“Well, I’m not going first!” I said, standing my ground. “You’ll make me drag the sled back up so you can force me down again.”
He smirked. “You caught onto my dastardly plan.”
“I’m not dumb.” I rolled my eyes, looking between the sled and the foreboding slope.
“Get it over with, London,” he teased.
I peered down the slope again, stomach plummeting at the idea. I really didn’t want to do this twice. The sooner webothgot to the bottom, the sooner I could get back to my wine and cheese.
“Come down with me.” I said the words as quickly as the idea popped into my head.
Jonah stood there, staring at me. For a moment, I wondered if he’d frozen in the cold. Then, he blinked.
“You want us,” he said, pointing between us, “to go down together?”
I nodded once. “We can share. Then you’re not left up here and you can’t force me to climb back up.”
He continued to stare at me, a flash of regret across his face like a shooting star in the night. An unmistakable slip of the mask that had a smirk curling onto my lips.
“I mean,” I said, revelling in his uncertainty, “unless you’re scared.”
Had that been his plan all along? To drag me up a hill, force me on a sled, but never actually take his turn?
His brows pressed together, mask back in place. “I’m not afraid.”
“Oh really?” If this was my ticket off this damn mountain, I was taking it.
Much to my regret, however, Jonah did not take the bait. Instead, he huffed once, his warm breath turning to a cloud of condensation, before lowering himself to the back of the sled.
“Well, climb on,” he said, motioning in front of him, between hisspreadlegs.
I had not thought it through. I had not thought it through at all. Worse yet, I knew it was too late to back out.
Slowly, I shuffled through the snow to the front of the sled, lowering myself backwards until my bum met the cold plastic. “I don’t think there’s enough room,” I said.
“You need to move back more.”
“There’s no space.”
“There is,” he said, although the words sounded pained. “Can I put my arm around you?”
“Yeah.” I just about squeaked the word, holding my breath as his arm moved, snaking around my waist. And then he pulled me back until my back met his hard chest and I was fully seated in between his thighs.
I had to close my eyes to hold myself together. Even through our clothes and jacket I could feel the heat of his body, and, like a moth to the flame, I wanted more.
“Is that alright?” There was a heavy weight to his voice, the words practically spoken into my ear, our bodies pressed so close.
I nodded, only managing a single, cracked, “Yes.”
His feet tucked into the sled, bracketing me further, squeezed tightly into the middle.
This was a bad idea. A terrible, awful idea. And, even worse, I didn’t hate it at all. Not with my gloved hands placed on the outer side of his thighs, feeling the thick, sculpted muscle. Not with his hot breath on my neck, or his heartbeat thrumming through his body to mine.
No, I found that being in close proximity to Jonah wasn’t something I disliked even a tiny bit.
“Ready?” he asked.
I only nodded, my attention fixed on the distance ahead of us. With the distraction of his body, my fight or flight instincts were almost completely lulled into a horniness-induced stupor.
