Chapter Ten—Delani
Iwas literally elbows deep in my work, mixing ganache for my signature Valentine’s Day truffles—I called them Cherry Bombs—when Sonny came into the back room.
I wasn’t expecting him until lunchtime, but I wasn’t complaining. Seeing him made my heart pound and my pulse race. He was so damn handsome, how could I not get carried away when I looked at him?
“Hey! You’re early,” I said.
I smiled, just taking in how handsome he looked in his sexy jeans hanging low on his hips. His white shirt was rolled up at the elbows, the top button undone. And his short hair was carelessly mussed.
How did I ever get so lucky as to catch this sexy man’s eye?
I had no idea. But I didn’t want it to end.
I just hoped I didn’t get burned this time around. My love life was nothing to write home about, till now, and well, I was starting to think my feelings for Sonny might be a little more complicated than I’d originally assessed.
I thought being physically intimate didn’t have to mean being emotionally invested. But I was having a real hard time separating the two.
Especially right then, as I looked into his impossibly dark eyes and felt my chest grow tight and my heart stuttering.
“Del, I need to ask you a question,” he said.
Warning bells sounded, but I swallowed. Maybe this wasn’t a bad thing.
I felt excitement rolling off him in waves. Surely, Sonny had some good news he wanted to share.
Hold on to your panties, girl. Let the man talk.
“Well, what is it?”
“I know you are busy, like super busy. But I have a business proposal and I am hoping you will consider it.”
“Okay, tell me,” I said, smiling at him.
He was practically vibrating with energy. Like my own personal sun.
Ha! Sonny was my personal sun.
I was a poet, and I didn’t know it. Derry out front must have gotten to him, cause he was wearing a hairnet, despite the short hair, an apron, and rubber gloves.
He was still sexy as fuck. And just like that, I knew I was dangerously close to losing my heart to him.
“No. Not here. At lunch. Come to the bar at noon, okay? I’ll have it all set up and we’ll talk then,” he said, closing the distance between us.
I barely had time to gasp before he grabbed my cheeks and dropped a short, but hot kiss on my lips before running back out the door.
Hot. Damn.
Why did I even bother with panties anymore?
The man was fine as fuck and more than capable of drenching my cotton skivvies in seconds flat.
My head was spinning and my body aching, but somehow, I was able to refocus on what I was doing.
An hour later, Derry, my employee of the month, came into the back room where I was finishing up the last batch of Cherry Bombs.
I was just setting the last of the ten trays I’d made filled with the scrumptious morsels on a rack to set when I spied her just watching me.
She was an older woman with a cherubic face and gorgeously thick gray hair. She had the most beautiful complexion, and every day I tried to pry beauty secrets out of her, but she laughed it off as good genes.
Anyway, I just adored her.
“What is it, Derry?” I asked, eyebrows raised.
“Your sexy neighbor, Mr. Sonny Delgado, bought about three hundred dollars’ worth of chocolate before leaving. Did you know that?”
“He did what?” I asked, eyes bugging out of my head.
“Yep. He was all smiles too, and he tipped me with a hundred-dollar bill,” Derry informed me.
“No, he did not!” I replied, completely taken aback.
Sonny and I had this weird sort of standoffish thing going ever since I opened. He didn’t come into my shop, and I avoided his bar.
I wasn’t a big drinker anyway, and whiskey wasn’t my thing.
I knew we were, well, I didn’t know what we were, actually. He didn’t exactly make announcements or ask me to be his girlfriend—ohmygawd, was I like twelve or something? I rolled my eyes.
But whatever we were, I wasn’t sure if that meant the rules changed when it came to our respective businesses.
I Knew better than to shit where I ate. And this store meant everything to me. The only thing was, I was starting to think maybe Sonny did, too.
Fuck.
“Well, maybe he was just buying treats for his employees,” I said and tried to brush it off nonchalantly.
“Mm hmm. You know, he’s not a bad looking fella,” Derry observed. “Rich, too. Might make a woman a good husband someday.”
“Ohmygawd, Derry! We’re just, I don’t know, spending time together.”
“Is that right?”
“Derry! Yes. That is all. We’re not getting married. Besides, I am not really his type,” I told her, though my heart was now going a mile a minute.
“He sure looks like you’re his type. Girl, he’s into you. You’ve got a real Prince Charming right next door, Delani. Maybe you shouldn’t let him get away,” Derry added, before going back to help some customers who’d just entered.
The old-fashioned bell I hung over the door rang every time someone came in. I just liked the old timey feel of it. Her words haunted me as I finished up my work.
Sonny a Prince Charming?
Hmm. Maybe.
What girl didn’t dream of finding a handsome man to sweep her off her feet? I snorted and wondered if Prince Charming ever told Cinderella what a pretty pussy she had? Or what a Good Girl she was for taking his dick so well?
My Prince Charming sure does.
My face burned at the memories of the things we’d said and done last night. Sonny was a fucking rockstar in bed.
Every time we were together, he brought me higher and higher, until I thought I’d never come back down to Earth.
Maybe Derry was right. I never thought I would find someone I trusted or wanted enough to be with them every single day. The more I thought about it—about him—the more I realized I couldn’t picture myself without him.
Sonny Delgado was important to me. Didn’t matter that I knew it was way too soon for that kind of thinking.
I pushed my inappropriate and potentially hazardous to my heart thoughts to the back of my mind, concentrating on my work instead.
Work was safer.
I had an hour before I would see him again. Plenty of time to get my shit together.