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Allessandro laughed. “Of course not. I don’t mean to sound putting off?”
“Off putting you mean?” Daisy corrected as she weighed up his comment by tilting her head from side to side. “I suppose ending the day in one piece should be enough motivation to listen.”
Allessandro laughed as I removed Daisy’s skis from my shoulders. “First things first, let us put your skis on.” Separating them, I placed them in front of Daisy’s feet.
“Here,” he said, holding out his hand. Daisy took it, stepped into the skis and locked her boots in place by pressing her heels down. Allessandro let go of her hand and Daisy immediately fell on her ass.
She chuckled. “Okay, what’s the next lesson?” she asked. She looked both undignified and uncoordinated when she struggled to get back on her feet.
“Getting back up,” he remarked with a laugh. Stepping forward, he offered her a hand, and when she took it, he pulled her back to her feet.
“Feck, I didn’t expect them to be that slippery—not until I moved at least,” she mumbled. She dug in her ski poles to stop herself from sliding away.
“Skis are supposed to be slippery,” Allessandro replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
CHAPTER 12
Once her instructor had explained the rules of the slope, and how to fall down safely, he taught her a snow plow technique with her skis to control her speed. Many people that weren’t proficient did this to prevent themselves from getting into trouble on the slopes.
Next, we headed to the ski lift. Allessandro chose an easy blue run, the gentlest of the runs, for Daisy’s first lesson. He looked pissed when I insisted on accompanying her and made sure I sat next to him on the chair lift with Daisy tucked firmly at my other side. But when I grabbed her coat sleeve to help her off, she shrugged out of my grasp. As Daisy was such an independent person, she tried to ski on her own until she lost her balance and ended up in a heap. She was narrowly missed by the occupants of several chairs getting off after her, causing a pile up of bodies that had maneuvered to avoid her.
“Ah, ‘tereso’, I see you take the falling over lesson very seriously,” Allessandro drawled as I helped her to her feet and rearranged her ski poles in her hands.
“All right, smart ass, no need to rub it in,” she snapped back. “But you must admit, I’m a quick study since I’ve fallen twice already and not hurt myself.”
I chuckled and guided her by her coat sleeve to the edge of the slope away from the more proficient skiers descending at faster speeds. Having learned her lesson from before, she allowed me to guide her without protest.
“Okay, tereso, when you step onto the slope, the skiers behind you have right of way. Therefore, you must always look behind to ensure you are not stepping into the path of someone. The most proficient skiers will be traveling more than thirty to forty miles per hour and I don’t need to tell you what damage that would do to bones if they were to crash with you.”
Daisy shuddered and muttered, “And this was supposed to be a fun week.”
“Skiing is fun,” he interjected. “There are just a few rules like remaining upright, not being hit by other skiers and not falling off a piste or the chair lift.”
“Okay so just a few rules. I’ve not been that great at the first two, so let’s hope I’m proficient enough at the others not to get myself killed.”
“You’ll do great, baby,” I encouraged. “It’s not scary once you get going.”
“Yay,” I said, when I’d slid sideways to a halt on my skis and pushed myself over to Daisy with my sticks. I’d followed her down the slope where she’d weaved gently from side to side to begin with until she lost concentration. But she had still made it down in one piece.
She pulled down her snood, shoved her goggles up to the top of her head and flashed me a goofy smile. “Feck me, did you see the speed I came down there at?” Daisy asked, proudly. She heaved heavily as she caught her breath but looked exhilarated from her first successful descent down the slope.
Her eyes shone in delight at her achievement. I leaned in, pulled my snood down and gave her a peck on the lips. “You did,” I laughed, “Pity you weren’t supposed to overtake the rest of us, although I don’t think that was deliberate,” I teased. “But you did stay upright, and you had a bit of a wide slalom thing going on with your hips to slow yourself down near the end.”
“I did,” she agreed. “Not quite ready for the black runs yet, I imagine I’d need to practice my technique for a bit and get my hip movements going a little faster.”
I laughed because at one point she had gone horizontal across the slope from side to side before turning and going back in the other direction to slow herself down. She gave up and coasted vertically until she gathered speed but she managed to stay upright until she ran out of steam at the bottom of the run.
“We have time for one more run,” Alessandro stated. I glanced up at the digital clock at the foot of the slope that gave out the time, temp, snow conditions and avalanche warnings, to check for myself.
“Nah, I’d rather go somewhere warm and have that hot chocolate Jamie boasted about, if that’s okay?”
“Of course,” I said, “besides, I want you all to myself for a while. I’m tired of sharing you with another man.”
Daisy thanked Allessandro and he checked the lesson was the same time for the following day, then put his hand on her shoulder. I bit back a growl while he praised my girl and told her he could listen to her accent all day. But I shot him a murderous ‘what the fuck do you think you’re doing’ look and he dropped his arms by his side.
“Jesus that guy pawed you every chance he got,” I muttered with him still in earshot.
“Awe, I know. But I didn’t mind because he’s fecking hot, and if we’re talking accents…” she let out an erotic moan. I shot another glare at Allessandro who smiled back at her.
