Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(19)

She mutely accepted his handshake, visibly surprised by him.

Geez, she must’ve done business with some real *s in the past for her to be this unprepared for his eating humble pie. Wondering if she was given a hard time in the beer world because she was a female, suddenly, Luke was fiercely impressed by Dani, knowing she’d probably done her fair share of putting ego-tripped men in their place.

“Okay, well then, good day, Mr. Bradford. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Abruptly, she turned and pushed through the employee doors, presumably to leave him there to watch her walk away.

The woman was full of tactical moves.

Just one slight hitch. He was still grasping her hand, effectively tethering her to him with gentle but firm fingers. Reluctantly, she turned back to face him, her expression unreadable.

“Now that our business personas are done chatting, can you and I talk?” he asked quietly.

“About what?” Dani’s professional mask was already starting to crumble. This time, her step away from him through the doors did look like an escape.

“About us.” He joined her in the open doorway, uncaring that they were now standing in full view of everyone in the dining area. “If brewmaster Danica Dobson wants to march away from the owner of Desert Confections to show him who’s calling the shots, that’s fine. But don’t use this as an excuse to walk away from me, plain ole Luke. None of this has to affect us, Dani.” He tapped the phone in her hand pointedly. “Or what we’ve barely gotten started.”

Dani looked from her phone back to him, turning pink at the reminder of her sext message to him earlier. “Some women might go for this whole you-dom, me-sub action, but I’m not one of them,” she sliced through her teeth. “Release my hand. My workers are starting to stare.”

He didn’t let go. Instead, he shook their joined hands in another handshake. “Hi, I’m Luke Bradford, Luke for short. I own the chocolate shop next door. Pleasure to meet you.”

She frowned. “What are you doing?”

“Meeting you again. Seems to me, if we’d done it right from the start, you wouldn’t be so mad at me, Luke, the man you scorched into melted butter with your kisses the other night.”

That icy facade she had been using as a shield cracked before his eyes. He watched the chill slowly melt as she shook his hand back, albeit guardedly. “I’m Danica Dobson,” she said finally, “brewmaster and owner of this brewpub. I prefer to go by Dani. Nice to meet you too.”

The relief that washed over him finally allowed him to let go of her hand.

Dani shoved that hand into her pocket like it might run off on her if she didn’t. “You’re absolutely right, Luke. We got off to a bad start, both professionally and personally—”

“Tricky start,” he interjected. “Not a bad start. I loved how we met.”

A moment of silence passed before she admitted, “Me too.”

Her eyes gentled for a second before narrowing back on that frickin’ note in his hand. “That doesn’t mean this isn’t going to take time to sort out. Your worker was way out of line this morning in her interviews.”

“I already told you, I’ll talk to her. Dani, I really am sorry, and I’m sure Quinn is too.”

“Yeah, she looked it,” replied Dani with just a touch of satisfaction in her voice.

He grinned, impressed. “If you managed to scare my shop manager then you’re even more amazing than I thought. And here I thought you were already pretty darn incredible.”

The direction of their conversation made Dani look around at the customers and workers around the room sliding curious glances their way. “Maybe we should talk later...on the phone.”

“And by text?” he offered.

Her eyes turned wary. “What?”

“I think you should follow through with that threat of yours and reply to my text message first,” he said softly. “I already have about a dozen more I want to send back to you.”

She ducked her head, hiding the smile that was already teasing the corners of her mouth. Rolling her eyes in that cute way he was starting to love, she turned and headed to the brewery, leaving him standing in the dining area with the promise of a soft, “You asked for it.”

“Can’t wait,” he called out to her retreating figure as it veered down a back hallway.

Without turning back around, she just lifted her hand and waved back at him in acknowledgement.

Knowing half the brewpub was now watching his exit as well, Luke made sure he was out of eyesight all the way around the building before he drew to a halt. Jesus, he’d just gone all in with nothing but a pair of deuces; he was damn lucky she hadn’t called him on it.

Now he had to corner Quinn and find out what the hell was going on.



*



THE NEXT AFTERNOON, armed with all the information regarding the videotaping, and Quinn at his side, Luke walked up to the roof deck of Ocotillos for his meeting with Dani.

The moment he saw her, he took note of two things. One, Dani could light up the room when she laughed. And two, the gritty, tatted-up musician that sang there regularly—the one currently hugging Dani and tickling her ribs mercilessly—had just become the first person Luke had ever felt compelled to punch in the face in greeting.

“Are we early for our meeting, Ms. Dobson?” asked Luke with biting formality.