Table of Contents

Title Page

COPYRIGHT © 2015 VIOLET DUKE

BOOK DESCRIPTION

OTHER TITLES BY THE AUTHOR

DEDICATION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

EPILOGUE

BONUS SCENE

Love, Tussles, and Takedowns

The CACTUS CREEK Series

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LOVE, DIAMONDS, AND SPADES

(A CACTUS CREEK NOVEL)

BY

VIOLET DUKE

COPYRIGHT © 2015 VIOLET DUKE

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, this book and any portion thereof may not be reproduced, scanned, transferred, or distributed in any print or electronic form without the express written permission of the author. Participation in any aspect of piracy of copyrighted materials, inclusive of the obtainment of this book through non-retail or other unauthorized means, is in actionable violation of the author’s rights.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, media, brands, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and registered trademark owners of all branded names referenced without TM, SM, or (R) symbols due to formatting constraints, and is not claiming ownership of or collaboration with said trademark brands. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental.

Ebook ISBN: 194119897X

Ebook ISBN-13: 978-1-941198-97-1

BOOK DESCRIPTION

A standalone companion novel to Love, Chocolate, and Beer: Rylan & Quinn’s story*

Surprise! The flood of fan mail worked, you guys! LOL. I love that you all fell so hard for Rylan & Quinn in Love, Chocolate, and Beer (I did too). *grin* I hope you enjoy their by-rabid-request parallel story that I just adored writing for you all. Happy reading!

She’s the Self-Proclaimed Wicked ‘Witch’ of the West

Fiercely independent single mom Quinn Christiansen is used to flying solo. She’s been raising her young son and figuring out how to pay his pediatric hospital bills on her own for years now. And truth is, Quinn loves the notorious reputation she’s already gained in town of having a heart too hard for any man to break. Because it is. Two carats too hard, to be exact. Courtesy of the two-carat heirloom she’d had to barter to cover her ex’s debts when he took off after she got pregnant. The day she’d promised herself never again.

So color her pissed when the universe goes and decides to make the one man in Cactus Creek not afraid of her natural ball-busting charm another gambling musician. A ridiculously handsome, wickedly gruff and gritty, pushy one at that.

He’s Everything She’s Sure She Can’t Possibly Want

Rylan Grey isn’t used to getting a woman so worked up…well, not in a bad way, at least. But somehow, his mere existence seems to annoy the guarded and gorgeous Quinn to no end. Surprising, really. A dirt-and-jeans landscaper by day with a regular gig to perform for a packed house by night, Rylan considers himself a decent guy. Sure, he’s made some gambles to get to where he’s at, but they were all of the life variety, with risks as important as the rewards, fate betting as the house, and not a single dollar in play.

While Rylan never wagers anything he’s not willing to lose—namely his heart—he’s more than ready to ante up once he sees past Quinn’s icy defenses. Quick as a firecracker, loyal to a fault, and sweet when no one’s looking, she could be his riskiest gamble yet.

*This standalone can be read before or after Love, Chocolate, and Beer, but, it is recommended that it be read after. Happy reading!

OTHER TITLES BY THE AUTHOR

The CAN’T RESIST Series

RESISTING THE BAD BOY *

FALLING FOR THE GOOD GUY *

CHOOSING THE RIGHT MAN *

FINDING THE RIGHT GIRL

KEEPING THE REBOUND FLING (Winter 2015)

HAVING THE REAL THING (Spring 2016)

*Three-Book serial trilogy, also available in the NICE GIRL bundled box set

The CACTUS CREEK Series

LOVE, CHOCOLATE, AND BEER

LOVE, DIAMONDS, AND SPADES (*NEW* Added to series by fan request)

LOVE, TUSSLES, AND TAKEDOWNS

LOVE, EXES, AND OHS (Spring 2015)

LOVE, SIDELINES, AND ENDZONES (Spring 2015)

LOVE, STILETTOS, AND CUFFLINKS (Fall 2016)

LOVE, MEDDLING, AND MISTLETOE (Fall 2016)

The UNFINISHED LOVE Series (Cactus Creek Reunions)

Book 1 & 2: Caine & Addison (Summer 2015)

Book 3 & 4: Gabe & Hannah (Summer 2015)

Book 5 & 6: Max & Kennedy (Fall 2015)

Book 7 & 8: Drew & Skylar (Winter 2015)

-- Coming in 2016 from Penguin Random House --

The FOURTH DOWN Series (Cactus Creek Nights)

Book 1: (Jackson's story) Title TBA

Book 2: (Bennett's story) Title TBA

Book 3: (Donovan's story) Title TBA

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.

“Rylan William Grey! You haven’t heard a word I’ve said for the past minute,” huffed Dani in a voice that said she was more curious than peeved.

Rylan grunted in annoyance at her poking him with the middle-name stick. Again. Or rather, still. A few months ago, Dani had somehow managed to get his folks to reveal his middle name, complete with the details of his mom’s harmless but utterly shameless Willie Nelson crush, and his dad’s suspiciously beer-scented anecdote of how she’d even tried to grow Rylan’s hair long enough for a red bandana and Willie braids back when he was in elementary school. Minutes later, an unearthed first grade Halloween photo Rylan distinctively remembered torching attested to his mom’s success on that particular venture. Needless to say, that was the last time he allowed Dani to bring one of her pub kegs to a Grey family cookout.

Damn woman had been retelling the story ever since—with a copy of the photo—all over Cactus Creek. Yes, even once on this very rooftop stage. After a particularly killer set he and the guys had just finished, no less.

The collective ‘awww’ from all the familiar female fans who regularly came to Ocotillos to see him play on the weekends hadn’t made him want to throttle Dani any less.

Being reminded of the incident had him now intentionally ignoring Dani. Which of course prompted her to start merrily humming a Willie Nelson tune and casually twining her ponytail into a braid…until Rylan picked her up by the waist with one arm to hold her prisoner while he tickled her ribs mercilessly. Her laughing, screeching demands for him to put her down fell on deaf ears. And he probably would’ve kept right on tickling her until she cried uncle too, if not for the killing look being shot his way from the other side of the dance floor.

Interesting.

For a man supposedly here for a ‘business meeting’ with Dani, the town’s new chocolatier…Luke-something if memory served, sure did look like he wanted to punch Rylan something fierce.

Rylan let up on the tickle torture. Not because he was worried; he wasn’t. Luke definitely looked like a guy who could hold his own in a fight, but Rylan came from a long line of Greys—the scrawniest of them being his youngest cousin, a six-foot-two NFL linebacker. Even without the daily workout Rylan got from his day job, genetics alone was responsible for most folks thinking he was a big, mean bouncer.

“I think your new neighbor has the hots for you, babe,” Rylan mused, finding the whole situation immensely more fascinating when Dani turned bright red. “You’re into him, too. I’ll be damned. When the hell did this all happen? Does Xoey know?” Generally, Dani’s best friend Xoey knew all the biggest town gossip before everyone else. And this was unquestionably big news. “That seems like something she would’ve told me. Something you should’ve told me.” He gave her a stern look before lifting a teasing eyebrow. “Should I alert the media?”

“It’s complicated,” Dani hissed, going a little slap happy on his shoulder to shut his laughing ass up. “And of course Xoey knows. Sort of. She’s the one who instigated it the other night down in the pub.”

“Really? Out-meddled on your own turf?” Rylan chuckled again but stopped from ribbing her any more than that, not wanting to inadvertently give her another reason to talk herself out of dating again. He and only a handful of folks knew the reasons behind the shadows that would cloud her mood at times; and they all agreed it was high time she moved on with her life.

“I think it’s great,” he said softly, sliding over to a new topic when he saw a few cloudy memories dimming her expression. “Okay, I’m heading out. The new sound equipment is terrific, by the way. Everything is all set for tomorrow night.” Ruffling her hair affectionately, he added, “Try not to assault anyone at this meeting of yours, will you? The guys missed you over the holidays, so if you end up in jail, they’ll probably ditch me up here and start a fight downstairs just to go hang out with you.”

“While you’d let me rot behind bars, no doubt,” she wagered, all smiles at the mention of his three bandmates.

“Can’t have a vicious, hardened criminal like you out and about.” He grinned and dropped a peck on her cheek.

Amidst the quick goodbyes that followed, Rylan couldn’t help but notice that Luke was trying to again murder him dead on the spot with another pissed-off glare.

Which wasn’t half as interesting as the equally hostile, but very different caliber side glance being shot his way by a pair of magnificent sapphire blue eyes.

Well, now.

Luke’s unnecessary reaction over the innocent kiss Rylan had planted on Dani’s cheek was inconsequential. Dani would nip that nonsense in the bud soon enough. They were friends, nothing more.

The other, far prettier jealous reaction from Luke’s companion, however, was what had Rylan deciding to stay and hang out for a bit.

Okay, okay, maybe that wasn’t the only reason.

With Dani looking ready to go to battle with the pair over what was starting to look like a little neighborly feud that could rival Cactus Creek’s legendary ice cream and frozen yogurt showdown of three years back—biggest town betting pool to date—Rylan figured a witness was likely important for any possible police reports that followed. Seeing a few other Ocotillos workers and townfolk nosily starting to gather around as well—assuredly for the same civic duties he was staying for—Rylan headed over to grab a ringside seat a few tables over.

…Making sure, of course, to sit right in the line of sight of the woman who’d switched to now pretending Rylan was made out of glass. A bug and crud covered—judging by the expressive silent assessment she was candidly projecting—but still largely invisible piece of glass that she could see right through.

Rylan barely held back the bark of laughter the woman kept unintentionally inspiring in him. When he managed to snag her gaze and keep it tangled up for a beat, he couldn’t help himself.

He winked.

And watched the sweetest, riled-up little blush he’d ever seen heat her cheeks.

Oh yeah, growling kitten cuteness was definitely his weakness.

CHAPTER TWO

QUINN CHRISTIANSEN restlessly tapped out a pen beat on her desk, drumming along to the chorus of a nameless song she hadn’t been able to get out of her head for the past few weeks. She’d heard it playing off the rooftop stage of Ocotillos a few times over the past couple weeks, and she’d been a fan ever since.

Figures it was a song by him.

The musician who’d had the audacity to wink at her from across the rooftop deck of Ocotillos an hour ago, knowing full well she’d been trying to pretend he didn’t exist.

But of course she knew he existed. She’d seen him around town exactly twice, and treated both events like a passing sunset—something breathtaking to look at for a short while, but nothing to write home about.

Alright, so maybe she finally understood why folks took photos of sunsets.

He was disturbingly attractive. Too tough-looking to be called handsome exactly, but all the more appealing for it. Gruffly sexy was a better description—damningly so—in the rawest, grittiest way possible. He had one of those bodies, the kind built like a tank with muscles for days that molded to tshirts, making plain old cotton look ridiculously good.

And don’t even get her started on his face.

He was…intense, to say the least. His rugged jawline inspired visions of him cracking walnuts with his molars for fun, and the entire distractingly male effect was roughened even more by not a beard per-se, more like a five o’clock shadow he’d clearly let grow for an extra day or two while he was out chopping wood and wrestling with bears.

The man was positively primal.

If not for his laughing golden eyes and soft brown rumpled-from-my-sleeping-bag hair, he’d look unapproachably intimidating. Not that she had any intention whatsoever of approaching him—

“So is the truce off?” Luke leaned against the doorway to their joint office, grinning. “Can I begin teasing you mercilessly again?”

She glowered at him. Luke catching her looking at the singing lumberjack earlier was now disrupting the balance of who got to tease who in their nearly decade-long friendship, and it was not sitting well with her. “If you do, I’ll make you deal with the vendors for all those precious ingredients you’re always wanting, AND make you do your own inventory for the next month.”

She didn’t dare threaten longer than a month; she didn’t want their entire business to go under just to return to their status quo.

He blanched. “Fine. I won’t reference the fact that you were eye-humping a perfect stranger today.”

Rylan. Dani had mentioned the guy’s name was Rylan, and Quinn was really hoping Luke wouldn’t remember it because for some reason, even his name was having a strange effect on her insides.

Luke quietly went to his desk to get some work done.

Yeah…that was probably going to only last 3, 2…

“So Rylan? Really?”

There were those name-induced flutters in her stomach.

Luke shook his head in amazement. “That guy is the polar opposite of the guys you usually date.”

Aw, that was sweet—him saying ‘usually’ like the small handful of times she’d dated in the last six years constituted anything short of spinsterhood. Avoiding Luke’s probing gaze, she shrugged carelessly. “So he’s easy on the eyes, what of it? He’s also a gigantic player, which by female law, makes it okay for me to ogle him and not feel bad about it in the least.”

And that’s all it had been. Ogling, not interest. God knows she’d exhausted her need of a guy like that long ago. Regardless of how every female cell in her body was arguing the point.

“How do you know he’s a player?”

She kept her tone light and uninterested. “I saw him through the shop window before our meeting, out in the front of the brewpub. One minute, he has what looked like a college girl in his arms, treating her like his princess, and maybe a half hour later, I see him over in the side alley, up against a wall making out with a waitress like she was being paid to excavate his mouth to prevent gingivitis.”

But of course it got worse. “Then, while we were downstairs in the brewpub waiting for them to find Dani, he was at the top of the stairwell flirting with all those band bunnies like a hound dog, even signing one of the girl’s hips like he was freaking branding her.” Gross. “And not even five minutes after that, he was up on stage getting handsy with Dani, just seconds after he’d been staring at me like…” She trailed off. It didn’t really matter how he’d been staring at her. “The guy is a walking cliché.”

Luke waited until she was done with her tirade to gently say, “Sweetie, just because he had women throwing themselves at him doesn’t mean he’s taking what they’re offering. He’s not your ex.”

She knew that. She’d never been one to compare guys to her ex before—that’d be setting her bar for basic human decency way too low. Somewhere around subterranean. Still, what was wrong with giving a wide berth to something that smelled suspiciously like a skunk? “Why are you defending him? You always take my side.”

Luke shrugged. “That’s because you’ve always been right. Until now. I saw the way he was looking at you.”

Oh, so he saw it too. “How…how was he looking at me?”

“Like you were the only woman in the room.”

Dammit. She felt a silly school girl flash of hope over that one statement…which she ruthlessly expunged. “But I wasn’t. That’s my point. He was flocked with women throughout the day. Even if I hadn’t already seen him with two different women in the span of thirty minutes, all his little groupies are enough for me to not want to touch him with a ten-foot pole…even if the pole was double-wrapped in a long-ass condom.” For one very, very brief and fleeting second, she allowed her memories of her ex to tarnish her brain. “One day, the temptation of all those women will be too much. Look at Brody. He cheated on me with his groupies while I was pregnant.”

“Brody was a brainless, heartless dick with no balls,” snarled Luke. “That jackass’s lack of restraint had nothing to do with him being a musician and everything to do with him being an unredeemable lowlife already booked on a first class ticket to hell.”

He didn’t know the half of it.

All the memories she’d worked hard to forget seeped back in for a beat before she shut that flood gate down again. “But it wasn’t just Brody. His band mates, the other musicians he partied with. They were all the same way. Some fought it pretty valiantly. Others at least looked guilty while going off with some random skank. But they all did it, in some awful way, shape or form. And I sat and watched it day in and day out.” A tired sigh dislodged from her throat. “I’m not saying that all musicians are douches. I’m not that narrow-minded. Just…why take the chance, you know? Why set myself up to get my heart stomped on again?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I get it.”

Sadly, he really did. She knew exactly how many times Luke had gotten his heart banged up in the name of love.

But at least he’d had a chance to fall in love…

The jangling bell on the shop door put an end to their little joint pity fest, seconds before an adorable little human came flying at her. “Mommy!”

She grinned down at her son, the one and only good thing to come out of her relationship with Brody. The one tiny little miracle that kept her heart full every day. “Hey sweetie, how was your day?” Waving at her sister through the storefront window as she drove off, Quinn picked Cooper up and squeezed him tight. “How crazy did you and your cousins drive Aunt Penny today?”

“Super crazy!” announced Cooper proudly.

She didn’t doubt it. When Penny’s twins and Coop got together, chaos and Godzilla-like mayhem were a given. Though to be fair, sometimes Penny was the trio’s official ring leader in creating crazy pandemonium.

They still couldn’t show their faces at that toy store in Mesa.

“Aunt Penny said we could come over tomorrow to make Christmas cookies. And to tell you to please bring mac and cheese.” Cooper hopped over to Luke. “Wanna come too? Aunt Penny said you don’t have to bring anything but your dimples!”

Quinn rolled her eyes. Penny adored Luke to no end. He was the baby brother she’d have exchanged Quinn for if she could’ve. And Luke ate up the adoration with a spoon.

“Wouldn’t miss it, buddy.” Luke ruffled Cooper’s hair. “If fact, why don’t we walk over to the store today and get some extra cookie decorations. Your aunt and the girls probably forgot to get the car and dinosaur shaped sprinkles.”

Coop’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. “They always only have the pink hearts and rainbow star sprinkles.”

“Women,” Luke mock-sighed. “Let’s go get some manly sprinkles for our cookies.”

Quinn chuckled. Luke was so great with kids. Cooper really needed a good male figure to look up to, and Luke had been their rock from the day Coop was born.

“Mommy?” Cooper turned to her with all the seriousness of a preschooler. “What are wiles?”

Oh, joy. Her sister had taught Cooper something new today. “What was Aunt Penny saying when she used that word, honey?”

“She said she was going to use her somethin’ wiles on Uncle Peter to get a bigger van.”

Luke chimed in then so very helpfully, “Your aunt was talking about this secret power girls use on us boys all the time.”

Shaking her head, she admonished, “You’re worse than my sister. I won’t be surprised if I get another note from his teacher on Monday about the ‘interesting’ things Cooper tells his friends during snack time.”

Luke just looked even more pleased. Meanwhile, Cooper was studying her with a scientific, highly skeptical brow furrow. “Does mommy have these super powers too?”

She was a teeny bit affronted at how incredulous he sounded, but still answered in complete honesty, “Nope, sorry bud. I’ve lost all my wiles, I’m afraid.”

“Not true,” countered Luke, “your mommy’s still got ‘em.”

Aw, sometimes the man could be surprisingly sweet.

“She just completely forgot how to use them,” he added. “Since it’s been so long since she’s used them last.”

Aaand, that was more like him.

Cooper nodded disappointedly, visibly unsurprised. “Yeah, mommy’s been forgetting lots of stuff lately. She even lost the ear phones you let her borrow before. Oops, I wasn’t s’pposed to tell you that.”

Traitor. Quinn whistled innocently.

Luke shot her a look. Probably because she’d convinced him the other day that he’d lost those very earphones himself—he fell for it every time. To be fair, he lost way more of her stuff than she did his.

“You know what, though,” continued Luke, with an evil gleam in his eye, “I’m pretty sure I saw mommy using her wiles on a new friend she made today. I think she might actually be using her powers all the time in secret, and just not telling us about it.”

While Quinn was busy giving Luke a dirty look, Cooper wandered over to one of the college-looking kids who was leveling the concrete subfloor. “Has my mommy used her super powers on you?”

The guy turned red and started coughing.

She was certain this was sexual harassment on some horrifyingly weird level.

Despite herself, she felt a smile stretch across her face when, undaunted, Cooper next went straight over to the biggest guy in the room, a mammoth granite counter guy with trunk-like forearms, who promptly proceeded to duck away.

That was a Christiansen trait right there—intimidating giant men who had no business being afraid of them. Like mother like son. She was so proud.

When said granite guy then stopped and stared at her, transfixed, she grew annoyed.

Yes, yes, Quinn had heard that a smile transforms her face. But c’mon. Geez, it wasn’t like she didn’t ever smile. A scowl flitted across her face, and that seemed to break the spell. Big Granite Guy reached over for some tools to start working again, seemingly relieved that he recognized her frowning face again.

Okay, so maybe she could smile a little bit more.

But a few seconds later, she was reminded again just why she didn’t.

The silence that usually filled the shop, suddenly shattered as eight men began talking at once.

“Well, your mom is pretty cute when she takes off her shoes and she thinks no one can see that her feet are dancing barefoot under the desk when she’s working…”

“Hey, what about when she crosses and uncrosses her legs when she’s yelling at someone on the phone? That’s pretty dang—”

“You numb nuts, not in front of the kid!”

More private discussions on her different feminine wiles broke out all around and Luke lifted a fist up to his mouth to cover a cough…which sounded suspiciously like a laugh. When the coughing fit passed, he put his hands over Cooper’s ears and quickly steered him to the door.

“Don’t you dare leave,” hissed Quinn.

It was possible her warning never reached Luke’s ears because it happened at the exact moment when one of the guys asked, in utter reverence, “Holy crap, do you guys remember when she first tasted that new white chocolate Luke came in with the day before yesterday? Lord, I almost dropped my sander over that one…”

Half the room murmured wholeheartedly in agreement, while the other half sounded put out that they’d missed it. The descriptions that resounded to fill in that latter half had Luke’s coughs turning into tear-filled choking spasms.

He could very well keel over for all she cared. She wouldn’t even give him CPR if he did.

And for good reason. Because the insufferable man proceeded to then do the unthinkable.

Eyes alit with mischief, Luke waggled his brows and tsked—loud enough for the entire room to hear, “Sounds to me like you and Rylan might be a good fit after all, you seductress, you.”

She gasped. Hands on her hips, she put the full weight of her artic glare on him, attempting to vaporize him on the spot. It would’ve worked too, she was sure of it, if a whistle from one of the carpenters didn’t make her falter.

“Yep,” the guy muttered to his buddy. “That one’s distracting as hell too. When she does that whole hot scolding kindergarten teacher thing.”

The resulting debate about the hotness of kindergarten teachers and librarians had her jaw dropping open in shock. What was happening to her carefully frozen ice queendom? Where were the averted eyes? The hushed air of fear that always surrounded her like an awesome little bubble wherever she went?

It was like the men were no longer scared of her.

A pair of young lackeys came up to her a few seconds later. “Hey, did he say Rylan? Rylan Grey? We know him. He’s a really great guy. Want us to put in a good word for you?”

That made the entire room start talking, and oh so helpfully, offering the same. Apparently, they all knew Rylan. Fabulous.

Luke, wisely using Cooper as a human shield, made a run for it down the sidewalk then, not even bothering to cover up his laughter at all at this point.

Ignoring all the advice the still-chattering men were giving her about how to ‘land’ Rylan, she spun around on her heel and headed back to the office.

…To dump a huge pile of vendor and inventory paperwork on her now ex best friend’s desk.

CHAPTER THREE

Three Weeks Later

“THIS COMPETITION was inspired.”

Glancing up at the sound of Luke’s awed statement from across the Ocotillos rooftop deck, Rylan was surprised to find that he was in complete agreement with the man’s assessment.

This crazy little throwdown between Dani and Luke was going to go down in the history books for sure.

To say the town was excited for it was an understatement. They’d been buzzing about it all through the holidays, eagerly waiting for another heated battle between the pair like the one that had taken place atop the rooftop a few weeks back before Christmas. And they’d all gotten their wish when Luke had officially thrown down the gauntlet publicly yesterday in the first town newsletter of the year, which had welcomed both Desert Confections and the official start of the two-and-a-half month showdown between Desert Confections and Ocotillos.

Chocolate vs Beer…for romance supremacy on Valentine’s Day.

He shook his head. Only in Cactus Creek.

At first, Rylan had thought the whole crazy competition between Dani and Luke was going to be a recipe for disaster. Not that he didn’t have all the faith in the world in Dani—the woman was actually a pretty hardcore romantic, even if she didn’t realize it. But he’d been more worried that this whole gladiator-level battle brewing between the pair was going to kill her chances with the guy…who she was so clearly into.

But then Luke had come up with this whole chocolate commercial filmed in the brewpub idea…that apparently, the suicidal man had somehow managed to get Dani to agree to. Right then and there, Rylan knew that Luke was in it to win it.

Not the throwdown, but rather, the fight for Dani’s heart.

That had been the only reason he’d agreed to sing in the commercial for Luke—well, the hilarity factor of the whole thing was part of it too, of course. But mostly, it was to support the man in his quest to win Dani over.

Now that the filming of the commercial was over, however, Rylan had to admit, it had turned out pretty damn good.

“Tell me that didn’t go as well as it sounded,” sighed Dani dramatically, as she planted herself next to him with a forlorn sigh and a peeved scowl aimed at the back of Luke’s head.

Right. He forgot Dani had been ‘forced’ to stay downstairs during the entire filming.

Seriously, that Luke was a freakin’ hoot.

“You know where our loyalties lie, sweetie. If you want, I can go over to Aidan right now and have him mess with the video editing. Just say the word.” He was lying, of course, but it got him the small smile he’d been looking for.

“No,” she replied grudgingly, just as he knew she would. “I can beat Luke without resorting to cheating.” Her furrowed brows lifted with inspiration. “Doesn’t mean I can’t fight a little dirty though.”

With her eyes still trained on Luke, Dani yanked out her phone and started tapping out a quick text, a rather devious grin on her face the whole time.

The fact that Luke almost tripped over his own two feet reading the received text on his end shortly after was reason enough for Rylan to excuse himself. It was clear those two were dating…sort of. And it was equally clear that the pair had the strangest form of guerrilla foreplay.

Speaking of foreplay…

Rylan bypassed the now grinning and texting chocolatier, to head over to Luke’s lovely shop partner.

Quinn Christiansen.

His reaction to the woman that first day up on this rooftop had coldcocked him out of the blue. It had been beyond attraction. Far more intense. Adding her mysteriously short fuse with him to the equation somehow just made the magnetic pull ten times stronger.

And not just for him, apparently.

If he hadn’t felt her eyes on him for the past half hour while they’d been shooting the commercial, he’d have backed off. But he was a mere mortal man. He’d stayed away for three weeks to give her time to focus on the chocolate shop’s grand opening.

The grand opening had been yesterday.

Without another thought, he slid into the spot beside Quinn that Luke had just vacated.

She took a not-at-all-subtle step away from him.

He grinned. Yep, this was going to be fun. “Hey. It’s Quinn, right?”

* * * * *

GOD, THAT VOICE.

With little more than a civil grimace, Quinn pushed out a terse, “Yep,” in response to the deep, smoky voice that had been torturing her memory for weeks.

Rylan raised a dark eyebrow in amusement, and his glittering gaze showed he wasn’t thwarted in the least bit. “Dare I hope you’re a fan here to watch us perform?”

She gave him her best ‘idiot’ dismissal and her no-fail testicle shrinking glance. “I don’t listen to whatever type of music this is you play.”

Well done. She mentally patted herself on the back. Pinocchio would be proud.

Unfortunately, it seemed the man went for that kind of thing, because his eyes darkened with interest, evidently drawn to the unintended challenge she posed. Great.

“Really?” he replied, shrugging casually. “Huh. I could’ve sworn I saw you singing along to one of our songs during warm-ups, which could only mean that you’ve watched us on YouTube since we don’t have any albums out. My mistake.”

He saw that? Her lips flattened and she willed the blood to stay out of her cheeks. “I’m just here to make sure things go smoothly for the video. Luke’s been a bit distracted lately.”

An epidemic at the shop, it seemed.

Since first seeing Rylan at Ocotillos a few weeks ago, Quinn had been having her fair share of distracted moments as well, all starring a certain too-hot-for-his-own-good musician.

Worst of all, she was pretty sure he knew it too.

It would certainly explain why he was still standing there despite her trying to ice him out for a good minute now. Probably amusing himself by torturing her. Bastard. Irked enough to finally steal a glance back at him—skewer-sharp glare in the chamber at the ready—she was horrified to find him peering around her instead.

At the little blond preschooler clutching her hand.

“Hey buddy,” he said in the perfect tone of voice that would pass a five-year-old’s bullshit meter with flying colors.

That threw Quinn way off.

She pulled her son closer. “He’s mine. My kid, that is.”

“Yeah, I figured he wasn’t a rental,” replied Rylan dryly.

With an arctic glower, she added archly, “Yes, well, I wouldn’t normally bring him to work but I don’t have a regular evening sitter; never needed one with my glamorous night life and all.”

Studying her thoughtfully, Rylan leaned in to ask quietly, “Does that tactic work well?”

Confused, she swung a cautious gaze at him. “What tactic?”

“I’m sure you’re aware,” he said, his voice pitched low so her son couldn’t hear, “the big eff-off sign you have across your forehead already has neon letters and flashing lights. You really don’t have to use your single mom status to scare off the guys who are interested in you.”

Her mouth fell open in utter astonishment.

He leaned in even more, his lips now almost at her ear. “Luckily, I don’t scare easy. And sugar, you bet I’m interested.”

Now, she was officially tongue-tied.

Of course, the aggravating man had to shock her even further by then kneeling down in front of her son to introduce himself properly. “Hi, I’m Rylan.” He stuck out his hand palm up for a low-five. “What’s your name, big guy?”

“Cooper,” answered the young boy, giggling delightedly as his hand tried over and over to slap Rylan’s now playfully evasive hand.

“Cool name. Played with a guitar guy with the same name once.” Rylan laughed heartily when Cooper finally managed to smack his open palm. “Aw, you got me! Rematch!”

Still thunderstruck silent, Quinn just stared at the now cackling duo.

“So Coop, I saw you bopping around to our music. You’ve got good taste. Since your mom is busy working, why don’t you ask her if you can check out our instruments on stage?”

“COOL!” Cooper turned his pleading blue eyes to Quinn. “Can I, mommy? Please?”

She shook off her confounded stupor and managed to nod. “Sure, munchkin. Go have fun. Don’t break anything.” A Texas-sized lump formed in her throat when she saw the rest of the band welcome her son with warm hellos and knuckle-bumps. He was given a new band cap to wear and a pair of drumsticks to bang out some beats.

His squeals of delight filled the air.

Emotions all amuck now, Quinn spent the next ten minutes watching Cooper have a blast with Rylan and the band. Seeing the handsome singer really truly hang out with her son put a titanic crack in the ice blockade she had around her heart. The few men she’d dated in the past had just patted Cooper on the head and asked none too rudely when his bedtime was. Sadder still, they were all princes compared to the jackass noted as Coop’s father on his birth certificate.

But Rylan... He was genuinely enjoying spending time with her son, laughing and teaching him how to strum a guitar while wailing into the muted mic.

It was amazing. In an alternate universe sort of way.

Maybe that’s what allowed the uncharacteristic chortle to escape her when she heard the guys ask Cooper what his favorite song was. The answer, as she knew it would be, was the song from a Disney show he watched religiously.

Quinn’s humor quickly turned to complete shock, however, when the guys nodded and began strumming out the cotton candy pop tune she’d heard far too many times over months of DVR replays. The two older members of the group, the ones wearing wedding rings, each gave Cooper a crinkly-eyed smile before starting to hum a raspy, masculine rendition of the harmony just as Rylan started singing a rocked-out version of the lyrics.

The random folks hanging out on the rooftop deck immediately started murmuring their surprised approval and gathering around to listen.

Elated, Cooper began bouncing around and singing along as well.

When Rylan kneeled down to share his mic with Coop so they could wail out the lyrics in unison, Quinn felt irrational moisture springing to her eyes.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” she muttered, grabbing at a nearby chair, “not another musician.”

CHAPTER FOUR

QUINN LOOKED UP as she heard footsteps approaching her in the alley between Desert Confections and Ocotillos.

“Woman, why the hell are you out here alone?” growled Rylan. “Don’t you know how dangerous it is?”

She looked around at the mini parking lot that overlooked the sunny town square on one side and a senior center on the other. “Yes, clearly, I’m living on the edge,” she replied wryly, tossing the shop trash bags in the dumpster.

He glanced up and down the alley once more and strangely, she was touched by his fierce concern, unused to anyone actually fussing over her like this. “I’m fine, Rylan, really. I only come out here during the daytime, and I always check the security cameras before I do. I’d never put myself at risk and leave my son without a mother.”

He nodded then, noticeably eased by that info.

“Are you here to see Luke?”

“Nope. I’m actually here to see you. I wanted to set a couple of things straight.”

She frowned. “Okay.”

With one more suspicious look up and down the brightly lit alley, he grabbed the door handle back into Desert Confections and held the door open for her. “After you.”

Quinn had to fight back a smile. He was still worrying over her.

It was…nice.

The second they walked into the office, he turned and pinned her with a look. “You’ve been sentencing me for crimes I haven’t committed, sweetheart. So we’re clear, I am not nor have I ever been a player.”

Well, that was direct.

“I haven’t been sentencing you.” Just doing my best to ignore you. “I don’t care how many women you fool around with.”

“I care how many women you think I’ve been sleeping with. Because that number lately is zero. Has been for a while. The college girl you saw me with outside of Ocotillos is my cousin. She overheard some frat guys on campus calling her fat and she was feeling bad so I gave her a hug while she cried her eyes out.”

Oh no. Quinn had a really bad feeling she was going to be eating crow soon.

“The waitress you saw in this alley?” he continued, gruffly. “Yes, she’s a little handsy, but she’s also not at all into me. How do I know? Because she was attacking my face with kisses to thank me for the back stage passes I was able to get from one of my buddies…for her girlfriend’s favorite band.”

Yep. A big ole heaping pile of crow was flapping into her horizon.

And clearly, he knew it too. His brow rose up to dare her to continue to be judge, jury, and executioner for his trial.

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked instead, wondering where in the heck he was getting his intel…and if she would in fact have to strangle Luke any time soon for having a big, yapping mouth. Because if so, she was really going to need to get some chocolatiering lessons first.

“Welcome to small town express, sugar. The walls, trees, and floors here have not just ears, but big ole mouths as well.” He made sure she was looking him right in the eye when he repeated, “So like I said, I’m not a player.”

“What about the band bunnies?” she countered, a sore spot for her ego she didn’t like to think about. “They were all over you. And you were eating it up. Signing their bodies…”

Her ex used to get off on doing that.

Rylan sighed. “That has never happened before that day. Those girls were doing it for some sorority initiation scavenger hunt. One of them, I recognized. She’s been a fan for years and she kept going on about how their team was behind by so many points. I felt bad. So I signed one of their hips—not my fan’s.” He grimaced at the memory. “I’m sure you don’t believe me but I’ve really tried not to think about that incident since.”

She actually did believe him.

“Honestly, the guys and I hardly get requests for autographs. Mostly just girls wanting to party. And I’m way too old for that. As a rule, we never hook up with groupies. My drummer is probably the only one who isn’t uncomfortable with the bunny attention; he kind of digs it. The other two guys, Tucker and Levi are both married. Me, I’ve never liked getting treated like a piece of meat.”

That one was harder for her to believe. Not because she thought he was lying, but because history told her otherwise. “So you’re saying if a bunch of your hottest fan girls stripped and wanted a group thing, you’d turn them down?” Yeah, highly doubtful.

She watched an array of reactions pass over his face: frustration, incredulity, a touch of amused disbelief, but mostly, he just looked offended. “You do realize I’m just a local musician, right? I don’t have wild parties and groupies throwing their panties at me. I have fans, yes, but it’s nothing like what you’re imagining.”

“I know for a fact that even local musicians get caught up in the whole fan orgy thing.”

His eyes narrowed. “You do, do you? Anyone I know?” The question was casual, but his hard gaze was anything but.

“Don’t switch the subject to me,” she said quickly. “You say you’re just a local musician but I’ve heard you hang out with some bigger musicians when they’re in town for concerts, and you’ve even opened for a few.”

A slow grin overtook his features. “Been reading up on me, sweetheart?”

She felt her cheeks burn. “The town talks,” she evaded. It was the truth, everyone in town was completely nosy, but, in an entirely bizarre way. They didn’t gossip about the things she expected them to. For instance, they seemed to care a whole heck of a lot more about his weekly poker game than anything else, even his celebrity connections.

Thankfully, Rylan seemed to take her explanation at face value, and instead of teasing her into confessing that she may have googled him a little bit, he leaned against the wall and shrugged. “If you have questions, ask me. I’m an open book. A pretty dull book at that, if you’d let your imagination calm down for a bit to really take a closer look.”

Ha! The man was anything but dull. Studying him, she saw the sincerity in his expression and instantly, a thousand questions poised for fire on her lips. She chose the one that was gnawing at her gut the most.

“Has a fan ever wanted to have sex with you?”

He thought about that for a second. “No. But to clarify, I’m thinking you’re asking if a fan asked to have sex with me as purely a fan, not a woman looking to hook up, am I right?”

She frowned. “What’s the difference?”

“I meet a lot of women at Ocotillos who want to have sex, but not necessarily because they’re fans, or even because I’m a musician.”

Arrogant donkey’s tail.

When his lips twitched to the side, she realized she’d muttered her G-rated musings out loud.

“I try not to use curse words since Cooper likes to copy everything I say,” she defended, trying to sound as matter-of-fact as possible.

“Wasn’t judging,” he replied back, eyes still laughing. “And while I probably am a donkey’s tail, my momma would slap me silly if I were arrogant.”

She rolled her eyes. “You basically just told me you have women coming on to you because you’re hot, and not because you’re a musician.”

His brows lowered tiredly. “No, I said I meet a lot of women who want to have sex. Most of them have beer goggles on by the time the guys and I are done with our set that they tend to be almost blind to looks. Some even blind to wedding rings.”

The last statement came out so disgruntled, Quinn started in surprise. “The two married guys in your band…they’ve cheated on their wives?”

“Hell no.” His expression turned fierce. “They wouldn’t still be in my band if they did. And again, you’ve twisted my words to shine the light only on the male half of the equation. Some of these women just want to get laid. Doesn’t mean the guys and I take what they’re offering.”

So different from her ex and his friends.

“You must have met some real class acts to have such a low opinion of me and the guys,” he groused, again with that hard edge to his voice that made him sound almost…possessive.

“Back in the day,” she replied. “I guess it’s colored my view of musicians a little.” Looking up at him, she added earnestly, “But I don’t have a low opinion of you and the guys. Honest. You were all great with Cooper, and you helped so much with our Desert Confections video.” It was the absolute truth. Even with her automatic gut-roiling reaction to musicians, a part of her had recognized every guy in the band as good men—down to earth, hard-working and always kind to others. Suddenly, she felt ashamed for judging them at all, even Rylan with his fluffle of women.

“What in God’s name is a fluffle?” he asked sounding equal parts exasperated and amused.

Dammit! She needed to get her lips wired shut. “A fluffle…that’s what they call a group of rabbits in Canada.”

“Ah, a fluffle as in a fluffle of band bunnies.” Now all the frustration was overtaken by the amusement. “I think I’m a little flattered that you took the time to research obscure Canadian words to beef up your case against me.”

“I didn’t,” she replied swiftly. “I just...know a lot of random things.”

He gave her a knowing grin. “Okay, Miss Trivial Pursuit. I actually need to get back to work, but if you think of more questions for me, here’s my number.” He dropped his business card on the counter. “That’s my personal cell phone so don’t go selling it to the harem—I mean fluffle—of women who we both know would just scratch your eyes out for it. Just saying. I don’t want to start a stampede in town or nothing.”

“Fine, fine,” she huffed. “I get it. I jumped to conclusions about the groupie thing.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

She glowered at him, mostly because she was pretty sure this was jealousy she was feeling itching at the tips of her fingers.

“Retract your claws, hellcat. I meant there are a few band bunnies who would do all that you’ve seen and imagined. But I have absolutely no desire to get caught up in that. Not one bit.” He ran his eyes over her face. “Do you believe me?”

Why was it so easy to trust this man? “Yes,” she admitted, sounding confused over that even to herself.

“Not that I don’t find the jealousy thing pretty darn cute.”

She glared at him. No one ever called her cute. Why on earth was she liking it?

“Okay, sugar, now I really need to head out. Errands to run. You going to be sticking around here for a bit longer? Say a few more minutes?”

“Yes.” She studied him suspiciously. “Why?”

“I’m having a grand opening present delivered in a bit.”

“You got me a gift?” Besides Luke and her sister, no one ever got her gifts.

“Yep. I’m pretty sure you’re going to love it,” he said confidently as he headed out of the shop. “See you tomorrow, beautiful.”

“Okay,” she replied automatically before she caught herself.

Wait. Tomorrow? If the whole ‘beautiful’ thing hadn’t hijacked her brain, she wouldn’t be standing here actually looking forward to ‘tomorrow.’ Whatever that meant.

“Quinn Christiansen?” called out a loud voice from the door. “Delivery!”

What happened to ‘a few’ minutes?

She went up front to sign for the delivery and stopped in her tracks when she saw it.

It was a ginormous gift basket of beer.

She burst out laughing. The ass.

No guy would have dared to give her this kind of gift before.

She liked it.

And in defiance of all that was sane and smart, she was starting to like him, too.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE MAN WAS driving her crazy.

Mainly because he wasn’t actually driving her crazy.

Quinn had to concede the fact that Rylan was actually a nice guy. A real-deal good guy, judging by all she’d been hearing about him lately…and it did sound like, weirdly, she was hearing his name a lot. At first, she thought it was one of those things like where you don’t notice any ugly Christmas sweaters during the holidays until you actually receive an ugly Christmas sweater—then you suddenly can’t un-see them all over the place.

Then, she realized that Dani had somehow activated some sort of covert government-level matchmaking mission, and all her little sleeper agents around town were now on full deployment.

The CIA had nothing on her and her meddling.

At least a half dozen band flyers with Rylan looking crazy hot had been mysteriously slipped under the Desert Confections door the past few days. And well more than a dozen folks had casually found a way to bring him up in conversation yesterday alone…which had been a particularly impressive feat to see in action when she’d stood in line at the bank next to the Carradine sisters, two sweet old biddies from the town center who had somehow transitioned from talking about their menopause symptoms to Rylan in two seconds flat.

She would’ve sworn Rylan were behind it all if not for the one final damning clue.

Dani calling her up and just plain asking her why she wouldn’t date Rylan.

After muttering through a few standard single mom excuses that didn’t come off as convincing as she’d hoped—Dani was beyond direct—Quinn finally found herself blurting out the one biggest reason.

“He hasn’t asked me out.”

Did she mention the man was driving her crazy?

In the last two and a half weeks, he’d shown up every single day to chat with her and not once did he ask her out.

It’s not that she was arrogant enough to believe he should ask her out or anything of the sort, but if those heated glances he’d sometimes let her see, or even more dangerous, the affectionate ones, were any indication, he seemed interested in her. And most impressive of all, he didn’t seem the least bit scared of her.

Instead of turning tail and running far and fast away from her like most smart men, or hitting on her simply for the challenge she seemed to present to the stupid ones, he just came by every day to spend a few minutes with her, by all evidence happy just to talk…and listen.

He never asked her any of the standard questions that guys usually did. He never asked her what she liked to do for fun, or what her favorite food was. He asked about her day, he asked why she looked a little more stressed than the day prior.

And he took special pleasure in being charmingly aggravating, teasing, exasperating, and an overall goofball when and where he could.

It was all unnerving.

But rather great at the same time.

A few weeks ago, he’d begun buying a single piece of chocolate from the shop and handing it to her when he’d drop in each day, simply because she’d made the mistake of telling him on day one of his friendship crusade that she never indulged in any of the shop products. So ever since, he’d come in and talk while he selected a chocolate. Then he’d push it in front of her, and then be on his merry way, utterly shameless about riling her up before he left.

“You okay there, beautiful?” came the deep timber of Rylan’s voice, rough with concern. “Don’t get me wrong, I love it when a gorgeous woman is so blinded by my good looks that she can’t help staring but—”

Quinn blinked herself out of her thoughts and narrowed her eyes, doing her best to keep her smile hidden. How the man could get her to smile so easily was a complete mystery to her. “I wasn’t staring at you or your enormously big head.” Her eyes shot wide. “Ego! I meant enormously big ego.”

His grin turned almost wicked. “I don’t mind you talking about my big head at all. In fact, I like that you think about me and my big head.”

Don’t you dare blush, Quinn Christiansen!

“I don’t think about you or your big anything,” she lied shamelessly.

He shrugged. “That’s okay. I think about you enough to make up the difference.” Sliding a chocolate forward in her flummoxed silence, he gave her an atrociously sexy wink. “See you tomorrow, sunshine.”

She started to say something to stop him from leaving, for some reason not wanting him to go just yet.

Suddenly, he stopped. “Sweetheart, those eyes of yours are lethal weapons,” he said as if reading her thoughts. “I have a feeling I could get addicted to having your eyes on me like that.” His gaze brushed over her lips and then rose back to her eyes. “Hell, I’d be like a slot machine junkie looking for another adrenaline-pumping jackpot every minute of the day.”

His words served as the electric jolt she needed to fry the heated web she’d somehow allowed herself to get caught in, as he confirmed the one thing she’d heard about him in town that she wasn’t a fan of. “You gamble?” she asked as casually as she could.

He laughed. “I’ve never played a slot machine in my life.”

A tiny bit of hope glimmered in her belly. Maybe—

“That’s barely gambling,” he continued. “Now poker? That’s a different story. I’m always up for a game of poker.” Grinning, he added, “It isn’t really gambling unless skill and stakes are involved.”

The disappointment she felt crushing her lungs was a little startling. A musician she could deal with. A gambling musician like her ex? Hell no.

“I’ll see you around, Rylan.” She’d put the full frost of her iciest wicked witch of the west tone in that one sentence.

But instead of leaving, he stood there silently studying her for a moment.

“I won’t push,” he said gently. “But one day, I hope you’ll tell me why you thought you hated me as much as you did at first glance…why you’re trying to convince yourself to hate me right now.”

Damn, that sounded terrible. “I didn’t…I’m not…”

“Don’t. Honey, it’s your right to be cautious, to have doubts. Just like it’s my job to give you reasons over time not to doubt me, to prove to you and continue to show you that I’m different from what history has taught you to know and expect. No one has any right to expect that you start with a clean slate with all the trust in the world for a stranger until they’ve earned it. If any man tells you different, give me a call and I’ll set him straight.”

Holy hell.

“And Quinn?”

“Yeah?”

“I gamble, yes. But never for money.”

* * * * *

“YOU BIG LUG NUT! You haven’t even asked her out on a date yet?

Rylan continued unloading his truck, unsurprised that Dani was here in his driveway poking into his business. “Why hello to you too, my favorite little meddling brewmaster. To what do I owe the honor of your exasperated presence?”

“Quinn just told me you haven’t asked her out.”

Interesting. He didn’t know the two mortal enemies had turned into BFFs. “She’s right, I haven’t.”

“Why on earth not?”

“She doesn’t want me to.”

“Oh, yes she does.”

He stilled. “Did she say that?”

“Well, no. Not in so many words.”

He resumed packing up his truck. “Dani, she’s a single mom living in a new town with a newly relocated business. She’s too busy to date. Simple as that.” He frowned at her. “You haven’t been hounding her have you? The woman looks exhausted nearly all hours of the day. You know I love you and most of the times, your meddling ways, but I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t bother Quinn, especially not where I’m concerned.”

“Wow. You really like her.”

“Yeah, I do,” he sighed. “But that doesn’t change anything.”

“Ry, it changes everything. You haven’t been even remotely interested in anyone since Lacey.”

“Leave it alone, Dani.”

Damn. He didn’t mean for that to come out so harshly. “I didn’t mean to snap at you, babe. Just… Don’t bring up Lacey. Please.”

She paused, then asked gently, “I’ll stop after this, I swear. But, as your friend, I need to know. Are you still hung up on her?”

“I’m not hung up on Lacey.”

“Because we’d all understand if—”

“I’m not.”

He knew what everyone thought. That Lacey had left him broken-hearted. He’d been broken down back then, yes, and his heart had been put through the ringer, most definitely. But not in the way everyone thought. No one knew what the end of their relationship had been like. It had messed with him. Bad.

One thing Dani was right about was that Quinn was the first person he’d been interested in since Lacey. At first he thought it was because she was the exact opposite of Lacey. The farthest thing from a wilting daisy. No, his little hellcat was more like…a venus fly trap.

Maybe that’s what started it all, why he’d gravitated toward her.

She was strong. Not like Lacey. She’d never put him through what Lacey had.

Or vice versa.

Studying him for a beat, Dani nodded as if believing him at face value. “Okay, if that’s not it, then why won’t you give Quinn a chance?”

“I’m not chasing after someone who doesn’t want to be chased.”

“Well what if she did want to be chased?” she asked.

“Then she wouldn’t be the right woman for me.”

Dani groaned in aggravation. “You’re not making any sense.”

His merciless little meddler.

“Look, sweetie, I like her. Part of the reason why I like her is because she doesn’t play games. I’m not going to play games with her either. We’re friends. I visit her sometimes to make small talk and she pretends to hate it when I do. I bug her until she wants to smack me. Then we rinse and repeat. It’s…just how we are.”

“My sources tell me you don’t just visit her sometimes. You drop in on her every day.”

“Fine, I stop by every day. She’s adorable to tease, what can I say? I have a sweet tooth for that sort of thing.”

“And the little daily gifts?”

Damn, she really did miss her calling as an interrogator.

“I’ve just been welcoming her to town.”

“Pretty extravagant welcome.” Dani tapped her foot and stared at him, telling him in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t going to budge one step until he fessed up. “Want to know what I think?”

Not at all, no.

“I think you are trying to date her. You’re wooing her and testing the waters to see if she’ll just trip and fall into a relationship with you. And because you’re still broken-hearted over Lacey, you’re being a wuss about the whole thing.”

“You’ve got this all wrong, Dani.”

“Won’t believe you until you explain it to me.”

He sighed. “I just…like seeing her smile, okay?” God, that sounded lame.

Dani was now clutching her hands to her chest and looking at him like he’d just recited a freaking poem.

“The woman never smiles,” he clarified gruffly. “Except for when she’s with her son, then she lights up the whole freakin’ room. But other than that, she never smiles. And it’s a damn shame. She’s obviously a great mom and judging by everything she’s been doing with the chocolate and beer throwdown, she’s hella good at her job. But you just have to look at her exhausted face to see the universe has been treating her like crap.”

He leaned back against his truck and avoided Dani’s eyes. “So I bug her, and crack a few jokes—generally, just act like my usual dumbass self until she smiles.” Shrugging, he tried to explain what it felt like the first time he’d dragged a smile out of her. “I don’t know, for those short few seconds when she’s smiling, she’s not just happy but it’s like she’s…getting along with the universe for a little while. So, yeah, I just…like making her smile. Even though she fights like hell not to.”

“So you’ve just been trying to make her smile? That’s it? That’s the only reason?”

“No,” he sighed. “I also do it because I’m a friggin’ junkie looking for a fix every day.” Shoving his hands in his back pocket, he thunked his head back against the truck. “I damn near go into withdrawal by afternoon, wanting, criminy, needing to see her smile again. You happy? I admit it. I’m addicted to the little hellcat’s smiles.”

Dani stood there in stunned silence for a few surprised seconds.

…Before taking off down the driveway for her car.

Oh, shit.

She was locked in her car backing out onto the street before he realized what she was going to do.

“Woman, don’t you dare meddle.”

Dani shouted back from her quickly retreating vehicle, “Give me a few days, a week tops, considering it’s Quinn and all. And you better not try to ignore me when I call you!”

With her delighted laughter trailing behind her on the wind like cartoon skid marks, Rylan turned and headed back to his house. Though he loved Dani, he was annoyed as hell that she was going to interfere with the pleasant foundation he’d built for his platonic little friendship with Quinn.

But mostly, he was secretly glad she had only one one-hundredth of the patience he did.

CHAPTER SIX

A FEW DAYS LATER, Quinn was standing at the counter in Desert Confections staring at the front door like it owed her money.

She’d seen Rylan’s truck pass by and turn into the side alley a good ten minutes ago but he’d yet to make his usual appearance. Even though she’d never utter the words unless required by a warrant signed by a Supreme Court judge, seeing Rylan during his little visits was becoming one of her favorite parts of the day.

So where the heck was he, darn it?

Images of him getting accosted by band bunnies outside of Ocotillos suddenly flooded her mind. The idea was outlandish, of course, because just as Rylan had noted, he wasn’t surrounded by hoards of girls like she’d once thought. After she finally took her blinders off, she noticed that yes, there were fans, and yes—dammit—there were women who hit on him a lot, but it was nothing like the slutty sex carnivals Brody and his buddies used to live for.

She was still leery of the whole gambling thing, and while his assurance that he never wagered money when he gambled should have eased her wariness of the whole thing, it didn’t.

Because she knew exactly what sort of things could be wagered in the place of money.

…A disturbing reminder she forced herself not to jump to conclusions over again.

Besides, Rylan was just a friend. So his gambling was the talk of the town at times, he was free to do as he pleased. She had no claims on him.

Now seriously, where the heck was he?

Quinn gathered up a half-empty trash bag—knowing how these things tend to overflow when the shop was busy—and went out to the side alley to throw it in the dumpster.

The unbidden smile that was clamoring to get out as soon as she saw Rylan out there swiftly turned into a scowl when she saw he was standing next to her car, which, currently, was jacked up a few feet off the ground with its hood up and an unknown body underneath it, tinkering away.

“What the hell are you doing to my car? And who in the world is that?” Quinn shoved the trash bag at Rylan and peered under the car at the smiling mechanic.

“Hey there,” called out a sunny, feminine voice, still buried under the car. “I’m Sienna, a friend of Rylan’s.” A dainty, grease-covered hand popped out from right behind the tire and waved. “Just doing a quick oil change and tune-up. Won’t be able to get to your brakes today without all my tools but I can do it tomorrow if you want.”

Rylan piped in then. “Sounds good. Or, I can see if Lia has some time to go grab the rest of your tools from your place. Hang on a sec.”

He was already dialing a number on his cellphone, as if Quinn’s gaping glare wasn’t demanding an explanation ten seconds ago.

“Lia?” Smiling at his phone, he nodded before tipping his head back and chortling heartily. “Tell Gabe he deserved it, and I’m expecting him not to welch on the bet.”

Yet another reference to a bet. This just got better and better.

“But that’s not why I’m calling. I’m sure you’ve been torturing your brother plenty enough for the two of us.” He headed over to a big white vehicle that looked to be a custom made lovechild between a minivan and a truck with a big mobile mechanic logo on the side of it. “Do you think you could swing by Sienna’s place for a few tools?”

“Ry, it’s not my tools,” called out Sienna, sounding even more muffled than before. “And it’s not at home. I left most of my stuff with the kids yesterday so Lia would have to go to school. Does Max still have her car?”

Rylan nodded at the reply coming from the phone. “Okay, babe, I understand. No worries. Thanks though.” More nodding. “Everything going okay at the shop? You’re not transporting guns on your bike again are you?”

Wait, what?

Quinn stared at Rylan who had his index finger held up, silently telling her he’d explain in a bit.

“Next time, take my truck,” he scolded big brotheringly.

“Or mine!” shouted Sienna.

A few more nods and he clicked off. “Lia’s got an auction this afternoon so she can’t make it to the high school and back in time.” Thumping his hand on the side of Quinn’s car, he asked, “So are you free tomorrow to do the brakes? Or do you want to work on Coop’s tryke first”

“Hold on just a minute here!” Quinn nearly shouted. The alternate reality broadway show before her had now somehow taken on closed captioned subtitles in a different language.

She stomped over to Rylan. “Why is this woman working on my car? How did she even get the hood up without my key? What are you two planning to do to Coop’s tricycle? And why is the bouncer at Ocotillos transporting guns on her bike?”

Truth be told, she really wanted the answer to the last question first.

“I’m cashing in on some mechanic work that I won in my fantasy football league with Sienna,” he replied, tackling her questions in order. “We didn’t need your key because Sienna has never met a car she can’t break into. Luke and I talked about tricking out Cooper’s tricycle a bit, and Sienna had a bunch of ideas. And finally—you mob show junkie—Lia owns the antique arms shop down the block, remember? She usually transports things in her car but her brother Max had to borrow it for a few days so she only has her bike. Whenever I see her transporting gun cases, it takes another year off my life.”

Aw, that was sweet. His protectiveness really was one of his sexiest qualities.

But back to all the anger. “Rylan, you can’t just have random folks work on my car without my permission.” She ducked her head back under the car. “No offense.”

“None taken,” wafted out the amused reply.

Rylan leaned against the weird white truck and said matter-of-factly, “I heard your car sputtering the other day so I called Sienna to come check it out. I told you, she owed me some mechanical work at the end of our last fantasy football season. But since your car clearly needed more than mine, I decided to cash in my winnings for your car instead.”

“Who do you think you are? Why didn’t you ask me first?”

“Would you have let me get your car fixed?”

“No.”

His silent look said, ‘well, then’ while his mouth dug him about a foot deeper. “Besides, you weren’t supposed to find out. If not for you having to throw out this extremely heavy bag of trash,” he lifted up the trash bag she’d shoved in his arms, eyes twinkling, “you wouldn’t even have known Sienna was here…well, aside from the whole your car no longer weeping every time you make it go over thirty-five miles an hour, of course.”

“My car is not that bad! And are you serious with that defense? I wasn’t supposed to know about it so that makes it okay? You can’t go around just…” She clamped her mouth shut, realizing how silly the rest of her sentence would sound.

“Doing secret good deeds?” he supplied dryly, a small grin lifting up a corner of that no-good, too-sexy-for-his-own-good mouth. “Saving you from an accident?”

Of all the sanctimonious— “No one asked you to be my keeper,” she growled. “You have no right railroading into my life like this.”

“I do when the public’s safety is involved.” He crossed his arms and stared her down, daring her to argue that logic.

It was wrong on so many levels that he looked even more overbearingly sexy at the moment. “So I missed an oil change or two. I hardly think I’m going to be a danger on these ten-mile-and-hour roads.”

“Fifteen. And I’m afraid that wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.”

She rolled her eyes, certain there was a silent ‘little lady’ drawled out at the end of that sentence. “Who are you, the sheriff?”

“Well, actually…” He reached in his back pocket.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Seriously? Was he also the town mayor and the mail man?

Her thoughts must’ve been coming through loud and clear on her face because he paused and gave her a stern look. “Look, we may not be as big city as you’re used to but our law enforcement system isn’t anything to look down your nose at.”

Instantly, she felt bad. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re a great sheriff. I just—ˮ

He chuckled. “I’m just messing with you. I’m not the sheriff. Where do you think you moved to, The Little House on the Prairie?”

Quinn very nearly took a swing at him.

“Our sheriff is about sixty years old and scarier than a snake. He’s kept me on the straight and narrow ever since he caught me eating strawberries at the market without paying for ‘em.” Rylan shook his head solemnly. “I was headed down a slippery slope for sure. It started out with an innocent blueberry here and there, then I’d worked my way up to a handful of grapes. Next you know, I would’ve been going for a watermelon without thinking twice about it had he not intervened.”

Quinn fought hard to hold back her incredulous laughter. The man was certifiable. Dammit, how did he always make her want to laugh?

It almost killed her but she maintained radio silence, keeping her glare on high by literally biting her tongue.

He gave her a look filled with charm and triumph as he walked backward to his work truck, taking his win gracefully…well, as gracefully as the man could while doing a silent victory dance with those golden eyes of his.

Giving Quinn a warning look, he called out, “By the way, Sienna isn’t just the town grease monkey, she’s also the town dog catcher and a football coach over at the high school. Woman has a mean tackle so don’t even think of trying to pay her.”

With that, he climbed in his truck and drove off, smiling eyes meeting hers through the rear view mirror one last time before he turned the corner.

“That has to be the most exhausting man on the planet,” Quinn said under her breath, to no one in particular.

The amused laugh from the woman who was now upright and under the hood, fiddling with the engine, told her she hadn’t muttered it quietly enough.

Going over to formally introduce herself to the mechanic that she was actually thankful for—the car had been making some odd noises lately—Quinn was surprised to find the woman wasn’t at all as tomboyish as she was expecting. Grease-covered, yes, but very pretty.

“Rylan will grow on you. He’s a big teddy bear. Nice to finally meet you, by the way.” Sienna gave her a friendly grin. “Your reputation is pretty notorious around town. I’m a big fan. I think you’re becoming a little bit of an urban legend with my students.”

Quinn chuckled, instantly liking the laidback woman. “Oh, so you’re a teacher?” Thinking back to her earlier conversation with Rylan, she cringed. “I’m sorry if I came across like a city bitch earlier. You know, with the whole sheriff thing. I don’t really go around thinking small town stereotypes about everyone here, I swear. I actually like Cactus Creek. A lot.”

Sienna waved off the apology with a laugh. “He wasn’t teasing you about the last part. I really am the town’s unofficial dog catcher, as well as a football coach at the high school.”

That was incredibly cool.

“But otherwise, yes, he did seem to be goading you pretty impressively.”

Tell me about it. “He’s freakishly good at it, too. Is he that exasperating with everyone?”

Sienna chewed on her lip in debate for a moment before saying carefully, “Actually, he’s usually the most laidback guy around. From what I can tell, he’s just this way with you.”

Oh. Well that was kind of…flattering.

“And Quinn?” Sienna smiled. “Just so you know. I’ve never once lost to him in fantasy football.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

SHE’D ACCUSED HIM of being her keeper. Rylan frowned. Not that the woman didn’t need one; at times, she truly did. But he wasn’t trying to keep her.

Lie.

Ignoring the voice in his head that rejected the way he’d worded that last statement, he kept right on trying to figure out his not-at-all normal behavior around Quinn. Dani and Sienna were having a freakin’ field day with it all, and he didn’t blame them. He wasn’t acting like himself at all. But the woman just brought out a strange side of him.

It took a little time, but he came to the conclusion that he wasn’t trying to be her keeper.

He was simply trying to spoil her.

She was a hard-working single mom who deserved to get spoiled, he reasoned.

No big deal.

What was turning into a slightly big deal today, however, was his own reaction over not being able to spoil her today. For the first time in weeks, he hadn’t been able to drop in to see her at all. And he missed the hell out of her.

Not that it wasn’t for a good cause. Since his neighbor’s shift at the diner had turned into a double-shift when one of the other waitresses called in sick, she’d called Rylan in a panic and he’d reassured her that her afterschool sitter could drop Reese off at his place this evening.

So, instead of stopping off at Desert Confections to bug Quinn, he was having a little cook-out with Reese in the backyard.

It was a little disconcerting how much he was affected by not having his little daily Quinn fix. Almost like…

No. He wasn’t going to make a comparison between his very platonic friendship with Quinn—his feelings aside, of course—and his unhealthy relationship with Lacey.

Therein lay the path to insanity, for sure.

Thankfully, Reese was a hilarious little kid who was serving as the very best distraction.

So this was good. Probably all for the best. Maybe this was all meant for him to be able to wean off this strange need to see and talk to Quinn every day—get her out of his system.

“Rylan?”

Or maybe not.

Clearly he had it bad. Now he was even hearing the woman’s sexy voice in his head.

“Rylan, are you back here?”

Holy shit. Rylan jogged over to the side gate and devoured the sight before his eyes.

His little hellcat was standing on his driveway.

Sure, it’s not like he’d just discovered penicillin or nothing but hell’s bells, finding her on his driveway sure did feel like some kind of miracle.

Quinn on his driveway.

Quinn here to see him.

Quinn nervously here on his driveway to see him, and biting her lip as a result.

That last one had the biggest effect on him…which would soon be a noticeable effect if he didn’t get a grip. Silently counting back from a thousand, he unlocked the gate to let her in.

“What are you doing here, sunshine?” Nice. Impressive voice control there, Grey.

“Here.” Quinn took a few steps forward and thrust a piece of paper at his chest.

It really shouldn’t feel this good just to have her fingers brushing over his sternum. With considerable effort, he doused the resulting thoughts of her hands touching him elsewhere.

“What’s this?” his voice sounded rough and shot to hell but there was little he could do about that.

Nine hundred eighty-three, nine hundred eighty-two…

“It’s my number,” replied Quinn, looking down at the ground to step over the treacherous two pebbles in her path that were requiring all her focus to avoid. “I wrote down my number so you don’t have to get Dani to relay me a message. I don’t know if I can handle another one of her interrogations about my love life.”

“Ah,” he grinned, pocketing the number. “Good call.” He’d only mentioned to Dani to let Quinn know that he was doing a favor for his neighbor this afternoon, if Quinn happened to ask where he was. Not that he’d expected Quinn to ask, but…just in case.

“That was nice of you,” continued Quinn awkwardly, interrupting his ponderings. “To let me know you weren’t coming by, I mean. Not about the whole siccing Dani on me part. I would’ve waited…and worried. That you got into an accident or gotten amnesia. Or suddenly acquired a non-aggravating personality transplant that you were selfishly going to withhold from me meeting.”

He let out a sharp bark of laughter. His feisty little hellcat was so damn entertaining. He never knew what was going to come out of her mouth, or what new way she was going to find to bust his chops.

Just as she was starting to relax and almost crack a rare smile, a small body leapt out at her with a loud, “Boo!”

Quinn jumped back, startled, and Reese fell back onto his heels in peals of laughter.

Rylan picked Reese up and threw him over his shoulder. “Sorry about that. This is Reese. He’s seven; no other excuses for his behavior but that. He and his mom are my neighbors, and I watch him sometimes when her shifts at the diner put her in a bind.”

Quinn tilted her head to the side and smiled at the upside-down Reese.

“Reese, this is Quinn. Quinn, meet my neighbor Reese.”

“Hey Reese.”

“Oh! I know who you are!” exclaimed Reese. “Everyone in town says Rylan loves y—” Reese screeched out, and then giggled with glee as Rylan flipped him around like a baton.

Planting him gently back on his feet, Rylan pointedly glanced at his watch. “I’ll give you a two-minute head start this time,” he declared.

Reese scampered away to find a hiding spot.

“Sorry about that. We were playing hide and seek before you came.” Rylan rocked back on his feet. “You want to hang out with us by the fire pit for a bit? I have bratwursts and hot dogs on the sticks, and veggies on the grill grate. Plenty of food. You can wrap some up for you and Cooper to eat tonight.”

The timer on his watch beeped and he called out, “Ready or not!”

“I’ll be right back.” He nodded over at the fire pit. “Meet you over there in a few?”

* * * * *

QUINN WASN’T SURE why she liked it that Rylan pretty much maneuvered her right on over to the fire, but she did. He just didn’t talk to her the way other men did.

He sure didn’t act like them either.

No other guy she’d ever dated would be running around the yard right now chasing someone else’s shrieking kid in circles while she was standing there watching.

A shame, really because as she was quickly discovering, a big hard man being a big ole teddy bear to a kid was one of the sexiest things she’d ever seen.

She watched in amusement as the two seemed to be starting in on some serious negotiations on the other side of the yard. Reese was clearly playing hardball, shaking his head while Rylan rolled his eyes. A minute later, the deal must have gone through because the two shook hands. Reese promptly crawled into the tent that was set up in the corner of the yard as Rylan headed back over to her.

“You didn’t have to bribe him to stay by himself.” Quinn looked over at the zipped tent, feeling bad for intruding on their fun night. “I can just catch up with you tomorrow.”

Rylan blinked, startled. “I didn’t. He’s finishing his homework in there. We were just playing a quick game of hide and sneak because he was getting frustrated with his math assignment. The running around helps clear his head.”

Oh. Jesus, he was so different from the men she’d dated in the past.

He pulled a chair up for her to sit on. “Can you stay and eat? Or do you need me to pack some food for you to go?”

Well, she did have the next three hours free—it was her one night to do errands. And the food did smell really good; she couldn’t remember the last time she ate camp fire food. “If you’re sure I wouldn’t be imposing. I feel bad I didn’t bring anything.”

“Don’t worry about it. I always make extra so I can pack a sack lunch the next day.”

“That means I’m eating your lunch for tomorrow.” She shook her head and stood back up. “I should go. I have leftovers to heat up at home.”

“Stay. Honest, I’d prefer it if you did.” He grinned, brows quirked. “Because that means you’ll owe me lunch one day in the future. I’ll keep you posted as to my selection of fine dining choices for when that day comes.”

The man was incorrigible.

“So is Cooper with your sister tonight?” he asked as she sat back down, a small smile lighting his face when she did.

She nodded. “Tonight’s my night to pick him up after dinner. Tomorrow, we switch.”

“You’re lucky. My neighbor doesn’t have any family in Arizona so it’s tough for her to balance everything.”

He handed her a fire-poking stick and a juice box. A juice box. Like it was the most normal thing in the world. And just like that, this not-a-date night was already better than every date she’d ever been on, combined.

They sat in silence poking at the fire and drinking their apple juice when he cocked a grinning brow up. “So you missed me, huh?”

Just when she thought he really did get that personality transplant she’d mentioned earlier.

“Not in the least.”

Golden eyes twinkling, his gaze tangled with hers. Then in a voice that wasn’t at all teasing, he said quietly, “I missed you too, sunshine.”

The sound of Reese hooting and hollering from the tent broke up the moment.

“I did it! I did it!” The tent unzipped and Reese came shooting out, and running toward Rylan, arms raised in triumph like Rocky. “I finished that last page! You were so right, I just needed to try it again.”

“I’m proud of you, little man. Okay, go turn off the light in the tent and be sure to bring your jacket with you. Dinner’s all ready.”

Grabbing a plate and tongs, Rylan loaded up three plates of food with veggie cabobs, ears of sweet corn, hot dogs, bratwursts, and buns. Quinn’s mouth watered the entire time. Over the food, of course.

Although she had to admit, there was something pretty appealing about a guy who grilled.

While they all waited for the hotdogs to cool down a bit, Rylan moved the rest of the food off the fire before handing Reese a ziploc bag of granulated sugar. “Okay, so now my end of the bargain. Try sprinkling some on the fire.” He demonstrated with a small pinches of sugar and Quinn watched as the fire sparkled and flashed in a cool light show of sorts. Reese hopped up and down excitedly. “Not too much though. And remember, don’t pass the line we drew in the dirt.”

Reese proceeded to dance around the fire—behind the line—and hoot and cheer every time he sprinkled more sugar flashes on the fire.

Quinn couldn’t help but watch Rylan grinning at Reese with that eye-crinkling smile of his that did crazy things to her insides.

“Aw.” Reese made a sad puppy dog look and showed them both the empty ziploc bag.

“We’ll do more another time, bud. Let’s get some food in you before your mom comes home. She’ll be here any minute.”

Reese hopped back over and took a big bite out of his ketchup and mustard slathered half of a hot dog. Rylan had the other half on his plate.

“He only eats half?” she asked in surprise. “Cooper can put away and entire hot dog, easily.”

“So can Reese. But I only give him half at a time. I hold the rest hostage so he eats his veggies.” He ruffled Reese’s hair affectionately.

Oh boy, her ovaries just swooned.

Rylan reached behind him for a long sleeve flannel shirt and handed it to her. “It’s cold,” he said simply.

Her instant melting over his brand of gruff sweetness was when she didn’t just know the truth, but accepted it as well. The same truth she’d been trying to deny on the car ride over here. The same one she’d been ignoring for the past few weeks.

She had a big, insane crush on a gambling musician.

And it was growing by the minute.

* * * * *

AS HE LISTENED to Reese and Marcy walk back over to their house, Rylan pulled his chair closer to Quinn’s and waited for whatever question had been patiently poised on her lips all night. She’d come over to ask him a question, he was certain of it.

“You said you don’t gamble for money,” began Quinn finally, looking him square in the eye. “So what do you gamble on?”

And there it was.

He wasn’t oblivious. Over the past few weeks, he’d seen her flinch every time he mentioned gambling. But he hadn’t wanted to push. The flashes of pain in her eyes following punched him in the gut each time.

So he’d waited, knowing that if she asked the question, then it would mean she cared enough about him not to want him doing the one thing seemingly attached to nightmares in her past.

“Chores,” he answered softly. “We bet on chores.”

Quinn shot her eyes up to meet his to see if he was kidding.

He never kidded about chores.

The slow, glorious smile that bloomed across her face. “And this is the high stakes game the town is always talking about?” she asked, amusement dancing across her features.

“You bet,” he replied in an utterly serious tone. “Everyone in my weekly game has a set of chores we absolutely hate to do. And every week, at the end of the night, whoever won the pot gets to make the first one who ran out of chips do those chores.”

A relieved, mirth-filled laugh escaped Quinn. “Are we talking take-out-my-garbage type chores or clean-my-swimming-pool-with-a-toothbrush type chores?

“A cross between the two, I’d say. For example, Sienna, surprisingly, really hates washing her car. Belly aches over having to do it. So that’s usually what she wagers every week.”

Quinn raised a brow in surprise. “That doesn’t sound all that bad.”

“That’s because you’ve never seen Sienna’s truck. The time Levi lost to her, he spent an entire NFL Sunday working on that truck, which, apparently had a month’s worth of mud, tree sap, bird poop, and what he suspected was a new species of fungus. Personally, I think she just drove through every mud puddle in the state and parked under every bird-crowded telephone line after he made her wash his two giant German Shepherds, both of whom she’s threatened to get a restraining order against whenever they’re in heat…which seems to be whenever she’s around.”

Rylan proceeded to recite the top ten worst chore bets they had on record—from the house full of dirty dishes to the one that took top honors…outlet mall shopping with Tucker’s wife.

“I love Cindy but I tell you, I make extra sure I don’t ever lose to Tucker. We all do. Sadistic woman got Aidan up at six in the morning, and made him drive three hours away to the first of seven Outlet Malls. By nine o’clock that night he was calling all of us practically crying.”

At this point, Quinn was laughing just as loudly as he was.

God, he loved watching her laugh.

“So,” he snagged her gaze and held on, “does this officially wipe the slate clean before I see you on Dani’s group date thing tomorrow night?”

The look on her face was priceless—a lip-twitching smile that had just tangled with a sour lemon, if he had to describe it.

She made a show of glancing at her watch in Oscar-worthy shock. “Oh wow, look at the time. It’s getting late, I have to get going.” She backed away toward the gate, a teasing lilt to her voice he’d never once heard before. “I had fun tonight, Rylan. You make a mean s’more.”

“Compliments aren’t going to distract me, woman. Are you going to answer my question?”

“Nope!” She pivoted and closed the gate behind her, hand stretched up in a backward wave.

He grinned. “I’m choosing to take that as a yes then,” he called out, arms draped over the gate as he watched her walk the sexiest damn walk he’d ever seen down the driveway to her car.

“There’s still thirty-six hours between now and the group date,” she tossed back. “I’m fairly certain you’ll find some other way to piss me off before then.”

And then she was gone.

Ah, hell.

Yeah, okay. He lied before.

He definitely wanted to keep her.

CHAPTER EIGHT

QUINN HADN’T KNOWN what to expect of the group date that Dani had arranged.

The surprise indoor rock climbing part of the evening had turned out to be ridiculously fun, due entirely to the fact that her wearing a skirt had limited her to just climbing high enough to torture Rylan directly below her, but not completely flash the man.

There was just something so enticing about a gruff, granite-hard man doing his damndest to be a gentleman.

Definitely a highlight of the night.

Of course, the dinner and ice cream afterward had been memorable as well. Her ice cream had looked even better splattered on the back of Luke’s shirt than it had on her cone. Four years of softball in high school, thank you very much.

Good times.

But, without a doubt, the entire evening simply paled in comparison to this moment right here on her front porch.

Rylan was at it again.

Flashing that special little frown that seemed to be reserved for the many, many instances when he was irrationally worrying over her. “Sweetheart, I’m serious, you need a brighter porch light. Better security.” Peering at the door, he added, “And you need a stronger door lock—this one has to be decades old. It’s not so much the case here in Cactus Creek, but break-ins do happen.” He frowned deeper. “I’m going to bring by a new knob and deadbolt set for you tomorrow. One of Lia’s brothers is a security whiz. I’ll have him get me something state-of-the-art.” After jiggling the door knob again, and scanning the dark side yard for any suspicious shadows, she half expected him to get out his phone and call Lia right now.

Holy hell, the man was so unbelievably cute.

She sighed. “You don’t know how hard I’m trying not to kiss you right now,” she whispered softly, trailing her eyes up all six-feet-plus of his gorgeous, sculpted body.

That effectively erased his adorable frown.

Leaving in its place, a sizzling hot look she felt spark and tingle across every inch of her skin.

He stared at her for a split second before exhaling roughly and taking three steps forward, slowly backing her up until she felt the door touching her shoulder blades.

Palms flat against the door, he effectively caged her in.

“Folks are going to talk if I kiss you,” he murmured, inches away from her lips.

She didn’t doubt it. If she wasn’t mistaken, a car just slowed down in front of her house. That’s when she realized what he was doing. He was blocking her from any nosy onlookers.

Dang it, the man was just so sweet.

She gazed up at him and said the first thing that came to mind. “If you kiss me, just so we’re clear, you’re not coming in this house afterward. It’ll be just kissing.”

Lips twitching to the side, Rylan shook his head. “If I ever find these so called men you’ve dated in the past, I’m kicking all their asses. Every single one.” Then his mouth curved up into a full-blown smile as his hands flattened against the door behind her. “And sweetheart," he murmured, his lips grazing her ear, "I happen to like ‘just kissing.’”

Oh lord. With him, she had no doubt she’d like that too. Very, very much.

“Now it’s my turn.” He drew back and tilted her face up to his, pinning her with a single look so hot, so possessive, so male, she had to grip his shoulders to keep from melting on the spot.

His eyes burned hotter at the touch. “If I kiss you, just so we’re clear, I’m not waiting two days or playing any of those other dating games." He slid both hands up to cradle her face gently. "I’m calling you tomorrow."

“That okay with you, sweetheart?”

Was what okay? Did he ask her a question? Everything was getting so hazy. God, he smelled good. What on earth was he waiting for?

He bent down and repeated his question in her ear. “Can I call you tomorrow, honey? Just to talk and see how your day is going?”

Seriously? The gentleman thing? Was the man trying to slay her heart on the spot? “I gave you my number. It was pretty much implied,” she replied, trying not to shiver when she felt his lips ghost down her neck.

“That’s not the same thing as you wanting me to call you.”

His lips were finally on her skin and he was still talking.

“Do you?” he asked as his mouth skimmed back up to her ear. “Do you want me to call you?”

“Yes. Okay, yes. I’ve wanted you to call me even before I gave you my—”

His lips captured hers before she could finish.

Goodness, the man could kiss.

He slanted his mouth to deepen, dominate the kiss. An erotic web of electricity blanketed over her, made her skin tingle as she felt his tongue slip past her lips and explore, tease, torture.

And all the while, his entire body covered hers, wrapped her in a cocoon of hot, hard muscles carved to perfection.

He tugged her hips closer and moved a hand up to cup the back of her neck as he took control of the kiss, deepening it until she whimpered, slipped her hands under his shirt—

“Hi Rylan! Hi Mom!”

Quinn almost jumped right out of her skin.

Penny, hand in hand with Cooper, gave her an apologetic look. “Just so you know, we made A LOT of noise coming up the walkway.”

They did?

One look at Rylan confirmed he hadn’t heard anything either.

That was a hell of a kiss.

Penny was smiling ear to ear as she gave Rylan a thorough once-over. “I’m Penny, by the way. Quinn’s sister.”

Rylan offered her his hand—always the gentleman—and replied warmly, “I’ve heard a lot about you from both Quinn and Cooper. Your babysitting stories are pretty legendary.”

She beamed. “I do my best.”

Rylan chuckled. “Well, they’re both lucky to have you.”

Penny sighed, head nodding as if he were the smartest man in the world. “I tell Quinn that every day.”

Uh oh.

Poor Luke. Quinn was pretty sure she was going to have to break the news to him that he now had to compete with Rylan for Penny’s utter adoration.

* * * * *

IT WAS NEARLY one a.m. when Rylan managed to disentangle Cooper’s octopus grip on his neck and move him from the rocking chair to the bed.

Man, that was one cute kid. Rylan was growing really fond of the little guy.

Closing the door quietly behind him, he made his way over to the kitchen, where Quinn was waiting for him with a cold beer.

“I’m sorry he shanghaied you into reading him all those stories,” apologized Quinn. “You could’ve stopped after seven books.”

“I tried,” he chuckled, remembering the stubborn look on Cooper’s face when he’d tried to tuck him in five stories ago. “But I do believe he was hopped up on caramel corn from the fair Penny took him to.”

He nodded at all the various prescription boxes and bottles lining the counter beside them. “That breathing machine he was on for the last half hour. Is that for asthma? All these medications, too?” He’d heard Cooper wheezing that first day he’d met him, and again today. It’d sounded pretty bad.

“Yes, unfortunately. Cooper has had asthma since he was born and needs the nebulizer nightly, sometimes twice a day. He actually had life-threatening respiratory complications right after delivery and he’d had to undergo seven surgeries all in the first six months of his life.” Quinn sighed at all the medications. “The cold, dry weather makes it worse. Same thing with too much exertion, which is such a pity because Coop’s a natural at sports.”

Rylan made a mental note to go learn more about asthma so he could be prepared in case Cooper ever had an attack. “Poor guy. You’d never know it from how happy and energetic he is all the time.”

“I’ve tried to do what I can to keep it that way, but there’s only so much he can do. All these steroids aren’t good for him to take for his whole life but so far, it’s our only option. He’s had pneumonia four times since he started preschool, and he’s been to the E.R. over a dozen times already.”

Seeing the glum expression on Quinn’s face in the silence that followed, his heart went out to her. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how tough all this must have been for her. “Hey,” he ventured then, “have I ever told you that I make the world’s best hot cocoa?” It was an utterly random conversational one-eighty for sure, but he hated the idea of her ending her night on a sad note after all the fun they’d had earlier. “I could be persuaded to make you a cup.” Without waiting for an answer—because really, who could turn down his hot cocoa—he headed straight for her pantry in search of some ingredients.

With a silent, smiling headshake, she opened a cupboard for some mugs. “Anything I can do to help?”

“You could find us a deck of cards to keep us company while everything is heating up.”

She furrowed her brow in thought for a second and then brightened, turning to rummage around in a few drawers before emerging triumphantly with a slightly larger than casino-standard deck of cards.

He chuckled. “A Disney Princess deck of cards? Things just got serious.”

She fanned out the colorful deck with a smile. “My nieces are still smack dab in the royal Disney phase. So what do you want to play?”

“You know how to play poker?”

Pause. “Yes. But I don’t actually like poker.”

That was an understatement. The mere word seemed to give her a visibly visceral reaction.

“Then what say we play a few easy rounds of High-Card-Draw,” he suggested without missing a beat, determined to keep the dark shadows back. “It’s a total luck-based game so we—and by that, I mean you—have an equal chance to win.” He tossed the last over his shoulder with just the right amount of goading to ruffle her feathers right up.

Hearing her snap the cards up into a testy shuffle, and deliver a potent glare that was drilling a hole into the back of his head, he kept his smiling gaze on the stove as he continued his explanation, “Simple rules. We each make a wager, we each pull a card, and the high card wins.”

After getting the milk in the pot, he rejoined her. “Okay, so what are you going to wager?”

“I don’t know.” She studied him carefully. “How big a bet are you going in with?”

Smart girl—keeping her cards close to her chest. He’d make a gambler out of her yet.

Grinning, he said simply, “If I win, I get to pick what we do on our next date. Anything I want, no questions asked.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Will we have our clothes on?”

His knees almost gave way. “Good lord, woman, don’t put those kind of images in my head.” He shifted his jeans uncomfortably and slid behind the kitchen island.

Her lips twitched to the side but she said nothing.

“Yes,” he finally remembered to answer. “We’ll have our clothes on the entire time. But again, no questions asked. Anything I want.”

“‘Anything you want’ is way too broad—”

“Nope. No trying to change the wager,” he cut in. “This wouldn’t be gambling unless you felt some amount of risk.”

“Fine. IF you win, we’ll do anything you want with our clothes on.” Suddenly, a big mischievous smile lit up her face. “Okay then, if I win, you have to do all the laundry in this house for a month—me, Cooper, and the dog’s.”

He blanched. “Honey, let’s not get crazy here. I wagered with a pebble and you’re countering with the moon—”

“Nope. No trying to change the wager,” she parroted him. “Take it or leave it.”

Ah, the thrill of the game. Seeing her dancing eyes, he raised a brow. “See. You’re feeling it too, aren’t you? The appeal of gambling. The fun.”

Her grin faltered, and then she started chuckling. “I guess you’re right. Now quit stalling. You taking the bet or what?”

He slid the colorful princess deck of cards—so wrong to be gambling with these—forward. “Want to cut the deck?”

She tapped a finger on it.

“Okay, sugar, you pull first.” She picked up half the deck and they both looked at the card.

“Nine of hearts.”

She shuffled the deck and slid it forward. “Your turn.”

He loved that excited little smile on her face. She was having fun. Eyes locked on hers, he picked up about a third of the deck and lifted it up.

Nice.

“Ace of Spades.”

“I win!” she declared quickly.

What in the?

“Babe, the Ace of Spades is literally the highest card in the deck.”

“Says who?”

“Says everyone.”

She shook her head stubbornly. “Not in my book. The ace is the same as a one, so it’s the lowest card in the deck.” She jutted her chin out and dared him to argue that logic.

The little sneak.

“You didn’t establish that the Ace wasn’t a one,” she continued all business-like, sighing forlornly. “I guess the only fair thing here is to pull again.” Laughing blue eyes blinked innocently at him.

“You’re lucky you’re cute. Fine, we’ll pull again. But this time, we’re establishing that the Ace is the highest card.”

“I agree a hundred percent,” she said straight-faced. “Too bad you didn’t mention that earlier.”

God, he couldn’t get enough of her. “You pull first my pretty little cheat.”

She picked a card.

“Queen of Diamonds!” she announced smugly.

“Uh huh, sure, I can see you really hate gambling,” he teased as he went to pull a card. Glancing at it, he burst out laughing. “King of Hearts.”

“What?!” She crossed her arms in front of her with a huff, but she couldn’t stop the laugh trickling out of her. “Darn. And I was already planning to make you wash all our comforters and sheets, too.”

He shuddered. “That’s karma for you, sweet thing. Because of your heinous wager, the universe saw fit for me to win.” Grinning, he tilted his head and studied her now slightly nervous expression. “So...anything I want, no questions asked...” Damn, that inspired all sorts of wicked ideas.

“Wh-what are you going to pick for us to do?”

He leaned over to plant one long, hungry kiss on her lips and then whispered, “You’ll have to wait and see.”

“That’s mean. You’re just drawing this out to make me crazy.”

He thought about it and gave her a nod. “Yeah, that does sound like something I would do. So let’s go with that.”

CHAPTER NINE

QUINN STUDIED Rylan warily, listening to his seemingly innocent question with supreme skepticism. After that epic first kiss that she’d been hoping for an encore performance of for the past week, Quinn had absolutely no idea what was going on in their relationship. She’d yet to even see second base with the man, and lately, he’d been keeping them both firmly planted in the dugout. But today, however, the man was a walking suggestive comment.

She suspected he was keeping her guessing on purpose.

Or he was secretly hiding multiple personalities.

Honestly, she just couldn’t believe this steamy-eyed man sitting before her now was the same knight in shining armor who’d shown up at her home last night armed with dinner for five.

Yesterday afternoon, her sister Penny had called to explain she needed to stay late at work exactly five minutes before Penny’s usual sitter had dropped Quinn’s twin nieces off on her doorstep. While she loved her nieces to pieces, they were two more crazy preschoolers to watch and make dinner for, and she was out of groceries she couldn’t go out and get because she only had one booster seat in her car. So, Quinn had immediately called Luke for back-up.

When he hadn’t answered, shortly after the kids had decided to let the dog in and ride him like a horse, Quinn called Rylan.

A half hour later, Rylan swooped in and placed groceries on the counter along with a kiss on her lips in a honey-I’m-home way before she even got out a hello.

Then, unjustly, it took him only a second to round up the kids and get them to sit still for a Candy Land battle while she cooked dinner. They ate together at the table, talking all the while about playground politics and current preschool events. And afterward, he played Wii with the girls while she gave Cooper a bath, and then he read them all a story until her sister came to pick the girls up.

The whole thing could’ve been scripted for a family vehicle commercial.

And now here they were on their ‘High Card’ date.

…An early morning at Desert Confections.

Helping her work.

The man was so odd.

And now he was asking her odd questions.

“So you’re saying a spa package isn’t something you’d enjoy?” pressed Rylan as he filled another bag of chocolate bonbons and passed it to Quinn for ribbon tying.

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.”

A twitch of humor tipped his lips.

“Plus, I need to have all this chocolate packaging done before we open in an hour,” she added primly, proud of her ability to continue reasoning despite her imagination having gone on the attack with images of Rylan stripped down to nothing…her atop the nearest counter…

And that’s when her brain lost all control of the helm.

Pirated thoughts of the dirtiest variety soon had her noting the optimal butt-level height of the counters. They really did look to have a sturdy foundation...

Rylan muttered a silent oath. “You’re killing me. Stop looking at the counters like that. It’s plenty strong to do everything you’re fantasizing. You really want to take a run at the scenario those pretty eyes of yours are begging for? Me taking you right here?”

Damn him. And damn her eyes for being portals to her mind, or whatever part of her body was currently in control.

“Sugar, I think it’s time you tell me what you want,” he sighed gruffly. “A no-tomorrows quickie on the counter or the whole package with me?” Stopping a few inches in front of her, he cupped her cheek and gazed into her eyes. “Personally, I want you to pick the whole package,” he whispered against her lips. “Do you know that if I had been allowed to enter Luke’s Random Acts of Romance challenge, I would’ve had a hundred entries in mind? All for you.”

A flush of pleasure spread across her cheeks.

“I’ve thought about at least that many ways to win you over.” He trailed his thumb along her jawline. “I figured if I had entered the challenge, odds were I would’ve won the prize due to the sheer volume of my entries alone. So, I went ahead and awarded myself the prize. Well, half of it, at least.” He pulled out an embossed ivory card from his back pocket.

“You bought a certificate from that spa?” Quinn recognized the ivory card immediately because she’d actually been the one to pick the spa for Luke’s contest. Of course she’d never had the time or money to ever go there as a customer herself, but she’d heard good things.

“For you. It’s a single certificate because I didn’t want you to feel there were strings attached to it. I know how hard you work and I wanted you to have a day to relax. Even if you don’t want to see where this can lead between us, it’s still yours.” He kissed her gently, silently giving her the promise that there was no pressure to say yes and no guilt in saying no.

She looked at the spa certificate and then at the sinfully hot man asking her to let him love her in the way she’d always dreamed—two of the sweetest offers she’d ever received.

“Yes...I’m saying yes,” she replied breathlessly. “I don’t just want a ride on the counter. I want the whole package.” She looked into his eyes. “With you.”

CHAPTER TEN

THIS WAS SO not good.

Quinn watched the video of Dani’s news interview about the chocolate and beer throwdown again, hoping it would sound different the second time around.

Nope. Still really bad.

“Knock, knock.”

Quinn jumped. “Luke! What are you doing here?” She propped her hip awkwardly on her desk and glanced uneasily at her computer.

His eyes narrowed. “What’s going on?” He bee-lined it to her desk.

“Nothing!”

“You’ve always been a bad liar.” Sweeping her to the side, he peered at her computer.

“You know, I really need to get back to—”

His look silenced her. Pushing her hands away from the keyboard, he rewound the video back to the beginning and hit play.

Quinn felt helpless as she watched her best friend watch the video and proceed to get his heart kicked right where it hurt. Especially for Luke. She knew him, she knew he was already in love with Dani. And according to that video, the feeling was one-sided.

“Luke, I’m sure she didn’t mean that how it sounded.”

He remained silent, staring at the blank screen long after the clip ended.

Quinn put a comforting hand on his arm. “Don’t blow this out of proportion.”

He shrugged her off and headed out the door.

She ran after him. “Luke, stop. Cool down a bit before you head over there.”

“I just want to talk to her,” he said quietly.

Quinn just barely managed to lock up the shop before she caught up with Luke heading into Ocotillos.

Then they stood there together in silence just outside of Dani’s office seeing the same thing.

Dani and Rylan together, heads low, voices hushed in deep conversation, arms wrapped tight around each other. Rylan gently smoothing back Dani’s hair, and pressing gentle kisses to her forehead as she spilled her heart out.

Without a word, Quinn turned and left.

* * * * *

FROM WHERE HE’D planted himself so he wouldn’t miss her, Rylan caught sight of Quinn and snagged her elbow, stopping her on the sidewalk just outside of Ocotillos.

“Leaving so soon, sugar?”

She stiffly averted her eyes and kept silent.

He eyed her mutinous expression. “What evil is that busy lil head of yours convincing you I’ve done now?” he asked with forced calm. “Because whatever it is, you’ve got it all wrong.”

“Let go of me.” She tried in vain to pull herself out of his grip.

“Not until you tell me why you’re giving me the cold shoulder.”

“Why don’t you go back to Dani’s office? It looked pretty warm in there,” she tossed out casually, ceasing her struggles, and instead cloaking herself with an air of indifference.

Oh, hell no.

Rylan swiftly tugged her against his chest and effectively vaporized the distance she was trying to put between them. “Warm, huh? Is that what you think you saw?” He tilted her stubborn face up to his. “Well then I guess I’d better show you what hot looks like instead.”

His mouth seized hers in an unyielding kiss that didn’t just burn, it scorched. Igniting new levels of heat he never knew existed, he didn’t relent until he felt her anger finally dissolve. “I’d never hurt you like that,” he whispered roughly. “What you saw was comfort for a friend, nothing more. You’re overreacting—”

“I’m not,” she bit out, looking more confused than upset now.

“Quinn, honey, I swear. We’re just friends—”

“I’m not jealous!”

There was an underlying tone of frustrated honesty there that had him pausing. He was missing something here.

She stared at him, looking almost lost. “I wasn’t jealous. Not really. I was annoyed, of course. And yes, I wanted to pull your arms off and smack you with ‘em for daring to put your lips on another woman after everything you said at Desert Confections yesterday.”

“I told you—”

She narrowed her eyes at him then in exasperation. “Oh, please. If you saw me cuddled up with a man the way you were with Dani just now, confiding in him and letting him kiss my tears away, you’d have gone ballistic on his ass.”

“Damn straight,” he growled.

One perfectly arched exactly-you-moron brow winged up to make her silent point.

“Fine,” he conceded. “I get it, okay. You’re right. You have every right to want to yank my arms off and beat me with them. But you have to see it from my perspective. Dani’s one of my best friends, and I’ve always seen her as a little sister. Whereas any man touching you wouldn’t be able to hold onto a single friggin’ platonic thought in his head no matter how hard he tried. Trust me, I know,” he rumbled with feeling.

Her eyes crinkled at the corners over his grousing but she remained silent.

“I’m sure it looked bad,” he continued, brushing his thumb over her still-heated cheek. “And I’m sorry if it hurt you unintentionally. But from now on, don’t stomp off without checking if your baseless ideas about me aren’t in fact insane.”

“I didn’t. Have any ideas about you, I mean. I wasn’t mad at you, honest.”

“I was…scared.”

Concern streaked through his veins. “Scared about what, honey?”

“You and Dani up there. That was an instant replay of one of the worst moments of my past—the night I’d caught Brody having sex with a groupie…when I was pregnant with Cooper.”

A snarl of outrage burst out of Rylan’s chest. What kind of sack of shit cheats on his pregnant girlfriend?

She placed a hand on his heaving chest. “It’s okay. Really. He’s not worth your anger.”

“But he hurt you,” growled Rylan, rage throbbing through him…until a realization hit him like a battering ram. His hands gripped her shoulders. “Are you telling me that I made you feel the way he did?” Tortured anguish roughened his voice. “Baby, please don’t tell me I hurt you that bad just now.”

She quickly slid her hands up to frame his face. “No. No, Rylan. Of course you didn’t. And that was what scared me. That’s why I left. I needed to…think.”

With a deep breath that she held for what seemed like an eternity, a calm seemed to settle over her features, before she explained, “Just now, when I saw you two, I felt jealous, of course. But in a possessive way, not a paranoid way. And the reason why…is because I trust you.” Her eyes shot up to his as if to measure his reaction.

Understanding and something a whole lot more weighty hit him square in the chest.

“I mean it’s crazy,” she said more to herself than him. “There you were in almost the exact same position I saw Brody and his little groupie, and I trusted you.”

He gently brushed her hair back away from her face. “And that scared you,” he murmured, reiterating her previous statement, feeling so damn much for this woman and her maddening ways. “So you left. To go think.”

“Yes, yes, and yes.” She brought her eyes up to meet his again. “But I was going to come back. I wouldn’t have missed out on the hitting you with your own arms part.”

He shook his head with gruff tenderness. “You make me crazy, you know that?” He held onto her chin to make sure she heard him. “As far as I’m concerned, when you’re in even remote viewing distance from me, no other woman even exists on the planet. And when you’re not, every spare thought I have revolves around when, and how, and how quickly I can get you back in viewing range, or better yet, back in my arms again. You can always trust me.”

He pressed a gentle kiss to the tip of her nose. “Believe me?”

Eyes softening, she nodded, replying quietly, “Yes. And while I know this is just going to make you even more overbearing and cavemanish, you should probably know that I feel the exact same way. About you.”

Well, damn.

Steadying his gaze on her liquid blue eyes to try and slow down the now hammering drum beat tattooing the inside of his chest, he brought his forehead down to rest on hers. “Tomorrow’s Valentine concert will probably run later than tonight’s, but I’m heading straight to your house afterward with dessert.” His voice brooked no refusal, throbbing with undeclared emotions now tattered round the edges. “We can watch a DVD, play cards, whatever. So long as we’re together, I don’t care what we do. And if you and Coop are free the next day, I thought the three of us could camp out in your yard like he’d gone on about last week. I got us a big tent so we—”

Quinn grabbed him and halted the rest of his words with her lips.

Surprise immobilized Rylan for all of one heartbeat before he pitched his arms around her and crushed her to him. He never wanted to let go, couldn’t if he’d tried. The pent-up passion she was unleashing slayed his ability to do anything but hang on for the wildest ride of his life.

She kissed them both into a side alley and he nearly swallowed his tongue when she mindlessly slid one knee up his leg. Knowing what her movements were doing to her prim little business skirt was unmitigated torture. Quinn had amazing legs. And she never wore hose or stockings, a fact he knew from looking but not touching per the old ‘nothing below the waist in back and absolutely nothing in front’ rule he’d been tormenting himself with on each of their pseudo dates. He knew she’d been hurt by a lot of jerks in her life and he hadn’t wanted to rush her or make her feel like she had to do anything she wasn’t ready to do again.

But now here she was, ready and offering, and damn it all but he wanted to accept.

Unable to stop himself, he smoothed his hand over her hip until he came in contact with the warm, bare skin of her thigh. Even better than his fantasies. She shifted forward and his knees almost gave out when his fingers slipped under the edge of her skirt completely, dangerously close to curves he really shouldn’t be touching out here in plain view of the world.

He yanked his hand back and pulled away from the kiss at once. Criminy. It would be his luck that the first time he actually got to feel those gorgeous legs of hers they’d be in public, unable to do a damn thing more about it. “Quinn, honey, this alley isn’t all that private.”

It was as if she didn’t care. She leaned forward and slid her lips across his jaw, tracing her tongue down his neck before clamping her mouth onto the hard, beating pulse at his throat.

A coarse groan, soft and low, rumbled out of him.

“I love the sounds you make,” she whispered against his skin.

He’d have made the same declaration to her if he’d had any mind left to voice, but he didn’t. She’d stolen all thought from him when her curious hands slipped under his shirt and flexed into his tense lats before scoring his obliques.

But she didn’t stop there. Her fingertips slid down to tease the gap between his painfully clenched stomach and belt buckle, where much hotter flesh was rapidly gravitating to her fingers.

Christ. He barely caught her wrist in time.

Great, now Quinn let her inner sex kitten out of the cage. He’d seen that hidden fire in her all along, but evidently, he hadn’t known the half of it. “Sugar, I’m seconds from taking you to my truck and just plain taking you,” he rasped, his voice hoarse.

Her blue eyes eclipsed, and all his good intentions shot straight to hell. A ragged curse spilled from his lips.

“You’re supposed to say no, honey.”

“But I want to say yes,” she whispered.

Instantly, everything turned fuzzy. “Good god, woman.” Somehow—and he had no idea how—he still managed to force himself back, his body fighting every step he took.

Until he heard the delicate, feminine sound of disappointment from Quinn. Just that quickly, his feet simply refused to move another inch. He slid his hands around her waist and pulled her back to him again. “I need one more kiss, sugar. One more to make waiting for the rest bearable.”

When her face lit up, his eyelids lowered tenderly. Damn, this was going to be a hell of a long kiss.

“Concerts never start on time anyway,” he muttered as he bent down and captured her lips in a kiss so sweet he didn’t ever want it to end.

A half hour later, during his band’s set, Rylan found himself finally grasping what it meant to sing from the soul as he felt his throaty ballads resonate from depths his music had never ever reached before.

All because of Quinn.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

QUINN LOOKED AROUND at the yard, taking in every detail of the post-Valentine’s Day campout that Rylan had set up for her and Cooper. The new three-person tent, the fire, the dozen new books for campfire storytime, big flashlights to go exploring in the dark later, the massive selection of food, and games to play in the morning.

Her heart expanded like a giant balloon in her chest.

It was amazing. He was amazing.

“How’s that, buddy? Breathing okay?” asked Rylan worriedly as he positioned a humidifier next to Cooper, and then hurriedly switched on the second fan he’d placed next to the camp fire to blow the smoke away from Cooper. He looked up at Quinn. “You think I should get another fan?”

Oh good lord, the man was too much. She went over and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Thank you. For all this.”

He hugged her tight, slipping her a quick, hard kiss while Coop was poking at the fire.

…Before running back in the house for ‘one last fan.’

The second he was out of viewing range, Quinn grabbed her phone and texted her sister.

>>> HEY, PEN. CAN YOU BABYSIT COOPER TOMORROW NIGHT?

>>> SURE. WHAT’S UP?

Knowing there was a very good chance she’d hear Penny screaming from all the way over in Pinnacle Peak, she quickly answered by way of another question.

>>> CAN HE STAY OVERNIGHT?

A nanosecond pause before a emoticon ridden text returned with:

>>> YES! OH MY GOD! YOU BETTER GIVE ME DETAILS THE NEXT MORNING!

* * * * *

SOOO, HOW DOES one go about bringing up the topic of sex? Quinn wondered to herself as she fiddled with the remote on the couch next to Rylan.

She tried to remember how it’d been in the past when she’d had sex. It was a lot simpler back then. Pretty much, they pounced, she parted.

Yeah, that wouldn’t work here.

Rylan wasn’t going to pounce. Nope. He was going to be the world’s most aggravatingly patient nice guy until she brought it up first.

Just say you want sex. It’s sex. Guys like sex.

His hand squeezed her shoulder. “You okay? You seem tense.”

Say it!

“Sweetheart?”

Okay, let’s start easy. Just say words. Anything with words so he doesn’t think you’ve gone mute. Say something!

“I’m not wearing granny underwear!”

Yeah…anything but that.

Rylan went still for a beat before she felt his chest start to shake with laughter.

She buried her face between his collar bones, wedging her head against his chin when she felt him start to respond to her asinine outburst.

He pulled her around front to straddle his lap. “I’m not really sure what to say to that. I guess…I’m…happy for you?” His eyes danced with more muffled humor.

Covering both hands over her face, she gritted out, “I’m going to kill Penny.”

“Sugar, I’m completely lost as to what we’re talking about.” He gently pried her hands away from her face and pressed gentle kisses to her blazing hot cheeks. “How about you back us up a few steps and catch me up here.”

“On every date we’ve been on, Penny told me not to wear granny underwear. She went on and on about how I had to wear sexy lingerie. For you.”

Aside from the brief clenching of all those glorious muscles of his, he seemed pretty unfazed. “Babe, you could make a paper bag look sexy.”

Aw, that helped her continue what was officially the worst have-sex-with-me come-on ever. “Well, I didn’t listen to her. I try my very best to do the opposite of what Penny says as much as possible.”

He chuckled. “No comment.”

“So, that’s why I’ve mainly worn skirts and dresses on all our dates—so you wouldn’t see the panty lines from these awful giant-flowered granny panties I bought specifically for our dates. To keep us from…you know.”

His grin spread wide as he slid a smiling kiss over her temple. “You do have a tendency to go all out when you put your mind to something.”

“But tonight, I’m not wearing granny underwear,” she said meaningfully, before quickly returning her face to her nice little hiding spot against the crook of his neck.

Every inch of him went granite-hard for several heartbeats.

Then his deep, smoky voice—huskier than she’d ever heard it—asked the inevitable, “And you’re telling me this because…”

“You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”

“With respect to the perpetual judgment-clouding hard-on I’ve had since the moment I first saw you, I think that might be best.”

She leaned back to see if he was being serious.

And then scooted forward to gather more evidence.

The very male hiss that resulted when she straddled what was undoubtedly a very big cloud impairing his judgment had her reaching down for his belt.

“What are you doing?” he graveled through clenched teeth.

“Un-clouding your judgment.”

Groaning, he caught her hands and pinned them on the couch cushions on either side of him. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

A hungry gasp escaped her when she rocked against him and felt him grow even harder. What was he asking her? The sound of her throbbing heartbeat had reached deafening decibels.

“Sweetheart, are you sure?” he repeated. “I don’t mind waiting. Honest.”

Waiting? Was he insane? Right now, he was vying for top honors as the sweetest, most sadistic man alive. “I can’t wait.” She wrestled her hands free and slid his shirt up his torso, dragging it off him seconds before her lips found the pulse at the base of his neck. His hands gripped her hips and slid down her thighs, reducing her brain to mush. “Need you. Now.”

Not eloquent, but wholly accurate. She was going up in flames.

His fingers slid along her thighs, slipping under her skirt until she heard him curse softly.

Now that his shirt was off and she was able to slide her hands all over his sculpted muscles, she was wrapped up in a hazy, erotic calm that gave her back the ability to think in full sentences. “I told you I never listen to Penny.”

“No panties,” he rasped out on a guttural groan.

She’d bypassed the sexy lingerie altogether.

His fingers were impressively quick as he unbuttoned her sweater. When she felt him release the clasp of her bra, instantly she covered herself back up.

Golden eyes blazing with heat, and heavy with lust snagged hers. “Don’t hide yourself from me.”

“I’m not as young as your groupies,” she explained lamely, keeping one arm over her breasts while she reached for the lamp switch beside the couch. “And I had a kid. I’m not as…perky as all those gorgeous women who throw themselves at you.”

His eyes narrowed, and he managed to catch her hand before she could kill the light in the living room. “You think those women are gorgeous?”

Well, duh. She nodded and reached for the throw blanket to cover up after he somehow used his secret third and fourth hands to get her bra off.

“If you think they’re gorgeous, it’s because you’re not seeing what I see.”

“What do you see?”

“You.” He rumbled in her ear before leaning her back and sliding his lips down the valley between her breasts. “I told you. All I ever see is you. Even when you’re not in the room with me. Since I met you, I can’t remember the last time I actually saw a woman enough to commit her to memory. Every pair of blue eyes I see are dull compared to yours, every smile completely forgettable.”

His tongue circled a nipple and they both groaned. “All my brain can and wants to see is you. All my body wants is to feel you in my arms. When you’re not, I spend all my energy and focus looking at every inch of you and imagining my hands all over you. You’re an addiction, Quinn Christiansen.”

“My addiction.”

He sucked hard and she cried out his name, arching when she felt his rough thumb tease her other nipple as well. Back and forth he alternated, completely stealing control of her body, sentencing her to what felt like an eternity of mind-erasing pleasure.

Panting and writhing, it took her a moment to realize that the delicious heat was suddenly gone, and cool air was now the only thing touching her nipples. “You’re so beautiful,” he growled.

She opened her eyes and saw him staring down at her, passion burning in his eyes, his jaw clenching and unclenching as his hands slid over her skin.

“God, Quinn, you’re perfect.”

The rough declaration was rasped against her breast as he pulled her upright and gently scraped his teeth against her nipple.

She scored her nails down his back and heard herself begging for more. Just…more.

Seconds later, he was gently laying her down on the couch.

And then ripping her skirt off.

If she thought his eyes had been hot with lust before, they were outright scorching now.

When his calloused fingers ran over her soaked core—close, but not close enough—she whimpered and he immediately stopped.

“Are my hands too rough, baby?” he asked, voice heavy with concern.

“No,” she managed. “More.” She slid her thighs apart and felt herself get even more wet when he released a feral growl and brought his mouth down to her skin.

Still not close enough.

“Please, Rylan.”

His hands gripped her thighs. “Again,” he demanded roughly as his tongue swiped along her drenched flesh, dipping lower and causing him to release another rough sound from his chest as he tasted how much she wanted him. “Say my name again, sweetheart.”

She was floating in a riptide dragging her sanity away. With all the tenderness in the world, his work-roughened thumbs spread her wider for his gaze, his mouth.

“Again,” he breathed, right against her exposed sex and she nearly came right there, his question the last thing on her mind.

He slipped her legs over his shoulders and licked her mere inches away from where she needed to feel him.

Then he pushed two thick fingers deep into her and she screamed his name.

Just like that, an animal was unleashed. His mouth clamped down on her and sucked the last of her inhibitions right of out of her until finally, she was coming in his mouth.

A mindless mass of sensations, she found herself shattering through another orgasm just as devastating as the first when his tongue started to torment her in rhythm with the three fingers now plunging deep inside of her.

He didn’t stop until she was nearly whimpering in exhausted pleasure.

“Rylan.”

That was the best she could manage, but it was enough to signal he’d wrung her dry. He pulled back and slid her legs off his shoulders. Gentle kisses rained down on her thighs, soft murmurs against her skin she couldn’t hear over the blood rushing in her ears.

She felt the room tilt them before she was wrapped in a cocoon of warmth, fingers massaging her scalp and a hot palm running up and down her back. Burrowing into the heat, she felt herself drift off and she tried her best to fight it.

“Sleep, baby. I’m not going anywhere. Just close your eyes and sleep.”

The soft kiss he brushed across her lips was the last thing she remembered.

* * * * *

YEP, IT WAS OFFICIAL.

He was going to have the worst case of blue balls in the history of mankind.

But frankly, he didn’t care.

Watching Quinn come apart before him was the hottest damn thing he’d ever seen in his life.

And if he’d been an addict before, now, he was beyond saving completely. He’d meant every word he said earlier. He never even saw, let alone noticed any other women anymore.

Just Quinn.

She was so goddamn beautiful; he couldn’t believe she thought she wasn’t gorgeous enough. That was just insane. Didn’t she know what she did to him? How little control he had when he was around her? Hell, he’d had to stop himself from shredding her clothes the minute he’d felt her naked skin where a pair of panties should’ve been.

Now as he played it back in his head, he realized beautiful wasn’t even the right word to describe her. There was only one word he could think of that could possibly fit.

Mine.

He repeated it to himself as he eventually tumbled into a bone-deep, comforted sleep with Quinn in his arms.

Some time later, Rylan found himself in the middle of another scorching hot fantasy starring Quinn—they seemed to be coming nightly now.

But tonight, the temptress was straight-up blowing his mind.

He watched with his mind’s eye as she crawled up onto her knees and skimmed teasing little kisses all over his abdomen. Her hands followed, and blistering hot pleasure jolted through his body when her hand closed over him.

Hands gripping the sheets, he clawed to stay tethered to the dream, fought back the need to wake up just yet. Screw his alarm, screw work. The only thing that mattered right now was that Quinn’s mouth was inching lower, and lower still, her breasts swaying over his clenched thighs, torturing him in tandem, making him so goddamn hard, he was losing his mind.

Damn it. This fantasy was quickly turning into a wet dream and he was powerless to stop it.

Her mouth closed over his head and raw, savage need flooded his veins.

“Quinn.”

He felt her smile and swipe two tiny, barely there licks across his flesh.

Something dark and feral awoke inside him, gripping him at the edge of his hunger, shoving him past his limits. A man could only take so much.

Rylan’s hands threaded through long strands of silky angel hair, and slowly registered the fact that he wasn’t dreaming…seconds before his eyes shot open to see Quinn’s now sharply dilated sapphire eyes watching him.

Waiting for him.

…Before her mouth slid down his hard, pulsing length.

He let out on a guttural groan as she drew back and gently teased her tongue over him, tormented him.

Dared him.

His fingers clutched at her scalp and drew her closer. Deeper.

At the sound of the demanding little moan vibrating all around him, he pumped harder into that hot, wicked mouth of hers.

Every muscle in his body was strained tight as she worked her mouth up and down the length of him, nearly to the root. The hot, merciless suction drew his sanity right out of him, one slow stroke at a time, until he was nudging her throat.

Instantly, she swallowed back another moan, and the rolling pressure caused him to thrust deeper into her mouth. Raw, agonized pleasure coursed through him the deeper he went.

Her fingers squeezed the base of his erection as the one and only warning he got before she plunged her mouth down his entire length and drew back to suck hard and fast, matching him thrust for thrust.

A hoarse sound ripped out of his throat as he came, harder than he ever had in his life.

Flashing lights and fractured images of Quinn pressing gentle kisses on his skin swam in his vision while quick-drying cement flooded his limbs. Even his eyelids felt drained.

Even so, when he felt Quinn’s sexy little body curl up against his, he found the strength to wrap his arms around her and pull her in tighter.

She snuggled her face against his neck, and draped herself over his torso like a human blanket.

Soft and sweet, his little hellcat fit against him perfectly.

And he had no intention of letting her go any time soon.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“I DON’T THINK I’VE ever loved anything more in my entire life.”

Quinn wasn’t surprised by Rylan’s declaration. She was amused by it though. Never had she seen a person so enamored with a set of brand new bed sheets.

Over the past few weeks, they’d had every single one of their dates at her house. This was their first time at his place, and she’d prepared for the weekend by hitting up a bunch of discount and big box stores to find the silkiest 2,000 thread count Egyptian sheet set she could afford.

She’d gotten a killer deal since the package only had the fitted sheet, but it fit her budget perfectly. After another hour of rabid bargain shopping, she’d found pillowcases that were a close match as well.

When Rylan had first opened his front door and caught sight of the shiny new sheets in her hands, his nostrils flared as he took in the scent of laundry detergent. The effect had his eyes fighting a hard, tormented battle between staring at her face and staring at the sheets.

Funniest thing ever.

Her laughter seemed to break the back and forth Wimbledon trance and within seconds, he was nabbing her elbow and rushing them over to the bedroom to swap out his sheets.

He groaned out in appreciative bliss a minute later when he discovered that she’d washed and made the sheets extra soft and fluffy with the same softener scent she used for her towels—a few of which, she was now finding, seemed to have sprouted legs and walked from her house to his.

The powder blue towels serving as pseudo pillowcases were hard to miss.

While up until this point, she’d mainly found his never ending frustration with ‘evil’ laundry wash and dry cycles amusing, and his reverence over her soft bath towels endearing, it wasn’t until she actually felt all the scratchy sheets, and brillo pad like towels, and stiff as paper pillow cases in his apartment that she realized just how bad he really was at doing the laundry.

The last corner of the soft new sheets was barely tucked under the mattress before he dragged her down onto the bed and let out a deep, rumbling purr, burrowing in the sheets and pillow case like a big, brawny lion.

A long sigh of pleasure whooshed out of him and he sat up to pull her onto the bed, tucking her against him contentedly.

“Thank you, sweetheart. This is the best present you could’ve given me.”

* * * * *

RYLAN TOOK IN the soft glow of pleasure lighting her face. Next to her blushes, these were his second favorite. And he loved that this particular glow had been the result of her getting him a gift. The sweetest gift he could’ve imagined.

Twining her long legs with his, he felt her run the tip of her index finger over his bicep and then up to trace his tattoo.

He groaned silently. Everywhere she touched always seemed to become a live current of electricity.

“You know that first day we saw each other?” she asked, rubbing her finger in tiny circles over his now over-sensitized skin.

“Yeah?” All he could focus on was each stroke sending a lightning bolt of arousal down his body, looking for the most explosive means of freedom.

“I couldn’t take my eyes off your arms. Every time you weren’t looking, I’d sneak a peek, trying to see more than just the curling edges of your tattoo every time your sleeve rode up those massive biceps of yours.”

He made a non-descript sound, because, in all honesty, he hadn’t heard a thing she’d just said.

She looked at him expectantly.

Criminy. She’d just asked him a question, hadn’t she?

He shoved down the roar of blood in his ears when her tongue licked over the tattoo on the inside of his forearm.

“Is that a no?” she asked, lips twitching in amusement.

Damn, he caught her.

“I didn’t hear what you said, sweetie, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, well it was no big deal.” She shrugged and half-rose from the bed. “I was just asking if you wanted to christen these new sheets, is all.”

He clamped his hands on her hips and flipped her back onto the bed.

Laughing, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “So I guess that’s a yes.”

He skimmed his lips across her shoulder, smiling against her skin. “That’s a hell yes.”

The soft, happy sigh slipping past her lips had his chest tightening with emotion just as he felt her teeth nip along his jawline.

Hell. He needed to calm down and regain some control.

A futile mission, he decided soon after when she then ran her palms across his abs, slowly, as if it were an immense pleasure just to feel him.

Spearing his hands through her hair, he opened his mouth against her skin to taste her.

Always so sweet.

Another sigh, accompanied by a sexy, feminine shiver had him pulling back, even as his hands flexed against her hips.

“You’re a menace to my control,” he rasped.

“Right back at you,” she tossed back as she tugged at his shirt.

Their clothes flew off soon after at an alarming speed, but still it didn’t feel fast enough.

Already hard enough to hammer nails, he quickly reached for a condom, knowing he would never have the presence of mind to do so later.

As he slipped it on, he let out a low groan, raw and tortured, when he felt his knuckles graze her hot, slick core. So wet.

Turning his hand gently, he slipped a finger deep inside her, reveling in the wild cry that left her lips as her hips arched and silently asked for more. Her limbs began trembling as he captured a berry ripe nipple in his mouth, tugged and caressed as he slowly slid between her legs.

Damn. He’d thought he was hungry for her before, but now he was downright starving.

With his hard length nudging against her scorching hot heat, he gripped her hips and plunged deep inside her with one long stroke.

Her hands clutched at his biceps and slid down to manacle his wrists. Planted beside her head, she held on to them for leverage as she bucked up to meet and deepen his thrusts.

Eyes locking on his, she smiled a secret utterly female smile and kissed him from the inside out, gentle rolling pulses that squeezed over his hard length, made him release a harsh sound of pleasure. Her sapphire eyes darkened, grew so turbulent with emotion, he felt the force of his thrusts increase, her eyes dilating even more with every plunge.

Her cries quickly dissolved into spasms of pleasure that tightened over him like a hot, silken vise. He was lost in the moment. Ready to come, but wanting this never to end.

Rylan, please. Harder. More.

Her words echoed in his head, stripping the last of his control.

With gentle rough fingers, he reached between them and stoked the flame hotter, reveled in her inner muscles rippling over him as she let out a soft, lust-glittered moan. She angled her hips then, taking him deeper. Just once.

And he lost it.

His entire body went rigid, his world detonating with the force of her orgasm that sent him spiraling over the edge.

With her name on his lips, he surged into her one last time and plunged into darkness.

* * * * *

WHEN HE RESURFACED back to the land of the living, he found her awake, again tracing a finger over his tattoo, mind clearly chugging away.

“What are you thinking about, baby?”

She sat up and he immediately felt the loss bang against his chest. “Come back and cuddle with me, woman.”

A smile peeked through at that rough demand but she maintained her interrogation face.

He sighed, wondering what was going on in that busy little head of hers.

“Were you holding back earlier? During all the sex, I mean?” A faint blush pinked her cheeks and he almost lost track of the questioning. It never ceased to amaze him—and turn him on—how she could be his ferocious little hellcat one second, and his shy, sweet kitten the next.

“Was I holding back? Not at all. Why, were you?” He raised a brow. “Are you about to crush my fragile male ego?”

She laughed. “I think you have plenty ego left on reserve. But seriously, you weren’t holding back on anything? As in things you like?”

“I like you.”

“I’m being serious.”

“No, you’re being weird.” He sighed and tucked his arms behind his head. “Just say what you’re trying to say.”

After a pregnant pause, she looked him in the eye and said in one long exhale, “I know you’re a dom, and that you like to go to BDSM clubs.”

He blinked at her for a second and then cursed.

“So it’s true!”

Thankfully that wasn’t sheer horror on her face. More a cross between curiosity, amusement, and a tiny bit of hurt, along with a whole lot of questions.

“Who’d you hear that from?” he asked shaking his head tiredly. “Dani? Xoey?”

“Yes.”

He paused and then rolled his eyes. “Well that explains some very weird Christmas gifts I got last year.”

“From Dani or Xoey?”

He chuckled. “Dani. Xoey always gives me weird gifts.”

She tilted her head. “Why didn’t you tell me? That you were into all that whole dom and sub thing.”

“I’m not.”

“But…”

“Quinn, I’m not a dom. But…my ex, Lacey, was a sub. That is, she realized she was a sub while we were dating.”

Quinn wrapped her arms around her legs and tucked her chin on her knees. “Really? That must have been hard on you two.”

He loved this about her. That he could just talk to her about anything, even the bizarre and uncomfortable.

“It was hard. She started researching it heavily and throwing herself into the lifestyle. But I wasn’t in to it. She kept saying if I loved her, I should at least try it.”

A look of annoyance flitted across Quinn’s face and he almost reached out and kissed her for that. “It wasn’t all bad. But after about six months, I discovered she was becoming obsessed with the lifestyle—in an outsider-looking-in way. Everything about her changed…or no, that’s not right. I think her true inner self just came rushing out all at once.”

With a heavy sigh, he closed his eyes and tried not to let those long few months fill him with the black sticky webs of discontent and at times, pure misery, as it had back then.

“Because she didn’t have a dom to help her, she sort of just…lost it. I’ve been told that if she’d had a dom to guide her, or more folks in the lifestyle to help her, she wouldn’t have unraveled the way she did. But basically, she started needing me to tell her what to wear, who to be friends with, how to act, when to talk. When and if to use the bathroom, when and if she should eat. And she wanted to be punished for things, she wanted to punish herself, rather. Almost cruelly. Not for the sake of pain, but almost like she was going crazy in her own skin.”

Now, Quinn did look horrified.

Yeah. That’s how it’d been for him too.

“Then one day, she tried to commit suicide.”

Quinn gasped.

“I tried to get her to go to a therapist and she did for a while. Some helped a little but it was still like she was wearing someone else’s skin, going crazy scratching at it to try and tear it off.” He exhaled roughly. “Honestly, I knew I couldn’t go through another six months like the six prior so I made myself think outside the box.”

Quinn’s eyes widened. “That’s why you went to the BDSM clubs.”

He nodded. “But not in the way you’re thinking. I really have no interest in the lifestyle. But I found doms who folks recommended I talk to and I had them meet Lacey. By then, she was a shell of a human, nearly broken. I couldn’t send her out into a new world—even if it was clearly the world she’d always been meant to be in—without watching out for her.”

“So I spent a few weeks with her in the clubs, and I interviewed a bunch of doms for her. Eventually, she started to come to life. After a month, I met one dom I just knew was going to be a good fit for her. So I introduced them, threatened his life if he hurt her, of course. And then finally let her go.”

For a while, he just let the silence sink in. Almost like the thud of a book closing with the words, ‘The End.’

When he looked up at Quinn, he found she was just staring at him, shaking her head. “You’re just…you’re an amazing guy. You know that, right? I don’t know a single person who would go through everything you just explained.”

Uncomfortable with the adoration he saw shining in her eyes, he gazed up at the ceiling. “I’m not that amazing.”

Two soft female hands cupped his jaw and turned his face back towards hers. “Yes. You are.”

“I couldn’t love her the way she needed, be what she needed. And because of me, she almost died.”

“Rylan, because of you, she lived. Have you heard from her since?”

“Once. She’s pretty far immersed in the world but she did contact me once.”

“And?”

“She’s happy. Finally. She sounded really happy.”

Quinn studied him for a bit. “You’ve never told anyone this have you?”

“No. I didn’t want folks to judge her.”

“So you had no one to ask you how you were doing during it all, after it all.”

He almost choked on the emotions in his throat. “No.”

A silent beat passed before she asked, “Were you okay during it all, after it all?”

“Not really. I’d felt like every emotion I possessed had been slaughtered in a war that I didn’t even know I’d been fighting until I was cornered and almost crushed. My heart had felt ripped to shreds. Not because she’d broken it, but because it’d been wrung dry, clawed at, twisted around, and cracked open. Shredded. It’d been shredded. But the sad part was that I didn’t ever love her, not really. I cared for her a great deal, but I stayed by her to help her and take care of her. I got my heart shredded and it wasn’t even filled with love for the woman at the time. Crazy, right?”

She gazed into his eyes—concern, empathy, and pride all swirling around in that blue abyss. “How on earth did you survive that? Move on from that?”

That was easy. His heart stuttered a beat as he said simply, “You. You helped me move on from that. You help me glue back the pieces of my heart without even trying.”

She blinked in surprise, tenderness softening her expression. Crawling back across the bed, she tucked herself against him and he almost shuddered at the emotions flooding through him at the perfect fit, the grounding feeling she brought him each time.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

QUINN HAD NEVER been happier in her life.

Of course her life raising Cooper alone had always been one filled with love, laughter, and joy. But true and unconditional happiness…she wasn’t sure she’d really ever had that until Rylan came into her life.

It had happened over time, in small and big ways, random and unexpected ways—she’d fallen in love with him. Slowly when she wasn’t looking.

Well she was looking now.

“If you keep staring at me like that, I’m going to be late to work, woman,” warned Rylan, pulling her in for another deep goodbye kiss.

They’d been saying goodbye for a good ten minutes now.

“Alright, alright,” she brushed one last kiss on his lips and fell back onto her heels, smothering a laugh when he looked like a boy who’d just dropped his ice cream cone.

“You need to go to work, and so do I.” She turned to head over to her car, ever so aware of his eyes lingering on her from behind.

She’d just swung her car door when suddenly she felt her feet getting swept right up off the ground.

“One more kiss,” rumbled Rylan as he cradled her body against his.

It was a hell of a kiss.

Hours later, she was still floating along on the same ridiculously happy bubble on her way to pick Cooper up from preschool.

She wasn’t at all surprised when her phone rang when she was just minutes away.

“Hey, sweetie,” Rylan’s deep, velvety rich voice filled the car over the Bluetooth speakers. “Are you sure you don’t need me to take off work and head over to the doctor with you guys?”

“It’s fine,” she reassured him for the umpteenth time. “It’s his yearly check-up with his pulmonologist. They usually just take some scans and check his breathing. No big deal. You coming over tonight?”

That stopped being a yes or no question for Rylan weeks ago. “I should be done here by six.” A loud commotion sounded behind him. “Criminy. Babe, I gotta run. See you tonight.”

* * * * *

HOURS LATER, QUINN was plugging Cooper’s nebulizer in and flipping through the channels of the small TV she’d put in there as soon as they got home.

When he was entranced by the late afternoon cartoons, she set her alarm to half the time of Cooper’s treatment schedule.

Then she went into her room.

Locked the door.

And cried.

Another surgery.

Cooper needed yet another surgery.

The doctors had needed today’s new scans to confirm what they’ve been apparently suspecting for a while. Various areas of scar tissue from the respiratory complications and resulting half dozen surgeries Cooper had endured as a newborn were now blocking a large portion of his airway and hindering his ability to breathe even in normal day-to-day function.

So that hadn’t been mere asthma attacks that he’d been suffering through the past several months.

Quinn cried even harder as she replayed their description of the entire airway reconstruction surgery Cooper would need—a complex procedure that would be multiply invasive, require months of difficult recovery, and of course, cost thousands even after insurance.

Fear and rage and helplessness ripped through her, sliced her heart into ribbons.

As the pain continued to grow, she grabbed for her phone and stared at the number her fingers had already begun to dial.

She stopped herself just in time.

Then, instead of calling the one person she wanted, needed to talk to, she spent the next few minutes looking through photos on her phone.

And crying.

Until her alarm beeped at the fifteen-minute mark.

Then she went to the bathroom to wash her face.

She’d cried for exactly one minute after she’d found Brody cheating on her all those years ago.

And then she’d dried her tears and started on a plan to figure out how to be the best damn single mom she could be.

She’d cried for five minutes when the doctors had first told her about all the respiratory surgeries her newborn son would have to undergo, before she’d even had a chance to hold him, to tell him it would be alright.

And then she’d dried her tears and gotten down on her knees and prayed, and begged, and bargained with God nonstop until Cooper made it out of that first surgery alive.

She’d cried for ten minutes straight when her parents had been killed by a drunk driver, just a few months after Cooper was born, before they’d even had a chance to take him out of the hospital.

And then she’d dried her tears and sat beside Cooper every night in the hospital, telling him every story she could remember about her parents, so he would know what amazing grandparents he’d had.

So today she’d cried for fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes to be angry at the universe for torturing her son like this, for being so cruel.

Fifteen minutes to be angry at the universe for letting her feel happiness and then ripping it away.

Fifteen minutes to be angry at the universe for making her have to do the hardest thing she could imagine later tonight.

And now she was drying her tears so she could read through all the literature and paperwork the doctors had given her today, right after she got Cooper started on his next breathing treatment, got dinner ready, and figured out where she was going to find over $300,000 to pay for Cooper’s upcoming surgery and rehab, and simultaneously still keep paying back the $426,171 she still owed from his pediatric medical bills.

Fifteen minutes was all the time she could give her heart to cry.

Tears now dried, she put a big smile on her face and headed into Cooper’s room. Dropping the second vial of medicine in for his next treatment, she asked him brightly, “How does spaghetti sound for dinner?”

* * * * *

RYLAN STARED at the text message on his screen, counting down the minutes, to the very second, to do what Quinn had asked.

>>> I KNOW YOU’RE UPSET. BUT I NEED TO MAKE SURE COOPER GOES TO BED FIRST. HE HAD A ROUGH DAY. IF YOU WANT TO TALK, HE SHOULD BE ASLEEP BY EIGHT.

It was eight on the dot when he stepped up onto Quinn’s front porch and waited for her to open the door. He didn’t ring the doorbell. He didn’t want to wake up Coop.

Plus, he knew she’d be waiting for him at the time she specified.

The time she’d designated to break his heart.

She opened the door without a sound and wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“Quinn, don’t do this.”

She was running. She was scared and overwhelmed so of course she was running. He didn’t fault her for it. But he’d be damned if he was going to just let her give up on them.

“Did Luke tell you?” she asked quietly.

“I should’ve heard it from you,” he answered instead. “I shouldn’t have been in Desert Confections buying chocolate for you two. I should have been right next to you, holding your hand, comforting Coop. I shouldn’t have heard it from Luke.” Voice raw with emotion, he repeated, “I should’ve heard it from you.”

Fear gripping his heart, he asked the first thing on his mind. “How’s Cooper doing?”

“He’s scared,” she murmured. “He’s old enough to understand so he’s pretty scared.”

He didn’t want to ask her how she was doing because that was an asinine question. Instead, he dragged her into his arms. He grit his teeth when she tried to pull back. “Let me hug you, Quinn. And hug me, too. Because I’m scared for Cooper, just like you are.”

Finally, her arms circled his waist and he held on tight. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, needing to know what had been going on in her head when she’d chosen to call Luke instead of him.

A long minute passed before she replied in a voice lacking all the quintessentially Quinn spark and fire he loved, “Because I didn’t want to ruin your day. You had just gotten that email regarding your bid on the museum project—”

“You think I care more about some damn project than you and Cooper?” Frustration and hurt throbbed in his voice.

“Of course not,” she replied, sounding just…tired. “Of course I didn’t think that. And that’s exactly why I didn’t call. I didn’t want you to do anything rash. This is your career. My problems shouldn’t get in the way of your career.”

He gripped her hands in his. “Honey, we’ll figure all this out together. I have a lot saved up—”

“No.”

“Damn you and your pride. I want to do this.”

“No. It’s not my pride. It’s just not your problem, Rylan.”

“To hell it isn’t! I love you, and I love Coop. Your problems are my problems.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Rylan. You don’t know what it’s like to feel like you’re working thirty-hour days for months on end. You don’t know what it’s like to have over a half a million dollars in debt hanging over your head. You don’t know what it’s like to look into your own future and see no home, no money, no job. You don’t know what it’s like to scream at an insurance agent because they won’t effing pay for your child to live, then to scream at God for being so damn cruel. You don’t know what it’s like to have doctors telling you that this day might be your child’s last. But I do.”

“You don’t know what it’s like to have to choose between love and life.” She dropped her gaze to the floor. “And before tonight, I didn’t either. But now I do.”

He could feel her slipping away from him and he didn’t know what the hell he could do to stop it. “You’re right, honey. I don’t know what any of that is like. But that doesn’t mean I won’t go through all that and more for you, and with you.”

“I can’t do this to you, Rylan. You and I just started dating, I can’t possibly put this on your plate.”

“So you think that’s it. It’s just a decision about us that you make on your own.”

She shook her head sadly. “I don’t have the time or strength to fit you in to this new life. It’s not as simple as just standing beside me. I only have the time for thirty hours of work, and hospital, and mom duties in a twenty-four hour day. I only have the strength to protect Cooper’s heart and maybe my own if I’m lucky.”

Rylan flinched, knowing exactly what she was trying to do. “This isn’t the same thing as Lacey. Don’t try to bridge the two.”

“If you’d stop and look at it, you’d see the similarities. If you let you tether yourself to me while I have to go through all this, it would be like Lacey all over again. You stayed with her for so long out of obligation. You took care of her and almost destroyed yourself in the process. I could never ever ask that of you. I refuse to do that to you.”

“And you don’t think breaking this off now isn’t tearing my heart to shreds right now?”

Pain streaked across her face. “I think at least those wounds would be able to heal.”

Just then, they both heard Cooper crying out from the bedroom, “Mommy!”

“I have to go, Rylan.”

And just like that, he watched her close the door on their relationship.

* * * * *

“IT’S OKAY, SWEETIE. Mommy’s right here. You just had a nightmare, that’s all.”

Quinn rocked Cooper back and forth in her arms.

“Mommy?” he asked drowsily, “is Rylan going to read me a story tonight?”

She swallowed back the pain. “No, honey. I know he would if he could though. But remember what the doctors said today, you and I are going to be really busy for a while. So we might not be able to see Rylan too much for a while.”

“Oh.” He nodded sadly. “I think I’m going to miss him.”

Closing her eyes, she whispered back, “Me too, munchkin. Me too.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

RYLAN GOT HOME later that night and punched a hole in his wall.

Staring at the damage, he turned to another blank wall and was all set to do a little more home remodeling with his fists when his phone rang.

“H’lo?” He didn’t even bother hoping that it was Quinn.

“Hi sweetheart. Just confirming that you’ll be bringing this girlfriend we’ve been hearing so much about to our cookout next weekend. Your dad and I are dying to meet her.”

Right. He’d planned to introduce Quinn and Cooper to his folks then.

“No, sorry, mom. Something came up. She won’t be able to make it.”

A measured pause, then. “Everything okay?”

He’d never been one to talk to his folks, or anyone really, about his relationship problems. Hell, that’s why no one knew the reason why he and Lacey never worked out.

“Rylan, I can hear you hurting over the phone.” Her voice quieted, but still resonated in that mom-tone. “I wasn’t able to help you work through whatever happened with Lacey. And it just about killed me. Talk to me, sweetheart. Maybe I can help.”

Startled, he looked at his phone, almost picturing his mom with her Carol Brady hair. Worrying about him. He hadn’t realized. “I never meant to keep you shut out. Lacey and I were…complicated.”

“Judging by the fall-out, I gathered that. Is this the same situation with Quinn?”

No. Quinn was the exact opposite of Lacey. What she was doing, and why she was doing it…he understood. Loved her even more for it, actually. “Remember how I told you her son Cooper has asthma? Well, it turns out, he has to get this entire airway reconstruction surgery on account of scarring from all the surgeries he’d had when he was first born.”

“Oh, Rylan. That poor woman.”

“I know. She’s taking it hard. She’s worried about Cooper and money, and she’s trying to be so strong. If only she’d let me help.” Frustration ate away at him like acid. “She broke things off tonight.”

“Rylan, honey. You need to give it time.”

“I don’t think time is going to fix this one, Mom. You can’t even begin to imagine what she’s already gone through, and what she’s preparing herself to go through. Alone. She doesn’t want to drag me into it.” A bitter laugh burst out of his chest. “She doesn’t want me to give up the museum project for her, and she’d rather I be out dating and having fun instead of holding her hand through this.”

He dropped his head into his hands. “Is dad there? Do you think you could put him on speaker?”

“Sure, just a sec.”

“Hey son. I’m sorry about Quinn and Cooper. I wish there were something we could do.” His father, always quick with the good advice, didn’t have more than that to offer.

“Dad, when Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, if that had happened when you two first started dating, knowing what you know now about how hard the battle was going to be, do you think you guys would’ve survived it?”

His dad was silent for quite a bit, before he answered, “You know, I’d like to think so. But honestly, I don’t know. Maybe not.”

Great.

“Honey, what your Dad means is that we know a lot of survivors who ended up having a lot of problems in their marriages, some even got divorced. It’s a tough thing for a couple to go through. While your Dad and I love each other more than anything, the intensity, heartache, and scares of what we went through would’ve probably been too much for a new relationship.”

Rylan released a dejected sigh. “So you don’t think Quinn and I could handle this. That’s what you’re saying.”

“Actually…I think you could.”

“So do I, son,” added his dad. “You’re a way different man than I was when I first met your mother. And Quinn…she sounds like she’s already gone through ten times more than what your mother had at the time. Plus, we’ve known for weeks now that you’re in love with this woman, am I right?”

More in love than he’d ever thought possible. “Yeah. I love her.”

“Then you two might have a shot.”

If only he could buy miracles with hopes and wishes. “Mom? Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Sure, honey. Anything.”

“If back then, you’d known what you know now, would you have tried to do what Quinn is doing? Would you have tried to push Dad out of your life?”

“Honestly, yes,” she replied softly. “I would do exactly what Quinn is doing now…if I loved him enough to do it. I would’ve tried.”

He sat and processed that last statement long after he hung up with his parents.

Quinn loved him, he was almost certain. But he couldn’t possibly know how much was ‘enough.’

By the next morning, he realized, it didn’t matter.

He loved her and Cooper more than ‘enough.’

* * * * *

ON SUNDAY MORNING, Quinn woke up to the sound of a loud scuffling shuffle in her back yard. She froze and tried to adjust her eyes to the early morning light. The sound came through again loud and clear so she reached under her bed for the bat Luke had bought her back in college, and made her way over to the back door.

She thrust it open and jumped out. “The cops are on their way, assho—” She lowered the bat. “Rylan? What are you doing here at his hour?”

Rylan eyed her and then her bat. “Ten to one, you didn’t actually call the cops before running your Xena Warrior Princess out here. Bat blazing.”

She scowled. “No, I didn’t.”

“Sounded convincing though. And the pink panties to distract him while you bopped him on the head was particularly ingenious.”

Quinn flushed and pulled her shirt down a bit.

“That’s my shirt, by the way.”

“You gave it to me!”

“That’s because you tricked me into putting my favorite shirts into that evil contraption you call a clothes dryer.”

She bit her lip to keep from chuckling. Really, the man did have some awful luck with laundry appliances.

“Ah ha, you admit it.” He picked up a big shovel and started digging into the ground alongside her house.

“What are you doing?” And why are you still here? It hurt her eyes to look at him, he was so beautiful. She’d been preparing herself to not see him for a while. Not that her heart had listened. Every night since she’d seen him last, she’d dreamt of him. Missed him. Loved him beyond belief.

Only to find him here this morning. Doing… “Rylan, seriously, what are you doing here?”

“You made it clear we can’t date. But we’re still friends, aren’t we? We were getting there, at least, before we started dating. So I’m here now as your friend. I get that you don’t want to date me and burden my life. Don’t agree with it one bit, but I understand. I know you have more than enough things to worry about right now, and relationship issues is the last thing you need. That’s not why I’m here. I’m just…offering to be a friend. You can’t fault a friend from wanting to be there for you.”

God, when would he realize he was much too good for her? “Rylan, you don’t have to do that.”

“I’m afraid it’s my right as your friend, sugar. So if you’ll excuse me, I have some planting to do—I researched a bunch of plants that are supposed to be good for asthma and overall respiratory health. Then I have to go meet Lia’s brothers for a new knob and deadbolt for your door—you don’t mind if I keep a copy of the key, right? It’ll help on those nights that I’m coming over to cook you dinner to take to the hospital.”

Her hand flew up to her mouth and for a second there, she almost, almost felt herself start to cry.

But for once, not in anger or sadness or even fear.

She just loved the man so damn much. “Rylan—”

He dropped his shovel and cupped her cheek. “You’re not talking me out of this. But I will respect your wishes if you don’t want me to be around Cooper. You’re his mom and I know you’re only trying to protect him. If you think my being here, not as your boyfriend anymore, will confuse him or make him sad, just say the word.”

She shook her head. “No. Actually, Cooper already misses you.” Like I do. “He’ll love it if you still came by to visit him.”

“Not just him, sweetheart. I’m here for you, too. I’ll force-feed you take-out when you’re too tired to eat, I’ll crack my amazingly funny jokes when you’re angry at the universe, and if you’ll let me, I’ll hold your hand when you’re scared. My dad did that for me and my mom when my brother had slipped into a coma after a skateboarding accident. It helped. If for no other reason than to know that the person holding my hand loved the person I was worried about just as much as I did.”

He reached in his back pocket and pulled out a bunch of papers. “You’re not alone in this, Quinn. And it’s not just me being stubborn about it, too.”

She reached over and flipped through about a dozen flyers for concerts, craft fairs, and other fundraisers.

All for Cooper.

“Rylan, you shouldn’t have done this. We don’t need to be burdening—”

“I didn’t do this. Well, the concerts, yes. But the rest, that’s all the town’s doing.” He gave her a half shrug. “You moved to a nosy, nosy little town, sweetie. Cooper told his friends at school that he was going to be having surgery, and those kids told their parents, who then called Cooper’s teacher—who neither confirmed nor denied the info—and after deciding that was good enough recon for them, those parents contacted pretty much everyone in town.”

Quinn hung her head down and couldn’t help but laugh.

Lordy, this town…

“Of course, after half the things were already planned, someone came forward with true confirmation…via folks overhearing you yelling at your insurance company over the phone for not covering the surgery over some technicality.”

That mild rush of panic she’d gotten when she’d first heard the news hit her in the pit of her stomach again, and she swallowed back the bile as she explained bitterly, “They disagree with the treatment plan. They’re saying it’s too radical a procedure in Cooper’s case. They say that we have to first try a few other surgeries and exhaust all these other ridiculous avenues. All of which could take months that Cooper simply doesn’t have. They said that if we do all those other surgeries first, and none of them work, then they’ll cover the reconstructive surgery. But we just don’t have that kind of time to wait.”

“Heartless pricks,” snarled Rylan. “Have you tried talking to Connor? Maybe get some legal help from his firm?”

“No. Again, we don’t have that kind of time. So we’re just going to go ahead with the procedure and pay out of pocket.”

Rylan tapped on the flyers. “Well, now you have a little help with that.”

He walked back over to his shovel and wheelbarrow of plants. “Rylan?”

“Hmmm?”

“Thank you. For this. All of this. For being my friend. For helping. And…for coming back.”

“You can always count on me for all of the above, sugar. I’m not going anywhere.”

Yeah. She was starting to see that.

* * * * *

TWO WEEKS LATER, Quinn was quickly getting in some spoonfuls of the chili that Rylan had made as she watched him toss the ball around with Cooper in the back yard.

She still couldn’t believe that in the last week alone, he’d gone and done every single one of the very chores his poker games were famous for.

Washed her dog? Check. Dishes, car wash, shopping—with Penny and the kids no less. Check, check, and check. Then the big one—a load of laundry. From start to finish, without her supervision.

She’d had no words.

They were clean, yes. All wearable? Not so much.

He did manage to get a bunch of her blouses so crispy that she’d probably never have to iron them again for work. A scientifically fascinating feat she was still trying to figure out.

God, he was just the most incredible man. And a great friend, too. Lately, she found they could spend hours talking about anything and everything. Even business. Since she and Luke were starting to go through some possible financial hardships with the shop, for the past week, Rylan had actually been a great sounding board for her to bounce ideas off of, something she’d never really had before. Luke, bless his heart, had great ideas for sure, but the man couldn’t run a business to save his life.

Rylan, however, had a lot of experience from starting up his own landscaping business, and managing his band. They’d since spent a lot of time just talking business, which would lead to them discussing life in general into the wee hours of the night.

She missed him.

Even now, as she watched him playing with Cooper outside, she found she didn’t just miss kissing him and seeing that brain-scrambling body of his up close—though, she most definitely did—she missed just being with him. One day, after a particularly rough few days almost two weeks ago, Rylan had arranged for Quinn to have that spa day he’d mentioned once. Basically, he’d tricked her out of the house and pushed her out of the car at the doorstep of the spa where three people with mystically zen voices had come forward to whisk her into Shangri-la. It had been the single most relaxing day of her life. But, throughout the whole royal treatment, the entire time she’d been getting massaged and pampered to within an inch of becoming comatose with tranquility, all she’d been able to think about was how Rylan and Coop were home making mini homemade pizzas and watching a movie.

Just a few short months ago, if you’d asked her what her fantasy day-off would consist of, she would’ve absolutely said the spa. But when fantasy became reality, she’d discovered that relaxation was highly overrated. There was no doubt in her mind that she’d have preferred to have been at home just watching a movie and eating mini homemade pizzas. With her two favorite people.

It was a revelation she was still trying to grasp the full weight of.

Not today though.

Checking the time, she popped one last spoonful of food in her mouth and then ran to grab a quick shower before Rylan had to head out.

Feeling a little country today, she belted out her favorite country rock tune while gloriously using up all the hot water. These were exactly the sort of things she never took for granted—the half hour to eat and sing in the shower, all the while knowing that Coop was alright. Rylan made sure she had that every day if possible. And she was grateful to him for it every day.

That said, she didn’t want to take advantage of his kindness. Sprinting out of the bathroom, she hightailed it down the hall to her bedroom.

Where she ran smack dab into a mountain of muscles.

Her fingers flexed into his sides on reflex. And when she looked up, the burst of hunger burning in his eyes nearly consumed her whole.

His gaze ran over her face as if he were seeing the first blades of grass in spring. “You didn’t tell me you could sing like that.” God, his voice. She’d missed hearing his smoky voice curl around her, and deepen the longer she stood in his arms.

Belatedly, his words registered and she blushed. She never let anyone hear her sing. Back when she was younger, she and Penny used to sing in the community choir, but she’d long since stopped training her voice. “Did I sound like a drowning cat?”

Smiling affectionately at her, he shook his head. “You sounded like a sea siren, sugar.” His eyes traced over her lips. “Your voice is every bit as beautiful as you are.”

Slowly then, he rested his forehead against hers, murmuring so quietly she almost didn’t hear him, “So damn beautiful.”

Every cell in her body was screaming at her to just tilt her lips up to his, to take the kiss they were both dying for.

“I better head out, sweetheart.” He squeezed her hands gently. “See you at the fundraising auction tomorrow.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE NEXT NIGHT, the small post-fundraising auction gathering at Ocotillos was already in full swing by nine p.m. Seemed like the entire town had turned out both for the auction and the after-party at Ocotillos. Rylan couldn’t have been more thrilled. They’d raised a ton of money for Coop, and Quinn was now looking genuinely content, almost completely at ease, for the first time in a long while. It was like the avalanche the universe had piled on her shoulders had finally lessened, if only for a few short hours.

That’s all that mattered.

Not the widening pit in his heart that ached to be filled whenever he was around her but couldn’t drag her to him for a kiss.

Not the sharp sense of loss he felt every time he left her home to spend the rest of the night wishing he could just be there holding her while she slept, making sure that she slept.

Not the feeling of wanting so badly to tell her how freakin’ much he missed her and wanted to spend the rest of his life loving both her and Coop.

No, this right here, this was all that mattered.

All of a sudden, he needed a breather. After quickly making sure she was still okay, and still smiling, he went outside to grab a moment alone to collect his thoughts.

It didn’t last long.

“Excuse me, do you know where I could find Quinn and Cooper?” asked a deep voice with a hint of an accent Rylan couldn’t quite place.

Looking over at the man in the designer suit, Rylan asked none-too-politely, “How do you know Quinn and Cooper?”

The man shifted his eyes from the brewpub, then back to Rylan. “Let’s just say, I’m an old acquaintance.”

When the man turned back to him fully, Rylan realized he was looking at a grown-up version of Cooper. “Shit. You’re Brody aren’t you? Cooper’s dad.”

Rylan waited exactly half a head nod as confirmation before he grabbed the man by his throat and dragged him to the side alley. “You’re a far way’s from Europe, Mr. Deadbeat Dad. What the hell are you doing here?”

Brody knocked Rylan’s hands away. “Back off, man. I’m here to talk to Quinn. Family matters.”

Rage rushed through Rylan’s veins so fast he was afraid for one second there that he truly was going to murder the man.

My family.

Quinn and Cooper were his family, not this asswipe’s. He wasn’t going to let this toxic piece of shit anywhere near Quinn or Cooper.

“Don’t you ever use Quinn and the word family in the same sentence again. You’re not family. You’re just the asshole who cheated on his girl, and left her to give birth to raise her son on her own. You’ve never sent her a single penny to help with Coop’s medical bills, and you’ve never even sent him a frickin’ birthday or Christmas card.”

“Look, it was the best thing for them both when I left. If I’d stayed, I would’ve screwed up their lives,” said Brody, suddenly looking and sounding almost…regretful.

Too little, too late. “Just get the hell out of here.”

“Don’t you think that’s Quinn’s decision? What gives you the right to keep a boy from his father? What, you think just because you’re sleeping with her, you can play step dad to my son?”

Rylan saw red. Chest heaving, he was so angry he couldn’t see straight. He rammed Brody back up against the wall, very nearly cracking the man’s head open in the process. “I’m going to ask you one last time,” he snarled. “What are you doing here?”

Brody snarled right back. “Can’t a father just want to help his son?”

Where this douche bag was concerned? Over Rylan’s dead body.

That’s when a thought occurred to him. “You know about Cooper’s surgery, don’t you?” His eyes narrowed and he let him down. “How?”

Brody shrugged. “There’s been some buzz on YouTube and some crowdsource pages that went viral after the chocolate and beer thing here. So I thought I’d stop by to see if I could...help.”

Rylan had a sickening feeling he knew where this was going. “Okay, you want to help Quinn? Cut a check right now and I’ll see to it that she gets it. Every little bit will ease the stress she’s been under lately.”

Brody’s jaw ticked and Rylan could practically see the conniving wheels turning.

“See, that’s the thing.” Brody’s voice turned slick. “Finances are a little tight right now. But I thought with all this music stuff you guys have going on to help Cooper, I’m a musician so why not come on down and help.”

Rylan stood there in shock for a second, almost disbelieving his own ears. “You’re just here to cash in on all the social media attention.”

Brody simply shrugged, but at least he showed embarrassment—albeit a fleeting microsecond mini flash only—over his despicable actions. “If my being here creates a bigger buzz, it’ll mean more attention for Cooper, right? Which will mean more money. What’s the harm in getting me a little face time and name time in the process? I mean how great would it be for everyone to see Coop and I doing some photo ops, maybe before and after the surgery, that sort of thing? We could even do some sort of documentary of the whole surgery, too. And I could play the music in the background of the video, you know?”

Un-friggin-believable. The guy was lower than scum. He was an evil, opportunistic little prick willing to put his own five-year old son through a possible media circus for a little table scrap of publicity. “You’d put your own son through that? Record all the fear and pain he’s about to go through and splash it all over the creation? You would do that knowing full well with the internet now days that it could all escalate to something crazy or even morph into something ugly that could possibly blow back against Quinn somehow—jeopardize the fundraisers or even her business. You’d be willing to put your ‘family’ through all of that?”

Rylan’s voice shook with pure fury. “After all you’ve already done to her, this is how you treat the mother of your child? Quinn would do absolutely anything for Cooper, anything to keep him happy, keep him safe. Even if it meant slaving away for pennies day and night for the next three lifetimes, she’d rather choose that path than subject that amazing little boy to a tenth of what you’re suggesting.”

Now it was Brody’s turn to look stunned. “You love Quinn.”

“I love them both,” he snapped. “And until my dying day, I’ll protect them in any way I can.”

For a second there, Rylan could’ve sworn that he saw a look of empathy in Brody’s expression. Even respect.

But it was gone a moment later, only to be replaced by a slow transformation, that seemed to shift Brody’s entire demeanor. Rylan didn’t trust that gleam in his eye.

“You know…” Brody began with carefully measured words. “I can see that my being here is a concern for you. I guess I don’t blame you. I could go back to Europe. Without Quinn and Cooper even knowing I was here…if that’s what you want.”

Rylan’s eyes narrowed and he remained silent, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Brody lifted an innocent, golly-gee shoulder. “I could just help out from Europe. With a song.” He leveled a look on Rylan. “But, really, it seems like the public who have been following Cooper’s story already thinks there’s already a perfect “dad” song on YouTube. I must’ve seen hundreds of comments just yesterday alone talking about how this song is the most amazing father–son anthem…”

Rylan couldn’t friggin’ believe his ears. “You want credit for my song. The song I wrote for Cooper.”

“Well, I just think it would be a little weird for there to be two Dad songs on this project, don’t you?”

The feral growl that came blasting out of Rylan’s chest was all the warning Brody needed to narrowly miss the fist coming at him.

Rylan jerked back his hand and shook off the blood. That brick wall might have possibly broken his hand, but he didn’t even register the pain. “You were never Cooper’s dad.”

Another fleeting look of regret flashed over Brody’s expression before again being replaced by that detached, I’m-in-it-for-the-money smirk…that for a second, Rylan was certain was a mask.

It was a very short second.

“I’m sure,” Brody shrugged, straightening his suit, “the media would love to shine a spotlight on Cooper’s parents. On how hard it must have been on Quinn for me to have left her pregnant and alone, a college dropout, forced to live with her best friend Luke, and now with creditors chasing her for years. God, can you imagine what a field day the media would have with that? I bet within twenty-four hours, folks will start speculating if Luke is Cooper’s dad, and if she’s secretly using the money to pay off some ill-gotten debts she was passing off as medical bills.” He crossed his arms coldly. “You’re in the music business—you and I both know how ugly these online crowd-sourced fundraisers can turn. And last I checked, the one that got started for Cooper the other week has gotten over a thousand donations already.”

What? That was news to him. He and Quinn had been so busy lately, he doubted that even she knew.

Brody tsked, steamrolling right along. “Private information in the wrong person’s hands can turn a campaign like that ugly, real fast.”

No shit. Rylan had seen it a number of times already, where folks who had no claim to fame were suddenly top internet news because of random social media posts going viral over an online fundraiser gone bad. Hundreds of thousands of comments twisting the truth via a massive game of telephone between strangers who really didn’t give a crap, but just got swept up in the social media shitstorm.

“Remember that one band who got a whole bunch of donations from fans and strangers, only to then become pariahs getting death threats when someone leaked that all of the band members had debts and skeletons in their closet?” Brody titled his head as is considering something carefully. “I suppose I don’t have to talk about that at all. I could tell the media that we both did what was best for Cooper. I could choose to focus the media’s attention on what an amazing job Quinn has done raising Cooper on her own. You know, since media attention that would make my career thrive would probably not be good for her…if what the private investigator I hired last week says is true.”

“You heartless son of a bitch.”

Brody dropped his little charade, and that weird little accent, as well. “Let’s cut to the chase. I’ll stay completely out of sight until my flight home next week and give you my word that you’ll never hear from me again if you sign the rights of that song over to me. I’ll get out of your hair and I’ll never interfere with Quinn or Cooper’s life, and I’ll do whatever I can to keep this from turning into something that could turn ugly for Quinn. I’ve had a PI on her for over a week; I know about her business problems.”

That was definitely a threat. Rylan let loose the punch that had held Brody’s name on it from the minute he saw his face.

Brody shoved him back and wiped the blood from his mouth.

Which was still yapping.

“Face it, Rylan. If the chocolate shop goes under and she needs to go get a corporate job to keep up with the bills, I’m sure any media attention like this is the last thing she’ll want when she’s thrown into the hiring pool with the big boys—MBA or not.”

“And seeing as how you two broke up,” continued Brody, “I don’t see how it’s any skin off your dick to release the song rights. So do we have a deal? You’ll of course have to tell her that I’d given you the song a while ago and you just never gave me credit until now, but we’ll figure out a nice way to spin that as well…probably along the lines of you not being able to keep my benevolence a secret any longer—“

Rylan slammed him up against the wall again. “You planned this, you goddam prick.”

“You give me too much credit. I actually didn’t think of it until now. Thank you, by the way.”

Even with a forearm shoved up against his throat, Brody managed to sound bored. “I guess we can add jealous new boyfriend attacking ex to the laundry list of media buzz.”

Dammit! Rylan instantly let him go.

Brody straightened his suit and took a step back. “My PI knows your cell phone number. I’ll call you this weekend with the time and place to meet on Monday, with all the appropriate paperwork. That should give you enough time to figure out how to tell Quinn. Remember, if you screw with me, all bets are off.”

While he wasn’t stupid enough to turn his back on Rylan, he did walk away, leaving Rylan in that alley wondering how the hell everything went from bad to worse in ten short minutes.

The song he loved because he’d written it for Cooper would be hard to give up, but he’d do it to save them from all the worst case scenarios that Brody had painted, which, sadly, were all a very real possibility.

Losing the song, he could get over.

That wasn’t what was making him sick with fear at the moment.

There was a strong possibility he’d lose Quinn and Cooper completely in the process as well.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

FOR TWO DAYS straight, all Quinn had been able to think about was that almost kiss.

And Rylan.

Mostly just Rylan. Everything about him.

The last few weeks, she’d come to realize that while Luke was always going to be her best friend, Rylan got her in ways he didn’t. When things happened in her life, lately, Rylan was the first person she felt like calling. She loved spending time with him and found her days were infinitely better just by having him in them.

Yes, it took losing him for her to understand that but in her heart, she believed she wasn’t too late.

And she had every intention of telling him that when he came over tonight.

A half hour later, when her doorbell rang, she’d practically tripped all over herself to answer it. “Hey.”

“Hey back.”

He looked…pensive. Sad.

“Everything okay?” She reached out to touch him, and then stopped. They needed to talk first. “You look upset.”

“I’ll be fine. So how did the auction go?”

She smiled brightly then. “We raised $10,000 after expenses.” Tilting her head to the side, she added softly, “And I heard you won something pretty special in the auction. Old Man Gunderson’s cactus, onionweed, and olive chutney, if the rumors are true.”

Rylan cringed, but then chuckled. “The rumors are true. I bought ten huge jars of it.”

She grinned. “I heard you were quite the eager bidder, too. Word is, the bidding went from a starting bid of a dollar, to crickets chirping, and finally one very reluctant fifty-cent bid, which you outbid by two hundred forty nine dollars and fifty cents.”

“You can’t really put a price on that chutney, but I figured twenty five dollars a jar sounded about right.”

“You made Mr. Gunderson really happy.”

“It’s a win-win. I’ve been experimenting with new organic insecticide recipes. From the jar I opened and caught a whiff of, I’m thinking I might have found the next big thing.”

“And Xoey just about peed her pants when she heard you volunteered to be in charge of washing the one-hundred tie dye shirts at next month’s family fair.”

“No one else wanted to mess up their washing machines. So, after I promised them that you’d be helping me, they wrote my name down.”

Thinking about doing laundry with him a month from now shouldn’t have felt so incredibly special, so right. But it did.

She took a deep breath. “Rylan—”

“Quinn,” he began at the same exact moment.

She shook her head with a smile. “You go first.” It was a wussy move on her part, but as long as the outcome is the same…

“Look, there’s no easy way to say this so I’m just going to say it. That song you love so much, Believe in Believing, I didn’t write that for Cooper.”

Quinn felt her mouth fall open in shock.

His confession hung there like thick, heavy fog in the room. But no matter how many times the awful words echoed in her head, she couldn’t bring herself to believe it.

“What do you mean you didn’t write that song? Did you get help on it?”

Please let that be the case.

“No. The guys and I arranged the music for it, but the lyrics were written by someone else. I just never said anything until now.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “But I’ve heard people ask you about it and you’ve told them you wrote it for Cooper. You told me you wrote it for Cooper.”

“I lied.”

Her eyes narrowed, if there was a lie involved, it was happening right now. She was sure of it. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I can’t keep taking credit for another man’s song. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if this song were responsible for some drama or backlash for you and Cooper.”

She listened to his carefully measured words and called bullshit. “What’s going on here Rylan? Tell me the truth, right now. You know I hate being handled, just as much as I hate being lied to.”

“I’m not handling you. I just…didn’t write the song.”

Convenient how he didn’t assert that he wasn’t lying. “Fine, so then who wrote it?”

His jaw clenched. Another damning tell. How the man won so much in poker was beyond her.

“Brody. Your ex Brody was the one who wrote it.”

Never, in a million years, did she ever expect that name to tumble out of Rylan’s mouth.

And especially not in that context.

Now she wasn’t just pissed, she was outright livid. Hands fisted, steam practically shooting out of her ears, she stared down Rylan, and demanded, “What the hell did that jackass do? Is he blackmailing you? Threatening you? That’s totally the bastard’s MO. I’ll kill him.”

A small smile lifted the corners of his mouth, but it was gone a moment later. “He’s not threatening me, Quinn. He really did write it. He contacted me weeks ago when you first found out about Cooper’s surgery. I guess the surgery came out as during some follow-up story after the chocolate and beer throwdown. He wrote the song, sent it to me, and begged me not to tell you or give him credit.”

She wasn’t buying a single word. But she kept letting the amazing, utterly misguided fool keep digging his grave deeper.

“But I couldn’t let this song go on the fundraising CD with my name as the lyric writer. So I told him I was going to give him credit.”

After staring at him in silence for a long minute, she pulled her phone out of her purse. “Do you know how many times a day I listen to Believe in Believing? How many times I listen to these words and hear how much you love my son?”

He stood there mutely, the stubborn man, refusing to tell her the truth.

“Dozens and dozens of times a day, Rylan. And each time I fall in love with it even more, each time I fall in love with you even more. The person who wrote that song is the man that in my heart, I’d want to be Cooper’s dad. And now you’re standing there telling me that man is Brody.”

Shock, anger, regret, denial, frustration and a hundred other emotions raced across his face, but he kept his silence.

Quinn felt sick to her stomach. Even the thought of attaching Brody’s name to that song made her crazy. “So now you’re saying that by some musicians code of honor, you want everyone to hear this song, and think of Brody as the man who loves Cooper as much as the song portrays.” She glared at him. “You want me to basically tell everyone who hears this song that Brody isn’t the complete loser who abandoned me and his child without a single dime, without even a damn phone call throughout any of Cooper’s surgeries or hospital scares.”

“You want me to stand by and let all those listeners think that I don’t hate him with every fiber of my being for leaving me alone and scared after my emergency c-section when the surgeons told me we’d almost lost Cooper. That I don’t hate him for not comforting me when they told me Cooper might not survive his first week of life, or speak or laugh. That I don’t hate him for not being there to comfort his own son on the endless nights when Cooper would cry, not because he was an infant who wanted milk or comfort, but rather, because he was struggling to breathe and fighting more pain than any newborn should be expected to endure.”

Rylan reached for her but she backed away.

Now that she started, she couldn’t stop.

“But you know what? That’s not even when I started hating him. The man was dead to me when I started my second trimester and he bartered me off to a loan shark to cover his gambling debts.”

Rylan paled. Shock, fury, and…heartbreaking sympathy flew across his features.

“That’s right. You want to know why I hate gambling so much? It’s because I was wagered off once. Brody had a fifteen thousand dollar debt so not only did he steal everything he could from me, but he also gave me to his loan shark. Like he owned me. Like I was his slave, his property that he could give away to who knows what fate. He bartered this deal and took off.”

Voice shaking, she stared at him and said dully, “My only saving grace was that the loan shark had a semi-decent conscience and didn’t want a single pregnant college chick who would be showing in about a month be an indentured escort for his high-end prostitute business. So he let me trade my grandmother’s two-carat diamond ring, the one that I had wanted to bury my mother with, but couldn’t, because her living will insisted I keep it for my own engagement, and then pass it on to my children, along with the beloved history of her mother’s mother wearing it.”

Before he could say a single word, she walked over to the door and pulled it open.

“I think you should leave, Rylan. Because whether you’ve been lying this entire time or you’re just lying now, you’re doing it because you’ve made a deal with the devil. My own personal devil. And now, every single time I hear that song, that’s all I’ll be able to think of.”

He stepped out onto the porch.

And she closed the door behind him.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

RYLAN HAD LOST HER once and for all.

All weekend, he picked up his phone countless times but before he could finish dialing Quinn’s number, he just remembered the look of devastation on her face, heard every single heartsickening word of what that bastard Brody put her through.

Rylan couldn’t have begun to imagine the levels of evil Quinn’s ex had reached.

But now that he did, if anything, it made him more determined to sell Brody the song to keep him out of Quinn’s life for good.

“You’re early.” Brody sat down across the table from him. “Were you waiting long?”

“Spare me the pleasantries, asshole. Just give me the paperwork so we can be done with it. I want your ugly face out of my town.”

“By all means.” Brody slid a stack of paperwork before him. “It’s tagged and ready for you to sign.”

“Rylan William Grey, don’t you dare sign that.”

Rylan and Brody both looked up in surprise to see Quinn headed toward them, her face grim.

“Honey, it’s all for the best this way. Brody has agreed—”

Quinn stopped right at their table. “This isn’t Brody.”

What?

She tilted her head at the nameless man. “You’re looking good, Cam.”

“Likewise, Quinn.”

Quinn turned back to Rylan. “Rylan, meet Cameron, Brody’s older brother, manager, and all around Mr. Fix It and vacuum cleaner for all of Brody’s trouble and crap.”

“That is what’s on my business card,” said Cam, dryly.

Rylan frowned. “I checked out your ex’s photos online and matched him up.”

“Yeah,” nodded Quinn. “They’ve always looked similar. Cam always looked smarter, and a touch douchier.”

Cam chuckled. “Same old Quinn.”

And because Rylan was clearly in a strange alternate universe, Quinn smiled back before shaking her head and volleying back, “Same old Cam. I knew your brother wasn’t smart enough to come up with this plan. It just took me a few days to get over the hurt and figure it all out.”

Rylan felt a migraine coming on. “I’m completely confused as to whether I should bash this guy’s head in right now or not.”

The question went unanswered as at the moment, Cameron and Quinn were busy facing off and ignoring him completely.

Quinn tsked. “I’ve forgiven a lot of what you’ve done for Brody over the years but this was way below the belt. Stealing another artist’s song? Even for you, this seemed extreme.”

Cam let out a heavy sigh. “You were always the only one who thought I had an ounce of good in me.” He looked over at Rylan. “I was going to keep it as an insurance policy only, I swear. If things got out and got ugly, I was going to bring this out to try and redeem him at least a little. We weren’t going to take it, perform it, or anything.” He turned back to Quinn. “I was actually going to go over all of that with Rylan today – it’s all in the paperwork.”

Rylan studied his worried expression. “What do you mean if things got out and got ugly.”

“The deadbeat dad thing,” guessed Quinn. “Am I right?”

“Gold star for Quinn. But there’s a little more to it. I know it’s going to be hard for you to believe, and I don’t blame you, Brody does finally seem to have gotten his shit together a little. At least enough to be stable. He’s seeing someone who’s a pretty good influence on him. He’s in gambler’s anonymous. And on the music front, he’s on a few good-sized tours and concerts.”

Cam scrubbed a tired hand over his face. “The thing is, he had to hit rock bottom first before this turnaround. It wasn’t that long ago, too. Ever since, I’ve been worried that it would take just one thing to send him on a tailspin that even I won’t be able to pull him out of.”

Despite everything, Rylan could see at least that this man cared a great deal for his brother. “So you were worried that with the media coverage on Cooper, someone might dig a little and find out about Brody abandoning him.”

“Not just abandoning him, but also treating Quinn like total garbage.”

Cam’s eyes were filled with sorrow, regret, and definitely shame. “I know what happened with that loan shark before Brody skipped town. I didn’t know about it until way too late. Quinn, you have to believe that if I’d known, I would’ve gotten you out somehow. I would never have left you in that position.”

She nodded. “I know. But I knew you were covering a lot of his debts already. Between the two of us, that brother of yours has several lifetimes of shit to apologize for. But I never faulted you for what Brody did to me, or what I had to do to get myself out.”

Cam shook his head. “You were always stronger than anyone I ever knew, Quinn”

“I appreciate that.”

She reached over for the contract and held it up. “We’re not signing this, Cam. You know it’s not right. But I know you’re worried about your brother. He doesn’t deserve it, but I give you my word that I’ll be your insurance policy. If it does trickle over to your world somehow, I’ll step up and do what I can to keep the backlash as little as possible.”

“Quinn, I can’t ask you to do that. I’d never ask you to do that.”

“But you were willing to ask the man I love to sign over a song he wrote for my son, your nephew. The boy he clearly loves.”

He dropped his head into his hands. “Shit, when you put it that way.”

“Did you think I was going to put it any other way?”

“No. Which is why I tightened the screws as much as I did with Rylan. I didn’t want him to bring you along.”

Quinn chuckled. “Still scared of me?”

“Always.”

She studied him for a beat. “You listened to the words, didn’t you? To the song.”

“Yeah.”

“And you were honestly okay with letting Rylan sign over that song to Brody?”

“I listened to it after. And no, I wasn’t okay with it after I heard the lyrics that Rylan had written.”

Cam sighed. “For what it’s worth, I really didn’t come here with this plan in place. That’s why I needed a few days to get the contracts. I listened to it yesterday.” He glanced over at Rylan. “I made changes to the contract after that. The contract was built to protect Brody’s reputation but it would’ve protected your rights to the song, even from my brother.”

“Too little, too late, Cam,” said Quinn.

Rylan smiled over the echoed words that had come to mind when he’d first met Cam.

“So I repeat,” she stared Cam down. “I’ll be your insurance policy. He may be the last person on earth I ever want to see or speak to again, but thanks to his little swimmers and his stupid reliance on the pull-out method, I have Cooper. And I’d never trade any pain or hardship or asshole ex for any second I’ve spent being Cooper’s mom. If it’ll keep Brody from hitting rock bottom, I’ll smile on camera and I’ll do what I can to help you keep his ass out of the fire.” She ripped the paperwork in half. “But you’re not touching this song.”

“Goddamn, my brother really is the stupidest man alive for letting you get away. And every day, you prove me right. I’ll take your deal. I’d be an idiot not to.”

Rylan growled. “Hold on. I don’t want you having to stand there and do any of that, honey. I can write other songs. You should never have to defend that asshole or paint anything he put you through in any other light but the truth.”

Quinn looked at him for the first time that day. Her hand squeezed his. “If I know Cam, he’ll work like hell to make sure it never comes to that. So I wouldn’t worry. But either way, I’m not letting you tarnish that song. I meant what I said about the man who wrote that song.”

His heart hammered in his chest, his veins filling with hope like pure adrenalin. “Still?” he asked hoarsely.

“We’ll get to that in a bit. Let me finish with Cam, first.”

Rylan fought back a grin.

Cam wasn’t as subtle. He chortled out loud. “God, I’ve missed you. You’ve grown up to become a hell of a woman.”

“Flattery never worked on me. Right now, I’m still pissed that you put Rylan through what you did, and that you even thought about going behind my back to broker a deal that affects me.”

Regret flashed in his eyes. “I didn’t want to disrupt your life again.”

“I believe you. Still doesn’t make your man nuggets any bigger. You should’ve come to me.”

He nodded. “You’re right, I should’ve.”

Quinn leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. “I hear you’re managing a few musicians now and doing well for yourself.” She tilted her head. “They’re in good hands.”

“High praise. Congrats on your MBA, by the way. I always knew you were too good for Brody. That’s precisely why I tried to get you to dump his ass at least a dozen times.”

Rylan’s estimation of the guy went up. He wasn’t getting a single hit off his bullshit meter.

Smiling, Quinn nodded. “This is true. I still maintain it would’ve been a lateral move to start dating you.”

Rylan growled. The asshole was back on his shit list.

When Quinn’s hand squeezed his knee reassuringly, his anger quickly dissipated. Mostly because he never thought he’d ever get to have Quinn’s hands on him again. And also because of the genuine affection he heard in her voice.

“Cam always looked out for me while I was dating Brody. Always.”

A hard look crossed Cameron’s features. “Not well enough at the end.”

“Don’t. It’s in the past.”

Silennce blanketed over them and Rylan broke the awkwardness with the only thing on his mind. “I’d really like to get to our conversation so should I kick this guy’s ass before he leaves or not?”

Quinn laughed. “Let’s go with not. Cooper may not have a biological father worth knowing but his uncle is a decent guy.” She looked at the man in question. “I want to give Cooper a few more years to grow up but I’ll tell him he has a pretty cool uncle in Europe. If he says he wants to meet you, and you’re in the states on a trip, I’ll be sure to make that happen.”

Cameron looked utterly humbled by that. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, I want you to go get on that 1 p.m. flight you have scheduled and forget this whole thing happened.”

Cam shook his head. “I’m impressed. Your P.I. is good. I still don’t know how he was able to find this meeting location for you.”

“Jay’s the best.”

Rylan had to concur. Jay, the PI.. that worked for Connor Sullivan, the lawyer who did a lot of legal work for Cactus Creek, was pretty legendary.

Cam got up from his seat, tucking the ripped contract back into his suitcase. After a proud, affectionate look at Quinn, he glanced back at Rylan. “I never told my brother to fix things with Quinn because he was a dumbass who didn’t deserve her. You...you’re a good guy. So you do whatever it takes to get her back. Because if not, you’re officially dumber than my brother. And you’ll deserve the shitty regret you’ll feel for the rest of your life for losing out on a really great girl.”

And finally he was gone.

Quinn turned to him, her expression fierce even as her eyes softened when they met his.

“And now for you…”

* * * * *

QUINN STARED HARD at the man she loved.

“You once told me you’d never wager something you weren’t willing to lose,” she stated, watching his reaction carefully. “But you were willing to jeopardize my feelings for you, the trust I had in you, and with it, any possibility of us having a future.”

“No,” he nearly growled. “I was never willing to risk any of that. But I couldn’t let myself be selfish. If it was going to keep you and Cooper safe, keep him from hurting you two again and turning your lives into a circus…then that was a risk I was willing to take. I was willing to risk it for what was best for you two, but never, ever was I willing to lose what we had. What we can still have if you would just give us a chance.”

She nodded. “And that’s the only reason I’m standing here right now. And that’s the only reason why I’m going to torment you with my presence every day for the rest of your—“

His lips crashed onto hers. “God, I love you. I was so afraid I’d lost you forever. And every damn second since, I’ve done nothing but think about a million ways to beg you to take me back and forgive me.”

“No.” Quinn pulled back and shaped her hands to his face. “There’s nothing to forgive, Rylan. What you did, you did because you loved us, because you were trying to protect us. There’s absolutely no fault in that. And I meant what I said the other night. The man who wrote that song for Cooper is the one I’d want to be his father.”

“He’s also the man I love.”

He dragged her back to him for another soul-searing kiss. “Can we please go pick up Cooper and spend some time together as a family? I’ve missed the hell out of you two all weekend.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“MOMMY! COME hear the new song that Rylan and I wrote for you.” Cooper bopped up and down excitedly.

After six tough months with lots of ups and downs, it was amazing to see Cooper back to his old self. Better, even. The doctors told her children are more resilient but his speed of recovery had been astounding to her. Where once he could barely breathe after running around the yard, now, he was hopping around the place without a struggle in the world.

Plopping down on the couch she grinned as her two favorite men put on their serious-musician look that they used whenever they would perform one of their duets. Rylan had been by her side every day of Cooper’s recovery, and since they’d spent much of that time in the hospital or holed up on bedrest, he and Cooper had had plenty of time to make up songs. As his recovery progressed, some of the songs were even implemented into his rehab, much to Coop’s delight.

The kid was a complete ham.

Rylan played a plinkety plunkety tune and Quinn laughed as she saw Cooper dancing around like a marionette before settling down and singing in that adorably sweet voice of his.

Chocolate cake for breakfast,

Bed time after seven,

Splashing puddles in the rain

till I’m soggy,

A lizard, a snake,

or even another doggie…

I know just what mommy would say

More dancing and then some pretty smooth rock star moves with a fake mic that had both she and Rylan laughing.

TV all weekend,

Practical jokes on my cousins,

Filling water balloons

with grape jelly

Belching my name,

using colorful language,

Or waving with one finger like Aunt Penny…

I know just what mommy would say

Quinn rolled her eyes and laughed. Sadly, her sister Penny was responsible for teaching Cooper every single one of those items in that verse.

Cooper then came up to her and stretched his arms up for a hug.

Instantly she picked him up and felt her heart wobble when he sang the next verse.

Huggles when I’m scared,

Kisses on my ouchies,

And no matter what, when I ask

if I’m gonna be okay…

I know just what mommy would say.

Tears—actual tears—rushed to her eyes. But who could blame her? It was too soon. The doctors had only just told them a few days ago that Cooper was done with surgeries.

And that he was officially ‘going to be okay.’

She’d been irrationally crying with relief at random times ever since—months, years of scared emotions being granted the chance to overtake her life after the fact.

So yes, she was still a tiny bit emotional when he began wriggling to be let out of the abominable snow rabbit hug she was smothering him with while just barely managing to keep her tears at bay.

A feat she was managing rather admirably…that is, until she heard him start singing the final verse.

An ace of spades,

A cool green diamond,

And finally a dad for me…

I HOPE I know what mommy will say.

Her eyes widened to the size of saucers as she replayed the lyrics in her head.

But then she just laughed when Rylan pulled a card out of his pocket, not a ring.

An ace of spades card.

A Disney Princess ace of spades card.

“What’d you do? Steal that from the deck?”

“I did. It’s been sitting in my wallet for quite some time.”

The man never ceased to be adorable. “When exactly did you take it? And you better not tell me it was before that one time we played Bullshit because that’ll mean you already knew I didn’t actually have four aces that day.” She’d lost that hand and inevitably ended up losing the entire game, if memory served.

Rylan’s lips twitched to the side.

“You little cheat!” But before she could demand reimbursement—preferably in the bedroom—for the one month of laundry she’d had to do for him as a result of the loss, she did the math. “Wait a minute, that was months ago. You’ve had the card since way back then?”

“Nope.” He tilted his head and gazed into her eyes. “I stole it that first night we played High Card.”

She blinked, feeling the air in her lungs getting mighty thin, and her pulse galloping at an alarming rate. “You kept that card in your wallet all this time?”

Then he dropped down to one knee and she stopped breathing altogether.

She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the emotions shining in his golden gaze. “I took that card with me at first because I was going to use it as leverage if you ever turned me down for a date. But I’ve kept it with me ever since just in case you turned down my proposal.”

He opened the ring box.

When she saw the stunning green diamond ring, she gasped.

“It’s called a chameleon diamond. I knew I could never replace or erase the pain of remembering the heirloom you had to give up to cover Brody’s debts. And I didn’t want anything tarnishing our engagement. So, I got you a diamond ring that, hopefully, would only give you good thoughts. So Quinn Christiansen, will you be my wife?”

Then he reached over and plopped Cooper on his lap. “If it helps, Cooper already said yes to my proposal for him.”

“Look, mommy. Rylan gave me a cool green ring too! A Green Lantern super hero ring!” Cooper swung his legs back and forth happily. “But I would’ve said yes even without the ring,” he shrugged with all the matter-of-fact candor of a kindergartener. “He’s already the best dad I’ve ever had.”

Oh that sealed it. Her tears had no chance of staying in now.

“Mommy, did you say yes yet? I’m getting kinda hungry.”

She laughed and cupped one hand on Rylan’s cheek and the other on Cooper’s. “Yes, honey. Of course I’m saying yes.”

EPILOGUE

March 14th the Following Year

Rooftop of Desert Confections

“SO LET ME GET this straight,” said Quinn, trying to wrap her brain about what Dani was telling her. “The entire town has a bet going on not when Xoey and Isaac are getting back together, but rather, how quickly Isaac will be able to get Xoey to agree to marry him after they get back together?”

“Yep.” Dani nodded, sitting on the edge of the head table, as if she weren’t decked out in a gorgeous bridal gown that was currently very close to a plate of wedding reception cake.

Quinn slid the cake away from Dani’s butt. Just to be safe.

“Do Isaac and Xoey know about it?”

“Nooo, and you can’t tell them. Or the whole thing is off.”

“How big is the pot?”

Rylan came over to join them and fielded that one, “Well, there’s no money involved. It’s all services and products, subject to approval, of course. So I’m in with some free landscaping, Sienna’s offering a year’s worth of mechanical labor. Mrs. Wyndham wagered up one of her famous pies and cakes every night for a month, Jilly’s making a big ole sex toy basket. Lia was going to do some of her martial arts classes but everyone begged her to go in with twenty free babysitting gigs. If there’s a prize that the winner can’t use, then they’re free to auction it to someone else in town.”

“Hold up, you mean one winner is going to win ALL of that? That’s insane.”

“Why do you think the entire town is taking bets?”

“Please tell me that Mr. Callahan went in with a lifetime supply of his pumpkin bread and that insane maple butter he made last year.” Made with top grade Canadian maple syrup—all the difference in the world—Quinn would put that maple butter on everything if she could.

Rylan laughed. “Not a lifetime supply, but one a month for a year.”

“Then I’m in. Dani, are you already in?”

“They won’t let me play,” replied Dani crossly. “And it’s completely unfair.”

“Oh. Is it because you’re her best friend?”

“No.” She flat-out pouted then.

Luke filled in, with obvious enjoyment. “I believe the exact words were because Dani meddles too much.”

“I don’t meddle that much.”

Everyone within earshot burst out in laughter over that one.

“Oh yes you do,” Quinn said with a smile. “But we’re thankful for it. You got Rylan and me together.”

“See.” Dani stuck her tongue out at Luke. “I do good deeds.”

He sighed. “Please don’t encourage her.”

“Wait, so back to the town bet.” Quinn peered over at the couple in question, who were currently thumb wrestling and bickering like they always did. “So everyone in town is just assuming those two are getting back together?”

“It’s pretty much a given.”

“But no one knows why they even broke up.”

Dani shook her head sadly. “Not a clue.”

A thought occurred to her then. “Was the whole betting pool my husband’s idea?” she asked dryly. It did sound right up Rylan’s alley.

Dani shook her head. “Nope. He is running the entire thing, though. But he won’t tell anyone who’s the mastermind behind the curtain.”

Rylan wrapped his arms around Quinn. “That’s right. And I don’t care how much you try to torture the information out of me with all your sexual deviant ways, I won’t tell you.”

The man knew better than to lay down a dare like that. Brow raised in challenge, she declared, “Ten to one, I’ll be able to get the information out of you.”

He grinned. “You’re on.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “Quinn, do you even know how exactly the whole ten to one odds thing works?”

“Not even a little bit.” Quinn smiled broadly. “All I know is that it’s the magic phrase that goads Rylan into doing whatever I want. And I’ve never had to pay up once.”

Rylan slid his arms around Quinn’s waist and pulled her back to him. She cuddled up against him and tried not to smile when she felt his hand unconsciously slide over her belly.

He’d been doing that a lot lately.

Ever since they found out they were pregnant.

Nuzzling her neck gently, Rylan rumbled, “Baby, you keep rubbing that sweet butt of yours against me, and you’re going to get us into a world of trouble.”

“Promises, promises.” She settled back against him more.

He groaned. “These pregnancy hormones of yours are driving me crazy.”

Lately, Rylan had been chalking up all her sexed up teases and dares to pregnancy hormones. Which essentially meant she was getting away with endless amounts of mischief and mayhem left and right.

It was awesome.

And since her mom didn’t raise any stupid ones, she was making the most of the situation until he eventually got to the chapter in the prenatal book that would explain those particular sex drive hormones don’t kick in until the second trimester.

“Mommy!” called out Cooper from the edge of the dance floor. “You have to see this giant cake! Holy schmoly! Janey Duncan asked me to marry her last week. If I do, can I have a cake this big, too?”

Quinn chuckled. “Don’t marry a girl for cake, honey.”

Cooper paused and took in that advice in all seriousness. “So just for laundry then? That’s why Daddy says he married you. Because you do the best laundry.”

Quinn turned to raise a brow at Rylan.

Who was wisely already halfway across the dance floor.

-- THE END --

Turn the page to read what happened

thirty minutes prior.

A bonus Dani & Luke wedding reception scene...

BONUS SCENE

(With Dani & Luke from Love, Chocolate, and Beer)

Thirty Minutes Earlier…

“VETO,” CALLED OUT LUKE. Geez, their wedding reception was still hours from ending and they were already having their first marital spat.

Must be some sort of record. Dani grinned.

“Dani, a huge bash for beered-up and wine-sloshed folks partying on both our rooftop decks is a massive riot waiting to happen.” He shook his head stubbornly. “Scale it down.”

“But it’s supposed to be big—it’s a grand opening. Besides, Derek and Quinn already signed off on it and you gave them all decision-making rights for promotions, remember?”

This past January, an outrageously emotional Dani had watched Derek finally achieve his dream of having his own winery when Desert Confections Chocolate and Wines, the partnered business venture of her brother and her husband, officially opened its doors to the public. “C’mon, I promised the town an official celebration and everyone’s been waiting two months for it.” She blinked prettily.

“Wow, sneaking a guilt reference to our wedding in there. Impressive, but still no.”

She sighed. “Okay, what if I promise to order ridiculously unnecessary security?”

He refused to be baited. “How many?”

Huffing out an exasperated curse, she started actually thinking about it then. “Well, my good friend is my regular bouncer for the rowdy nights like concerts and playoff games, and her brother is a cop so I’ll just hire him and a few of his friends from the force to come in off-duty.”

Luke frowned. “Wait, you have a bouncer? How come I never knew that?”

“Only on event nights. And what do you mean? I talk about her sometimes.”

“Her?”

Indignant female offense clouded Dani’s face. “Yes, her. It’s Lia. You know Lia. She’s a damn good bouncer and one of the scariest fighters you’ll ever see in action. Best of all, since most guys don’t want their ass kicked by a girl, most times, she can diffuse a situation with no violence at all.”

Luke threw his hands in the air. “Don’t give me that look! I’m not sexist. She could be the best MMA fighter in the world and I’d still hate the idea of anyone smaller than a linebacker being caught in a drunken brawl; even the biggest dudes get roughed up during bar fights.”

She rolled her eyes. “Remember the fight I told you about during the last AFC playoffs? And that brawl on Cinco de Mayo with the four guys who all found out they were screwing the same chick?” Dani flickered her eyebrows up with pride. “All Lia. All by herself.”

Luke’s jaw fell open in awe. Dani chuckled as he immediately scanned the crowd of guests for the woman in question, the stunning, albeit quietly sad, Asian woman chatting with Aidan near the stage.

“I’d never have guessed by looking at her.” He shook his head in disbelief. “How’d you even know to hire her? Did she audition or something?”

“In a manner of speaking. Lia has an antique arms shop nearby, a spin-off of her family’s business. She used to come around to eat after work. One night, she stopped a huge fight for me, which got us talking. She needed extra money since her shop was just starting out and I needed muscle on the rowdy nights. We’ve had this perfect arrangement ever since.”

“I always thought she was just your friend who hung out at Ocotillos a lot. I can’t believe I never knew she was your bouncer.”

Dani shrugged. “Lia keeps a low profile. She mostly just sits in the corner by the door reading. Things rarely escalate to the point where we need her.”

“Huh. Interesting.”

“What’s interesting?” She followed his gaze. Luke wasn’t even looking at Lia anymore.

“Did I ever tell you about my friend who I’d always thought of as a big brother?”

“The one who used to protect you from getting bullied in middle school?”

“Yep. Hudson was the big brother I never had. After seeing some bullies beating me up in sixth grade, he watched out for me until I was big enough to handle myself. And he always let me hang out with him on the weekends, even though I was a few years younger. I completely idolized him.”

Dani looked over at the gruff, totally ex-military guy sitting in the corner with a gorgeous blond woman who looked vaguely familiar.

“Who’s his date?”

Luke squinted. “Oh, that’s the actress. She’s been in some of those made-for-TV movies. They dated in high school and somehow stayed friends through all the years he was in the military—surprising since he was in some intense stuff with the Rangers and then Special Forces.” Shadows filled his eyes in remembered agony then. “Last year, Hudson lost almost all his men on a mission that he barely survived himself...only to have a part of him die anyway when he found out the damage to his fine motor function in his hand was too extensive for him to return to his unit.” Clenching his jaw, Luke shook his head in frustration. “I tried to get him to move back here after his discharge but he said he just...couldn’t. He chose to start fresh in California instead.”

She watched the pain in Luke’s gaze gradually ebb away and soften into...hope.

Puzzled, Dani looked over at Hudson again and then saw it too.

Hudson, the quiet epitome of a wounded warrior, was politely listening to his date talk on and on, even as his eyes kept covertly flickering over to Lia.

With more than mild interest.

Even more fascinating was the fact that Lia was glancing at him in the exact same way.

Watching their hidden attraction grow, Dani asked idly, “What’s he do in California?”

“Actually, he’s moving over to Arizona in a few weeks. Temporarily. Apparently, that actress got him a consultant gig for the movie she’ll be working on down in Southern Arizona.” Luke’s smile was slow and meaningful.

“He’ll be consulting on fight scenes and weapons.”

Lia & Hudson are up next!

Love, Tussles, and Takedowns

(Hudson & Lia’s story)

Available Now

* * *

Isaac & Xoey are coming in March!

Love, Exes, and Ohs

(Isaac & Xoey’s story)

Available for Pre-Order Now

Love, Tussles, and Takedowns

By

Violet Duke

Available Now

He's a better fighter. But she has all the weapons. 

After his combat injuries retire him from the military career he wasn't ready to give up, battle-scarred Hudson Reyes now spends his new life as a movie industry fight scene and weapons specialist simply doing what he knows best: surviving. 

Until he meets her. The one woman who makes him want to live again. 

An antique arms authenticator with a lifetime of martial arts training, Liana Lin has made a living turning the demons of her past into the passions that fuel, and fill, her life. She's a scrappy little thing. A sweet, angel-faced wrecking ball to his good intentions capable of making him laugh, and turning him inside out. Hell's bells, watching her execute that wicked roundhouse kick of hers shouldn't be a turn-on--especially not when his head is the receiving target--but hot damn, it is. She's a fiery, unpredictable paradox who wears her heart on her sleeve, despite the wounds he knows she has hidden as deeply as he hides his own. 

Even though she's everything he's told himself he can't have, Hudson can't help but want her. Sure as sin, if one woman could sneak past the barbed wires he's wrapped around his heart, it'd be Lia. 

Now if only they could stop sparring long enough to find out...

* * *

Excerpt “Love, Tussles, and Takedowns”

© 2014 Violet Duke

Good Lord. Why did he have to go and sprawl out like that? Lia thought, averting her eyes upward as if in silent prayer. Hudson’s current seating posture just made her imagine him pinned under her, spread eagle with her legs wrapped around his in a ‘Saturday Night’ wrestling move—so appropriately named. She exhaled a hot breath.

That’s when she realized he hadn’t had a pillow or anything to make his night comfortable. He’d stayed on her old couch while she’d been fifteen feet away. Bottomless.

Well, hell. That whole melting at the knees thing from the movies was apparently a real thing. Tamping down the girly swoon factor she felt for the first time ever, Lia sat down beside him and checked the growing bruise on his face.

Ouch.

Bad night for her to have worn an anklet. She refrained from telling him that his bruising had rather, um, pretty decorative qualities. There’s no way she’d be able to pull that off without cracking a very ill-timed smile.

“Hudson, I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He gave her a lopsided grin that looked more self-deprecating than anything else.

There it was. That lack of an ego she was certain she’d seen in him earlier. Another turn-on.

“It was my fault for surprising you in the dark, sweetheart. I knew better.”

That’s when she remembered what he’d said earlier about his coming over in self-defense. She must have heard him wrong, right? Feeling her cheeks flush bright red, she decided to ask straight out, curiosity never really being one of the things she could keep bottled up and all. “You mentioned you were trying to stop me from doing something earlier?” A passive question.

...That got one hell of a fired response from him, if the darkening of his stormy gray eyes had anything to say about it.

“I wasn’t trying to stop you per se. More asking for mercy. At least until I was out of earshot.”

She blushed even brighter. “Hudson, I have no clue what you’re talking about. I don’t have…one of those.” Only because she’d never built up the nerve to buy one. Not even online. She could just imagine that plain brown box with the smiling arrow buzzing away by some fluke when Richard, the town’s sixty year-old mailman, brought it up to her doorstep.

Hudson shook his head in confusion over her statement and immediately winced. Blinking slowly in dull pain, he eventually peered open an eye again and studied her face.

“I’m not lying.”

“I can see that.” He frowned. “But I swear I heard the buzzing.”

“Oh!” She ran back to her bed and grabbed her watch from under the comforters. “It was the alarm on my watch. I have an online auction at six this morning and I’m bidding on behalf of a client for several pieces. I set about seven alarms in a row a minute apart since I’m horrible when it comes to the snooze button.”

“That’s some watch. Mine has one measly alarm, and it certainly doesn’t vibrate.”

“It’s one of my brother’s inventions. You remember Gabe, right? He’s the one that probably lo-jacked your phone last night. Gadgets are his thing.” She slipped the watch back on her wrist. “He even rigged it to read my mood via my wrist—sort of like how a lie detector works—and play music accordingly, through some sort of algorithm that’s linked up to playlists and satellite radio. Basically he has the mind of a genius and a desire to live forever as a teenager. Or Peter Pan.”

“Does it use headphones or a speaker?” asked Hudson curiously.

“Both. He built speakers into the watch but it also has Bluetooth earphones as well. Why?”

He leaned over to try and see the face of the watch. “Because with the way you’re blushing right now, I’d pay good money to hear what music that little device will be playing in response.”

She gasped and pulled her wrist away. “NO. That’s…private.”

He attempted to chuckle but stopped with another smothered wince and slid sideways so he was laying down fully on the couch, ice pack wedged against his head via one rock-hard bicep, while his Thor-like forearm covered his eyes. “So this was all because of a vibrating watch. For the massive headache I have right now, I think I’m going to imagine it the good way,” he teased. “Some sexy music in the background, and you with a seven-speed vibrator calling out my name.”

She almost swallowed her tongue. His knowing vibrator speeds, she would need to revisit another day. The part about her calling out his name last night?

A very real possibility.

Especially considering the very pleased smile the man was wearing right now.

She should’ve kicked him harder.

When he started flat-out chortling, pain seemingly a thing of the past, she realized she’d said the last reflection out loud.

“You are nothing like what I thought you’d be,” he said removing the gel pack from his face to look at her. “If I invite myself to breakfast with you, will you keep surprising me? I’ll take it as your apology. You know, for tattooing what feels like dainty little flowers across my temple.”

She bit her lip to keep from laughing. But she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. She liked being a surprise to someone for a change.

“My treat?” she asked. “I’ll take you to breakfast at the Saturday Market at the Town Square—it’s like a bazaar with food and crafts booths, and stuff for the kids. There’s a great little Cajun and Creole breakfast booth with just the best grits.”

He smiled and closed his eyes again. “Stop with the dirty talk already. A man can only take so much. I’ve spent almost the entire night up. Literally. So now that I don’t have to worry about sex noises from you, I’m going to get a little shut-eye for a bit. Wake me when you’re done with your auctions?”

Criminally flirtatious and attentive to her work to boot.

He was almost too good to be true.

Before she could respond, he continued, serious as can be, “I figure seven a.m. should be early enough for us to head out for breakfast, don’t you? Unless you think your brothers will be stopping by before that to check if I’m still here. Then we should leave earlier. I really prefer not to have to tell them they don’t have to rough me up because their sister already took care of it.”

Lia blinked at him for a few seconds. No one ever talked to her like this. Folks were always so gentle with her, men especially. Either that, or they were usually trying to prove their toughness to her for some reason, again, men especially. True, that would be utterly unnecessary and just redundant where Hudson was concerned, but she never expected him to be like this.

She wondered over that as she went to get him a new ice pack. Pulling the melted one away from his battle wound, she placed a gentle kiss on it before putting the new ice pack on.

Damn. The way his eyes caught fire from that one simple peck, she could only imagine how hot they’d burn over something more.

So much for no more sex noises on her part.

He shaped his warm, calloused palm against her cheek. “Sweetheart, if you put those sweet lips of yours on me again, innocent gesture or not, I’m definitely going to deserve that beating your brothers threatened me with last night.”

She stared at him for a second, surprised at the novel thoughts running rampant through her brain…and other parts of her body.

“I’m holding you to that,” she said quietly, before hurrying over to her computer without waiting for a reply. She told herself it was because her eighth, ninth, and tenth alarms of the morning were buzzing away, telling her she needed to get logged in soon.

Not because she could feel his focus on her, though his eyes were now closed.

Available Now

* * *

Bonus Deleted Scene “Lia”

© 2014 Violet Duke

Still curious about Lia?

Here’s a bonus deleted scene from Love, Tussles, and Takedowns

The Chocolate and Beer Throwdown had been the biggest thing to hit Cactus Creek. Well…except for that time his friend Lia had taken out an up and coming MMA fighter who’d started a big drunken brawl here about two years ago.

The kick-ass little martial arts beauty had just been doing her job, of course.

As the on-call bouncer for Ocotillos, everyone in town knew not to mess with her. She didn’t just look a lot like that actress from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, she fought just like her. Better, even. But dumbasses from out of town always underestimated her.

Hence the news explosion that occurred after she laid out the fighter who’d been almost twice her size.

Of course, the fact that she was a foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter than the man wasn’t the part that had the media in a frenzy (though quite a few newscasters were delighted to chuckle over the story the next day), nor was the rag magazine commotion over her wicked fighting skills and how she’d knocked the prize fighter out in about fifteen seconds. Nope. The reason why media folks came swarming into town for weeks afterward was because the fighter practically started stalking Lia afterward.

He began showing up everywhere she went, making these extravagant gestures to profess his undying love for her…until finally, her three brothers had to go have a little ‘talk’ with the guy.

To say Lia’s brothers were overprotective of her was an understatement, although, given all the tragedies the little spitfire had overcome in her life, it was hard not to be.

…Which is exactly why Rylan and Dani had rushed over to check on Lia that same day—only to discover her locked in her apartment, curled up in a tight ball on her bed.

Laughing so hard she could barely breathe, let alone talk.

To this day, neither Lia nor her brothers would tell anyone what the fighter had done to deserve such a tear-worthy laugh fest on her part.

Last they heard, he had won a belt or two and gone on to do well for himself.

Not that Lia could ever watch any MMA match with him in it without bursting out in laughter to know for certain.

And as for the fighter, the man never stepped foot in Cactus Creek again, but he did get a dessert at the town’s old fashioned ice cream shop named after him—or at least inspired by him.

Rumor has it that when the shop owner had at first contemplated a banana split instead of a sundae, Lia and her brothers had started cracking up so hard, the shop owner was worried they’d need to be sedated. When they finally calmed down, they’d landed on the ‘Crazy Extravagant Gesture Sundae’ instead—an insane dessert consisting of almost every ice cream topping possible—which became an instant town hit.

Only in Cactus Creek.

The CACTUS CREEK Series

Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Luke & Dani)

Love, Diamonds, and Spades (Rylan & Quinn)

Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (Hudson & Lia)

Love, Exes, and Ohs (Isaac & Xoey)

Love, Sidelines, and Endzones (Grady & Sienna)

Love, Stilettos, and Cufflinks (Noah & Katelyn)

Love, Meddling, and Mistletoe (Co-Author Project)

* * *

= = The Spencer Brothers are coming Summer 2015 = =

The UNFINISHED LOVE Series (Cactus Creek Reunions)

Book 1 & 2: Caine & Addison

Book 3 & 4: Gabe & Hannah

Book 5 & 6: Max & Kennedy

Book 7 & 8: Drew & Skylar ^

^ Yes, that’s Skylar from the CAN’T RESIST series, all grown up!

* * *

= = Coming in 2016 from Penguin Random House = =

The FOURTH DOWN Series (Cactus Creek Nights)

Book 1: (Jackson's story) Title TBA

Book 2: (Bennett's story) Title TBA

Book 3: (Donovan's story) Title TBA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

http://www.violetduke.com

New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Violet Duke is a former professor of English Education who is ecstatic to now be on the other side of the page writing wickedly fun contemporary romance novels. When she’s not writing or feeding her book-a-day reading addiction, Violet enjoys tackling reno projects with her power tools, trying pretty much anything without reading the directions first, and cooking ‘special edition’ dishes that laugh in the face of recipes. She lives in Hawai‘i with her two cute kids and similarly adorable husband.

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