All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,6

and amber and her red mouth gape wide and knowing he was responsible…

He felt like a fucking king.

He kissed her then, kissed that lush beautiful mouth as he gave in to the demands of his own orgasm, unlocking the mental gates that had kept it in check, huddling her close as he drove deep inside her body, thrusting until they were both spent and all that was left was the noise of their ragged breathing as they slowly floated back down to earth.

“And that,” Vivian said, her head flopping back against the wall, “is why I took my panties off.”

Reuben gave a half laugh as he eased away slightly, their bodies still joined in the most intimate way possible. “Thank you for hitting on me.”

“I’m not a big believer in waiting for things to come to me.”

“Yeah, I got that vibe.” Vivian was what his father called a go-getter.

She shifted a little and Reuben realized this probably wasn’t the most comfortable position for her—balancing on one stilettoed leg, the other splayed out to accommodate him. “Let’s take round two to the bed,” he suggested.

Reuben seriously fucking hoped there was going to be a round two. And a couple more after that. He’d go if that’s what she wanted—maybe a quick fuck against a wall was all Vivian was up for—but while this frantic, vertical sex had gotten the job done, it wasn’t anywhere near his best work.

“Mm, round two.” She kissed him and Reuben leaned the hell into that for the seconds it lasted. “I think I’m going to need a minute, however, to get my land legs.”

He knew how she felt. Pleasure so sharp and pure it had taken him out of himself. Floating him through a cotton candy sky. But he knew a fix for wobbly legs.

“Allow me,” he said.

Her breath hitched a little and she tightened her hold on him as he eased out and lowered her leg to the ground before swinging her up into his arms in one quick movement.

“Reuben,” she protested, a note of alarm in her voice as she grabbed around his neck. “The bed’s only like three paces away. I can manage.”

By the time the words had been uttered, Reuben had striven the aforementioned paces to the bed. “See,” she said.

“Sure.” He nodded as he held her over the mattress. “But this way you get to conserve your energy.”

“What for? I’m hardly running a marathon.”

“Trust me, you’re going to need to keep your strength up for the marathon of cunnilingus I’m about to unleash on you. You’re going to need it for all the moaning, thrashing and begging I’m going to make you do.”

And he dumped her on the mattress.

Chapter Two

Six weeks later in Marietta…

Viv Dawson stood just inside the front door of the shop casting her eye over the setup, admiring her handiwork. She’d done this with dozens of Delish stores now so she didn’t need to consult floor plans or store layout guides—they were as familiar to her as her own heartbeat.

Which was the point.

Customers liked familiarity. They liked knowing their favorite product was going to be in the same place in every store they walked into across the country.

And, as of nine a.m. Monday morning, it was Marietta, Montana’s turn.

She’d fought to have this store be Delish’s third one outside of a big city and had championed the company’s move into regional and rural areas after a chance conversation with a twenty-something from Clovis, Texas, who’d lamented there wasn’t a specialty chocolate shop in her hometown. From there, Viv’s gut had taken over and she’d done extensive consumer research and identified a gap in the market.

A gap Delish could fill.

She’d known through her own personal experience growing up in a mid-size town that if a person living in a regional area craved chocolate, their local Piggly Wiggly—or whatever their corner store equivalent may be—was their only option. And that was just a basic range. If they craved something a little fancier, they ordered online and waited for the delivery.

Which was a tragedy—everybody should have immediate access to good chocolate.

With sixty stores across all the major cities in the continental USA, Viv felt Delish was in a good position to push their brand into regions that had been too long deprived of their chocolate fixes. Thankfully, the Delish board with their no-suggestion-too-stupid policy, had looked at her carefully prepared pitch based on her three months’ research into consumer spending and regional market trends, and embraced the idea with open arms.