April, Dani - Superstar (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (8 page)

“Goddamn retard!” Ethan yelled at the basketball game from his seat in front of the TV. The coach on the screen had caught his ire. “A bunch of losers,” he told the TV and flipped it off with a smack of the remote.

Chrissie laughed at him. She was warmed by the fire. Outside, the wind was picking up again and making a terrible fuss, but she felt so well-protected inside. “This is nice,” she said. “Do you all do this a lot? Take vacations here, I mean?”

“Individually, we each probably get up here a couple times a year, and last year Ethan and Scott came up here for a week in the summer. In the summer, the fishing is really good up here and the scenery is great,” Brad explained. He let his hand linger across hers for just a moment on the head of the couch, but she didn’t mind.

“Yes, definitely, this place must rock in the summer when everything is nice and green,” Chrissie agreed with him.

“It does.” He seemed lost in memories of just how nice it had been in the past. “You’ve got an open invitation to come up here some summer and see for yourself just how nice it can be.”

“I’d really like that,” she told him and was surprised to find he was actually flirting with her, and she didn’t mind in the least. “Don’t be surprised if I take you up on that.”

“I’m counting on it.”

Their eyes met. Unlike Scott who looked away every time she made eye contact, Brad was confident and held her gaze for an inappropriately long minute. He seemed to be looking inside her soul, and she was the one to look down first.

“Well, fuck this!” Ethan shouted and got up from his easy chair. “Pardon my language, Chrissie.”

Chrissie laughed at him. “That’s okay. You should have heard the way the director talked on my last movie set.”

“There isn’t anything to watch on TV, and I’m bored as hell.”

“What do you guys do for fun around here when you’re snowed in like this?”

“I’m going to go back outside and build a fort,” Ethan told her, already reaching for his coat again. “Who wants to come with me?”

Chrissie looked around at the brothers. Where Ethan was apparently cool with going on about his vacation just as if she was not present, the other two had different ideas. They both looked at her, waiting for her to say something before they made a commitment. She knew they would follow her. She was used to having people follow her but for altogether different reasons. These two would follow her because they liked her, and that was the best reason of all.

“Build a fort?” she looked up at Ethan for an explanation.

“Or maybe a castle.” He gave her a wink. “We’ve got enough snow out there to make just about anything we want to. Hell, maybe we’ll make one of each.”

“That sounds fun,” Chrissie admitted. “Would it be all right if I came with you?”

“Absolutely…” Then he hesitated. “Only thing is you better put your fur coat back on because that wind is going to be dangerously cold out there, and don’t be surprised if you get that expensive coat a little bit dirty while we’re out there working.”

“I don’t mind,” she told him and found herself excited by the prospects of building things in the snow.

“Great!” Ethan motioned her to join him and then looked at his brothers. “You guys coming or what?”

They were both on their feet in a split second. Chrissie laughed at them and got up to get her fur from out of her room. This was going to be fun, and fun was something she hadn’t had in a long time. With these three, she thought she could probably have a lot of fun.

* * * *

The cold outside in the snow bit into Chrissie, and every gust of wind made it feel ten times more intense. However, Chrissie was bundled up in her fur and a scarf, stocking cap, and gloves that Brad had given her from his closet, and she was able to take the cold in her stride the way the three brothers handled it. She worried briefly that the stocking cap and scarf wrapped around her neck made her look ugly, but then she decided this time was just too special to bring such silly worries to bear.

She had solved the problem of her falling-down jeans by tying the cinch from her fur coat tightly around her trim waist, and though the jeans were still baggy at the ankles, they now were in no danger of falling down her legs. Her feet did not fare as well because she had not found a way to protect them from the snow that rushed over the tops of the ungainly sneakers with every step she took in the deep snow. Soon her socks were soaked and her feet felt like igloos. Again, she was not going to utter one complaint. This was her day in the snow with the three brothers, and without even having to try, she was having the time of her life.

The property surrounding the cabin was not large, only an acre and a half they could call their own, but that was plenty of room to spread out and play and even run, though the depth of the snow would not permit much in the way of a run.

The first few steps Chrissie took across their yard, she wound up facedown in the snow. The guys were laughing at her. She struggled for a moment against the snow and realized it wasn’t going to eat her up, and it was just cold and rather wonderful. She laughed with the guys, sharing their sense of humor. Scott helped her to her feet, and Brad was on her other side to help brush off her coat. Ethan had already charged ahead and was calling them onward.

“You okay, Chrissie?” Scott asked. She was still in his arms, and she didn’t make any immediate effort to get out of them. His body felt so hard and warm against her own. Behind her was Brad, brushing off her long fur. The attention was glorious, and she realized this was a new feeling, a new kind of care that she could get used to in a hurry.

She was still laughing as Scott brought her back up to her feet and held her in his arms. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She finally pushed out of his arms. “You know my trainer keeps my body in top shape. I’m probably in better shape than any of you guys.”

“I have no doubt of that, Chrissie.” Brad was there when she turned around. She pushed him and he fell in the snow flat on his back.

Now it was her turn to laugh with Scott at her side, and he seemed to think it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. Brad wasn’t going to be outdone so easily. He had his fists full of snowballs and flung them at both of them. Chrissie gave a scream and ran away with Scott, holding onto him for dear life.

“I never thought my jeans would look so good,” Scott told her, and she caught him looking down at her body as she struggled through the snow at his side.

“They may look good to you my friend, but if my PR people back home could see me now, I think they would have me shot.”

“Well, screw your PR people then,” Brad said, joining her at her other side.

“My thoughts exactly.” Chrissie ran ahead of the brothers and tried to catch up to Ethan.

“Hurry up, guys,” Ethan hollered, waving them forward. “I started without you.”

Chrissie could just barely see his figure about fifty yards ahead of them. The snow was still falling at a pretty steady clip, and her vision was restricted.

She looked up at the sky. It was white with some floating, gray clouds, and as she held her face up, snowflakes landed on her cheeks, melting immediately, the water running down her face like cold tears. Just behind the pitch of falling snow and clouds, she could make out the peak of a mountain. She had seen many mountains before. She thought the Alps were actually the prettiest, but there was something about this mountain peak that caught her, and for a second she could not turn away.

The huge, barely seen peak was standing up there all by itself, out here where there were no people or any civilization. It was free, and now, for the first time in her life, so was she.

“I’ll race you guys,” she yelled at Brad and Scott and trudged on ahead of them in the snow.

When she finally made it up to Ethan, she was amazed at what he was building. He had formed a large section of snow, about ten feet by ten feet, and already in the few minutes he had worked, he had the makings of a foundation. His snow building was going to really look impressive. He had apparently done this before and knew what he was doing.

“Show me what to do?” Chrissie asked him.

“You can start by rolling balls of snow and putting them right over here,” he instructed her.

Scott jumped over the foundation with Ethan and started working on building up the snow fortress with him. Brad jogged over with Chrissie.

“My brothers are the snow architects in this family,” he told her, his breath fogging the air. “I just scoop up snowballs and stand back and watch them.”

“I don’t even know how to scoop up snowballs.” Chrissie laughed.

“It’s easy. I’ll show you how.” He led her by the arm out farther into the solid white field. “First we have to get a little distance from what they’re building and where we start pushing the snow. When they say they want a snowball, they mean they want a really big snowball. With the two of us pushing together and so much snow accumulation, I’ll bet we have one over ten feet high by the time we’re done.”

“Wow, that’s big!”

“Let’s see if we can break my record. I rolled a ball down this hill that must have been a good twelve feet one time when I was a kid. You game to try?”

“Sure, I am.”

They got down and started scooping up snow and making the pile bigger and bigger. The wind blew her long hair, held in place only by the stocking cap Brad had given her. The work was tiring but a lot of fun, and she knew she was going to have a big appetite when they went back home for dinner that night.

“See how I do it, Chrissie,” Brad told her, using his arms to move a mountain of snow before him. “If you get behind it like that and use your forearms, you’ll get a bigger ball.”

“You’re bigger than me, silly.” She laughed at him. “I think your snowball is always going to be bigger than my snowball.”

“Size has nothing to do with it. Here, let me show you.” He got behind her and held her arms in his sure grip and demonstrated how she could move to scoop up more snow. “Also, be careful not to let the snow get inside your gloves or up under your sleeves. Frostbite is real easy to get out here, and that’s something we definitely don’t want on our vacation.”

Even through the heavy lining of her fur coat and his winter jacket, she thrilled at the touch of his body next to hers. His face was close to hers as he spoke over the rushing wind, and she could feel his warm breath against her face and smell a hint of aftershave against his skin. When their footing became unsure in the uneven snowdrifts, he steadied her with his arms. She felt the muscles of his arms and his chest, and when his face briefly touched hers, she felt the sexy stubble of his beard.

She wasn’t even listening to what he was telling her. Inside, she had overcome the cold and felt only burning warmth that was spreading with each second their bodies made contact. She’d had enough boyfriends to know he was just giving her BS about how to shovel the snow in her arms. He just wanted an excuse to be up close to her and to touch her. That was all right. She wanted him to touch her. At that moment she wished they were back inside by the fire and weren’t restricted by the heavy coats. She would like to feel more of this man’s body.

* * * *

When Chrissie got back to the warmth of the cabin, it was almost sundown, and a strange, dim light was filling the land as the snow continued to blow down. The coziness of the little cabin and the warmth of the fireplace had never seemed as wonderful to Chrissie as she shrugged out of her fur and fell to her knees in front of the fire to warm her hands.

“I hope you like canned hash and beer, Chrissie?” Ethan asked her as he made his way out to the kitchen.

“I guess I do.” She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think I’ve ever had food like that before.”

“Well, you’re going to have it tonight.” He threw a couple of beers to Scott. “Make yourself useful, bro. Give one to our guest.”

Scott handed her down a beer and smiled. Chrissie really did not like beer, but after a few sips, this one started to grow on her. It was like everything else about this magical place.