Page 12 of Hero's Prize

His smile had seemed so authentic. She hadn’t been able to see anything but that smile.

But still, she’d brought up the fact that her hotel room was in shambles, thinking maybe he would take the out. Instead, he’d shrugged and told her his room number and said they could meet there instead.

She looked at herself in the mirror again.

What the heck was she doing?

What the heck was Colton doing?

In what alternate universe did he ask her to come spend time with him in his hotel suite? He could have his choice of women to spend the evening with. Although the wedding reception had been private, the rest of the hotel was packed full of Colton’s fans here to witness his snowboarding stunt live tomorrow.

Ella had seen them herself. And a lot of them were young, thin blondes.

She looked at herself in the mirror again, phone in her hand to text him and bow out. She could say she was tired. She could say someone needed her. She could say there was a dessert emergency.

No. Stop being a coward. Just go. You will never forgive yourself if you don’t.

She changed out of the robe and back into her jeans and sweatshirt. It wasn’t sexy, but hell, that was what she’d been wearing most of the time Colton had ever seen her anyway.

Besides, maybe she was misreading all this anyway. Maybe he just wanted the company of a friend. Maybe he was a little nervous about tomorrow’s stunt and wanted a friendly ear.

Maybe it was better that she didn’t have any sort of sexy outfit to put on if he was just looking for someone to hang out with. The more she thought about that, the more it made sense. Yeah. Colton was looking for a buddy. That made all sorts of sense. Some sort of sexy outfit would just mortify them both.

They’d known each other their whole lives. He needed a friend, maybe some snacks. Ella could help on both counts. Hell, she was the queen of snacks.

Jeans, sweatshirt, snacks, buddy.

Feeling much more confident now that she’d solved the puzzle—although maybe just a little sad—she loaded up a tray with some treats that hadn’t made it to the wedding and headed out toward his room. Her steps got a little heavy the farther down the hall she went, but she forced herself to keep going. Forced herself to knock when she arrived, not run back in the other direction.

Colton’s smile was still just as big as he opened the door. “There you are. I was beginning to think you were going to stand me up.”

She laughed, the sound awkward to her own ears, but he didn’t seem to notice. “No, it just took me a little bit to get situated.”

He held the door open, and she walked inside. He was still wearing his dress pants and shirt from the wedding, although the jacket and tie were gone. His sleeves rolled up to show a hint of his strong forearms were almost her undoing.

He took the tray and two gift bags out of her hands as she passed and put them on the counter of the room’s kitchenette. “What’s all this?”

She laughed nervously again. “I thought you might be hungry. The Linear guys, including your brother, are always trying to get me to bring them any extra food. So, I thought you might want the same…”

But now that she was thinking about it, that was probably stupid. Colton was a world-class athlete. As far as she knew, he didn’t even eat sugar.

If that was the case, he didn’t mention it. “I will definitely take these off your hands, although, honestly, my team will probably getto it before I can. It’s ruthless around here when it comes to good food.”

She looked around his hotel suite. It was definitely one of the bigger ones, with a separate bedroom, living room, and kitchen.

The entire living room area and a big part of the kitchen were covered in papers and pictures and even drawings of what was obviously Colton’s upcoming stunt. Ella walked over to study them, a little mesmerized by all the various information.

“I have a stunt tomorrow.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I know. I think everyone knows.”

“I didn’t mean for it to be the same weekend as Theo and Eva’s wedding. Fortunately, neither of them was upset about it. At least, I hope they were telling the truth about that.”

She stepped closer to a large whiteboard that had pictures drawn in different boxes. “They would have told you if it bothered them. Theo loves you like a brother, but there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to make Eva happy.”

Colton nodded. “Good. That’s the way it should be.”

She studied the images again. “This is all for your stunt tomorrow? Even these pictures? It looks like a comic book.”

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