Whoa, seriously, who the fuck am I? Two months ago, I would have been dying to go to a ski lodge to bang a bunch of snow bunnies. Now…Ari.

“Babe!” I called as soon as I got off the phone with Miller.

“My name is still Aribel!” she called right back as she stumbled into the living room.

Ari’s roommates came out of their bedrooms when they heard my voice.

“You like to ski, snow bunny?”

“Is this a euphemism for something?”

“ContraBand got picked up for a music festival in the Poconos.”

“That’s great!” Ari cried.

I glanced at her friends, who were staring at us. “We’ll have a couple of rooms the second weekend in December. Do you guys want to come to the show?”

“Oh my God!” Cheyenne piped up. “We were just talking about going on a ski trip. Weren’t we, girls?”

“Ari?” I asked. All I could think about was spending three days with her in my room. I needed her in my bed. I needed to fuck that.

“I’ve only been skiing in Vermont and Colorado.”

I gave her a pointed look. We didn’t need to hear about her rich life right now.

“Yes, that sounds fun.”

The other girls grabbed her and started jumping up and down. They were already planning out way more details than I was sure Miller had.

Once I got Ari back into the truck, it was a forty-five minute drive to where we were going. Ari seemed lost in thought, and I let the radio kill the silence. She perked up as soon as we entered the grounds.

“Hamilton Farm?” she gasped.

“You said you like horseback riding, right?”

She gaped at me. “I’m…wow, I’m a little speechless.”

“That’s a first, isn’t it?”

“Grant, this means a lot.” And then, she smiled one of those rare smiles reserved for me.

Date Thirteen

A week later, I finally got Ari on the back of my motorcycle.

It didn’t matter that I’d gotten on a half-ton animal for her or that she’d broken into a hotel swimming pool with me or that we’d made out onstage at a concert. She claimed to be utterly terrified of motorcycles.

“You won’t go too fast, will you?”

“Nope.” I didn’t ask for clarification on what too fast meant to her.

Ready to feel the hum between my legs again, I slid my leg over.

Ari took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“It’ll be fun. Just get on.”

She threw her leg over the bike, and her hands came tentatively to my waist. I grabbed them both in my hands and pulled her arms around me until her chest was flush against my back. I could feel the uptick in her heart rate. I knew mine was going to match it but not out of fear.

“Just follow my lead, Princess. Move with me.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

I started out slowly, but as soon as we hit the interstate, I kicked it into high gear. Soon, we were zipping past the other cars. At first, Ari would lean against me when I turned or switched lanes as if she could counterbalance the momentum of the bike, but once her fears had lessened, she did as I’d instructed. I thought I’d start her off easy the first time, so it wasn’t a long ride.

When we reached our destination, she stood on shaky legs, handed me the helmet, and shook out her blonde hair. “That was…not so bad.”

“I knew you’d like it.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“But I like to,” I said, pulling her close and kissing her on the lips.

“I can’t believe you convinced me to do that.”

“And now, we’re going to work on your aim.”

Her eyes lifted to the sign. I expected her to groan, shoot me an angry look, or tell me off for the very thought of bringing her to a shooting range.

“You know…I’ve always wanted to fire a gun.”

“What?” I asked incredulously. “You didn’t want to get on a motorcycle, but you want to fire a gun?”

“A motorcycle could kill me! A gun in my hands would only kill someone else.”

Excruciating pain cracked through my skull, and I squeezed my eyes shut to ward off the blinding torture. My hand dropped down onto my bike to hold myself steady. I couldn’t keep the memories back.

“Are you okay?” Ari asked, resting her hand on mine and bringing me back to reality.

“Yeah. Sorry. Headache.”

“Did you have one when you were driving? Do you need anything?”

“Nah. Just came on suddenly.”

“I can get you some Tylenol.”

“Ari, no. Let’s just get you out of the cold.”

I ushered her inside and paid for a rental gun and extra ammo for Ari, and then we entered our booth.