“Come on now, don’t be a wimp!”

Down the hill, the two gals that made up half of their small group stood positioned next to the side of the landing area. To the one still summoning up the courage to attempt the jump, one of them had shouted, teasing him.

“You’re more than welcome to hike up here and try it yourself!” dared Jordan back.

Chris stood next to him and studied the ramp, inhaling sharp. It wasn’t a jump different from any he had ever used successfully before but it had been years since the last time he had attempted to do a trick off of one. That particular winter had been his first as a single parent. Perhaps it was the weight of that knowledge in the back of his mind that had caused him to lose focus long enough to botch the landing and set up a yard sale across the run. Of no surprise, his leg wound up in a cast and he spent the next two months on unwieldy crutches. Raising a five-year-old, already a difficult task, became almost impossible at that point.

“We want to see you do it!” challenged Laurie. She was the oldest of their group of singles, most of whom were only experienced enough to spend their day on the beginner’s slopes. But despite her age, she was able to bring a kid-like enthusiasm for adventure with her wherever she went. This ski trip had been her idea from the beginning and they were all feeling grateful that she had taken the initiative, Chris especially.

“I don’t know man, what do you think?” Jordan asked, turning to Chris.

He shrugged. “It’s up to you. You know my reservations about it.”

Jordan nodded his head but wasn’t ready to dismiss the idea. “What will you give me if I land a backflip?” he yelled.

“Give you?”

“Yeah!” he said, stalling for time.

“If you land it, Laurie says she’ll flash you!” screamed Joanne before the other could answer. That adventurous enthusiasm was infectious between them and they were eager to watch the attempt.

Laurie shot her friend a surprised look, her mouth open in a jaw-dropped grin. She was equal parts insulted and amused. “What!” she exclaimed. Her eyes narrowed. “Well, Joanne says she’ll blow you if you don’t wreck the landing.”

Both women erupted into laughter. “You wish,” she scoffed.

Jordan grinned, his mind now focused on matters other than the pain that could result. “Well, you heard the ladies. I can’t walk away from an offer like that,” he said to Chris before lowering his goggles and taking off down the hill. His mind was now fueled by the prospect of tits and oral sex.

His speed was good and his form was perfect but he seemed to second-guess himself somewhere early in the takeoff, only leaning into the flip well enough to give himself about a quarter of the energy needed. A muted thud rang out as he impacted the landing area on his back and slid down the hill. “Aww, too bad!” shouted one of the gals, teasing.

Chris stood there a moment, watching to see if his buddy was alright. He breathed a sigh of relief when Jordan began to get up, struggling a bit between laughs. He started to ski around and meet the others but then paused, staring down the ramp. It felt like it was taunting him somehow. Motionless, he considered the prospect.

“Look!” said Laurie, pointing up the hill.

He was gaining speed and aimed straight for the jump, hitting it ever so perfect. His body flipped confidently through the air and landed gracefully upright to the cheers of his friends. “Holy shit!” said one of them, “I thought you weren’t going to try it!”

Stopping among them to a scratch of kicked snow, he beamed a confident and satisfied grin. “I didn’t either but before I could talk myself out of it, I was already doing it.”

“Well nicely done,” congratulated Jordan, brushing the flakes off of his jacket.

The four of them traveled down the rest of the way and got in line for one of the lifts. Attendance was surprisingly low for that time of the year so they were determined to take advantage of the situation as much as possible. Jordan and Laurie sat together on a chair while Chris and Joanne paired up on the one behind them. “This is shaping up to be an excellent day,” observed Joanne, “I needed something like this, just a quick little getaway, you know?”

Chris agreed. “Right? I’m really glad that my brother and his wife were able to watch Alexis for a couple of days. They’ve been such a big help to me these last few years so I always feel bad asking.”

She nodded. “Whatever happened between you and Suzanne?”

He sighed. “It’s hard to say exactly but I believe that she just grew apart from the idea of us. I mean, she loves our daughter, and I suppose she probably still loves me in a way, and she tries her best to play the role of a good mother but in hindsight, I think she’s just not the family type. To be honest, maybe I should have seen it coming, considering the way she pours herself into her career. I guess it’s just a little too tough to pursue her goals and jet-set around the world with a husband and kid in tow.”

Joanne placed her hand over his and rubbed the back of his wrist with her thumb. “Believe me, I know how sucky that feels.” She met his gaze with a look of sympathy. “I’m still sorry to hear that things didn’t work out.”

“It is what it is,” he assured. “But because of it all I get to be a dad, so I’m grateful for that.”

Joanne smiled and then turned her gaze forward, focusing on the chairs rising ahead of them up the hill. Her hand squeezed the top of his, her fingers curling to hold it slightly. “I wish I could say the same about my ex. I mean, yes, I’m glad that our relationship gave me and him our daughter but I still feel bitter.”

He understood. Turning the conversation to a less depressing subject, they spent the rest of the ride up making small talk about their similarly-aged kids, their frustrations with certain school policies, and the little victories they liked to take to celebrate the end of stressful days. This ski trip was only a one-day event, not including the hotels and travel days before and after, but they were in agreement that it was something that they had both needed. All the while, Joanne’s hand remained holding his in a way that was a bit more than friendly but not quite romantic. When the topic turned to their love lives, or general lack there-of, Joanne started to flirt. It turned out that neither of them had been on a date in months.

“Oh come on, a cute guy like you shouldn’t have any trouble with the ladies.”

“No, it’s true,” he laughed, “Maybe I’m just terrible when it comes to choosing who to ask out, but believe me, I’ve had more bad first dates in the last year than I care to tell.”

“Well if any of them lasted until morning then they couldn’t have been that bad,” she winked, coyly investigating into his sex life. There had been a hint of a spark between them over the last few months but despite the chemistry, neither of them had made a move. However, it made for some great conversation and even better flirting in the meantime.

He shrugged and nodded. “You have a fair point.” He smiled, “But are you... speaking generally? ...or from experience?” His investigation was far more clunky but, luckily for him, she found it cute when he stammered.

“Haha,” she chuckled. “A woman never tells.” She paused for a beat and then added, “...but yes.”

They both burst out in laughter loud enough to cause Jordan and Laurie to look back at them. The four of them exchanged waves. “Well, we all have needs,” he said.

“Mmm,” she said in a satisfying humph, “Tell me about it.”

Reaching the summit of the lift, they exited their chair and worked their way down to one of the runs near the edge of the mountain. It was a long, intermediate trail off of the beaten path but the moguls and ungroomed sections made for worthwhile challenges along the path. Jordan took off ahead of them with the understanding that they would all meet up around noon for lunch. Chris wasn’t too far behind him which left the women to work their way slowly down the mountain, talking at brief stops here and there as they chatted.

Towards the end of the second ungroomed section, and alerted by an awkward rattle, Chris became aware that one of his skis was loose. Either a result of the flip or from the rough terrain, its presence had now become very clear and was starting to make steering difficult. Fortunately, he was near a small run-linking trail through the trees, a relatively flat section, and a perfect spot to stop and repair. He pulled off and began the process of tightening things up, a normally easy task but a frustrating one here on the side of the mountain.

“Oh hey! Is everything alright?” asked Laurie. Seemingly, she and Joanne had decided to take the same route through the trees, not spotting him until they were nearby.

“Oh it’s nothing,” he said, only struggling a little bit, “My binding is a little loose but I’m getting it.”

“Hmm, go figure,” Laurie nodded.

She glanced at her friend, giving her a subtle nod that looked a little like a command. Her gaze held within it a mischievous light. Joanne rolled her eyes in response and offered to hold on to Chris’s poles while he made the last few adjustments. “Hey backflip stud!” came a shout from a short distance away.

Chris looked and saw Laurie facing up the trail at them. She had skied away some but had stopped in the middle of the path. Her coat was unzipped and her hands were lifting her shirt and sports bra, exposing her bare chest to the cold mountain air. His eyes grew wide at the sight of her firm tits, which looked like they had ceased to age sometime in her early twenties. He dropped his jaw and drank in the sight. She smiled at them for a beat and then shook her breasts side to side in a playful jiggle before pulling her clothing down and zipping her coat. “A deal’s a deal!” she teased with a wink before turning to resume skiing.

Neither of them was sure what to say at first. “That bitch,” laughed Joanne in a huff.

“I didn’t know the offer stood for me too,” he chuckled, “I guess I need to land flips more often.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh? You say that even before receiving both prizes?”

He was confused. “You… Wait, I thought that was a joke?”

“It was. At least, I meant it as a joke. But she and I were talking and well...” Her hand grazed the crotch of his pants and traced a finger around the bulge, making his cock twitch to life. “...I think it sounds like fun.”

From what he could tell, the area was limited to the two of them. They were in a good spot, hidden off the trail behind some trees where they could spot someone approaching. Softly, Chris moaned from the sensation of his cock springing to attention and then surveyed to see if anyone was coming. Peering up the hill, he didn’t realize that Joanne had dropped to her knees until he felt her hands tugging down the hem of his snow pants.

“Keep a lookout,” she said as she placed a kiss on his lower abdomen, one hand lifting his shirt and the other reaching into his boxers to pull out his cock.

“I’m… are you...” he stammered.

She lifted his manhood out from his pants and pressed the tip against her lips. A soft kiss, her warm breath, and the heat from her hand caused him to swell and grow firm. Joanne licked the tip and looked up at him. “Laurie held up her end of the bargain which means she’s going to hold me to mine. Besides, she knows that it’s been months since my last date and that it was a goal of mine to get a little on this trip.”

Chris watched as she took him into her mouth. Using her tongue to massage the underside, she started slow but worked quicker once he became fully hard. The heat from her mouth and spit contrasted against the cold mountain air and sent shivers up his spine with every lick and suck. Using her now ungloved hand, she started to stroke him while continuing to slide her lips along his cock, taking his head and a little bit of the shaft inside. “Mmm...” she moaned seductively.

“Fuck...” he groaned in extended syllables, encouraging her to keep going.

Months had passed since the last time he had felt the touch of a woman and Joanne’s soft, wet mouth was a welcome change from a soaped up hand in the shower. The feeling was intense and intoxicating. As she licked and sucked, he felt hyper-aware of his surroundings. Knowing that they were outdoors and in semi-public was an illicit rush. It was dirty. It was breaking the rules. It was awesome.

“Oh that’s it...” he whimpered.

Glancing up at him and making eye contact, Joanne smiled. She laughed playfully and tickled the tip with her tongue while rapidly jerking his cock. Chris’s eyes fluttered. “Fuck. I like that,” he grunted.

“Yeah?” The word came out muffled as she took him deeper inside her mouth.

“You’re gonna make me cum.”

She laughed again, humming her chuckles around the shaft while continuing to suck. Stopping for air, she caught her breath and looked up at him. Although it was her first time giving a blow job outdoors, this was far from her first time in general so she knew from experience and the expression on his face that his orgasm was building within him. “I sure hope you’re gonna cum. It would be a shitty blowjob if you didn’t.”

Now it was his turn to laugh. “Well… I fail to see how having a beauty put her mouth on my dick could ever be described as shitty.”

Joanne rolled her eyes, shrugged, and nodded as she resumed bobbing her head. His cock was slick and dripping, coated with the same drool that was starting to dangle out of the corners of her mouth. It was a dirty, unrefined look but to Chris it was undeniably sexy. It made her look hot. He watched her work, becoming hypnotized from the sensations. Too deep into the moment, he failed to realize that headed their way were some other skiers.

“Shit!” exclaimed Joanne as she tried to shove his cock back into his pants. She had heard the icy snow-scratch sound of others turning to take the trail of their hiding spot.

Chris fumbled to put himself together while she staggered up into a standing position. The skiers casually waved as they passed, only giving the most cursory of glances before disappearing down the next run. If they had any suspicion about what was taking place, they didn’t show it. Once out of earshot, he and Joanne burst out in nervous laughter. “That was close!”

“Right?” he agreed.

She looked up at the hill and could see a few more people working their way down. It wasn’t guaranteed that they would choose to take their side path but it didn’t seem worth the risk. “I don’t think our spot is going to remain secluded,” she said.

“Shit."

“Although...” she said, pausing to let the gears turn inside her head. “I have an idea. Follow me.”

She skied off with him close behind. Down a few runs, another lift would take them up to a more central yet heavily wooded part of the mountain. Chris seemed to understand what she was thinking and took the lift seat next to her.

Once they were up in the air with a little distance between them and the queue, she turned his head to face her and kissed him on the mouth. She sucked softly on his lips and let hers linger there for a moment. Her breath tasted sweet and satisfyingly musky, a combination of her natural flavor and the precum she had managed to suck off of his cock. Kissing her back, he loved and savored it. Joanne smiled.

Chris looked back at the seats behind them and could see that there were three sets of chairs between them and the next riders. In front, there dangled an empty one as well. Sensing what he was thinking, she whispered, “Not here,” and grazed her cheek along his. “But...” she trailed off.

“What is it?”

Joanne took his hand and guided it over to her crotch, rubbing the back of his fingers against the mound of her pussy. Without hesitation, he removed his glove and teased her with his thumb, pressing gently. She lifted her coat, pulled back the hem of her snow pants, and watched his wrist snake inside to caress her womanhood. A gasp escaped her mouth as his cold touch found her warm sex. “Sucking cock makes me so horny,” she confessed. “Finger me.”

He grinned and kissed her ear, nibbling on it playfully while he began to work his fingers up and down the slit of her pussy. Her panties were rapidly becoming soaked and her clit was hard and perky, begging for attention. In soft little circles that caused her to close her eyes and breath slowly, his fingers rubbed where she needed it most. A flush of wetness coated his ring finger as he pushed it inside of her.

“Oh fuck,” she moaned, grinding against his hand, “Just like that.”

Chris smiled and continued to move his fingers in a set rhythm, letting her twist and adjust on his touch. He looked at the hill below and watched the skiers, every one of them too focused on the task at hand to gaze up long enough to realize what they were doing. It was wild to be doing this and he loved that. His cock, rigid inside of his pants, twitched with every breathless moan Joanne let out. If the circumstances were different, he would have fucked her right then and there.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. She had whimpered a bit in a frustrated way.

“I’m so close...” she said, squinting her eyes to try and push herself over the finish line. “But fuck, we’re gonna reach the top too soon.”

Before he could try and get her there, she pulled his hand out and pulled up and down her winter gear to make herself presentable. Making deliberate eye contact as he did, he licked his fingers clean. “You taste fucking great.”

She didn’t respond but only looked at him with an expression that demanded they finish what they started and that they finish it soon. The top of the lift, a less than a mere minute away, seemed like it took an eternity for their chair to reach it. The sexually-tense silence that hung between them felt electric.

“This way,” she instructed, jumping off of the seat and heading in the direction opposite of most of the other riders.

Chris followed and spotted a small maintenance shack, the backside of which faced a thicket of trees. The two of them quickly disappeared behind it, stepped out of their skis, and dove headfirst into resuming their fun. He began by kissing her, soft and shy at first but soon his lips were working in a needy frenzy. She closed her eyes and savored the feeling while her hand drifted down into her panties, finding her aching clit. Pausing his kisses and turning to look him squarely in the eye, Joanne rubbed the apex of her wet pussy as she dropped to her knees.

“I want to fuck you,” he confessed.

She whipped his still hard cock from his pants and gave it a few quick sucks. “Maybe next time. My bare ass is not willing to play nice with this cold.” Her tongue teased the underside of his shaft a little as she smiled. "I still plan on having fun with this cock though."

He groaned and then thrust into her mouth, going deeper. She moved her head back and forth over his shaft while her free hand masturbated. Both of them closed their eyes and became lost, each of them inching closer and closer to the edge of orgasm.

“Fuck! Oh damn!” he groaned, turning into his shoulder to try and muffle the sound.

“Come on, naughty boy. Let go and give it to me,” she coaxed while her fingers rubbed frantically at her clit.

Sucking the tip while he stroked his shaft, she felt his balls begin to tighten as she held and squeezed them. His whole body began to tense. “Oh fuck, oh fuck!”

In a few strong bursts, his cum erupted from his cock and into Joanne’s mouth. The feeling of it warming her tongue pushed her over the finish line and into her orgasm. Each of them shook and gasped, struggling to keep their shrieks quiet. “Goddamn...” he said once his breath returned, too spent to be to say anything else.

“Mmm,” she hummed affirmatively before turning to spit. “My thoughts exactly.”

He and Joanne shared a smile and a quick laugh before he helped her up. As they looked around the sides of the shack to confirm that no one had seen them, they put themselves back together in their clothes and skis before timidly hopping back on to the trail. “It’s almost noon,” she said, checking her watch, “We should head back and meet up with the others.”

Chris agreed. She started to head off ahead of him but he stopped her. “Hey, um,” he started nervously. “So tomorrow should I -”

Joanne cut him off. “Look, this was fun but I don’t think it needs to be more than that right now. Let’s keep this between us.”

He nodded. To her surprise, he was relieved. “I don’t want things to be weird between us."

She scoffed. “That could never happen. But,” she continued, “can you promise me something?”

“Yes?” he asked.

“For one, other than Laurie, don’t let anyone else know about… this? Especially not Jordan. He’s not known for his discretion. And I certainly don’t want him to end up in a cast trying to land another flip, thinking that there’s some sort of standing offer now.”

He laughed. “Okay. And two?”

“In a few months, if we both find ourselves still in a dating rut, let’s maybe... do this again. Although preferably somewhere warmer.”

Chris smiled. “I can think of a tropical beach or two that should be secluded this time of year.”

Joanne kissed him on the cheek before skiing away. “I love it.”