My Kind of Wonderful(54)

“Maybe I should rethink this,” she said. “And become a ski bunny who gets to sit all nice and warm and toasty in the lodge.”

“I’ll make you nice and toasty later,” he promised. “Watch your skis. When you traverse across the slope, your skis need to be more parallel.”

She was about to parallel him upside the head when a little girl called out to him.

“HudsonHudsonHudson!” The cutie pie swooshed around him on her tiny skis, beaming wide as she came up alongside.

She was missing both her front teeth.

“Emma,” Hudson said with a chuckle. “You escape from your dad again?”

“Yes!” She giggled. “Race me!”

Hudson turned to Bailey.

“I don’t mind,” she said. “I’d love to see her kick your butt.”

“Ready, set, go!” Emma yelled, and took off.

Hudson easily got ahead of her and turned to face her, skiing backward like it was no big deal.

But Emma was no slouch. She might be tiny, but she was very good. Her little body moved with easy confidence. But then she dove into a turn and—in Bailey’s humble opinion, because she bent her knees too much—fell… right into Hudson.

He dropped his poles to catch her in midair, twisting so that as they tumbled to the snow in a heap, he was on the bottom, not crushing her.

Emma immediately sat up, grinning wide. “That was fun! Can we do it again? Can we?”

From prone on the ground, Hudson lifted Emma off of him. “No, you little rug rat. Some of us are too old for this.”

Beaming at him again, she took off. “Gotta go,” she yelled back. “Mom and Dad are waiting for me at the bottom.”

And then she was gone.

Bailey came to a careful stop next to Hud. “You’re supposed to stay on your feet,” she teased, tossing his own lesson back in his face.

Not afraid to laugh at himself, he snorted as he got to his feet. They took off in tandem.

“Uh-oh,” she said, moving in closer. “You have a little…” Pretending she was going to brush some snow off of him, she instead smacked his ass in the same way he’d done to her. Except maybe harder. Or, you know, a lot harder.

Hudson’s eyes lit with a heated challenge as he gave her a look that had every bone in her body melting. It was the only reason that she plowed right into him, taking them both back down to the snow.

This time everything flew off, her skis, her poles… her good wits, scattering along with her equipment.

“And that’s what you call a garage sale,” Hudson said.

“I’m sorry,” she gasped, sprawled out over the top of him. She pushed up off his chest and stared down into his face. “I didn’t mean to—”

“Wait.” He cupped the back of her head, his gaze dropping to her mouth. “You have a little something…”

She touched her face. “Where?”

“I’ve got it.” And he pulled her face down to his, kissing her long and wet and deep.

“Get a room,” someone yelled from the ski lift above them.

Bailey ignored it and so did Hudson. Only when he was apparently finished thoroughly ravaging her mouth did he let her go. “Ready?” he asked.

Ready? For what? She no longer knew her name. That she was still on a ski slope shocked the hell out of her. She looked down at herself to make sure her clothes hadn’t melted off. “I’m always ready,” she said.

He grinned. “That’s what I like about you.” He got to his feet in one move that made it look easy.

It wasn’t. First off, her legs still weren’t working, so it took her a minute to get them beneath her. Hudson patiently straightened her out.

Dazed, she stared at his mouth, which she knew could drive her halfway to orgasm with just a kiss. She let out a rough laugh and shook her head. “Hudson?”

“Yeah?”

“I know I’m the one who put limits on this… this thing,” she said, and bit her lower lip, suddenly nervous. “But I’m pretty sure we’re not quite done with each other.”

He looked at her for what felt like a long time. “You want another night.”

Still unable to take her eyes off his mouth, she didn’t muzzle herself. “I want as long as it takes.”

He cupped her jaw, lifting her head up so that she was looking into his eyes again. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“What makes you think I can’t keep it?”

“Because you seem to like things one night at a time,” he said in that low, sexy voice. “But no way is one more night going to be enough.”

Again, her heart skipped a beat. “Cocky much?” she managed.

His smile was slow and sexy as hell. “That wasn’t bravado, Bailey. That was fact.”





Chapter 19


At the base lodge, Bailey removed her skis next to Hudson. He scooped up all of their skis and poles and set them over his shoulder.

While she gaped at the easy strength, he held out his free hand for hers.

“What?” she asked.

“You have a promise to fulfill.”

Oh boy. Everything was about to change, and she could feel it. She’d had a lot of changes in the past few years. More than most had in their entire lives. Was she ready for another?