Love, Diamonds, and Spades

by Violet Duke

“But no one knows why they even broke up.”

  Dani shook her head sadly. “Not a clue.”

  A thought occurred to her then. “Was the whole betting pool my husband’s idea?” she asked dryly. It did sound right up Rylan’s alley.

  Dani shook her head. “Nope. He is running the entire thing, though. But he won’t tell anyone who’s the mastermind behind the curtain.”

  Rylan wrapped his arms around Quinn. “That’s right. And I don’t care how much you try to torture the information out of me with all your sexual deviant ways, I won’t tell you.”

  The man knew better than to lay down a dare like that. Brow raised in challenge, she declared, “Ten to one, I’ll be able to get the information out of you.”

  He grinned. “You’re on.”

  Luke rolled his eyes. “Quinn, do you even know how exactly the whole ten to one odds thing works?”

  “Not even a little bit.” Quinn smiled broadly. “All I know is that it’s the magic phrase that goads Rylan into doing whatever I want. And I’ve never had to pay up once.”

  Rylan slid his arms around Quinn’s waist and pulled her back to him. She cuddled up against him and tried not to smile when she felt his hand unconsciously slide over her belly.

  He’d been doing that a lot lately.

  Ever since they found out they were pregnant.

  Nuzzling her neck gently, Rylan rumbled, “Baby, you keep rubbing that sweet butt of yours against me, and you’re going to get us into a world of trouble.”

  “Promises, promises.” She settled back against him more.

  He groaned. “These pregnancy hormones of yours are driving me crazy.”

  Lately, Rylan had been chalking up all her sexed up teases and dares to pregnancy hormones. Which essentially meant she was getting away with endless amounts of mischief and mayhem left and right.

  It was awesome.

  And since her mom didn’t raise any stupid ones, she was making the most of the situation until he eventually got to the chapter in the prenatal book that would explain those particular sex drive hormones don’t kick in until the second trimester.

  “Mommy!” called out Cooper from the edge of the dance floor. “You have to see this giant cake! Holy schmoly! Janey Duncan asked me to marry her last week. If I do, can I have a cake this big, too?”

  Quinn chuckled. “Don’t marry a girl for cake, honey.”

  Cooper paused and took in that advice in all seriousness. “So just for laundry then? That’s why Daddy says he married you. Because you do the best laundry.”

  Quinn turned to raise a brow at Rylan.

  Who was wisely already halfway across the dance floor.

  -- THE END --

  Turn the page to read what happened

  thirty minutes prior.

  A bonus Dani & Luke wedding reception scene...

  BONUS SCENE

  (With Dani & Luke from Love, Chocolate, and Beer)

  Thirty Minutes Earlier…

  “VETO,” CALLED OUT LUKE. Geez, their wedding reception was still hours from ending and they were already having their first marital spat.

  Must be some sort of record. Dani grinned.

  “Dani, a huge bash for beered-up and wine-sloshed folks partying on both our rooftop decks is a massive riot waiting to happen.” He shook his head stubbornly. “Scale it down.”

  “But it’s supposed to be big—it’s a grand opening. Besides, Derek and Quinn already signed off on it and you gave them all decision-making rights for promotions, remember?”

  This past January, an outrageously emotional Dani had watched Derek finally achieve his dream of having his own winery when Desert Confections Chocolate and Wines, the partnered business venture of her brother and her husband, officially opened its doors to the public. “C’mon, I promised the town an official celebration and everyone’s been waiting two months for it.” She blinked prettily.

  “Wow, sneaking a guilt reference to our wedding in there. Impressive, but still no.”

  She sighed. “Okay, what if I promise to order ridiculously unnecessary security?”

  He refused to be baited. “How many?”

  Huffing out an exasperated curse, she started actually thinking about it then. “Well, my good friend is my regular bouncer for the rowdy nights like concerts and playoff games, and her brother is a cop so I’ll just hire him and a few of his friends from the force to come in off-duty.”

  Luke frowned. “Wait, you have a bouncer? How come I never knew that?”

  “Only on event nights. And what do you mean? I talk about her sometimes.”

  “Her?”

  Indignant female offense clouded Dani’s face. “Yes, her. It’s Lia. You know Lia. She’s a damn good bouncer and one of the scariest fighters you’ll ever see in action. Best of all, since most guys don’t want their ass kicked by a girl, most times, she can diffuse a situation with no violence at all.”

  Luke threw his hands in the air. “Don’t give me that look! I’m not sexist. She could be the best MMA fighter in the world and I’d still hate the idea of anyone smaller than a linebacker being caught in a drunken brawl; even the biggest dudes get roughed up during bar fights.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Remember the fight I told you about during the last AFC playoffs? And that brawl on Cinco de Mayo with the four guys who all found out they were screwing the same chick?” Dani flickered her eyebrows up with pride. “All Lia. All by herself.”

  Luke’s jaw fell open in awe. Dani chuckled as he immediately scanned the crowd of guests for the woman in question, the stunning, albeit quietly sad, Asian woman chatting with Aidan near the stage.

  “I’d never have guessed by looking at her.” He shook his head in disbelief. “How’d you even know to hire her? Did she audition or something?”

  “In a manner of speaking. Lia has an antique arms shop nearby, a spin-off of her family’s business. She used to come around to eat after work. One night, she stopped a huge fight for me, which got us talking. She needed extra money since her shop was just starting out and I needed muscle on the rowdy nights. We’ve had this perfect arrangement ever since.”

  “I always thought she was just your friend who hung out at Ocotillos a lot. I can’t believe I never knew she was your bouncer.”

  Dani shrugged. “Lia keeps a low profile. She mostly just sits in the corner by the door reading. Things rarely escalate to the point where we need her.”

  “Huh. Interesting.”

  “What’s interesting?” She followed his gaze. Luke wasn’t even looking at Lia anymore.

  “Did I ever tell you about my friend who I’d always thought of as a big brother?”

  “The one who used to protect you from getting bullied in middle school?”

  “Yep. Hudson was the big brother I never had. After seeing some bullies beating me up in sixth grade, he watched out for me until I was big enough to handle myself. And he always let me hang out with him on the weekends, even though I was a few years younger. I completely idolized him.”

  Dani looked over at the gruff, totally ex-military guy sitting in the corner with a gorgeous blond woman who looked vaguely familiar.

  “Who’s his date?”

  Luke squinted. “Oh, that’s the actress. She’s been in some of those made-for-TV movies. They dated in high school and somehow stayed friends through all the years he was in the military—surprising since he was in some intense stuff with the Rangers and then Special Forces.” Shadows filled his eyes in remembered agony then. “Last year, Hudson lost almost all his men on a mission that he barely survived himself...only to have a part of him die anyway when he found out the damage to his fine motor function in his hand was too extensive for him to return to his unit.” Clenching his jaw, Luke shook his head in frustration. “I tried to get him to move back here after his discharge but he said he just...couldn’t. He chose to start fresh in California instead.”

  She watched the pain in Luke’s gaze gradually ebb away and soften into...hope
.

  Puzzled, Dani looked over at Hudson again and then saw it too.

  Hudson, the quiet epitome of a wounded warrior, was politely listening to his date talk on and on, even as his eyes kept covertly flickering over to Lia.

  With more than mild interest.

  Even more fascinating was the fact that Lia was glancing at him in the exact same way.

  Watching their hidden attraction grow, Dani asked idly, “What’s he do in California?”

  “Actually, he’s moving over to Arizona in a few weeks. Temporarily. Apparently, that actress got him a consultant gig for the movie she’ll be working on down in Southern Arizona.” Luke’s smile was slow and meaningful.

  “He’ll be consulting on fight scenes and weapons.”

  Lia & Hudson are up next!

  Love, Tussles, and Takedowns

  (Hudson & Lia’s story)

  Available Now

  * * *

  Isaac & Xoey are coming in March!

  Love, Exes, and Ohs

  (Isaac & Xoey’s story)

  Available for Pre-Order Now

  Love, Tussles, and Takedowns

  By

  Violet Duke

  Available Now

  He's a better fighter. But she has all the weapons.

  After his combat injuries retire him from the military career he wasn't ready to give up, battle-scarred Hudson Reyes now spends his new life as a movie industry fight scene and weapons specialist simply doing what he knows best: surviving.

  Until he meets her. The one woman who makes him want to live again.

  An antique arms authenticator with a lifetime of martial arts training, Liana Lin has made a living turning the demons of her past into the passions that fuel, and fill, her life. She's a scrappy little thing. A sweet, angel-faced wrecking ball to his good intentions capable of making him laugh, and turning him inside out. Hell's bells, watching her execute that wicked roundhouse kick of hers shouldn't be a turn-on--especially not when his head is the receiving target--but hot damn, it is. She's a fiery, unpredictable paradox who wears her heart on her sleeve, despite the wounds he knows she has hidden as deeply as he hides his own.

  Even though she's everything he's told himself he can't have, Hudson can't help but want her. Sure as sin, if one woman could sneak past the barbed wires he's wrapped around his heart, it'd be Lia.

  Now if only they could stop sparring long enough to find out...

  * * *

  Excerpt “Love, Tussles, and Takedowns”

  © 2014 Violet Duke

  Good Lord. Why did he have to go and sprawl out like that? Lia thought, averting her eyes upward as if in silent prayer. Hudson’s current seating posture just made her imagine him pinned under her, spread eagle with her legs wrapped around his in a ‘Saturday Night’ wrestling move—so appropriately named. She exhaled a hot breath.

  That’s when she realized he hadn’t had a pillow or anything to make his night comfortable. He’d stayed on her old couch while she’d been fifteen feet away. Bottomless.

  Well, hell. That whole melting at the knees thing from the movies was apparently a real thing. Tamping down the girly swoon factor she felt for the first time ever, Lia sat down beside him and checked the growing bruise on his face.

  Ouch.

  Bad night for her to have worn an anklet. She refrained from telling him that his bruising had rather, um, pretty decorative qualities. There’s no way she’d be able to pull that off without cracking a very ill-timed smile.

  “Hudson, I’m really sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” He gave her a lopsided grin that looked more self-deprecating than anything else.

  There it was. That lack of an ego she was certain she’d seen in him earlier. Another turn-on.

  “It was my fault for surprising you in the dark, sweetheart. I knew better.”

  That’s when she remembered what he’d said earlier about his coming over in self-defense. She must have heard him wrong, right? Feeling her cheeks flush bright red, she decided to ask straight out, curiosity never really being one of the things she could keep bottled up and all. “You mentioned you were trying to stop me from doing something earlier?” A passive question.

  ...That got one hell of a fired response from him, if the darkening of his stormy gray eyes had anything to say about it.

  “I wasn’t trying to stop you per se. More asking for mercy. At least until I was out of earshot.”

  She blushed even brighter. “Hudson, I have no clue what you’re talking about. I don’t have…one of those.” Only because she’d never built up the nerve to buy one. Not even online. She could just imagine that plain brown box with the smiling arrow buzzing away by some fluke when Richard, the town’s sixty year-old mailman, brought it up to her doorstep.

  Hudson shook his head in confusion over her statement and immediately winced. Blinking slowly in dull pain, he eventually peered open an eye again and studied her face.

  “I’m not lying.”

  “I can see that.” He frowned. “But I swear I heard the buzzing.”

  “Oh!” She ran back to her bed and grabbed her watch from under the comforters. “It was the alarm on my watch. I have an online auction at six this morning and I’m bidding on behalf of a client for several pieces. I set about seven alarms in a row a minute apart since I’m horrible when it comes to the snooze button.”

  “That’s some watch. Mine has one measly alarm, and it certainly doesn’t vibrate.”

  “It’s one of my brother’s inventions. You remember Gabe, right? He’s the one that probably lo-jacked your phone last night. Gadgets are his thing.” She slipped the watch back on her wrist. “He even rigged it to read my mood via my wrist—sort of like how a lie detector works—and play music accordingly, through some sort of algorithm that’s linked up to playlists and satellite radio. Basically he has the mind of a genius and a desire to live forever as a teenager. Or Peter Pan.”

  “Does it use headphones or a speaker?” asked Hudson curiously.

  “Both. He built speakers into the watch but it also has Bluetooth earphones as well. Why?”

  He leaned over to try and see the face of the watch. “Because with the way you’re blushing right now, I’d pay good money to hear what music that little device will be playing in response.”

  She gasped and pulled her wrist away. “NO. That’s…private.”

  He attempted to chuckle but stopped with another smothered wince and slid sideways so he was laying down fully on the couch, ice pack wedged against his head via one rock-hard bicep, while his Thor-like forearm covered his eyes. “So this was all because of a vibrating watch. For the massive headache I have right now, I think I’m going to imagine it the good way,” he teased. “Some sexy music in the background, and you with a seven-speed vibrator calling out my name.”

  She almost swallowed her tongue. His knowing vibrator speeds, she would need to revisit another day. The part about her calling out his name last night?

  A very real possibility.

  Especially considering the very pleased smile the man was wearing right now.

  She should’ve kicked him harder.

  When he started flat-out chortling, pain seemingly a thing of the past, she realized she’d said the last reflection out loud.

  “You are nothing like what I thought you’d be,” he said removing the gel pack from his face to look at her. “If I invite myself to breakfast with you, will you keep surprising me? I’ll take it as your apology. You know, for tattooing what feels like dainty little flowers across my temple.”

  She bit her lip to keep from laughing. But she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. She liked being a surprise to someone for a change.

  “My treat?” she asked. “I’ll take you to breakfast at the Saturday Market at the Town Square—it’s like a bazaar with food and crafts booths, and stuff for the kids. There’s a great little Cajun and Creole breakfast booth with just the best grits.”

  He smiled and closed his eyes
again. “Stop with the dirty talk already. A man can only take so much. I’ve spent almost the entire night up. Literally. So now that I don’t have to worry about sex noises from you, I’m going to get a little shut-eye for a bit. Wake me when you’re done with your auctions?”

  Criminally flirtatious and attentive to her work to boot.

  He was almost too good to be true.

  Before she could respond, he continued, serious as can be, “I figure seven a.m. should be early enough for us to head out for breakfast, don’t you? Unless you think your brothers will be stopping by before that to check if I’m still here. Then we should leave earlier. I really prefer not to have to tell them they don’t have to rough me up because their sister already took care of it.”

  Lia blinked at him for a few seconds. No one ever talked to her like this. Folks were always so gentle with her, men especially. Either that, or they were usually trying to prove their toughness to her for some reason, again, men especially. True, that would be utterly unnecessary and just redundant where Hudson was concerned, but she never expected him to be like this.

  She wondered over that as she went to get him a new ice pack. Pulling the melted one away from his battle wound, she placed a gentle kiss on it before putting the new ice pack on.

  Damn. The way his eyes caught fire from that one simple peck, she could only imagine how hot they’d burn over something more.

  So much for no more sex noises on her part.

  He shaped his warm, calloused palm against her cheek. “Sweetheart, if you put those sweet lips of yours on me again, innocent gesture or not, I’m definitely going to deserve that beating your brothers threatened me with last night.”

  She stared at him for a second, surprised at the novel thoughts running rampant through her brain…and other parts of her body.

  “I’m holding you to that,” she said quietly, before hurrying over to her computer without waiting for a reply. She told herself it was because her eighth, ninth, and tenth alarms of the morning were buzzing away, telling her she needed to get logged in soon.