Sage grinned. “It does.” She put down a block in the area where the citrus selection was shelved. “Do you ever get tired of chocolate?”
“Me?” Viv blinked. “Nope.” That was like asking her if she ever got tired of breathing. Or sex. The question almost didn’t compute.
“Neither do I.” Picking up another block she said, “This herbaceous blend any good?”
“It has an almost licorice flavor if that’s your thing. My favorite is the honeycomb smash.”
She came out from behind the counter and crossed to the shelves where she knew it was housed and grabbed a block. Sage joined her, accepting the offering, examining it like the true connoisseur she was. “Nice packaging.”
The golden wrapper shimmered under the lights, the matte finish was tactile and sophisticated. “Thanks.”
“I’ll take it.”
Reaching into her back pocket, Sage pulled out a fifty but Viv waved her away. “On the house.”
Sage laughed. “I don’t mean to tell you how to run your business but giving stuff away for free is a surefire way to go out of business.”
She was teasing and Viv took it the good-natured way it had been meant. “Ah but this way the Sage O’Dell will try it and fall in love with it and be singing its praises to all her customers and before you know it everyone will be beating my door down.” Sage grinned as Viv tapped the side of her nose playfully twice. “There’s a method to my madness.”
“Well thank you, I’m sure I’ll love it.”
Viv smiled as she made her way back to the counter. “Feel free to take out an ad in the local newspaper and let everyone know.”
“Sure thing.” Sage laughed again. “But for now…I really should get back. People will be wondering where I am.”
“Yes.” Viv nodded as a passerby stopped and peered in the window at them, looking confused as to why Sage was in the house of the enemy. “I’m surprised they haven’t sent out the search squad to check I haven’t done away with you.”
Sage grinned as she hugged the chocolate to her chest. “They will come round.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Viv also grinned as she waved her out the door. “I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah.” Sage nodded. “I’m looking forward to it.”
The bell dinged as Sage left the shop and Viv had to admit she was looking forward to it, too.
*
It was another hour before the bell dinged again and this time it was Reuben. The man was a sight for sore eyes and not just because he filled out a deputy uniform in a display of overt masculinity that had to be illegal in all fifty states. But because his support meant a lot even if he did have a Copper Mountain Chocolates box in hand.
She looked at the rival chocolate and tsked. “Eu tu, Reuben?”
He grinned clearly unconcerned by such dramatic accusations. “I’m just picking it up for my boss. Apparently his wife will never sleep with him again if he doesn’t show Sage some support today and he’s making me pick it up for him because somehow this is all the fault of my horn dog libido and if he has to suffer then I have to suffer too. Or words to that effect anyway.”
Viv laughed at the long and sorry tale. “Guess it sucks to be you.”
“Apparently.”
He’d reached the counter and looked around, frowning a little. “It seems quiet for opening day?”
“Ya think?” Viv laughed. “Sage on the other hand is going to be able to retire after today’s takings.”
“Ahh.” He nodded. “Marietta hazing you?”
“Something like that.”
“They’ll come around.”
“Yeah.” It seemed to be the mantra for the day. Although from the looks both her and Reuben were getting now through the window, Viv wasn’t so confident.
“In the meantime…” He removed his hat, ruffling his hair as he placed it on the counter then slid his elbows on top, leaning in a little, that smile playing on his mouth as distracting as it had been from that first night together. “What’s good around here?”
Well…there was him, for one.
Viv wondered how he’d feel about being dipped in chocolate and just lying very still—or standing, she wasn’t picky—somewhere and letting her lick it all off?
Gah!
Just the thought of it had her salivating and the last thing she needed to do was drool right now and give away her rather X-rated thoughts when they’d both taken the pledge. She cleared her throat. “What do you like?”
The small smile morphed into something slow and sexy. “Everything I see.”
Of course. Except he was looking at her. At her mouth. Viv swallowed. Had he moved closer? Was he leaning in a bit more? Did she want him to?
Oh hell fucking yes she did.
Grabbing the nearby tasting platter she shoved it between them because she was suddenly more ravenous for Reuben’s mouth than any chocolate she’d ever tasted and that was a big problem because she was always ravenous for chocolate and this was her job.
Not Reuben’s mouth.
“Here’s our basic selection.”
His gaze lingered on her mouth for a moment before he dropped it to the tray. “So I should just try one of each?”
“Definitely.”
Clicking into sales-pitch mode, Viv ran Reuben through the selection on the tray from their basic range, talking about going to Belgium and seeing how the product was made and moving on to their blends and the different flavors and how they were chosen. She even recited the tasting notes she’d implemented with the company over the years after visiting a whisky distillery in Scotland and seeing how they sold their product.
He’d quirked an eyebrow at her when she’d started talking about end notes of smoke and currants but once he started to concentrate she could see him coming around.
“So?” she asked as he very distractingly licked his lips. “What do you think?”
He glanced up and their gazes locked. “I think you’re very good at this.”
“I mean about the chocolate, Reuben.”
He smiled. “I could definitely listen to you talk about chocolate all day.”
“The taste?”
Continuing to ignore her question he asked, “Is it just me who gets aroused by listening to you talk about chocolate?”
His voice was all low and gravelly and Viv’s breath hitched. “Reuben.”
Truth be told, the intense way he’d listened to her, the way he licked his fingers and rolled his mouth as he refrained from chewing and allowed the chocolate to melt against his tongue as she had instructed, had been highly arousing. Her nipples were still tingling.
“So…not normal, then?” he clarified. “I’m just a—”
“Sexual deviant?”
He laughed, which was like a splash of cold water to her libido and Viv straightened moving her body as far from his as possible without actually shifting her feet. “I was going to go for extreme chocolate empath.”
Viv quirked an eyebrow. “Chocolate empath?”
He shrugged but he was grinning. “That could be a thing.”
“Right.” She shook her head. It would be so easy to get sidetracked by him. Both today and for the rest of her time in Marietta. Too easy. “Okay, that’s the end of the tour, folks.” She folded her arms. “This is the point where you buy something.”