Chapter 5

CHAPTER

FIVE

"I'm wondering if you'd like any company up in your hotel suite?"

Thirty minutes later, Ella stood in her room, staring at herself in the mirror, wearing the resort bathrobe, Colton's words playing on repeat in her mind.

What the actual heck was she doing?

She had already tried on the only three outfits she'd brought with her and discarded them all as useless.

After all, she'd only planned to be here in the Teton mountains for thirty-six hours. She'd thought jeans and a sweatshirt for working earlier to get the desserts set up, her dress for the reception itself, and then some casual clothes for hanging out tomorrow while watching Colton's stunt would be plenty.

But she'd brought absolutely nothing that would make her more confident about going to Colton Harrison's hotel suite. Of course, she could've brought the entire contents of her closet at home and probably would still be here in front of this mirror in the robe.

Why had she agreed to go see him?

She'd been caught off guard by his oh-so-casual request for company. Had just stood there and stared at him—waiting for the punch line—until things had gotten pretty awkward .

"No worries. If you don't want company, it's no problem." He'd given her a friendly nod then turned to walk away.

There hadn't been a punch line. The request for company had been a genuine offer. It had been an offer she'd dreamed about for years, and instead of taking him up on it, she'd been standing there like an idiot, not saying anything.

She'd reached out and grabbed his arm. "No. I mean, yes, I'd like company."

His smile had seemed so authentic. She hadn't been able to see anything but that smile.

But still, she'd brought up the fact that her hotel room was in shambles, thinking maybe he would take the out. Instead, he'd shrugged and told her his room number and said they could meet there instead.

She looked at herself in the mirror again.

What the heck was she doing?

What the heck was Colton doing?

In what alternate universe did he ask her to come spend time with him in his hotel suite? He could have his choice of women to spend the evening with. Although the wedding reception had been private, the rest of the hotel was packed full of Colton's fans here to witness his snowboarding stunt live tomorrow.

Ella had seen them herself. And a lot of them were young, thin blondes.

She looked at herself in the mirror again, phone in her hand to text him and bow out. She could say she was tired. She could say someone needed her. She could say there was a dessert emergency.

No. Stop being a coward. Just go. You will never forgive yourself if you don't .

She changed out of the robe and back into her jeans and sweatshirt. It wasn't sexy, but hell, that was what she'd been wearing most of the time Colton had ever seen her anyway.

Besides, maybe she was misreading all this anyway. Maybe he just wanted the company of a friend. Maybe he was a little nervous about tomorrow's stunt and wanted a friendly ear .

Maybe it was better that she didn't have any sort of sexy outfit to put on if he was just looking for someone to hang out with. The more she thought about that, the more it made sense. Yeah. Colton was looking for a buddy. That made all sorts of sense. Some sort of sexy outfit would just mortify them both.

They'd known each other their whole lives. He needed a friend, maybe some snacks. Ella could help on both counts. Hell, she was the queen of snacks.

Jeans, sweatshirt, snacks, buddy.

Feeling much more confident now that she'd solved the puzzle—although maybe just a little sad—she loaded up a tray with some treats that hadn't made it to the wedding and headed out toward his room. Her steps got a little heavy the farther down the hall she went, but she forced herself to keep going. Forced herself to knock when she arrived, not run back in the other direction.

Colton's smile was still just as big as he opened the door. "There you are. I was beginning to think you were going to stand me up."

She laughed, the sound awkward to her own ears, but he didn't seem to notice. "No, it just took me a little bit to get situated."

He held the door open, and she walked inside. He was still wearing his dress pants and shirt from the wedding, although the jacket and tie were gone. His sleeves rolled up to show a hint of his strong forearms were almost her undoing.

He took the tray and two gift bags out of her hands as she passed and put them on the counter of the room's kitchenette. "What's all this?"

She laughed nervously again. "I thought you might be hungry. The Linear guys, including your brother, are always trying to get me to bring them any extra food. So, I thought you might want the same…"

But now that she was thinking about it, that was probably stupid. Colton was a world-class athlete. As far as she knew, he didn't even eat sugar.

If that was the case, he didn't mention it. "I will definitely take these off your hands, although, honestly, my team will probably get to it before I can. It's ruthless around here when it comes to good food."

She looked around his hotel suite. It was definitely one of the bigger ones, with a separate bedroom, living room, and kitchen.

The entire living room area and a big part of the kitchen were covered in papers and pictures and even drawings of what was obviously Colton's upcoming stunt. Ella walked over to study them, a little mesmerized by all the various information.

"I have a stunt tomorrow."

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "I know. I think everyone knows."

"I didn't mean for it to be the same weekend as Theo and Eva's wedding. Fortunately, neither of them was upset about it. At least, I hope they were telling the truth about that."

She stepped closer to a large whiteboard that had pictures drawn in different boxes. "They would have told you if it bothered them. Theo loves you like a brother, but there's nothing he wouldn't do to make Eva happy."

Colton nodded. "Good. That's the way it should be."

She studied the images again. "This is all for your stunt tomorrow? Even these pictures? It looks like a comic book."

"That's the storyboard that my PR team came up with. The shots they want to get."

She stiffened slightly when she realized he had gotten a lot closer.

Like… a lot . He was right behind her.

Not that she wanted him to move away. She just wasn't sure what to do. What would it be like if she could just relax and lean back against his chest?

"Do you do this prep work for all your stunts?" she managed to get out.

"Maybe not to this degree—this snowboard run has a lot of moving parts. But yes, we always map out as much as possible beforehand. "

She kept expecting him to move farther away as he spoke—hell, she could smell the woodsy scent of his cologne—but he didn't.

"I didn't realize so much planning went into it."

"Most people don't. But now, what I do is a business in a lot of ways. I don't necessarily think of it like that, but believe me, my public relations manager, Tony, and his team sure do."

One of his strong arms came up as he pointed to one of the boxes in the storyboard. "This is the big money shot."

She was staring at the drawing of the helicopter and what was obviously Colton leaping out of it, but she was so distracted by the muscles of his bicep straining against the sleeve of his shirt that she could barely focus on what he was saying.

"Money shot?" The words squeaked out.

"Yeah. Viewers want to be excited, so we play that up as much as possible. Me coming out of the helicopter is pretty dynamic, so that's one place we're really focusing on."

He brought up his other arm, and he pointed at a second picture a little farther down on the storyboard. She was now, in essence, trapped in his arms. "And here. Flips, spins, fancy footwork stuff…always seems to get pulses pounding."

Her pulse was pounding without any of those things. She had no idea what to do. She could almost hear Lilah telling her to take a chance, to make the first move, to turn around and plant a kiss on him.

But her feet felt glued to the floor.

"Are you ever scared during your stunts?"

"If you're not scared at least a little bit, then you're not taking it seriously enough. So yeah, I'm always cautious."

"I've watched all of your stunts, and sometimes I'm terrified for you."

"You watch my stunts?"

Should she not have admitted that? Did it make her sound more pathetic than she already felt? "I?—"

"I like the thought of you watching me. "

Was it her imagination, or had his voice just gotten deeper? And why were his arms still up with his hands on the whiteboard?

It was like they were embracing without actually embracing. Close, but no actual cigar.

"Why did you bring those desserts with you here to my room, Ella?"

She hadn't been expecting that question. She shifted, thinking he would move his arm so she could put some distance between them, but those arms stayed firm on either side of her.

Unless she wanted to turn around and be face-to-face, then she didn't have many options but to stay put.

"I had them in my room." Her voice came out like a little squeak, so she cleared her throat. "I thought you might be hungry."

"Did you bring them because you thought that was why I asked you to come here?"

She wanted to lie, but she couldn't. "Yes," she whispered.

"And if I told you I was hoping for something sweet, but what you brought wasn't it, what would you say?"

He wanted something different? She racked her brain for an inventory of what she still had in her room. "Was there something specific you'd wanted? I don't have a lot of inventory left here at the resort, but I?—"

Before she could finish the sentence, Colton grabbed her elbow gently and spun her around so she was facing him.

"Oh, there is definitely something sweet that I want, but it's not food."

"It's not?" She was standing there, his arms still caging her in on either side, still almost-embracing.But then he took a slight step back—more along the lines of what she was expecting.

"Look." He ran a hand through his dark hair. "This is a little new for me."

She raised an eyebrow. "Having a girl in your hotel room is new to you?"

"Having you in my hotel room is new to me. And no, I did not ask you here because of your baking abilities. But also, I don't want you to think that I expect anything from you." He ran his hand through his hair again. "I'm sure it's easy to believe that I'm with a different girl every night, but I'm not. And even if I were, I wouldn't want you to think that I would lump you in with them."

Was it just her, or did he truly sound nervous? Nervous about her .

He let out a sigh. "All I'm trying to say is that I'm fine with whatever happens here tonight. If it's just talking, that's fine?—"

Ella kissed him.

Somewhere, Lilah was probably doing backflips in excitement. Then all thoughts of Lilah flew from her mind. This felt right. Her lips on Colton's felt oh-so right .

But then she realized he wasn't kissing her back. Her gut knotted. Oh no. She had misread the situation just like she'd been afraid of.

She stepped back, dread pooling in her belly. "I'm sorry, Colton. I didn't let you finish what you were saying, did I? This wasn't what you?—"

This time, it was Colton who used a kiss to stop the conversation. He slid one of his hands into her hair, while he wrapped his other arm around her hips and pulled her tightly against him.

"Oh, this is very definitely what I want," he said against her lips. "I just realized you taste like butterscotch."

"Butterscotch?" She loved the flavor and had had a piece of candy before she left the room in an attempt to calm her nerves. "Is that bad?"

"No. It's my favorite."