The Winter Games Box Set Read online

  He groaned. “I was too hard…”

  “Well, you were that. I can’t disagree with you there.” I winked at him. “Seriously, Wyatt, I don’t even know of a word to describe how perfect it was. You know me,” my voice quieted now, my eyes watching as my hands traced down over his chest, “I like hard. I like fast. I like rough.” I found his gaze again. “I’m a snowboarder, after all.”

  I rubbed myself against him, enjoying the catch in his breath and the way the chairlift began to gently rock us together.

  “Alright, point taken.” He pushed forward and kissed me and I sighed into the familiar haven. “Now that you’ve succeeded in eliminating my guilt,” he kissed along my jawline to my ear and I held my breath in anticipation of what was coming next, “we should really head back down.”

  The air rushed out of me in furious disappointment. He clearly was still trying to be a gentleman about it all. Well, I wasn’t having any of it.

  I turned my head and kissed him again. He didn’t push back when I deepened the embrace, my tongue demanding attention from his. Lifting my hips, I slid my hand down over the front of his pants, undoing the zipper before he could stop me.

  “Channing…”

  “Show me,” I said, “show me that you want me.” It was a dare. We lived in a world of dares—daring fate, gravity, mother nature—to stop us from getting what we wanted. And now, I was daring him to stop both of us from taking what we needed. “Here.”

  Alone on the mountain, we were its King and Queen. And the thought of him taking me on a chair lift that I’d ridden a thousand times soaked straight through my underwear.

  “Stand and turn,” his instructions were hard and demanding. I quickly complied. With my back to him, I felt one hand grasp the back edge of my pants and pull them down over my ass, exposing just enough flesh so that I wouldn’t freeze in this process. His hand slipped around to my front, diving beneath my pants as I felt his teeth dig into the firm flesh of my ass. “Always so damn wet for me, gorgeous.” His fingers slid over my folds and goosebumps covered my body. “Now, sit.” His hand moved back onto my stomach and pulled me down onto his lap.

  There was no warning aside from the brief touch of his fingers to assess my readiness as he guided me to sit, impaling me with his hard length. I gasped at the welcome invasion, my muscles were sore from last night, but it only made the fullness even more overwhelming.

  Wyatt held me still for a moment, letting me adjust to him. Desire overwhelming me as I realized that we sat on the lift, fully clothed, except where we were joined. My hips begged to move.

  “Ride me, Ryder.”

  I moaned and began to move up and down on his length, feeling the hot hardness of his cock slip in and out of me. His hand resumed its spot inside of my underwear, letting my movements allow my clit to rub against his fingers. Outside… inside… my climax assaulted me from every angle. I screamed into the silence, the delicious pressure finally bursting inside of me.

  Just to confirm, it was as exquisite as it had been last night.

  I heard his rushed grunts from behind me. He was thrusting up and into me now, the clenching of my core rocketing him over the edge. I felt his hips seize and the warm rush of his desire inside of me.

  “You’re going to be the death of me, Channing.”

  “Well, you are getting close to retirement,” I mused teasingly. He laughed and gently pushed up on my hips, letting him slip out of me. Wyatt quickly pulled my yoga pants back up to make sure I wasn’t cold before he tugged out a corner of a blanket to wipe himself and adjust his pants.

  “Let’s go, minx.” He smacked my ass before going to turn the lift on.

  “OW!” I EXCLAIMED, FEELING THE hard thwack of a pillow over my head.

  “Channing!” Ally screeched, jumping onto my bed next to me.

  I dove further underneath the covers. “What time is it?”

  “Almost noon.” She bounced obnoxiously next to me and I tried to hit her with my free hand. Unsuccessfully.

  “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “Because you were gone all last night—I know, because I waited up even after Zack left. And then you magically reappeared early this morning, only to pass out for another four hours in your bed.” The excited sweetness in her voice was nauseating. “And then there’s the fact that your Mr. Olsen had practically a breakfast buffet delivered to the house about an hour ago.”

  Damn gentleman.

  “So, what happened? Spill!”

  “Coffee…” I rasped, feeling her climb back over me. Only to have the covers yanked unceremoniously off of me. At least when Wyatt had dropped me off earlier, I’d had the wherewithal to change my clothes—and my underwear. “I hate you,” I grumbled, pushing myself up.

  “Only until you get your coffee and some food!” And then she flicked the lights on. “See you downstairs!” Ally grabbed the edge of the doorframe, pulling herself back for a second as I squinted at her. “By the way… about breakfast… I can’t promise that I left a lot of the good stuff. Snooze you lose!” Her smile flashed as she disappeared from sight.

  She wasn’t going to leave me alone until I told her all about my night—and her giant grin when I appeared downstairs a few minutes later confirmed as much.

  “So, what happened?” She repeated as I poured myself a giant cup of coffee. The snow had started again—a steady fall onto the inches we’d gained from the squall last night.

  “We had a picnic.” There was truly no better cure for anything than a good, strong, hot cup of coffee. I breathed in the energizing aroma, letting it bring me back to life.

  “Yeah,” she retorted. “I knew that much. Oh my God, Zack said it was hysterical the way Wyatt was in their kitchen cooking yesterday, getting everything ready.”

  Now, I was intrigued.

  “Oh yeah? What else did the other Mr. Olsen say?”

  “Nope. Sorry. Lips are zipped until you tell me what happened last night—after the picnic.” She raised her eyebrows.

  I picked up a croissant and took a huge bite. “He took me up onto the mountain, for the picnic, where we ended up stranded because of the snowsquall.” I shrugged—‘stranded’ might have been a stretch; even if we could have, neither of us would have left.

  “And…” Ally grabbed half of a cinnamon roll. “Do I have to spell it out? Fine. Did you guys do it?! Did you sleep with him?”

  I nodded, knowing that in another second, my blush was going to reveal the truth whether I liked it or not.

  “AHH!!!” she screamed and began jumping.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. I mean, it was a big deal—a huge deal—to me… but her excitement came close.

  “Why are you so freaking excited? You know I’ve had sex before…” I said it casually - like I had sex every other day—in an attempt to downplay the drama.

  “Oh yeah? When? If it’s been longer than five years it doesn’t count.” That was my cue to take another large bite of food in an attempt to avoid an answer. “Ok, seriously, Chan. I’m not judging you. Just talk to me…”

  I felt stupid holding back from her. Maybe because talking about it—admitting to it—meant admitting to my feelings. Talking about it turned it into reality.

  I wanted it to be a reality.

  “Ok,” I quickly responded, surprised by my thought, “let’s go sit though.”

  We grabbed the coffee and the goods—aka the mass of breakfast food that Wyatt should have known was far too much for just us two girls.

  “So, I’m sure you already know, but he cooked this incredible Italian dinner for us. I had no idea. I couldn’t even believe when we pulled into the resort—I mean everything was closed because of the impending storm. I was so confused.” I found myself smiling at the memory. “I didn’t know about the dinner yet. Anyway, so he opens the trunk and hands me your snow boots—“

  “I know! I was hoping they wouldn’t be too tight!”

  “No, they were fine.” I took another sip of m
y black coffee. “So, we get geared up and then he starts walking towards the base of the trails and I’m thinking, ‘where the hell are we going?’ And then, the man pulls out a key for the freaking lift.”

  “WHAT!”

  My eyes widened. “You didn’t know that?”

  “No! He just said he was taking you on a picnic at the mountain and that he needed my snow boots.”

  “Yeah, well ‘at the mountain’ meant ‘up the mountain.’” I laughed, reaching for one of the glazed donuts. “So, he turns on the chair lift—mind you, I haven’t been on that side of the mountain probably for a good year, so I have no idea what’s at the top.”

  “Oh my God, this is so romantic.”

  “Do you want me to finish?” I scolded her. “So, we get to the top and we walk like a minute to the warming hut that’s up there. It’s open because… why wouldn’t it be? If the lift is closed, how else would you get up there?” I took another bite, but continued to talk with my mouth full; today, apparently, I was that kind of girl. “We get inside, he turns the lamps on, and then proceeds to lay down a million blankets and his home-cooked feast. It was delicious.”

  “Yeah, I bet he was, too,” came her sly response. “So how did it happen? Were you drunk?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I mean, I had a glass of wine, but I wasn’t drunk. We finished dinner and then he took me back outside to look at the stars; it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever see, Al…” My gaze went hazy at the memory, remembering the infinite magical sparks above us.

  “Well, I’m glad he didn’t just take you to some five-star restaurant. I mean, that would definitely be romantic, but I don’t think it would be you—and I’m glad he saw that, too.”

  I bit my lip as my smile tried to grow larger. “No, it wasn’t a five-star restaurant—it was a five-million-star restaurant.”

  “Oh my God, you have it so bad.” She began to laugh uncontrollably.

  “Hey!” I sighed, lying into the back of the couch to try to stop myself from really over-indulging on the carbs.

  “Alright, now let’s get to the good stuff.”

  I rolled my eyes. “So, we came back inside and things got a little heated.” No need to go into details about dessert. “And then he wanted to go.”

  “Wait, what?” The dumbfounded look on her face was pure comedy.

  “He wanted to leave; he hadn’t planned on staying the night—or having sex.”

  “Why? Is there… something wrong with him?”

  “Oh my God, no. No. Definitely nothing wrong with him.” My blush rose. “He… He insisted on leaving because he didn’t want to or plan on having sex with me until after the Games.”

  “Why?”

  “He didn’t want me or Chance to think that he’d done it to throw Chance off in the competition.” It was when Ally didn’t response that I knew exactly what she was thinking. “I know…” I whispered, staring at the black pit inside my coffee cup.

  “That you have to pull out of the Games?” She finished my sentence, transforming it into a query.

  I nodded.

  “Well that was convincing.” I frowned and she put her hands up. “Alright, fine. I’ll take your word that you are going to do it, but for posterity’s sake, you need to let me say one thing,” and she didn’t give me a chance to do otherwise, “and that is that this guy is serious about you, Chan. Like serious with a capital—L.” What? “Serious as in L-o-v-e. Sheesh. You need to withdraw from the competition and, not only that, but you need to tell him what you’d planned on doing; you need to tell him about Chance.”

  My mind spun through that conversation. For some reason, I’d come to the realization that I had to pull out of the Games, but I hadn’t thought it all the way through to the fact that I needed to tell Wyatt about Chance. Ally was right though, there was no other way to explain why Chance wasn’t here without more lies.

  “I know; it’s just hard.” I put a hand up to stop her. “Not that I won’t do it, but, I don’t know, I guess I felt like I was finally going to be able to prove how good I was—not to anyone else, just to myself.”

  “I don’t think anyone has ever doubted you.”

  I nodded; I didn’t want to talk about this right now. I was still living off the high of last night and I wanted to keep that blissful bubble for as long as possible. “No, you’re right.” I smiled at her and continued, “Now, where was I? Oh, right. So, Wyatt wanted to leave and when he told me that he wanted there to be no doubt that I was more important than winning, I may have told him to prove it. Not to mention, by that point the snow squall had started so we were trapped.”

  “Oh, wow…”

  “And then… yeah…” I ducked my head, moments flashing in front of my eyes.

  “Don’t just ‘yeah’ me! I want details! How was it? How many times? Did you…” Here, she chose to whistle instead of saying the word ‘orgasm.’

  “Hard to believe sometimes that you’re my little sister.” Maybe something was wrong with me, but I sure as hell didn’t want the details of her and Zack together.

  “Just once. Yes. And it was magical.” I rattled, counting off on my fingers as I answered each of her questions.

  “Must have been… if it was only just once.”

  “Ally!” I was tempted to throw the remains of my donut at her. “Yes, only once. At least last night…”

  “This morning?!”

  I smiled smugly. “On the chairlift.” Her mouth literally fell open and for once, I enjoyed the deafening silence that came out of it.

  “What the hell.” Ally groaned as she fell back against the couch. “I don’t get it. You’re the one who’s the freaking tomboy, you’re the one who doesn’t care about clothes or hair or make up or dates or boys - nothing except for snowboarding - and you’re the one who ends up with Mr. Milk-Frother who is both impossibly hot and impossibly romantic. It’s just not fair.”

  I started to laugh. “What do you mean? You and Zack are great together! I thought you really liked him!”

  “I do!” She insisted, but her enthusiasm paled compared to how she’d asked about my night with Wyatt. “He’s just not quite like that and I don’t know. We’re having a great time, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t know that it’s going to last. I’m just not there yet.”

  “What do you mean?” It was my turn to pry, dear sister. “Does this have something to do with Emmett?”

  Her head spun to me so fast I thought she was going to get whiplash. “Absolutely not. Why would you even say that?”

  “Woah, no need to get an attitude. I just asked because there is obviously a problem between the two of you and I thought maybe you enjoyed being with Zack more because of how angry it makes Emmett.”

  Her arms crossed over her chest. “No. I don’t care about Emmett and this has nothing to do with him. Maybe if he hadn’t been the worst kind of asshole to me a few months ago, things would be different. But, I can’t stand the man and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to.”

  “What happened a few months ago?” I was completely blown away. I hadn’t heard of anything that had happened between them and she’d definitely never said a word.

  “I don’t—“ Her refusal to answer the question was cut off by her cell ringing on the coffee table.

  She picked it up like it was a lifeline. “Hello?”

  “Hey, babe! What’s up?

  “Nothing, just talking with my sister.”

  “Oh yeah! That sounds like fun. Come over for six.”

  “Be careful driving. I’ll see you then.”

  She hung up and turned to me. “Zack and Wyatt are coming over tonight for pizza and game night.”

  “We’ll have to tell them that Chance is with Emmett.” I don’t know why that was the first thing that came to my mind and blurted out of my mouth, but it was. I saw Ally look at me disapprovingly because we’d just talked about not doing this anymore. “I know, I swear I’m going to tell him; I just don’t think tonigh
t is the night; I want to actually withdraw from the competition first.”

  “You better,” she grumbled, standing up. “I’m going to take a shower.”

  And avoid answering my question about Emmett, I thought.

  “I HAVE A QUESTION.” WYATT’S voice rumbled next to my ear.

  He’d stayed on the mountain to practice for the Games this morning after our training session, but not before he’d asked if we could grab dinner together before my shift at Breakers tonight. He’d followed me inside the equipment room when I went to put back all of the lesson gear, wrapping his arms around my waist as I tried to focus on standing the snowboards up neatly against the wall.

  “And what is that?” I pretended not to notice how he bit my earlobe, the sensation turning my body on fire.

  “I forgot to ask,” he murmured, “but, why did Ally refer to me as Mr. Milk-Frother’ the other week?”

  I sucked in a breath. Crap. “N-no reason. She says crazy things—just look at how she was the other night when we were playing Apples-to-Apples.” Granted, pizza and game night had also included alcohol, which meant that after about one drink, Ally had turned tipsy; it was a good thing she was cute—and that Zack was smitten. Needless to say, the game didn’t end with any serious winner.

  His hand snaked around to cup my sex through my black stretch pants that I had put on for work, his palm pressing against me.

  I groaned, my hips returning the pressure.

  This was how it had been all week. The heat, the tension, the pleasure. We weren’t keeping it a secret, but we weren’t advertising it either—which meant that our rendezvous were mostly hard and fast, hidden on the mountain or somewhere at the base. He refused to stay over while Ally was home.

  I swore, it felt like I was trading in my spot in the X Games for a position in the Sex Games.

  It was incredible—and not just because of the sex. It was the way Wyatt made me feel like I was the only goddamn star in the sky whenever he looked at me. The way my body felt like it had been made just for him when he touched me. And the way my heart beat into my brain just how hard I’d fallen for him every moment that I was with him.