Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 128801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Caleb let go of a chuckle. “You should be terrified, Ezra. Turn your back, and you’re bound to wind up missing tonight. Fucker’s going to have you buried in a shallow grave for even thinking about going after his girl.”
“And we’re blood,” Ezra drew out, the razzing completely at my expense. “You wound me, Ryder.”
I shook my head, fighting a grin that didn’t know whether to be frustrated or amused. “Just care about her, okay? And she’s Cody’s little sister, so let’s all have a little respect, yeah? It’s him you have to worry about. You look at his sister wrong, and it’s not going to turn out pretty.”
Caleb and Ezra were sharing a glance again, not buying for a second the shit I was tossing out.
Fuckers.
But I couldn’t give any more of my attention to that because I felt her coming.
A windstorm that whipped through the room, stealing the breath from my lungs when she returned, this time with our food.
“Three Monte Cristos for my favorite customers.” She set a plate in front of each of us, and I wasn’t entirely sure of the reason my stomach twisted in a needy knot.
If it was because I had the urge to reach out and touch her from under the table, glide my hand up the side of her leg to get under that skirt.
Or if it was because I was punched in the face with the mouthwatering scent.
Warm sugar and pure sweetness.
I wasn’t the only one, though, because both Ezra and Caleb moaned. “Good God, woman, what are you trying to do to me?” Ezra said as he drove a fork into the deep-fried deliciousness. It came up steaming, melted cheese and gooey jam.
I took a bite, too, not even caring that it was so hot it nearly seared my tongue.
“Good?” she asked, more of that humbleness riding free.
“Best thing I’ve ever tasted.” That was from Ezra.
A giggle escaped from her, and she shook her head. “You say that every time you come in here.”
“That’s because it’s true, each time better than the last.”
“The pressure,” she deadpanned.
I turned my eyes up to hers. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, Dakota. Not one damned thing.”
Twenty minutes later, I was swiping a napkin over my mouth and slumping back in the booth.
Knocked the fuck out from everything that was Dakota Cooper.
My stomach overfull, but I couldn’t help but indulge in whatever she fed me considering I could never take a bite of what I was really hungry for.
She cleared our plates, stacking them high in one hand, before she pulled the bill from her pocket. She set it facedown in front of me before she grazed a gentle brush of those fingers across my shoulder.
Sparks lit.
A faint glimmer.
A glow of what could never be.
“You guys have a great day,” she said, cinnamon eyes jumping around to land on each of us.
“Bye, Dakota. See you soon,” Caleb and Ezra both said.
I turned over the slip, pulse catching when I read what was on the other side, her swirly handwriting woven deep into the paper.
I shouldn’t be surprised. Shouldn’t take it as something it was not.
But it never failed to stab me in the guts.
Love is on the house.
SEVEN
DAKOTA
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I didn’t whirl around or gasp with the gravelly voice that hit me from behind. Why, when I already knew he was there? That dark intensity wisping through the air and curling over me like a blanket.
Both comfort and something so utterly uncomfortable I wasn’t sure I could ever make sense of it.
I already knew he’d come, the way he always did, so I chucked him a saucy grin from over my shoulder where I was bent over the front of my desk, my laptop shifted around so I could look up a sales order to check for when it was scheduled for delivery.
“Working,” I told him, and I tried not to get hung up on the way he had a shoulder leaned against the jamb of my office door, every sinewy inch of him cocked in an easy casualness that still looked like you might get electrocuted if you got too close.
His edges so sharp they could cut with a glance.
Not that or the way his gaze seemed to snap up from where it’d been locked on my backside. I just hoped my dress wasn’t hiked up so high that my underwear was showing.
He scoffed, stuffing those tatted hands into the pockets of his jeans. “You have to stop doing that.” It grated from those plush lips.
“And what would that be?” I asked, shifting around and propping myself against the wood of my desk.
He pushed off, coming closer, the ground doing that trembling thing as he took a step my direction, then another until he was right in front of me.