All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,58

alley.

Viv frowned as she followed him. “Where are we going?”

“Here,” he said, his voice low and rumbly as he stopped and backed her gently against the wall, his green-gray eyes shining with a carnal intent even in the darkness of the alley.

“Officer Price,” she said, a smile shaping her lips. “Did you lure me into taking this walk with you under false pretenses?”

“Fuck yes, I did.” And then he kissed her and there was nothing gentle about that. It was all heat and spark from the second their lips touched, his tongue swiping and licking into hers. Viv curled her fingers into his lapels and kissed him back, heat springing everywhere.

“God,” he muttered when he finally broke away and they were both breathing hard. “You are hot when you’re being gracious.” His voice was rough as he pressed his forehead to hers.

Viv laughed, and it was as rough as Reuben’s voice. “My speech turned you on?”

“Everything about you turns me on.”

“So I see.” Viv pressed her knee against the impressive swelling in his sheriff department trousers.

He groaned again and went in for another kiss but Viv ducked it. She didn’t care that they were making out in an alley but, given he was still in his uniform—Reuben’s boss might.

And she really did have to get back. “I’ve gotta get back.”

“Yeah. Okay.” He grimaced but eased away, turning so his back was to the wall, expelling a long, foggy breath into the alley. “I’m probably going to need a minute.”

Viv grinned before leaning in to peck him on the cheek and, just because she wasn’t that gracious, she slid a hand down and groped him with thorough indecency. He sucked in a breath and his head thunked back against the brick wall. “Make that three minutes,” he said as she dropped her hand.

Smiling to herself, Viv turned, heading out of the alley. “I’m composing a speech to your penis in my head right now for when we get back to the cottage,” she threw over her shoulder.

She heard a muffled kind of oath. “Make it five.”

Chapter Nine

A few weeks later, on Christmas eve, Reuben sat in the elegant surroundings of the bar in the lobby of the Graff waiting for Vivian. He was surrounded by polished marble and gleaming light fixtures casting a low, intimate glow across rich wood paneling. To his right a massive fresh Christmas tree dominated the lobby festooned with baubles and bells, topped with a sparkly star and covered in myriad colored lights.

Rich silver and gold tinsel was strung around the reception desk and concierge station, caught up into loops by intermittent tartan bows. A strand of plump, dark green garland twisted around the handrail of the curved central staircase. An orchestral version of “Little Drummer Boy” was playing low over the sound system.

It sure was a far cry from that Bozeman bar. And Grey’s Saloon for that matter, where they’d met up with Stephen and Jess three nights ago. Jess had called it a double date but as she and Stephen were married and he and Vivian weren’t really dating, Reuben wasn’t sure it could be called that.

Vivian hadn’t seemed to mind the characterization but it had unsettled him because he was finding it more and more difficult to define them.

Which was his mother’s fault.

Well…not really. But he had been annoyed at his mom when Vivian had confessed what she’d said after Thanksgiving dinner. About getting his heart squashed. Thanks to Vivian’s insistence, he’d agreed not to tell his mother to butt out but he’d damn well wanted to and, had he not been able to assure Vivian it wasn’t the case, he sure as shit would have.

Because he had meant what he’d said that day.

Prior to his mother’s ridiculous assertion, Reuben had deliberately not thought about the future or even examined his feelings beyond their attraction. Vivian had been very clear about what she wanted, about the parameters, and he’d been happy to stay within them because as long as they were both here, he wanted to be with her.

And he was a thirty-year-old man who could handle a short-term fling for fuck’s sake.

For damn sure he’d known right at the beginning if he’d wanted anything more, she’d have passed altogether and that just seemed unimaginable now. Hell, it had seemed unimaginable from the second they’d crossed paths again no matter how much she’d tried to pretend they could overlook their chemistry.

But then his mother had set off some niggles in the back of his