Snow Angel (21 page)

No way.

Melinda had a lot of guy friends, possibly more guy friends than girlfriends, and he’d never had a problem with it before. Not really.

Was this what it had felt like to his past girlfriends when they’d seen him hanging out with Melinda?

Huh.

That was a new consideration.

Jacob frowned. He’d always dismissed their jealousy of his relationship with Melinda as the girl’s problem, but maybe they’d had a small point. It put him in a weird position. For the first time, he was truly able to understand what those girls had complained about.

At least to a degree.

However, Melinda wasn’t dating the Denmarkian donut hole. She would most likely never see him again, and he refused to succumb to the whole green-eyed-monster routine.

By God, he was not going to become That Guy.

Rubbing a hand over his still-clutching belly, Jacob pulled his determination up from around his ankles. He was not going to get his skivvies in a twist over some ski-slope strudel she’d just met and would never see again, just because he had ideas of romance running around the rabbit warren in his brain.

That much settled, Jacob shoved out of the chair and headed for the locker room and his gear, ignoring the aches and pains from the accident. Maybe he was better off skiing alone for a while.

He had some thinking to do, and a bitch of an attitude to lose.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Waving goodbye to Dane at the end of the afternoon, Melinda rejoined her mom, Lois, and Nancy, who had waited for her at the shuttle stop to ride back to the condos together. Dinner that night would be held in the second condo, cooked by the men, so the women were going back early to take advantage of the quiet and four empty bathrooms for some nice, long, hot showers before the guys returned.

Nancy hung up her cell phone in frustration after trying unsuccessfully to reach Eddie.

“Phone’s dead
again
,” she muttered.

Melinda exchanged wryly amused glances with her mother and her aunt, but wisely stayed silent.

Eddie was a smart guy, and ruthlessly organized about every other aspect of his life, yet he had a serious mental block when it came to charging his phone. It drove everyone batty, especially his mother.

Settling into her seat on the shuttle, Melinda stared out the window.

True to his word, Dane had shown her some breathtaking views mere steps off the main trails, vistas most visitors to the resort missed. Though she’d stayed well away from the edges, Dane hadn’t tried to force her closer or made any snide remarks about her hanging back.

The valley had stretched below them in a miracle of untouched white surrounded by the soaring mountain peaks, rocky ledges, and ancient trees. It looked like a fantasy land. She couldn’t wait to show Jacob.

Back at the condo, Lois and her mom offered to take turns in the master bath for their showers, so Melinda headed straight to the hall bathroom and poured half a bottle of the resort’s bubble bath in the tub. She settled back with a lusty moan of pure bliss in the steamy-hot water.

Her mind floating, Melinda’s thoughts drifted over the day. Near perfection.

Except for the incident with Jacob.

A frown pulled at her brows. She hoped he’d taken it easy after his accident that morning, but she knew her friend. He’d probably gone right back out and skied harder than ever, if only to prove he could. He hadn’t answered any of the texts she’d sent, but he often forgot to check his phone when out on the slopes, which frustrated her almost as much as dead-cell-Eddie frustrated Nancy.

She’d check Jacob over during dinner to satisfy herself he really was okay.

Melinda frothed her fingers through the lacy bubbles. Maybe she could convince him to make it a hot-tub night instead of going back for more skiing. Force him to rest. She could claim her own soreness and a desire for company. Besides, none of them had made use of the resort’s multiple Jacuzzis yet, despite the pie chart the guys had made for chasing after the snow bunnies.

It was the same every year. She chuckled quietly to herself. The guys always talked big and made grand plans for collecting all the female hearts in the land, but each year, they spent every available moment on the slopes, or eating, or sleeping, which left precious little time for chasing women.

They had better luck on the summer camping trips, which seemed custom-designed for casual flings. Skiing was all about the thrill of conquering mountains, not hearts.

She dribbled hot water over her arms, glossing over thoughts of her own heart.

The pain of Mitch’s desertion had definitely faded, maybe even faster than she would have liked, since it made her call her true feelings into question. Had she really loved him if she could get over him so quickly, while the mere idea of losing Jacob made her soul shudder with despair? She had no answer for that question, only more doubts.

Not wanting to let that mess back into her head, Melinda took stock of the rest of her body instead. She felt good. Pleasantly exerted. Her foot hadn’t hurt at all today, thankfully, though her muscles reveled in the warmth of the bath after two full days of skiing in frigid temperatures.

Poor Jacob had to be sore after his accident, even if it wasn’t serious. It wouldn’t be a hardship to spend time in the heated whirlpool tonight instead of on the slopes, and it would do Jacob good, too. They could relax and tip their heads back to stare at the stars. Maybe have some wine, listen to music, talk.

She closed her eyes and let herself drift.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A sharp knock on the door bolted Melinda out of her nap, and she sloshed upright in water gone lukewarm.

“Wha-hmm?” she mumbled, her head groggy and disoriented.

“Mel?” Karen called through the door. “Lois and I are going next door to open some wine with Nancy. The guys should be back soon to start dinner. Are you coming?”

“’Kay,” she answered, yawning widely. “I need to rinse off, then I’ll be over.”

“Hustle up,” her mother said. “Oh, and bring the big salad bowl, will you? Your dad will forget, and I have my hands full with the wine bottles.”

“Sure thing.”

Stretching, Melinda sank low in the water for a few more minutes, trying to chase the fog from her brain. She’d really zonked. Finally, knowing she was on the verge of falling back to sleep, she forced herself upright and turned the showerhead on full blast.

Despite the big lunch she’d had, sharp hunger pangs gnawed inside her belly, and a glass of wine sounded excellent for warming up her insides. She needed to get next door before the guys returned and ate and drank everything in sight.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Jake, toss all that stuff in the dryer,” Bill said as the two of them and Melinda’s dad, Stan, stripped their outer layers off just inside the door of their condo. “And grab a towel, or your mother will skin us for leaving water all over the floor.”

“Your dad and I are heading over now to get the steaks started,” Stan added, as he headed down the hall in search of his slippers. “Bring the roll pans with you, okay?”

“Dryer, towel, rolls, check,” Jacob answered, rubbing a hand briskly over his hair and scattering water droplets. “I’m gonna rinse off real fast first.”

“Make it snappy, son,” Bill advised, giving Jacob a wink, “you know how your mother gets when she’s hungry.”

“Yes, sir, double check on the dragon.”

“All right then, see you in a few.”

Stan came back through the kitchen and grabbed trays of marinated steaks and two large pre-cooked potato casseroles that only needed reheating. He jerked his chin at Bill to indicate he should grab the pies sitting on the counter.

Thus encumbered, they waited while Jacob opened the door for them, then headed to the other condo. Wendell and Christian had already gone over in search of food.

Jacob grabbed the gear and threw it in the dryer, then snagged a towel and mopped up the entryway. He tossed that in the laundry room, too, then popped open the door to the bathroom.

A wave of steam and a female shriek greeted him, but he hardly heard her startled scream over the sudden pounding in his ears. His blood pressure shot into the stratosphere like a rocket blast.

Holy crap, she’s a goddess.

Melinda stood, one foot in the shower, dripping wet, a washcloth in hand. Shocked blue eyes met his equally stunned brown, and everything froze for an endless beat. Then—

“Get out, Jacob!”

The soaking-wet washcloth slapped him straight in the face, snapping him out of his lust-fueled trance, and he finally jerked the door closed.

But not before his eyes had taken the full measure of a completely naked Melinda.

Another outraged scream rattled the door panel and told him she’d caught the appreciative—and wholly uncontrollable—grin that had spread across his face before the door slammed shut.

He leaned, weak-kneed, against the opposite wall.

“Sorry!” he managed, the word choking out through a guilty spurt of stupefied laughter, half-strangling him. Jacob clasped both hands around his constricted throat and wisely kept the reverent, “Wow,” to himself.

He should have closed his eyes. He should have slammed the door immediately or turned his back like a gentleman. But his muscles had frozen every bit as much as hers had, and he hadn’t been able to help the sweep of his eyes.

God knew he should have. But he was only human.

Rubbing a hand over his belly, Jacob blinked his eyes clear. He hadn’t seen her totally nude since they were little kids, innocently skinny dipping in the lake while camping with their families.

Things had definitely changed.

Tripping over his own feet on his journey back down the short hallway, Jacob collapsed on the couch, one hand on his belly, still dazed, still chuckling, and still slightly breathless.

She’d changed, all right.

Wow, wow, wow. And again, wow.

It was one thing to see her in her clothes every day and know an amazing body existed beneath the layers of fabric. It was one thing to hold her or hug her and feel those curves, that heat, against his own body. It was one thing to see her in her skimpy bathing suits, or once in a while when she whipped off a top to change and he sometimes caught sight of her in a lacy bra.

It was something completely else to see her in all her majestically bare glory.

Melinda. Oh, God.

He closed his eyes again, and there she was, the way he would see her every time he closed his eyes from now on, until the end of his life.

Her velvety-smooth ivory skin dewed with water droplets from her shower and blushed pink from the heat. Her river of hair, nearly black from the wet, sliding down her slender back almost to her waist, and her dazzling blue eyes, thickly lashed and wide with surprise. Her rosy lips parted and moist, as though she’d just licked them with her small, pink tongue.

And the darker rose of her nipples—her
nipples
—tipping her full, round breasts.

Jacob licked his own lips and tried not to think of putting his mouth on her. Right there. Of touching and suckling her the way he desperately wanted at that moment. His belly tightened like a fist, his whole body zinging.

It was something completely else to trace the deep curve of her waist with his eyes, following along the flare of her hips. To skim the slope of her belly down to the darkly shadowed vee between her legs and to feel the answering surge between his own. He’d gone straight from limp to full mast in zero-point-zero-one seconds, all the blood dumping out of his brain to his groin in a rushing flood.

He was still lightheaded.

Not that he’d had any doubts about his physical attraction to her, but if he had, that brief glimpse would certainly have answered the question.

He wanted her.

Bad.

Frowning now, leveling his breathing with a concerted effort, Jacob studied his hands in his lap.

That wasn’t all it was, though.

All the craziness that had been going on in his head the last several months—the physical stuff absolutely had a part in it.

A big part.

Yet so much more filled in the center, the deep, important stuff.

Not just history, not just friendship.

Why couldn’t he articulate the words, even to himself?

Earlier, with Christian, he’d been certain, ready to stake his claim on her. Then he’d seen her with the Norwegian biscuit, and his first instinct had been an immediate
me-Tarzan-her-mine
response. That was all physical reaction. Possessive, he-man bullshit.

Sex was important—duh—but it wasn’t the most important thing.

What did he
feel
?

Jacob closed his eyes and tried to delve inside his heart.

Holding Melinda in his mind’s eye—a fully clothed Melinda, for now, to keep him focused—Jacob studied her. Not only her beautiful face or rocking body.

Her.

The real Melinda.

The person inside.

One of his best friends, one of the few people on earth he could be completely himself with. He could picture her easily in a thousand moods and scenarios, in a million memories.

Their childhood and school years.

Holidays and vacations.

Family events.

All the regular, generic days they took for granted, just living life.

Swimming, skiing, laughing, crying, studying, watching a movie. Dancing, eating, sleeping. Thoughtful and serious, giddy and giggling, happy, sad, and every shade in between.

And he felt...

What?

Concentrating harder than he ever had, seeking truth, Jacob let his emotions swarm free, and the answer rolled through him with the power of a tsunami capped by a category-five hurricane.

L-O-V-E.

Oh, shit.

Oh, joy.

Oh, crap.

Love.

For real.

Capital L love.

Love like he’d never felt, never experienced. Jacob scrubbed his hands over his face again, digging hard into his cheekbones, the corners of his eyes.

Love.

The hurricane kept blowing, swirling over him, taking him under.

Down in the gut love, way down deep in the heart love.

Oh, God.

He felt everything, and too much. Elation, serenity, comfort, arousal. Fear. A fierce need to protect, and the purest form of happiness he could imagine.

It overwhelmed him, stopped his breath. He fought against the flood, but it filled him up, overflowed every boundary, and wrung him out.

And then...

Everything settled.

Like attaining a higher state of consciousness. A transcendence. He felt, keenly, he was not the same man who’d fallen onto the couch mere minutes ago. A continental shift had rearranged every atom in his body, every priority, every sense, and tipped his emotional balance onto a new, elevated plane.

Whoa.

Grasping his hair, Jacob tugged violently. Was he still himself, a whole person? Or some new half-man who couldn’t survive without his woman, whose every breath revolved around the wellbeing of another? Could he live that way, survive for long inside that level of intensity?

The depth of love he had for Melinda, freshly discovered, had burst inside his chest like a new sun, burning away old hurts and insecurities. Vaporizing the tsunami wave. It would take time to get used to. And that sort of fire could soon use up all the oxygen. He needed to know it was sustainable.

Survivable.

More cautiously this time, he took stock. That sense of everything settling into place stayed with him, and the nuclear fire banked to a steady, warming glow. He’d traveled light years in seconds, and it might take the rest of himself a little more time to catch up, but the rightness of it relaxed inside him, a new, confident strength.

Jacob had his answer now, and his purpose. His reason to risk. Those risks might be enormous, but the rewards would be staggering.

He loved her.

Now it would be up to him to convince Melinda.

They’d Friend Zoned each other their whole lives. Was that design or habit?

Even with his new confidence in his own feelings, Jacob discovered room for fear remained.

Sometimes, like waking with her this morning, he believed something deeper than friendship shone in her eyes.

But what if he was wrong?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Melinda stayed in the bathroom as long as she dared, trying to regain her equilibrium, a towel now wrapped firmly around her body. She needed a strategy, a wisecrack, something.

Anything.

A way to play it the next time she had to look Jacob in the eye, which could be within seconds of opening the bathroom door.

Crap.

Crap-crap-crap.

Groaning, she leaned against the wall beside the shower and lightly banged her forehead on it. There was no pretending he hadn’t gotten an eyeful. And there was no pretending it wasn’t much different than seeing her in her bikini.

It was
totally
different.

She knew it.

He knew it.

And it would be there between them every time they looked at each other from now into the foreseeable future unless she figured out a way to diffuse the situation.

The problem was, her mind was a complete and utter blank. Why hadn’t she locked the freaking door?

Forget that, why hadn’t he freaking
knocked?

Melinda sighed. Loudly.

Not that it mattered. What was done was done.

Those few seconds had seemed to last an eternity as Jacob’s eyes had first met hers, then lowered, inch by slow inch, all the way down to her toes. And back up. Not missing a thing. Raising the heat of a scorching blush along the path of his devouring gaze.

And that
smile
... Holy God.

Well, at least he’d appreciated the view.

There was no mistaking that fact. His eyes had glowed with lust, his smile turned positively wolfish, and try as she might, Melinda couldn’t quite squelch the curls of excitement twisting through her belly.

A turned-on Jacob was a very hot, sexily appealing Jacob.

Who knew?

Well, she did. Between that morning and this moment, there was no doubt about it. None at all. Jacob Tanner was a sexy-as-hell beast of a man.

Lord Almighty.

Fanning her heated cheeks, Melinda rolled sideways until her back leaned against the wall instead. She’d fallen in and out of girlish crushes on Jacob many times over their shared lifetime. It was hard not to when he was so sweet.

And smart.

And funny.

He was the only person who could make her laugh, no matter her mood. He was the only person she regularly confided in aside from her mother, the one guy she could trust with all of her deepest, darkest secrets.

Then he’d gone and grown into a seriously good-looking man. Who wouldn’t crush once in a while on a guy like that? Nothing serious, and nothing worth risking their friendship over, of course.

At least, not in the past.

And there was no future in it. Absolutely none. He wanted his life, she wanted hers. But suddenly things seemed different, and not only because her relationship with Mitch was done.