(rivals to lovers, small town, sports) [WATTYS 2024 SHORTLIST] (Season 3 coming soon) After a devastating Olympic loss puts her career in a downward spiral, an aging skier returns to her laid-back mountain hometown to rediscover her love of her spor...
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At the word love, Holly's brain malfunctioned.
They could feel hysterical laughter threatening. This was a move. It had to be, right?
A weird move. Not a move that anyone else had ever tried on them. And unnecessary. Completely unnecessary.
It had seemed obvious, when Eddie had suggested this weekend trip, that they would probably have sex. Like, Holly wasn't expecting it, but the two of them couldn't even keep their hands off each other at the spa. What were they going to do with three nights alone together in the wilderness?
And this entire day had basically been foreplay. From the moment Eddie had picked Holly up in her truck they had been aware of her. Her grace on a snowboard might be the biggest turn-on in existence, and that was before they'd even seen her beautiful work on the lodge. Before she'd lit the candles and put on those sexy pyjamas, soft plaid flannel, unbuttoned and no bra, the reddish pink of her areolas teasing through her white t-shirt.
Holly had spent the whole evening thinking about going to bed with Eddie. Every time hands had brushed while playing cards they'd felt it in their core. When she'd snuggled up against them it was hard to do anything other than breathe and hold her close.
It had always been easy to want her. They had even grown mostly comfortable with the idea of seeing how it felt to date her for real.
Love, though... That was something else entirely.
Eddie had the most tentative smile on her mouth, and the tilt of her dramatic eyebrows... Was she nervous? Was she actually nervous about how they might react?
The bubble of laughter stuck in their throat before it ever crossed their lips.
"Yeah," Eddie said. "I know. It's our first date."
They loved her quiet voice. How every word she said felt meant just for them. Her hand was still on their face, cupping their chin now, her touch as steady as her gaze.
"Eddie," they whispered, but it didn't go anywhere. They had nothing but this heat in their throat.
If this was a move, it was working. She had them halfway unravelled already.
"I know I can seem like an unserious person," she said. "And I know commitment matters to you. So-"
She found their hand at her hip and laced her fingers through theirs before gently pressing their palm against her heart. They couldn't feel the heavy throb of her pulse through her ribs, but they could at her wrist, and at her thigh where it was tucked between theirs.
"I'm all in, Holly."
This was not how things happened. Not for Holly. They were always the one falling first. Falling stupidly. Falling for people who didn't feel the same.
