Chapter Nine
Days later, and I couldn’t get Chardonnay’s costume out of my damn head. Every time I closed my eyes or had a moment of peace, there she was in that skimpy pirate costume, showing off more leg and cleavage than she ever had before. It was why she’d kept fidgeting with the hemline, as if that would have helped her. As she’d walked to her car, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Each step, the skirt had risen, revealing the cups of her ass cheeks.
I probably should have offered her my cape. It had been fucking freezing, and I’d just let her stand there, talking to me in that skimpy outfit.
I took a deep breath and threw my truck into park. I killed the engine, and the snow coated the window as soon as the windshield wipers stopped.
A storm was moving in, and everything was closing earlier. I had to drop this shit off. Then I was out of here. If I was lucky, I wouldn’t see Chardonnay. Wouldn’t have to smell that combination of lemon, rose, and musk that lingered in my nose long after she was gone. Nero told me he closed the tasting room already and to just go in, but that didn’t mean Chardonnay wasn’t lingering. That woman exited the womb working.
I didn’t see her car, so I relaxed slightly as I put on my hood and grabbed the fold up chairs I had borrowed for the Halloween party. I was able to carry eight at a time but would have to come back for the rest. Luckily, Jack was at home, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the spiteful bastard blowing my horn and telling me to hurry.
The lights were off, and the rest of the tension left my body. No one was here. I put the chairs in the rear office and went back for the others. Snow coated the stairs and came down in a thick wall. I could barely see two feet in front of me as the winds kicked up and swirled in a tornado of white.
I grabbed the other chairs and hurried my ass into the building, shaking off the snow and stomping my feet on the welcome mat before continuing.
“Whose there?” Chardonnay’s voice drifted down the stairs to the main offices.
Being the dick I was, I didn’t say anything. I placed the chairs with the others and spun around just in time to catch Chardonnay’s arm and to keep her from smashing me over the face with a wine bottle.
“Jesus!” I exclaimed.
“Brady!” She heaved a sigh and dropped her arms. “You asshole. Why didn’t you answer me?”
I removed my hood and shrugged. “Didn’t think I had to.”
Her damn scent wrapped around me, strangling my senses and making me want to kiss her neck to see if she tasted as good as she smelled. I blamed that damn Halloween costume and the way she asked me if I was okay when she could have just walked away. She should have just walked away.
“Didn’t think you had to? What kind of idiotic reasoning is that?”
“Are you calling me an idiot?” I tried to keep the smirk off my face.
“Sure, if that’s what you want to think.”
“Why the fuck are you here, anyway?” It was snowing like a bitch. The streets would be slippery. The building was entirely too dark.
“I’m doing my job.”
“Haven’t you looked out the window? It’s slippery as fuck out there.” I glanced at her three-inch heels. “You’re going to bust your ass.”
“I don’t need you worrying about my ass. Thank you very much.”
I swallowed as my mind drifted to that damn costume. Mentally smacking myself, I knocked the image away. “Where’s your car? It wasn’t parked in the front.”
“It’s in the back parking lot. I had to go to the warehouse earlier, so it was easier to park there.”
“And you were planning on walking in the dark by yourself?” Vine Valley was a safe town, but that didn’t mean bad things couldn’t happen. Tourists came in and out of this town who didn’t have the same respect as the residents here. You couldn’t trust outsiders. Anger boiled in my veins, thinking about some asshole harassing her… or worse, attacking her.
“I think I’ll be all right,” she said.
“Don’t fucking do that again.”
“I’m sorry… I don’t remember when it was determined you could tell me what the fuck I can and can’t do.” Annoyance tinged her words, and it gave me a sick satisfaction.
Pushing her buttons was my favorite pastime. Watching her unravel from her perfectly put together exterior was a high I’d never quit.
“I just determined it.” Despite getting under her skin, I was right. It was irresponsible to park in a secluded area that lacked proper lighting.
“Oh, really, and you think I’m going to just say, ‘Oh okay, sure. Whatever it is you say, Brady.’”
“Fine, do whatever the hell you want. See if I care. But you know damn well if Laurent was here, he’d be telling you the same shit.”
“Well, he’s not here. And for crying out loud, I’m a thirty-eight-year-old woman. I don’t need anyone telling me what to do. Not even my overbearing brother. So, if we’re done here?”
I couldn’t fucking leave her here. It was snowing like a bitch, and Laurent and Franc would fucking kill me if, God forbid, something were to happen to her. Hell, I’d fucking do the job for them if something happened to her.
“Go finish what you’re doing. I’ll wait.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
I pulled a stool from the bar and plopped my ass on the wood. Jack was set up at home. I had nowhere else to be. The whole town was closed. I could sit here all fucking night if I had to.
I glanced toward the french doors that led to the deck, but it was a black abyss. I narrowed my eyes toward a light on the warehouse and saw the walls of snow pouring from the sky.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she exclaimed.
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
“No, you look like an overbearing ogre who needs to mind his own damn business and leave me the hell alone.”
If she didn’t hurry her ass up, we would be stuck here, and there was no way in hell that was happening.
“Have you not glanced outside? It’s really coming down. You probably don’t even have snow chains on your tires. Your car won’t make it out of the parking lot. Get your shit. I’ll bring you home.”
“I don’t nee—”
I held my hand up, cutting her off. “You’re giving me a fucking headache. Can you just get your shit?”
“I think I’d rather be snowed in here than get in a truck with you.” She crossed her arms over her chest. Her shirt covered her completely, but I could still see how the motion pushed her tits up.
I needed to get out of here. Her scent lingered in my nose, taunting me. If she wanted to stay, then fine. She was safer in here than out there, anyway. This place had a top-of-the-line alarm. She could set it after I left and ride the storm out till morning. There was more than enough food in the kitchen, enough wine to last her a year. She’d be fine here.
“Then stay. I’m gone.” I slid off the stool, pushed it against the bar, and stalked toward the door.
I swung it open, and a gust of wind smacked me in the face. Snow billowed in, and I couldn’t even see my truck anymore. Everything was white. Using my muscle against the gusts, I yanked the door shut.
Chardonnay stood there, hands on her hips, eyes wide.
“Looks like neither of us are going anywhere,” I grumbled.