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“Why are you just standing there? Don’t tell me you’re already tired,” Ruby said gleefully.
Ares looked at the beautiful, unexpected woman beside him in the snow. Her cloud of dark hair tumbled beneath her pink hat, knit with a red flower. Behind her, he saw the distant torches of the last skiers, as lovely and mysterious as fairy lights.
He wasn’t tired. At all.
He wanted to kiss her.
He wanted to do far more than kiss her.
Looking at him, Ruby’s expression changed. Her smile slid away. She looked almost...afraid.
“Come on.” Turning on her snowboard, she took off down the hill. She was reckless, jumping moguls. She was a force of nature. Unstoppable.
Ares watched her. He’d possessed many women in his life. He’d taken them as his due. But for the first time, he’d met one who didn’t seem overly impressed either by his money or his appearance. She accepted him—or not—only for himself. For his actions. For his words. For his skills.
He could hardly wait to win her into his bed.
Chasing her, Ares turned the snowboard down and flew.
She reached the bottom of the mountain first. A roaring bonfire crackled in the middle of a snowy field, next to an icy creek. Around it, young people who’d already finished skiing laughed together, holding steaming mugs.
Ares unlatched his snowboard. Lifting his goggles to his ski cap, he straightened, stepping out in the snow in his borrowed boots. Someone he didn’t know handed him a copper mug.
“Here, man. This’ll warm you up.”
Pulling off his gloves, Ares stuffed them in his pockets and took the mug. “Thanks.”
“I’m Gus.” The red-haired man, who had a lumberjack beard, did a double take. “Nice snowsuit.”
Ares scowled, suspecting mockery. But the other man’s eyes were sincere. So he said, “Thank you.”
“Ruby picked that out for you, right? You’re her friend’s cousin or something from up north?”
“Hmm,” Ares said noncommittally. Sniffing cinnamon and clove, he took a tentative sip from the copper mug. He tasted mulled wine, hot and infused with spices. Sighing in pleasure, he took a bigger gulp.
“Right,” Gus said. “That girl has mad skills tracking down vintage stuff. I keep telling her she needs to start that business. All she needs to do is apply for a loan, but she just won’t.”
“A business?” Ares’s eyebrows lifted. He looked down at his outrageous ski suit. “You think people would actually buy outfits like this? On purpose?”
“Oh, yeah, man. Look around.”
He did, and he saw that most of the young people were indeed dressed in funky, offbeat outfits as outlandish as his own.
“Designer gear is for talentless hacks trying to buy their way into the sport.” The red-haired man considered. “Your suit is cool.”
Ares’s gaze fell on Ruby, who was standing on the other side of the bonfire. A broad-shouldered man was talking to her earnestly. “Who’s that with her now?”
The young man nodded toward them. “You know Braden Lassiter is her ex, right? They were engaged until he up and left for the National Hockey League. He plays for New York.”
Ares’s eyes narrowed. “New York?” He strained to remember anything he’d heard about Braden Lassiter, but he didn’t follow ice hockey. But he didn’t like seeing him talking to Ruby. Leaning toward her. “They were engaged?”
“High school sweethearts. Too bad they broke up. If they had a baby, man, that kid would kill it on the slopes, probably win every gold medal.”
Ares stared at them. A moment ago, flying down the mountain, he’d felt exhilarated, even euphoric. Now he felt ice in his solar plexus. What was it? Irritation? Possessiveness? It couldn’t be jealousy. He didn’t do jealousy.
Finishing his drink, Ares handed the mug back. “Thanks again.”
At least he wasn’t the only one who was annoyed. As he walked toward Ruby, he saw Braden Lassiter walking away from her with a scowl on his face. The man paused to stare suspiciously as Ares approached her.
Turning, Ruby saw him. “There you are.”
Ares jerked his chin toward the departing hockey player. “Was he bothering you?”
“Braden?” She rolled her eyes. “His team was playing in Vancouver and he had a free day, so he dropped in for Renegade Night. So of course the second he sees me with someone, he’s suddenly Mr. Twenty Questions, like he thinks he still has some claim over me.”
“You were engaged?”
“Did Gus tell you?” A strange expression crossed her face. “It was a million years ago. When he became an instant millionaire, he disappeared.”
“The bastard.”
“It was a good reminder of what money does to men’s hearts.”
The snow crunched beneath his feet. “And what is that?”
She looked up at him with big, dark eyes that gleamed against the bonfire’s flickering red light. “It makes them selfish. And cold.”
Ares immediately knew the accusation didn’t only include Braden Lassiter. “Or maybe,” he said quietly, “we were always that way from the start, and money just gave us more opportunity.”
She stared at him for a long moment by the crackling fire. Then she sighed, watching as sparks flew up into the dark, cold, starlit sky. “I wish there was no such thing as money.”
Close together in front of the bonfire, he could feel the warmth of the flames against his body. But it was nothing compared to the heat he felt inside as he looked down at her.
“I’m glad there is,” he said. “Because it’s why I’m here with you right now.”
Her lips parted. “I didn’t bring you here for money!”
“I know. But you’d still be working at the bar.” Gently, he stroked down her cheek to caress her lower lip with the tip of his thumb. “I couldn’t have blackmailed you into bringing me here.”
He heard her catch her breath, felt her tremble beneath his touch. So she felt it, too, then. She felt it, too.
“You didn’t exactly...blackmail me.”
Ares looked down at her lovely face, lit up by the firelight. “I didn’t?”
“No,” she admitted, then took a deep breath. “Maybe,” she whispered, “you’re different, too...”
Burning wood crackled in the bonfire as they looked at each other. He heard the burble of the creek, the soft drop of snow falling from pine trees, the wind blowing through the valley.
The fire glowed in her expressive dark eyes, even as the other side of her dark hair was laced silver by moonlight. Silver and gold, he thought. Why did Ruby continually remind him of a princess from a fairy tale? A sexy fairy tale that ended with them naked in each other’s arms. She obliterated his every thought except need...
Ares cupped both sides of her face, beneath her jawline. Her skin, chilled by the cold air, warmed beneath his hands. He felt her tremble as her delectable, cherry-red lips parted, as if in invitation.
Lowering his mouth to hers, he kissed her.
Sweet, so sweet. Her lips were satin soft, and tasted like sugar. They tasted like heaven. He felt her shiver. Her lips caused a delicious fire to roar though him, building higher and higher, until his body was blazing from within.
Then, reaching her hands around his shoulders, she started to kiss him back.
The fire inside him exploded. With a low growl, he pulled her hard against him, forgetting all the others milling around them, forgetting everything else in the world but the taste of her sweet lips and feel of her curvaceous body against his.
As if from a distance, he heard the low shouts, lazy applause, yelled encouragements and commentary from the people around them.
“Get a room,” someone hooted.
“I thought he was her cousin,” someone else said.
“Who is he?”
“Oh, my God, is that...Ares Kourakis?”
The last words broke the spell, and as a branch snapped loudly in the fire, he felt Ruby stiffen in his arms. But he wouldn’t release her.
Tangling his hands in her hair, Ares murmured, “Let’s get out of here. Come home with me.”
Her face looked stricken, almost dazed, as she glanced around at her friends. Licking her lips, she whispered, “I—I shouldn’t.”
“Just for one drink.”
“I told you. I don’t drink.”
He grasped at straws. “We haven’t eaten anything all night. You must be hungry. Let me make you dinner.”
“You cook?”
Growing up with a house full of servants, Ares had never cooked in his life. But he wasn’t going to admit that now. “I’ll make you something amazing.”
The edges of her lips curved upward. “How amazing?”
He looked her straight in the eye. “The best you’ve ever had.”
Her eyes widened at his obvious implication. Glancing right and left self-consciously, she said in a low voice, “I can’t.”
His dark eyebrows lifted. “I took you for the kind of girl who doesn’t care what other people think. Only about her own pleasure.”
She choked a laugh. “What made you think that?”
He held her gaze. “When was the last time you put yourself first?”
“Tonight. Being here with you.”
“And before that?”
She paused. “It’s been a while.”
Pulling her more tightly into his arms, he looked down at her, relishing the feel of her against him in the cold night. “You can have anything you desire.” He stroked his fingertips slowly against her cheek. “All you have to do is say yes.”
Ruby’s pink cheeks turned redder still. She said unsteadily, “You’re just saying that trying to get what you want.”
“Of course I am,” he said frankly. “I want you, Ruby. I haven’t tried to hide it. Or the fact that I’m selfish and ruthless...”
Lowering his head to hers, he kissed her until she was left shivering in his arms and clinging to him for balance.
“Stop,” she breathed when he pulled away, again to more hooting from her friends. “I’ll come.”
Triumph filled him. “You will?”
She looked at him helplessly. “For dinner. Nothing more.”
But that was a lie, and he knew it. The way she’d kissed him, she had to know full well that food would barely be an appetizer on their sensual menu. But if her pride needed that ridiculous self-deception, he’d be the last man to argue the point.
As she gathered her gloves and said a quiet thank-you to her friends, he watched her hungrily. He could still feel her mouth against his. Still taste her lips. Waiting was agony. Every moment they weren’t naked felt like eternity.
Tucking both their snowboards under his arm, Ares followed her down the short path to the quiet, snowy lot where her beat-up truck was parked. She hesitated, giving an unsteady laugh as she looked back at him.
“I don’t think I can drive.” She lifted a hand to her forehead. “I feel a little wobbly. It’s been a long day. Maybe I have low blood sugar. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“I’ll drive.”
“You were drinking.”
He gave a low laugh. “Two sips of scotch, half a beer, and a mug of mulled wine, over four hours.”
“My truck can be tricky—”
He took her keys. “I’ve got it.” Unlocking the back, he tossed in the snowboards. He opened her door and helped her climb onto the bench seat, next to a canvas duffel bag filled with their regular clothes. Touching her hand, he felt her tremble. Or was he the one trembling?
He stomped on the thought. It was ridiculous.
Ruby Prescott was just another woman. A woman like any other. Once he possessed her, once the attraction was consummated, he would be satisfied. He could leave for Sydney tomorrow and not give her another thought.
Ruby was different from the rest, yes.
But not that different.
* * *
Ruby had never believed in fairy tales. She couldn’t. Not growing up as she had.
