Page 15 of XOXO

Bear just grinned and caught it with a knowing look on his face. He followed me into my office. He sat down, playing with the rag while I hung up my keys and coat.

“Well?” I asked.

“Ah, that asshole won’t be back. He had a list of complaints half a mile long, but an uncle on the city council kept saving his job. Not anymore, though. Oh, and he’ll be eating through a straw for a couple of weeks, thanks to you and your little lady. Heard she packed a helluva punch.”

“Damn straight,” I growled possessively, pride filling me.

“Um, we do still have a problem, though. We still don’t have a caterer, and the tasting is in two days.”

“Two days? Fuck. When the fuck did that happen?”

“When you were pining your sorry ass over your girl,” Bear supplied.

I gave him the finger and rubbed a hand down my face, waving him out of the office. He left, his deep chuckle echoing in the room. Dick. He didn’t understand. He’d always had money, and yeah, I had a talent for making it, but this wasn’t about that.

I wanted my label to go big. I needed it to be a success. Whiskey Neat was the only thing I had ever done alone. No one. Not even Bear had been asked to consult on flavors or distilling methods. It was good. I knew that without conceit.

I stalked over to the window, pissed off and half a second from despairing. Then I caught a whiff of dark, decadent cocoa powder being mixed with cocoa butter, from conscientious sources, I reminded myself, and I grinned.

I had an idea. A good one. I just hoped my sweet and sexy Delani didn’t turn me down.

Chapter Seven

Delani

I was literally elbow-deep in my work, mixing ganache for my signature Valentine’s Day truffles— I called them Cherry Bombs—when Sonny came into the back room. I wasn’t expecting him until lunchtime, but seeing him made my heart pound and my pulse race. He was so damn handsome, how could I not get carried away when I looked at him?

“Hey! You’re early.”

I smiled, just taking in how handsome he looked in his sexy jeans hanging low on his hips, his white shirt rolled up at the elbows, top button undone, and his short hair carelessly mussed. How did I ever get so lucky as to catch this sexy man’s eye?

I had no idea. But I didn’t want this to end. I just hoped I didn’t get burned this time around. My love life was nothing to write home about, till now, and well, I was starting to think my feelings for Sonny might be a little more complicated than I’d originally assessed.

I thought being physically intimate didn’t have to mean being emotionally invested. But I was having a real hard time separating the two. Especially right then, as I looked into his impossibly dark eyes and felt my chest grow tight and my heart stuttering.

“Del, I need to ask you a question,” he said.

Warning bells sounded, but I swallowed. Maybe this wasn’t a bad thing. I felt excitement rolling off him in waves. Surely, Sonny had some good news he wanted to share.

Hold on to your panties, girl. Let the man talk.

“Well, what is it?”

“I know you are busy, like super busy. But I have a business proposal and I am hoping you will consider it.”

“Well, tell me,” I said, smiling at him.

He was practically vibrating with energy. Like my own personal sun. Ha! Sonny was my personal sun. I was a poet, and I didn’t know it. Derry out front must have gotten to him, cause he was wearing a hairnet, despite the short hair, an apron, and rubber gloves.

He was still sexy as fuck. And I was dangerously close to losing my heart to him.

“No. Not here. At lunch. Come to the bar at noon, okay? I will have it all set up and we’ll talk then,” he said, closing the distance between us.

I barely had time to gasp before he grabbed my cheeks and dropped a short, but hot kiss on my lips before running back out the door. Hot. Damn. The man was fine as fuck. My head was spinning and my body aching, but somehow, I was able to refocus on what I was doing.

An hour later, Derry, one of my employees, came into the back, where I was finishing the Cherry Bombs and putting the trays filled with them on the rack to set. She was an older woman with a cherubic face and gorgeously thick gray hair. She had the most beautiful complexion, and every day I tried to pry beauty secrets out of her, but she laughed it off as good genes. Anyway, I just adored her.

“What is it, Derry?”

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