Love, Diamonds, and Spades (Cactus Creek #2)

Love, Diamonds, and Spades (Cactus Creek #2)

Violet Duke



DEDICATION


To every single fan who wrote, emailed, commented on Facebook, tweeted, and messaged me with well-wishes, positive thoughts, prayers, strength, funny emoticons, love, hugs, and other uplifting notes during my medical leave the past six months.

I am thankful for each and every one of you for generously sending me all your good juju and for overall, just keeping my spirits up and a smile on my face on even the hardest and most painful days.

You are each so very special, I hope you know that.

With you all by my side, I’m positive I’ll get back to Violet-cartwheeling soon.

Love you! Stay fabulous.





CHAPTER ONE


SHE WAS DOWNRIGHT gorgeous.

Rylan Grey felt like he’d been sucker-punched the moment he saw her.

Striking blue eyes and angel blonde hair—only way to describe it, really—gathered up in one of those sexy gravity-defying knots that was somehow locked in place by a single ballpoint pen. She was the definition of effortless class. The few strands that had escaped the pen’s clutches softened her pretty, elfin features and framed a deeply distracting set of lips that Rylan was sure would be cover model dazzling if the woman were smiling.

But she wasn’t.

No doubt because a smile would clash with the laser-sharp glower she’d just sliced his way, dissecting him in an instant with almost palpable disapproval.

Huh.

If not for his friend Dani putting a hand over his mic and whispering something to him at just that moment, Rylan would’ve chalked up the whole thing to a mysterious case of one-sided hate-at-first-sight.

“Criminy,” grumbled Dani in his ear, “I can’t believe he brought that woman with him to the meeting.”

In the timespan of that one brief sentence, Rylan watched that woman’s disapproving glance disappear and transform into a small frown of…disappointment.

Only to be replaced swiftly by a double-dose of the disapproval again a blink later.

Dani crossed her arms, nodding over at the evil villainess in question, and the man standing beside her that Rylan hadn’t even noticed until now. “She better be here to grovel. Can you believe that video ad stunt she pulled outside? With my customers!”

Rylan made a point to sound more sympathetic than amused. “Ah, so that’s the woman you told off the other day.” The little pre-grand-opening marketing stunt by the newest business in town—a relocated chocolate shop right next door to Dani’s brewpub—had made local news by nightfall. And while he agreed it had been a little below the belt, you kind of had to respect the boldness it took to pull off.

So the rumors were true.

There really was a new queen ball-buster in the neighborhood dangerously close to taking the impressive title away from Dani, the current reigning alpha business woman in Cactus Creek who simultaneously held the crown for town sweetheart as well.

From the looks of it, the two women couldn’t be more different. Granted, as a female beer brewer, Dani had learned to develop a bark and bite that could make a pigheaded man piss his pants. But usually, she was more the Miss-Congeniality-who’d-wrestle-a-gator-to-prove-herself type with charming smiles and disarming wit in her arsenal.

The woman standing across the way from them, on the other hand, looked like she might very well be the undefeated champ in the sport of blindfolded testicle sharp-shooting.

It was odd how much more attractive that seemed to make her. To him, at least.

Sure, most of the women Rylan dated could easily compete with the still-clearly-irked woman in the looks department, but at the moment, he could barely conjure up mental images of their faces to compare.

Literally.

He literally couldn’t remember the names of any of those women right now, let alone what they looked like. Not with the frowning wood nymph’s artic gaze covertly scanning him from head to toe…fight it though she was obviously trying.

He probably wasn’t helping by openly staring at her the way that he was—civilized decorum be damned—but he couldn’t seem to stop. He told himself it was simply because her eyes were this intense sapphire color, the exact shade of the desert wildflowers he’d planted all over the Henderson’s estate last week, a relatively uncommon color he rarely got to work with in Arizona landscaping.

Soon, however, his inability to restrict his gaze to just her eyes called him a bald-faced liar.

But holy shit, who could blame him? Gentle, delicately feminine curves in all the right places and shapely, satin smooth legs for miles. She was a knockout. Perfection as far as he was concerned. Probably more along the lines of ‘classically pretty’ or ‘regally beautiful’ to others.

While some dug that super-toned-from-pilates look, Rylan didn’t. Hell, ask most guys—spooning a woman with a rock-hard ass and carved abs to match wasn’t always fun. And according to his buddies, Rylan usually went mushy-eyed and possessive over the women he dated who weren’t so gym-tight. Softer. Sleeker. Cuddlier. Sort of like the stray kittens he occasionally found at job sites.

He was man enough to admit he was a sucker for kittens.

The tiny handfuls of fur were damn-near irresistible when they growled and charged after unsuspecting leaves, tumbling over their paws in the process, or when they curled up on his lap with contented little purrs. And though he was probably in the overwhelming minority for thinking so, the blonde with the impressively long-range eff-off scowl was cute as hell. In a don’t-mess-with-my-toothpick-sharp-kitten-claws sort of way. Even now, with her pretending to be completely absorbed in that ‘Desert Confections’ business portfolio she was carrying as if it were a magical hobbit ring, she was freaking adorable.