Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 93942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
I retreated to my room and set up my laptop on the small desk. For the next two hours, I typed furiously, documenting everything I’d seen today—guest interactions, the check-in process, ideas for improving the website and marketing materials. This internship might not be going the way I’d planned, but I was determined to make the most of it.
By the time I glanced at the clock, it was after midnight. My eyes were gritty, and my back ached from sitting. I saved my document, shut down the laptop, and headed for the bathroom.
The hallway was dark and silent. I used the bathroom quickly, then padded toward the kitchenette for a glass of water. The floor was cold under my bare feet. I’d changed into sleep shorts and a soft t-shirt, along with the robe and slippers I was very glad I’d brought. My hair was loose and falling around my shoulders.
I didn’t know I wasn’t alone until I almost walked right into someone.
Asher stepped out of the shadows near the kitchenette, and I gasped, stumbling back a step. He’d changed too, and he was shirtless, wearing only low-slung pajama pants, his feet bare despite the cold floor.
For a moment, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. His chest was sculpted, all lean muscle and defined lines, and there was a faint sheen of moisture on his skin like he’d just showered. My traitorous brain filed away every detail—the curve of his collarbone, the ridge of his abs, the way the dim light cast shadows across his torso.
His dark eyes swept over me, pausing for just a moment on my hair, and something flickered in his expression. But then it was gone, replaced by that same cold indifference.
He stepped aside without a word.
I walked past him, hyperaware of the scant inches between us, and headed down the hallway. I heard his footsteps behind me, soft and deliberate, and I couldn’t help glancing back.
He stopped at one of the doors I’d passed earlier and disappeared inside, the door clicking shut behind him.
I stood there for a beat, staring at the empty hallway.
“Good night,” I muttered under my breath, saying the words he hadn’t bothered to say to me.
4
ZOE
In the morning, I got up early, arriving at the registration desk just as the morning shift arrived. It took me a moment to convince the staff, a middle-aged couple who turned out to be married, that I worked here. Sort of. Due to the impending ski lesson, I was wearing jeans, a long-sleeve shirt, a sweater, and sneakers. Not exactly business casual, but it was the only thing I had that seemed appropriate for hitting the slopes. And/or falling on my ass on the slopes.
The woman, Clara, showed me some things I hadn’t learned last night, like where in the computer system to find notes about the preferences of frequent guests. The list made my eyes widen. Who came up to the mountains to learn how to make sushi? For one guest, there was a lengthy explanation of exactly how he liked his bed to be made. Another insisted on only German channels on the television.
Guests that rich and particular must really keep the concierge team busy. But in a luxury resort like this, it was the responsibility of all the staff to make sure the guests were satisfied. Which was my number one goal—if I survived the morning.
Clara was happy to answer my questions, and I did my best to memorize everything she said, as if it was going to be on the final exam. But I wanted to learn as much as I could while I was here. And also, I didn’t want to have to worry about—
Him.
My breath hitched. The man in his mid-to-late twenties striding toward me had to be the ski pro.
He had on a dark blue ski jacket, jeans, and strangely stiff boots that looked suitable for a moon landing. If he was the ski instructor, then he was both my biggest nightmare and a dream come true, because he was drop-dead gorgeous.
His coat was open, showing a Henley shirt pulled tight across the muscled wall of his chest. His hair was light brown and spiky, and his eyes were the bluest I’d ever seen, even from twenty feet away, though he was closing that distance fast. I’d expected a ski pro to be lithe and limber, capable of reaching great speeds on the slopes, but this guy had muscles on top of muscles.
“I’m Kai,” he said, with an easy smile on his tanned face. “You must be Zoe.”
“Yes?” I stuttered and flushed as I realized it sounded like a question. Hopefully he thought it meant I was asking him what he needed, and not that I wasn’t entirely sure of my own name. But good god, just looking at him was enough to make me forget it.