by Kendall Ryan
Luke narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms.
“We’ve got a problem. Apparently our logo is too similar to a trademarked image.”
I bristled. I’d drawn and designed our logo from scratch months ago. It wasn’t anything too fancy, but still, I’d put a full month’s worth of work into it, and I was damn proud of it.
“Okay, so if we have to change it, we will. Not like we’ll need to pay extra for a designer.”
“It’s not that simple. They want damages in excess of eight million dollars. We just got this place off the ground. We don’t have that kind of money.”
I took a step back, feeling like the wind just got knocked out of me. Eight million bucks? Who the fuck did these people think they were?
The door to the room opened, briefly letting the roar of the party in before it closed again, muffling the sounds of the voices and music. Charlotte appeared around the corner, her brows knitted together in concern.
“There you guys are, I’ve been looking all over for you two. Everything okay back here?”
“Far from it,” I growled, pushing my hands roughly through my hair. Fucking figures that the moment I felt like I finally had our business under control, some asshole had to come along to try to take it all away.
Luke filled Charlotte in on the situation while I paced around the room, desperately trying to come up with a solution.
“My friend Valentina is a lawyer,” Charlotte said, slipping her arm around Luke’s waist.
“Who?”
“Valentina, my best friend who lives in LA? You met her at our wedding.”
“Whoopdie-fucking-do, she can’t do shit for us all the way in California.” I could feel myself becoming defensive. I’d gotten completely trashed at their wedding, so honestly, my memory was a little foggy.
Luke shot me a dirty look. I knew I was being an asshole, but I couldn’t help it. Not when everything I’d worked so hard for was on the line.
“That might be true, but lucky for you two, she’ll be here tomorrow. I’ll call and set up a meeting with her in the morning, so you can consult with her then,” Charlotte said with just a tinge of coldness in her voice. She’d learned to expect a few rough edges from me since becoming a part of my family, but I already knew Luke would chew me out for being a hot-head later. Damn, sometimes it sucks being the younger brother. Even if only by a few minutes.
“Fine, let’s see if your hotshot lawyer friend can help us out. Thank you,” I added, forcing a smile at them both.
Luke put his arm around Charlotte and the two of them rejoined the party, leaving me to stew in my own frustration.
I knew my brother was in love and seeing him happier than he’d been in years really did make me happy. But I couldn’t help being a little salty at how little he seemed to care about this. Just a couple years ago, this distillery was all we had besides each other. But now Luke had Charlotte, and this place was really all I had left to show for myself. It was the love of my life, practically my baby, and you’d better believe I was protective as hell of it.
Those two babes in my lap earlier? They didn’t do a damn thing for me. Because even before Luke had Charlotte, I was always the twin who had something to prove. Growing up, Luke was better at everything. He made varsity football our freshman year, got straight As all throughout school, and quickly developed a reputation as the better, more stable, more successful Wilder twin. I had a hard time in school because of my dyslexia, and it felt like I always had to work ten times harder to make sure I didn’t become the dumb twin—or worse, the town idiot. But ever since Luke settled down, it seemed like I was getting closer and closer to becoming the town drunk, and that was even worse.
I knew I had to do everything in my power to save the distillery. And if that meant shutting up and taking orders from a hotshot LA lawyer was the only way to do that, so be it.
Besides, if memory served me right, she wasn’t so bad to look at, either.
Chapter Two
Duke
I woke up to a pounding headache and a tongue drier than the Sahara Desert. I grabbed my phone from the bedside table, checking the time through squinted eyes. 9:27. There were a couple missed calls from Kelly. She was probably just mad I didn’t take her and Kaylie home with me. Not that I was ever really planning on it. If there’s one thing I learned from the last time the three of us spent the night, it’s that mornings after are even worse with an extra person in the mix.
After splashing some water on my face and throwing my sweat-soaked shirt in the hamper, I made my way to the kitchen. Coffee, then shower. That was the plan. Even if walking down those damn stairs made my head throb harder with every step.
When I reached the kitchen, I stopped dead in my tracks. Now, I’d never had a hangover so bad that I hallucinated, but in that moment, I was about ready to believe it could happen. Because standing in the middle of my kitchen was a smoking hot woman in a tight black skirt and a red silk blouse, with her arms crossed and back to me.
Not that I was complaining about the view.
Maybe I didn’t remember the end of last night as well as I thought I did. I could have sworn I came home alone, but according to the vision in red just a few yards away, there was a lot of late night action I was forgetting. But even if my brain was still a little hazy from the booze, judging by the stirring in my boxer briefs, my dick remembered just fine.
“Good morning, darlin’. Could I interest you in some breakfast sausage?”
The woman turned, her long, dark curls swinging around her shoulders. A look of disgust quickly washed over her face as her eyes locked on my bulge.
“Ay dios mio, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she muttered, immediately taking her briefcase from the counter and marching to the front door, her red-bottomed heels clacking loudly on the hardwood.
“What’s the matter?” I asked, stumbling after her.
“Last time I do a favor for a friend,” she said under her breath, slamming the front door shut behind her.
Favor. Friend. Beautiful woman in a pencil skirt. Charlotte’s hotshot lawyer friend from Los Angeles.
Oh fuck.
“Hey, uh, Valencia, wait up!”
I burst through the door to find her paused on the top step of the porch. She turned sharply to look me dead on, the fire in her eyes enough to burn me straight through.
“It’s Valentina,” she spat, crossing her arms and cocking her hip to the side.
“Valentina, right. My mistake. Listen, I’m really sorry about all this. We were out late last night for—”
“For the opening, I know. I was supposed to be there, but something came up at work. So instead, I got my ass onto a last-minute redeye to make it in time for our meeting this morning, but clearly you had other things in mind,” she said, her eyes flitting to my quickly-softening cock before turning again to leave.
“No, please, don’t go. This is completely unprofessional, I know—”
“That’s the understatement of the century.”
“But I promise, if you give me a chance, we can turn this meeting around.”
“Is it still a meeting when one person shows up with his dick out?”
“Oh, trust me, sweetheart, if my dick was out, you’d know it.”
“Sure, as long as I brought a magnifying glass with me.”
I paused, standing up a little straighter. She squared her shoulders, and our eyes locked, the tension between us thick enough to cut with a knife.
If we were going to make this work, I knew I had to be the one to budge. But dammit if this woman didn’t make me want to blow my lid.
“Look, I’m sorry. Please stay. If not for me, then for Luke and Charlotte.”
Valentina sighed and put a hand on her hip.
“Fine. Put some goddamn pants on first, and then we’ll talk.”
Within fifteen minutes, Valentina and I were walking into the local coffee shop. After throwing on a pair of dark jeans and a gray T-shirt, I convinced her that moving to
a second location was probably a good idea. I drove us over to Sue’s Brews, the best—and only—place for coffee in town.
I led us to my usual corner booth, simply smiling and waving at the hostess as we seated ourselves. Sue’s was really more of a café than a coffee shop, with lots of tables and waitresses and such, and I could tell by the look on her face when we walked in that Valentina was expecting something different. I felt a smirk pull the corner of my lip up as I imagined her surprise at how different this place was from the hoity-toity places she probably got her coffee in Los Angeles.
“Not your cup of tea?” I asked after we sat down, nodding my head at the baby blue vinyl bar stools.
Valentina shook her head, propping her elbows up on the table.
“It’s just that when you said coffee shop, I assumed it would be…something a little more...” She left the rest of her sentence unfinished, but I was assuming she meant something from this century.
“Well, Sue’s is the only place in town. And we’ve got a lot of coffee drinkers here in Shady Grove.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” she said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. The place was pretty busy—it was a Sunday morning, after all—and as usual, the locals weren’t doing a great job of not staring at the out-of-towner.
“Don’t worry about them, just sniffing out the new meat. Speaking of, have you eaten yet?”
“I haven’t, actually. Took that redeye from LA, remember?”
“Lucky for you, Sue’s has the best breakfast in town. But don’t tell anyone I said that.”
Valentina nodded, stretching her full lips into a straight line and miming like she was locking them up.
“Well, I’ll be damned. Duke Wilder, based on how you were drinking last night, I would have put money on it that you would have been dead to the world until at least next Tuesday.”
Our waitress appeared next to the table and gave me a playful punch on the arm.
“Oh, come on, Jenny, you know me better than that. No amount of drinking could keep me from seeing that face of yours the next morning.”
Jenny giggled, and Valentina rolled her eyes, muttering something in Spanish under her breath.
“What can I get you two today?” Jenny asked, smiling broadly at us both.
“Just the usual for me, Jen,” I replied, handing her my menu.
Valentina clicked her tongue as she scanned the small list of breakfast foods and drinks.
“If you don’t see what you’re looking for, just let me know. We’ll make just about anything for a friend of the Wilders.” Jenny leaned an elbow on the back of Valentina’s side of the booth.
“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” Valentina said without looking up, clearly struggling to find something she wanted on the menu. I’d watched Charlotte try to order food in Shady Grove enough times to know that she’d have a hard time finding the low-calorie, low-carb, fat-free, practically cardboard option she was looking for.
“Are you sure? You look like a woman who knows what she wants,” I said, cocking my head to the side.
Valentina arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at me before turning to Jenny.
“I’ll have an egg white omelet with spinach and tomato, and a non-fat latte with a dash of cinnamon, please.”
“I think we can do that. I’ll go put your orders in, and then I’ll be right back with your coffees.”
As soon as Jenny walked away, Valentina pulled a folder out of her bag, opening it to show me some forms she’d filled out.
“So, Luke and Charlotte explained your situation to me over the phone last night, and I think I figured out your best option moving forward. I’ve put together a countersuit.”
She slid a form in front of me, but I didn’t look it at. Didn’t even touch it.
“I don’t want to countersue. I just want them to drop the lawsuit.”
Valentina shook her head. “They’re not going to do that. I did some digging on these guys, and they are nasty. The only way we’ll get them to drop it in a reasonable amount of time is if we countersue for a lot more money.”
I sighed, leaning back into the blue vinyl and running my hands through my hair. Figures that the one time I think I made something good, something I could be proud of, a couple of fucking assholes with a trademark decide to make my life hell.
What those assholes didn’t realize? I had one badass lawyer on my side.
And she was sexy as hell when she talked business.
“All right, I’m in,” I said, extending my hand across the table. Valentina smirked at the gesture but shook on it anyway, her tanned skin warm against my palm.
Jenny returned with our food, and the sight of my full country breakfast next to Valentina’s egg white omelet was laughable. Her eyes grew wide as she took in my meal: two eggs sunny side up, two thick cut slices of bacon, breakfast potatoes, and a side of biscuits and gravy.
“That’s your usual?” she asked, taking a small bite of her meal.
“Takes a lot to look this good.”
I puffed my chest and flexed a bicep at her, but she just rolled her eyes.
“Charlotte warned me about you and your ways.”
“My ways?”
Valentina set her fork down, folding her hands and resting them on the table.
“This engagement will be strictly by the books. All that strutting and swagger might get you laid every once in a while, but that’s not about to happen here. I’ve got a job to do, and that’s all.”
I raised my hands in surrender, shrugging and shaking my head. “Fine by me. You’re the boss.”
“Good. Glad that’s settled.”
I nodded, and we continued eating, but in the back of my mind I knew it was all a lie. She could tell herself all she wanted that there was nothing between us, that she wasn’t picking up what I was putting down. But if there’s one thing I know, it’s women, and this one was definitely into me.
I gave it three days, tops, before I got in her panties. We were both grown-ups. We could keep it professional.
But there was no way in hell I was letting her fly back to LA that next week without a taste.
Chapter Three
Valentina
What the hell do you wear to Sunday dinner in the freaking middle of nowhere?
Pulling a third printed top over my head, I let out a loud, exasperated sigh as I tossed it into a pile with the rest of the rejects. I went back to rifling through my suitcase, pushing various fabrics and colors aside in search of an outfit that would make me feel cool, calm, and collected—basically the exact opposite of how I was currently feeling.
It’s not like I’d never been to Shady Grove before. When I’d flown out for Luke and Charlotte’s wedding, I’d thought the town was cute enough, and on some level, I understood why Charlotte had decided to stay. But something about this place just didn’t sit right with me. Maybe it had to do with the lack of Starbucks or anything remotely familiar, but I wasn’t the kind of girl to have a panic attack over a lack of creature comforts. No, my problem with that place wasn’t a what. It was a who.
An arrogant, frustrating, sexy-as-hell who.
Duke Wilder.
My fingers landed on a soft, silky piece of fabric, and I immediately pulled it out of the rat’s nest. I held it out, the beautiful marigold dress unfurling before me. Charlotte had convinced me to buy it when we were out shopping the year before, but I’d never worn it. Honestly, I’d only thrown it in my suitcase to make her happy. But with only a few minutes before I was officially late to my own welcome dinner, it was the only option I had left.
After slipping the dress on, I swept my hair to the side, wrestling my dark, unruly curls into a loose braid over my shoulder. Pulling out a few pieces in the front to frame my face, I took a step back to check my reflection in the floor-length mirror. The dress hung just right around my body: it cinched at the waist, its hemline just brushing the midpoint of my calf, the off-the-shoulder cut perfectly showcasing my tanned shoulders.
How is this the first time I’m wearing this dress? I really needed to stop doubting Charlotte’s taste.
Slipping on a pair of strappy leather sandals, I slung my purse strap onto my shoulder and walked out the front door. If there was one thing I was grateful for that night, it was that the walk to Luke and Charlotte’s was short. After waking up at an ungodly hour for the redeye and then gritting my teeth all through breakfast with the official pain in my ass Duke, I was pretty damn tired. Staying in the guest house just a short walk away from Charlotte’s was one hell of a blessing.
When I got to their door, I rang the bell, taking a step back to look around and admire the porch. There were a couple of chairs, and the whole thing was so cute and country, I half-expected to find a porch swing. It might not have been my cup of tea, but I couldn’t deny that there was something charming about this whole small-town living thing.
The door swung open, and my stomach dropped when I saw the green-eyed, dimpled face smiling at me from the doorway.
Puta madre.
“Hey there, darlin’, long time no see.” Duke raised one arm over his head and rested his elbow against the doorjamb, leaning his muscular body in a way that made all kinds of dirty thoughts cross my mind.
“Nice to see you remembered to put clothes on this time,” I said, trying my best to make my once-over of his body seem cold and disinterested, despite the familiar ache between my legs. Just looking at his hips brought me right back to our initial meeting in his kitchen that morning. Let’s just say those boxer briefs left little to the imagination.
And what I saw? Was way bigger than I ever could have dreamt up.
“Only the best for you.” He stepped aside and ushered me through the door, his fingertips just grazing the small of my back.
Goddammit if even the slightest touch of his didn’t make me weak in the knees.
“I can’t believe you’re here!” Charlotte squealed, rounding the corner from the kitchen and practically knocking me over with a hug.
“Almost wasn’t sure I’d make it,” I replied, watching Duke leave us to say our hellos out of the corner of my eye.