This is the version of her I love most.
And the one I'm not sure I can keep.
She traces lazy patterns on my chest, fingertips light, and I watch her in the dim light filtering through the curtains.
I can win a downhill. I've proven that.
But I don't know how to keep a girl who only feels real when she's running.
"What are you thinking?" she asks, voice drowsy.
"Nothing."
"Liar."
I kiss the top of her head instead of answering, and she doesn't push.
We lie there in the quiet, closer than we've ever been, and for the first time, sex feels like staying instead of escaping.
I just don't know if either of us knows how to stay.
Her breathing evens out, and I think she's fallen asleep when she murmurs, "This feels like a bubble."
"What?"
"Tonight," she says softly. "Beautiful and thin."
I tighten my arm around her, like I can hold the bubble in place if I just don't let go.
"Yeah," I whisper. "It does."
The circus will come for us in the morning.
But tonight, we're here. And that has to be enough.
Tomorrow the hill gets first claim on me again. Tonight she does.
Chapter 10
The Kitzbühel Burn
Playlist:
Guano Apes: Big In Japan
Scarlett Johansson: Set It All Free
Kitzbühel, Austria, January 22
NICO
