It was a beautiful day, and Kylie was more than ready to conquer the slopes for real this time. Even a small fall when she’d gotten off the lift (despite Ryan’s attempts to help her) couldn’t get her down.

The view from the top of the mid-mountain lift was spectacular. Low clouds obscured the mountains rising around them, but the sun gleamed in sparkling swaths over the freshly groomed snow that had fallen during the night. Green tops of trees poked out from drifts of snow at the sides of runs, and down the mountain, she could see skiers and snowboarders making their way down the hill in lazy S-turns.

She sighed in satisfaction as she did up her new bindings. They fit perfectly over her boots. She didn’t know if her board would really feel any different, or if it was just the fact that it was hers, that Ryan Hart, world famous snowboarder, had picked it out for her.

She should have him sign it before he went back. The thought made her depressed so she did up the last buckle on her bindings angrily and exhaled slowly to put it out of her mind. She waited for Ryan to come over. When he did, he was holding a map.

“Sorry, I’m still learning my way around the bunny slopes. But I think if we go over there, we’ll find some fresh pow and still not have too difficult of a hill.”

“Fresh pow?”

“Powder,” he said with a grin. His cheeks were already slightly wind blown to a shade of pink that matched his lips. His eyes were a bright, almost too-brilliant blue with his goggles on his helmet as he looked at the map. He looked so hot in his snowboarding clothes. Nothing else came close.

His ski coat was navy, his pants black. Both fit him in a way that emphasized both his height and his muscles, making him look even bigger, if that was possible. Luckily, he was too busy comparing the map to the mountain to pay any attention to the fact that she was ogling him.

Or maybe he wasn’t, because he looked up at her and winked slyly, before turning back to the map. She blushed and went back to playing with the snow in front of her board. She should make a snowball. Throw it at him when he was making a turn. Show him what it felt like to fall and feel like an idiot. Wait, what was she talking bout? He’d surely had tons of falls. Just recently, he’d had a horrifyingly public one with the whole world watching.

Her breath caught, remembering when she’d first seen the replay. Horrible. Right after, she’d wished she hadn’t watched it. But she’d wanted to understand what happened to him. Had hoped that whatever it was wasn’t as bad as what she was picturing in her mind.

It was.

She could hardly believe he was really here, looking totally fine as he tilted his head to consider the map. She scooted over to him on her butt and reached up. “Here, let me look at it.”

He shrugged and did as she said. She looked at the map and quickly deduced which way was which.

“It’s straight over there.”

“Great,” he said. “Let’s go.”

“No way I can cut that hard,” she said. “I’m not that good on my heel side yet.”

“True,” he said.

“Rude.”

He reached out for her hands, and she stood, wobbling on her heels on her board, and he clasped her arms with his hands. She clasped his forearms right back, and they were locked. “Remember how I did this when I was helping you figure out how to switch direction?”

“Right,” she said. “I just lean back on my heels to stay on my edge, and look where I’m going. But I’ve never gone at that hard of an angle.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “I’m going to take you there, and with us locked like this, as long as you relax and stay on your heels, I can face you and stay on my toe edge with my back to the hill and take you with me.”

“How will you see where you’re going?” She eyed the trees to the side of the hill where they were heading warily. “Do we have to go through the trees?”

He gripped her arms tight in his reassuring hands. He was so strong, so capable. If anyone could help her do this, he could. “I can look without moving my body. It’s something you learn later on. So, do you trust me?”

She raised an eyebrow. “I remember the last time you asked me that.”

He grinned. “And were you glad you trusted me?”

She nodded vigorously, glad she was wearing a scarf that would at least somewhat cover her blush.

His grin deepened. “Good. So trust me again.”

She frowned once more at the trees as he started to point their boards slightly down the hill, and her edge wobbled and scraped as she tried to keep her balance. His arms kept her steady when she thought she would fall. “Do we have to go to the pow, as you called it?”

He nodded. “Every new snowboarder needs to experience pow. Fresh, untouched powder. Riding on it feels like flying.”

That sounded wonderful. She hadn’t felt like that in a long time. “Okay then. Take me to the pow.” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them, just as he started them in that direction again. She tried to relax and stayed focused on keeping her heels back. With her prosthesis, she could pull back on her heels by leaning her weight back, and the foot was stiff enough to pull the boot with it. She grinned as they started to move a little faster, as he gave her an encouraging smile that said she was doing great.

They went faster than she’d ever gone on her own, but it was exhilarating. The cool winter air on the skin that was exposed between her goggles and her scarf was refreshing, even as it started to bite.

She looked up at him, so calm, so handsome, as he guided them around the trees and to a little ridge that overlooked a slope below. Then he stopped, held her hands as he rested her back on her butt, and then slid to the side of her and jumped his board so that he was facing the same way as her, and sat down.

She laughed as he sunk into the snow. He gave her a mock glare, and then grinned and looked out at the valley below. It was even more beautiful there, the snow in natural piles over the hill, coating the branches of trees that had been protected from the wind.

There was no one around. Just the trees standing watch with their armfuls of snow, and the sun as it moved behind fluffy, light-gray clouds. Bearstone Park lodge was visible far away in the distance, at the bottom of multiple hills.

Ryan leaned back on his hands with a deep sigh. “Ah, this is heaven, right? I can’t think of anything better than this.”

She had to agree. Why hadn’t she come up here sooner? Why hadn’t she looked into prosthesis options for snowboarding? It was just one of those things she’d assumed wouldn’t work, and anyways, she had thought it was probably more fun to watch than do. But Ryan had ruined the coward in her and gotten her up here, and now she couldn’t help but agree with him that it felt like home.

But was that because the mountain was so beautiful, or because he was here with her? If she just forgot him going to Australia, him crashing, and the rest, it felt like some kind of dream. As if the first time she’d approached him, he’d openly felt what she had, that they should be together.

Now he supposedly did, but it made no sense. So she decided to do what they’d already agreed to and go back to thinking of them as just friends. At least for today. At least while trying to enjoy the pow.

“It looks so soft,” she said. “Like falling into it would be like bouncing on a cloud.”

He laughed, a deep, rich sound that hit her right in her heart. She wanted to hear him laugh again, as many times as possible, over the course of their lives. She was starting to not care about any drama between them. As long as he looked that happy, she felt she could be happy too.

Be careful, her heart warned. That way be monsters. And her heart was right. You couldn’t just count on someone to love you and want you to be happy just because you wanted the same for him or her. She stood and scooted toward the powdery slope.

“Any tips?” she asked him.

“Same stuff,” he said. “But yes, falling isn’t a problem. Turns will be a little—”

She slipped forward over the edge and down the slope before he could finish. She compensated by trying to pull back on her heels, but the soft, heavy snow made it hard to move. She flailed her arms as she rushed toward the trees at the side of the run, and then face planted in the deep snow to keep from hitting them. The snow was several feet deep, and she struggled to push her head out. It packed down around her, but she found herself unable to get over her board.

She stayed on her stomach and heard deep laugher above her. Then two strong hands lifted her under her arms and pulled her back onto her butt, snowboard in front of her once again as she sat.

Ryan shook his head. “Turns will be a little harder. That’s what I was trying to say before you went all dare devil on me.”

“My board had a mind of its own.” She sniffed. But she couldn’t stay snobby when she saw him up to his knees in powder, with snow all over his hair and shoulders. “Sorry you had to dig me out.”

He scratched his head and shook snow off his hair. “It’s fine. My pleasure. So, what do you think about pow?”

She shivered. “I think it’s cold. And my face hurts.” She looked around. “Where is your board?”

He pointed a few feet up the hill, where the board was jutting out like a fork stuck in a cake. His helmet was perched atop it. “I stuck it in so I could get down here without pushing more snow over you. Plus I didn’t want to have to worry about holding an edge while trying to get you out.”

“Won’t it be hard to get back up there?” she asked.

He folded his arms. “Please. I’m an athlete. Not to mention, I walk up slopes all the time when I’m working on a trick and have to reach a jump.”

“Ah,” she said. “Right.”

He leaned forward and reached out his hands, but her board wouldn’t move. She looked down to see the flat surface was stuck in the snow, having moved itself there while she was sitting.

“Um, I’m sort of stuck.”

“Right,” he said, blushing slightly as he let go of her arms and bent to dig for her board. When he got there, she felt him undo her bindings. She sighed in relief and pulled her feet free as he yanked the board clear of the snow and stuck it hard into the snow like he had his own. “There, that should stay. You okay?”

She nodded and flopped back in the snow. He leaned over to look down at her and once again she noticed the slight pink on his cheeks. “Why are you blushing?”

He rubbed his neck and stood up straighter. “Am I? Ha ha, I didn’t notice.”

“What is it?” she asked.

He flopped down on his butt next to her and gave her a wry grin. “I don’t know. I guess I kind of like saving you.”

“Saving me?” Her eyebrows raised in shock.

He laughed and looked away. “You’re kind of cute when you’re stuck.”

She reached for his head and forced him to turn and look at her. As he’d done to her multiple times. “Aw, does it embarrass you to be the big hero?”

He grinned. “No. I like it. Do I get a hero’s reward?”

“Sexist!” she said, grinning at him and throwing a handful of snow over him.

“Hey!” He grabbed his own handful and chucked it back, and she growled and made a ball and threw it straight into his face. His expression changed, and she squeaked and turned away as if to run, but the snow was too deep for her, and he was on her in an instant. She squealed as he took them both down into the snow, rolling slightly as they settled in on the hill.

She came up on top of him, but he had his hands rooted around her waist, holding her over him. Her hands were on his firm shoulders, and she caught her breath when she looked down at him.

His lips were sprinkled with snow, and he was laughing as she shoveled more at him in an attempt to get away. But he was much better on snow than she was, and simply rolled over until she was on bottom. The snow was packed down beneath them but rose in fluffy tufts around them. She could see their breath mingling in little puffs of steam as he leaned over her.

He was so large, so powerful here in his home on the mountain. She could sense that this place was truly part of him, and she wanted to be part of it too.

She reached up to wipe snow off his nose. “You can let me go, now.”

He shook his head, spraying snow off his hair in all directions. With him close to her, it didn’t even feel cold. “Like hell. I still haven’t gotten my revenge for your snow shenanigans. Or my hero’s reward.”

“Hm,” she said thoughtfully, biting her lip and tasting fresh snow as it melted against her tongue. “What kind of reward?”

He leaned back, still straddling her. “I don’t know. Maybe a kiss?”

She threw another ball of snow at him and he blocked it with one hand and growled at her as he leaned forward to pin both of her flailing hands over her head. “I surrender,” she gasped.

“Good,” he said, looking down at her with a dominant gaze not unlike the one he’d had in the bedroom the other day.

“Um, Ryan? We’re friends, remember?”

His pursed his lips. “Do friends rescue each other from danger, bravely I might add, and wrestle in the snow?”

She nodded. “I guess so.”

He nodded. “Then it shouldn’t be a big deal if friends kiss.”

Before she could answer, his lips were on hers. Insistent, warm, with little sparkles of cold snow melting between them. Then his tongue slid into her mouth, warming and caressing and exploring. It was a slower kiss than the one before. She could still feel her heart pounding from the exertion of the snow fight. Could still feel the excitement of trying to get away, turning into a different kind of excitement altogether as he pinned her there and kept his lips on hers.

It felt so right to kiss him. It felt as right as she’d always known it would. But she’d stopped hoping that attraction, that rightness, would lead to something permanent when he’d left her before.

After all, if it was such a good thing, how could he leave it behind?

But things were different. Even if it had happened because of his accident, he was here with her again. And he was being the man she’d wanted. The man she’d known he could be, if he wasn’t running and hiding from her.

Life with him would definitely be an adventure.

She kissed him back, entwining her tongue with his, feeling heat and pressure build inside her as her body remembered other things they’d done together. She almost wanted him to take her to the lodge right now and make her his. She reached up and stroked his hair with her gloved hand as the kiss went on and on. It felt almost magical, embracing there on the mountain with only the wilderness as witness.

When he pulled back, he had that same fire in his eyes that he’d had before. Was this it? Was he going to pick her up and carry her off to another mountain cabin somewhere? She quivered at the thought.

But then he pulled back, looking her over with a satisfied smirk. “Reward received.” Then he got to his knees, stood, and gave her a grin before hiking off to get his board.

“Ryan?”

“Just a sec. I’ll be down there to clip you in after I get my board.”

She let out a huge breath in a huff. He could really just walk away like that? He looked smug as he cruised toward her in an easy arc on his board. When he reached her, he turned sharply and sprayed snow in front of him. She glared up at him, and he gave her a cocky grin.

“What’s wrong, princess? Left wanting more?” He tilted his head and gave her that infuriating smirk once again.

She shook her head and crawled over to her board, trying to yank it free. It wouldn’t budge. He slid over and easily yanked it out and set it in front of her.

She tried not to seethe as he helped her buckle in to her bindings. When she was safely in, he reached out to lock forearms with her again.

“Should we work on some turns?” he asked, helping her stand.

She pushed away from his hands, feeling her way over the powder as she slowly started down on her heel-side edge. “No thanks,” she said. “I think your turns are a little too abrupt for me.” She gave him a flat look that made the double meaning in her words clear, and he just threw back his head and laughed.

“All right, then,” he said. “I guess I’ll just wait until I need to rescue you again.”

“Ha!” she said. “Fat chance.”

“Remember, I get a reward each time I save you,” he taunted.

She grimaced and promised herself that that was the last time he’d have to dig her out of the so-called pow.

She was wrong.

He had to do it three more times, and each time, he gave her the kind of kiss that made the snow melt around them and made her wonder if this was the reason he’d brought her over to the pow in the first place.

The third time, she fell on purpose. But he didn’t seem to mind.