“I’m not sure…” I said, eyes sweeping over her collages.
I mean, honestly—velvet? In a distillery? She couldn’t be serious.
“I need you to trust me on this, QB,” she said, bracing her hands on her hips. “I know what I’m doing.”
“I do trust you,” I assured her, and I meant it. Despite my protestations, I could admit I didn’t know shit about interior design. If this was what she wanted, this was what she’d get. “And if this is the direction you want to go, then we’re in agreement.”
She narrowed her eyes on me. “Just like that?”
I shrugged. “Just like that. We’re partners, and I can admit my expertise doesn’t exactly apply to design concepts.”
Delia grinned, delighted. “Thank you.”
“Now…is it time to play yet?”
She giggled and smacked my chest. “You’re insatiable.”
“Only for you. When are you going to let me kiss you again?”
I couldn’t fight it anymore. These months of dancing around this attraction between us, the sample of her sweet mouth I’d gotten in New York—it’d all driven me mad.
I wanted her, and while I had every intention of wining and dining her first, the caveman in my chest was screaming at me to claim hernow.
Delia raised a brow. “What happened to feeding me first?”
“It’s only a kiss,” I said.
“‘Only a kiss,’” she scoffed. “You know kisses aregateway drugs.”
“Yours certainly are.” Delia’s cheeks pinked, and I grinned. “Tell you what, Whiskey. You beat me in a game of pool, and we’ll postpone the kiss until later. But if I win, I’m taking it here and now.”
“That’s it? Win a game of pool and we kiss at a time and place of my choosing?”
“That’s it.”
She extended her hand, and I took it in mine, shaking on our deal.
Unsurprisingly, I wiped the table with her, finishing her off in only three turns. Both times I’d lost my turn only because she distracted me by running her hands up and down her thighs, toying with the hem of her skirt and lifting it higher and higher. My mind had blanked, muscle memory deserting me.
I almost felt bad. Not for winning—I was, at my core, a fierce competitor—but because Delia was so bad. Later, I’d teach her how to play.
As she put our cues back, I headed for the doors, first the one to the street, where I also hung a “closed for private party” sign, then the one to the bar upstairs, flipping the locks on both of them.
“What’re you doing?” Delia asked as I was turning the deadbolt on the door to upstairs.
“Taking my reward,” I said as I faced her again.
“And we need the door locked for that?”
Anticipation thickened the air around us as I stalked toward her and backed her against the rail of the pool table, my hands resting by her hips, bracketing her in.
“Did you notice I didn’t specifywhereI was going to kiss you?”
Delia’s breath hitched. “I just assumed you meant my mouth.”
I slowly licked my lips.
“I didn’t.”
