Kiss Me (Townsend Legacy)

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

T aehyun

Her lips part, forming a perfect “O” and I know my question landed exactly how I intended.

“Wh-Wh-What are you … who are you?”

I narrow my eyes on her. She’s still pretending not to know who the hell I am, huh? I’ll give it to her, she’s a great liar. I’d almost believe her if I didn’t know for a fact she’s definitely lying about that ankle injury.

The injury that’s supposedly threatening to keep her out of next month’s X Games. I’ve had my eye on Tania ever since I spotted her during her photoshoot this morning.

And here I thought this week at the resort with my cousin’s in-laws would be torturous for my anti-Christmas soul.

Maybe, though, just maybe, I can use this time to get back at the woman who coldly turned me down.

“Still pretending like you don’t know who I am?” I nod.

“What are you … I don’t know you,” she says.

I shake my head. “Not important, anyway,” I tell her, although a muscle in my jaw ticks. “What is important is the bigger lie you told to that young girl back in the dining room. Eve, that was her name, right?” I ask as if I don’t know.

She’s not the only one who can play pretend.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She turns her head away from me and mutters something about only another minute on the ski lift before she can get away from me.

That’s the exact moment when the lift jolts to a stop, freezing us in mid-air.

I don’t even try to stifle my smile.

“What was that?”

She tries to look over her shoulder.

“Looks like we’re stuck.”

“What?”

I repeat myself.

“How can we be stuck?” She twists and turns as if trying to see from this height and angle what the problem is.

“Don’t tell me the famous Tania Casey is afraid of heights?” I taunt before shaking my head in disbelief. “No, not the woman who gets crazy air and landed a perfect backside 1980 in last year’s Games.”

She turns to me with a frown.

Stupidly, my attention lingers on those perfect lips of hers.

“Do you think this is funny?”

I meet her eyes. At least, I try to, but those damn sunglasses over her face obscure my view.

“Am I laughing?” I question with a smirk on my face.

“I think you are.”

I shrug. “Are you going to answer my question?”

Her lips push out into a pout of confusion.

“Why are you lying to your fans?”

She sucks her teeth and makes a disgusted sound from the back of her throat before folding her arms across her chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. How about we just don’t say anything to one another until this ski lift lands? Then we can go our separate ways.”

That’s what she thinks. She rejected me the first time.

I’m not about to let her get away a second time.

No one says no to me.

I always get what I want.

“That’s going to be uncomfortable for you,” I tell her.

She turns her head my way so fast that a few of her long braids whip across her face. I don’t even recognize what I’m doing as my hand reaches out, taking one of the braids in my hand.

This one is sky blue. Most of the braids are a mix between black and blue. I play with the lock in my hands while Tania finally lifts her goggles, revealing her narrowed gaze on me.

Her eyes are a perfect shade of the gingerbread cookies I noticed her eating during lunch.

It’s at this moment, I decide I like having her attention on me. Glaring or otherwise.

“Why would it be uncomfortable for me?” she asks, her usually melodious tone hardened with her mounting frustration.

“Because I would hate to be the one to tell everyone how the famous Tania Casey is lying to the world about having an injury. I don’t think that will go over too well with your sponsors, do you?”

“Who the hell would even believe you?”

Damn, I really do like the way her voice sounds when she’s pissed. Probably says a lot about me.

“No one,” I admit. “Until I show them pictures of you walking around without a care in the world on a supposedly severely sprained ankle.”

Just so she knows I’m not fucking around, I pull out my cell phone and flip to the pictures of her walking through the woods toward the ski lift.

The crutch in her hand instead of under her armpit.

“I’m particularly a fan of this one as you, oh so gracefully, leap over a small stream to get to the lift.”

I obviously followed her for a while, as she took the much less crowded route to the lift.

I return my attention back to her.

“Oh, and I’ve got a video that has an even better close up of your face. You know, just so everyone knows it’s really you.”

“You son of a bitch.”

“Yes,” I reply, unbothered. “Now,” I begin while I stuff my phone back into my pocket, “let’s start with the truth. Why are you lying about your ankle?”

There’s no real reason why I’m pressing so hard to know. I don’t need to know her reasoning in order to get what I want from her. I have the evidence right here in my pocket.

Yet, I feel compelled to press her for answers. I’ll chalk it up to the fact that she turned me down once already and I want to pack all of the ammunition I can get for my payback.

“Oh,” Tania says in surprise as the ski lift suddenly jerks forward before it begins moving smoothly as if nothing happened.

I check my watch and frown. The fucker I paid to stop this thing for fifteen minutes is five minutes early.

“Son of a bitch,” I mutter.

“What did you call me?”

“Wasn’t talking about you, Ginger,” I reply.

Her frown deepens, and I intently watch the subtle and not so subtle movement of her lips.

“Now, are you going to answer my question?”

“No.” She looks straight ahead as if she’s about to ignore me.

I don’t fucking think so.

“Then I guess as soon as I get off this lift, I’m going straight to my favorite social media site to upload these photos.”

She not only ignores me, but she turns her entire body away from me, giving me a big silent “Fuck you.”

“Have it your way then.”

A second later the lift slows to a glacial pace, allowing us to easily depart our seats. I watch for a beat as Tania carefully dismounts from her seat, with her crutch, and then hobbles in the opposite direction of me.

She’s still playing the bullshit role of the injured athlete.

Fine. Tania isn’t the only one who can bullshit with the best of them.

“Hey, Frank, is the Gazette still looking for a scoop on the athletes for the X Games?” I say loud enough for her to hear.

“Yeah, I might have just spotted an athlete faking an injury.”

I make an even bigger show as I start walking in the opposite direction as Tania. At the same time, however, I raise my voice.

“Their name?”

I chuckle.

“Yeah, I’ve got a name and photos and videos to boot. Just so you know it’s legit. Their name is?—”

“Okay, okay,” that melodious voice says behind me at the same time I feel a tug on my shoulder.

I twirl around to stare down into a pair of reflective ski goggles. Tania lowered the glasses over her eyes, along with the winter hat she’s again wearing that covers almost the entire half of her face.

“That’s enough,” she whispers harshly while glancing over her shoulder.

Since we’re on a part of the mountain for more advanced boarders and skiers, it’s not as populated as the area by the dining room. However, there are a few people around.

Though none of them pay us any attention.

“Hang up the phone,” she urges, still tugging on my arm.

“What was that?” I glare down at her. “Their name?”

She yanks my arm. “Okay, alright. That’s enough!”

I cover the phone with my free hand. “What did you say? I couldn’t hear you.”

Her lips poke out in a way that I know she’d be glaring at me if I could see her eyes. “You’re right, okay?”

“I still can’t hear you.” I move to place the phone against my ear again.

“I’m faking, alright? You’re right. I’m lying about my ankle. Now hang up the phone.”

I press the button to end the call and stand to my full height, looking down at her. Not that I tower over her by much. She’s around five-ten to my six-foot one height.

“That’s a great start,” I finally say. “But that wasn’t my question. I already knew you were faking the injury. What I want to know is why?”

Her shoulders noticeably deflate before she looks around.

“No one’s listening or paying attention to us,” I assure.

“How do I know that?”

The corners of my lips move upward. It’s a legitimate question. I did just threaten to spill her secret to a reporter. What she doesn’t know is that I actually called my dentist’s office.

There was never a reporter on the other end of the line.

For now.

“Because I said so,” I respond to her question before folding my arms across my chest. “Now talk.”

“I don’t even know you,” she sneers.

“You don’t need to know me to know that I’m the bastard who will disclose your lie to the world.”

She snorts and then sucks her teeth.

A muscle in my jaw ticks.

I like her little attitude. It reminds me of the fire she exhibits on her board.

“Tell me your name, at least. It’s only right since you know mine.”

I pause before nodding. “Seems fair enough. Name’s Taehyun.” She’d know that already if she hadn’t turned me down in the first place.

We could’ve avoided all of these unpleasantries.

The last thing I want when it comes to any woman is messiness. But I’m not willing to let this one get away with blatantly turning me down.

“Taehyun,” she repeats carefully as if to get it right.

I ignore whatever the fuck it is that tingles down my spine after hearing her say my name. Probably an itchy tag in the new T-shirt I have on.

“That’s …” She pauses, her lips curling curiously.

“Korean,” I answer for her.

She points at me. “I knew it.”

It’s on the tip of my damn tongue to ask exactly how she knew it, but I bite back the question. My intent is to suss out why she’s lying, so I can hold it over her.

That’s it.

“Now you can answer my question. Why are you lying?”

She throws up her hands and tilts her head toward the sky.

Why my gaze falls to watch the up and down movement of her neck is beyond me. Even worse, an image of me trailing my forefinger down what appears to be very supple skin of said neck passes through my mind.

What. The. Fuck?

“Why does it even matter?” she asks, bringing my thoughts back to the question at hand.

“Because it does.” I’ll never admit it but that’s honestly the best answer I can come up with. I don’t even have an explanation for why I care so much.

She tilts her head sideways before responding, “I just am.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Neither is ‘because it does’,” she throws back at me.

“I’m not the one faking an injury in front of the entire sports world.”

“I didn’t fake anything,” she comes close to yelling before she composes herself. Once again, she looks this way and that over her shoulder.

I don’t like not having her full attention. Without thinking, I take her crutch, wrap her arm around me, and start walking us to a more discreet part of the mountain.

“Where are we going?” She tugs her arm but I don’t release it.

“If you have any intention of keeping up the charade, I suggest you lean into me as if I’m helping you keep your balance.”

“I—” She stops herself and must reconsider whatever she was about to say. Thankfully, she takes heed of my warning and leans into me.

If anyone were looking at us, they would see what looks like a man assisting an injured woman.

“Is she okay?” a guy on skis shouts from a few feet away. The ski lodge’s name and logo on black vest mark him as an employee of the lodge.

“I-I’m fine.” Tania waves him off with the phoniest high-pitched voice ever. “My friend here’s just helping me go for a walk.”

I nod his way but don’t smile.

“You can go now,” I say reflexively.

“Rude much?” Tania questions once the guy skis off farther down the mountain.

“Liar much?”

She raises the goggles from over her face and rolls her eyes. “Whatever.” She shakes her head and brushes some imaginary snow out of her braids.

She leans around me, reaching for the crutch, but I hold it away from her grasp.

“Let’s get this over with. How much?”

My head juts backwards in surprise. “Excuse me?”

“You found out my secret and are threatening to out me. I assume you heard of my most recent sponsorship deal, so you must want money.”

I have in fact heard about the lucrative seven-figure brand sponsorship she recently landed.

“Money? You think that’s why I’m interested?”

She holds out her arms to the side. “Isn’t that what everyone wants? How much?”

Why does her question strike a chord in my chest? And why does the intonation in her voice tug at part of my emotion that I reserve for very few people in this world?

On the outside, I present the world with the charming, at times funny, easy-going business maven who can easily land a deal. I let my cousin, Dae, play the hard-ass grumpy business tycoon.

Yet, real, genuine emotion is reserved for a handful of people in my life. My mother when she’s around. My sister, when and if the situation calls for it. And Dae, who’s more like my brother than my cousin.

Even with them, I rarely get too deep, too often.

“Do you know where I was before I got on a plane to come to this damn resort?”

“Of course I don’t since I don’t know you,” she saucily replies.

“In a meeting with the CEO of one of the most luxurious hotels in Korea. My company is in talks to open an exclusive nightclub in conjunction with his hotels. And I have every intention of that deal going through.”

Her eyes squint. “Why are you?—”

My voice hardens as I cut her off to say, “What I’m telling you is that while your recent brand deal is cute … the last thing I need or want is your fucking money.”

“What the hell do you mean by cute ?”

Maybe it should annoy me that ‘cute’ is the only word she picked out from my comment. Yet, the offended inflection in her voice, the way her eyes narrow to slits, along with the sneer of her lips, lights something in the pit of my stomach.

Oddly, something I haven’t felt in a long, long time overcomes me.

Genuine interest in a woman.

“Is there a definition of the word cute that I’m not aware of?” I pull out my phone and look up the definition. “Generally appealing in a pretty or endearing way.” I nod in approval. “Sounds more or less how I would define cute.”

I stuff my phone back into my pocket.

“Why? Did you have a different one?”

“You’re absolutely hideous. Do you know that?” Tania crosses her arms over her chest.

I rub the palm of my hand over my cheek and grin. “I’ve been called a lot of things, but hideous?” With a shake of my head, I answer my own question. “Never.”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

“You’re talking a lot of shit for someone one phone call away from having their secret exposed.”

That causes her armor to chip “Okay. You don’t want money. What do you want?”

A smile I can’t suppress crosses my lips. Though I don’t intend for it to be malicious, I can tell by the horrified look that invades Tania’s bronze eyes that it is.

“It’s about time you asked a question that truly matters.”