Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1)(51)

“Honey, if we had, the trench barricade my soldier is failing to hide behind wouldn’t be taller than yours right now.”

Oh my. A quick glance toward the center of her bed had her rising to her feet quicker than the sound of the national anthem had ever inspired. Furthermore, she wasn’t the one saluting the flag in this case.

Before she could do so much as gape, however, he dragged the comforter over himself, and pulled her back up onto the bed beside him in one easy swoop.

With a sleepy morning growl, he gathered her into his arms and laid warm, rumbly kisses down the side of her neck. “Believe me Dani, the next time you wake up next to me in bed, you won’t be wondering if we did, you’ll damn well know it, remember it, and want more of it.”

All evidence in front of her would certainly suggest so.

He nipped at her earlobe. “I can practically see your thoughts, sweetheart. Before you slaughter my control even more than you already have, put some clothes back on me in that pretty little head of yours and go take care of Xoey. I’m going to see how cold I can get your shower to run.”

As she rushed out of the room to go demand her spare key back from Xoey, it registered belatedly that Luke had spent the entire night lying next to her, fully clothed and on top of her bed spread, just holding her hand.

A total gentleman.

With whom she fully intended to renegotiate the intolerable terms of their pesky five-date waiting period. Seriously, whose crazy-ass idea had that been anyhow?





CHAPTER EIGHT


IT WAS ONLY seven p.m. and there was already a line at the entrance to Ocotillos for tonight’s festivities. Impressed, Luke followed Dani as she headed up to the roof deck. After a no-holds-barred game of strip rock-paper-scissors, not only had Luke won his choice of afternoon activities earlier today, but he had also gotten Dani to agree to let him nosily tag along to see what was going on in enemy camp this evening.

He had absolutely no idea what to make of what he was seeing.

It wasn’t just the vastly different set-up on the roof deck that was puzzling. There were games of every variety laid out all over as well. He did a double take. “Is that a Twister mat?!”

Dani nodded proudly. “Welcome to our second singles mixer.” He’d heard about their inaugural mixer last Sunday; by all accounts around town, it had been a rip-roaring success.

According to his various spies who’d been in attendance, the night had kicked off with beer tastings where everyone sampled various beers and beer-food pairings. From there, folks got to chat and hang out via cooking stations set up all around where they each chose unique beer-based recipes to prepare together. Nothing fancy—more casual and fun than anything else.

“Some of them were great cooks, others comically disastrous,” Dani had detailed joyously the next day. “But really, none of it mattered. It was just a means to get the singles to have fun, connect, and take pleasure in the other’s company, along with the fruits of their labor.”

Remembering her excitement, Luke smiled and looked around at yet another showing of Dani’s creativity. “So instead of cooking stations, you’ve set out board games this week?”

“Yep!” Dani led him around the deck eagerly. “Seeing a few of the couples get a little competitive with the cooking last week gave me the inspiration. Aside from the beer tastings again, we set up buffet food along with different games all around the deck so the feel was like game night at a house party. There are a bunch of games to choose from, all of which require pairing as a couple.” Her eyes danced. “This way, they’ll get acquainted faster.”

“Really acquainted.” He nodded over at the colorful Twister mat.

She sighed. “That one was Xoey’s idea.” She picked up a few more boxes and handed them over to him. “Here, these too...”

Luke chortled loudly when he saw that Xoey had typed out and taped her own set of adapted, spicier directions and playing cards for Charades, Taboo, and Pictionary. Seeing no adapted directions on the board game I Never, however, he looked over at Dani questioningly.

“That one doesn’t need adapting.” Her crooked grin was laden with firsthand innuendo.

“Really?” He made a mental note to get a set for their own personal research.

Luke sifted through the large pile of board games, nodding in approval over the family and friend favorites he’s played over the years. “Great selection for couples to play. You even have Scattegories for the more reserved folks. Good thinking.”

“Yeah, I had to pry that one from Xoey’s creative clutches.” Dani rolled her eyes. “You can’t imagine what category prompts she wanted to put in her adapted edition.” She gave a theatric shudder. “The English language is seriously dangerous in Xoey’s brain.”

Luke picked up a game called Consensus and studied it with interest. “This one sounds perfect for the whole group to do as an icebreaker activity to kick things off.”

“See, you can always tell who went to business school.” She chuckled her approval. “We already have an icebreaker planned—a quirky beer-based scavenger hunt for them to do while they eat. I was thinking of doing one of those reality solve-the-mystery games but I couldn’t organize something that elaborate in such a short amount of time.”

The deck tour ended in the corner where Rylan usually sang. “The chocolate massacre area, I presume?” Luke shook his head tragically at his chocolates sitting next to blowtorches.