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“You’re my woman.” I dared to rub my thumb along the little dip under her lower lip, reaching upward when her lashes fluttered and her mouth parted.
Not to admonish me. Not to tell me to go to hell. But to make the softest exhalation I’d probably ever heard. Barely audible. Just enough to cause me to angle my head and fuse our mouths together the way I’d been aching to do since she’d kissed me days ago.
This wasn’t like that kiss.
Oh, the same aggression and frustration were there, layered under a sweet sensation of surprise that had me cupping her face and going deeper, dragging her with me whether or not she was ready to dive. That she’d take this ride even knowing there would probably be a collision with some pretty fucking hard rocks shook me to my core.
Then again, maybe she had no choice. Just as I didn’t. There was only her mouth, so hungry and pliant against mine, her teeth razing over flesh and leaving a sting of blood that tasted like victory.
Hers and mine.
For a moment, only the battle counted. It didn’t matter who came out on top, because the spoils were ours to share.
That this could exist beyond years of petty arguments and snarky comments and judgy looks was some kind of miracle, and I’d given up in believing in those beyond the sparkle in my little girl’s eyes.
Then she drew back and sucked in a greedy breath before tilting her head in challenge at the newscaster. “What he said. Make sure you write all that down.”
Six
Deciding to decorate my café at nine at night wasn’t the best idea.
Then again, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Gideon’s mouth on mine. Not only did we now have two kisses in our collective unconscious, the whole damn town and world had witnessed the second kiss.
That was the part that had me so wound up I couldn’t settle. The idiot had just grabbed me. Oh, and instead of me hauling off and smacking the crap out of him like I should have, I’d kissed him back.
So freaking stupid.
The worst part? Now there were tons of videos floating around with me looking like a shellshocked moron. A bunch of entertainment shows had picked it up, thanks to Gideon’s boneheaded mention about his ex-wife cheating on him.
If it had just been him and me, it would have blown over. Nope, now he had to bring in his famous ex. Before this week, I hadn’t even known he had a wife, let alone that she was relatively famous. To add a little more acid into the wound, because honestly, salt wasn’t nearly enough for how it burned when I got a look at this Jessica Gideon. She was stacked, currently platinum blond, and gorgeous enough to make feel like an extra on The Walking Dead—you know, comparatively speaking.
Just ugh.
Secondary kick? The kiss had actually killed the entire mass hysteria. All the extra foot traffic had disappeared like a puff of smoke. I mean, Brewed Awakening had served our regular Friday customers, but the town was almost back to normal. Disappointment reigned that John Gideon had a pseudo-girlfriend.
Aka me.
So, now I was the bad guy. I wasn’t quite sure how that had happened.
What I did know? That my life needed some order. And the only thing that truly made sense to me was Halloween. So what if it wasn’t quite September yet?
Of course now it was nearly four in the morning and I was at an all-time high for insomnia insanity. I’d been dusting and cleaning every crevice before putting out my vintage, kitchy, and sometimes ridiculous decorations. I’d covered the back counter in pastel pumpkins and a few of my Halloween-esque houses I’d been collecting since I was a girl.
I was aware I’d need to ease the town into my obsession. They already knew I was bad, but I usually waited until mid-September to deck the café out. End of August was definitely pushing it for the annoying biddies of the town council. So, the actual counter was pretty-in-pink style for now. Leaf garlands in pops of orange wound around the white and pink plastic pumpkins I’d been collecting since I’d opened Brewed Awakening. End of the season sales were golden for cheap decorations and I always stocked up for next year.
I made sure everything was still functional for counter space. One of the many reasons I’d used Gideon’s talents during my first year. He’d created a maze of shelves and cubbies for me. It usually was full of Brewed Awakening merchandise. Now it was pumpkinfied with a selection of my favorite bats and skulls.
Before midnight, I’d attacked the front window with the pink and orange brigade as well. The first of October, the coffee shop would be transformed into my true nature of witchery, creepy bats, and skulls.
I just had one section left. I pulled down my bandana and took a long drink from my 32 ounce Jack Skellington tumbler full of water. I walked around the front of the counter and fussed with a trio of skulls on top of the bakery display. I’d commissioned Dahlia McKenna to do artsy, spooky florals in the skulls and had found a kindred horror spirit with an equally sad case of insomnia. The bonus round had included the fact that she was an interior designer. Collaborating on a themed restaurant seemed like the perfect storm.
We’d been working on plans for The Haunt for almost a year, and now it was so close to becoming a reality. Between obsessing over the progress of my restaurant and this ridiculous thing with Gideon—well, it was a wonder that I wasn’t more of a basket-case.
I refilled my cup with the perpetual jug of lime water on the scarred table I was using for a decoration station. If I’d only lived on coffee like some people assumed, I would’ve probably ended up in the emergency room with a heart attack.
Picking out a few more bats, I tucked one of the furry ones into a mug. The creamer station was decked out in Rae Dunn Halloween items due to auctions on eBay, Facebook, and Mercari. I’d been buying since last Christmas when I found my first Spooky black mug. I didn’t even care that I was a trendy bitch. Halloween was my jam and I wanted it all.
IKEA and I had enjoyed a date yesterday after the incident. I certainly wasn’t going to ask Gideon to build me shelves for Halloween decorations.
