Relentless Rhythm (Tempest #4) (10 page)

His hair was tucked under a black knit cap. He’d pulled it on when we’d exited the roundhouse earlier. With his gorgeous hair out of the way, the stud piercings above his left brow and the dark stubble lining his square jaw seemed more prominent. I wondered what he was thinking, but couldn’t see his striking amber eyes very well through his tinted shades.

“Bryan still thinks maybe War will come back,” Sager offered, shrugging his shoulders.

“We don’t need him,” King snarled. “We’re better off without that two faced bastard.”

“He’s not coming back.” Dizzy crossed his arms over his chest. “Really, we all know the drill with him. Once War’s made up his mind about how something is, that’s the way it’s gonna be. There’s no changing.” He planted his feet wider apart and my gaze dropped. He looked really good in his worn jeans. Cool. Confident. Sexy. The man had it going on. There was no doubt.

His head turned slightly, his shades pointed in my direction as if I’d voiced my thoughts.

My cheeks flushed with embarrassment despite the cold. A sudden gust of wind whipped a strand of hair into my eyes making them water. Punishment for my forbidden thoughts, I guessed. I started to lift my gloved hand to shove it back under my cap, but Dizzy moved in and beat me to the task.

I held my breath, staring into his shaded eyes. Time seemed to stand still as he slid his warm fingers and the strand of hair he’d captured across my cheek and underneath my hat, blunt nails grazing the top of my ear in the process.

A warm shiver rolled through me, my hands coming up to rest on his forearms, my gaze dropping to his mouth and that small silver circle in his bottom lip. The edges of his mouth curled ever so slightly while I stared. He leaned closer.

Someone cleared their throat. My eyes flicked to Sager who raised a brow.

Heart pounding as though I’d been competing in the race, I took a step back, returning my attention to the course, telling myself I was glad Sager had interrupted before anything happened, but it was a lie.

I thought I had Dizzy Lowell all figured out, but after he’d come to my rescue, after spending more time with him today, I realized I knew a lot less than I thought. He was not so easily categorized or dismissed. He was more than just a handsome face. He was smart and had a sharp oftentimes self-deprecating wit that didn’t fit in with the player types I knew from the bar.

I wondered what his deal was… with Mel… with me. Was he just playing around? Or was it something more? I still didn’t get why he’d nearly bitten my head off when he’d first picked me up. He was usually so laid back, cocky and bold as you please most of the time, but mellow, intensely so. I amended that last part immediately as I felt his cognac eyes back on me, watching me even now with a measured focus that made me want to turn to him and flat out demand to know why he was staring. What was the fascination? Was he considering a fling with a married woman? If so, he was going to be disappointed.

We both were.

Cautiously, I slid my eyes to the side to look at him again. His chin tilted up, the tanned masculine column of his neck exposed, Dizzy was staring up at the slope. Like I should be doing. Looking for my best friend instead of gawking at her crush. The ringing of cow bells and the rising roar of the crowd brought my focus back to the event.

Looking like magic on her skis, outfitted in electric blue, Mel was airborne as she flew over the top of the rise and skidded along the upper edges of the bowl in front of us.

I jumped up and down clapping my hands together. “Go, Mel! Go Mel!” I screamed. And then she was gone, the three other skiers in the final heat whipping by behind her right on her heels. I turned to the big screen to watch the rest of her run. I knew what was coming because Mel had told me before the race about the most treacherous spot up ahead. Four skiers had already wiped out on it in previous heats.

I held my breath as she approached that section of the course.

She made it through, and she made it look easy. So did all three of her pursuers. The race promised to be tight the whole way down.

I was so excited. Without even pausing to think about it, just knowing that I had to share my elation with someone, I turned to Dizzy and grabbed both of his hands. It wasn’t wise. I should’ve been careful considering what contact with him did to me. I was venturing onto a potentially more dangerous ground with him than the icy patch Mel had just safely negotiated.

Our shades locked, a wave of warmth sweeping over me, making me feel intoxicated, my head swimming with desire that settled low in my belly.

I swayed toward him. Ying to his Yang. Twist of lime to his rum. Puzzle pieces that I instinctively knew would align oh so perfectly. I knew what this was between us. I knew the threat he represented, but in that moment I didn’t care.

Though the connection wasn’t as strong through my gloves as it’d been in the Panamera skin to skin, I still felt
it. Felt
him
. Heat licked my body making me want to shed all my clothing like some doomed hypothermic and experience the ultimate burn with him.

His fingers tightened on mine. His gaze seemed to penetrate my shades. I feared he could see my illicit thoughts as they flashed through my fevered brain.

“April.” He took a step closer.

I shook my head, taking a step back, suddenly feeling as though I couldn’t get enough air.

“Holy shit!”

We both guiltily dropped each other’s hands at the same time. What the hell was wrong with me? My head swung around.

“She won!” Sager wasn’t looking at us this time. He was staring at the screen. I’d missed the end of the race. Mel was at the bottom of the hill, fists pumping above her head in triumph.

I smiled happily at the screen. I was so proud of her. My brief euphoria ended abruptly when I turned and my eyes collided with his. I swallowed. “I’m going to the lift.” It was past time I put distance between me and Dizzy. I ducked beyond Sager and King and then started to jog, but was yanked to a stop when my hand was snagged from behind. I spun around, trying to tug from Dizzy’s firm grip.

“Let me go,” I hissed. “I need to get to Mel.” He didn’t release me. Instead, he pulled me toward him and because of the incline and the slippery snow I lost my footing and stumbled, my back colliding with his chest.

He wrapped his arms around me. I felt warm and protected, my racing heart slowing to a steadier pace. It felt so good to be held. Longing that had little to do with sexual desire flared to life within my heart, and that should have frightened me more than the physical attraction. His arms tightened around me almost like he felt it, too, and wasn’t willing to let it go. I didn’t fight him. I leaned my head back on his shoulder allowing myself the luxury of the moment, deeply breathing in his intoxicating scent.

“April?” He said my name like a question, his breath warm on my cheek and then his firm lips. I melted into him immediately wanting much more than just the comfort of being held. I wanted the strong arms clamped beneath my breasts to move higher so I could slide my chest and my hardened aching nipples against them. I wanted to roll my hips back and forth between the cradle of his thighs so I could more fully feel the length of his thick erection against my ass. All the cues were there. Wetness. Warmth. Heat. I was a fully complicit partner now. We were pressed together like lovers. If we weren’t on a ski slope, if the clothes weren’t between us, I could bend. He could move and rock into me. I could twist my neck to the side and open my lips so our mouths could fuse together mimicking the connection we would have going on below. I was suddenly desperate to find out what he tasted like. See if the rumors I’d heard about the way he kissed and the way he fucked were fact or fiction.

He moved his arm, his hand covering my breast. I gasped. The spike of pleasure was so intense. “Dizzy, don’t.” Somehow my brain came online and I overrode the contradictory signals being sent by my body.

“Don’t what?” He trailed a line of soft kisses onto the sensitive skin below my ear. That felt so good so sensual that I shuddered and almost came. It’d been so long since I’d been touched so tenderly by a man.

“Bloody hell, Kitten!” he cursed his voice a raw whisper. His embrace tightened for one long delicious moment during which my convictions wavered perilously before he finally released me.

I staggered forward fighting the gravity of the upward slope and the heavy weight of my own desire. My breath came out in short puffy visible bursts that I couldn’t and didn’t even attempt to disguise. But I finally managed to move, lifting one foot and then the other, the hard lessons of the past year having strengthened my survival skills.

I heard him call my name, but I ignored it, gaining momentum and moving faster, weaving in and out of the crowd in my mad dash to run away from my weakness. It was emotionally dangerous for Mel to get involved with a guy like him, but for me it was worse. It’d be nothing short of virtual suicide.

Folding my arms over my chest, tapping my foot, I waited out the steady stream of well-wishers for my turn to congratulate Mel while also keeping a secretive appreciative eye on her best friend. April had stuck tightly to Mel’s side avoiding me completely since I’d caught up with them at the party in the basement of the Spaghetti Warehouse.

I got it. I understood her reluctance to continue where we’d left off. I understood the obstacles in our way, the blue haired woman beside her for one, but another that wasn’t here. The one who’d put that ring on her finger. But what the hell? It took two to dance. She’d sure seemed with me earlier. My dick got rock hard remembering the way she’d shuddered in my arms when I’d put my lips on the pulse point of her neck.

A high pitched squeal made me cringe but brought me back into the current moment.

“You were so awesome!” A woman just ahead of me, apparently one of Mel’s competitors jumped up and down with Mel a couple of times and then hugged her briefly before moving away.

“She’s right.” Seeing no one else remained in my way, I nodded my head at Mel and stepped closer.

“Did you see how fast I shot through that bowl?” Mel chimed. She’d changed out of her ski clothes, but her cheeks were still flushed from the adrenaline, her eyes bright with victory.

“I did…We all did.” April’s furtive gaze flicked to me for a brief second and just as quickly slid away, just like her hasty escape back on the mountain.

“You were incredible. Way to go Bluebelle.”

She grinned and launched herself at me, her blue hair streaming back from her exuberant face. I caught her and swung her around in a celebratory circle. She turned her head her lips coming perilously close to mine, and I quickly feigned to the right so that she got my cheek instead. I kissed her on hers before setting her back down.

“Where the hell’d you learn to ski like that,” I asked, wanting to redirect her in an effort to soften the flash of disappointment I’d noticed in her eyes. “Never seen anything like it. You blew my mind the way you blew away the rest of the competition.”

“I could’ve been better. I was sloppy out of the gate.” Mel’s reaction to me drove home the concerns April had shared earlier. Seemed she was probably right. I was going to have to say something sooner rather than later to make sure Mel knew where we stood. Her best friend on the other hand was an entirely different dilemma. I had no idea what to do with these feelings I had for her. They weren’t going away. They were growing stronger.

“I’m glad I got to see you race.”

“Me, too. It means so much to me that you came.” Mel ducked her chin and turned toward April, the two putting their foreheads together and speaking softly. I took a step back fighting the pull. It was hard, but the math was real simple. I wanted April. She wanted me. The equation inevitably added up to a sum neither of us seemed ready to face. I was still hard just from standing close to her, smelling her soft floral scent, and remembering how good her sexy body had felt in my arms.

But what to do given that eventuality, I had no clue. I had my issues. I was certainly no saint, but I didn’t want to be that guy, the one who busted in and broke up a happy marriage just ‘cause he needed to get laid.