Instant Attraction

Chapter 11

Katie looked down at the ski pants in her hand, her heart pounding. They weren’t going to have sex in his closet. They were going skiing.

Dazed, she tugged down her pants, then proceeded to get them stuck on her boots. Crouching to fix the problem, she had to laugh at herself-not exactly how she’d imagined getting naked in Cam’s office. Giving up on the pants, she unlaced her damn boots, then nearly jumped out of her skin at the low scraping sound beneath the desk.

It was the same sound she heard outside the bushes every time she walked by them. Somehow her animal stalker was in this very office with her, possibly planning on eating her alive. Oh, no. Not going out like this, and she leaped back.

And tripped over the pants around her ankles. Her flailing arms knocked over a huge stack of skis and poles on the way down, all of which fell in a spectacularly noisy cascade to the floor as she landed in a graceless heap on her butt.

Someone came pounding down the hall. “Katie?”

Oh, God. She yelled, “Don’t come in-”

But the door whipped open, and Cam stood there staring at her.

She couldn’t blame him. She lay on her back, draped over a pile of skis and poles, her pants still around her ankles. She decided to take some comfort in the fact that she wasn’t wearing either granny panties or a thong, but a nice pair of cotton bikinis in a demure pale pink.

With a picture of Hello Kitty on the front.

She’d have been far happier in a suit of armor, but what could she do?

Cam crouched by her side. “Are you hurt?”

“No!” She tried to sit up. Not easy with no stomach muscles and her feet weighted down. She straightened her glasses. “And I said don’t come in.”

He was looking at her panties and smiling. “Hello Kitty.”

“As in Don’t. Come. In.”

“You screamed.”

“I did not.” Scooting backward, she rolled over and staggered to her feet, pointing to his desk while scrambling to pull up her pants. “And you have a wild animal under there. You-” She stopped when he bent to look and let out a huff of laughter. “What? What’s so damn funny?”

“It’s just Chuck.”

“Chuck.” She pictured a rabid coyote. A psycho wild turkey. “Who’s Chuck?”

“Take a look for yourself.”

She glared at him, then bent a little and peered beneath the desk.

Sitting down there among a few electrical cords and a forgotten pair of athletic shoes was a scrawny, patchy gray cat, nearly all skin and bones.

“He adopted this place a while back apparently, when I was gone. He’s feral, and comes and goes as he pleases, though he hasn’t been around too much lately. Doesn’t like new people.”

Chuck was a cat. She bent down and took another peek. Yep. A cat. Sort of. He had whole chunks of fur missing, and the biggest green eyes she’d ever seen, making him look more like a baby ostrich.

“He’s not much of a people person,” Cam told her. “But he won’t hurt you. I won’t hurt you either, Goldilocks.”

“Ha.”

“Come here, kitty, kitty.” Instead of waiting, he stepped toward her, his eyes flashing an assortment of things, most of which made her heart skip more than a few beats.

“Trying to get dressed here.”

“I know.” Stopping just short of touching her, he dipped his head and took a good look at her from head to toe and back again, lingering at her unzipped pants. “Pale pink is my new favorite color.”

She stared into his amused, very heated eyes and felt all her good parts quiver. “You could have seen them up close and personal in the closet. You chose skiing.”

“I’m a stupid, stupid man.”

Their lips were less than an inch apart. She stared into his eyes, then at his mouth.

“Katie.” His voice was low, thrillingly rough as he lifted a hand and ran his thumb over her lower lip. It tingled for another kiss, and she closed her eyes…

He gently pulled off her glasses, then not so gently kissed her, long and deep. Her bones went all soft and gushy, but nothing on him felt soft and gushy, especially not what was pressing into her stomach.

“One more,” he said, his mouth moving down her neck.

“Two would be okay…”

With a low laugh, he slid his warm hands up the back of her sweater, making her want to stretch and purr like a kitten. “God, you feel good.”

“Yeah. Same goes.”

“Skiing,” he whispered against her lips, before removing his hands from her and stepping back. He nodded and let out a rough breath. “Skiing. I’ll wait out in the hallway.”

When he was gone, she let out a rough breath of her own, then stepped out of her pants-removing her boots first this time-and pulled on the ski pants. He’d been right, they did fit.

Like a damn glove.

She moved to the desk and bent down to look at Chuck. “Hey, cutie. What do you think?”

He didn’t even blink. Just stared at her with those heartbreaking eyes.

“Right. I’m asking for trouble.” She reached out a hand to stroke him, but he put his ears back and let out a low warning rumble. “Okay, have it your way, but I’ll charm you yet.”

More than a little self-conscious about the pants, she went out into the hallway, where one tall, dark, and oh-so-gorgeous man leaned against the wall waiting for her, eyes hot. “You look great,” he said.

Her good parts clamored as he handed her a jacket, hat, and a pair of gloves. He watched her add the extra layers. “I’m an idiot to have given you all that to wear.” His sexual frustration was the third person in the room.

Hers was the fourth.

Having no idea where this was going exactly, but suddenly enjoying the ride, Katie straightened. “Let’s do this. Let’s ski.”

Cam had been around the world looking for something to give him a new rush, to kick-start his heart, and he hadn’t found it. And yet here he was, his heart kick-started by a woman.

Clearly, he’d lost his mind.

No, Katie had lost her pants, and then he’d lost his mind. She’d stood there half naked in his office, wearing a snug sweater and those adorably sexy panties and nothing else, looking more than a little frazzled by Chuck.

And by him.

And he’d gotten turned on. So damn turned on.

So had she.

Okay, so that might be a little self-congratulatory, but it sure as hell hadn’t been the cat to make her nipples hard and pouty against the thin material of her sweater.

Now she was covered from head to toe in the best of the best gear available.

Well, hell. He’d come back home to feel something, anything, and it was working. He was definitely feeling something, though not necessarily with his head. At least not the one on top of his shoulders.

He carried his board and her skis, leading her to the equipment garage where he pointed to the Sno-Cat. “That’s the fastest way to get there. You up for it?”

“I’m up for all of it. The question is…” She waggled a brow. “Are you?”

He laughed. “I’ve been ‘up’ since I met you. Get in.”

He watched her eye the machine that just last week had struck terror into her heart. With a deep breath, she climbed into it while he enjoyed the way the ski pants fit her ass, picturing those pink panties he knew she wore beneath…but also feeling a wave of something other than lust, something deeper.

Because no matter what she said, or how big a smile she flashed him, he knew she was still scared of the Sno-Cat.

And still completely handling herself.

The women in his life had mostly fit into two categories: snowboarder groupies and fortune hunters. Katie didn’t fit into either. She certainly wasn’t here to stroke his ego or fawn all over him. And she didn’t seem to want anything from him.

She could have no idea how attractive that was to a guy like him. He climbed up beside her and hit the gas, not missing how she gripped the sides of her seat.

“We’re okay,” he assured her.

“I know. One of these days, though, we’re going to have to do something I’m good at.”

“And what are you good at?”

She flashed him a smile. “Guess.”

Once again, he went instantly hard, which both startled and amused him. “Now you tell me.”

“Hey, this was your idea, big guy. You could be in the closet right now, with me. Naked. And I look damn good naked.”

“I bet you do.”

“I was hoping to see how good you look.”

He laughed, laughed while hard, and he knew right then.

He could guard his heart all he wanted, but it was too late. She’d sneaked in past his defenses and leveled him flat on his ass, and now he was down for the count.

Katie stood at the base of the mountain looking up, up, up to where the ski lift vanished just over the peak, and swallowed hard. The ski resort looked like a European Alps village, pretty and quaint, full of old-school charm and character, and if she hadn’t been scared to death about making her way down the steep, steep mountain looming over it with two skis strapped to her feet, she’d have happily explored the shops and restaurants to her heart’s content.

Cam had given her a lift pass, which hung around her neck. She was holding her poles while he held both his board and her skis. With ease, she might add, using all those muscles she was so fond of looking at. At the moment, however, she wasn’t looking at him but the terrain, so white against a shocking blue sky. The wind was blowing a white mist of powder snow from the very tip of the mountain into the air. It was gorgeous, and terrifying.

Cam laid out her skis for her. She stepped into the bindings while he locked one of his boots into the bindings on his board.

When he glanced at her, she pasted a smile on her face and let him guide her closer, up the small hill to the lift. The young woman running it wore a ski cap low over her eyes, hair flowing to her waist. She was chewing gum and looking bored, until she saw Cam and her entire face lit up. “Hey there, you!”

“Heidi. How are you doing?”

“Good. Better now.” To prove it, she threw herself at him. “I’m so happy to see you!”

Katie would have liked to obsess over the full-body contact Heidi was managing to get with Cam, but she was too busy struggling to stay on the incline without rolling back. There was ice beneath her skis. In serious danger of slipping backward into the line of people behind her, she desperately used her poles to hold herself in place, making her biceps tremble with the strain, threatening to give out while Cam just stood there listening to Heidi babble all over him.

“I’m just so glad you’re back,” she was saying cheerfully, arms still loped around his neck.

Or at least that’s what her mouth was saying. Her eyes were saying, I want to lap you up like a bowl of ice cream.

Katie struggled harder not to kill everyone in line behind her, but any second now she was going to slide backward.

And then, it happened. Her poles slipped, and with a gasp she began to go-

Cam’s warm hand settled at her back, miraculously holding her in place, easily nudging her forward and off the ice patch.

She gritted her teeth. “You could have done that a lot sooner.”

“I was never going to let you fall.”

“Now you tell me. My arms are already killing me.”

“Do you exercise?”

“It’s on my to-do list.” At the bottom, but still…

“I’d give you the your-body-is-your-temple speech, but your body…” He paused to look her over from head to toe and back again, causing certain portions of her anatomy to flicker to life. “Well, I’d worship as is.”

Her knees wobbled. “Stop that.”

“Really?”

“No.”

He out and out grinned, and the rest of her body acted fairly predictably.

“Are you ready?”

She took a look at the lift coming around for them at what seemed like the speed of light and gathered her courage. “Ready,” she whispered, and willed it to be true.