Sweet Talk Boxed Set (Ten NEW Contemporary Romances by Bestselling Authors to Benefit Diabetes Research plus BONUS Novel) (26 page)

She wanted to believe him but the hurt was still throbbing in her chest.  “Even in context, you told him that your future was safe, that I wouldn’t mess up anything.”

“And I meant it.  You wouldn’t be messing up my life, Leila.  You’d be adding to it, just like you’ve been doing since we met.  And when I told him my future was safe, I meant that too.  Because I trust you, Leila.  Completely.” 

He cupped her cheek and gazed into her eyes.  “You wanted my trust and my control.  Well you have both.  But I’m afraid it comes as a package deal with my heart.”

Hers was very nearly melting on the spot.

“Sunshine, tell me I have the package deal with you as well.”

She reached up to smooth out his tie.  “My control?  I have no doubt.  You’ve been driving me crazy with lust since the day I laid eyes on you.”

The wild look of possessive satisfaction brought a flare of that very lust racing through her veins, aiming it straight to her chest.  “And judging by the way I can’t control my heartbeat right now, I think it’s safe to say you’ve gone and stolen that from me as well.”

He pressed her forehead against hers and she swore she heard him giving a quiet prayer of thanks.

“My trust, however.  Is a different matter.”

He jerked back.  “You don’t trust me?”

She splayed her hands across his chest to comfort him, while being perfectly honest.  “I trust Jackson Gray completely.  But Reginald Jackson Grayhurst the second, however, I don’t know at all.”

Jackson nodded.  “Fair enough.  What do you want to know?”

She smiled then.  “Jackson, Jackson, Jackson.  Have you forgotten how you once told me that you’re a patient man?  Well, I’m afraid there will be no leapfrogging on this one.  Reggie will have to start from square one if he hopes to win me over.”  She raised her brows teasingly.  “Everything from first kisses to first…other things.”

Grinning, he finally got her meaning and closed in on her.  “That can be arranged.”

She backed up with a firm headshake.  “Nice try, stranger.  We’re going to take this slow.  It took Jackson a few months to get me to even consider dating him.”  She waved her hand at his Italian suit.  “This guy, I think will require longer than that.”

“Think so?” 

“Yep.  In fact, that’s my official prediction...and we both know how good I am at those.”

His eyes glittered at the challenge.  “You do remember that they call me the weatherman, right, sunshine?”

God, she was really starting to love that nickname….along with that look of wild heat and warm affection that lit his gaze whenever he said it.

He reached into the small delivery box as he made a prediction of his own.  “Well, the weatherman predicts a week.  Two weeks tops.”

Oh boy, she loved when she got to see the sides of him he never showed anyone else.  This cocky, flirtatious side?  Yep, it was definitely doing it for her.

Then he went and pulled out a small bouquet from the box he’d been carrying and she realized in an instant that her prediction had perhaps been the worst, most far-off one she’d ever made.

Even though the bouquet wasn’t the type a person would hold up to their nose and sniff, she did…and smiled from ear to ear at the fruity scents wafting from the unique bundle in her hands.

“You got me a lollipop bouquet.”

“I remember you saying one night that your dad never let you eat candy.”

“Yes, one of the horrific tragedies of my childhood,” she replied drolly, to keep from swooning.

She’d mentioned it once in passing not long after they’d first met.  They’d randomly been talking about trick-or-treating during Halloween, and how she’d never been.  For some reason, the discussion had made her think of the one time her third grade teacher had given her a single grape-flavored dum-dums lollipop, and how she’d hidden it under her bed and waited until her dad was back in D.C. before she risked tasting it.  The day her father had flown out of town, she’d crawled up a tree in their backyard and savored the tiny little lollipop all afternoon long. 

And that was why, to this day, grape was the flavor of lollipop she’d choose whenever she wanted to escape to a simpler time.

“I can’t believe you remember me telling you that story.”

“How could I forget it?  It’s one of the few you’ve told me about your childhood where you looked truly happy.”  Pulling her into his arms, he added, “But even if you hadn’t shared that story with me, I’d know your sugary little guilty pleasure by the sheer amount of lollipops you have in your apartment and at work.”

Guilty as charged.  “They’re my go-to brain snack when I’m knee-deep in stats.”  She looked down at the bouquet and smiled.  “I maintain that each flavor has a different special power for me,” she said only semi-kidding.

Those deep-thinking eyes of his got serious as he listed, “Watermelon for when you’re stuck on something hard.  Cream Soda when it’s a sure thing and you want to find something more.  And anything but Bubble Gum when you’re in a bad mood.”  A questioning eyebrow winged up at the corner.  How am I doing? I haven’t figured out the others yet, but that’s what I’ve gathered so far.”

Holy moly.  Oh yeah, she’d been waaay off in her prediction of a couple of months. 

Pondering that, she selected a lollipop from her bouquet and began unwrapping it, all the while reveling in the way the muscles of his jaw hardened to granite as he watched her every move. 

Happily content and more grounded than she could remember feeling in a long while, she half-sighed, half-hummed as she slid the Blue Raspberry lollipop she’d selected past her lips. 

Instantly, Jackson’s eyes darkened and swung down to lock in on her mouth.

Was that a growl she just heard?

Why yes, yes it was.

Jackson was right.  She’d be lucky if she lasted a day.

And for the first time ever, being proven wrong was feeling pretty darn right.

THE END

* * *

Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the rest of the

FOURTH DOWN SERIES

Coming Spring 2016 from

Penguin Random House

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A very special thank-you to MVD (Mr. Violet Duke) for all his unparalleled football coaching expertise.  As he does in so many other aspects of my life, he makes what I know and love all the more complete, and infinitely better.  And for every single day I’ve woken up at my usual three a.m. hour to find that (yet again, without fail) he has switched the TV to the NFL Network before he went to bed just so
NFL AM
would be on for me to rewind and happily watch commercial-free with my morning tea, I owe him far more than mere thanks.  Because without even trying, the adorable man inevitably becomes responsible for my first smile of the day, each and every morning, and raises the bar that much higher for my fictional heroes to reach.  I am one lucky, lucky girl.

EXCERPT FROM NEW YORK TIMES

BESTSELLING AUTHOR

VIOLET DUKE

“Love, Chocolate, and Beer”

© 2014 Violet Duke

Luke Bradford didn’t know why the almost irrationally sexy bartender in the too-tight top was pointing at him and frankly, he didn’t much care. It was the one with the killer smile beside her, the brunette he’d caught fleeting glimpses of the last few weeks while he’d been busy moving into town fully—even chatted with once in passing—that gripped his attention yet again.

She was tucking her sleek, dark chocolate hair behind an ear in seemingly shy reflex and he just sat there with the round he’d just bought the guys, unable to take his eyes off her.

“Holy shit,” breathed his buddy Isaac from beside him, jabbing him in the gut. “I think that goddess at the bar is pointing at you. Do you know her?”

Luke could barely hear him. His sole focus remained on the cute brunette—the hardest working bartender there by his estimation. Even as her friend was telling her something that obviously involved him, the woman hardly paused long enough to spare a quick glance in his direction.

Though she doused it quickly, a sizzling, ultra-feminine awareness flared in her eyes in the brief moment they met his. And now a sweet, honest-to-God farm-girl blush was pinking her cheeks.

Man, oh man, was he in trouble.

Luke stopped trying to hide his interest then. He was doing a lousy job at it anyhow. He decided instead to up the blatancy level of his gaze considerably. Dare her to play. When she eventually, reluctantly,
briefly
succumbed—to politely glare him off mostly—he let his triumphant grin deploy his dimples, somehow knowing that would rile her enough to make her drop her defenses just a little bit more.

It did.

To his competitive delight, she instantly went on the offense, covertly returning his stare head-on and dropping the checkered flag for the silent game of Chicken that followed.

Hot damn.

One scorching, hard-fought minute later, victory was his.

Not just because she’d broken the connection first, but because a touch of humor had ghosted her lips when she had. Immediately following, the next hour found their gazes colliding across the room with increasing frequency. It was all more friendly than flirty but still, Luke was captivated.

And officially clueless as to what his buddies at the table around him had been talking about for the past twenty minutes…a decision he congratulated himself over when his continued lack of attention to his friends allowed him to catch his mystery bartender bending over to grab something from a floor shelf.

No, his basal response to that wasn’t evolved at all, but for some reason, the biologically encoded heat swell in his gaze didn’t seem to offend her when she caught him smiling appreciatively. Instead, it prompted a nose-scrunching twitch of a smile that she tried hard to hide behind a droll eye-roll.

Damn, she was cute.

Absently, he joined in the laughter at his table over some—apparently funny—joke one of the guys made before glancing back over again at his mystery girl.

“Wow, you’ve got it bad,” murmured Isaac, thoughtfully evaluating Luke’s interest in the woman with annoying accuracy.

Blinking back the unwelcome demons from his past, Luke shrugged and quietly admitted to himself as much as Isaac, “There’s something about her.”

“Well if you’re going to go meet her, now’s your chance,” he nodded over at the bar.

Like a first-time addict going from zero to sixty on a rush, Luke immediately swung his gaze around to find the brunette again.

Jesus, she was so impishly sweet a person couldn’t help but smile upon seeing her.

Of course in his case, it was growing painfully obvious that smiling wasn’t the only reaction he’d be having to the woman.

Hell, anyone with eyes could see the hard time he was having keeping his reaction to himself; and it didn’t help one bit when her lips parted on a soft breath at just that moment.

Good grief. A brain simply couldn’t be expected to function with
all
its blood racing to command central south. His brows dipped low in reflection as he adjusted his jeans. Had anyone ever affected him this way before?

This wholly, this swiftly?

He shot to his feet.
Nope, never.
Fixing his gaze on her with an intensity that made it clear this wasn’t just aimless flirting for him anymore, he saw her eyes fire wildly for him once again.

He cut a path straight for her.

…Only to have his ego take a hit when she jerked her attention to the invisible watch on her wrist as reason to retreat away from the bar.

Undeterred, he picked up the pace.

Equally stubborn, so did she.

And this round went to her.

She vanished behind a door to the back just as he reached the spot she’d vacated beside Isaac’s exotic bartender.

“Where’s she going?” he demanded.

The bartender extinguished a delighted grin and tilted her head with an innocent double-blink. “Who?”

His normal easy-going patience strangely on hiatus, he replied with just a smidgen of impatience, “The other worker you were clearly pointing me out to earlier.”

She shrugged, now visibly entertained. “That
other worker
had work to do.”

Luke narrowed in on her amused expression. “What game are you two playing at here?”

That made her expression sober quickly. “My friend isn’t into games.” She spoke now in full protective-friend mode, staring him down. “Competitive? Ridiculously so. A player? No.”

Luke felt his frown dissolve into a smile, liking both that compelling character profile and oddly, the bartender as well, in all her strange and candid glory. “Unlike
you
, you mean.”

A pleased laugh bubbled out of her. “God, you’re perfect for her. As sharp as you are blunt.” She studied him for a second before coming to some sort of conclusion. “She’s lugging liquor boxes out from storage, back near the brewery pass-through. You should go help her.”

He squeezed her forearm in thanks and set out to do just that, hurrying through to the back, down an empty hallway. Noiselessly, he opened the storeroom doors and was greeted by the sound of his mystery woman’s voice…softly cursing up a string of
very
creative expletives.

Oh yeah
. He grinned.
This was going to be interesting.

-- Available Now --

OTHER BOOKS BY VIOLET DUKE

The CAN’T RESIST Series

RESISTING THE BAD BOY *

FALLING FOR THE GOOD GUY *

CHOOSING THE RIGHT MAN *

FINDING THE RIGHT GIRL

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

The CACTUS CREEK Series

LOVE, CHOCOLATE, AND BEER

LOVE, DIAMONDS, AND SPADES

LOVE, TUSSLES, AND TAKEDOWNS

LOVE, EXES, AND OHS

The UNFINISHED LOVE Series