Page 34

As far as she could see, snowcapped mountains glinted under the cloudless blue sky the exact shade of the eyes of the man next to her. The helicopter had dropped them off on top of the Swiss peak ten minutes ago.
But the rush of the impending race wasn’t the reason her blood all but sang through her veins. And it wasn’t the reason he was asking the seemingly simple question.
She looked at him. “Yes.”
His eyes shone with approval and she beamed, unable to stop herself from basking in the hunger that vibrated off him.
How very quickly she was coming to know him. While Leia didn’t fool herself into thinking she knew nearly enough about him to form a solid judgment, in the past six hours he’d been relentless in seeing to her every need, starting from his firm knock on her door the moment they’d landed.
He’d whisked her away to breakfast at an exquisite little café near the Jet d’eau in Geneva, leaving the crew to deliver her bagto the private lodge they’d be spending the night in before their flight to Vienna in the morning. They’d been picked up after breakfast and delivered to the heliport. From there, the private helicopter had flown them straight to where their ski guides waited in Zermatt. In the few hours since they’d landed, she’d learned enough about Noah to know what pleased him.
He was possessive. That would only become a problem if he found out about Warren. And she didn’t intend to let that aspect of her life intrude on this moment in time.
He loved to touch her. She didn’t have a problem with that.
More than anything else, he preferred it when she used her voice. No problem there either. To Noah King, the reverse of the idiomactions speak louder than wordswas true.
With another smile, he pulled down his goggles. “I’ll race you.”
“What do I get when I win?”
His brows shot up. “When?You feeling brave, sweetheart?”
“I have a few surprises up my sleeve.”
He waited until the couple next to them shoved off the summit. They were fast, experienced, and traversed the trail with smooth speed and efficiency.
But she knew they would be nowhere as magnificent to watch as the man beside her. And nowhere near as fast.
Her body was in good enough condition, thanks to the three-times-a-week training sessions she’d been taking since she turned eighteen and the once-a-week sparring matches with Warren.
But Leia hadn’t hit a black run for almost two years. If she were to have a hope in hell of winning, she’d need to bring her A-game.
She calculated how quickly she could traverse the terrain and turned to find his eyes trained on her. The look in the blue depths terrified and excited her at the same time. Predatory anddetermined, his eyes also held a gentleness that unsettled her a little.
“If you win, I’ll let you come as hard and fast as you want to the first time.”
Her heart slammed against her ribs and her body grew hot, despite the sub-zero temperature. “And if you win?”
Blue eyes darkened to midnight and a muscle twitched at the corner of his mouth. “I get to dictate how long I keep you on the edge.”
Recalling how excruciating the pleasure/pain had been the last time, she bit her lip. She couldn’t fathom how she would remain sane if he kept her on the very edge of her endurance as he’d promised last night.
She eyed the steep run, which until recently had been a black run but had been re-classified to a yellow.
“I tell you what, I’ll give you a one-minute head start,” Noah drawled.
The fine hairs on her nape bristled at his superior tone. “What makes you think I need one?”
He shrugged. “Take the minute or don’t. I’m just trying to get us off this mountain before my balls turn into ice cubes.”
Her gaze trailed over his black and red ski suit. Her mouth watered at the sight of his broad shoulders and lean hips, then immediately dried at the latent power of his thighs as he flexed his legs on his skis. The thought of all that power unleashed on her should’ve made her take a step back.
Instead, she closed the gap between them and raised her face to his. “I’ll tellyouwhat.” She deliberately kept her voice low so he’d have to bend to hear her. Her mouth brushed his ear. His throat bobbed in a swallow. “I’ll be waiting at the bottom to warm your frozen balls for you. And if you’re very, very lucky, I might even use my tongue.How’s that, sweetheart?”
Before he could respond, she planted an open-mouthed kiss on his startled lips, turned and launched herself off the mountain.
The skin-flaying course whipped past her eardrums as she dug her ski poles into the soft powder and hurtled down the steep white slope.