“I saw the new brochure online, and it said that you were available for one-to-ones.” The husky tone of her voice implied she was interested in more than Tyler’s expertise on the snow.
“Expert skiers only, and then only on a case-by-case basis.”
“Who decides who you take?”
Tyler stared down into those eyes, apparently unaffected by the liberal application of mascara. “Brenna.” His voice was silk over layers of steel. “If she thinks a skier shows exceptional talent, then I’ll coach them. You’ll have to talk to her.”
Anna Clarke said nothing, but her color rose, and she said something to him in a low voice before skiing away.
Brenna’s heart was pounding. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“You’re right. You should have done it.” There was an edge to his tone. “She was rude, and you let her get away with it.”
Her heart was bumping. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters, Brenna. You need to speak up. If you let a person step on you, they’ll do it again and again.”
“We’re surrounded by kids and parents. I didn’t want to get into a fight. It’s unprofessional.”
“We both know you wouldn’t fight even if your back was against the wall.”
Did he think she was pathetic? “You think I have no backbone.”
His gaze locked on hers. “Honey, I’ve seen you ski. You have more backbone than anyone I’ve met. You’ll ski a vertical slope without hesitation, but when it comes to people, especially people like Anna, when there’s a social situation that makes you uncomfortable, you shut down.”
“You’re saying I’m a coward.”
“No.” He frowned. “You’re not good at handling those sorts of people. But we’re going to change that.”
He’d never said anything like that before, and Brenna gave a breathless laugh. “You want me to get into a girl fight with Anna?”
“No. I’m going to teach you to be assertive.” He adjusted his glove. “Next time, instead of letting her snub you, you will say a few quiet words that demand she treat you with respect.”
“I’m not so great with words. I usually think of the right thing to say a week after the chance to say it has passed.”
“So we’ll think of it in advance. I have the perfect string of words to say to a woman like that.” He leaned closer, whispered in her ear and she gasped and glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one could have overheard.
“No way would I ever say that.”
“I guarantee she’d never do it to you again if you did.”
Half laughing, half shocked, Brenna shook her head. “I don’t think she’s ever going to talk to me again anyway. You were pretty rude to her.”
“She was mean to you.” He said it simply. Then he tugged off his glove and curved his hand behind her head, forcing her to look at him. He was big. Protective. The strength in those fingers a direct contrast to the gentleness in his eyes.
No one had ever pushed this man into a ditch or made him feel less than he was.
Her heart was pumping so hard it felt as if it might burst out of her chest. “I can look after myself. I always have. I always will.”
“You walked away from it, which is one way of handling it. Now we’re trying my way.” He let his hand drop, but not before he’d stroked those fingers over her cheek.
The gesture was as unexpected as it was intimate, and it turned her stomach inside out.
For a fleeting moment she thought she saw something in his eyes and then it was gone, and he was tugging his glove back on and focusing on the racing.
“I’ve learned to be brutally direct with some people or the next time I open my bedroom door, one of them could be lying there naked.”
“Naked?” She felt as if she’d stepped off a cliff into a bottomless void. Not for the first time she felt out of step with the life he’d led. Never in her life would she have lain on a bed naked, waiting for a man she didn’t know. “That happened?”