by Marika Ray
With that I entered my new apartment and shut the door. I locked it too, just to drive home my point that maybe I should be more worried about her. She was, after all, the one who’d been walking around inebriated last night. Not me.
I threw my keys down and walked to the kitchen to grab some water. Anything to cool down the hot temper that flared when that girl looked down her pretty nose at me. When the water didn’t cut it and I still felt that lava flowing through my veins, I went into my room to change into shorts and a beat-up rock concert T-shirt that had seen better days. Dante and I had gone into San Jose our junior year of high school and saw our favorite band, Blue Is the Color. We’d had so much fun we were willing to part with almost fifty bucks apiece for official concert shirts.
Stepping back out of the pool house, I looked both ways but didn’t see any sign of Delta. I went around back and jumped down the short retaining wall to a clear patch of dirt beneath a huge cedar tree. I’d seen it out my bedroom window last night and wondered just how old it had to be to have grown that big. I put my portable speaker down and connected it to my phone.
When Nick Fletcher sang the first line, I started a round of burpees to get warmed up. Then push-ups, followed by lunges, pistol squats, and pull-ups from the lowest branch of the tree. I got lost in the music, lost in the lyrics and the way my muscles and lungs screamed at me. The smell of the cedar and grapes all around me was something new and exciting. I tossed my shirt off and let the sweat wash away the stress of the day. Everything felt possible again as the anger left my system. I was just finishing with some ab exercises in between sets of burpees when Delta showed up.
She ran down the same path I’d found her on last night, this time in the tiniest pair of shorts that hadn’t quite crossed the line to a bikini and a sports bra with a bazillion straps. She had headphones in, her ponytail swinging with each step. I knew the minute she saw me. Her steps faltered and kicked up a little puff of dust.
She smiled big and ran over, popping her headphones out. My blood cooled a bit, my guard going up the closer she got. She had a killer body, a huge distraction from the bullshit that came out of her mouth. It pissed me off that my own body responded to seeing hers. I’d been aware of her at all times today and it drove me nuts. I shouldn’t like her. She was nothing like me, and getting mixed up with the boss’s daughter was never advised.
“Hey, Lukas,” she said on an exhale.
Her eyes looked blue right then against her royal blue top. Even the shimmer of sweat on her forehead only served to make her look hotter.
“Hey,” I answered back lamely.
Her gaze swept down my chest and stayed there, making me acutely aware of how little I wore at the moment.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked, still looking at my chest.
My hand came up and swiped across my chest before I could stop it. She’d literally just insulted me an hour ago and now she was checking me out? This girl was hot and cold.
I hooked a thumb over my shoulder to the shirt and speaker lying on the ground. “Working out, same as you.”
She nodded and then looked up at my face, her cheeks redder than when she’d first approached. “I see that. Um, did you forget shoes?”
I looked down at my bare feet, now caked with dirt. “Nah. Who needs shoes when you have feet?”
She wrinkled her nose at that. Her face then cleared so quickly I almost missed the disdain. “I met Nick one time.”
“Huh?”
She tossed her ponytail over her shoulder and stood straighter. “Nick Fletcher. The lead singer of the band you’re listening to. My daddy got us backstage passes for my sixteenth birthday party. Back before Nick got married.”
A warmth started up in my chest even as I tried to bat it away. She knew my favorite band. Not only knew who they were but liked them.
“Yeah, my best friend, Dante, and I went to see them in San Jose about four years ago. I’ve loved them ever since.”
She smiled at me and I couldn’t help but smile back. Suddenly I wanted her to stay. The prospect of a long evening here by myself with nothing to do but study didn’t seem so appealing.
“So what are you doing out here?”
Her easy smile turned sarcastic as she broke our gaze and stared out over the vineyards. “I’m bored, Lukas, so I went for a run. I’m just a bored, rich girl looking for some excitement. If that’s not a cliché, I don’t know what is.”
I smirked, liking her even more for acknowledging how privileged she was. “You could pick up a hobby. Donate your time. Take a summer class. Read a good book.”
She looked back at me and mirrored my expression with one eyebrow raised. “I have a hobby actually. I made something, but it’s not quite done yet. Once I work out the kinks, I might try to sell it to the highest bidder and get out of here.”
I looked out over the fields, stepping closer to her to see if she still smelled like mangoes. “Why are you in such a hurry to leave? Looks like paradise to me.”
Delta stepped close and looped her arm through mine, just like last night. “Come walk with me?” she asked, barely above a whisper.
I couldn’t deny the shiver that went up my spine hearing her voice in my ear like that. Just like I couldn’t deny her a walk on her parents’ property. I nodded and we started walking. She steered us around, pointing out rocks and sticks, which was surprisingly sweet.
“I have walked barefoot before, you know.”
She glanced over at me quickly and bit back a laugh. “I know. I just don’t want you to cut your feet and then expect me to carry your ass back.”
I full-out grinned. Definitely better than being by myself in that pool house. And she still smelled like mangoes. We made it into the vineyard and started down a row of grapes.
Delta pointed while we walked. “The three most prevalent wine varieties in Sonoma County are chardonnay, pinot noir, and cabernet sauvignon. These here are pinot gris grapes. Daddy always grows those, mostly because they’re my mom’s favorite. Which is almost sacrilegious here in wine country. To love the white wines more than the reds.”
Holy shit. Sorority girl knew her wines.
“And your favorite?” I asked, genuinely wanting to know.
She squeezed my arm and I felt like I passed some sort of test. “Viognier.”
“Ah. Sounds as fancy as you are.”
Her steps faltered and I rushed to explain. “Admit it. You are fancy. I met you last night and you were wearing heels in a vineyard.”
She laughed and kept walking with me. “Okay, fine. I can be extra sometimes. But you can’t judge a book by its cover, Lukas. Isn’t that right?”
We both stopped walking and turned toward each other, barely an inch of space between my bare chest and her absurd outfit.
“That’s exactly right,” I murmured.
I’d never really understood why men took their ladies somewhere romantic when they popped the question. Like, shouldn’t the question be the most important thing, not where it was asked? But standing there with Delta, seeing the sun set behind her, row after row of gnarled grapevines spanning as far as I could see, I understood. The environment added a heavy dose of romance, even when it wasn’t what you were intending.
“I’m sorry for sounding like a bitch about you living in the pool house. I’m glad you’re there and I’m glad we’re working together.” Delta’s whisper floated across the light breeze.
Her gaze danced down to my mouth and I felt the pull. I wanted to taste her, to hell with her dad and this summer job in the back room of a winery. Her body fell forward and her breasts lay against my chest. We both stared at each other, neither of us making the first move.
A loud ding drifted up from somewhere in her shorts, making us both jolt back.
“Sorry,” she muttered, unzipping a tiny compartment and pulling out her cell phone.
I blew out a heavy breath and scrubbed a hand through my hair. Kissing Delta the first day on the job would
have been the stupidest mistake ever. I had to pull myself together and just find a way to get along with her while we worked together this summer. Friends. Yeah. We could be friends.
“Ugh. Just one of the sorority girls giving me shit for not including her on the brainstorming session for rush in the fall.” Delta rolled her eyes and put her phone back in her pocket after thumbing out a quick reply.
Looked like I’d guessed correctly. “So, you’re in a sorority, huh? What college?” It occurred to me that we really didn’t know that much about each other.
She nodded and followed when I turned around and headed back for the tree where I left my stuff. “Yep, I go to Stanford and I’m on the sorority committee this year. You’d think I wouldn’t have to have rush all planned out the first week we’re off on summer vacation, but…”
Once we got back to the tree, I pulled on my shirt and picked up the speaker. A last glance out at the rolling hills of the vineyard had me feeling calm.
“Why, again, do you want to leave all this?”
Delta looked at me intensely for a few seconds, no answer in sight. Then she reached up and took off her diamond stud earrings, grabbing my hand and placing them in my palm. I looked down at my dirty hand next to her painted nails, the flash of the diamonds looking completely out of place.
“What—”
“Take them,” she said, her eyes snapping.
I didn’t know what game she was playing, but I wanted no part of it. I shoved the earrings back in her hand and stepped back.
“Hell no,” I spat.
She stared at me for a single beat and then gifted me with a brilliant smile, closing her fist around the diamonds. “Good for you, Lukas. Once you take the money, they own you.”
Delta winked at me and walked off toward the house.
I watched her go, my jaw dropped open and my eyes eating up the way I could see the curve of her ass below her shorts. Own me? What the hell had that been about? And why did I get the sense there was a hell of a lot more to Delta Bishop than the rich-sorority-girl persona I’d painted her with?
4
Delta
“Want to go for a run and then I’ll show you the project I’ve been working on?” I put on the turn signal and slowed for the turn into my driveway.
It was Friday night and the end of our first week of working together in the back room of the winery. Ever since that one moment in the vineyards when I swore Lukas had been about to kiss me—and I would have let him—we’d been friends. Platonic friends who got along surprisingly well.
Without my college friends to hang with, Lukas had become my buddy. He’d gone for a run with me two days ago and I’d quizzed him the whole time about the steps in the fermentation process. Who knew all the geeky knowledge I’d acquired over my lifetime as the winery owner’s daughter would come in handy with a hot guy?
“Yeah, that sounds good.” Lukas shifted in the white leather passenger seat of my Range Rover, looking uncomfortable.
“What? Are my seats not right? Because I paid damn good money for cushy seats.”
Lukas smirked and finally relaxed. I’d learned that about him. Get him to laugh and he instantly stopped brooding in that head of his. The guy put my resting bitch face to shame.
“Meet you out back in five?” I put the car in park in front of our five-car detached garage and hopped out.
Lukas nodded and walked down the path to the pool house. His broad shoulders barely fit in that T-shirt. Someone needed to clue him in to the fact that he needed the next size up, but it wouldn’t be me. I quite liked seeing that cotton stretched across his impressive muscles. The sight did something to my insides, making me both mushy as a middle schooler with her first crush and hot as a five-alarm fire at the same time.
Once he disappeared from view, I hustled inside the house and up the wide stairs to my room, already flipping through my workout outfits in my head. I’d worn my skimpiest clothes that first day when I went for my run. I saw Lukas out the window in the back, his muscles pulling and bunching while he did pull-ups from the damn tree. Found out there was nothing hotter than a man who used what was around him to get a good workout instead of flashing his membership at a posh gym and chalking his hands to grip a metal bar. I’d wanted to push him. To see if he’d notice me in the way a woman wants to be noticed. That almost-kiss told me he did.
But that wasn’t what we were. We were coworkers and reluctant friends. I wouldn’t see him again after this summer, and having a fling with the renter on our property wasn’t something I wanted to do when I thought things through. I mean, I loved pushing Daddy’s buttons any way I could, but I had bigger battles to wage this summer. Namely, getting out from under Daddy’s thumb and doing what I wanted with my career and not what he expected of me based on my last name.
So I put back the tiny shorts and put on a normal pair, made for comfort while running. An old sorority T-shirt, my running shoes, and I was ready. By the time I made it out back, Lukas was already down by the cedar tree stretching. Despite my resolve that we remain friends, he looked freaking hot in his athletic shorts. His legs had muscles and I just knew he’d look like that David sculpture when naked.
“All set?” he asked, tilting his neck right and left.
I nodded, not trusting my voice. We started running and I kept glancing at him out of the corner of my eye. I could eye-fuck him all day, but that was all I’d let myself do. Nothing wrong with a little summer eye candy to keep things fun.
“So, you going to tell me about your project?” he asked after we’d run about a half mile.
He wasn’t even out of breath, while I, on the other hand, was struggling to keep from gasping and panting in his presence. Ugh. Nothing sexy about being out of shape.
“Yeah, maybe when we get back to the house?”
He nodded and kept running. A little while later, over the sound of our tennis shoes plodding over the rocky dirt path, he tried again.
“I really hope your dad didn’t take offense when I made that recommendation after only two days of working at the winery.”
I frowned. “No, I’m sure he—”
“It’s just that I really think it could help increase sales of bottles of wine,” he interjected, obviously worked up about the whole thing. “If the tasting fee is twenty dollars and our lowest-priced bottle is thirty dollars, it just makes sense to offer a free tasting with the purchase of a bottle of wine. Almost no one is going to turn down that offer. I think we could really skyrocket sales in the tasting room. We spend all this money to get them in the door. We should make sure they buy wine once they’re there.”
We’d reached the end of the first vineyard, approximately one mile away from my house. My lungs were screaming at me. Lukas ran way faster than I normally did. My pace was basically a fast walk disguised as a jog. I was more of an exerciser because it seemed like the right thing to do, not a goal-oriented avid runner who racked up the mileage.
“Mind if we turn around?” I gasped out.
Lukas’s head snapped my direction and he seemed to notice for the first time that I was struggling. If I could have masked my heavy breathing, I would have, but survival trumped looking cute.
“Oh shit, sorry. Yeah, let’s walk a bit and then run the rest of the way?”
His concern was adorable. And it made my red cheeks even hotter. Once we walked a bit, I could breathe again and I addressed his concerns.
“I doubt Daddy will be mad that you had a suggestion to make him more money,” I said wryly, making Lukas smirk. “And when we get back to the house, the project I’m working on will erase all those doubts in your head. Promise.”
Lukas eyed me, one eyebrow quivering like he wanted to raise it but didn’t want to put in the effort. Facial expressions beyond his normal RBF were rare and precious. Until I convinced him of my project’s worthiness, he’d wait to give me more than a blank stare. That was just fine by me. I believed in myself enough for the both of us.
“
Race you back!” I shouted when the sight of my house came into view some two hundred yards down the path. Surely I could run that distance and not die.
I ran like the cutest boy in all of Merlot wasn’t right behind me checking out my ass. I ran like my life depended on it, though mostly it was just my pride hanging in the balance. Every stomp of his feet behind me spurred me on until the joy of the race fizzled in the face of a cardiovascular system not designed for sprinting. I blamed the private chef we had at the sorority who made meals to die for. I blamed my parents for their wine-guzzling genetics. I blamed my lifestyle at college that prioritized parties instead of the gym.
But when Lukas came up beside me and then pushed me on the shoulder, making me take several steps to right myself, just as he zoomed ahead and beat me, I blamed him.
I nearly fell over trying to catch my breath. Hands on knees, I gasped until my vision cleared of the black dots and my lungs didn’t hate me. Then I stood up and stumbled over to Lukas, my finger pointing to his chest. His face was split with a grin so big I didn’t think it possible of him.
“You lost, princess.”
“You!” Fingertip drilled into his chest. “You cheated!”
He grasped my hand, his palm rough and calloused and oh so sexy. “There weren’t any rules established beforehand. Therefore, no cheating. And I won.” He tugged me closer to him, our labored breathing mixing together, a sheen of sweat covering both of us.
The moment hung there and I couldn’t make myself step back. He blinked and then cleared his throat, letting go of my hand.
“Come on. Enough stalling. Time to show me your project.” He spun and walked toward the pool house.
I flapped a hand in front of my face, willing my cheeks to cool off. “Let me go grab my laptop.”
I walked into the house and grabbed my laptop out of my room, using that time to tell myself not to be attracted to Lukas. The more I said it, the more I might start believing it. Believe it, you can achieve it. Didn’t I see that on some pretty social media post all the time?