Dammit. “What are you doing?” he yelled up to her. “Scoot back!” He cupped his hands around his mouth so his voice would carry through the rain. “Scoot back now!”

Ally gripped the chair with both hands, but didn’t scoot back. As she was swept into the air, she hung on, half on the chair, half off, and let out another alarmed squeak.

Chance swore and leaped forward, following the chair. She wasn’t that high, yet, but there was no cushy snow to break her fall if she let go. “Dammit, Ally, listen to me! Scoot back!”

She just clung to the edge, looking down at him from an increasing height. When she caught sight of the ground vanishing beneath her, all the color drained from her face.

“Stop the chair!” he yelled over to Tim, who did so at that exact moment.

The lift ground to an immediate halt, and from fifteen feet above his head, Ally let out a loud gasp as the thing swung back and forth from the abrupt stop. She finally scrambled all the way into the chair, and then a second later her pale face appeared over the side, though she carefully refrained from looking down. “I’m okay.”

His heart had all but stopped. “You might have mentioned you’re afraid of heights.”

“I’m not afraid.”

“And I suppose you weren’t lost the other day either.”

She looked straight ahead. “I’ve got it under control now.”

So she did. Never mind that he’d gone weak at the knees, his heart still kicking in triple time.

She leaned back, still looking pale as a ghost, but calm as he pleased. “I’m completely fine.”

“Well maybe we ought to start with your rescue, what do you think?”

“Oh no, not on my account.” Her white knuckles were visible on the edge.

Next to him, Jo’s radio crackled, and through the airwaves, Michelle, their receptionist, spoke up. “I’ve got an important call for Ally.”

Jo lifted the radio to her mouth. “Ally’s on the lift at the moment.”

“It’s her sister Maggie.”

Jo tipped back her head and glanced upward at their white-knuckled rider. “Ally? It’s your sister.”

“Can’t she leave a message?”

Jo asked Michelle, who came back with, “It’s an emergency.”

“My parents?” Ally’s voice went rough with concern, her fear apparently forgotten. She even managed to look down, though she still had no color in her cheeks. “Or my other sisters, Tami and Dani?”

There was a tense few seconds while Jo radioed to Michelle, who then turned to the phone.

The drizzle turned to rain.

Chance watched Ally, but she didn’t look at him. She just sat up there, very still. Her boots seemed so small and defenseless, hanging above his head, a vivid reminder of how petite she was.

Tina had been petite, too, and the wilds had killed her.

He inhaled sharply and tried to think of something else, like how he’d never met anyone more irritating, or more likely to get herself killed.

Finally Michelle radioed back. “The emergency involves her checkbook. Apparently she’s needing more money.”

Jo let out a relieved breath.

Tim let out a relieved breath.

Brian shook his head, disgusted.

From up above, Ally groaned. “I’ll call her later. Much later.”

Jo passed on the message to Michelle, who responded with, “Ally? Maggie says she knows you just sent money to Dani and Tami, but she had to buy a new summer wardrobe because she couldn’t be expected to go to summer school without new clothes, and now all she has left until your next paycheck is enough to eat macaroni and cheese out of a box. She hates macaroni and cheese out of a box.”

Ally closed her eyes. “Tell her ravioli out of a can is cheaper.”

Everyone laughed. Even Ally managed a smile, though Chance noticed she was careful not to look down. “Sorry,” she said. “Obviously my sister doesn’t have a clue as to a what a real emergency is.”

Chance would have said he hadn’t thought Ally did either, but clearly there was a whole hell of a lot more to Ally Wheeler than he’d first thought.

The truth was, he knew little about her, except apparently she supported her sisters, which meant on top of the biggest, most expressive eyes he’d ever seen, and on top of her misguided sense of adventure that was going to be the death of him yet, she also had a deep loyalty streak.

Damn if that wasn’t one of his favorite qualities.

He realized Jo was looking at him look at Ally. She lifted a curious brow.

He turned away.

Jo came up behind him. “I can’t believe what you’re thinking,” she whispered.

“I’m thinking about lunch.”

She laughed. “Yeah, right. Lunch.”


TWO HOURS LATER, they were on their fifth and final “rescue.”

Ally’s teeth were chattering, though her feet were thankfully and firmly planted on the ground as she watched yet another mock evacuation. Again and again her gaze was drawn to Chance as he directed the crew. Everyone, including her, looked like drowned rats.

Not Chance.

Darn him, but he looked good. He wore rain gear like the rest of them, but his hat didn’t make him look silly. It only emphasized his piercing dark eyes. There was a lock of wet hair dangling over his forehead, and his earring glittered. The five o’clock shadow on his face looked rough, exciting, and she wondered what it would feel like rubbing against her skin.

Locked in the fantasy, she imagined him going back to his cabin and stripping off his wet things until he was naked. He’d look really good naked, she thought on a sigh.

Then he looked over his shoulder, right at her, as if he’d heard her thoughts. An annoying little tingle went through her and she looked away first. But two seconds later she was looking at him again. Like a moth to the killer flame, she moved closer. “Maybe we should give them a break,” she said, nodding to the tired staff.

“Them? Or you?”

She lifted her chin, wondering why he always stirred so much emotion within her. “It’s one thing to risk injury because of an emergency, but there’s no emergency at the moment.”

“Oh, I don’t know…” He shot her an innocent look. “I had to buy a new summer wardrobe and-”

She turned her back on his wide grin. “You know what I meant.”

“I know,” he said, his mouth so close to her ear she shivered. His eyes darkened at that little involuntary gesture. “But if there ever comes a time when we have to evacuate an entire lift of terrified skiers or snow-boarders, any employee under my command needs to know what they’re doing-blindfolded-bad weather or not.”

“Your command?” But when she turned to face him, he’d already moved away.

“Break,” he called.

The staff scattered at his welcome decree, every last one of them, including Brian. Ally went to leave as well, grateful not to have to admit she needed a breather too, if only to escape his all too consuming presence.

“Where are you going?”

She looked over at Chance, then wished she hadn’t. He’d moved close again. He didn’t seem bothered in the least by how wet he was. In fact, despite the water running off of his tall, muscled form, he seemed perfectly relaxed and in his element. A drop ran down his temple. Across his jaw. He’d removed his hat, and when he looked at her, when their gazes were locked, he sucked a raindrop off his lower lip.

Heat suffused her. Her skin felt too tight. Her tummy fluttered. It was irrational, it was stupid, but she wanted to run a finger over that wet jaw, wanted to lean close and lick a drop off his skin herself. She wanted to touch him, taste him. “You…called for break. Everyone left.”

“Yes, because everyone else knows how to get off a lift.”

“I just got off one.”

“No. You were evacuated. As in physically removed.”

“Oh.” She eyed the lift. It looked so easy now that the thing was stopped. “Well, how difficult could it be?”

He laughed at her of course, he always laughed at her. He walked over to the control booth and turned the lift back on. The chairs started to move. Unclipping his radio from his belt, he brought it up to his mouth and told Jo they’d be right back, that he wanted Tim on radio for back up.

“Get on,” he said to Ally, gesturing with the radio still in his hand. “This is a beginner run, we can walk back down from the top.”

“We?”

“Yeah.” His body brushed hers when he walked past her. “We.”

Her stomach tightened again, and not from fear this time.


THEY GOT ON TOGETHER, though Ally did her best not to touch him. Chance did his best to make sure she had to, so that by the time they were settled, they were shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip and thigh to thigh. Everywhere they touched, he burned for more, and it really got his temper going. “Tired?” he asked, wanting to hear that she was, that she couldn’t wait to high-tail it home any second.

Nice guy that he was, he’d drive her back to the airport.

“Of course not.” Her knuckles were white from the grip she had on the steel chair. Her pupils were huge. She was clearly doing everything in her power to pretend she wasn’t high above the ground. Moving. “I thought you were a wild, risk-taker kind of guy,” she said, looking resolutely ahead. “Why would you call Tim for backup when you can handle anything?”

“Because getting on a lift without anyone knowing would be stupid, especially if something went wrong.”

She swallowed hard. “Wrong?”

“Yeah.” He looked at her profile. So proud. So pretty. So petrified. “For instance, you could freak out on me.”

“I’m trying to keep my freaking to a minimum, thanks.” She continued to cling to the side of the chair, and he realized that some sick part of him wanted her to cling to him.

“I talked to Lucy this morning,” Ally said shakily, then glanced at him. “She said she knew how much she was putting on you, and that she was very grateful.”