LITMIR.BIZ

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Craig.

      “Have you seen Ashley?” Nick asked him.

      Craig shook his head. “No. I took a spill up there. By the time I could get started again, I’d lost track of Everybody.” He looked around. “You mean she isn’t down here?”

      “Derek hasn’t seen her. She was ahead of me, but I lost sight of her about halfway down.”

      Craig shrugged. “Yeah, well, I was ahead of all of you, for what that’s worth. If I hadn’t been showing off, I would have been the first one down.” He rubbed his shoulder. “You don’t suppose she fell, do you?”

      “I have no way of knowing. I’m going back to look for her.”

      “You want me to come with you?”

      Nick shook his head. “Thanks, but that won’t be necessary.”

      Craig looked relieved. “I don’t envy you going up there in all of this. What a mess.”

      Nicked waved as he shoved off for the lift. If she was hurt somewhere up there, he needed every minute he had to try to find her. All the while he rode up the mountainside he watched for her red parka. There were so many things that could happen, even to an experienced skier. He didn’t want to think about some of the possible problems she may have encountered.

      By the time he reached the top, the wind and snow had caused the visibility to be measured in inches rather than feet. Nick was aware of the adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream.

      His first full day in charge of her and he’d managed to misplace his charge. How could he have allowed this to happen?

      He started down the same run they’d chosen earlier, watching for tracks leaving the marked area, but of course that was a waste of time with the amount of snow that had already fallen. There was no sign of her anywhere.

      By the time he reached the bottom of the run, he was ready to call in reinforcements.

      “Hey, Nick, she’s okay!”

      Craig waved at him from one of the wind-protected areas. Nick skied over to him. “Have you seen her?”

      “No. But I’ve been asking people coming down if they had spotted her. One of the guys I just talked with said a young woman matching her description had been at one of the restaurants having coffee. He said he’d chatted with her while they were in line. She told him she’d gotten separated from her party. He said she would probably be down soon.”

      Nick hadn’t taken his eyes off the trails during their conversation, wondering which way she would be coming down. It was then that he saw a bright red dot swooping down in an almost vertical drop on one of the more difficult runs.

      Craig pointed. “Look! I bet that’s her! Didn’t I tell you she’d be down soon? Just look at her go.”

      Oh, he was looking, all right. Of all the dangerously foolhardy stunts he’d ever seen, she was definitely pulling one now. Did she have any idea how fast she was going? And if anyone got in her way… He didn’t want to think about it.

      Luckily for Ashley there was no one else on that particular run. Nick stood and watched as she finally slowed her heart-stopping drop downward. She moved into a leisurely curving S down the side of the mountain, looking for all the world as though she was enjoying herself, instead of battling a heavy snowfall that could cause all kinds of damage if she hit something covered by the new snow.

      The fact that she made it without a problem did not endear her to him at all. However, at the moment, he was just damned glad to see her safe.

      He stood and waited, knowing that she would have to pass by his location on her way to the lodge. It was only when she got closer that he saw her white face. He knew exactly when she spotted him. She called out to him. “Oh, Nick, am I ever glad to see you!” she said, and skied over to one of the benches, where she dropped, exhausted. She removed her goggles with fumbling fingers and began to tug at the straps of her skis.

      Nick sat down beside her and took off his skis, then he knelt in front of her and gently brushed her hands away from hers. With an economy of movement he removed hers, as well.

      “I didn’t know what to do,” she said, sounding Breathless. “I missed one of the turns on the trail, then I couldn’t see anything, it was snowing so hard.” She brushed tendrils of hair away from her eyes. “After a while I came across one of the restaurants up there, so I stopped for a few minutes to get warm.” She was still out of breath and trying to cover the fact that she was shaking. “Then it seemed as though a break came because the snow lessened and the visibility cleared. I knew I had to go right then, fast as I could, before I lost my nerve and the visibility went back to zero.”

      Nick stood, then pulled her up and handed her skis to her. He turned and gathered up his, then dropped his arm around her shoulders. Neither one of them spoke during the walk to the chalet. Once there, Nick placed their equipment in the storage area.

      Only then did he speak to her. “I think we need to get you warm,” he said brusquely. “The lodge has a big fire going and plenty of hot drinks. I think that’s where everyone else is.”

      She shivered, than laughed with more than a hint of shakiness.

      “I don’t think it’s the cold as much as nerves.” She looked back toward the run she had recently come off, which was now veiled in a heavy white curtain of snow. “I can’t believe I got down that mountain in one piece.”

      “Neither can I,” he said in a low voice. Once again he placed his arm around her shoulders and headed toward the lodge.

      Only then did Ashley seem to realize that she was allowing him to touch her. She stiffened, and Nick figured she would pull away from him. Instead, she relaxed against him. She shook her head as though to clear it, then lifted her gaze to meet his.

      “I bet you’re furious with me,” she said, sounding weary.

      “Oh, yeah. Big-time furious.” He kept his voice low, almost gentle. “You scared the hell out of me, I don’t mind admitting to you. I went back up looking for you. I don’t know which is worse, really. I sure as hell didn’t want to find you lying somewhere hurt, but not spotting you anywhere didn’t mean you hadn’t been injured…or worse.”

      She sighed. “I know. I certainly didn’t do this on purpose.”

      “I’m glad to hear it.”

      The double doors into the recreation area of the lodge swung open in front of them and several skiers came out chatting with each other and heading for their vehicles. Nick stepped back and motioned her through the doors, then followed her inside.

      He nodded toward the conversation pit, which was built around one of the massive fireplaces radiating an enormous amount of heat.

      “Wait over there while I get you some coffee. Or would you prefer hot chocolate?”

      “Coffee’s fine,” she replied. He watched her sink wearily into the comfort of a padded chair. She held out her hands toward the boisterous fire.

      Nick turned away, grateful that she would soon be able to shrug off this morning’s scare.

      Ron met him at the bar. “I hear you misplaced our gal this morning.” He glanced over to where Ashley sat. “She looks okay now. How are you doing?”

      Nick leaned his elbow on the bar and rubbed his forehead. “It was definitely not one of my finer moments. I’m just glad she wasn’t hurt.”

      “What happened?”

      “Damned if I know. She was skiing down the mountain in front of me, then I lost sight of her during a flurry of snow, and when I looked back to where she’d been, she was nowhere in sight.”

      “Did you think someone had grabbed her?”

      “That thought never entered my mind. Which I guess is a good thing. No, I figured she was enjoying one of her

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