Chapter 2
CAMILA MENDES
“Power outage,” I mutter to myself as I look around my new place.
I’ve been here for a month, and it still feels like someone is going to show up and kick me out. When the attorney handling my uncle’s estate showed up at my doorstep, I could have sworn the whole thing was some kind of weird prank.
But it hadn’t been.
Life was funny. It had a way of showing you curveballs you could never have predicted.
. Living in the mountains after having been born and raised in a small desert torn, raised by a single mom who had worked way too hard until the day she had been taken too early.
A week before my twenty-first birthday, I’d buried my mom when a drunk driver decided that getting hammered and rushing to pick up his dog from the groomers was more important than calling an Uber.
My beautiful, hardworking mom, who had just enrolled to go back to school, had been crossing the street to reach the bus stop when the guy turned the corner. Never bothering to even blink, nor stop.
I’ve been all alone after that.
Alone in the big, bad world and I wasn’t too proud to admit, I’d been lost too. I ahdnt even known my mom had a brother. One whom, when she was kicked out as a teenaged single, unwed mom, she’d lost touch with and had never tried to contact him in fear he would think all she wanted was his money.
He somehow found out about her passing and kept tabs on me. Then, when his time came, according to his attorney, he left me a very generous nest egg and a beautiful property in one of the sweetest small mountain towns in the world.
Moonlit Pines was the perfect place for me to start fresh.
Not to mention the hot, grumpy mountain man neighbor, whose property faces mine, wasn’t too bad to look at.
Not that he feels the same. The man hardly says two words without grunting.
I’m pretty sure Reed doesn’t likes me. But that’s okay, I’m not for everyone.
It didnt make him any less eye candy for me though.
I shiver, unsure if it’s the sudden chill from the heater going out or the thought of my tall, dark, and broody, sexy-as-sin neighbor. Either way, I can’t sit around. A power outage is something I’m not prepared for, but I have a couple of candles in my bedroom.
I look at my phone and wince. Great! I have ten percent of battery left. That isn’t good. I’m terrible at charging my phone before it completely dies and seriously have to get better.
My best friend, Stella, was always on me about that.
My heart tugs at me as I use the flashlight feature to stand, and walk toward my bedroom.
I miss her. She’s still in our desert town about an hour away from Los Angeles.
She promised she’ll make time and save up to come visit before summer comes.
I offered to pay for her trip, but my beautiful friend is too proud. She wouldn’t take any of it.
But she’s my person.
My family.
Which means I’m seriously tempted to just buy and send her a ticket.
Like me, she can work from wherever as long as she has Wi-Fi.
Though with the possibility of power outages, I definitely need to invest in a generator.
Maybe I can ask Reed to go with me into town to get one.
Not that he leaves his place all that often from what I’ve noticed
I wasn’t spying, I’m just an observant girl. I giggle at myself. I can almost hear Stella’s eyes roll if I ever say that out loud around her. She already thinks I’m half-stalking my mountain man neighbor. I grab the three-wick candle and a lighter when a knock sounds, and I freeze in place.
Shit.
“Relax,” I whisper to myself, trying to calm my suddenly scaredy-cat heart, “it’s probably just Reed.” The thought shoots a thrill through me.
There is something about the man that calls. A pull and an attraction I cant deny. I love talking his ear off just to watch him stare at me and hear his grunts. But every so often, his lips twitch into an almost smile that leaves me aching for more.
For the whole shebang!
A man has never made me work that hard for a smile. But I am determined to get there.
Every day since I moved in, we bump into one another someway, somehow.
But anytime I coax up the courage to invite him in or buy him dinner, his whole demeanor changes. A mask falls right back into place, and less than a minute later, the older grumpy man is making his way back to his cabin or the huge workshop at the back of his property where I assume he works from.
Not that the growly mountain man shares much. Again, he’s hardly said more than a hand full of words to me this last month.
I near the front door and lick my suddenly dry lips and lift my phone to light the peephole. My body relaxes instantly at the sight of Reed. All bundled up in his light denim jacket with cream-colored Sherpa lining at the collar and his faded black beanie covering his dark hair.
God, his hair is seriously sexy. I never thought of a man’s hair on a man as something particularly attractive, Reed’s was different.
Longish on top, slightly mussed up. Who am I kidding, everything about Reed makes me weak in the knees.
I want to run my fingers through it or hold on while he’s above me, kissing me and driving deep inside me.
“Calm down, Camila!” I whisper to myself.
He knocks again and frowns, unknowing that I’m watching him. He looks around the house and frowns some more as his eyes move to the window I open every night. His hand lifts again and raps against the heavy wooden door. I take a deep breath, exhaling slowly before I slowly open it.
“Hi.” I smile up at the big guy, and I swear his brows bunch together. The guy is a total mystery to me. I seriously can’t tell if he likes me or hates me. Maybe that’s why I feel this pull to him? Glutton for punishment!
“You okay?” He looks me up and down. His gaze leaves lingering heat covering my skin, like a caress, and that’s when I realize how I’m dressed.
Or how little I’m dressed, as the case might be.
A deep emerald-green satin nightgown with tiny little straps and black lace trim that hugs my body just right with a slit at the side that makes the nightgown comfortable to sleep in.
I’m curvier than most and more than happy with my body.
Comfortable in my own skin and not shy to wear pretty things to bed.
“I–I’m fine,” I stutter, crossing my arms in front of me, very aware of the fact I’m braless and my nipples seem to be giving Reed a standing ovation for just breathing. I shiver, and his frown turns into a full-on scowl now.
“You’re cold,” he scolds me, and my lips twitch, my mouth runs away from me, and I respond without thinking.
“You offering to keep me warm?” The sassy offer slips past my lips. Gah! This is why Stella says I need a mute button!
“What?” His eyes go wide, almost like saucers, and I giggle.
“Relax, Reed Woodman, your virtue is safe with me.” I wink at him and smile as how his frown returns, those deep scowl lines settle back in their usually place. “I’ll keep my hands to myself. Come in.”
“In?” He swallows and glances over my head because the man is crazy tall. I wonder again, not for the first time since arriving in town, if there is something in the air and spring water that makes the men of Moonlit Pines so tall and ridiculously good looking.
“It’s snowing, big guy, and I, umm, need to grab my sweater.” I step back and leave the door wide open. “I’ll be right back,” I say over my shoulder as I hurry into my bedroom.
Using the last of my phone battery, I grab a sweater and flash the light toward the mirror by my vanity to spruce up my hair. It’s a mess! A little wilder than I would like, but thankfully, there’s a power outage, and I doubt the man has night vision.
With a smirk, I reach into my drawers and grab a bra.
One that makes the girls look extra peppy in my nightgown and then pull my long chucky cardigan sweater over my shoulders and tie the matching belt around my waist to keep warm.
With one last glance and a deep breath, I walk out to meet Reed in the living room.
My steps falter at the sight I find.
The dark living room I just left is lit up with a soft glow of candles.
He’s lit what feels like a million of them.
Standing by the coffee table, his jacket long gone, and beneath it, he’s wearing a deep olive-green, long-sleeved Henley with a button undone at the top.
It’s skintight, and my mouth runs dry. Being winter, I hadn’t seen him without a jacket or coat or even a hoodie but I had known Reed was in shape.
But nothing could have prepared me for just how in shape he truly was.
The man looks like he lives in the gym.
I shake my head and take in the room further. There’s a bottle of something on the table, and next to it what looks like a loaf of some yummy bread.
“Hope you don’t mind,” his voice rumbles, and I meet his gaze.
“Not at all. Thank you. A power outage wasn’t something I was prepared for.” I grin and shrug. “My phone’s about to die.” I show him, and he frowns.
“Here.” He holds his hand out, and I offer him my phone without thinking. He bends to reach into the bag he brought and hooks a rectangle to my phone then hands it back. “Spare battery pack,” he enlightens me, and I smile. The man is certainly one of few words. And seriously prepared.
“Thank you. Sit, please. Do you need a blanket, or are you hungry?” I’m about to turn when his hand grabs my wrist and I turn to face him.
He easily pulls my body up close to him, and my heartrate picks up.
Fluttering with nervous excitement. Maybe the big guy likes me a little more than he wants to let on.
“Are you warm enough?” he asks, the warm concern clear in his voice as those bright blues of his connect with mine. Reed’s hand strokes the inside of my wrist, and his other one holds the curve of my hip.
A hand that fits perfectly against the curve of my body.