Tequila Tequila
Page 20
“Fine.” I sighed and propped my elbow on the back of the sofa so I could rest my head on my hand. “We’ll put it to bed to just come back to it next week.”
“There’s my girl.” He kissed the top of my head. “By the way, a package arrived for you today. Were you expecting something?”
I sat up. “Ooh, my new hairdryer!”
“Exciting,” he muttered. “It’s in the bedroom. I’ll get it.”
I bounced on the sofa until he returned with the box. “That’s a big box for a hairdryer.”
“I told you to stop shopping online. It’s five percent your order, ninety-five percent packaging.”
“Yes, but online shopping means I don’t have to speak to people. Why is the box open?”
He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. “I wanted to see what it was, but I couldn’t get past the packaging, so I gave up.”
I rolled my eyes and scooted to the edge of the cushion.
The box moved.
“The box moved.” I looked at Luke. “Why did it move?”
His lips twitched.
Eyeing him, I reached to open the box and looked inside.
And squealed.
“What did you do?” I breathed, reaching in and pulling out the tiny beagle puppy. “Oh, hello, beautiful.”
“Meet Tequila,” he said dryly. “I was thinking Patches, but whatever.”
I held the tiny puppy close to my chest, looking at him in wonder. “But what? How? You just told me you hate dogs!”
“Yeah, well, Gerald needed some work doing on one of his barns two weeks ago. I went out there to see him, and he let me take a look at the puppies. She wouldn’t leave me alone and cried when I left, so I pretty much handed him the money there and then.” He raised his shoulders and dropped them again. “What can I say? She won me over.”
“Oh. You are my favorite.” I held the puppy at arm’s length to look at her.
“Me or Tequila?”
“I haven’t decided yet.” She was so cute. So tiny. Like you could put her in your purse tiny. “And you got her a collar!”
It was pink. Leather.
And…glinting.
I froze as my eyes zeroed in on the glint. “Luke,” I said. “What did you do?” Slowly, I turned my head, and he was on the floor.
On one knee.
In front of me.
I brought the puppy down to my lap before I dropped her. My hands were shaking as he leaned forward and took off her collar. He fiddled with it for a second and pulled the ring off.
I stared at him.
Oh, my God.
“I figured she’d break the ice.” His lips pulled to one side. “And potentially work in my favor.”
I pressed my hand to my mouth.
“I mean, our relationship started with tequila, so I figured it fitted that we start the next part with Tequila.”
Oh, my God.
“Aspen, will you marry me?”
I could do nothing but nod my head frantically. Partly because I was holding a puppy, and partly because the lump in my throat would choke me if I tried to speak. So I kept nodding, over and over, until he became nothing but a blur in front of me.
He sat on the sofa and pulled me in close to him. “Mom said the puppy and the ring would be too much. I should have listened.”
I laughed, pressing my face into his shoulder. He took the squirming puppy from me so I could throw my arms around his neck. I had chills—all the good kinds.
“How long have you planned this?” I whispered through my tears.
“Well, I’ve had the ring for about six months.”
“Six months?” I jerked back, wiping my eyes. “What?”
“I was trying to figure out how to ask you. Then she happened.” He held up Tequila who was trying frantically to lick his face. “And I knew.”
He tucked her against his body and picked the ring up from the table with the other hand. Gently, he pushed the ring down my finger, then smiled at me. “Who knew a tap-tap-squirt would end this well?”
I laughed, both of us falling back on the sofa. Tequila finally broke free of Luke’s grasp and launched herself at his face, pretty much smothering him in puppy belly. He coughed and sputtered beneath her, and I fell back laughing, holding my stomach.
“Stop it. Damn it, Tequila. Pah—I have dog hair in my mouth!” Luke sputtered.
I laughed even harder, reaching and removing the tiny creature from his head.
“This is why I wanted a cat,” he said, pointing at me, then sticking out his tongue to remove a hair.
I grinned, lifting my chin so Tequila could lick my neck.
Luke stalked into the kitchen to get water. He washed his mouth out once and looked over at me, trying to frown, but he couldn’t. He smiled, eyes bright and happy, and I couldn’t help but grin back as Tequila took my shoulders for a climbing frame.
It was a universally accepted truth that sleeping with your best friend was a very, very bad idea.
But spending forever with him?
Now that was a damn good idea.
THE END
Thank you so much for reading Tequila Tequila!
If you’re interested in reading more from me, read on for the blurb from my upcoming romantic comedy, CATASTROPHE QUEEN!
CATASTROPHE QUEEN
Coming January 29th!
One hot mess. One hot boss. One too many hot encounters.
It’s not you. It’s me.
No, seriously. It is me. Not only does my name literally mean “unfortunate,” but that’s the story of my life.
Everything I touch turns to crap. An apartment fire—that I swear I was not responsible for—means I’m living back at home with my sex-mad parents. Yay, me!
Which is why I need my new job as personal assistant to Cameron Reid to get back on my feet. Three months in this job and I can move back out and, hopefully, remember to turn off my flat iron once in a while.
Ahem.
On paper, my job is easy. Make coffee. Book appointments. Keep everything in order.
Until I walk in on my boss, half-naked, wearing nothing but the kind of tiny white towel that dreams are made of.
Now, nothing is easy—except our mutual attraction. But he’s my boss, and you know what they say about mixing work and pleasure: unless you do porn, it’s just not worth it.
Or is it?
PRE-ORDER:
www.emmahart.org/catastrophe-queen
Emma Hart is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of over thirty novels and has been translated into several different languages.
She is a mother, wife, lover of wine, Pink Goddess, and valiant rescuer of wild baby hedgehogs.
Emma prides herself on her realistic, snarky smut, with comebacks that would make a PMS-ing teenage girl proud.
Yes, really. She's that sarcastic.
You can find her online at:
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B O O K S B Y E M M A H A R T
Standalones:
Blind Date
Being Brooke
Catching Carly
Casanova
Mixed Up
Miss Fix-It
Miss Mechanic
The Upside to Being Single
The Hook-Up Experiment
The Dating Experiment
Four Day Fling
Best Served Cold
Tequila, Tequila
The Vegas Nights series:
Sin
Lust
Stripp
ed series:
Stripped Bare
Stripped Down
The Burke Brothers:
Dirty Secret
Dirty Past
Dirty Lies
Dirty Tricks
Dirty Little Rendezvous
The Holly Woods Files:
Twisted Bond
Tangled Bond
Tethered Bond
Tied Bond
Twirled Bond
Burning Bond
Twined Bond
By His Game series:
Blindsided
Sidelined
Intercepted
Call series:
Late Call
Final Call
His Call
Wild series:
Wild Attraction
Wild Temptation
Wild Addiction
Wild: The Complete Series
The Game series:
The Love Game
Playing for Keeps
The Right Moves
Worth the Risk
Memories series:
Never Forget
Always Remember