Lucifer's Lover by Tracy Cooper-Posey Read Free Book Online

for a second.”
    “Leave that to me,” Luke told her.
    Excitement gripped her. She had never done anything like this in her life. And the thought of Otto getting his just desserts was such a sweet temptation…
    “Okay,” she agreed, a little breathlessly. “When? Now?”
    “Sure.” Luke stood up. “The other cable car is arriving. Good timing.”
    “You sound like you’ve done this sort of thing before.”
    He grinned and his eyes danced with merriment. “You could say that,” he agreed. He leaned close to her and in a secretive tone whispered, “I bet you’re nice and warm now.”
    Lindsay felt her jaw drop a little and her mouth open. And involuntarily, she felt herself smile. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I am.”
    He held up his hands. “No hands. Not even a finger.” He winked, then dropped the obscuring sunglasses back into place and ambled over toward Otto.
    Lindsay wasn’t sure what he intended to do, nor did she know exactly what he wanted her to do, either, beyond knocking down the snow at the appropriate moment. Did he just assume she would figure it out for herself?
    She grabbed the skis and poles leaning against the siding and hoisted them up onto her shoulder the way she’d seen other people doing it. They were surprisingly light but their length and the four separate pieces made them awkward to handle—especially as the skis themselves were slippery, glossy fiberglass. No wonder people swapped them from shoulder to shoulder all the time and took advantage of every stationary moment to rest them on the ground.
    Three or four paces from their intended target, Luke lifted his hand. “Otto,” he said and the rotund man turned toward him. Luke reached his side and began a conversation.
    Briefly, Lindsay envied him his ability to talk to anyone and everyone. Her mother had been like that.
    But the impending action pushed the thought away, for Luke was luring Otto from his post by the railing, a jovial arm on his shoulder. They were heading for the chalet.
    Lindsay measured the distance between them and the chalet and compared her own distance. Then, with her heart leaping about in her chest and excitement pushing at her and making her skittish and panicky, she walked as calmly as she could toward the café doors.
    Eight feet…seven…six…
    She took a wobbling breath and hoisted the skis up, just as she had seen others doing it.
    The skis and the points of the poles punctured the underside of the overhanging wave of snow and as Lindsay felt the bite of resistance, she put her weight into it, dragging the tips through the length of the overhang, effectively slicing it off at the edge of the eaves. At the same time, she tried to make it look like she’d been caught by surprise and had been thrown off balance by the snagged ends of the skis.
    The weight of snow dropped down with a heavy, muffled impact…right on the top of Otto’s red cap.
    Lindsay gave a cry of surprise and dismay, as she watched a gratifying amount of snow disappear down the neck of his coat.
    Otto gave a shriek of shock, exactly like someone who had been doused with an unexpected icy bucket of water. The breathless sound was music to Lindsay’s ears.
    He stood in the center of the snow mound that had built around his feet, gasping. Luke stood a couple of feet away, looking thoroughly surprised.
    Lindsay put down the skis and poles and spread her hands. “I’m so dreadfully sorry. I have no idea how that happened…”
    Otto wasn’t listening to her. His eyes opened wide and he pulled off his gloves with jerky speed and started struggling with the zipper of his coat. He pulled his hat off his head and dumped it on top of his gloves on the decking. The coat followed.
    Beneath, Otto wore a pair of overall snow pants, the type that had wide elastic over both shoulders, holding the pants up, yet the pants themselves, although ending high above the waist, were loose and gaping.
    Otto pulled the elastic off his shoulders and