Lucas is dressed all in black.
“I thought you liked skiing,” he tells me.
“I like the ski lifts.”
That ride is always relaxing. Until it’s time to get off.
He removes his snowboard and plops down behind me, his legs around me. Tipping my chin back, he kisses my lips.
“And I love après-ski,” I whisper.
I love getting everything off and getting warm with him.
“That was not very nice what you pulled in the office,” he growls a little.
“I think I’m very nice.”
Our family is all around the mountain somewhere. Except James. He’s probably in the lodge, whipping up mischief.
Skiers and snowboarders coast by us, having a ball, and I can smell the snow clouding the sky. January has been an eventful month for weather, but I’m not complaining.
I thread my fingers through Lucas’s as they snake around my waist.
“Have you had enough skiing?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“Wanna go home?”
“Yeah.”
He hugs me close. “Okay,” he says. “But you gotta get your ass down the hill one last time.”
I crash back into him harder. “Ugh.”
We sit there for a minute, out of the way, watching Hunter and Kade race by, carving eights into the snow with their boards. I can just make out Juliet on the bunny hill with Aro’s brother, teaching him some beginner moves.
Lucas is going to be here or—hopefully—at his resort every winter. He loves the snow. “I’m going to have to learn, aren’t I?”
I want him to say “no.” Or tell me I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do, but instead, he replies, “Yes.”
I eye him over my shoulder.
“I can’t own a ski resort and my wife not ski,” he explains.
Wife?
Butterflies swarm my stomach, and I can’t keep the smile at bay.
I know this isn’t his actual proposal, but it’s the first time he’s alluded to our future together.
Is it really going to be Lucas and me? Forever?
He smiles back and lowers his mouth to mine, but I can’t even kiss him properly, I’m almost giggling.
“Quinn,” he scolds, wanting his kiss.
But I just laugh, shrinking down in his arms under his cocked eyebrow. “I’m sorry!”
