Sweet Hill Temptation (A Short Story) (2 page)

BOOK: Sweet Hill Temptation (A Short Story)
4.78Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

“I miss the way you taste. The way you feel.”

She seemed to like that answer, because she shimmied even closer and said, “I’d love for you to feel me again.”

Fuck yeah! He’d be down for that. Before he could agree, she pulled her arm back, clenched her fist, and punched him straight in the stomach, damn near knocking the wind out of him.

“Jesus Christ,” Luke said around a strangled breath and burning gut. “What the hell was that for?”

With the sweetest smile he’d ever seen, she said, “I was just flirting.”

Chapter Two

“I
still can’t believe you punched him,” Jen said, smiling over the rim of her coffee cup.

Annie paced behind the counter, stocking the pastry shelf with a fresh batch of muffins and gearing up for the lunch rush. Of course, in Sweet Hill, lunch rush equaled her grandmother’s quilting buddies and a few regulars picking up to-go orders on their lunch break. Still, it was enough for the café to make a profit, and if it kept up, she’d have no problem staying in business.

“I can’t believe he’s actually back,” Annie said.

“I heard he’s back helping his granddad with harvest.” Jen put her elbows on the counter and leaned in. “And that he has plans to stay for a while.”

“That’d be a change,” Annie mumbled.

When Luke had left to go expand his family’s name and business, she’d had no idea how badly it would hurt. Something that she’d never admit out loud.

For whatever reason, that one night, they just clicked. It was like he understood her. Wasn’t afraid of her the way most men were. He didn’t avoid her because of her tarnished last name or, if she were honest, her reputation that as of recently had been upgraded from mouthy to man-eater.

She wasn’t exactly discreet last night at the bar, and word had obviously gotten around. Her “welcome-home gesture” to the town’s golden boy was probably why her “lunch rush” was looking more like a lunch slowdown. In fact, it was after one and not a soul other than Jen was in the café.

“Where is everyone, anyway? Where are all your coworkers? They’re usually here by now,” Annie asked Jen.

Jen worked across the street at the bank and spent every lunch hour at Annie’s Café.

“Can’t go around assaulting a Jacobs man and not expect it to affect your business,” Maggie Thompson, Annie’s grandmother, said, shuffling behind the counter from the back room. “Makes for hostility. No matter how much they may deserve it.”

It wasn’t a secret that her nana didn’t like Andrew Jacobs, Luke’s grandfather. She never shared the details, but apparently they had dated right after high school and the breakup was messy. Soon after, Old Man Jacobs ended up marrying a city girl.

“For God’s sake, I punched one guy in a bar and now I’m considered hostile?”

“Yes, dear,” Nana said as the café’s phone rang. She dusted off her hands on the front of her apron and answered it.

Annie rolled her eyes and went back to stocking the muffins. “The man isn’t here twenty-four hours and already he’s affecting my business.”

“Maybe you should settle things with him,” Jen said. Which only made Annie want to roll her eyes again.

Problem was, nothing about Luke or his being home settled her. Damn it! Why did she have to react to him the way she did? She shouldn’t have lost her control, but all the hurt and confusion and anger from the cold morning she’d woken up alone without Luke came flooding back the moment she saw him. And those weren’t the only feelings overflowing in her.

She could still feel his lips on her skin. His hands sliding up her thighs—

“Lunch order!” Nana said loudly, hanging up the phone and placing a sticky note in front of Annie.

“Twelve turkey sandwiches?”

Her grandmother nodded. Those rosy cheeks and that big smile made Annie wonder why she was suddenly so happy. “Yep, and that’ll be for delivery. So you’d better scoot.”

“We don’t deliver, Nana.”

“We do on orders of twelve or more. New rule. Just came up with it.”

“Nana, that is not going to work.”

“Well, unless you want our grand total today to be zero dollars and zero sandwiches”—she paused to look around the empty café—“then I suggest you take what you can get and hurry up.”

That was all she said as she headed toward the back room, the smell of baking bread drifting through the swinging kitchen doors.

Crap. Her grandmother was right. A few sales were better than none. Especially on a slow day like today.

Jen peered over the counter and squinted at the scribbled piece of paper. “What kind of address is ‘Apple Heights Dock’?”

The breath stuck in Annie’s throat. She looked at her grandmother’s writing, then glared at the door she’d just walked through.

“That would be the loading dock up Apple Heights Road.”

“So, the Jacobs property?” Now Jen was obviously trying to hide a smile.

Not wanting to lose her only sale of the day, Annie stifled the urge to scream and started making twelve identical turkey sandwiches, wondering what gossip would arise after this encounter with Luke.

As if reading her mind, Jen said, “I hope Luke is wearing a cup today.”

“In and out,” Annie said to herself as she got out of her car and grabbed the box of sandwiches.

Gravel crunched beneath her shoes as she walked around the parked forklift and toward the big rig, which was already laden with several crates of apples. The loading area was a patch of dirt right off the side of the road, and if there weren’t machinery and a massive shed, it’d look just like a turnout. The apple trees were planted right up to the road, endless rows taking up miles of the countryside. The smell of sunshine and Granny Smiths wafted through the air.

There was no one in sight.

She walked over to the shed and peeked inside. The doors were pulled open, and she called out.

“Hello?”

No response.

She wove around the equipment, looking quickly for any sign of life. The low hum of the floor-to-ceiling cooler buzzed, and she tried not to think about what had happened at this place the last time she was there.

But when she saw the stack of hay bales in the corner, a flash of heat and the memory of how Luke’s skin felt against hers hit her hard.

Off in the distance, a small engine roared, and it was growing closer. Annie rushed out of the shed just as a four-wheeler came through the trees, around the corner, and into her line of view.

“Oh. My. God.”

Luke pulled up, shirtless and sexier than ever. The sun reflected off his tan and incredibly chiseled chest, and Annie suddenly couldn’t swallow correctly. He parked right in front of her and hopped off. Confidence dripped off him—much like that tiny bead of sweat currently sliding from his sternum to his impressive abs. Not that she was staring.

“What great service.” He smiled, taking the box from her hands.

She tried to come back with something, but found it hard to speak. She was too busy trying not to drool.

Good Lord, the man was better looking than she remembered. Low-slung jeans that were dirty from working the orchard, and flank after flank of muscle that wound down his hard stomach and strong chest. Aviators and a ball cap covering his dirty blond hair completed the I’m-a-hot-farmer look, and Annie was reminded real quick how she got caught up in Luke the first time.

“When I heard that there was this new little café in town, I just had to try it.” He set the box on the four-wheeler and faced her. “I’m glad you got your place, Annabelle. I’m happy for you.”

His words were coated with so much sincerity it made her eyes sting. She had never kept it a secret that she’d wanted a place of her own. Something she’d created and could be proud of. Something she could build a life around that had nothing to do with her mother, her past, or her social class.

“I know you’ve been working on this for a long time,” Luke said a little lower. “I’m really proud—”

She cleared her throat, cutting Luke off, and tried to get her damn brain to work. The look in his eyes promised more sweet words, which she couldn’t handle. She needed to keep her composure. And she needed to get out of his presence. Now.

“Where is everyone else?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s twelve sandwiches here.”

“They’re all for me.” When she frowned, he said, “Your grandma informed me that you only deliver on orders of twelve or more.”

Of course she did.

“Great. Well, the total is forty-eight dollars, then I’ll be on my way.”

“So soon?” Luke stepped toward her, that six-pack of his flexing and making her body do stupid things, like tremble. “I was hoping we could talk.”

“I said my piece at the bar last night.”

He smiled and ran a palm over his stomach where she had slugged him. She could now see why her knuckles had been sore. The man was a brick wall.

“And I got your message loud and clear,” he said with the same sexy smirk that had landed her in trouble two years ago. He took another step forward, and Annie couldn’t get her legs to move.

He took off his sunglasses and hooked them through a belt loop, then looked her in the eye. Big mistake, because those intense green eyes were enough to drop a woman to her knees. And she would know.

“I’m sorry, Annie. I never meant to hurt you when I left.”

She was a little shocked by his admission. Part of her thought that night they shared would forever be ignored. At the very least, never mentioned. But he’d just laid it out there.

“I never said you hurt me.” She may have felt it, but she’d never admitted it out loud. And she wasn’t about to start now. Because it didn’t matter. Yes, she knew he was leaving. Knew the expansion he was asked to head up was important. Hell, it wasn’t like he’d made her promises. But she had thought she had another week with him. At least a hug good-bye, maybe. An explanation as to why he took off without a word. For some reason, she honestly thought—

She shook her head. Again, it didn’t matter. He obviously didn’t feel about her the way she felt about him. That one night, she’d lost her judgment. It was naive to think he actually saw the real her. Maybe even liked the real her.

“I’ve thought of you”—he took another step—“every day.”

She scrambled to make her mouth churn out words, but everything she wanted to say didn’t sound right in her head. It would either confirm that she had thought of him too or that she cared that he’d thought of her in the first place. Or she’d ask the one thing she’d been dying to know: Why? If he’d thought of her, why didn’t he call? Why didn’t he check in? Why did he leave her in the middle of the night to wake up on her own? And why did he leave early in the first place? Was it to get away from her?

Asking and admitting that she wanted answers would be showing weakness. Something she wouldn’t do. So, for the first time ever, Annie bit her tongue.

Luke raised a brow. “Nothing to say to that?”

She bit down harder.

“Have you thought of me? Thought of that night we spent together?”

“No,” she said. Even though it was a lie.

“No, huh? Maybe you just need a refresher,” he said in a husky drawl. He was so close she could smell the sun on his skin and feel the shade on her face from the bill of his hat. “It was right over there.”

Annie knew where he was referring to. The shed. Behind the backhoe, with all the leftover hay bales from the harvest parade.

“It was late, but still hot out.” He slid a finger down her neck. “You were wearing a little white dress that lifted around your thighs every time the breeze picked up.”

He laughed a little, and the sound made her knees weak.

“All damn day I had been praying for a windstorm just so I could get a glimpse …” That finger trailed lower, to the swell of her cleavage peeking out of her tank top.

She swallowed hard, trying to figure a way out of here and away from him, but she couldn’t. Because some part of her was already caught up, and while she knew this was bad—she glanced at his mouth—very, very bad, she couldn’t look away.

“I think you’re remembering,” he said, his lips barely brushing over hers. “You tasted like cider and cinnamon … everywhere.”

Her breath caught and, God help her, she did remember. He had swept her off her feet. Made her feel things no other man had before. Fragile, sexy, safe. He had overwhelmed her with his strength. His presence. Just like he was doing now.

“Luke …” It was a plea, to make it stop. Or to make it not stop. She didn’t know what to want, because no other man had ever had this effect on her.

She didn’t need anyone. It was the motto she’d lived by since her mother started taking off when she was a kid. So why did she feel like she
needed
Luke to kiss her while at the same time feeling like he was awakening things she didn’t want him to?

She was tired of the jokes. Of the whispers. Throughout the years, Luke had never laughed at her expense.

“There’s something between us, Annabelle. You know it and I know it.”

She did know it. Or she was just so desperate to believe it like she once had. She closed her eyes to try to get a grip, but Luke pressed his mouth against hers, and any hope for reason was lost.

She groaned, swept up in the moment, in his heat. His dominance. Wrapping his arms around her, he kissed everything out of her. Every ounce of hurt he’d left her with. Every second she’d missed him over the past 730 days. Everything. All that mattered now was the feel of him.

“God, Annie, I’ve missed you,” he growled against her lips.

Plunging his tongue deep, he consumed her. Drank her down and returned for more. Her entire body awoke. The power of his kiss, and the way he pressed all that intensity into her space, made her head swim.

BOOK: Sweet Hill Temptation (A Short Story)
4.78Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Violent Exposure by Katherine Howell
Pay the Piper by Joan Williams
A Lion After My Own Heart by Cassie Wright
Smoked by Mari Mancusi
Tangled Innocence by Carrie Ann Ryan
Twist Me by Zaires, Anna
Matilda Wren by When Ravens Fall
Rules for Being a Mistress by Tamara Lejeune
Morgoth's Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien