Page 12 of Arrogant Rucking Player

“Thanks for the guide,” Leon muttered. He squished past me and greeted his players to a chorus that grew louder the longer I loitered in a place I no longer needed to be in right now.

“You're welcome.” I dithered on a little longer, counting heads and plates, noting the distinct lack of courses that should have arrived but hadn't. I twisted on my behooved boots, the fluffiness of my costume swinging about with me, and ran face first into a solid wall.

Yup, that’s what I’d be calling Mason when I was able to breathe again and didn’t host a face resembling a reindeer that started with the letter R.

“Are you okay? Sorry about that.” Mason poked gingerly at my tenderised nose.

“I’m fine.” I batted his hand away and turned about, aiming for the stairs, but he was still in the way. “Uh–” I looked up at him expectantly. And up.When did he get so damn tall?

Or maybe I'd just never been quite this close. Picking him up from training with Brady didn’t usually involve drooling on my son’s coach at quite this close range, even if I often engaged in the activity at a reasonable distance. Not to mention that he’d been the centre of more than one late night fantasy over the past two weeks.

Hello, rugby thighs.

Somewhere behind us, a cheer went up as his teammates did something I was sure hit theinappropriatebar. The group had become rowdier in the last hour. Not that it was unexpected in any room this full of cheer so close to Christmas when spirits ran high. Still, Mason didn’t seem to take any notice of what his teammates were doing.

“I should get back to my job.” I motioned to the stairwell behind him, trying to ignore the additional layer of heat crawling up the inside of my reindeer costume. Destination, my cheeks.

“We never have a chance to talk much when I see you at the field.” Mason hasn’t moved an inch.

I licked my lips. “Now probably isn’t the best time either.”

The flush that reached my collar insisted on its upward journey. I resigned myself to my fate as an eternal, red-tinged reindeer. The nose wouldn’t be my only glowy feature if the object of my rugby fuelled fantasies didn’t let me pass any time soon.

“Then when is?” Mason shifted to one side, exposing my exit strategy, though his habitual easy smile was absent. “Normally Brady’s about. This time it’s my team. I’d—” He drew a deep breath and stopped.

I broke away from studying the stairwell where a fluorescent light flickered.Must fix that. “You’d what?” I asked so softly that I didn't think he could hear me over the music that turned up a notch on cue. Hell, I barely heard myself.

“I’d love to take you out on a date.” Nope, still no smile. Mason was dead serious.

I swallowed, unsure if I liked this version of him or not. No, it wasn’t that I didn’t like this part of him. It was just…

The infamous Mason Hale intensity that didn’t usually bother me had come out to play.

And at full strength, up close, his presence was no small thing.

“A date.” That should have been a question, not a sentence. Mason scrambled my brain as well as my resolve not to have anyone in my life until Brady was older, if ever. Stuart had screwed up more than just one job. “I haven’t dated since…”

“Since you left Brady's dad.”

“You figured that out, huh?” Any breath I had left evacuated my lungs, along with my escape plan.Wait. Why does he assume that Stuart didn’t walk out on me?

Answer: because Mason wasn’t like any of the men who had hit on me in the last seven years since I walked away from the most toxic person in my life.

“Yeah. I might have done.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw where a five o’clock shadow grew that had no right to look as sexy as it did.

“You’re normally clean.” I gestured to his face and clamped a hand over my mouth. “Sorry. I have no right.”

“No.” His inked hand dropped to catch my wrist. “This is what I mean. We never get a chance to have a real conversation. Nyla…” Another cheer went up. He winced. “This isn’t my usual environment.”

My lips twisted in the parody of a smile. “But it is mine. I need to work, Mason,” I said gently, prying his touch away even as my heart ached.

His hand did drop this time and he stepped aside in full, letting me escape down the flickering stairwell. I reached the bottom and jumped the last few steps. My reindeer costume fluttered around the top of my thighs as my logical brain caught up with my night’s remaining list of things left to do.

Get the function’s meals out before they get out of hand up there.

Check the till and cash drawer. Again.

Because that was annoying me. I was still irritated about the weekend before being out so much and having to fess up to Stuart who had stared at me like I’d grown two heads and not been able to count. Not that he knew how to settle an account for the night in the first place, or how to do the banking, only fund it. Or manage staff effectively, or write a roster for that matter.

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