Page 40 of Taken With You
Today was magic.
She would swim in this pleasant alchemy for as long as she dared.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Outside on a lounge chair, Garrick fixed his grip on his beer as Amanda emerged from the back door of the cabin. Sun flashed on her pale blond hair as she lifted a hand in greeting. His pulse leaped to life. She’d come straight from the cave in her cutoff shorts. His gaze lingered on the slim, long legs she’d wrapped around him earlier in the day when she’d visited for lunch and beckoned him to the living room couch. He could still feel the imprint of her heels on his butt.
Damn.
“You should keep a fire extinguisher nearby if you’re going to look at me like that.” With a twinkle in her eye, she set a bottle of wine and two glasses on the weathered side table between two lounge chairs. “You’re on a dry hillside in wine country. It’s a dangerous place to be giving off sparks.”
“I’ll stop shooting sparks,” he said, tilting the mouth of his beer toward her, “when you stop wearing those shorts.”
“If I didn’t wear these shorts, I’d be prancing around in a thong.”
His cock twitched. “No one here but me. Be my guest.”
She held in a laugh as she set to uncorking the bottle. “I’m here for business, partner. I need you to taste this.”
He grimaced and raised his beer. “I’m good.”
“It’s Cedar Ridge’s last vintage under Mr. Brunichelli.” She pulled on the handle of the corkscrew, and the cork came out with a gentle pop. “I finally had a chance to bottle it. I have an idea of what to do with it, but first I need your taste buds.”
“What taste buds?”
She cast him a side-eye. “Don’t make me tie you up, partner.”
Desire shot hot through his body. He preferred to tie her up…but hell, he was up for any bed game she wanted to play.
“Behave, you.” She met his gaze with amused promise, all the while setting to the unnecessarily complicated task of pouring the wine. “I have my own opinion about this wine. Just take a sip and tell me what you think.”
With silk-bondage fantasies dancing in his head, he set his beer aside and took the glass she held out to him. The sun glinted in the ruby-bright wine. He raised his gaze over the rim to find her waiting, brows raised, expectant.
“I remember how to do it.” He sniffed and sipped, expecting the usual experience of unpleasant, chalky bitterness. He wasn’t surprised.
Until he was.
He frowned and took another sip.
“Yes.” Amanda sank into the other lounge chair. “You aren’t hopeless.”
The wine slid down his throat a second time, and that faint, agreeable quality strengthened. “I don’t know what I’m tasting.”
“Doesn’t matter. You recognize something special.” She cupped her glass like it was a baby rabbit. “This is a gold-medal winner for sure.”
He set his wine glass aside, puzzled, before picking up his beer again. “So what’s this idea you have?” The sooner she talked about it, the sooner he could talk her into something other than business.
“The launch party is only a week from Friday, but I think we should serve this vintage with dinner. Make it a rah-rah celebration of the glory of old Cedar Ridge, and the potential of the new.”
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
“It’s not quite that easy. The caterer matches the wine and food. If you change one, you have to change the other.”
“You’re the boss, Amanda.”
“Shelley’s going to kill me. But the writers and the tourist bureau folks and the local owners willloveit. It’s a sign of respect to Mr. Brunichelli and the brand his family built over so many generations.”
He nodded, struck once again by her perception and savvy. Dominic had always been the big-picture guy in their partnership. His brother would have loved how she understood not just how to make the best wine from the property’s vineyards, but also how the winery fit into a greater local history. It filled him with a sense of triumph to have her at his side, in business, in pleasure, in life—
