Page 2 of His Mansion

There was too much at stake to risk changing their current state of affairs.

Kane whooped as he rose to his feet, propelling himself straight down the hill to pick up enough speed before cutting across the slope to the run they wanted to take.

Dara smiled at Jack and they took off after him, their poles and skis making it easier to maneuver at the top of the run. Jack telemarked, with a ski and boot combination that left his heels unattached, forcing him to bend low on each turn. His strong legs moved rhythmically as he bounced between the upper moguls.

Dara was the ordinary one, with her freestyle skis and poles. She didn’t have the stamina to spend the whole day doing lunges, like Jack would as he telemarked, and the one time she’d tried snowboarding she’d spent more time on her ass than on the board.

Kane shrieked with laughter as he raced down the hill and Dara joined in, letting out her own cry of delight. She flew past Jack as she accelerated around the corner and headed toward the jump. The only time she’d seen Jack completely lose his eternal cool was the day he crashed, rolling limbs askew for a good twenty-five meters before coming to a stop at the base of a tree. Luckily nothing had been broken, but Jack still freaked every time she headed for it.

She crouched in preparation, then extended her knees at the apex of the jump and let herself soar into the air. She flung her arms to the side to rotate herself in a three-hundred-sixty-degree circle. The dark green of the trees and the blue of the sky blurred together as she spun, the snow-covered ground a million miles away—for all of four seconds—before it rushed to meet her. She absorbed the impact of the landing, catching her balance with her legs wide apart.

Awesome. She let out a howl and Kane answered back from below. One more swoosh and she slid to a stop at his feet, spraying him with a wash of fine snow crystals.

“Holy crap, girl, that was the most height I’ve ever seen you get on that jump. Some day you might even be as good as me.”

Dara punched Kane in the arm and they turned to watch Jack. He wove his way toward them, stopping with an extra bit of flair and coating them both with snow. “Okay, I’m officially pumped for our holiday. Three back-to-back days of skiing? Watching you two is going to put me into cardiac arrest.”

Kane gestured down the hill. “Then go first so you don’t have to see it, because it’s only going to get better from here on.”

They spent the next hour assaulting the fresh snow, the crowds slowly growing as people realized the weather had turned for the better. When they stomped into the lodge for lunch, Dara took a side trip for a bathroom break.

Yeah, Jack and Kane were the perfect ski partners, kayak buddies and best friends for watching movies and kicking back but…damn.

Dara stared into the mirror. Ordinary stared back. She was nothing like the women they dated. She was solid and plain, and tended to let other people speak for her far more often than she should. She even had a freaky dusting of freckles across her nose that made people who described her use words like “cute” and “wholesome”.

Well, she doubted most people who were considered “cute” spent a day on the hill with her friends before returning home to a vibrator. The last in a long line of toys she’d burnt out in an attempt to tame all the wild fantasies streaking through her mind every time she thought about the guys.

And she was sure those “wholesome” girls would never daydream about what Jack and Kane looked like in the shower when they’d all head home after the day’s excursions were done. The worst part was she didn’t have to imagine much, not after dozens of trips together where the guys stripped to nothing but boxers when it got hot. To say nothing about the time they went swimming in the buff. Not that she’d been looking.

Much.

Ripped bodies, great attitudes. Kane and Jack had been best friends since forever…and that was the kicker. There was no way she wanted to screw up their friendship, not only with her, but with each other. The kind of loyalty they’d shared over the years was precious. Getting involved with either of them would be a recipe for disaster.

She patted her face with water. Nope—she could satisfy herself with her fingers and her rubbery friends, and keep her relationship with the guys clean and clear.

Her pocket vibrated and she straightened with a jerk. It took her a second to figure out it was her walkie-talkie—the guys must be looking for her. She should have just told them to go ahead and grab the fries.

The hard plastic slipped in her wet hands and she nearly dropped the thing. In her mad scramble to catch it, she hitlisteninstead oftalk.

Jack’s voice rose to her ears, and he sounded pissed off. “Shut up. This isn’t the time or the place for this discussion. You really want to mess with what we’ve got?”

“You know as well as I do that someday she’s going to find someone she likes, and we’ll be out of luck. You want to sit around and wait until then?”

Dara listened for a minute before she realized the guys didn’t know she was on the line. She reached for the call button when her name caught her ear.

“If Dara wanted to get involved with either of us, she would have done something by now.”

What?

“You think so?” Kane’s deep voice drawled. “I think since we’re always together, there’s not much chance for the girl to express interest in one of us. Like she’s going to come on to me when you’re around. She’s too polite.”

“Yeah, right.”

Dara picked her jaw off the floor and glanced around the bathroom in shock, hoping no one else was listening. One stall door was closed, so she turned down the volume and held the receiver tight to her ear. She should turn it off, she really should, but she couldn’t resist eavesdropping a little longer.

“What’s the solution? You going to step back and let me show her who’s the better guy?” Jack’s husky voice sent a shiver racing over Dara’s skin.

Kane laughed. “Here’s where this conversation stalls every time. This is why neither of us is with Dara. We both think we’d be good with her, and that she’d be a good match for either of us.”

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