Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(17)

Seriously. Sexy. As. All. Hell.

By the time he figured out she was likely too busy to sext back, the rabid horndogs in his head were already howling. He groaned and tried to get himself to stop thinking about Dani.

Yeah, that was just a stupid idea. He let out a resigned sigh. Ice-cold shower, definitely. Followed by an earlier-than-usual return back to work as well.

What was that saying about idle hands and all?




ALMOST AN HOUR later, finally back to his normal non-blue coloring, Luke walked into the shop and sat down in his office to get some work done.

...Only to leap right back up when he read the short, scathing note awaiting him on his desk. He immediately ran up front to find Quinn.

She was busy by the door talking to a particularly chatty elderly woman who’d happened by to see how the grand opening plans were coming. Luke held his tongue and listened in frustration as the woman talked Quinn’s ear off about something completely unrelated to chocolate. Allergy medication, it sounded like. It took nearly a minute for the customer to finally stop gabbing long enough to look at the gift box order brochure they were still continuing to hand out for phone, internet—and apparently walk-by—orders.

When Quinn turned to look his way during the brief silence, she glanced down at the letter in his hand guiltily, and mouthed a silent apology.

Good god, the note was real.

How the hell had Quinn managed to piss off the owner of Ocotillos? This badly? Each word on the handwritten note was like a lethal dart angrily stabbed into paper by a ‘D. Dobson’.

Luke reassured Quinn with his eyes that he’d take care of it. Though he had no idea how he was going to accomplish that, or even what was going on, he thought it best to get over to Ocotillos to try and clear this whole mess up ASAP.

He made it across the lot between their two buildings and stepped foot into the brewpub a record ten seconds later. A quick request to talk to the brewmaster led him straight on over to the back of the brewpub.

Where he ran smack dab into a woman.

A bump and slide later, all his senses roared in recognition as they took in the sleek feline limbs, the faint smell of fruity lotion, and the breathy gasp that gave him a semi in an instant.

“Luke!” Dani sounded so delighted to see him, he momentarily forgot why he was there. “Sorry, I...” she began, her eyes dropping to his lips as if she was recalling his very vivid sext to her earlier. “Some craziness was going on so I couldn’t… That is, your, um, message was...”

She stumbled through a few more partial sentences before suddenly snapping her mouth shut.

No doubt in offense to the enjoyment that was surely lighting his face.

Her eyes narrowed, then gleamed with the promise of retribution. “Sorry I can’t catch up with you just yet, Luke. I have a quick text message to get out first.” She smiled sweetly and began backing away, phone in hand like she was arming a bomb. “I sure do hope you came back with all your friends again,” she added with a fiendish grin that took all the brewpub hospitality right out of her statement.

He shot his hand out to stop her, chuckling all the while. Damn, she was fun.

“Play nice,” he whispered, pulling her gently to a dark corner near the storage closet he remembered so very fondly from the other night. “You have me all tied up in knots too.”

Her gaze softened at that. The frisky glint, however, remained. It was a nice little warning that said he’d better avoid checking his text messages in church…around relatives...or in public as a whole. Luke let out a hearty laugh. “Woman, you can’t look at me like that while we’re standing here, two steps away from my favorite room in this brewpub.”

A shy blush highlighted her cheeks, an adorable contrast to the heat igniting her warm whiskey eyes. God, he could get lost in those eyes. Slowly, she turned her face up to his.

A split second before his lips caught hers.

One spectacular, mind-numbing kiss later, Luke came up for air. Reluctantly.

“Christ, you’re addicting,” he breathed, brushing another kiss on her lips as if it were impossible not to before resting his forehead against hers. “But no more of these brief backroom trysts. I want to do this right. Take you out, subject ourselves to a few hours of semi-chaste flirting, maybe some high school just-over-the-clothes action if I’m lucky. The whole deal.”

The smile she laid on him was blindingly seductive.

“Or not,” he wavered, barely stopping himself from kissing her right back into that storage room. “Jesus. I have zero control around you, Dani.” He dropped a soft kiss on the side of her neck. “I’m really not usually like this.”

She closed her eyes, absorbing the tender gesture. “Neither am I.” She slid her hands up his chest before admitting quietly, “But I like it.”

He let out a strangled breath.

His heartbeat sped up under the weight of her fingers as they went on an expedition of his back, each muscle in her path tensing and hardening from even the lightest touch.

Unable to be a passive bystander to her explorations for long, he caught her chin and dipped down to claim another kiss.

But slowly this time.

As if they had all day.

And they just might’ve too, if it hadn’t been for her soft, unfiltered moan that prompted an answering groan to rumble out from deep in his throat.