Page 39 of Hotter on Ice

“I barely made it here, and it was downhill,” she said, gesturing to the river bank. “I’d say I’ll last ten minutes on this trail, tops.”

Finally, a hint of a smile from him. “Remind me why we’re doing this again?”

“Because I wanted to see all this,” she said, sweeping her pole out along the broad, white landscape. The move threw her off balance, and she tottered on one ski for a moment before recovering. “At the time, it seemed like the best way to do it, though I’m having doubts.”

Henning was definitely smiling now. “Okay. Lead on.”

The sky was an ocean of thick, gray clouds, rolling and changing. The heavy darkness of the long winter night had eased into a dim twilight, but the sun was nowhere in sight. Instead, it was the snow that lit this vast world, shimmering and still. The only sound was the wind.

Alya had watched the Olympic version of this sport. The athletes wore some sort of thin bodysuits and raced through the forest. She, on the other hand, was bundled in a bulky snowsuit and moving at walking speed...at best. And she was already panting. She glanced over at Henning, who looked hot as usual and not at all winded, though he looked like he was having as much trouble getting into a rhythm as she was.

Alya stopped, one foot in front of the other, which, of course, threw her off balance again. She clutched her pole, trying to steady herself, but she toppled over into the deep snow between the two sets of tracks.

“You okay?” Henning asked.

“I’m fine,” she said, looking up at the sky. “Actually, it’s kind of nice down here.”

Henning eased himself into the snow right behind her. She looked over her shoulder and found him so close. His gaze dipped to her lips, then back to her eyes, but there was more than just heat in that gaze. So much more.

“We could do this, Henning,” she whispered. “For real.”

He blinked at her, his brow wrinkling, but then he gave her a wry smile. “I doubt it. I’m a lousy skier, and I’m okay with that.”

She shook her head. “I mean us. We could try it.”

His eyes widened in surprise, and his smile faded. Then he frowned. She probably should have taken that as a warning, but she didn’t. If she just laid it out for him, he’d be able to see how easy it would be to just try. “We’d just do the regular stuff people do when they’re dating. We could go out to dinner, go to the beach. I’m going to one of Max’s fund-raising events next weekend, and you could come with me, as my date. It would be—”

“No. Stop.”

She pulled back and blinked at him. “Why?”

He closed his eyes but said nothing.

“No.” Alya gritted her teeth. “You don’t get to stay silent. After everything that’s happened these last few days, if you don’t even want to try, you need to explain. I want you to say it.”

“We’re both going to regret this conversation.” He pulled off his glove and traced her cheek with his warm fingers. Then he swiped a hand over his face, and when he looked down at her, his expression was dark. “This is dangerous, Alya. You saw me last night.”

Alya struggled to turn around and face him, but her skis were planted in the snow. She huffed out a breath and pushed herself to something that approximated a sitting position.

“Last night, I wanted you, too. I made that clear.”

He waved off her comment, as if it wasn’t relevant.

“You want to know what I was feeling when I watched your interview today?” His expression was hard. “I was furious, listening to you list off all the places you’d be next so anyone knows exactly where to find you. All that protectiveness I feel knowing how many men are watching you—maybe I could get used to that. But not you putting yourself at risk. I’m not in any condition to watch you do that.”

Goddamn him. They lay there in the snow, dressed in bulky snowsuits in the middle of the frozen river, so they couldn’t soften or deflect the conversation with sex. Which was probably better. She had sensed that things were off after the interview, and the more she thought about his reasoning, the more frustrated she was getting.

“You’re mad that I wasn’t sufficiently scared of Nick to hold back where I’ll be traveling this year?”

He hesitated, like he knew this question was a trap but didn’t quite see why. “Yes?”

“That conversation was a revelation to me. I’ve never felt freer,” she said. The more she talked about this, the sharper her voice was getting. “But you wanted me to hesitate? To go back to how I felt before? You’d rather I cower?”

“You have to be more careful,” he said, anger spilling out.

“So I don’t have to worry? Or so you don’t?”

Henning’s jaw worked, his mouth in a grim line, his scars stark, white against the ruddiness of his skin. “Look how crazy this is making me, after just a couple days. How far will this need to protect you go? Until I smother everything that’s good between us?”