His dad seems more on board, though, and after explaining to them exactly what I’m going to do, he somehow manages to convince Timmy’s mom that it’ll be fine. Good for him, even. I can’t help smiling when I get their permission—especially when I think of how excited Timmy’s going to be when I tell him.
Wanting it to be as big a surprise as I can make it, I don’t say anything to anyone else. Just call to the others that I’m going to make a coffee run. Tansy comes up to me as they are calling out their orders, and offers to head down to the resort with me.
Like I’m going to turn down a chance to spend a few minutes with her? Maybe cop a feel or two?
Her hand slips into mine as we walk, and I can’t help marveling at how good it feels just to be this close to her. It’s only been a couple days since we slept together, yet things feel totally natural with her, like we’ve been together for years.
The thought has alarm bells going off in my head, but I pretend I can’t hear them. It’s not a huge stretch, either. Not when Tansy is looking at me like she’s as dazzled as I am, her eyes that crazy in-between-brown-and-green color that gets to me every time I see it.
The thought has me wrapping my arm around her shoulders and pulling her against me. It’s only been a few hours since I climbed out of her bed after an early-morning wake-up call that had turned into something else pretty quickly, but I miss the feel of her against me. The taste of her lips on mine. The way she wraps her arms around my waist and holds me like we’ve got all the time in the world even though we both know it’s not true. It still blows me away how okay she is about the fact that most of my time, most of my attention, is devoted to my brother.
“I like your new hair color,” I tell her, reaching up to brush the fire-engine red and blond strands peeking out from beneath her beanie.
“You told me that last night, after I got it done.”
“Well, repeating it just goes to show I mean it.”
She laughs, then stretches up to kiss me. I bend my head to make it easier but still she has to stand on her tiptoes to reach. It’s strange, but her personality is so bold, so bright, that I forget how small she is unless she’s pressed against me. It’s only then that I remember just how fragile she is, how delicately made.
I lift my head and she growls a little, her hands tugging at my neck to pull my mouth down to hers again. I laugh, then cup her ass in my hands and boost her up, so that we’re level. She squeals a little, wrapping her arms and legs around me before bringing her mouth back to mine.
She tastes like sunshine mixed with vanilla today and as I smile against her lips, I can’t help thinking that this is what happiness tastes like. It’s been so long since I’ve felt it that I almost don’t recognize it.
Tansy squirms, like she’s afraid of falling, so I tighten my grip on her ass, pull her even more closely against me. It bothers me a little, how light she is. How easy she is to carry. She’s almost as skinny as Timmy, I realize, and for a moment the thought scares the hell out of me.
But she’s not like Timmy, I remind myself as I draw the kiss out. She’s strong and healthy and full of joy. Of life. Thank God.
Still, the moment of fear makes me hold her even more tightly, has me deepening our kiss until all I can taste or smell or feel is her. She laughs a little at my desperation but doesn’t pull away. Instead, she lets me hold her, kiss her, until our lips are numb and our jaws ache. Even then, I might have kept at it, except a couple of the resort employees walk by whistling and catcalling to us in Spanish.
I glare at them, but Tansy just laughs.
“We kind of deserve it,” she tells me as I reluctantly slide her down my body until her feet touch the ground. “That was a bit much.”
“Really?” I grab her hand, press it to the hard-on currently pressing against the front of my snowboarding pants. “Because it doesn’t feel like it was enough to me.”
“It never feels like it’s enough to you. You’re insatiable, Ash.” Still, she strokes me once, twice, a third time—just enough to have my dick leaking and my breath hitching in my chest—before pulling her hand away and skipping ahead through the snow.
I groan, spend a couple minutes trying to get my body under control before giving up and then breaking into a jog to catch up with her. Maybe no one will notice if it takes a few extra minutes for us to arrive with the coffee. We can always claim there was a long line at the coffee bar.
Forty-five minutes later, we finally make it back to the others—carrying twelve cups of coffee and hot chocolate between us. Not to mention a helmet for Timmy.
“Did you run up to Colombia to pick the beans?” Z smirks as he snatches his black coffee off my tray.
“There was a long line at the coffee bar,” Tansy tells him, not quite meeting his eyes.
“Oh, I’m sure there was. I just hope you two weren’t too bored with the long wait.”
“Thanks for your concern, Z, but the time went by pretty fast, actually.” This time, she smiles angelically as she lobs the ball back into Z’s court.
He snorts, casts a quick look at me out of the corner of his eye. “Not too quickly, I hope.”
Tansy turns red at that and I shoot him a glare that says he’s going to end up wearing about four cups of steaming hot coffee if he doesn’t shut his damn mouth soon.
But he’s Z, so he has to make a couple more cracks before letting the subject drop, even gets Luc in on the action. Some days I wonder how the hell I’ve put up with the two of them for sixteen years.
After we’ve all drained our cups, and Z’s headed back up for another run, I cross to Timmy and ask, “Hey, man, how’d you like to watch the show from the top of the pipe?”
His face lights up, only to fall a second later. “I’d love to, but I don’t think I’m strong enough to hike to the top of the half-pipe, Ash. I can’t breathe that well anymore and—”