lifting the trunk lid.
She listened as the house door opened and Ana’s boots thumped into the house, waiting until the girl had enough time to get to her room before scooping up the grocery bags in the trunk one by one and hanging them over her forearm. She had three of the bags on when she heard heavy footsteps on the pavement behind her.
Gabby turned, and her breath caught in her throat when she saw Mason walking toward her. He wasn’t wearing a coat, and his long-sleeved, knitted gray shirt clung to his torso, accentuating his wide shoulders and broad chest. The three buttons at the collar were undone, affording her a glimpse of the muscle beneath. His long black hair hung loose around his shoulders, wisps of it flowing in the wintry breeze. Her eyes dipped. He wore a pair of faded jeans that hugged his thick, muscular legs, tucked over a pair of black boots.
This was a man who didn’t skip leg day. He clearly didn’t skip arm day and chest day, either—or any day, really.
Something sparked in her core, something hot and thrilling that made her pussy clench in sudden need. Her nipples tightened into hard points, and it had nothing to do with the cold.
She had never felt this kind of immediate desire for any man before. Not even for James, her ex-boyfriend and Ana’s father, the last man Gabriela had been intimate with ten years ago. No, this sort of attraction seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, and she only felt it when she saw Mason.
Unfortunately, she was sure her predicament was quite noticeable through her sports bra and the snug t-shirt she’d worn to clean Paige’s house. She moved to lift her arm and cover her chest, but it caught on the three heavy bags attached to it.
Gabriela smiled regardless. “Hi, Mason.”
“Hi,” he said, pausing a few feet away with his hands in his pockets. “I was just…” Mason frowned, brow furrowing. “I was going to ask you, uh… Need help carrying those?”
“I’ve hauled much more than this, plus a car seat with a baby, many times before.” She grinned and slipped her arm free of the bags. “But the help would be wonderful. Thank you.”
He stepped forward, stopping beside her. Warmth radiated from him, and the air was suddenly laden with his scent—pine, cedar, and moss, like the very mountains in which they lived, and something entirely unique to him, something warm, spicy, and manly. She leaned toward him to take a deeper breath. That ache between her legs intensified.
I need to get laid.
Gabriela’s eyes widened, and she jerked back, pressing her lips together, afraid she might have said those words out loud. But Mason made no indication that he’d heard anything as he reached down to pluck the bags of out the trunk, catching the handles in his big hand smoothly and effortlessly. No indication but for the faintest smirk on his lips, anyway—which was so infinitesimal that she couldn’t be sure whether it was there or not.
“Those too?” he asked, gesturing to the bags she’d tucked away at the very back of the trunk.
“Oh, I’ll get those.” She bent forward, her hip brushing his thigh as she leaned in to reach for the bags, making her breath hitch. “They’re…Christmas gifts for Ana. She’s hiding in her room so I can run these to mine to wrap later.”
She straightened and placed her hand on the trunk lid, closing it. She looked back up to meet Mason’s violet gaze. Her heart thumped.
He has such beautiful eyes…
“Um, Mason… About your offer to get hot chocolate together…”
He looked away, lifting a hand to rub the back of his neck. “I understand if you don’t want to. No prob—”
Gabriela settled her hand upon his chest. “No! No, no. That’s not what I was going to say. I want to. I really, really want to. I was worried you might’ve thought I was just making an excuse to run off and get out of it yesterday, and I wanted to just reassure you that I wasn’t. I want to go out with you, Mason. In fact, I’d love to. It’s just…it might need to wait until after Christmas break since Ana’s home, and I’m sure you’d rather not have a kid tagging—”
The words died on her lips when she realized that Mason was staring down at her hand—her hand that was currently flat against his strong, solid, warm chest. His pulse accelerated beneath her palm.
He lowered