Sweethearts on the high school ski team, Riley and Jean-Claude always expected to marry and stay together forever. But as they become world-class skiers, they drift apart, and Jean abandons Riley.<br><br>Years later, Jean appears unannounced to train at the resort where Riley works. He's  still charmingly irresistible and physically powerful, and is the US's hope for a second Olympic downhill gold. Once Riley herself expected to win gold, but a skiing accident dashed those hopes. Jean never sent any condolences, and he shattered her heart when he married -- and quickly divorced -- a skier she dislikes.<br><br>Anger and pain flare between them, and Riley ignores Jean's attempts at friendship to insulate herself from further hurt. Yet the old longings and the love they once shared resurface. What will it take for her to come to terms with the past? Or can she?

Snowfall

Paul dropped his towel on a chair and headed for the spa. “Yes, well, that’s enough of this. Let’s do what I told her we would…relax.”


Riley dropped her own towel on the chair Gina had occupied, then dove into the deep end to swim laps using the crawl stroke.


Soon, she became aware that Jean swam in the lane to her right. He swam faster, but each time he reached her she could see him when she turned her head to breathe. Having him this close and half naked unnerved her, so she turned over and back-stroked. Now she saw him even more often. She tried just floating, but she felt him each time he passed by.


Disgusted with her inability to shut him out, she left the pool and stepped gradually down the steps into the heat of the spa. Sinking onto a bench where all but her shoulders were underwater, she closed her eyes, and rested her neck and head against the cooler tile of the spa’s edge.


Chapter 15