Thick as Thieves (Aster Valley 4)

Through it all, Julian’s temper simmered under the surface. Thankfully, he was an attorney with plenty of experience keeping his cool in tense contract negotiations. So, when Julian finally snapped at BJ a little while later at the top of the first moguls run, I nearly dropped the video camera into the snow.

“If you don’t keep your fucking hands off my… Parker… we’re going to have words,” he barked.

BJ pulled his hands off my chest in slow motion. The edge of his mouth turned up in a knowing grin, but Jules probably couldn’t see it. “Jules, darling, I was only trying to keep myself from wiping out. Like I said earlier, I’m not very experienced on moguls.”

“We’re on a powdery, flat meadow.” Jules’s sunglasses hid what I knew had to be a familiar, murderous glare. “But if you can’t handle the next run, maybe you should take Pinecone Ramble back down to the restaurant and wait for us.”

BJ propped his gloved fist under his chin like he was deep in thought. “I think not. If anything happens to me, surely I’m in good hands with your… Parker. He’ll come to my rescue if I get in over my head.”

Jules lunged forward as if he was actually going to tussle with BJ. I grabbed his wrist just in time to pull him off to the side, where he tripped over his skis and landed on one knee in the powder. I grabbed him under the arms to haul him back up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hold back my laughter, and the sound of it made him mad enough to fight me. The two of us wound up in a snowy tangle on the ground.

Jules tried to shove me away from him while I tried to pull him closer. “Stop fighting me,” I said through a snort. “Jules, cut it out. This isn’t—”

A glove full of snow went into my mouth and up my nose.

Julian’s face was red with a combination of cold, embarrassment, and anger. What I should have done was calm him down with soothing, reassuring words and help him up.

What I did instead was force my snowy face into his previously warm neck. He yelped and tried to shove me away, but I used my legs to keep him pinned, legs that were considerably strong from years of professional skiing.

He had no chance.

“Dammit, Parks!”

BJ and Rocco were laughing their asses off but staying far enough away to keep from being dragged into the fray. We wrestled again like we had the other day, only this time I was hard for him, and I knew exactly what it meant. My heart thundered in my chest as I tried to get close enough to his ear to say something the others wouldn’t hear.

“Just you and me, Peanut. Just you. And me. Always.”

He suddenly stopped and met my eyes. His breath panted out of him in faint white puffs.

“Only you,” I added in a soft but firm voice. “Hear me and stop being stupid.”

I could tell he wanted to argue with me, to tell me all the reasons I couldn’t possibly know my own heart. But he also knew this wasn’t the time or place for further discussion.

“Okay.” His grip on the back of my parka changed to a quick hug and then a smack on my ass. “Now get off me, asshole.”

We stood up and shook ourselves off before clipping into our skis again to prepare for the moguls run. Julian knew to help me keep an eye on BJ without my having to say a word. The first pass down the bumpy slope went fine. The second was even better. It wasn’t pretty, but BJ managed to make it down without too much trouble.

It was at the end of the third run when things changed. I should have been paying closer attention. The responsibility was on me to keep the four of us strong and safe on the slopes, but with my attention split between Julian’s emotions and Rocco’s filming needs, I failed to identify when BJ’s legs began to tire.

We were halfway down the black diamond slope when BJ suddenly cut a mogul wrong, lost control of his balance, and went careening off the side of the trail.

16

JULIAN

Thankfully, BJ’s wild momentum was stopped by a thick snowbank before he hit something worse like a tree. It was clear from the way he landed he’d hurt himself. He pushed himself up but winced in pain. Parker got to him first, but I was behind him by only seconds. I slid to a stop beside him and popped out of my skis before crouching down to help.

After a quick assessment, we both decided he’d most likely injured his knee. It was bad enough Parker didn’t feel comfortable moving him but not nearly bad enough for him to be howling in agony.