Dani felt fresh tears coming in. Seeing that, Luke just smiled and tucked an arm around her while a group of what looked like the entire town of Cactus Creek shuffled forward singing Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs. She gasped at the sight of the giant birthday cake they carted over. Colorful frosted decorations, candied confetti, and
her name
written in icing.
Her heart leapt up to her throat, and all of a sudden, time seemed to slow.
The symphony of singing voices became echoed as the twenty-eight flickering candles turned into a soft glow that lit a haze all around as a new image ebbed in and out her mind. Materializing…just out of reach. Too fuzzy to be a memory, too real to be strictly fantasy.
A dream perhaps?
In it, she and Luke were singing Happy Birthday to a child.
Their
child.
Dani blinked and the scene disappeared. But her reaction to it remained. The dreamy images lodged her breath in her chest, right over her heart. And as if Luke were dreaming of the same future, his hand gave hers an emotional squeeze. She went up on her tiptoes and tilted her head up to catch his mouth in a feather-light kiss.
“I love you,” she whispered against his lips.
LUKE’S LIPS
kicked up; he was positive he had the look of a man so far entranced he was just holding on for the ride. Hearing her say the words could always get him there in an instant. He pulled her into his arms until they were touching shoulders to knees. Looking into her eyes, seeing all her unspoken words, he almost forgot there were guests all around them. Almost.
“
Get a room, you two!
” shouted someone from under the giant tent. Luke chuckled and put some distance between their bodies—one inch, at least—before leading her to a table with a gigantic bowl in the center. Then he just waited expectantly for her to look down. She didn’t disappoint. When she realized that was fresh caramel corn in the bowl, Dani gasped and grabbed a handful to try. Luke had heard the story, knew how the flavors she was groaning in happiness over right this minute were the tastes of her childhood that only her nose had been privy to from a building rooftop away. When she turned her shining eyes to him in gratitude over such a small thing—a handful of popcorn—Luke felt his heartstrings tug tight.
“I can’t believe you did all this,” marveled Dani, after finally coming up for air when half the bowl was in her tummy. “Every game, every treat, it’s all perfect.”
“Derek helped a ton with the planning. I followed his suggestions to the last-minute detail.” Luke cleared his throat. “Sans one, that is.”
Curious, Dani asked, “What suggestion was that?”
“Your brother wanted to setup
Spin the Bottle
for the guests. In fact, he was pretty adamant about it.”
Dani’s cheeks warmed to an adorable scarlet. “That little twerp!”
“Ah see, the way he was laughing, I knew there was a backstory that would ensure I slept on the couch tonight if I gave in.” He patted himself on the back. “Okay, so tell me the story.”
She ducked her head down. “There was this middle school party...”
“Middle school? Why, Ms. Dobson, I’m shocked. And frankly, jealous.”
Her cheeks burned brighter. “I didn’t actually do anything! When it was my turn at the bottle, I bolted, making some excuse about my curfew, I think. I ended up sneaking into another room and calling Derek to come pick me up early.”
“Aw, so you never got to make out at a boy-girl party before?
“Nope.” She turned laughing eyes his way, slowly getting over her embarrassment. “Are you going to go looking for an empty bottle now? So I can see what I missed out on?”
He gave her a hell-no headshake. “Are you kidding? Way too many guys here who can’t keep their damn eyes off you.” He swept an appreciative glance over her in the ultra-feminine, white flowing dress with her token Dollar Store white rubber beach slippers to match.
Dani just laughed the compliment off and pointed to a group of nearby guys. “Hey, what about your friends over there? They seem innocent enough. You trust them, don’t you?”
His horrified look at the particularly houndish set of his fantasy football buddies she had picked out made her giggle...then break out in a sprint in their direction. She swiped an empty wine bottle off the table on the way. “Hey, you guys want to play
Spin the
—”
He ran after her and threw her over his shoulder, tickling her mercilessly as he led her a safe distance away from his friends, all of whom were enjoying the comical exchange. “Ignore this one,” Luke called back to the guys. “She’s laugh-her-ass-off drunk, talking crazy.”
“I don’t know, man. She sounds pretty sober to me,” needled one of Luke’s buddies, his eyebrows bobbing just enough to heckle Luke. “Honey, you can set that bottle up right here.”
“That’s the
other
reason why we aren’t playing any big kid party games tonight,” grumbled Luke. “A few of my so-called friends have made it very clear that they wouldn’t mind terminating our decade-long friendship if it meant a chance at dating you.”
Two of those ‘friends’ had their fingers up to their ears in a motion for her to call them.
“Awww,” said Dani, genuinely touched.
“That
wasn’t
a selling point on their behalf. Trust me, each and every one of those guys is a purebred alley cat.”
“Unlike you and your suave caveman techniques,” she laughed, wiggling even more now.
With her shimmying giving him all sorts of interesting, wholly inappropriate ideas, he reluctantly let her down—only because the alternative was just not rated for this party.
She kept on with those impish fairy giggles though, and he couldn’t help but steal a kiss. He just couldn’t get enough of her. She was his favorite, most intoxicating liquor. And soon, their kiss, which may have started off playfully chaste, became a claiming so complete, he got completely inebriated off her. That is, until his brain recognized the sobering voices coming closer by the second. “G
reat
,” he muttered, though a reluctant smile peeked through. “Okay, pause button on the mind-numbing kisses. My parents are at three o’clock and closing so let’s pretend to behave.” He winked and kissed the tip of her nose affectionately. “Hey, that reminds me. How come you never told me you met them the other day—”
Looking utterly confused, Dani whirled around and did a double take when she saw the elderly couple approaching them. “You’re
Luke’s parents
?”
Luke whipped a glare at his folks. “You didn’t introduce yourselves at Ocotillos?!”
His dad immediately pointed at his mother and mouthed,
“It was all her.”
His mother batted her lashes. “How covert would my recon have been if I had?”
Luke rolled his eyes. His life was a circus. “Dani, I’d like you to officially meet my parents, Claire and Dean Hennessey. They’re actually the ones who suggested this party.”
Dani laughed and hugged them both. “You know, I’m not surprised at the intel they managed to get. They did the whole ‘good spy, bad spy’ routine. Hella-crafty interrogators.”
“Glad you approve of our methods,” delighted Claire, deadpan. “Because we want to invite you up to the farm tomorrow morning for a second helping.”
“Really?” Dani looked positively tickled.
Claire glanced over at him. “Oh, Luke dear, you can come too.”
“Gee, thanks mom.”
Laughing even harder, Dani teased, “If he can’t make it, I’m sure one of his friends—”
Luke bumped her hip and proceeded to ‘save’ her from tripping. “Poor li’l thing is toe-up drunk. They make that caramel corn strong here. So, what time tomorrow, mom?”
Claire chuckled. “Nine o’clock works for us. We can have a nice brunch outside.”
With that settled, his folks merrily wished Dani a good birthday and headed off to enjoy the party, alternating between whispering to each other and cackling with glee the whole time.
“They’re so cute.” Dani murmured, smiling at the pair.
“Nauseatingly so,” agreed Luke, grinning as well. “Now you see where I get it.”
She twined her fingers with his. “With a happily-ever-after like that right in front of you growing up, I’d be more surprised if you weren’t the romantic you are today.”
“That’s the first time you’ve ever said ‘happily-ever-after’ without rolling your eyes.”
“I know. I think you and your parents are contagious. And my immunizations are wearing off.”
Seeing her smile when she said that made a flicker of hope come alive in his heart.
THE NEXT MORNING
, Luke awoke Dani with a kiss. On the back of her knee.
Head still under her pillow, she grouchily mumbled a complaint about a four-limit max.
He smiled and trailed kisses down her smooth back. Strategically. When he got to the ticklish base of her spine, she flipped over, tangled in the sheets, looking good enough to eat.
“You need a reverse-Viagra,” she groused. But her eyes licked over him intently.
“You’re one to talk. You about killed me with that last run.”
“You and me both.” Her gaze turned frisky then. “I’ve actually never tried that position before last night. In fact, I’m not even sure we did it correctly. We better practice that one again to be sure,” she said solemnly, pulling the layers of bed sheets off her like erotic gift-wrap.
With a regretful frown, he put one hand over his eyes and used the other to swat away her curious ones as they set out to convince him to play. “We’re supposed to be at my parents’ farm by nine this morning, remember? If we don’t leave in fifteen minutes, we’ll never make it.”
She sat up and swiftly wound the sheet around his chest and arms before pushing him back down onto the bed. He felt like a loosely bound half-covered mummy—with a very alive lower half demanding to be woken up. She blew a soft breath up first one rock solid thigh and then the other as she started outlining some sort of math word problem for him.
Yeah, like he could even add one plus one right now.
“If it takes two people five minutes to get ready...” Her fingers lightly grazed his happy trail. “Will ten be enough to…” A slow glide of her tongue filled in the rest of the equation.
His hips shot forward, arching him high up off the bed. “Keep that up and I won’t last the next five,” he all but growled, lust playing havoc on his vocal chords.
“Really?” she hummed, her mouth promptly interpreting this as a goal, not a warning, as her decadent ministrations kicked into high gear.
He groaned, low and tortured, quickly yanking himself out of the sheets to free his trapped hands. What he was hoping to do with those hands now, he wasn’t at all sure...until he caught sight of the unabashed pleasure in her expression.
Damn
.
His head slammed back down to the bed, his fists clenched, his body strung tighter than a crossbow. “T minus four, babe,” he rasped.
Her deep, throaty laugh didn’t help his cause one bit.
In fact, the feel of it along with the other diabolical skills she’d sprung on him with her determined lips and hands sped the clock up drastically. But before he could alert her to the fact, she let out a soft, purring moan.
And just like that, the countdown was over.
He’d probably shouted. Hell, he might’ve even passed out. Eyes shut, body convulsing with each crashing wave of release, he barely had the presence of mind to keep breathing.
Eventually, the temptress slowly kissed her way up his body like a satisfied cat while the roar in his ears subsided. As soon as she lifted her long lashes to meet his gaze, however, the roaring returned with a vengeance and his body corded with a hot hiss.
The pure, raw hunger he saw in the depths of her dark honey eyes stole his soul and sold it to his raging hormones. Yet she didn’t ask him to return the favor. Instead, she just laid her head against his chest and stroked his overheated skin with trembling fingers.
“We better get going,” she said finally, her voice trying to cover up the fact that she was literally shaking with need. “Dibs on the shower.” After one more soft love bite on his bicep, she rolled off the bed.
And got exactly two steps away.
Silly rabbit.
He caught her around the waist and flipped her back onto the bed. “We still have two minutes. Plenty we can do in that time, love,” he reasoned, glorying in her body’s rampant response to him. “Plus, be sensible. You can’t possibly leave in this condition. Do you know how rocky the ride to the farm is? You’d be like a powder keg going through a mine field.”
She started giggling helplessly at the ridiculousness of his comment.
All part of his master plan. He slowly shouldered apart her legs.
They didn’t leave for the farm until well after nine.
* * * * *
DANI STEPPED OUT
of Luke’s car and took in the farmhouse before her like she was staring at a painting. Her soft smile and wide eyes told Luke how beautiful she thought his childhood home was while her measured breathing clued him in on just how nervous she was to be there.