TEASE ( A Stepbrother Romance ) By Caitlin Daire

11

Chapter Eleven

Charlotte

"I've never done this before...what if it hurts me? Or what if I suck at it really badly?" I said, anxiously chewing my lower lip.

Cade chuckled softly from behind me, and his grip on my shoulders loosened slightly as he leaned forward. "Look, I'll be honest. It might hurt the first few times, and you probably will suck at it. But then you'll get the hang of it after a few tries, and it'll feel amazing."

I nodded and glanced down at the long, hard pole in my right hand again. "Okay. I trust you."

An icy cold gust of wind blew past us on the mountain slope, and Cade trudged up to stand by my side instead of behind me. "Just remember to move your feet how I told you," he said, motioning to the skis on his feet. "If you feel like you're going too fast, move your feet like this....pizza. If you wanna speed up, move them like this....French fries."

"Pizza for slow, French fries for faster. Got it," I replied. "And if I crash into a tree and seriously hurt myself, I can sue you, right?"

"Good luck suing me when you're wedged halfway inside a tree."

I snorted. "Meanie. Okay, you go first."

"All right. Just do exactly what we discussed and follow me. This is the bunny slope, so you'll be fine."

Cade winked, pulled his snow goggles down and then took off down the slope, and I nervously followed, hoping to dear god that I didn't go ass over teakettle. I'd been ice-skating before, but never skiing, and it was worlds apart. Cade had done it loads of times, though, and he'd been running me through all the techniques and giving me demonstrations on the slopes all morning.

It was Saturday, and we'd been at the Silverton Falls ski resort with a group of Cade's friends since yesterday afternoon. Keith and my mother had been totally fine with us taking off on a trip together; in fact, I think they were glad to see us finally getting along and wanting to spend time together. We'd driven up together in Cade's car, and met up with the rest of the group up at the cabins we'd been generously given by Blake's Dad for the weekend. I was staying in a cabin with Nicki and a couple of her friends, Amy and Talia, and so far, I'd had a great time getting to know them along with the rest of Cade's friends from the football team, who were staying in other cabins.

Peak vacation season hadn't hit yet, so the resort wasn't very busy, and we had several entire ski slopes to ourselves. Yesterday afternoon had been spent racing each other down the slopes on sleds, and last night had been spent lounging around in the cabins, sipping on hot chocolate and mulled wine. At first I'd still been a little nervous about hanging around a group of people who I didn't know-especially when half the group was made up of rowdy athletes-but it had gone really well. Everyone had been kind and welcoming, and Nicki was especially nice.

We were planning on having a wilder night tonight, with a party in one of the main cabins, but I didn't plan on drinking very much. After all, last time I'd had too much alcohol, I'd ended up....well, you know what happened. It was gross, to say the least, and I didn't want a repeat of that incident.

"Woo!" I screamed as I reached the halfway point of the slope, closely trailing Cade. So far I hadn't slipped up, and I was still on two feet. "This is so much fun!"

"Told you so!" Cade called back from up ahead. "Next, we'll go up to the..."

His voice trailed off in the wind as a chilly gust blew past me, and I called out. "What?"

But he couldn't hear me now; he'd sped up a bit, and I'd accidentally pushed my skis into the 'pizza' position and slowed down. I corrected myself by pushing them into a more outward position, but then I began to race really fast, and I realized I'd overcorrected. "Crap...."