Chapter 2

2

brANDON

A naked woman was on the gondola in front of me, just a few feet from where I sat. She was curvy. I could only see her from the knees up, but that was everything I needed to see.

Large, full breasts with light pink nipples. Hips that would be perfect for grabbing onto and thighs she had clamped together, probably in some bizarre attempt at modesty.

“You okay?” I yelled out.

She could hear me. I knew that because just milliseconds before the entire operation ground to a halt, she’d yelled at me to take a picture. The statement had confused me at first, since she’d said it without a hint of annoyance, but then she added the words, “It’ll last longer.” That was something I’d heard as a kid, although I couldn’t remember where—maybe on a TV show or in a movie?

My question seemed to push her into action, and I cursed myself for it. Why’d I have to go and speak? She disappeared, and I assumed it was to hunker down and hide her body.

I reached into my pocket and retrieved my cell phone. Whether I’d get reception up here was anyone’s guess, but I had to do something. And that something wasn’t taking a picture.

I only took my eyes off the gondola long enough to dial the front desk. I returned to my hometown last summer with plans to buy the ski lodge and turn it into a profit-making machine. But the owner, a classmate and former coworker, talked me into letting him keep it and expand.

While I was here, I fell back in love with the town that had been too small for me as a child. Now, I owned a cabin about three miles up the main road while I oversaw construction on what would become the town’s first shopping destination.

“Seduction Summit Lodge,” the friendly voice of Georgia, the desk clerk, blasted through my phone.

“Hey Georgia, this is Brandon. It appears the lift is stuck again.”

This happened at least a couple of times a week, which was why I wasn’t panicking. I’d never been stuck on it before, but I knew they just needed the guy at the bottom to press a button to start it back up again.

“Oh no,” Georgia said. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. “Fine. I’m on the chair, and there’s someone in the gondola. A woman.”

I was staring at her right now. She’d risen back to her feet and now wore a bright pink ski jacket and matching ski pants. She was pulling her hair into a ponytail for some reason. Maybe she planned to actually ski once this thing got unstuck and she needed her hair out of her face.

“Is her name Kacie?” Georgia asked.

“Who?”

I’d veered from the conversation a little because my full attention was on the woman in front of me. Her arms were now crossed over her chest and her head was tilted with a questioning expression.

“The person in the gondola,” she said.

“I don’t know her name. Hold on. Are you Kacie?”

She pointed at herself with her thumb, as if to ask if I was referring to her, then nodded. I assumed that meant, yes, she was Kacie.

“I think she is,” I said into the phone.

“Someone called looking for her,” Georgia said. “Is she… naked ?”

How the heck did Georgia know that? I was on the verge of saying yes when I stopped myself. Technically, she wasn’t naked anymore, so it wouldn’t be a lie.

“No,” I said. “Why?”

“Whoever called said their friend Kacie was naked on the gondola, and we might want to check it out. Must be some weird sort of prank.”

“Must be,” I said.

Was her getting naked over there part of a prank? Maybe it was a dare. Seemed like something a twenty-something year old woman would do. Hell, I’d taken a few dares in my time, so who was I to talk?

“Sounds like a shit friend to me,” I said. “More like an enemy.”

Georgia laughed. “You’ve got that right. I’ll call Kyle, and he’ll get you out of there.”

As I hung up, it occurred to me that the second Kyle pressed that button, I’d be on my way down the mountain. I’d gone up to check out the progress on the chalet the lodge’s owner was building up there. I’d loaned him some of my guys to handle the construction, but lumber was at a premium, so Alex was planning to bring in his own guys to finish it off.

This chalet was for skiers. Just a small place for them to chill and grab a coffee or hot cocoa before heading down the mountain. In other words, another way for the lodge to make a little extra money.

“They’re going to get us out of here,” I said to the woman, who was now staring down at her phone.

She looked up and our eyes met. I still wore sunglasses, so she wouldn’t be able to see that I was looking at her. And that suddenly bothered me. I whipped the sunglasses off and tucked them into the collar of my shirt before returning my hand to the railing next to my seat. This thing could start up suddenly, and I wanted to be prepared for a jolt.

“It was a dare,” Kacie said.

Adair. Was that the name of the friend who’d called the front desk to alert them to her nakedness? Maybe that was the person who dared her.

Oh. A dare. Now it made sense.

“Someone dared you to get naked on a gondola?” I asked.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and I saw her chest rise with the deep breaths she took. What I wouldn’t give for a repeat view of that chest without clothing covering it.

“Someone dared you to get naked out here?” I asked. “In these temperatures?”

“The original dare would have had me sitting where you are.”

She pointed to my seat, moving closer to the glass. That gondola had a bench on either side, so I knew she was as close as she could get. Did that mean she wanted to see me better? Or maybe she just wanted to get closer to me. A guy could dream.

“It was a bunch of college friends,” she said. “After graduation, I moved back to Charlotte, and we all went our separate ways. The only way we stay in touch these days is through a group text chain.”

A group text chain with college friends. As a dude in his mid-thirties who’d gone straight to work after high school graduation, I couldn’t relate. I did have a couple of high school buddies I stayed in touch with, though. We just didn’t text as a group.

“I’m the only virgin in the group,” she said.

In the seconds after she said those words, her eyes widened. She appeared to have let that last bit of information spill out. My cock was already at full attention, though. That had happened the second I’d gotten a glimpse of those gorgeous tits.

“They dared you to risk frostbite because you’re a virgin?” I asked, trying to make it make sense.

“They said I’m not fearless enough.” She shifted her stare to the beautiful, snowy view ahead of her. “Apparently, I led a sheltered life. My parents were super strict. They didn’t let me date. But in college, I could have done whatever I wanted. I choose to stay this way.” She shifted her gaze back to me. “Until I meet the right man.”

“Sounds like a sound strategy to me,” I said, trying to catch my breath. The way she’d looked at me as she said those last words had done a number on me. “I’m taking a bit of a break from dating myself. The whole thing is just exhausting.”

The truth was, it had been years since I’d met a woman who did even a fraction of what this woman did to me. Granted, I’d never seen a woman naked before I introduced myself, which I still hadn’t done, I now realized.

“I’m Brandon, by the way,” I said. “I’m helping with some of the construction here in town.”

That was an understatement. If I’d given her my last name, she’d recognize it as the one on the sign just past the downtown square. It was to the right of the main road. The Shoppes at Brighton Village. Below that was the announcement it was coming in the summer. My goal was to hopefully get a few skiers who lived not far away to come back in the off-season. That likely wouldn’t happen until we had more to do in town than eat pancakes and snow ski.

“It’s all changed since I was here a year ago,” Kacie said. “This gondola didn’t even exist.”

“Yeah, the owner is making some upgrades. I grew up in this town.”

I’d actually returned here to buy out the ski lodge connected to these slopes. I was going to make it bigger and better than ever. But in the end, I’d seen the passion the owner had for the place and stepped back.

And now, I was excited to be doing something completely different. If I had my say, my name would be on attractions all over this town. On water parks and gift shops and hotels, and especially Brighton Village, which would eventually include vacation rental condos and restaurants. Not that I was all that vain. This was my hometown, though, and every sign was a “fuck you” to the people who’d treated me like crap because we didn’t have money when I was a kid.

“You don’t mind all the stuff going on around town?” She asked. “I heard locals are pissed.”

I laughed. “You could say that. The city council meetings have gotten pretty heated over the past few months. But no, I don’t mind progress. In fact, as a businessman, I’m excited about the future of Seduction Summit.”

She stared at me a long moment, and I wondered if I’d given away too much. Maybe she was about to ask questions. She’d want to know what my exact business was. What would I say? I didn’t want to tell her that I’d spent the past few years running a very successful skiing lodge in Pleasure Point. That was sure to bring questions about what the heck I was doing here.

But before she could say a word, my chair suddenly jolted to life, as did her gondola. Within a couple of heartbeats, we were moving past each other.

“Wait!” I called out. “Where can I find you?”

“I’ll be—” I heard her yell, but whatever she said after that was garbled.

I had no idea what she’d just said, but my best guess was that she’d be at the lodge. And that was where I’d look for her, even if I had to camp out there for the rest of the week. I had to learn more about this woman whose naked image would probably be burned on my brain for the rest of my life.