tall man—he was big and broad all over, like a bear. And he was beautiful in an otherworldly kind of way. Long black hair framed his masculine face, hanging well past his square jaw. Dark, thick brows rested above his unique violet eyes, and he had full, sculpted lips that Gabby had dreamed of kissing.
Those lips were currently turned down in a frown so slight that it had no right seeming as severe as it did, and those eyes were fixed on her with an unmasked blend of skepticism and concern.
He was going to press her, was going to pry, and Gabriela wasn’t sure if she had the emotional energy to pretend for much longer. The last thing she needed right now was to break down in front of her gorgeous neighbor.
But Mason just grunted and said, “Good weather for a hot drink.”
Though his English was excellent, he had a noticeable accent. Gabriela had never been able to place it; to her, it had a hint of Russian or Eastern European, but there a touch of something in it that just couldn’t be identified.
Gabriela smiled. “Hot chocolate does sound pretty good.”
He stepped closer, close enough that Gabriela could almost feel the heat radiating from his big body, close enough that she had to tip her head back to maintain eye contact. For a few seconds, he looked into her eyes. A thousand crazy thoughts tumbled through her mind—a thousand desires that seemed wholly inappropriate given the circumstances.
Is it so wrong to just want to be held by a big, brawny man?
Except she didn’t want it to stop at that. She wanted more. It’d been a long, long, long time since she’d been intimate with a man.
And this man had taken part in many of her most recent fantasies.
Mason lifted a hand, and Gabby’s breath caught. But instead of cupping her cheek or slipping his long, strong fingers into her hair, he proceeded to insert his key into the keyhole of his mailbox, unlocking the little door and swinging it open.
“Sorry,” she said, grabbing the stack of mail from her box, closing the door, and removing her key. She stepped back, giving him some space to retrieve his mail as she shoved her keys and her mail—including the late payment letter—into her purse.
He turned his gaze to his mailbox as he reached inside. “There’s a place on Third that’s supposed to be good.”
Gabriela’s brow creased, and she tilted her head. “Good for what?”
“Hot chocolate.”
“Ohhh. I…I’ll have to take Ana there sometime.”
Mason closed the door on his mailbox, the sound of it loud enough to echo in the winter sky, and winced. “I, uh, meant that I could take you.”
For a moment, everything went quiet and still. Gabriela stared at him, unsure if she’d heard him correctly, but his words kept replaying inside her head.
Is he…is he asking me out?
Well, don’t just stand there and stare at him!
Heat flooded her face. Gabby ducked her head, dropping her gaze to the snow piled around the mailboxes’ posts. She shuffled her feet, nudging aside a chunk of snow with the toe of her boot, and peeked up at him with a smile. “Are you…asking me out, Mason?”
He tugged back some of his long hair and released a heavy breath that emerged in thick cloud. “Yeah.”
“I would like that.”
His eyebrows rose, and his oddly entrancing eyes widened. “Really?”
She chuckled. “Really.”
Mason waved back toward his home with the stack of mail in his hand, lowering his other hand to stuff it in his pocket. “We can take my truck.”
Gabriela looked toward his blue pickup, and something clicked in her mind. Her eyes rounded as she returned them to Mason. “Wait, you mean now?”
“You’re cold now.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I am, but I need to pick up my daughter from school in…” Reaching into her purse, she dug around the seemingly bottomless pit until she found her phone. She pressed the side button to check the time and gasped. “Shit! I’m late. I was supposed to leave ten minutes ago.”
How long had she stood there staring at her mailbox?
Gabriela looked up at Mason as she walked toward her house, turning to keep her eyes on him. “I am so, so sorry. Thank you for the offer. We’ll….we’ll have to plan for it another time, yeah?”
He remained in place, his expression taut with lips slightly downturned, his hand still in his pocket. “Yeah. Another time.”
“Thank you!”
She spun around and ran the rest of the distance. Her car was sitting