Smittened

by Jamie Farrell

  A snowflake landed on her nose.

  And Mikey—tough, swaggering, womanizing Mikey—bent to kiss it.

  Dahlia’s heart swelled. Warmth glowed in her chest and chased away the winter cold. She tilted her head up, and his mouth captured her lips.

  He dropped her hand to wrap his arm around her, his other hand fisting in her hair. She clutched his shirt and hung on, felt his skin vibrating beneath the thin fabric, the cold of the air, the brush of snowflakes on her skin making his touch even hotter.

  His kiss was searing and deep and desperate, as though he needed to kiss her more than he needed to breathe.

  It was quite possible she too needed him to kiss her more than she needed to breathe.

  He tugged on her. “Inside?” he moaned into her mouth.

  “Mm-hmm.” Because when he kissed her and touched her and needed her, nothing else mattered.

  And it was time she let herself need him too.

  IF MIKEY had thought stumbling upon a sleeping Dahlia in an arm chair was a special kind of precious, it had nothing on watching a naked sleeping Dahlia in the dim light of dawn.

  He was usually a sneak-out-of-the-room-an-hour-later type guy, but he was also usually fooling around with women who liked him only because he played in a big-name band. Women who expected him to sneak out.

  Felt so… hollow, now.

  Empty.

  Like maybe Dahlia was right. Maybe he did need saving.

  Parrot trilled out a funny sound in her sleep and stretched, shoving at Mikey’s knee. The cat had been between the two of them since they’d both collapsed in an exhausted, sexually satisfied heap. Dean was curled up beside Dahlia’s shoulder, and Sam was crouched on Mikey’s pillow.

  Waiting to pounce if he did anything to Miss Dahlia, for sure.

  Even the guinea pig was making don’t screw with my momma glares at Mikey from its perch in its cage.

  Mikey needed to figure out what he was going to do about that.

  Because all his life, the only woman he’d ever wanted, wanted wanted, had been out of reach. And now—now, he had another one, completely different, sneaking into his heart.

  He hadn’t told her the whole truth about why he didn’t let people in—the part about Mari Belle. But what he’d said about watching Will get all tore up—that had been true for a long time too. Might be time Mikey was ready to let Mari Belle go.

  Felt better than he ever thought it could.

  Dahlia made a little noise like Parrot’s.

  That big ol’ useless organ in Mikey’s chest ka-thumped like a bass drum.

  She bunched her shoulders up to her ears and lifted her arms over her head with another contented sigh, then slowly blinked open those big ol’ seas of blue. “Hi,” she said shyly, her eyes not entirely focused, but beautiful without the obstruction of her glasses.

  Mikey suddenly understood what his fellow songwriters meant when they talked about a woman’s smile putting a melody in their heads. Because that simple syllable in her sweet little voice had inspired a symphony’s worth of arrangements.

  He stroked her silky hair and smiled back. “Hey.”

  He pushed the cats out of the way, rolled her onto her back, and showed her exactly how happy he was to see her this morning.

  If her giggles and shrieks that turned to moans and gasps were any indication, she was just as happy to see him.

  Mikey Diamond might’ve been the kind of guy to fall in love after all.

  THE MILKED DUCK was empty, save for Dahlia’s two part-time helpers, but they were all rushing around, anticipating the first guests for her Risqué Flavor Tasting event any moment now.

  The up front freezers were stocked with Chocolate Orgasm, Peachy Passion, Sexual Favors, Mikey’s favorite Cherry Popper and more. She had a case of Sin on a Stick treats ready to go and a temporary menu up on the board behind her. After word had gotten out that Billy Brenton would be stopping by, she’d sold out of tickets.

  She’d also prepped a case of pints of various flavors in case anyone wanted to take some home.

  Mikey kept insisting he’d buy all of them, usually with suggestions of which of her body parts he’d lick the ice cream from, but she’d already had to wash ice cream out of her sheets twice this week.

  She smiled to herself and put her cool fingers to her warming cheeks.

  This had been a very good week.

  And not just for her body.

  Mikey Diamond had a sweet side that was utterly impossible for a girl to resist, and he topped it off with being so not needy that Dahlia couldn’t quite believe he was real. In fact, she’d even coerced a confession out of him that he’d spent all those days flirting with women in her shop just to bring in business.

  And it had worked.

  Sales were already up enough that she could pay her rent this month.

  The ice cream truck song rang out. She adjusted her Milked Duck apron, checked that her two assistants were ready, and then smiled at the first of her guests coming in from the dark, cold evening. Soon, the coatracks in the corners were full, conversation drowned out the doorbell tune, and sample cups were being passed around, along with speculation about the secret ingredient that made Sexual Favors the early favorite in the crowd.

  There was also speculation about when Billy Brenton might arrive.

  Dahlia, though, was more curious about when Mikey would arrive. She didn’t know if he were one of those fashionably late people, or if he’d gotten tied up working on a song, or if—or if he’d simply gotten everything he wanted from her already.

  How a person could get tired of laughing so much with someone else wasn’t something she could understand. Or how someone could whisper so many secrets and confide so much in another person and then decide it wasn’t worth it anymore.

  She shook off her doubts and handed over another sample of Chocolate Orgasm. She needed to slip away and check her phone. Just for a second. In case—

  A waft of cold air swept through the room, quickly followed by gasps and whispers.

  There he was, all tall grace and easy movements, still in his ever-present ball cap. She didn’t need to see Will—funny how Dahlia thought of him as Mikey’s friend now, even though she’d probably have a heart attack and a half if Will knew her name—to know he was with Mikey. The shift in energy in the room said as much.

  Mikey’s gaze landed on hers, and Dahlia smiled.

  Let everyone else fuss over Billy. Dahlia had a different idea of what made a guy a rock star.

  Mikey smiled back, soft and goofy, and Dahlia’s heart did the same thing it had been doing all week—it thudded to the floor with a happy, whimpering sigh.

  She was in it deep this time.

  He said something to Will, and the two of them moved through the crowd toward the counter.

  No, wait—not two of them.

  Three of them.

  Mikey leaned over the counter to kiss her on the cheek. “Hey, sweet pea. Nice party.” He nudged his friend. “Billy, this here’s Dahlia. She might could solve some of your problems if you take some of her ice cream home.”

  Will turned a soft brown-eyed smile on Dahlia. His well-groomed stubble made him look rugged, and his red plaid button-down open over his white T-shirt was classic Billy. “Real pleasure, Miss Dahlia.”

  She shook his hand without turning into a slobbering mass of Ohmigod, I love your songs—which would’ve been a no-brainer two weeks ago—and then offered Mikey a saucy smile instead. “I don’t know, Mikey. He’s so hot, it would melt before he got it home.”

  A feminine laugh startled her. “Oh, I could like you,” the third member of their party said.

  Mikey’s cheeks went a tad pink. “Dahlia, meet Mari Belle.”

  Mari Belle. Will’s sister.

  Dahlia had heard a good bit about Mari Belle this week too.

  She was pretty—perfect makeup, perfect golden brown hair, perfect way of using her hazel eyes to make a simple Bliss girl feel as though she’d
been sized up. Dahlia shook her hand as well. “Nice to meet you,” Dahlia said.

  “Likewise.”

  Her Southern accent was less pronounced, her words more polished than the guys’. But suddenly Dahlia was thinking about Mikey’s old tales of Mari Belle keeping him and Will in line, memories of all the things the three of them had done together.

  She’d been his first crush, he’d admitted.

  What he hadn’t said was that she still was, or that she’d be here tonight. In Bliss. In Dahlia’s ice cream shop.

  Mikey had his hand at the small of Mari Belle’s back, his body angled so he was closer to her than he was to Will, and he probably didn’t even realize he was doing it, but his gaze kept flicking back and forth between Dahlia and Mari Belle.

  Not Dahlia and Will, his best buddy.

  Dahlia and his best buddy’s big sister.

  A chill touched the pit of Dahlia’s stomach. She turned to Will. “How lovely to have a visit from family while you’re here.”

  “That’s what she tells me,” Will said with a wink. But there was a grimace lurking in there too, as though it wasn’t the treat it was supposed to be.

  “Do you have brothers?” Mari Belle asked Dahlia.

  She shook her head.

  “Doesn’t matter how old they get, they still need watching after.” Mari Belle’s smile was pleasant, her expression warming, but Mikey had spilled a few other details about Will’s private life this week, and more than once Mikey had mentioned that Mari Belle would be more dangerous than a tornado if she decided to do something herself about knocking some sense into her brother. So it was no surprise that both she and Will looked a little tense.

  But it didn’t explain Mikey being so high-strung.

  He hadn’t even made a joke about anyone sampling Sin on a Stick.

  “Ice cream?” Dahlia said. She held on to her smile, but frost was spreading through her midsection. “You can pick and choose, or I can set you up with a tray of one of each.”

  “Ice cream would be right good, sweet pea,” Mikey said. He nudged Mari Belle. “Ain’t had real pleasure in your mouth until you’ve had Dahlia’s Sexual Favors.”

  Will ducked his head and coughed. Mari Belle’s eyes bulged.

  Dahlia’s skin erupted in mortification. “The ice cream flavor,” she said quickly. She pointed to the menu. “The Peachy Passion is really good too, though Mikey’s probably not getting any tonight.”

  Mikey flashed an almost normal grin at her. “Any…?”

  “Any,” she said, with the right emphasis for him to take that every way he and his dirty mind possibly could.

  She snagged two full trays of samples and passed them across the counter to Will and Mari Belle with a bright smile and an “Enjoy!” then dug out a Sin on a Stick and shoved it at Mikey. “And here’s your phallisicle.”

  He looked down at the chocolate-covered banana treat.

  Then back at Dahlia.

  Then the slow grin started, the one that began with the right corner of his mouth going up, then traveled across his lips until the left corner joined in. His lips parted, adding some tooth to the smile. “Looks delicious, sweet pea,” he said.

  And then in a blink, he leaned across the counter, slanted that smile over her mouth, and kissed the ever-loving ducks out of her.

  Right there in her ice cream shop, full-on with tongue, his hands tangled in her hair and his thumbs brushing her supersensitive ears. While people around them tasted Chocolate Orgasm and Sexual Favors, and then whistled and cheered.

  It wasn’t until he broke the kiss that she realized she’d dropped the Sin on a Stick and was clutching the lapels of his jacket.

  “But not as delicious as that,” he said with a wicked Mikey grin. He picked up the chocolate-coated, marshmallow ice cream–stuffed banana and saluted her with it, then shot a glance at Mari Belle.

  The frost that had melted in Dahlia’s midsection solidified into ice.

  He didn’t need money from her. He didn’t need a lifetime supply of ice cream. He didn’t need her connections at the shelter.

  He needed her to make Mari Belle jealous.

  “Smile for the interwebs, Mikey,” Will said. He and Mikey turned in sync, their backs to her, and Will held up his phone. “You too, Miss Dahlia,” Will drawled.

  Holy ducks. She smiled automatically, watching herself on the screen between the latest man to dangle her heart over a cliff and the superstar who was saving her shop.

  She watched her round cheeks that spoke of too much sampling of the ice cream, her glasses, her eyes too big and wide, her lipstick smeared off.

  Will snapped the photo, then murmured something to Mari Belle.

  Mari Belle, the utter picture of put-together Southern perfection. And not, according to Mikey, because she lived off her brother’s coattails, but because she had a solid job and a life and had made something of herself all on her own.

  No wonder Mikey loved her.

  Mari Belle drifted into the crowd, getting a few curious glances while her brother charmed Dahlia’s guests. Will sampled her ice cream, gesturing to it while he smiled, Mikey by his side diffusing some of the attention and being his own confident, smooth, but undeservedly overlooked self.

  And while Mikey and Will made the rounds, Dahlia kept serving samples and taking orders for take-home containers and answering that yes, the risqué flavors would be available off the secret adults-only menu all winter long.

  Tonight’s tasting was everything she’d needed it to be. On a professional level.

  “You make all your own recipes?” Mari Belle asked, suddenly next to the counter again. She had finished her samples.

  “Some were my aunt’s that I modified, but others are completely original.” Dahlia forced another smile. It wasn’t Mari Belle’s fault—exactly—that Mikey had been in love with her since the dawn of time.

  “This Chocolate Orgasm is the best chocolate ice cream I’ve ever had.”

  “Mikey helped with that one,” Dahlia heard herself say.

  Mari Belle laughed, a light, pretty sound. “I sense his influence in the Hazel’s Nuts.”

  Dahlia nodded, even though her heart was getting heavier and heavier. “Completely his idea.”

  “Classic Mikey,” Mari Belle said on a chuckle.

  “Dirty old man in training.”

  “If you think he’s bad now, you should’ve known him when he was fifteen.” She cast an affectionate smile in the men’s direction. “He’s a good guy underneath it all.”

  “He is,” Dahlia agreed softly. “And he doesn’t know it.”

  Mari Belle turned a sweet smile Dahlia’s way. “I’m glad something good has come of their being here.”

  As if Dahlia was the good. But Dahlia didn’t feel good. She felt insignificant and frumpy beside Mari Belle.

  “They won’t stay much longer,” Mari Belle said, which echoed what Mikey had told Dahlia earlier. Bliss had been pretty understanding of Will’s presence, but people were snapping pictures. And if Will had posted his own selfie, there was a very good chance The Milked Duck would soon be overrun.

  Which was sort of exactly the point.

  As if on cue, Will glanced their way and gave Mari Belle a nod.

  Mikey glanced their way too and winked at Dahlia.

  “We’re going to need one of every flavor to go,” Mari Belle said. She slid a hundred dollar bill onto the counter. “And don’t argue about keeping the change.”

  “But I—”

  Mari Belle held a finger to her lips and pinned Dahlia with a commanding kind of look that could’ve made a three-year-old snap to attention and salute. Dahlia swallowed the rest of her argument. “I’ll get a bag,” she corrected herself.

  When she got back to the counter with the to-go bag, Mikey and Will had made it back. They both grinned at her, and Will peeked inside. “You’re a peach, Miss Dahlia. Don’t suppose I might could talk you into a carton of S’mores ice cream to go too? One of my favor
ites right there.”

  It was Lindsey’s favorite flavor, Dahlia knew. And by the way Mari Belle’s placid expression wavered toward frustration, and the way Mikey rubbed his eyes, they suspected as much too.

  Dahlia kept a straight face—or tried to, anyway—and sent one of her helpers to the back to fetch it. “Anything else?”

  “Depends. You ship? Danged good ice cream. Might could use some of that on the road this summer.”

  The Milked Duck, official ice cream supplier for Billy Brenton’s Hitched tour. Dahlia gulped back a squeal. “Absolutely.” A little dry ice, some overnight shipping, and they’d be golden.

  Will flashed her a smile that was killer in its own right. “Add in some of them cupcakes from the bakery around the corner, and I’m thinking Bliss has everything a man needs. Ain’t that right, Mikey?”

  “Can’t go wrong here,” Mikey agreed. But his gaze slid to Mari Belle before landing on Dahlia, and her poor frosted heart cramped.

  Dahlia’s helper reappeared with the S’mores ice cream, and Dahlia put it in the bag. “Thank you so much for coming,” she said. To her utter mortification, she felt tears welling in her eyes. Mikey and Will—they’d boosted her ticket sales for tonight and probably her ice cream sales for the rest of the winter. Two superstars helping little old her.

  Will reached across the counter and grabbed her in a hug. “Know a little about hard times, darlin’,” he said. “Besides, ain’t every day I get to help out a girl who’s got ol’ Mikey so smittened. Never thought I’d live to see the day.” He pressed a friendly kiss to her cheek, his whiskers tickling, then let her go. “Thanks for a nice evenin’, Miss Dahlia.” He tipped his hat. Mikey grinned at her again and grabbed the ice cream bag, and Mari Belle smiled too. “Nice to meet you, Dahlia. Hope we’ll see you again.”

  The three of them headed out of The Milked Duck, Mikey saying something to Mari Belle that made her laugh, and Dahlia’s whole heart collapsed in on herself.

  They had probably saved her shop.

  But she’d discovered there was something that meant more to her than The Milked Duck. Something she cared about as much—maybe even more—than her pets.