SAM
For the firstfew minutes of the trip, Sam occasionally glimpsed animals through the trees, almost certainly shifters and definitely incongruous in their wintry mountain surroundings: a zebra, an anteater, something that might have been a Tasmanian devil.
But after that, it was just them. The trail was fresh and clear in front of them. Blue sun-cast shadows whipped past. He had to stay on top of the twists and turns in the trail, which seemed to rush toward him. It was exhilarating.
So was the presence of Maggie pressed to his back.
And other parts not his back.
She was trying to keep from flattening herself against him too obviously, at least he got the feeling she was. But after they had bounced over several bumps in the trail, which caused her fall against his ass, she seemed to give up and press herself more closely against his back, holding on to his waist. This was better, in a way, because now she was no longer bouncing on and off his back end. But it also meant that he had Maggie plastered against him all the time, wrapped around him, jiggling a little with the movement of the machine.
And maybe that was why he was distracted enough that he did almost miss a turn. He saw it coming up on them at the last minute, wrenched the handlebars hard to the right, and then he remembered what Mauro had said about leaning, like on a motorcycle, and he leaned hard, pulling Maggie with him.
The machine tipped right over on the inside of the turn. Maggie gave a loud, undignified squawk as they both plowed sideways into the snow. As Mauro had said, the machine stopped moving the instant his hand came off the throttle, and they were very suddenly lying in the snow with the snowmobile flipped on its side, pressing Sam’s leg into the snowdrift. They hadn’t been going very fast in the turn, so the general effect was like crashing into a pile of pillows.
“Maggie! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, muffled. He could feel her squirming a little. “Uh, I think I’m stuck.”
“Me too. Under the machine?”
“No, under you.”
With a lot of squirming and struggling in the yielding snow, they thrashed their way apart from the machine and each other. Maggie pulled off her helmet, and Sam was vastly relieved to see her face emerge pink and grinning. She twisted her shoulders and shook snow out of her collar.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine.” She pulled off a glove and shook snow out of that, too. “How about you?”
“Nothing bruised but my pride.”
They both regarded the machine laying on its side like a beached sea creature.
“What happened?” Maggie asked. “I couldn’t really see around you. We were starting to turn and then suddenly my head was in the snow.”
“I missed a turn. Totally my fault. I think I leaned too much and dragged us both over.” The machine was still sputtering, and Sam belatedly thought to turn it off. A sudden ringing hush fell on the woods, the perfect stillness of a winter’s day.
“We can flip rightside up, can’t we?” Maggie said. “I mean, we’re shifters. We’re strong.”
“Sure we can.”
He grasped the handlebars, and Maggie took the back end. With their feet slipping in the snow, wallowing and with a little occasional mild swearing, they dragged it upright and got it back on the trail, pointed in the right direction.
“I’m just going to hope this starts,” Sam said, and pushed the button.
It didn’t start. He had a moment of mild panic before he remembered the button had to be held for a moment until the engine caught.
When the machine was idling steadily, Sam said, “See? No problem.”
Maggie laughed. “I think maybe I’d like to try driving.”
“Sure. You couldn’t do any worse.”
“You were fine. I bet I’ll have us in the ditch in minutes.”
She put on her helmet and straddled the machine, and Sam had the somehow unexpected realization that it was his turn for his crotch to be pressed toherass.
This was fine at the moment, because accidentally dumping them in the snow and having to turn upright a machine he’d crashed wasn’t the sexiest thing in the world. The basic effect was like dumping a whole bunch of snow down his pants, more or less literally. But now he was thinking about snugging up to Maggie’s back the way she had been to his, and oh no.
