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“Oh, I disagree, sweetness.” The w
ay he slid that word out, like it was meant just for her, made her skin prickle with need and her thighs ache with desire.
Push just a bit more…
“Well, you may want to be careful when it comes to conversing with me,” she said, and rested her forearm atop the blender. Holding his stare, she flicked on the shred button, and the sound of the spinning blades rang out as they cut through the ice cream. “I’m a dangerous wild card, remember?”
With a heavy breath, Ryder nodded once. “I remember.”
His gaze lingered on her body for a moment, then he turned to walk out. And that pissed her off. Partly because just the look he gave her made her skin buzz with the need to touch him, and partly because the way he spoke to her made her want to fight with him. Fight in a hair pulling, biting, kissing kind of way.
She was pretty sure he wanted that, too. She just had to be patient. She watched his shoulders move as he continued his trek to the exit…
Three…
Another two steps.
Two…
He reached the door.
One.
He paused and glanced over his shoulder, those steely eyes hitting her with a look of raw lust and passion.
When he walked outside, she knew one thing.
They would talk about this later, after all.
Chapter Four
Ryder slid the putty knife along the drywall, covering it with more white paste.
“Hey,” Huck said from the door leading into the back of the bakery. “Heard you didn’t get lunch.” He held up a takeout bag from Penny’s BBQ.
Yeah, Ryder had showed up earlier to get lunch then had been distracted by the new waitress. He’d had to get out of there, fast, before he let a different kind of hunger convince him to take another bite out of her.
“You heard about that, huh?” Ryder asked.
Huck just shrugged, pulled up an upside-down bucket, and took a seat. He dug into his own bag, unwrapped a burger, and looked up at him. “Autumn was there. Said you and the new girl have some history after all.”
“I wouldn’t call it history,” he said.
“Then what do you call it?” Huck took a bite of his burger.
The smell of meat and cheese made Ryder’s stomach twist with hunger. He pushed it aside and refocused on the wall. “We had a night. I thought she was the girl you guys set me up with.”
Huck’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding.” He threw back his head and let loose a loud laugh, then finally noticed Ryder wasn’t laughing with him. “Shit, man. That sucks.” He tossed a French fry into his mouth. “Is that why you’re drywalling a bakery today? To hide out?”
“No,” Ryder answered honestly. “Mrs. Gates called and needed this wall fixed.”
And like the good boy Ryder was, he’d hopped right to it. He was a Diamond after all, and his father and grandfather had left him big reputations to live up to. The town and the people were a priority to him. Not just because his whole business rested on a delicate balance of them staying local and using his company for construction and building, but because it was his home. One his family had built. One he’d been a part of. One he took pride in.
“How’s the Davenport Hall remodel going?” he asked Huck. These days, that was where Ryder spent his time. It was a fixture in the town, and the old hall had taken the past two months to get up to code. Now they were only a few weeks away from restoring the historical hall to its former glory.
“Oh no, you’re not getting out of this that easy. I wanna hear more about the waitress and how she got your panties in a wad.”
Damn gossip mill. But he couldn’t expect anything less. It was a small town, and everyone knew everyone’s business. Not to mention, his sister and Bass looked ready to wet themselves with amusement earlier. Whitney was a brassy one, and he had to give her credit—she got his blood going. Didn’t change the fact that he needed to stay away from her. Especially now that she was within reach.
