What I did instead was force my snowy face into his previously warm neck. He yelped and tried to shove me away, but I used my legs to keep him pinned, legs that were considerably strong from years of professional skiing.
He had no chance.
“Dammit, Parks!”
BJ and Rocco were laughing their asses off but staying far enough away to keep from being dragged into the fray. We wrestled again like we had the other day, only this time I was hard for him, and I knew exactly what it meant. My heart thundered in my chest as I tried to get close enough to his ear to say something the others wouldn’t hear.
“Just you and me, Peanut. Just you. And me. Always.”
He suddenly stopped and met my eyes. His breath panted out of him in faint white puffs.
“Only you,” I added in a soft but firm voice. “Hear me and stop being stupid.”
I could tell he wanted to argue with me, to tell me all the reasons I couldn’t possibly know my own heart. But he also knew this wasn’t the time or place for further discussion.
“Okay.” His grip on the back of my parka changed to a quick hug and then a smack on my ass. “Now get off me, asshole.”
We stood up and shook ourselves off before clipping into our skis again to prepare for the moguls run. Julian knew to help me keep an eye on BJ without my having to say a word. The first pass down the bumpy slope went fine. The second was even better. It wasn’t pretty, but BJ managed to make it down without too much trouble.
It was at the end of the third run when things changed. I should have been paying closer attention. The responsibility was on me to keep the four of us strong and safe on the slopes, but with my attention split between Julian’s emotions and Rocco’s filming needs, I failed to identify when BJ’s legs began to tire.
We were halfway down the black diamond slope when BJ suddenly cut a mogul wrong, lost control of his balance, and went careening off the side of the trail.
16
JULIAN
Thankfully, BJ’s wild momentum was stopped by a thick snowbank before he hit something worse like a tree. It was clear from the way he landed he’d hurt himself. He pushed himself up but winced in pain. Parker got to him first, but I was behind him by only seconds. I slid to a stop beside him and popped out of my skis before crouching down to help.
After a quick assessment, we both decided he’d most likely injured his knee. It was bad enough Parker didn’t feel comfortable moving him but not nearly bad enough for him to be howling in agony.
“I don’t think you tore your ACL,” Parker said, letting out a breath of relief. “Or you’d be writhing in pain. Hopefully, it’s just a sprain or something, but let’s keep it stable regardless. You wouldn’t believe some of the injuries I’ve seen.”
BJ’s energetic personality was subdued by the pain and fear of his fall. “I’ll bet.”
I reached out to hold his hand in mine. “It probably helped that you’re in such good shape and flexible. They say flexibility and stretching is a critical component of avoiding injury. Parker learned that from several trainers when he was an athlete.” I knew I sounded stupid, but I remembered Parker telling me the key to keeping injured skiers calm is to stay calm yourself and talk to them.
Since I could see tears spilling out of the edges of his eyes, I knew he was in plenty of pain.
While Rocco helped BJ into a more comfortable position, Parker contacted his ski patrol friend, who promised to bring help quickly. Within moments, the engine buzz of a snowmobile greeted us as the ski patrol approached.
Parker’s friend Dallas hopped off the machine and raced over to assess BJ. I knew BJ must have been more hurt than he was letting on because he didn’t spare a single sideways glance or flirty comment for the sexy, broad-shouldered man in the red parka. When Dallas indicated he’d need to take BJ down the hill on the litter attached to the back of his snowmobile, Parker offered to help.
“Nah, no need. Ambulance won’t let anyone ride along. But he’ll want some company at the hospital later,” he said, looking between us.
Rocco lifted his hand to volunteer. “I’ll come. I’m his friend, and I’m staying with him.” He leaned down to speak quietly to BJ.
Rocco thanked us for our help and gathered up the remaining camera equipment before following the snowmobile down the mountain.
I wasn’t used to this much skiing anymore, so I sheepishly admitted to Parker that maybe this would be a good time for us to collect my stuff from the mid-mountain restaurant and go home ourselves. “I’d hate to wind up with a similar injury,” I admitted.
Parker stepped over to me and pressed a cold kiss to my lips. “If you hadn’t said it, I would have. I feel awful I didn’t notice him tiring sooner.”
We made our way back to the cabin, remembering partway there we’d promised to join our friends at the lodge for dinner.
When we finally arrived at Mikey and Tiller’s place later, I was jelly-legged and half-asleep. If it hadn’t been for Parker manhandling me into the shower back at my cabin, I would have still been stinky and half-frozen from the day on the slopes.
There hadn’t been anything sexual about our joint shower, but just seeing his hands on my body taking care of me had been a breathtaking turn-on. But it had also felt bittersweet, like being told I could add as many toppings as I wanted to my ice cream sundae but knowing I’d wind up sick if I actually ate them all. I’d almost been glad of the excuse to postpone the conversation I knew we needed to have.
When I stumbled on the lodge’s front step, Parker quickly slid an arm around my waist. “Easy.”
“How do you spend all day on the slopes?” I asked, already knowing he was used to it. “My legs are no longer functional.”
“Meth and cocaine,” he said casually. “Sometimes I even add a chocolate bar midafternoon.”
I elbowed him, causing him to make an exaggerated oof sound before reaching out to ring the doorbell. It had been days since Parker had been nervous enough to try to deflect things with a silly joke, but clearly, he was as hesitant to face our friends as I was.
We stood there side by side and stared at the closed door.
“We could let ourselves in,” I suggested. “They’re actually really good friends of ours.”
“It’s going to be bad, isn’t it? They’re going to grill us for details and try to get us to define this thing between us.”
I nodded without looking at him. “Really bad. Horrific.”
He dropped the arm he had around me and clasped my hand instead. I loved the feel of his strong hand in mine.
We continued to stare at the door.
Parker sighed. “They’re probably expecting us to let ourselves in.”
I nodded again. “Probably.”
“What do you want to tell them? We’re together. That’s all they need to know, right?”
I turned to look at him. “What do you mean, we’re togeth—”
“Hi!” Parker squawked nervously as the door flew open, revealing both Mikey and Tiller. Parker pulled me forward so quickly, I almost tripped again. “We’re here. Here we are. We have come. Here. To have dinner. With you. Here.”