Read Online Bear Love by Belinda Meyers - Free Book Online

ass . It was all too likely, she knew. She was anything but
a pro skier. But when the lift reached the slope, she managed to shove herself
off and skid down the short slope to the level-ish ground with only a few minor
wavers and some serious belly-flops. Her legs shook, but she wasn’t sure if
that was muscle strain or just nerves.
    “This way,” Mike said, looking
amused.
    He began skiing down what looked
like a little-used trail. Jess had expected him to move clumsily, like a bear
on skis, and was a little disheartened to see him cut down the icy incline with
practiced ease. Jess felt a little betrayed. He’d said he sucked. Well,
apparently sucking for Mike was different than sucking for Jess. Ha , she thought. I’ll show him the true meaning of suck . Suzy handled it adroitly,
too, if not quite as well as Mike. There was a reason the bears had chosen him
as the instructor, after all.
    Jess followed the other two down,
but she had to keep her skies in a fixed triangle. Even then, the uneven snow
beneath them made her clench her teeth and swear under her breath again and
again.
    The other two had to slow down for
her, and when she reached them she was gasping and out of breath.
    “How … much longer?” she said to
stall for time.
    Mike smiled as if he knew what she
was doing. “Not much.”
    “How come … there’s no one else on
this trail?”
    “We’ve cut this route off from the
tourists. It’s the only way to the Lodge, and that’s just for use by the crew,
so we restrict access.”
    “Not only the crew,” Jess reminded
him, and he nodded his head.
    “You two are the only others we’ve
ever allowed up here.”
    Jess and Suzy exchanged a look.
    Suzy grinned. “I feel honored. What
about you, Jess?”
    In the face of Suzy’s aplomb, Jess
was forced to laugh. “Yeah. It was all worth it, just for this.”
    Mike handled their irony with
patience. “This way, ladies.”
    He continued down the slope. Suzy
leapt after him, skis parallel to each other just like his, making her go
faster and straight down the mountain like a cannonball. Jess kept her skies in
their customary wedge, cutting back and forth down the slope to slow her
progress. Even then she was afraid she would go too fast and fly off the trail
into the thick pines that crowded it.
    At long last the slope turned, then
evened out a bit, and a structure that had to be the Lodge loomed before them.
Huge and encrusted with ice, the monstrous log cabin belched smoke from a great
stone chimney. For all its grandeur, it looked charming and inviting.
    “The original owners meant for this
to be a separate inn,” Mike said. “A ski in, ski out kind of thing, only it
never happened. We’ve decided it should be our crew headquarters.”
    “Why not live here, then?” Jess
said. “You said you were scattered all over town.”
    “There’s only a few rooms,” Mike
said. “The previous owners never began work on the second wing. That was going
to be all rooms. My brother Taggart and his mate Alice stayed here for awhile
after he came back from Black Valley, but they live in town now. Only one
person lives here at the moment.”
    “I was wondering about the smoke,” Suzy
said. “Someone had to light that fire.”
    “That’s Cort,” Mike said. A pained
look crossed his face. “Don’t be alarmed.”
    “Why would we be alarmed?” Jess
said, suddenly alarmed.
    “He’s … scarred. Also, he doesn’t
talk much. The truth is he doesn’t handle people well. There’s a reason he
lives up here all alone.”
    “Then is it really a good idea that
we should intrude on him?” Suzy said.
    “Don’t worry,” Mike said. “He won’t
harm a woman. Come on.”
    Jess hesitated but followed him
inside, and Suzy came immediately after. Jess shivered once she was in, even
though it was warmer, as if her body were just then realizing how cold it
really had been. They had entered into a cavernous den with a roaring
fireplace, and immediately heat