“What is the little demon doing here?” Ahmed asked as the puppy struggled to get out of Deacon’s hold and over to Ahmed.
“She wants to see her daddy,” Sydney said. When Ahmed quickly looked up to her, she nodded and Ahmed rushed forward.
The puppy leapt into his arms and Reagan turned to see Bridget smiling with tears of joy building in her eyes. It was well known that Ahmed hadn’t had a dog of his own in more than ten years. But he’d been with these puppies every day. And this one in particular showed the most talent as a military dog and absolutely loved Ahmed. Reagan, and everyone else, had assumed that was the dog going someplace they’d never know about to do dangerous things for the good of the country.
“What are you going to name your new puppy? Lilith, since you call her demon?” Bridget asked her husband as Reagan and Carter snuggled their little boy.
The little puppy was licking Ahmed’s face before grabbing his tie and shaking it with a playful little growl. Ahmed shook his head. “Nemesis, the goddess of retribution.” Ahmed’s voice pitched as he kissed his puppy. “You’re going to get all the bad guys, aren’t you, Nemi?”
Nemi shook her head with his tie still in her mouth and growled in response. “That’s right, my little Spawn gave me an angel.”
“Your little ones will be ready to go home in two weeks,” Sydney told them as Reagan reluctantly handed back their little puppy.
Ahmed placed Nemi in her crate and Deacon left to quickly drive them back home. Bridget, Ahmed, and Sydney went back inside, giving Reagan and Carter a moment alone.
“It’s nice to have a moment alone together. When you married me in the back of the SUV, you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. But tonight, you take my breath away. I love you.” Carter trailed his hands down her arms as he leaned in to kiss her.
Reagan sighed into the kiss as she leaned against him. Carter’s arms came around her back as his tongue stroked and his lips caressed. Kissing Carter every day for the rest of her life was something she was very much looking forward to.
“The dress is too beautiful to bunch up and get dirty outside like old times.” Carter chuckled as he trailed a line of kisses down her throat.
“I figured, but I finally learned my lesson.”
“And what lesson is that?” Carter asked.
“I’m not wearing any panties for you to pick up,” Reagan said as she stuck her tongue out at her husband. When he reached for her, Reagan squealed and darted away with a giggle.
“I’ll make you pay for that,” Carter promised. Reagan tossed back her head and laughed as she held out her arms and spun in the golden light of the historic distillery with the gentle sound of Barrel Creek next to them. Carter slipped his arm around her waist as they walked back inside to begin their very own fairy tale.
* * *
His jaw tightened as he shoved up her dress and stripped the panties from her body, all the while never breaking their searing kiss. They were getting desperate in their time together, and he didn’t want to leave the panties behind again, so he shoved them into his jacket pocket, his pants having already been shoved down to around his ankles.
They had to stop doing this. It wasn’t right to take such risks of being caught. But one look at her swaying her hips on the dance floor, and he was a goner. It didn’t matter that they had been having these adventurous romps together for years. When she began to dance, her eyes would seek him out and as soon as they were connected he was hooked. She knew it too. She’d dance just for him. And when neither could stand the anticipation anymore, she’d duck out, leaving him to find her and they’d come together in a combustible moment of sheer desire. It didn’t even matter that they’d just been together earlier that night. He wanted her more now than he had the first time they’d been together. Every time it became something more. More hot, more passionate, more explosive.
She opened her eyes and looked at him as he began to move within her. The sounds of music wafted out to them as he pinned her against the side of the building cloaked in darkness.
“Don’t stop,” she panted as her legs squeezed tighter around his sides.
“Never,” he swore as all their plans to stop these illicit escapades fell away into the shadows of the night, right along with the panties that spilled from his pocket.
* * *
Piper laughed at her South Carolina cousins as they teased each other by telling funny stories from their childhood. Even Ryker, the serious cousin, was smiling. It was probably why Nikki was zeroing in on him. But then he turned to Addison Rooney, the new town prosecutor, and asked her to dance. She did not inherit her father’s brazen approach to romance. Addison blushed and looked nervous as Ryker took her hand in his and led her to the dance floor.
“Piper,” Cody Gray, the deputy sheriff, broke her concentration, “would you like to dance?”
Piper smiled and placed her hand in his. It had been since Walker and Layne’s wedding that she’d hung out with a man who wasn’t either a lab employee or a family member. And Cody was perfect to dance with. He could make her forget her troubles. And she certainly had trouble as one of her projects that was supposed to help people was actually something that could kill in the wrong hands. All she’d worked on for the past year was now a waste, unless she wanted to sell it to a government in order to weaponize it. Her cousin Sophie could help her with that, but Piper didn’t want to kill people. She wanted to save them. And she’d been so sure that this experiment would do that. Maybe she just needed to look at it a little differently. Another trip to Rahmi and the international nanotechnology lab she help create was called for if she couldn’t figure out a way to fix this.
Cody’s hand slipped lower down her back, but Piper was too lost in chemical compounds to notice. It wasn’t until her watch buzzed, showing she had an incoming call, that she came back to reality with Cody looking sadly down at her.
“Oh, sorry, did you say something?” Piper asked, embarrassed that the song was about to end and she hadn’t heard a single word from the deputy.
Cody smiled kindly as he stopped dancing and brought his hand up her back to a respectable grip. “I asked if you wanted to get out of here for a little privacy, but considering you didn’t hear a thing I said, I’m going to guess that’s a no.”
Piper felt her cheeks heat. “I’m so sorry, Cody. There’s this thing going on at work, and I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“I understand. Call me anytime if you’re interested.”
“In what exactly?” Piper wondered. Cody was a nice guy. A couple years younger than she was, but that could be overlooked if he was actually asking her out on a date. He was handsome, kind, but also a bit of a player.
“Nothing serious if that’s what you mean.”
“Ah,” Piper said, getting it. If she wanted to end her one-year drought, she’d found the man to do it. She just couldn’t count on cuddling in the morning. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Cody smiled again and his eyes twinkled with a promise that it would be worth it if she took him up on the offer, but then her watch began to buzz in earnest as she looked down at the UNKNOWN CALLER flashing on her watch again.
“I’ll let you go. You know where to find me. Good night, Piper.”
“Good night, Cody,” she said, thinking seriously about his offer. She probably did need a night to let go completely. She’d forgotten what that was like. Piper hurried from the reception and out the side door as she raised her watch to answer the call.
“Hello?”
“Dr. Davies.”
“Who is this? I told you to stop calling me,” Piper said with as much steel to her voice as she could manage.
“But this time I come with an offer. An offer of purchase.”
Piper began to look around. No one knew what she was working on. “My bulletproof clothing line will be out soon.”
The man chuckled. “Not that product. The one that isn’t in your lab.”