Book One in the Seasonal Love series
While on Christmas vacation at a ski resort with his friends, Lasse expects only snowboarding and fun. What he doesn’t expect is Marko, who draws Lasse in and stirs feelings he never expected, feelings that Lasse is nevertheless more than happy to go along with.
Love is never easy though, and the fact that Marko is from another country is only one of the complications.
Excerpt
(c) T. T. Kove
“This looks nice.”
Lasse dropped his bag in the middle of the cabin’s living room floor and looked around. Big living room with two sofas; television and an open fireplace; a kitchen with a stove, cabinets and refrigerator as well as a bathroom with a toilet and a shower.
“We need to figure out the sleeping arrangements,” Mathias, always practical, said as he entered behind Lasse.
“How many sleeping accommodations are there?” Sander asked quietly, looking around.
“Seven,” Mathias replied. “There’s two bedrooms, one with two beds, the other with three and there’s the sofa here in the living room that folds out to a double bed.”
“With so many places to sleep, I can surely have the bedroom with two beds, right?” Oliver asked brightly.
“Why in the world should you have that one by yourself?” The last person in their group, Demitri, asked grumpily.
“Because I’m getting laid, man.” Oliver grinned wickedly.
“I suggest we only use the bedrooms,” Lasse spoke up, nudging Oliver’s side. “That way we don’t have to tip-toe in the mornings if someone is still asleep out here in the living room. Two in one bedroom, three in the other. Works perfectly.”
Oliver pouted slightly for a moment then shrugged. “I’m still sleeping in the room with only two beds. Who’ll join me?”
“I will,” Mathias said. As was to be expected really—the two of them were the best of friends. But they were also complete opposites, in both personality and looks. Oliver was tall and blond and blue eyed, with an optimistic and outgoing personality; Mathias was shorter, with red hair and green eyes, and he was shy and quiet, and much preferred the company of a book to a crowd of people.
Lasse looked between Sander and Demitri. “Guess it’s the three of us in the second bedroom then.” He went into the three-bed bedroom and deposited his bag on the single bed. Opposite was a bunk-bed, and between were two bedside tables. A small closet was the last thing in the room, placed between the door and Lasse’s single bed.
“Which bed do you want?” he heard Demitri ask Sander quietly behind him.
“Whichever one you don’t want,” Sander replied in a low voice. “I’m fine with either.”
Lasse exited the bedroom and left the two to figure it out. So he was to sleep in the same room as them—the sexual tension would be excruciating. Sander and Demitri had been in love with each other for ages now, but seemed to be oblivious to each other’s feelings for the other. And Lasse, as well as Oliver and Mathias, had decided together not to get involved. Better for them to work it out on their own in their own time.
Mathias was already on the sofa, bent over a notebook, when he entered.
“What’s the plan for today?” Lasse asked as he sat down next to him. Mathias had their whole Christmas Holiday planned out—he was a perfectionist and needed to have the plans ready.
“No set plans for today,” Mathias replied. He straightened up to look at Lasse and brushed his red hair out of his face. “It’s already five. I just thought we could eat a good dinner down at the cafeteria and then relax before we hit the slopes tomorrow.”
“That’s sounds fine with me.” They’d spent over eight hours on the road, including the stops they’d had to eat, so relaxing sounded perfect. The next day would not be relaxing though it was fun, spending a day in the ski slope was exhausting, .
“Is there someplace to hook up around here?” Oliver dropped down on the other sofa, effectively sprawling himself all over it.
“Is that all you think about?” Mathias gave him a reproving look. “Life’s not all about getting laid, you know.”
“Maybe for you it isn’t,” Oliver argued. “But I’m not like you. I’m not looking for love and the One. I just want to have a good time.”
“Obviously,” Mathias murmured as he bent back over his notebook. “Besides, if anyone of us should know about any such place here, it should be you. You grew up not even two and a half hours from here. And didn’t you used spend time up here with your family when you were young?”
“Yeah, but that was ages ago.” Oliver stretched out. “Things might have changed.”
Mathias seemed to decide to ignore Oliver for the time being and turned to look at Lasse. “For the most part, we’re spending this week in the slopes, but I also put up a couple of nights of bowling. They have bowling here, right?”
“Yeah, they do.” Lasse knew Oppdal even better than Oliver. He’d been up here once every winter for at least four years now. “And Oliver, there’s always the after-ski parties to look forward to. Although this isn’t exactly a big gay parade. This is a small community.”
“There’s always someone gay.” Oliver grinned, sure of himself. “Besides, it’s Christmas. This place is packed with tourists.”
“Yeah. We were lucky to get this cabin, even with how early I called to get a reservation,” Mathias spoke up. “Seems Oppdal is quite popular in winter.”
“It is, and that’s what so wonderful. The slopes are filled with people, both locals and tourists. The after-ski’s are awesome. You meet a lot of new and exciting people. It’s fun.” Lasse chuckled then glanced up as Sander and Demitri came out of their bedroom. Sander sat down on Mathias’ other side, while Demitri scooped Oliver’s feet to the floor so he could fit on the sofa. Oliver instantly laid his feet to rest over Demitri’s lap and stretched again.
“It’s so nice not being stuck in the car,” he proclaimed. “It gets cramped sitting behind the wheel for so long.”
They’d driven two cars, Oliver’s and Demitri’s, and changed driver’s often so that none of them would have to drive the whole way by themselves or get tired behind the wheel.
“So how about going down to Kroa to eat?” Mathias looked at each of them in turn. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
And so they all got up from the sofa and out the door. Kroa was a cafeteria not even a hundred meters from their cabin, which served good food for a good price, in Lasse’s opinion. It was almost empty when they crowded into the front door. The tourists were probably still up in the ski slope, so they got in line and ordered food and drinks.
They’d just sat down on a table when Lasse noticed three men sitting across the room from them, chatting in a language he didn’t understand. Two of them were brunets, the third a blond. He couldn’t quite see the faces of the blond and one of the brunets, but the brunet he could see instantly caught his eye. He had straight brown hair that framed his face and curled slightly in his neck, over the hem of his shirt. His bangs fell down into brown eyes. He was smiling, showing off white teeth. He was extremely handsome, and Lasse couldn’t help staring at him.
But when the guy turned his head and stared back at him, Lasse quickly turned away. He didn’t dare look back at him, not just yet anyway. Instead, he focused on his friends, who, thankfully, hadn’t noticed where his attention had just been.
Only when the waitress came delivering their food did he chance another glance over at the handsome man. He was back to chatting and laughing with his friends.
I should stop this, Lasse thought as he bent over his food. What’s the chance that the guy’s even gay? Very slim, I got to say.