Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(43)

Yep, his woman was a wily one.

“Xoey is going to stand me up, isn’t she?” Isaac frowned.

“And miss out on watching you fall on your ass?” asked Xoey from behind him.

The woman certainly did know how to make an entrance.

Isaac whipped around and grinned. Luke had seen that very grin break a string of hearts over the years. If he wasn’t mistaken, it looked like that grin was ready for a permanent home.

“Them’s fighting words, babe,” said Isaac, lowering his eyebrows playfully. “Care to wager I’ll run circles around you in there?”

By the time they got inside, Isaac and Xoey were up to some pretty hefty stakes. Rylan, on the other hand, was gently pulling Quinn off to the side, away from the group. And though Luke knew she didn’t need brotherly protecting, he still eavesdropped, just in case.

Rylan nodded at Quinn’s skirt, “Sugar, you pulling at that thing isn’t going to make it any longer.” He stepped back to study Quinn’s frame, and not in a lewd way. “I’d lend you one of the spare gym shorts I keep in my truck but they would fall right off you, you’re so tiny.” Tilting his head sympathetically, he asked quietly, “If you want, I can drive you home. You don’t need to stay if you’re not comfortable. But, if you’re game, we could also just sit and talk here on the floor while the others climb. I’m not one to brag but you’re looking at an undefeated champ in thumb wrestling here,” he added, only looking like he was partially kidding.

That did it. Rylan might as well have pulled out Excalibur because he’d accomplished the immortalizing feat of enamoring Quinn right then and there. Wide-eyed, she gazed up at him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” said Rylan gruffly. “I’m not that noble. Believe me, most of me really wants you to climb just as you are so I can check out your legs for the next hour.”

Pleased, a grin teased the corners of Quinn’s mouth, and the effect transformed her face.

While Rylan just stood there, visibly reeling from the effect of that smile, Quinn put in a little addendum to his offer. “Thumb wrestling sounds fun. But how about we make it interesting? If you win best out of five, I’ll agree to climb one wall just like this…and all you have to do is promise not to look up my skirt. Deal?” Laughing lightly at his incredulous expression, she headed off to pop a squat in a secluded corner without waiting for his answer.

Which was pretty much just a heartfelt groan.

Luke chortled and thumped Rylan on the back. “Good luck with that one; you’ll need it.”

Rylan nodded over at Dani, who was crawling sideways up one wall already, clearly in no rush to make it to the top like everyone else. “Ditto for you, buddy. Ditto for you.”



*



RYLAN TOOK A SEAT next to Quinn on a low brick wall next to the ice cream shop they’d all gotten dessert cones from after their post rock-climbing dinner in town. Since the owner of the little shop was a fan of Luke’s chocolates, she was more than happy to oblige when Luke ran back to Desert Confections and brought over some of his best chocolates to use as the toppings she chopped up and mixed in to create the rich ice cream concoctions this shop was known for.

Now, Rylan had tasted a few Desert Confections chocolates during their opening week, so he already knew they were great on their own, but good lord, having decadent old-fashioned slow-churned ice cream swirled with three of Luke’s specialty chocolates—loganberry bourbon bonbons, hazelnut butter cream squares, and the coffee fudge roll—was a religious experience.

By all visible and audible evidence, Quinn undoubtedly thought so too because she was basically worshipping at the altar of chocolate-mixed ice cream in a way that had Rylan taking huge bites out of his own ice cream in pure self-defense.

He used the resulting brain freeze to counter the effect of seeing the woman savor a dessert as only she could.

Talk about a religious experience. Sweet Jesus, if she didn’t look so adorable doing it, he’d swear he was watching porn.

Her eyes fluttering shut as she savored the flavors was bad enough, but with her tongue venturing out to catch drops of melted cream on her lips and her humming that whispery little sigh of pleasure every so often, the effect was enough to make any red-blooded man go nuts.

Eventually, Rylan gave up eating altogether and just stared.

It was possible he might’ve quietly sworn after that last nearly-silent moan she’d made because Quinn jumped and popped her eyes open wide. Seeing his expression, she lowered her brows in bewilderment bordering on aggravation. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He blinked and shifted his gaze back to his ice cream before answering with the truth, his voice understandably low and rumbly. “You’re making a G-rated activity climb up a few letters.”

She froze at the comment, mouth and tongue poised in front of the cone, mid-lick.

Rylan flicked his eyes to the sky and said a silent prayer.

“Excuse me?” she sputtered.

“When you eat, sugar, you look and sound like you’re having sex.”

Quinn’s face flushed. “No, I don’t!”

“Uh, babe, you really do. So unless you want me to embarrass myself, you might have to scale it back just a bit for me.” Please don’t, his mind beseeched silently, not truly wanting it all to end.