Page 25 of The Millionaire's Mechanic

“Don’t worry about it, Georgia.”

When he grinned, her knees promptly turned to jelly.He may as well have tackled her, the end result was the same.

“I am starting to get a little antsy without a proper gym, too,” he continued. “But I guess it doesn’t make much sense to have one since Garrett’s sole purpose is to come here to ski. He loves it—the snowshoes are for guests. I’ve never tried it before, but a workout is a workout.”

Georgia was too hungry for his company to keep arguing with him. Whoever said familiarity bred contempt had never met Rainer Torsten. She’d had a vague expectation that her crush on him would fade the better she got to know him.What a joke. It would have been funny…had it not been at her expense.

If anything, her admiration for Rainer had only increased. He wasn’t just a pretty face. Rainer possessed a razor-sharp intelligence and eloquence that was apparent every time he opened his mouth. There was also an innate elegance to him, the kind very few people were born with. Georgia loved watching him, soaking in the grace with which he moved. She even enjoyed watching him eat, picking up and imitating his flawless table manners so she wouldn’t look like an uncultured swine next to him.

They got ready for an afternoon outdoors, dressing warmly in thick parkas they found hanging in the guest rooms—hers was two sizes too large—before helping each other strap on their snowshoes.

It was the first time for them both, and they didn’t get the fastenings right on the first try. Georgia walked right out of hers in a few steps, and Rainer bent over her feet to redo the ties.

The temptation to reach out and touch his silky hair was so strong that she had to sit on her hands.

“Ready?” he asked, rising and holding out a hand.

“Sure,” she said, hoping he didn’t notice her blush. She felt the touch of his hand long after he let go. Having him to herself like this was a fluke, a million-to-one chance akin to winning the lottery.

She ignored the voice in her brain, the one whispered that a nobody like her didn’t deserve a place in his life.

Don’t think about tomorrow, she told herself as they set out under the snow-dusted trees. He was with her now. Once they left this cabin, she’d never get this opportunity again, so she had to make the most of it, cramming as many memories of Rainer into her brain as she could.

It was a little pathetic, but Georgia couldn’t help herself. So, she would play in the snow with a handsome millionaire, tucking away each reminiscence so she could pull them out later, maybe after a hard day’s work, to savor like the memories of a fine, never-to-be-repeated, meal.

They trudged all around the lodge, checking on her snow family before venturing farther out, stamping the fresh powder down with their tennis racket-like appendages. The layer wasn’t thick enough for them to have trouble, but she’d had no idea how difficult walking would be or how quickly she would feel the effects in her weak muscles.

“My thighs are burning.” She laughed, panting and leaning against the rough bark of a thick pine tree. “I’m definitely going to be feeling this in my butt later!”

Rainer glanced down, his eyes lingering on the curves of her ass a beat longer than was strictly polite. Realizing she’d caught him staring, he flushed before turning away.

Georgia told herself not to read anything into his reaction. You practically asked him to look.

“Yeah, I can skip leg day after this,” he said, turning toward the cliff face they had just come across. “I think we’ve almost circled back to the house. The rock face above us is the near the bottom of the tract Garrett skis down.”

“How does he get up to the top of the mountain? Does he hire a helicopter?”

“Well, I wouldn’t put that past him. In this case, though, he uses the snowmobiles in the garage— I know you saw them.”

“I did,” she admitted. Two Arctic Cat ZR’s had been stored under a tarp on a small trailer that could be attached to a four-wheel drive.

Having never seen one before, Georgia had been itching to peek under the hood, so to speak, up until the moment she’d Googled the makes and models of the snowmobiles and found out how much they cost. Since Rainer’s friend Garret would probably object to her taking one apart, she’d given them a wide berth, deciding to admire them from afar.

“When the powder is fresh and thick, Garret drives those up to the top of the mountain and skis down.”

Georgia looked up, watching him navigate the snowshoes like an expert—because of course, he did everything well. “How does he get the snowmobile back down?”

Rainer’s mouth quirked. “You know, I never asked. But he doesn’t ski alone so someone else must drive it back down.”

“The buddy system?”

“Something like that.” Rainer took one last look at the cliff face as if trying to figure out a path up.

“Do you rock climb?”

He put his hands on his hips before turning to her. “I have a few times, but only in a gym. Swimming is my go-to sport.”

She should have guessed that. Rainer had the broad shoulders of a swimmer.

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