No Flowers Required (12 page)

Lazily, she trailed a hand up his spine. When had she last felt so damn amazing? Oh yeah, the other night, when they’d been together on the roof. “So can we be irresponsible again soon?” She shifted to alleviate the twinge in her back from the awkward position crumpled against the sofa. Still worth it. “Please?”

His laughter saturated her senses, as thick and sweet as the afterglow shimmering over her damp skin. “Count on it, princess,” he murmured, and she smiled into the darkness.

Sometimes being a princess wasn’t so bad.

Chapter Seven

Alexa woke wrapped around Dillon, with their lips locked and his hand tangled in her hair.

His kisses were as slow and easy as the morning, and stirred her arousal effortlessly. He had the softest mouth and boy, did he know how to use it. Each time his tongue coiled around hers, pulling gently, she felt the answering beat between her legs. Already restless, she arched against him, well aware that his morning wood had grown. Now it was closer to the trunk of a magnolia tree, if she were inclined to be fanciful.

And when Dillon’s mouth was making slow, masterful love to hers, she sure was.

“Mmm.” Dizzy with longing, she rubbed against him. “Love morning magnolias.”

He laughed and moved back, peering at her with narrowed eyes. “Did you just call me magnolia?”

“Did I?” In her current state, anything was possible. She flashed him a coy smile in the hopes of distracting him. “Maybe. I’m feeling awfully affectionate.”

“Are you now?” He drew a fingertip along her jaw and down her throat, stopping at her racing pulse. “You look freshly sexed,” he added, licking his lips in a way that triggered a whole new throb in her body. “Hair loose and messy, eyes sleepy.” His finger resumed its journey, pausing at one of her tight nipples. Circling there. In the night, she’d donned her sleep clothes, but it didn’t matter, because she felt naked all over again. “You’re not one of those eager-beaver morning types, are you?”

She tossed her hair back out of her eyes and linked her hands behind his head. “Afraid so. I’m really eager right now.”

“Is that so?” His hand crept under her cami, brushing the soft skin of her belly before sliding upward to tease the bottom of her breast. Another inch and he’d be stroking the taut tip without any clothing in the way.
Oh yes please
. “Eager enough to miss breakfast in favor of sex?”

Miss breakfast? She’d miss breakfast, lunch, and dinner if she got to stay curled around Dillon. Then she glimpsed the time on her bangle watch.

“Holy shit!” She leaped off him without warning, throwing an accidental elbow into his gut as she struggled to right herself. “Is it really almost eight-thirty?”

He tucked his arms behind his head and smiled. “Guess so.”

“I need to get to work. The store opens at nine and there’s a ton of stuff to do before then.”

Most of the guys she knew would’ve made some crack about the boss being allowed to be late, but he only nodded and pulled himself to his feet. “I’ll walk you over.”

“It’s only downstairs.”

“We’ll stop by the bakery first.” His tone brooked no argument.

She yanked down her cami and compressed her lips. She should tell him no. Maybe even start extricating herself from this burgeoning so not a one-night stand before things got messy.

Then he folded her fingers into his callused palm and tugged her up for another kiss and she forgot all about suggesting they go their separate ways.

He watched cartoons while she got ready, laughing aloud at the antics of Stewie and crew on reruns of
Family Guy.
He’d made himself a bowl of cereal from her lone box of cornflakes, and munched them sans milk as if she’d presented him with haute cuisine—well, if such a thing existed for breakfast.

But his interest in cartoons and cereal ended the instant she stepped into the living room.

Dillon eyed her as if she’d donned a leather bustier and garters. “Damn.”

“Do you like?” She did a little twirl, knowing full well she’d gone overboard for work. But damn, she’d enjoyed slipping into the short navy skirt and clingy V-neck top. Especially when she’d paired them with nude hose and heeled boots that made her legs good, even by her own critical standards.

Really
good, if the glazed and slightly dumbstruck expression Dillon wore was anything to go by.

“I love.” He pounced before she had time to prepare, taking her mouth with a suddenness that stole her breath and her common sense right along with it. Right now, throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his seemed like the best idea she’d ever had.

She was in serious trouble.

“Mm, even your toothpaste tastes sexy.” Grinning, he flicked his tongue along the corner of her mouth, digging into the grooves of her smile. “You look ah-mazing, Alexa. One-step-from-a-heart-attack incredible.”

She laughed and stepped around him to collect her purse. “Thanks for the explanation.”

“Since we’re new friends and all, I figured you might need help learning my personal lexicon.”

“New friends who barely know anything about each other,” she teased.

“Must be time for the big getting-to-know-you talk.” He crossed his arms over his barrel chest and grinned. “I’m twenty-nine, single, standard set of parents. I own my own home, a Harley, a dented old boat, and a Silverado.”

“Any siblings?”

He frowned. “One. A brother.” Before she could question him further, he pressed on. “No kids. My hobbies are fishing, painting, and riding my bike.” He scratched his scruffy chin. “Oh, and I’m a Leo.”

“My psychic told me I was going to marry a Leo.”

“Huh. I don’t think we need to get fitted for matching wedding bands quite yet.” He cocked his head. “You have a psychic?”

“She’s my best friend Nellie’s cousin.” She shrugged. “Her specialty’s the tarot.”

“Interesting.” But his expression said it clearly wasn’t.

“You paint?” She tried to imagine this big, strapping, tattooed man’s man holding a dainty paintbrush. Though she’d already seen him with the watering can. In his hands, daisies were sexy. “Really?”

“Really.” He hesitated as if he was about to divulge a painful secret. “Watercolors. Not often anymore. I don’t have the time.”

“That’s cool.”

He only lifted a brow as if to say “yeah, right.”

“I’m serious. I’d like to see some of your work sometime.” She had to laugh at his dubious expression. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

It felt odd to follow him downstairs, and odder still to clasp his hand when he held it out. She should be rushing into the store to get her morning routine started, not taking the time to stroll in the sunshine as if her day were entirely her own.

Your only responsibility is to make yourself happy.

Pfft
to that one. She couldn’t just forget the promises she’d made to herself—and to Roz—even if Roz hadn’t been around to hear them. For once she wanted to do something on her own, just to prove to herself that she could. This time, she was sinking or swimming all on her own.

“Penny for your frown.” Dillon swung their hands between them as they made their way to the end of the street.

“Was I frowning?”

“Yes. You get the cutest wrinkle right here.” He rubbed his finger between his eyes. “What has you worried on such a beautiful day?”

She glanced up at the deep-blue, cloudless sky. The bright sunshine made her squint, but she loved the warmth on her back and shoulders. Flowers bloomed all around them. Dandelions and wildflowers competed with clumps of pink mountain laurel and looked almost as beautiful.

And everything was so green. The vibrancy of the colors around her took her breath away, as if she were seeing the place for the first time. Even her own building, the one she’d decried as below her station, somehow looked tall and regal when she glanced back to ascertain her world hadn’t changed overnight.

So if the world hadn’t changed, what had? Her?

He squeezed her hand and she inhaled deeply. Hard to be depressed or anxious when a gorgeous guy with hair as gold as the day spinning out in front of them sauntered at her side. He hadn’t allowed her to be alone when she’d been at the bottom of her own personal well.

No, for once, she didn’t feel worried. All she felt at that very moment was grateful.

“It is a beautiful day. You’re right.”

“I often am. Remember that the next time you’re tempted to argue with me.” He pulled her against his side at the corner to wait for the stoplight to change. “So what’s on the agenda today in flowerland?”

“Flowerland?” She smiled while they hurried across the street. Or rather, she hurried. Dillon’s long legs ate up ground at their own lazy pace, as if he expected the world to simply wait for him to catch up. Looking as beachcomber-sexy as he did effortlessly, it just might. “A friend of a friend’s getting married next year and she wanted to discuss Divine handling the arrangements. But I don’t think it’s going to work out.”

They walked past Value Hardware, which already seemed to be moving at full-steam. One of the workers watered a hanging arrangement next to the door. Alexa frowned while the kid splashed water on the drooping red flowers. With some good soil, she could help that ailing geranium. It certainly wouldn’t do well out in today’s hot sun when the kid likely wasn’t even soaking the roots.

Actually, he seemed much more interested in looking over his shoulder at Alexa and Dillon. A wide smile crossed his freckled face, and he opened his mouth to speak, but Dillon lengthened his stride, suddenly speeding up.

She smiled again. How sweet. He knew how she felt about that place and he didn’t want her to have to see it for any longer than necessary.

He really was a nice guy. She didn’t meet nearly enough of those. How strange that she’d stumbled upon him when she’d been at her lowest point.

Strange and sort of wonderful.

“How come you don’t think it’s going to work out?” he asked, voice slightly strained, once they’d made it past the sprawling hardware store.

“I don’t have the staff, for one thing. My new floral designer just took another job so I’m on my own. Except for Nellie, the godsend. She’s working with me part-time.”

“That’s good. Sucks about your other designer though.”

Alexa shrugged. “Patty got a better offer. I can’t really blame her for going. If I were in her position, I would’ve left too.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” His quiet certainty caused her to stare up at him. Perspiration dotted his temples, but somehow that only made him look more rugged. She could so see him on a ladder, painting a house with his shirt off and all those golden muscles flexing. Those talented hips swiveling with his natural grace while he mounted each step, then turned to shoot her one of those dazzling grins that swept the thoughts from her head like sand from a bucket.

She shook herself out of her reverie. Whatever the positives to having Dillon around, he certainly didn’t help with her concentration. “How do you know I wouldn’t have left?”

“Because you’re determined. You’d see the possibilities at Divine, not the problems. As you do now, even though you’re frightened you’re not enough to face them.” He turned her toward him with a gentleness that made her heart race. “You are.”

She swallowed and gazed up into his compassionate expression, wanting so badly to burrow into the safety of his embrace like he was her shelter in the storm. Her gut told her she could trust Dillon James.

God, she wanted to.

When she didn’t respond, he tugged lightly on her hand and they started walking again, slowing at the attractively decorated windows of the bakery. “So you think the friend’s event will be way too big for you to handle on your own?”

“I’m not set up for something that size. Even with temporary help.” She pressed a hand over her stomach as it growled. “Eileen’s inviting over a hundred people. I just don’t think I could do it, even with a ton of lead time. Even if Nellie continues to pick up flower design as well as she has so far, I can’t ask her to bust her ass when she’s exhausted and dealing with swollen ankles.”

“Nellie’s your sister-in-law?”

“And best friend. She’s very pregnant.” Alexa sighed and dragged her attention from a fancy wedding cake. It was just making her hungrier. At least she had a granola breakfast bar with her name on it waiting for her in her desk drawer. “She’s due in four months.”

“That’s great. You must be excited, auntie-to-be.” He gifted her with another of those smiles he dispensed like candy and pulled on her hand. “Let’s go in.”

“Oh no, I shouldn’t,” she said weakly as he led her into the bakery.

The scents of freshly baked bread and vanilla washed over her in a comforting wave, and her stomach rebelled with another loud groan. She clutched her belly and winced.

“On a diet?” Without looking back at her, he urged her up to the huge, well-lit case of decadent treats. “Trust me, you don’t need to. You’re perfect as is.”

“It’s not my diet I’m worried about.” Her gaze dipped to the price beneath a fat cranberry-orange muffin. Three dollars for a stinking muffin? Her lunch cost that at the deli down the street.

“Don’t worry about anything, okay? Can you do that for me?”

She didn’t reply to his low question as the older woman behind the counter bustled up to them. It wasn’t as if Dillon could be in an incredible financial position himself. Handymen didn’t make that much, did they? She honestly had no clue. Though he probably could afford a few muffins, right?

But when he bought half a dozen of them along with two cups of coffee—more chocolate raspberry for her—and various assorted treats the woman packed into multiple boxes, she raised an eyebrow. “You planning on feeding a battalion?”

He flipped out his wallet and withdrew a gleaming silver credit card. “I thought it’d be nice to leave some on the counter at Divine. And—” He broke off, looking uncharacteristically awkward. Then he covered his unease with a smile for the woman behind the counter. “Throw in a bunch of napkins, would you?”

She beamed. “For you, Dillon, of course.”

“She knows you?” Alexa whispered when the woman went to fill his order.

“I come in here now and then.” He shrugged.

Maybe handymen made more than she realized. He did seem to have a wide range of skills in that area. Perhaps he diversified enough to bring in a decent income. She bit her lip, considering his profile. Or could he be trying to show off a little? Maybe he’d suggest an expensive restaurant next and then she’d know he was wooing her.

Which didn’t sound half-bad, truthfully.

Laden down with several white bakery bags, they entered Divine a few minutes later. She didn’t have to unlock the door, which gave her a moment’s pause until she heard the music flowing out from the back room. More jazz. She blew out a breath. Imagine that.