Everything was perfectly in place for her to work on them both. She’d planned on using the road travel time to her advantage—start flirting a little.

She slammed her feet into her boots and followed Jack out the door, tugging her coat back on. She was worse than a child. Couldn’t even stay awake for a couple of crucial hours. Fine. As soon as they hit the room, she was turning up the oomph and making her move.

Yet by the time they signed in, grabbed the key and drove over to their accommodations, her already unsteady nerves failed her. She wandered into the cabin, dumped her armload of gear on the couch and slipped onto the balcony. The rest of the cabins and townhouse units spread out along the base of the hill sparkled with Christmas lights, the section of the slope wired for night skiing a brilliant streak of white against the darkness of the hillside. Music floated to her ears from either the bar or the restaurant at the lodge. She grabbed the railing and took a deep breath. Somehow she had to find the strength she needed to make this holiday more than just a nice getaway with her buddies.

She was tired of nice. It was time for fabulous and sexy and smoking hot. It was time to figure out the future.

The glass door swooshed open behind her. Kane came and stood by her side. He leaned his elbows on the railing and peered out at the vista. “Damn good view. Much nicer than from any of the hotel rooms.”

Dara bit her lip. Kane would be the perfect one to approach first.

“Did you see that?” She reached past him to point out the main swimming pool just visible to the left. The move made her lean against him, brushing her breasts casually against his arm. He didn’t react beyond a slight tightening in his body, but he didn’t pull away, and she took that as a good sign.

He cleared his throat.

“Did you see what’s on this balcony?” Kane placed his hands on her shoulders and twisted her on the spot to face the four-man hot tub gracing the enormous deck. “I don’t see any reason why we need to go to the pool when we’ve got a private one right here. That thing is going to feel awesome when we finish making tracks for the day.”

Dara stared at the steaming pool and sudden inspiration hit. She shrugged out of her coat and tossed it on one of the deck chairs. The only way she could do this was to rush forward at full steam.

“Did we get everything in from the truck?” she asked.

“What’s that?” Kane seemed distracted. “The gear? Umm, yeah, Jack went back for the last load. Dara, what are you doing?”

She’d already toed off her boots, and as she pulled her sweater over her head she heard his rapid intake of air. One quick snap and unzip, and her skirt fell away. She turned to face him, keeping her chin high. “I’m going for a dip. You coming?”

He looked like he’d swallowed his tongue. His eyes widened as she tucked her fingers into the top of her tights and wiggled them past her hips. When she stood upright clad only in her bra, panties and a deep flush, he covered his face with his hand.

“Dara…shit, woman, you’re killing me.”

The tightness in his voice—was that because he wanted her or because the thought of seeing her naked was like watching one of his sisters strip? Only one way to know for sure. Dara unclipped her bra, slipped off her panties and tossed both on top of the rest of her things.

She took a step closer. His erratic breaths shook his frame and when she touched the waistband of his jeans he jerked in surprise.

“Are you coming swimming with me?”

Kane’s throat jerked, then he reached for her. A gentle touch, tentative and light, as he brushed his palms along her upper arms. “What are you doing, Dara?”

Freezing? Waiting to see if she was going to be totally humiliated? The indoor/outdoor carpet beneath her feet was covered with a thin layer of frost, and the cold night air made her nipples tighten to hard aching nubs. She leaned forward and lifted her face to him, leaning against his warmth and strength, trying to get away from the chill in the air. She saw it, the moment he decided. He leaned closer and their lips touched.

The door behind them screeched open and the usually calm and sedate Jack roared out, “What the hell is going on?”

Chapter Three

Alpine Responsibility Code

Rule #3—Be prepared for surprises…


It was not a sight he’d been prepared to see—Dara stark naked not even five minutes after arriving at the cabin. Jack snatched a towel from beside the hot tub and wrapped it around her. He’d dreamed for years about having her gorgeous body fully revealed for his enjoyment, but never like that. Not in the arms of another man, not even his best friend’s.

“Whose fucked-up idea was this?” Shit, the feel of her in his arms, knowing that underneath the fluffy fabric she was nude, did crazy things to his brain. Jack carried her into the cabin and plunked her down on the couch amidst the bags dumped there.

She glared at him as she clutched the towel, her face as crimson as the tights dangling from the chair on the balcony. She opened her mouth to say something when Kane beat her to it.

“She just wanted to go for a swim, Jack. No harm, no foul.” Kane dragged his hand through his rumpled hair and shook his head. “She just was in kind of a hurry, I guess. Forgot her suit. We’ve skinny-dipped before.”

Dara swore at him. “Kane, you’re a chicken shit.”

Her legs disappeared under her as she curled up on the couch. She stared at the coffee table like there was something of vital importance written on its surface.

“Dara? What’s going on?” Jack dropped to his knees in front of her to be able to look into her eyes. His control was a tentative thing at best.

She paused before twisting to dig into her backpack. As she scrambled through her things, the towel loosened and the upper circle of one pale nipple slipped into view. His whole body reacted. Whatever she was up to was going to have far-reaching consequences. He’d seen Kane’s expression and felt the lust raging though his own body. She was seconds away from finding out exactly what happens when you poke a guy too hard.

She held out a book to him before rearranging the towel to cover her assets.

“The Count of Monte Cristo? What the…?”

She growled at him. “No, it’s a fake cover, you ass. You guys are always teasing me about how I’ve been reading that book forever and never done. Well, take a closer look, because it’s not written by Alexandre Dumas.”

Jack carefully peeled back the edge. Kane stepped forward to peer over his shoulder as he revealed a cover with three naked bodies on it.

Kane swore. “Porn? You’ve been reading porn in front of us for years?”

“It’s not porn, it’s erotic romance. And that’s what’s going on. My sex life up to now has consisted of pretty vanilla sex. I’m curious and I just thought if you guys were interested we could…” She swallowed hard before lifting her chin resolutely. “I thought we could try a few things.”

God almighty. Jack rose in a rush and turned his back on her. The scent of her perfume was having a terrible effect on his libido, and the image of her face along with his and Kane’s on the bodies tangled together on the cover of that book—

His cock pressed against his jeans in a state of urgency.

“I’m sorry, I should have said something first, only I was afraid I’d lose my nerve and so I just acted without thinking. If you’re not interested, that’s fine. Forget I even—”

“Not interested?” Kane kicked off his shoes, letting them fly across the room to slam into the front door of the cabin. “Holy shit, Dara, one minute you strip in front of me, the next you suggest your two best friends get involved with you sexually? And then you have the balls to turn around and say forget it?”

She snorted. “Yeah, me and my balls. I’ve got tons of those.”

Jack needed to get this whole situation back under control. It was too close to exploding into something that could tear their friendship apart, and he was sure that wasn’t what Dara had intended.

But he wasn’t sure she’d intended for her suggestion to be anything other than a one-time fling either.

He had already decided once this weekend was over he would slowly bring their relationship to a new level. They were good friends, and he’d always looked out for her, careful never to cross the line sexually. Oh, he’d seen her glimmers of interest toward him, but he’d also caught her checking Kane out with the same expression at times.

Jack wanted her. In his bed, in his life—in his future—and he would do whatever it took to make that a reality.

Including, it seemed, share her.

He returned to her side and cautiously sat beside her on the couch. His body weight made the cushions shift and she leaned against him involuntarily. When she would have scrambled away, he placed an arm around her shoulders and trapped her.

“Just slow down, sweetie. You’ve put both Kane’s and my brain in a bit of bind. We’re not saying no to anything.”

“You’re not?” She whispered the words, her body tense in his embrace.

“We’re not saying yes right off either.”

“Jack…” Kane warned.

He looked up at his best friend. They’d never fooled around with the same woman before, at least not at the same time. And this wasn’t just any woman; it was someone they both cared deeply about. Kane tended to be a lot more private about his sexual practices than Jack had ever expected, maybe from growing up in a house full of women. Still, knowing that Kane desired Dara and cared for her—if he couldn’t have Dara to himself right now, sharing her with Kane while they dealt with this mess seemed the best way out of a bad situation.