Four Nights to Forever by Jennifer Lohmann

was looking him straight in the eyes now, and her gaze pulled at his groin. And his heart.
    He should turn her down. To say the one affair he’d had with a student turned out poorly was an understatement. He had a policy , and that policy had served him well for the past four years.
    But he was divorced, he only saw his kids two weekends a month, and the only living thing expecting him to come home tonight was a cat that would as soon claw his eyes out as curl up on his lap—though the beast loved his six-year-old daughter and seemed not to notice the tail-pulling and other indignities Mia imposed on him. Socks had plenty of food and wouldn’t miss him for a night.
    Pure justification for the fact that Doug wanted to bury his policy so deep in the snow it wouldn’t be found until July. He’d been trying all afternoon not to think about what it would be like to follow Cassie back to her condo and see what her lush body looked like under those layers.
    “I don’t have a swimsuit with me,” he said.
    “Oh.”
    She started to turn away from him, her rosy cheeks bright red with embarrassment, so he finished his thought quickly. “If you can pass on the hot tub for the night, I’d be happy to. I have a change of clothes in my locker and can come by after I shower.”
    “You can shower at the condo if you want.” Her face was still flushed but her eyes were hot as she looked at him dead-on.
    He may have a rule against sex with anyone related to the resort, but rules were meant to be broken. Especially with invitations like that one, from a fun, interesting, once-in-a-lifetime woman. The fact that she wasn’t the type to invite a stranger back to her room on a whim kept his uncomfortable memories a bay. Plus she’d be leaving in a few days, and they’d never see each other again. And, technically, she had only asked him for a meal and a glass of wine.
    “Okay.” His imagination raced with possibilities, and he tried to keep his face blank as he slowed down his mind. “That’s sounds . . . It sounds great,” he finished, clearly out of practice.
    If she noticed his lame response, she didn’t give any indication. Her answering smile was slow, but the gap in her teeth eventually appeared. A chance to see her satisfied smile was worth tossing his rules aside.
    Her nod was quick and decisive enough that her hair bounced at her shoulders. “I’ll wait here for you to get your stuff.”
    “Be right back,” he said, then grabbed his skis and hurried off.
    Cassie had moved and was sitting at a table when he returned, but she was waiting for him as promised.
    Following Cassie across the plaza and staring at her ass in those ski pants made concentrating on her invitation difficult. Just dinner , he reminded himself as they crossed the parking lot to the path leading to the condo buildings. If he imagined her attacking him with the same vigor she’d started to attack the mountain, only naked and straddling him, that was his problem, not hers. Wondering if she would be silly in bed with those little growls of hers was also his problem.
    They didn’t say anything as they walked to her condo building. He didn’t know what to talk about. He’d only made this walk with a student once before, and that time he’d had nothing but bad reasons. He’d made that terrible choice because he’d felt trapped in a marriage, stuck in a job he both loved and hated, and overwhelmed by the bad decisions of his life. He certainly hadn’t been walking the path because he was interested in the woman who had been leading the way.
    This time was completely different. His single, terrible one-night stand had been the catalyst for a series of painful actions that had ultimately left him in a better place. Next year he’d still be working for Snowdance, but he’d be managing activities for the many different conferences that came to the resort rather than being a professional ski bum.
    Most importantly, he was following Cassie back to