Page 73 of Rocked: The Price of Dreams

His gaze never left mine. The loneliness in the depths of his gorgeous dark eyes seemed to reflect my own. We understood each other. We always had. For three slow steady breaths we just sat there, absorbing the peace, the quiet, the gentle breeze. Then a small smile inched across his lips. “We need music. Let me grab my guitar and we’ll play until the sun comes up. It’s only an hour off rising.”

I sniffled and nodded as I tucked a loose stand of my hair behind my ear. I stuffed the ache in my heart away. “Yeah.” I’d like that.”

And we did. We sat on the bench, strumming in sync until the rays appeared over the horizon. It was perfect. Beautiful. Calming. It cleared my head of any crazy nonsense.

I had everything I needed.

After our shows in Tokyo, the three of us headed to Furano to ski, rest, and recuperate. But my competitive streak with Hunter came out on the slopes. Every downhill run was a race. Every rush to the chairlift was a push-and-shove contest. Every jump and trick on our boards, we had to outdo each other.

“You don’t give up, do you?” He panted as we collapsed in the snow at the bottom of the hill, waiting for Kyle to catch up.

“Nope. Never will.” I clipped off my board and tossed it beside me.

“You cheated coming down through the forest. You cut out onto the track.”

“I did not.” Okay. Maybe I did. I didn’t want to hit a fucking tree.

“Unfair.” He took off his board and dropped it on the snow.

“You’re just too slow.”

“No, I’m not.”

Splat. He’d shoved a handful of snow into my face.

“Argh. That’s freezing.” I hadn’t seen that coming. “Why you...”

I flicked snow at him, but he caught my hands, pushed me back, and pinned me against the ground.

Laughing, I wriggled and twisted, unable to break my hold. Damn. He was strong.

“Gem? Stop.”

“No.”

“Gem?” He tightened his grip on my hand.

“What?” I stilled.

Oh, shit.

My breath faltered. His azure eyes that were usually full of mischief and fun smoldered with a fire I’d never seen before. My mouth ran dry. He’d never looked at me like that before. My heart did a strange flip. I didn’t like it. Not one little bit. Fear seized my lungs.

“Gem?” He softened his voice. “You’re the most amazing girl on the face of the planet. You know that?”

“Hell yeah,” I joked. “Don’t fucking forget it.” Tugging my hands, I tried to break free, but I couldn’t. Not without kneeing him in the balls or hurting him.

“But there’s one thing we’ve never done, and I was wondering if you’d be open to the idea of...“

Thwack!

A huge snowball hit our heads.

“Hunt. Get off Gem.” Kyle boarded up to us and fell onto his knees. “Don’t rough her up just because she beat you down the slope. I saw. Live with it, dude. She’s the champ.”

“Fuck you.” Hunter rolled off me, but I didn’t miss the disgruntled edge to his tone.

Giggling, I sat up, shook the snow from my hair, and wiped my face. “Kyle’s right. Let’s do one more run before we stop for the day. Just so I can prove to you I’m the best.”

---