11. Ellery

Ellery

Somehow, we were up even earlier the next morning to get to skiing. I booked Juniper a lesson since she hadn’t been before. I wanted to have an easy going morning, but Juniper insisted on being on time for her lesson. When I tried to tell her we had plenty of time she reminded me how long it would take me to style my hair and shave, not to mention eat breakfast. Though I was sure we were getting going too early, we did end up down at the slope right on time.

The lesson was also given to us for free after what happened yesterday. I wasn’t sure what came over me. Juniper was right, I knew it wasn’t really anyone’s fault. But she was terrified.

What didn’t anger me was how she reached to me for comfort. Her soft, plush body felt right pushed against mine. Too right. I purposefully pushed it from my mind.

Soon enough, I was able to distract myself with the business of prepping for the slopes. I had my coat on and my boots strapped and ready to go.

“Ready to eat my flakes?” Samuel said as he approached. He had always been competitive, especially whenever we went on these ski trips.

“Sure, but I’m not the one who’s gonna leave you in the dust,” I said, looking towards Arthur, who’d decided to grace us with his presence today.

He already had his boots on and skis in hand. He was the dark horse every time. I swore if he wasn’t running a company, he should have done snow sports professionally. Snowboarding or skiing, he was a pro from the first time he got on them. And Samuel had been trying to catch him ever since.

“I’ll get him this year,” he said with certainty.

“Sure you will, babe,” Rachel said as she joined us. She was in all white with the puffy ear muffs and gloves. “Where’s Juniper?” she asked.

“Getting some boots fitted with her instructor,” I said.

Rachel slapped my shoulder. “Ow!”

“Did you leave her alone?” she asked.

“Not alone,” I clarified. “With her instructor. They’re going to teach her all the basics. She’s never been skiing.”

“And you didn’t think to join?” she asked.

“It’s a private lesson,” I defended. “Besides, I know how to ski.”

She rolled her eyes, but left it alone. I didn’t know what her problem was. I would only distract her during the class, and I wasn’t interested in sitting through a whole lesson on something I knew how to do.

I grabbed my goggles and headed up the ski lift with Arthur. Rachel and Samuel sitting in front of us.

“Where’s Tiffany?” I asked him. This was a rare time we had to chat.

“In the room,” he said. “She’s not much for skiing.”

I nodded. She didn’t seem much for fun, but I kept that to myself. We sat in a stilted silence the rest of the time. I had no interest in talking to him about work, and I was sure he didn’t have anything else to talk about.

We got to the top of the black diamond. The slope was large, so more than one of us could go at a time. I let Samuel and Arthur go down at the same time so they could race it out, before Rachel and I followed.

I held my poles beside me and pushed off, allowing gravity to take me down the edge of the mountain. My body remembered what to do, pushing off when I needed, and following the curves of the snow.

When I reached a drift, I readied myself and did a slight jump over it, launching myself up and free falling for a moment, before landing and making my way down the rest of the mountain.

When I reached the bottom, Arthur was standing by the edge with Samuel, who had a set jaw and crossed arms.

“Something tells me Arthur got down here first,” I said.

“Shut it,” Samuel said. “The day’s just started.”

“Yes, plenty more opportunities to try and catch me,” Arthur said.

I laughed in shock. Arthur hadn’t said anything witty in… ever, probably. He had a slight smile as Samuel pouted.

“Hey, El,” Rachel said, cutting through our jabs. “Is that Juniper?” she asked.

I followed her gaze. It was. She had braided her hair back and tucked it under a knit beanie. She wore a deep turquoise puffer jacket and matching snow pants that fit in all the right places.

Then I froze as I saw her instructor come around. It was a man who looked fairly tall, with blonde hair tied back out of his face. He looked a bit average, almost like a Ken dall, and something about the way he was smiling at her rubbed me the wrong way.

“Looks like she’s learning how to position her poles,” Rachel said.

“I’m sure her instructor knows where he wants to position his poles,” Samuel said, waggling his brows.

“Cut it out,” Rachel chided, but I was hardly listening.

He was paying too much attention to her. But I shook my head. He was just doing his job, even if he was doing it in a manner I didn’t appreciate very much.

“Let’s go back up,” I said, turning before hearing anyone’s response.

We rode a couple of the black diamond slopes, and every time we came down we just went right back up. I didn’t need to be paying attention to Juniper’s lesson. It had nothing to do with me. She had nothing to do with me, not really.

Eventually, everyone was exhausted and Rachel insisted on taking a break. I almost got Samuel back onto the slope in sheer competitiveness with Arthur, but he was also ready for a break.

As we got back in, though, I caught a shock of red hair coming down the bunny slope. She was doing pretty well, though I noticed her leaning back too far. I thought she was going to correct it when she came forward, but I saw the rookie decision to lean back and watched her crash onto her butt.

I shifted directions to go help her up, but instructor Ken made it there first. I saw him try to explain how to get up, then watched as she tried and failed a few times.

He then stood in front of her skies, grabbed her hands, and pulled her up. She shot up quickly and scrambled for purchase, which she found in his arms.

She noticed me coming and pushed off quickly, which pissed me off even more somehow. “How are the lessons, darling?” I asked.

She looked shocked for a moment, but didn’t say anything.

“You must be the boyfriend,” instructor Ken said. “She told me about you.” Something about that made my chest heat, but it was probably the anger I was still feeling seeing his arm around her waist.

“I am. We’re taking a break if you want to join, then I’ll come ski with you. I don’t think we’ll need your service anymore.”

They both looked confused. “Are you sure?” he asked. “I was scheduled for the whole day?”

“I can take it from here,” I assured. “And whatever else you had scheduled with us. It’s not needed.”

I could figure out how to teach her how to ski. How hard could it be?

He turned to Juniper. “I’ll be around all day if you need any more help.”

She opened her mouth, but I snapped out, “She won’t.”

He left and it was just the two of us there. She was glaring at me, but I didn’t care. I didn’t like the way he looked at her, the way he touched her, the way he breathed in her direction. I didn’t like any of that.

“You didn’t need to be rude,” she insisted.

“I wasn’t rude,” I said.

“You were rude,” she said. “You were rude to him and to the worker yesterday. You should try being nice sometimes.”

I scoffed as we began to walk towards the lodge. “I’m plenty nice.”

“Sure,” she drawled, rolling her eyes.

“I’m nice to you,” I pointed out. And I was. Mostly.

“When you feel like it,” she agreed. “You could try it with others.”

I huffed. What had being nice ever done?

We reached the lodge and traded our ski boots for regular ones as we met everyone at the bar. They were all there, sipping spiked hot cider.

“There you are,” Rachel said to Juniper. “I was worried this one carried you off like a caveman after seeing you with ski instructor Ken. He really looked like you could buy him straight from the shelf.”

Even Rachel thought he looked like a Ken doll. I could feel my face heat, glad we’d come in from the cold so it wasn’t obvious.

Juniper gave me a side glance, but didn’t say anything more. “No, I just needed help getting my skies off,” she said, joining the table. It was nice that she covered for me and didn’t bring up my angry outburst.

We ordered drinks and hung around chatting. Juniper really got along with everyone. Rachel loved her, which made sense because they were both so social. Samuel loved reaming me and she would join in easily, which made them get along. She even talked to Arthur about tech-y stuff. I was surprised she hadn’t brought her app up to him yet.

It was strange. I’d never considered anyone I’d dated would meld well with my family. I knew they would smile when they should, and laugh when they should, but I assumed that would always be fake. But Juniper just fit so seamlessly. Though what mattered was the fake part, just a means to an end, it was nice to pretend, even if only for a little while.

“I don’t know how you guys went more than once,” Juniper said, pulling me from my thoughts. “I only went down twice and my calves are on fire.”

“Yeah, my thighs are feeling it,” Rachel commented. “Wait! We should all go into the hot tub! It’s the best way to recover from skiing.”

“Sounds nice,” Juniper said. “We can use the one at our place. It’s out on the deck.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Ours is in the room and we probably don’t want to go there. We’ve already used it.” Rachel said with a wink.

Samuel laughed, kissing his wife on the cheek. Arthur looked as unfazed as he always did, and Juniper had cheeks as red as her hair.

“Well, ours is… unused,” she said. “So it’s perfect.”

“Great! We’ll meet you in ten.”

Her and Samuel headed out.

“Do you and Tiffany want to come, Arthur?” Juniper asked.

He looked a bit surprised to be invited. “No thank you. I have some work to do, and Tiffany… isn’t feeling well.”

“Oh no. I hope she gets better,” Juniper said.

He nodded and was off. Weird. Though it was barely perceptible, he seemed almost flustered. And he didn’t tell me she was unwell earlier.

“We should go get ready,” she said. As she stood, the earrings I got her caught the light, and it pleased me to see her wearing them.

We went back to our room—taking the stairs this time, and got dressed. I changed into my shorts while Juniper changed in the bathroom.

“Ready,” Juniper said, coming around the corner.

I froze in place. She was wearing a white bikini with gold clasps on the shoulders and in the middle of her chest. They pushed up her tits and showed the outline of her nipples, and nipple rings. Her bottoms matched, with the gold accents on her hips, highlighting the wideness of them. Her thighs were on full display, and I couldn’t help but think about being between them the night I met her.

I’d tried to push away every one of those memories, tried to forget how good she felt wrapped around my cock. But seeing her like this made all of that hard to forget.

“You look… nice,” I said, my voice thicker than I intended.

It was then I realized she was looking at me too, her eyes lower than my face.

“Thanks.”

I took a step towards her. And then another. She didn’t back up, her gaze staying glued to mine. The air was heavy between us. The sound of the crackling fireplace was the only one besides our breathing. It felt as if we were alone in the universe, just the two of us floating in space.

Once I was within reach, I placed my hands on her hips, and she let me. Her skin was warm and soft. I could smell whatever moisturizer she used. It was fruity and slightly spicy, but couldn’t fully hide that pomegranate shampoo she used. She leaned into me a bit, our noses inches from touching. I wanted to kiss her. Wanted to know what her lips felt like.

My hand came up to caress her neck, her cheek. She relaxed into the touch, telling me this might be okay, that she wanted it too.

“Juniper, can I—”

I jumped as a loud knock came to the door and we pulled apart. Her gaze turned to the floor and she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Y-you should get that,” she said.

I stomped to the door and threw it open, Samuel standing there with that goofy grin on his face. At least it killed my hard-on, but I wanted to punch him in the face.

“Hey, bro, interrupting something?” he asked, punching my arm.

“No, June and I are ready.”

“Awh, you called her June,” Rachel commented.

I did?

I shook my head. Apparently whatever moment we were having hadn’t left my mind, but it needed to.

When I turned back to her she was still a bit red.

“Let me put some of these drinks in here,” Rachel said, taking the box from Samuel.

I heard her rustling, waiting to go outside. Though the moment was clearly over, the tension in the room was still heavy.

“I’m going to run to the bathroom.” I slipped in there, trying to get my head together. This was turning out to be less simple than I thought. The attraction between us was heavy, so much so it felt like a true weight had come over me, dragging me along. Maybe acting on it would be for the best. It was obvious she was feeling it too, I just had to find some way to bring it up to her.

With that in mind I went back out to the bedroom where everyone was crowded around Juniper, who seemed to be holding something.

“Ellery, you didn’t tell us you bought this candle for her. It was the one she was looking at in the store.”

I froze. In Juniper’s hand was the candle I picked out that first day. I had kind of forgotten about it. Not wanting her to find it, I had put it back behind the towels in the dresser, but someone must have found them when looking for extras.

For her part, Juniper had her eyes transfixed on it, her expression unclear.

“Sorry,” I said, clearing my throat. “Yeah it was a gift. I was going to save it for Christmas, but it seems you found it.”

“Oh, sorry. Yeah it was sitting in the cupboard when Juniper went to grab towels.”

Figures. It wasn’t a very good spot anyway. “Do you like it?” I asked.

She blinked up, as if just tuning into the conversation. “Yes, I love it. But you didn’t have to buy it.”

I shrugged. “I know your favorite is turquoise.” I couldn’t tell her I’d overheard her conversation with Rachel, but that was how I found it ultimately.

“Well thank you. I love it.”

“Let’s light it outside and see how good it is.”

“Sounds good. Lets get that tub started,” Samuel said as he and Rachel started towards the balcony, leaving Juniper and I alone once again.

“Thank you,” she said again, her eyes shimmering.

“It’s really no problem. I bought it because it reminded me of you.”

We were gravitating together once again, getting closer than we should.

“Ellery I think—”

“You guys coming?” Samuel’s voice cut from behind her.

“Yep,” she squeaked, walking out with the candle in hand.

God dammit.