Ignoring that important bit of information, she shrugged her shoulders and pulled me toward the lift. Raising her skis one at a time, trying to walk, she asked, “You scared?”

Chuckling, I pointed to her skis. “I’m not the one trying to walk with my skis on.”

She stuck her tongue out at me as I skied past her and waited with my hand outstretched to pull her as she reached the lift station.

Thinking back, it was pretty dumb of me to have agreed, but who am I to say no to her? Now we’re about halfway to the top of the mountain, she’s fumbling with the goggles on top of her head, and I think she’s second-guessing herself as well.

I pull her hat down to keep it from falling off. “You nervous?”

She looks at me, her cheeks rosy from windburn, but doesn’t answer.

“Did you hear me?” I ask, tapping my pole against her ski before leaning over and kissing her. She still doesn’t answer so I suck on the corner of her bottom lip before gliding my nose to her covered ear. “Can you hear me now?”

I see her breath pick up, and even though the skin on her neck is not visible, I know she’s covered in goosebumps. She blinks her eyes a few times. “Sorry. Just thinking. We’re pretty high up aren’t we?” she says, and I know she’s nervous.

“Hey,” I say, grabbing both poles in one hand so I can pull her chin to look at me. “I’ll stay with you, and we’ll zigzag down the mountain or walk if we have to. It’ll be fun and you’ll be able to say you skied Pinball Mountain.”

She nods her head, and I decide it’s time to take her mind off her poor decision to graduate from the much easier blue diamonds and go directly to the black.

“So are we h**ing s*x in the hot tub again tonight?” I ask, not that I really care where we have sex, but because I love thinking about her cute n*ked body all the time.

“River,” she says as if she’s shocked, but she’s not. “If we decide now that takes all the spontaneity out of the night,” she grins, bumping her shoulder into mine.

Pointing to the mountain I know will take us forever to get down, I say, “Sorry beautiful girl. I forgot how spontaneous you are, but I just want to know what to expect when we finally make it to the bottom.”

She laughs and pulls her goggles down, preparing herself to exit the lift. Pulling mine down as well, I adjust my hat and get ready to ski down Pinball Mountain.

After cautiously making our way down most of the mountain, we finally get to the last slope, and I ski ahead of her. Swooshing my way to the bottom, I chuckle as I watch her snow plow down the last stretch.

She catches me watching her as she makes it to the bottom and comes to a stop next to me. “Show off.”

“Well, I had to get some speed on this run so it might as well have been on the bunny slope. Had enough?”

She nods her head vigorously.

Moving around her, I put my pole into each of her rear bindings and she steps out of her skis. I do the same with mine. I lean our skis against the rack, and the valet comes over to take them. Wrapping my arms around her waist from behind, I lean my chin on her shoulder and whisper, “Let’s go inside and get a drink.” I walk with her in front of me, my arms still holding her tightly as we head into the lodge.

As we approach a table near the stone fireplace, she takes off her gloves, goggles, and hat. Her beautiful, but messy, hair hangs around her head. She runs her hands through it trying to tame it, then reaches in her pocket and pulls out a hair tie.

As she pulls her hair back, I tell her, “Don’t put it up. I love your hair like that.”

“Messy and windblown?”

“I just love it down. You know that.”

She smiles and shrugs her shoulders. “Whatever. You’re the one who has to look at it.”

As she takes off her coat, I can’t help but think how f**king hot she looks and she doesn’t even know it. She has these tight little black pants on with a snug white turtleneck. I laugh to myself when I see she’s wearing black and white striped socks. In the past nine months I’ve never seen her wear anything that wasn’t a shade of white, gray, or black. She looks hot in everything, so she obviously knows what to wear.

“How about we try a hot toddy?” she says as we sit down in the chairs near the fireplace.

“I’m not drinking anything with the name toddy in it. It scares me. I’ll stick with hot chocolate,” I tell her just as the valet brings us our boots.

I bend to put boots on and notice she’s watching me. “What?”

“Thank you.”

“For what? Not wanting a hot toddy?”

“No, silly. For helping me down Pinball Mountain.”

“Well, you know that did take an exceptionally long time.”

“Yesss,” she says in her standard response tone when she knows I’m fishing for something.

Sitting up, I roll my shoulders, one then the other. “I’m feeling pretty sore from catching you so many times.” I emphasize the word ‘sore’.

She drags her eyes slowly across my shoulders as she bites her lip. “Well then, I think you might be in need of a massage.”

Wiggling her fingers, she adds, “And as luck would have it, you’re in the company of one of the best masseuses around.”

Shooting her a devilish grin, I say, “A massage? Or anything of my choice?”

She laughs and shrugs her shoulders. “Anything of your choice, like what?”

“You’ll see.”

She shakes her head at me, and I can’t help but smile. Watching her now, so natural, so beautiful, I know why it only took that one meeting so long ago to know she owned me. It’s like I was hers from the very first time I looked into her beautiful eyes.

We decide to head to our room after we finish our hot chocolate. Once we’re in the elevator, I grab her and kiss her. Her response is immediate, and we have a full-blown make out session right there. Barely able to keep our hands off each other long enough to open the door, we stumble into our hotel room practically wrapped around each other. Crushing my mouth to hers, I kick the door shut behind me. As I trace my tongue over the seam of her soft lips, I can taste the hot chocolate she just drank downstairs.

“Mmmm . . . you taste like chocolate,” I whisper in her ear, my hands now resting on her cute ass.

“You like that?” she answers back in her own sexy whisper.

“Mmmm hmm . . .” I moan again as I continue etching her mouth, searching for more of that taste.

“We could order some more from room service. Or better yet, chocolate cake.”

“Whatever you want. As long as I get to taste it on you, I’m in.”

She turns her head and playfully bites my earlobe while her fingers trace patterns up and down the back of my sweater. I’m so turned on right now, but I need to take a shower. This sweater is itching the shit out of me and has me sweating my balls off.

Reluctantly pulling away, I give Dahlia a quick kiss. “Order whatever you want. I’m going to jump in the shower. I stink and I don’t want you spending the night having to smell me because I’m having a hard time smelling myself,” I tell her, walking backwards toward the shower.

Giggling, she throws herself onto the huge bed and hangs one leg off the side. “Go ahead, you’ve kind of killed the mood anyway by using the words stink and smell.”

“Just keeping it real,” I wink at my beautiful fiancée, lying on the bed where I can’t wait to join her after I clean up. Then I add, “I won’t be long! And Dahlia, I can bring the mood back in two seconds flat.”

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “Whatever you say, Loverboy.”

“Care to make a bet?”

“Actually, I’m going to pass on this bet because I think I just might lose,” she laughs. “Go shower, I need to call Aerie and Serena and check in with them anyway.”

She sits up and grabs her phone as I turn around.

Twisting my head back, I see my girl, once again, checking me out from behind. I catch her doing this all the time, and I love it. She’s used to getting caught, so she just shrugs her shoulders and blows me a kiss. I wink at her as she’s dialing her phone, then I hear, “Hey Aerie, it’s me.”

Turning on the shower, I hear her laughing and giggling with Aerie on the phone, and it makes me smile. I love that sound. I could listen to it all day; it’s like one of my favorite songs.

The glass walls are starting to fog up as I step inside the steamy shower. The hot water feels great on my muscles after skiing and from bending down to pick Dahlia up off the ground all day. The itching from my sweater is slowly letting up as I soap up my back. Thinking of Dahlia’s face as we stood at the top of that black diamond slope on Pinball Mountain, I can’t help but laugh out loud. She looked slightly petrified, but she was determined to make her way down that mountain on her own and she did, well, most of it anyway.

Closing my eyes as I rinse the shampoo from my hair, I sense her near me. When I open my eyes I smirk because she’s standing against the sink, arms crossed, just watching me.

“Hey beautiful girl, whatcha doing?” I ask, wanting her to be standing next to me, not way over there.

Attempting to lift her tight sweater off she asks, “Mind if I join you?”

“Hmmm . . . Let me think about that,” I say, and then I quickly dunk my head under the water to rinse the last of the soap before exiting the shower and heading toward her. She has her sweater half way off when I grab her and pick her up, clothes and all, and haul her ass back inside the shower with me.

“Do you really think you have to ask me a question like that?”

Her breath is hitched and I know she knows she doesn’t.

Setting her down under the showerhead, I lean back against the glass wall and watch as the warm water pours down her body, drenching her clothes. She’s giggling, not whining or complaining but actually enjoying this. God, she’s so amazing, so carefree, and so fun. I love everything about her.

But right now, I’m thinking I’d love to see her sexy body naked. Enough of the giggling. Pointing to her soaking wet sweater that looks like it weighs a ton and her wet pants that are clinging to her long legs, I tell her, “You’ve got too many clothes on for what I have in mind, beautiful girl. Why don’t you take them off?”

“You want me to take this off?” she asks, pointing to her own clothes.

“Yeah, I do.”

“I’ll try,” she says, looking at me coyly, purposely taking her time pulling off her sweater. I know she’s trying to tease me.

“Let me help.” I walk over to her, undo her jeans, and shove them down.

She wobbles a bit, but I hold her h*ps tight. She smiles down at me as droplets of water spill down her angelic face.

Standing up, I push her back against the wall and start to kiss her.

She pushes me back a little and runs her hands up her own br**sts. Then, with the most innocent smile I have ever seen her wear, she asks, “Do you want to take this off, or do you want to f**k me wearing it?”

Normally I would laugh at her use of the word f**k, but I’m having a hard time controlling myself. I practically growl as I turn her around and undo her bra. Running my hands down her hot body to her panties, I slowly slide them off, feeling every inch of her soft slick skin.

“Does that answer your question?”

She reaches around to grab me but I shift to redirect the showerhead. Moving back over toward her, I kiss one of her shoulders and then the other as I reach my hands around to her front and touch her everywhere.

Turning her around, I press her against the wall. “You were suppose to give me a show,” I tell her, dunking my head down to her hard nipple and sucking on it.

“I never agreed to any such thing.” She’s panting now, but I know I can get her to give me one anyway.