“Are you all right?” Gabe’s voice from the bedroom door pulled her away from the window. “You’ve been gone quite a while.”
“I couldn’t sleep. Obviously.” She laughed, but it was a tired laugh, and concern flared in Gabe’s eyes. He walked closer, Anna unable to look away from where his pajama pants were slung low on his hips and his sleep shirt—a Henley that she found unfairly irresistible—lay unbuttoned at the neck. “Couldn’t turn my brain off.”
Gabe took a seat on the leather sofa facing the window and spread out his arms over the back, the movement stretching the shirt over his biceps. Anna sucked in a deep breath. Breathe, girl. Breathe.
His eyes swept over every inch of her. “Does this have anything to do with the phone call you got earlier?”
The real world pushed back into her mind with an unpleasant jolt. Anna turned away. She didn’t want to discuss her family or her past, or that she shouldn’t be at a place like the Elk Lodge with a man like Gabe. “I got out of a bad relationship recently,” she hedged. “My best friend was worried I’d made a mistake on the rebound by coming here with you.”
One eyebrow arched upward and for a moment all the things she hadn’t wanted to talk about crowded together at the tip of her tongue. If she spilled her secrets here and now...
Well, she wouldn’t.
But suddenly she was aware she was standing there in a tank top and sleep shorts, Gabe’s gaze fixed on her. It was like when they’d come into the room before—and the heady, reckless feeling returned, this time more demanding.
He let out a short breath and shifted on the couch. The temperature in the room seemed to skyrocket. Gabe’s pajama pants weren’t thick enough to hide his arousal. More than anything, she wanted to hear him make that noise again—that soft, deep groan in the back of his throat that sang with wanting her.
Gabe blinked, and his professional expression fell back in place. He ran a hand through his tousled hair. “Best if we just focus on the matter at hand, don’t you think?”
Anna tried to shake off the ringing temptation of him, which filled the room and made her want to keep breathing in that excitement forever. This was precisely why they couldn’t have sex. Just the act of standing near him made her feel like she was being pulled in. Gravity teased her nipples and a point down low between her legs until it was almost unbearable. Gabe was like an undertow, and it took all her energy not to get swept away.
Which was probably for the best. Gabe asked her here to do a job for him, and it would never work once they went back to the real world. That was the nature of contract work. There and gone again, faster than you could blink.
“You’re right,” she said, and then she let out a yawn. It started out fake but turned into something real by the end, and Anna found herself stretching her hands above her head. From beneath her eyelashes she caught Gabe gawking—stretching like this emphasized her full breasts, especially in a tank top. She hastily put her hands back down by her sides. That wasn’t playing fair. “Let’s go back to bed.”
She caught a flash of frustration on his face—let’s go back to bed certainly didn’t sound like something they would say to each other at any other meeting—but that was the situation.
Gabe Elkin.
A single bed.
A holiday getaway.
Anna headed for the bedroom and slipped back under the covers, her heart beating fast. Surely he wouldn’t stay out on the sofa in his own family lodge. Half of her hoped he would, just for some breathing room.
And the other half—
The other half yearned for him. Anna had mostly read about yearning in the context of her mom’s old romance novels, the ones stored in a cardboard box in the basement. But this—this was exactly what she’d imagined it would feel like.
Gabe returned and slid into the bed without a word, turning away from her. Sleeping next to him and not touching seemed all wrong, but apparently he was okay with it. She was probably just a body to him. Good enough for sex, but not good enough for anything else.
7
“I can’t believe you guys do this,” Anna murmured into Gabe’s ear as she leaned closer and snuggled next to him in the sleigh. It was drawn by a team of two white horses with bells on their harness, and they tinkled as they rode over the flat cross-country trails at the back of the resort. The trees to either side of them had been decorated with lanterns and silver bows. “I’ve never even seen a horse-drawn sleigh, much less ridden in one.”
Not in Nevada, anyway. There had been sleighs in Christmas parades, sure, but they’d moved on the back of parade floats or on wheels. She wondered how well a sleigh would run on desert sand, but suspected it would be difficult for the horses.
Gabe squeezed her hand, sending a delightful heat to warm her cheeks. When was she going to stop having such a crush on him? Probably not during this trip judging by the way things were going so far. Especially not with his family sitting in the front row and Gabe in performance mode. All the holiday cheer made the air almost sweet, and his grin made her want to snuggle closer, not put distance between them the way she should.
“Sleigh rides are a popular attraction with the guests.”
“I can see why. It’s almost magical.”
Gabe laughed.
His brother Jonas turned around from the front seat where he sat next to Elin, his gaze zeroing in on their closeness. “You two lovebirds enjoying yourselves?” There was an edge to his voice that his smile didn’t hide.
“Of course we are.” Anna smiled. She’d never give Jonas any reason to believe she wasn’t Gabe’s real fiancée. Any woman who wanted to marry Gabe would love the resort and everything they had to offer. Besides, the sleigh ride was so quintessentially Christmas that it would be tough not to enjoy it. “There’s something so romantic about a sleigh ride. Don’t you think?”
The horses pulled them around a bend and back into view of the lodge. Elin put a hand to her mouth. “I’ve lived here a long time, but the sight of that building at Christmastime is one of my favorites and never fails to disappoint.”
The lodge, all dark wood and glowing windows, was a festival of Christmas lights in matching gold tones that made the place look like it was gilded in the dusky evening. The last of the sunset bled from the sky in an orange and purple haze as they approached, and the sleigh driver reined the horses to a stop out front. Gabe climbed out first, Jonas following close behind. Both men helped the women down from the sleigh.
His gloved hand felt big and powerful on hers, and he gave it a gentle squeeze as she stepped down. A smile played over Gabe’s face, warm and intimate. Is he acting?
“I’m glad you got to come on a sleigh ride with us,” he said. “Maybe one day—”
And then a snowball hit Gabe in the side of the head. His eyes went wide and he turned and ducked, scooping snow from the ground as Elin took Jonas’s arm and headed toward the lodge, laughing as she went. Tana and her daughter Lindsey had launched the attack and Chase was backing them up.
A snowball fight.
Another first. Anna had never been in a snowball fight before, and the snow seemed unwieldy in her hands. She got one ball together and launched it at Chase, who neatly ducked out of the way. Everyone was having fun, their voices echoing high in the clear night.