“Let me try again. By myself.”
She was determined so he shrugged and let go of her. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. One moment he was standing beside her watching her try to skate and the next he’d landed flat on his back with Sierra sprawled on top of him.
“Oops. Sorry.” Her eyes sparkled and she was clearly having a hard time holding back her laughter.
She lost the battle and they both started laughing. “You just did something my brothers have a hard time doing,” he said when he could speak.
“What’s that?”
She still sprawled on top of him. He decided he didn’t mind getting taken down if it meant he got to hold her like this. “You took me out.”
“All I did was grab for you.”
“I wasn’t expecting it. It’s kind of humiliating having a woman half my size take me down.”
“Poor baby.”
Her mouth was close. Those lush lips were smiling. He could feel her warm breath fanning his face. He wanted to kiss her. Wanted to slide his hands over her satiny soft skin. Wanted to feel her breasts in his hands, feel the way her nipples pebbled when she got turned on. But he couldn’t do any of that. He was trying to go slow and this wasn’t helping.
He got up and helped her up again. Then he led her off the ice to a bench and left her to get them drinks. When he returned she was massaging her thighs. She took the hot chocolate from him and sipped. “How long have you been skating?”
“Since I was three.”
“Good Lord, that’s young.”
“My brothers were already skating, and I pitched a fit until my mom gave in. Also, my dad was on my side. Besides, Liam isn’t much older than me and he was skating. I guess he figured they might as well let me. Logan and Liam laughed their asses off. I mean, I was three and fell down a lot. By the time I was five I could skate them both into the ground. What?” he asked when he realized she was staring at him.
“I’m trying to imagine you as a three-year-old. I bet you were adorable.”
“According to my mother I was the epitome of ‘it’s a good thing he’s cute because otherwise I’d kill him.’”
She laughed. “More so than your brothers?”
He shrugged. “According to them, anyway.” He stood and reached for her hand. “Are you ready to skate some more?”
“I don’t like to fall down.”
“No one does.”
“It was better when I fell on top of you.”
He chuckled. “Don’t count on that again. I’m prepared now. Besides, you’ll get better with practice.”
Not much to his surprise, she did.
