Free Fall by Jill Shalvis Page A

watched the light come on, concentrated on the bag growing larger and larger, and when the microwave beeped, she nearly jumped. She took the bag out, carefully opened it and started munching.
    Then and only then did she turn. Logan had pulled on his jeans but hadn’t fastened them. He sat on her couch, legs out, arms spread over the backs of the cushions, watching her.
    â€œIt’s hot,” she said inanely, and stuffed another handful into her mouth.
    â€œCome here.”
    â€œYeah. Okay.” She sat down next to him, leaving a wide space between them for her mental health, but he turned to face her, surrounding her with his bare chest and long arms, and it wasn’t an unpleasant surrounding sort of thing at all. Neither were the odd little throbbing pulses her body kept giving off. The aftermath of hot, panting sex, she supposed.
    His fingers stroked her shoulder, the back of herneck, and when she sighed, eventually sagging back, he pulled her in even closer. “So what do you do when you’re not working?” he asked, reaching for some popcorn.
    She opened her mouth and then closed it. She laughed.
    â€œWhat?” he asked, drawing his finger over the skin on her shoulders.
    â€œYou want to talk and cuddle.”
    â€œSure.”
    She stared at him but he wasn’t kidding. He was a man, a red-blooded, earthy, sexual, gorgeous man. And they’d already had sex. So why the hell wasn’t he running? Instead, he simply stretched out a little more, those long, long legs taking up a good amount of space, his broad chest looking scrumptious by firelight as he waited for her to answer him.
    â€œI’m nearly always working,” she said.
    â€œI can see that. How about when the season is over?”
    â€œWe open the trails up for hiking and mountain biking.”
    He winced. “You must rescue people all year long.”
    â€œYeah, but I didn’t always work like this. Just this last year since my grandma died and I became manager. I used to be ski-patrol director, and in the other seasons I was activity director.”
    â€œYou can’t keep up this pace, Lily. You’re trying to do it all.”
    She smiled sadly. “Well, it’d be easier to give up the outdoor stuff if I was loving the management side of things.”
    â€œDo you ever get away from here?”
    â€œOnce in a while I manage to see friends in town. Sometimes we travel around, checking out the other resorts. How about you? What do you do with yourself when you’re not working?”
    â€œI haven’t been on vacation in years.” His fingers continued to play at the back of her neck, making her want to stretch and purr like a kitten. “In fact, it’s been a long time since I’ve been as relaxed as I am right now. Years.”
    â€œYou haven’t had sex in years?”
    â€œI haven’t been on vacation in years.” He had laugh lines fanning out from his eyes, and they crinkled now. “Although to tell you the truth, I haven’t had sex like we just did in a very long time.”
    â€œMe, either,” she admitted softly, his ensuing smile making her feel as if she were the only woman on the planet. “So why haven’t you vacationed in so long?”
    He lifted a shoulder. “I love what I do and just rarely feel the need to get away from it.”
    Right. Yet another example of why this heart-palpitating urge to grab him and never let go was so very bad. He loved his life, his job, his everything. Hundreds and hundreds of miles away.
    â€œMy brothers would appreciate this place,” he said, still playing with her skin.
    â€œThey both ski?”
    â€œWhen they get a chance. Right now Tom is out on a ship in the mid-Atlantic somewhere, helping to keep the waters safe from terrorists and drug dealers. Paul is in the Gulf, doing the same thing.”
    His voice was filled with pride, something she knew was missing in her own