again. “I can't think when you do that,” she said unsteadily.

“Thinking is overrated.” And again…“Feel out of control?”

“Y-yes.”

“Good.” He bit her ear. “Now you know how it feels.”

She wriggled her butt, the motion having a desperate feel to it. He slid one hand down her tummy and between her thighs, loving the sound that ripped out of her.

“Keep us on the road,” he said gently when she started to lose track of the reins. Then he pressed his fingers against her.

“Ohmigod.”

“The tree, Lily. Watch the tree.”

She managed to steer them clear but let out a strangled sound of desire and a shiver when he slid his fingers inside her loose pants.

“Warm enough?” he asked, dipping beneath her panties to find hot, wet flesh that made him groan.

“I don't think I'll ever be cold again,” she managed.

One hand between her legs, the other up her shirt, wanting her so badly he couldn't see straight, he looked around them for a place to stop.

She let out a choked laugh and took them back to the small cabin. As they climbed out of the sled Lily handed the reins back to Mary, thanking her with a hug. Once out of Mary's hearing, she nudged him with her shoulder. “You were thinking we could get a little action out there.”

“We got a little action.”

“I meant
real
action.” Her eyes were filled with wicked intent as she danced a single finger down his chest and hooked it into the loose waistband of his ski pants.

He was already so hard he could have pounded nails into steel.

She leaned into him. “I know one more thing we can do out here…”

Yes.

“Follow me…” And she backed away from him, still giving him that mind-blowing smile that promised him the moon, then she turned and ran around the corner of the cabin.

She was crazier than he. They couldn't go out there and just—It was cold. Someone would see—

Ah, hell.
He loped after her, turning the corner and—

Took a snowball directly in the face.

The icy ball fell apart on impact, dripping little shards of snow down his face and into his collar. Shocked, frozen on the spot, he blinked the ice off his lashes and stared at her.

She clapped her hands over her mouth, which didn't hold her laugh in.

“Lily?”

“Yes?” she asked around her gloved fingers.

“You're going to want to run now,” he said silkily, pulling on his gloves and bending to scoop up a handful of ammunition, careful not to pat it together too tightly.

With a laughing scream, she whirled and ran, but he easily beaned her in the back.

Her mistake was that she stopped, laughing as she glanced at him over her shoulder.

He caught her, tumbled her to the snow, a wriggling, screeching, desperate-to-escape woman, and with a grin, he held her down with one hand to her chest, using his other to sprinkle snow in her face.

Then he let her escape.

She crawled away a few steps, then turned back to him, taunting. “Is that the worst you can do?” She grabbed more snow, chucked it at him, and then when he bent for a handful, took off running.

Once more he caught her, mostly because she let him, and again, he took them both down to the snow, capturing her wrists this time, hauling them above her head, holding her captive while he tugged down the zipper of her jacket, spread it wide open.

“Logan,” she warned, her breasts heaving with
each laughing breath. Her nipples were hard, pressing against the material of her sweater, begging for his touch, which he planned to give. “Don't you dare—”

He stuffed a handful of snow down her sweater and then patted the material.

She squealed and he bent his head, taking her frozen mouth in his. It heated instantly, and opened to him. He absorbed her soft moan and matched it with one of his own as their tongues, hot in comparison to the rest of them, slid together. Still restrained by his hand, hers flexed, and she arched up into him. Oh, yeah, he loved that, and he lifted his head long enough to tug his glove off with his teeth. He cupped her face with his bare hand now and whispered her name.

Her body writhed against his, and he let her hands go to gather her even closer. She opened her legs to accommodate his hips, and he rocked them to her, going even harder at her harsh breathing, at the unfocused, needy glaze in her eyes. They were out of control and he didn't care.

She yanked off her gloves, too, then stuck her hands down the back of his ski pants, beneath his shorts, making him yelp at her frozen fingers. Laughing, he surged up on his knees, pulling her up, as well, his ass now frozen solid, along with another essential part of him. “Not here.”

“Where, then?” She looked over her shoulder at the cabin, and he wasn't so far gone that he couldn't see her trying to figure out where. Now.

He laughed again and shook his head. He wanted
warm
, thank you very much. “I'll give you two choices. Your room or mine.”

 

T
HEY WENT TO HIS
,
AND
L
OGAN
had barely gotten Lily inside before he stripped her out of her clothes. His, too, and though she tried to touch, he pulled her into his shower. She wanted him beyond belief, beyond thoughts, knowing only that it wasn't just the hot water beading down on them that was restoring feeling to her extremities.

Her eyes drifted shut while he soaped her up, murmuring in her ear the whole time, telling her exactly what he was going to do to her as soon as she warmed up.

“But I'm warm now,” she whispered shamelessly, and wrapped her fingers around his erection.

“Here, then,” he said with a shudder. Backing her up to the wall, he lifted her and thrust home, making her come instantly.
Instantly
. Then, before she could get over the shock of that or even float back to herself, he kissed he, and, using the tile as leverage, took her hard and fast, bringing her to another screaming orgasm before he let himself go.

Afterward, with her body still trembling, he carried her to his bed and started again, slow and dreamy and seductive this time, until her breath sobbed in her throat, his name tumbling over and over from her lips, her heart both aching and pounding.

And it still wasn't enough.

 

A
N HOUR LATER SHE MADE IT
to her office feeling a little bit like the naughty schoolgirl caught sneaking late into class. At least all of her tension had been re
leased by some seriously mind-blowing orgasms.
Thank you, Logan
.

Debbie was sitting on her desk, filing her nails. “Look who the cat dragged in.”

Carrie came in and set a huge stack on her desk, then blew a strand of hair from her eyes. “Sorry, babe. But you've got to go through that.”

Debbie looked smug. “Ha.”

Lily sighed. “Is it all stuff you and I have discussed?”

“Mostly,” Carrie said.

“Then you can split it with me.” Lily divided the stack in half and got down to it, thinking it couldn't take that long. She'd be back outside in no time. “Did you find the missing ad file?” she asked Carrie, hoping that whoever had messed with the file had merely moved it, rather than actually taken it.

Debbie fingered the messy desk. “How can you find anything?”

“Do you have a reason for being here?” Lily asked.

“Yep.” Debbie hopped down. “To offer my help.”

“That's funny.”

“I mean it. I want to help.”

“Fine. You can help me find the ad.”

“Okeydokey.”

But they couldn't find it anywhere. Damn it. Starting over would take forever and cost them a late penalty. If they didn't get into the trade magazines, they could lose potential business for next year. “I know it's here…”

“Lose something else?” Gwyneth came into the office and perched a hip on the corner of her desk. She reached out to unbutton and then rebutton the blouse
Lily had put on incorrectly only a few minutes before when she'd run to her room for dry clothing. “Someone's been dressing in a hurry. A nooner today with the ski bum?”

“Jealous?”

“You know, given the wattage of your smile, I just might be.”

“Good. And I told you, he's not a ski bum.”

“You keep defending him, little sis, and I'm going to get even more worried. Oh, and don't worry about finding the ads now. Deadline passed. We lost the opportunity to be in any California trade mags next season.”

“I had those ads done. They vanished.”

“If that makes you feel better.”

“What would make me feel better is you out of my face.”

As Gwyneth disappeared in a huff, Lily dived into work.

No ads meant they'd have to work extra hard to reach the trade markets next year, which meant extra work for her. This was beyond just a trick—it could hurt the lodge's profits. And if it wasn't some totally weird, out-of-this-world coincidence, if it was the same person who'd removed the out-of-bounds signs…

Hell, they were lucky no one had injured themselves, or worse.

She was going to be keeping her eyes wide open from now on, watching for anything remotely suspicious—and she had her patrollers doing the same, only she'd justified it to them by using the sign incident. For now, though, she had a stack of work to get
through and a damn good incentive to get it done. She and Logan had arranged to meet for a late-night walk on the frozen pond to the east of the resort, and as she worked, she watched the clock. At the right time, she left the office and made her way outside.