Page 2 of Forbidden Mountain Man

“Why don’t you hop in my truck?” I asked. “I’ll drop you off at work, then come back and handle this.”

She had to be freezing out here in the cold with no coat. I’d offer to go grab it from her car, assuming she had one inside her mashed-up vehicle, but having her safe and warm inside the Seduction Summit Lodge would be even better than having her bundled up outside in the cold.

Problem was, I didn’t want to just drop her off at work and never see her again. And that was exactly what would happen.

“Shouldn’t we have the police come and write a report?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Feel free to take pictures, but they’re not coming all the way up here for that, and insurance probably won’t put either one of us at fault. Road conditions had both our vehicles out of control.”

She was staring up at me, those wide eyes so innocent and trusting. She shouldn’t trust me, a complete stranger, even though I knew she could.

“Sure,” she said. “My boss will kill me if I’m late, even for something like this.”

If she worked for the lodge, her boss was Alex Jewell. I didn’t know him personally, but I knew of him. It didn’t surprise me the asshole wouldn’t give her a little grace when the roads were slick as snot and the surrounding land was covered in snow.

But I got it. The guy ran a business—the type of business that thrived when the weather turned wintry. If I had to drop her off to keep her from losing her job, I definitely would.

I’d just have to find a way to see her again. Maybe I’d even do something I never imagined I’d do, not in all my thirty-five years. Maybe I’d act like other locals and stop by the ski lodge’s bar at the end of my workday. I was guessing this woman would still be working at that hour.

Yeah, it would definitely be worth coming out of my shell if it meant seeing her again.

2

DARBY

Every guy at the bar looked like Lucas Bennett from behind. It was seriously messing with my head.

As the hostess at theGlacier Bar and Grill inside the Seduction Summit Lodge, my job was to seat customers, then return to the hostess stand to wait for the next guest. With every return, my gaze landed on the bar area and the series of stools, half of which held a bulky, dark-haired dude. Any one of them could be the guy who’d dropped me off after my car pushed him off the road.

None of them was, of course. I’d greeted every single one of those seven guys as they entered. Most had acknowledged me with a nod. One didn’t even look at me. I was used to that from the bearded, muscle-bound types who showed up for a beer and a burger at the only place in town that served alcoholic beverages.

“Excuse me, miss?”

A voice behind me dragged my stare away from the hallway that dumped into this restaurant. I kept looking in that direction like I could somehow wish Lucas into appearing.

I wasn’t even concerned about my vehicle. During my lunch break, I’d caught the message the mechanic guy had left for me. My vehicle was safe and sound at his garage, which was near downtown.

“It’s kind of chilly over by the window,” a woman I’d seated only a few minutes ago said. “I was wondering if we could move somewhere a little warmer.”

The windows were fairly well insulated, but I noticed several of the diners still wore their coats. I moved the couple and made a side trip to adjust the thermostat before starting back toward the hostess stand.

Don’t look in the direction of the bar.

I recited that order to myself at least four times as I walked. But my eyes missed the message. My gaze drifted toward the bar and scanned the row of guys on stools there. One, two, three… Wait. Eight guys now occupied those stools, and the new guy, seated all the way at the end, looked just like the one who’d driven me to work, introducing himself as Lucas before I exited his truck. He’d said little else. In fact, he’d seemed like he was in a bad mood—no surprise, considering I’d crashed my car into his truck. But at least his vehicle was drivable.

Laughing at my own silliness, I tore my gaze away and beelined for the hostess stand. Of course, it wasn’t Lucas. He probably hadn’t even given me a second thought. I knew nothing about him, aside from his name, but he clearly wasn’t staying here at the ski lodge, which meant he likely lived in one of the log cabins scattered throughout these mountains. He could also be one of the workers coming to town to help with all the new construction, which would be good news. It meant I might be able to find a way to run into him again.

“Welcome to Glacier Bar and Grill,” I said, flashing a giant smile at the group of guests standing at the podium.

They were covered in snow, which wasn’t all that unusual at lunchtime, but guests typically went back to their rooms andchanged before heading down here for dinner. Sometimes they’d rush in wearing ski suits and such during Happy Hour, not wanting to miss their free drinks, but Happy Hour ended a good twenty minutes ago.

“Four for dinner?” I asked.

“A table for four,” the man I assumed was the father of the two teenage girls with him said. “And maybe four cots so we’ll have somewhere to sleep.”

The woman must’ve noticed the puzzled expression on my face because she said, “It’s really coming down out there. And the front desk said all the rooms are sold.”

“No room at the inn,” the man joked. “Nobody’s getting down that mountain anytime soon, though, so I guess we’ll find a place to sleep in the lobby.”

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