Love, Diamonds, and Spades (2 page)

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.”