“What was your worst date?” I lean my back against the counter to admire the handsome man. His micro twists frame his face, and his red button-up shirt is unbuttoned one more than is typical, revealing a hint of skin.
Not that I’m complaining about the view of the hollow of his throat and collarbones.
“Mitchell set me up on a blind date, and it almost ruined our friendship.” He abandons the water he was about to pour into the mixing bowl. “I wasn’t sure what I had done to make him hate me so much, but it felt like a punishment.”
“Now I know you’re being dramatic. Nothing could be that bad.”
“He stole my wallet and phone and left me stranded at the restaurant with no way to pay and no way to call for a ride.” He raises an eyebrow at me as if challenging me to downplay it, but I won’t.
That is definitely an awful date.
“Okay, Mitchell deserves a punch in the face for that, for sure. Why would he set you up with someone so shady? What happened after?”
“That’s the thing. He didn’t actually know the guy. They met at a home improvement store. Mitchell thought he was cute and gave him my number. That’s it.” He scrubs his massive hand down his face and exhales with a puff. “I told Mitchell he’s not allowed to give out my number anymore, under no circumstances.”
“That seems like a fair reaction,” I agree, plucking out a few different food coloring bottles. “I can’t say I ever had a date that bad.”
“Most haven’t. What was yours?”
I suck my teeth and look down at my feet. “I asked this girl out, and we went to the circus. Cirque de Mordu? They’re in Vegas now, but before that, they had a traveling show. It was incredible, crazy good, but there was this one act that I didn’t quite understand. A guy came and prowled through the audience with a mask on, being menacing and startling people. It’s not really my thing, but my date was super into it. She ended up trying to sneak behind the tents into the guy’s trailer, leaving me standing around like a fool with no idea where she went.”
He gapes at me. “I’m sorry, what? You were standing there waiting for her, and she was trying to break into his trailer?”
I nod, cutting my hand through the air for emphasis. “Yes! She told me she was going to the bathroom, and then fifteenminutes later, a young Beta was escorting her to me and saying we needed to leave right then and there. And then I had to drive her an hour back to her place.”
Gabriel can’t stop his soft, masculine huff of a laugh. “Okay, yeah, that is bad.”
“Enough to make anyone want to give up dating.”
“So that’s what you did?” he asks. “Gave up?”
“I wouldn’t consider it giving up.”
“Have you gone on another date since?”
I groan. “Okay, yeah, I gave up.”
He turns back to the mixer and finally adds the required tablespoons of water, then switches it on.
Except he turns it on too high, and powdered sugar goes everywhere, blanketing the kitchen and us with a fine layer of white powder.
When the Alpha turns to me, sugar clinging to his hair, his eyelashes, his face, my stomach does a flip.
It’s like something out of a movie.
The man who is all in, chasing the woman who thinks she can avoid fate, brought together by baking mishaps.
Maybe he’s thinking the same thing. I’m also covered in sugar, though not as much as he is.
Something about the way he blinks those big, dark eyes at me, his lashes frosted white, has me wondering why I bothered trying to stay away from him. He smells like candy canes, and it calls me in a way I’ve never felt before.
Like every molecule of my body knew before I did, that this man is right for me.
He runs his fingers across my jaw, a question in his eyes.
I don’t need to answer it because my body is doing it for me. I brush our lips together, and he sighs into my mouth, wrapping a hand around my waist. He coaxes me closer, his hand encircling my neck as he deepens our kiss.
Christmas music plays in the background, cookies cool on the counter, and powdered sugar dusts the kitchen like snow.
