The Billionaire Athlete’s Christmas Fling - Leslie North Page 0,18

but it was hard to focus. His skin still hummed from the kiss, goosebumps tugging at his skin. “I was—” There was no explaining it. He looked her straight in the eye. “You saw.”

His grandmother surveyed him with the hint of a smile in her eyes but a serious set to her face. “I saw you entering the building and came to ask about something. Was that fleeing woman Tana? Aren’t you working with her daughter on ski lessons?”

“What? No, that wasn’t Tana.” he said with a straight face. Chase had to protect Tana at all costs. This was exactly why they shouldn’t have done what they did, and now it was too late to go back. Especially because now, he only wanted more. “And I’ve taken her daughter out for a couple of sessions. Not a big deal.”

His grandmother frowned at him, then reached out and smacked his arm. “Don’t you go making trouble for people, Chase.”

He raised his hands in the air, ready to say that he wasn’t, but his grandmother sighed. A wistfulness came into his grandmother’s eyes, and when she looked back at Chase, he thought he caught a few tears gathered there. She blinked them away. Maybe he’d imagined them after all.

“I’m not going to.” The last thing he wanted was to upset her, given everything she was dealing with. He did not want her to worry about the resort. But he also couldn’t lie. “I like her, but that won’t happen again.”

“Life is short. Just be smart and maintain appropriate boundaries.” He’d wanted to reassure her, but somehow he hadn’t found the right words.

Instead, his grandmother had taken the lead, just like when he was a young boy and being called out for some wrongdoing. All his emotions twisted up with one another, becoming indistinguishable. The only thing he could focus on fully was how good it felt to kiss Tana.

She put a hand on Chase’s elbow. “I’m happy you’re back. Do you know that? It’s obvious you’re feeling more at home and that you’re falling for someone special.” Her eyes were shining again. “You’ve seemed so lively the last few days. I hope you’ll consider...staying here permanently.”

Buzzkill. He couldn’t stay; the memories were just too painful. The noises of the resort fell away, leaving him in a roaring silence. “I’ll think about it.” It was the only answer he could give without hurting her.

“Good.” His grandmother headed out, but Chase stayed behind in the quiet.

For a fleeting instant, he imagined bringing Tana to his home permanently, and Lindsey. He imagined how it would feel to hear their voices echoing through all the rooms that were normally silent. He imagined Christmases and birthdays, singing carols, opening gifts. He imagined a quick run to the lodge in the winters and climbing the lush green hills in the summers.

And then he blinked it all away, the images replaced by others. Like the moment he crashed and burned on the slopes, his skis tangling up and throwing him bodily to the ground. The agonizing pain that pierced his leg and knee. He’d known it was bad then, and he knew it now, too.

Living here was not a choice he could make.

8

Tana couldn’t get the kiss out of her head.

She hadn’t been kissed like that in a long time, if ever. And as she went through her lessons the next day, it had crept into all the quiet moments. Her skis cut against the snow and wind whooshed over her ears, setting her at ease. The familiar motions freed her mind to think of other, more exciting things. Like Chase’s lips on hers, firm and wanting. Like how close their bodies had been, separated only by a few bulky layers of snow gear. The hard ridge of the skis against her back when he pressed her up against the wall.

Tana had worked in a lot of places that involved equipment racks over the course of her life, but nothing so sexy had ever happened near one. Nothing that sexy had ever happened, period, and it was because Chase himself was over-the-top attractive. The breeze seemed hot against her cheeks when she thought of him. If she kept this up, she’d have to press her face into a snowbank to cool down. That wouldn’t look great to her employers.

One thing already didn’t look great to them—getting caught kissing Chase in the shed in the first place. And by his grandmother. Her face went hotter, and Tana moved to the