Page 51 of Head Over Skis

I shrug. ‘Aren’t you?’

‘No, I’m not. I cancelled my lesson with her this morning, the same time I asked Kevin to cover for yours.’

‘Oh.’

That’s all I can think of to say. There’s a tension in the silences between our sentences, and I busy myself with removing my other boot as I try and keep my heartbeat from becoming audible.

‘Why did you do that?’

Cancelling this morning’s class I can understand, but how could he have known we would spend so much time hanging out after he arrived here? What if I’d told him I was fine when I was on the balcony, and never even invited him inside?

‘Why do you think?’ he asks, avoiding my question and throwing one back at me instead.

‘I don’t know, Rory. I don’t know what’s going on here, that’s why I’m asking you,’ I say, feeling flustered as I gesture between the two of us.

My cheeks are burning up, and I start yanking off my boot to hide my face. When I do, pulling hard and putting all my weight on my dodgy ankle, the boot comes off more easily than I was expecting. I lose my balance, my weight shifting backwards as I start to fall.

The only thing that stops me landing on my arse, and potentially messing up my ankle even further, are the two hands now grasping me firmly by my shoulders and pulling me back up. Back towards him.

There’s an inch of bare skin between the bottom of my fleece and the top of my leggings, and it’s there that the warmth of his fingers shifts to.

I’m safely back on my feet, but he doesn’t let go, and our faces are so close that all I’d have to do is rise onto the tips of my toes and our lips would touch.

‘You really don’t know?’

His breath is everywhere, the tickle of it on my forehead from where he stands above me makes my spine shiver. I shake my head ever so slightly, so I don’t move away from him.

‘I thought maybe you were just doing your job, checking I’m okay so you can tick a health and safety form?’

He chuckles, and the rush of air from his lips brushes against my now burning cheeks. ‘If that is all I was doing, then why would I be standing here fighting the urge to kiss you?’

His confession hangs in the air between us, and we’re both still as I register his words. I start to wonder again if I hit my head yesterday during my fall, and all this is a delusion.

Is he really admitting that this thing I’m feeling between us is real? That it’s more than the temporary lust from our one night together, passionate in the moment but then sated? Nothing more than a thing of the past.

I’m wondering all of this, when he moves one of his hands up to my face, his fingers lightly caressing my cheek, tracing my jawline down to my lips.

‘I wanted to tell you earlier, before your phone interrupted us, but I’ve been thinking about these lips ever since you left that morning without saying goodbye.’ His fingers brush over them then, slightly open as I take in shallow breaths. ‘And then when I saw you again… when you turned up in my class of all places, it took everything in me not to kiss you right there, in front of everyone.’

His fingers move, travelling across my face and to the back of my neck. His hand wraps around it, tugging me closer to him until we’re pressed tightly against each other. I steady myself by lifting my hands up from where they hang by my sides and resting them on the top of his chest. His heart beats beneath my palm and I can feel the familiar hardness of his chest underneath the thin fabric of his shirt. I’m speechless as his words echo in my head, but he’s not done yet.

‘I’ve been trying to take this slowly, but I can’t pretend any more that you haven’t been on my mind every minute of those lessons, and every minute outside of them. And I hate that you’re hurt but I’m also grateful it gave me an excuse to come over here to see you and finally do this.’

With two hands he cups the sides of my face and guides my lips to his, pausing right before they touch like he’s waiting for me to let him know this is what I want. But I don’t need more time to be sure. Without a second thought, I close the gap and kiss him.

In the moment where our lips meet everything around me disappears and my body becomes alive with the desire for more. But after one delicate kiss, he pulls away.

I wonder if that’ll be it, but when I open my eyes, that same hunger is reflected in the darkness of Rory’s pupils. The next time he leans in to kiss me, it’s with such force my feet nearly lift off the ground.

Then for a second, I actually am weightless, his arms lifting me so he can step over the doorway that was separating us. His back foot kicks the door and it slams shut behind us. Then all I know are hands, and lips, and our feet knocking over all the shoes and other shit that’s scattered over the floor as we move further inside.

‘Bed,’ he mumbles between kisses, and I lead us towards my open door, nearly tripping countless times but never falling because of how tightly he’s keeping hold of me.

It’s as if letting me go so we can find a route to the bedroom that is less hazardous is not an option if it means he has to take his hands off me for even a second. Hands that take my weight so I don’t have to worry about my ankle.

Once we’ve rounded the corner into the bedroom, he turns me around so my chest is facing away from him. He walks me forwards until I’m pressed against the wood of the closed door. He pushes his lower body against the small of my back, and I could almost laugh at how similar it is to when I slipped and fell against him on the magic carpet.

His hands move from my waist to my arms, lifting them up and then pinning my wrists together against the wood. With his free hand he brushes the hair away from my shoulder, planting kisses along the side of my neck.