Jesus, I was a mess for this guy. And I couldn’t remember the last time someone had touched me like that. It was sweet, like maybe he wanted my pain to lessen, or that it mattered to him.
The pain that usually hit me after skiing as hard as we did that afternoon simply wasn't there, and it felt odd. That leg felt weak, like it usually would, but it wasn’t painful. Perrin told me to take something for inflammation, because he had manipulated the sensitive muscles, and I did. Whatever residual pain may have been therewas gone with nothing more than the ibuprofen kicking in.
Perrin and I made our way to the kitchen after taking turns showering and slipping on the clothes my brother had given us when we first arrived. We sat at the oversizedisland in high leather chairs, Perrin’s warm, muscular thigh against mine and his arm resting on the back of my chair.
I liked that a little too much, probably.
I caught my brothers, at one time or another, looking at Perrin carefully, but it was subtle. They seemed to like him well enough as a friend, but I’m not sure what they would think if I slept with him, and I really didn’t want to hear it from them. Baylor watched me climb down from the chair and head into the kitchen. Usually I would have a slight limp at this point in the evening, but thanks to Perrin it was fine. Baylor noticed, in that quiet way he noticed everything.
CJ and some friends joined us, and everyone was interested that Perrin, Bear Valley’s newest resident, was here and I had to admit, it was hard not to enjoy the company of the laid-back guy. I could see why he fit in so well in those late-night sessions with Matt.
Perrin shared some stories of his time in Europe, what he had skied, or the crazy situations he found himself in working in small hospitals in foreign countries. Despite having been in a few of these food and friends hang-outs with my brothers, this was the most he had contributed to the conversation.
He shared that he is a specialist - a rare one - anesthesia in sports medicine. Bear Valley General is one of the best sports medicine hospitals in the country, and to have someone who was knowledgeable and specialized like Perrin join the team had been the talk of the past three board meetings, according to Baylor, who sat on the hospital board. In the past few years, Bear Valley General had risen to the ranks of one of the best placesin the country for orthopedics, sports medicine and injury recovery. That would only increase as we pulled in more people like Perrin.
Who wouldn’t want to recover in a beautiful ski town? It seemed like a natural fit for the place that always seemed to revitalize people who came here.
I knew his role just from being so connected to the hospital, but he fleshed out what the title actually meant. It wasn’t like I was new to hospital terminology, one ofmy moms had been the Chief of Surgery herself, but I knew much more about administration and the attached Mann Foundation, which I ran, than I did about what folks actually did in the OR.
CJ was being restrained, but I could tell she wanted to grill him with questions. Perrin was good at deflecting. He easily turned it around, asking questions right back.
“Why Europe, though?” I asked, when CJ had moved over to the kitchen to refill her plate.
“You too, Jack?” Perrin shot back, with a pained look on his face.
I laughed, “I was just curious. You are getting off easy with CJ, by the way. Could be worse.”
“Itwillbe worse,” Quinn warned from across the island, and CJ bumped his shoulder.
“Like, what am I in for? Cross-examination?” Perrin asked, still looking pained at this type of attention on him.
“More like the Spanish Inquisition,” I muttered, earning me a look from CJ that said I was going to pay for that later.
“You’ll be ok, P,” Baylor laughed. “Just ask for help from the counselor, there,” he said, gesturing at me.
Perrin’s eyes held surprise when he looked at me, and then the full smile. I noticed he had two. One is a half-smile that bent up on the left, all lopsided and sexy. The other is the full mouth, both sides hitched up and dimples - liquid sunshine. So far, he has only aimed the lop-sided oneatme, not anyone else. It is fucking adorable.
“So,” he said, taking in the whole crew who were now relaxing in variousways around the center island. “Let me - just - get this straight. All of you work for Mann Properties, or Mann Resort, or the Mann Foundation, which is basically Bear Valley. Quinn, is abrewmaster and architect; CJ is in charge of all IT and marketing; Matt is a five-star chef at the Bear Valley Inn; Baylor runsyourfarm, manages the landscaping, and sits on the board for Bear Valley General.So Jack, what, is the company attorney?” He asked. “And host with the most?” He gave me a wink as he saidit, curling my damned toes.
Everyone laughed at that, and I feel a blush all the way to my scalp. It only increased when Matt and Baylor hoot at “host with the most.” I woulddefinitelybe hearing that one again sometime.
“Jack is the CEO of the Mann Foundation, COO of Mann Resorts, Mann Properties, and the whole damn Mann family,” CJ said, and I had to get up to shift the weight ofthe mantle of responsibility that startedto fall on my shoulders when I thoughttoo hard about my place in this little world my family created.
I felt Perrin’s eyes on me.
“Oh,” was all Perrin said, though. Then, “explains why Jack’s a bit competitive.”
That was all it took for my siblings. Before I could even get back to my seat, Perrin was being regaled with the stories of Jack, a few from when I was younger and a few from corporate asshole Jack, who I triednot to be on most days, but still, it came with the territory.
I knew it was time to go when the conversation shifted, and as Perrin’s looksgotlonger and I started to think of a whole host of things I definitely didn’t want to think about around my siblings. Quinn would see through me, without a doubt, if he hadn’t already. So, when Perrin casually removed his arm from the back of my chair, his fingers - not casually - brushed against my thigh on their way back to his own lap, it was a signal of sorts.
It’s fire.
Perrin
It wasn’t all that late when weleftQuinn’s place, the surreal experience of the day and night still swirling around me. It is just so different than the past five years of my life that I felt like lifetimes had passed in that one day. The only thing missing was how much I wanted to touch Jack. I might have still been trying to square corporate Jack that I heard about with the Jack I had already met, but none of that was doing a thing to dampen the lust.
I liked smart, complicated people.
