“No.” I chuckle. “But if you stop being a brat for a second, I could teach you.”
Leaning down, he brings his lips onto mine. They’re cold, much like most of me, but when his tongue dips out, sliding into my mouth, it warms me up immediately.
Kissing Mateo never fails to make my head all fuzzy. I wonder if there will ever come a time when it doesn’t. Arousal swirls in my groin, and suddenly, I’m wishing we were in a much more secluded area.
Mateo breaks the kiss much too soon, placing a quick peck on my cold and red nose before standing up—successfully this time. He offers me a hand, helping me up before muttering, “Well, come on then, teach. Show me a thing or two.”
The next several hours are spent in similar fashion to before—lots of falling, swearing under his breath, nasty glares in my direction when I don’t fall even when he does, but also lots of kissing and laughing. It’s been a shitshow, but a fucking hilarious one. Even though he’s frustrated beyond belief—clearly, he’s not used to not being good at things—this has been way more fun than any Saturday I would’ve had planned for myself.
We’re stopped at the top of the smaller slopes, taking in the view—granted, the view would’ve been much nicer had we been at a higher altitude, but hey, who am I to judge. Biting down on the tip of my glove, I rip it off my hand, reaching into my pocket, and grab my phone.
“Come here,” I mutter to Mateo, grabbing his arm and pulling him into me. “Let’s take a picture up here.” With the camera app pulled up, I position the phone in front of us as I smile, and Mateo looks bored out of his mind—but I can still see a sparkle in his eye, like it’s just for me. “Jesus Christ, smile, will you?”
It takes a few tries, but eventually, I snap a pretty great picture of us. Tucking my phone back in my pocket, I try not to obsess over the fact that Mateo and I now have a selfie together, and we look oddly like a couple in it. I also try to ignore the way that thought makes my stomach do a flop.
I put my glove back on, glancing around at our surroundings. “Well, we should probably return our gear and start heading back home. Otherwise, it’s going to be late by the time we get back.”
The first happy smile I’ve seen from Mateo since we got out here slides onto his lips, looking as mischievous as ever. “About that.”
My brows pinch. “What?”
His grin turns beaming. It’s so fucking beautiful. “I actually got us a cabin for the night.”
“You did what?” I’m positive if I was looking at myself from afar, I’d resemble one of those cartoons with the eyes that bulge out of their head dramatically. “But I have to get home to Nova.”
Holding up a hand to stop me, Mateo says, “I took care of it. Charlotte is keeping her overnight. She picked her up shortly after we left, and I packed you some clothes while you were taking Nova for a walk this morning.”
“A cabin…” My mind is spinning, and all these new feelings are swirling around inside my gut. I can’t make sense of them. I can’t make sense of anything.
He nods. “Yeah. It looks pretty nice online, and even has one of those outside hot tubs.” With the huge goggles propped on his forehead, it’s almost hard to miss the waggle of his brows.
“Let me get this straight… not only did you surprise me with a trip to the pass to go snowboarding because I happened to mention to youin passinghow I love to go but haven’t been able to, but you also booked us a fucking cabin to stay in overnight?”
The organ in my chest is rearing up to bust out of my ribcage, it’s beating so fast.
“Yes,” he replies plainly. “Exactly that.”
But it is.“That’s… that’s so sweet of you, Mateo.”
My head feels light, and I don’t think it’s the altitude that has it hard for me to breathe. This considerate, soft side of Mateo is making it harder and harder to deny just how much I care about him. And that terrifies me.
“It’s not a big deal,” he insists. “And besides, you deserve it.” The last sentence comes out growly, and he doesn’t give me a chance to respond before he turns and attempts to make it back down the mountain. He doesn’t make it far before he falls right on his ass again, though.
Forcing myself to put all of this on the back burner, I laugh at his string of curse words before going to help him up. It ends up taking us close to an hour to get back to the rental office, both of us sweaty by the time we do. Mateo’s patience is shot, and we’re both starving.
We decide to grab a bite to eat at the lodge restaurant before going to check into the cabin he rented. On the way there, Mateo slips his hand into mine, linking our fingers. It doesn’t escape me that this is the first time we’ve ever held hands.
This feels so different from every other time we’ve spent the night together, and I don’t know how to handle it.
36
MATEO
“Wow…” Travis walks into the cabin we’re staying in tonight, dropping his bag onto the ground as he scans the room. “This is really fucking nice.”
It is, I won’t lie. There’re rose petals everywhere, a couple of bottles of champagne with some chocolate on the table, and the view is killer. I can’t help but laugh.
He turns, meeting my amused gaze. “What is so funny?”
