Love, Diamonds, and Spades (Cactus Creek #2)(21)

Though even the words ‘spa package’ were a temptation to all her tired muscles, Quinn shook her head and reached in to remove the excess bonbons from the bag he’d just overfilled. His eyeballing the task was annoying her to no end. While she vigilantly calculated everything, he calculated nothing...and not just when it came to chocolates. “Why are you asking anyway? You couldn’t have entered the random romance challenge because of our conflict of interest.”

He raised a brow. “Are you going on record and saying we’re in a relationship, sugar plum?”

“What? No! And for the last time, stop calling me that!”

“Can’t. You can call yourself the Wicked Witch of the West all you want, but ever since you told me how you danced ballet in high school, I see you and get wicked Sugar Plum Fairy fantasies instead.” His slow grin turned seductive. “Want me to show you how well we dance?”

No need. Her mind could vividly replay every cataclysmic tongue tango they’d ever had. She took a wary step back. “What is with you? I practically threw myself at you last night after Cooper went to bed and you said you wanted to help me work today. Now here we are working and you’re being…”

She huffed out an exasperated breath. “You know what? Clearly, you don’t know what you want, and I don’t like being strung along. So why don’t we just agree to be friends and nothing more. That’ll put an end to all the questions and the mixed signals once and for all.”

A flash of emotion burned in his eyes before he said in a low, clear voice, “Trust me, Quinn, I know what I want. But what you have to get through your stubborn mind is that what I want is more than just a good time on your sofa.”

She blushed red hot and he immediately turned the heat back down.

“Stop thinking so much,” he murmured, pulling her slowly into his arms. She went willingly. “Let’s get back to my sexy Sugar Plum Fairy fantasies of you instead. Just so you know, I was having trouble picturing the costume—it’s been years since I’ve seen The Nutcracker—so I had to take liberties with it.” He nuzzled her neck gently. “If I’m being totally honest, the costume my mind conjured up consisted of nothing more than you with a snowflake scepter and a smile.”

She struggled not to chuckle. “Pervert. And FYI, the snowflake scepter is from Candy Land, genius, not The Nutcracker.”

“Candy Land?” he played dumb. “Wasn’t she the ruler of the Land of Sweets?”

A giggle was building in her belly. “That’s the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker.”

“Exactly. The one who dances in the snowflakes for Clara—”

“Stop! You’re mixing all the characters up!” she laughed. Now she really regretted telling him she’d taken ballet lessons until she was a teen, and how badly she’d wanted to be chosen as the Sugar Plum Fairy in her final ballet winter recital before she stopped.

“I just love it when you laugh like that, sugar.” He sipped kisses along her jawline. “It happens so rarely.” His lips curved up sexily and moved to her ear.

“Wow, calling me a grouch—you really know how to flatter a woman.” Quinn was more amused than insulted, partly because she heard it all the time, but mostly because it was hard to get upset at any words being used like a feather against her skin.

“Your trigger-happy witchiness is not exactly a national secret.” He upgraded his nuzzling to nibbling. “I think that’s why seeing you laugh or smile is what does it for me.”

Now what was ‘it’ and how did ‘it’ do it for him? Quinn was barely following what he was saying. He could’ve been singing the alphabet song right now and she’d still want to rub up against him like a cat in heat. But she didn’t.

Barely.

He slipped a button of her blouse free from its buttonhole—a methodically chosen one located right above her navel so his thumb could now take advantage and graze the warm skin there. “Every time you laugh, I can’t help but wonder how it would feel to tickle you till you’re breathless while you’re gripped like a glove around me.” Another well-chosen button was set free, opening her blouse just enough to reveal the scalloped edges of her lacy bra.

Her eyes dilated until there was only a thin blue ring around her dark pupils. “You’re impossible,” she managed to breathe, though thinking was still far behind.

“Are you saying you want me to stop?”

She made an inarticulate sound of muffled pleasure when he pressed a kiss to the center of her bra, his tongue teasing a sliver of skin beneath it. “Yes?” she bluffed.

Rylan sighed and looked up at her. “Man, you really are a nutcracker.”

That did it. She started laughing uncontrollably, her emotions having gone completely bonkers.

His eyes flared with heat. “I warned you...”

Oh dear lord, her laughter really did turn him on. She ducked past him and his tempting I-want-you-now expression to the other side of the display counter. Which had no exit. “Rylan, you do know the storefront is not made of one-way glass, right?”

At the telling blush of…fascination over her own observation, he grinned.

He continued to stalk her. Until her back bumped into the wall. End of the road.

“Look.” She tried for stern but failed miserably as the situation continued to evade her control. “Just because Luke is at his home kitchen this morning doesn’t mean he won’t stop by here,” she lied. “And bring-your-sex-to-work day really is a holiday reserved for business owners like Dani and Luke—that company perk is most assuredly not in employee contracts.”