Page 4 of Consumed By The Forbidden Mountain Man

Put it down.

Pick it up again.

Tony's little sister.

Twelve years younger than me.

My best friend's baby sister who's going through something and needs a safe place to land for two weeks. Not a woman I should be thinking about in any capacity beyond neighborly check-ins and the occasional shared meal.

I swing the hammer too hard and split the board I was trying to save.

"Shit."

It's going to be a long two weeks.

CHAPTER TWO

IVY

Reid Castellano got hot.

That's the thought running through my brain on repeat while I unpack two suitcases into a closet the size of a phone booth. Reid Castellano, my brother's best friend since they were kids in Whisper Vale, the guy who used to show up to Caruso holidays in Sacramento and ignore me the entire time, the man I had a mortifying crush on at sixteen that I thought I'd buried so deep it would never resurface.

He got hot.

He was always good looking. Even back then, when I was too young to understand what the flutter in my stomach meant, he had a jaw that could cut glass. But twenty-four-year-old Reid was lean, clean-shaven, all restless energy. Thirty-eight-year-old Reid is broad. Thick through the shoulders and arms from twenty years of swinging hammers for a living. Short scruff on his jaw. Silver threading through the dark hair at his temples.

And the hands. Rough, scarred, enormous. He picked up both my suitcases and my box at the same time without shifting his weight.

I drop a stack of underwear into the dresser drawer and press my palms flat against my cheeks. They're warm. Of course they're warm.

"Get it together," I mutter.

My phone buzzes.

Tony:

You get in ok?

Me:

Yep. Your friend is exactly as cheerful as you described

Tony:

Lol. He's a good guy Ive. Just give him a chance

Me:

He invited me for steaks tonight

Tony:

Wait seriously? Reid doesn't cook for people

Me:

Well he's cooking for me so