Sweeter Than Chocolate: Valentine's Day Anthology

by Gina Kincade

  Liv wiped her tears, and gave Charlie a quick hug. She watched the flowers as they awakened from winter's brief kiss. Soon, the garden was a riot of color among the stark winter landscape.

  “What do you say we get some hot cocoa from the cafeteria?”

  “Only if they have marshmallows.”

  “I wouldn't have it any other way.” Liv laughed and they made their way inside, a butterfly fluttering in the crisp spring like breeze.

  And if she did see the doctor, she was going to say hello.

  Maybe.

  Probably.

  Well, she’d figure it out when she got there.

  Chapter Four

  Thomas bounded through the woods just beyond the hospital, his wolf happy in his freedom. The crisp air seared his lungs but he didn’t care, content in letting his wild side reign.

  Seeing Liv had livened his senses. There was no doubt she was his mate, but the animosity radiating from her made him cautious about approaching her.

  Did she remember him at all?

  Her friend Caroline confirmed that she did.

  His wolf rolled his eyes and ran faster, his muscles straining as he pushed harder and harder, determined to wring the need from him, like he had done ever since he met her two years ago.

  “You need to find a mate.” His alpha had narrowed his eyes at him at the last pack gathering. “It’s time, Thomas.”

  “I already have.”

  “Then claim her and be done with it. Let your wolf be content and stop letting your human side dictate everything about you.”

  As if it could be that simple.

  “You don’t understand.”

  The alpha held up his hand to stop him. “I understand you are unhappy. Your wolf is unhappy. There will be no balance in your life until you make peace with both sides of your nature and make a space in your life for the woman who will complete you.”

  The alpha’s words haunted him. He was right, as always. But he wasn’t about to get all cave man like some wolves did and drag their women into the bedroom. That wasn’t his style.

  The woman was grieving. It was obvious. But what had also been obvious, at least to him, was the absence of the scent of another male.

  Where was the man who was with her the night they brought her child into the ER? The male had been injured but not as severely as the girl. He’d done everything he could to save her life, but she’d slipped through his hands, her blue eyes looking up at him as he reached for her.

  Gods, but it still tore him apart.

  He’d helped thousands of children but none stayed with him like that one had. It was like she could see him and the tiny smile she offered as she gave her last breath was a gift he held close every day. It made him try all that much harder with the children in his care.

  He paused mid stride and raised his nose into the air, and caught a familiar scent that stopped him in his tracks.

  She was near.

  Loping back toward the hospital grounds, he trotted toward the gardens, staying well within the barrier of the tree line.

  He watched her interact with Charlie, one of his sicker patients, and marveled at the way she spoke to the girl.

  Starting to turn away, he stopped once more at the scent of magic in the air and was stunned as her goddess energies tapped into the winterized garden.

  Was she a witch, then? He had no idea.

  Vibrant life emerged where there had only been frozen, dead plants, creating a garden oasis in the middle of winter.

  Maybe her heart was healing.

  There was only one way to find out.

  Thomas bounded toward one of the hidden entrances to the hospital. He slipped inside and shifted back to his human form, intent on one purpose.

  He would make the woman see him for what he was.

  Her mate.

  And Caroline had helped set such a plan into motion. Just a few more hours and he would test his theory. One kiss was all it would take to prove it once and for all.

  She was his mate and he wasn’t going to stop until he’d tasted her.

  Chapter Five

  Liv gripped the wheel, steering around a slow moving car ahead of her. Under construction, the highway was red lights and bumper to bumper at this time of the late afternoon. Everyone was apparently behind the wheel. The additional fact it was cold and raining made her even less than excited about being on the road. Her phone rang but she ignored it, trying not to hit someone in oncoming traffic.

  “Thanks for coming with me. I really appreciate it.” Caroline sat in the passenger seat, mirror down, applying makeup like there was no tomorrow. Her gorgeous pink hair was drawn into a sexy updo with ringlets falling artfully around her face. The little black dress she wore barely reached thigh high, and the strappy black heels were gorgeous.

  “Chef Patrick will be there and I wanted a chance to see him again. Maybe even dance.”

  Dance? Liv blinked

  What was she missing here?

  “Dancing? I thought this was just going to be a quick check on the flowers and leave kind of thing?”

  “Um… Not exactly.”

  “Why didn’t you just ask him out?” Liv was curious. The two seemed to be spending more and more time together, and when Caroline asked her to drive, she said yes, if for no other reason than to meet this mysterious new guy. Well, and to help with the flowers.

  Caroline swiped on a layer of lip gloss and grinned. “He and the guys had pack things to do before the event and I didn’t want to hang around getting in the way. Besides…I knew you needed to get out of the house and have a little fun. And this way we can both make contacts that will help grow the business.”

  “So, you thought going to a Valentine flower gig would be what I needed, huh?”

  She’d set up most of the arrangements that morning. Why she had to go back tonight was beyond her. They had a box of flowers in the back just in case of floral emergencies, but they could have left that to the event hostess to oversee.

  God, her feet were still frozen from walking back and forth from the hospital. But there was one part of her that had started to thaw and she had Caroline to thank for that.

  “You set me up for that, today.”

  “Oh, so you saw the doctor, did you?” Caroline gave Liv a saucy wink.

  “No. I ran into Charlie in the garden.”

  “Ahhh. I wondered that you didn’t manage to kill anything this afternoon.”

  “Yeah.” And she was still reeling about it, too. The girl was a marvel. And she’d never seen anyone eat marshmallows that way before either. Her father was one lucky man.

  “I’m glad you went.”

  “Me, too.”

  Liv glanced down at her own attire and smiled. The red lace dress was one she'd bought six months ago. She hadn’t worn it yet but she had to admit it showed off her legs to their best advantage. Paired with her new sparkly red strapped heels, Liv knew the outfit was one her friend wouldn’t give her lip about.

  Part of her had hoped to see the doctor at the hospital while she was there delivering Charlie’s flowers. But another part of her still wondered what all those flowers he ordered were for.

  No guy could possibly have that many girls in his little black book. And furthermore…she wasn’t going to be one of them.

  But that didn’t stop the flutter in her stomach every time he came into the shop, or the dampening of her panties as she imagined what his lips might taste like.

  Too much time on her hands.

  That was it.

  And not enough dating.

  She knew it, but even the thought of getting back out there freaked her out. What if she ended up dating someone just as bad or worse than her ex?

  It wasn’t something she was even willing to consider.

  She and Brody had fought so much about money just before the accident. Mostly because she had been trying to save up for a surprise vacation for the family, but trying to do that with a joint account was tricky.
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br />   “I see your paycheck from work went into the account but what is this electronic transfer?” Brody advanced into the bedroom, regarding Liv with a frown as she exited the bathroom.

  Joint accounts were helpful in most circumstances but in this particular case, difficult. It was hard to surprise someone with a summer vacation when your husband did the bills. Not to mention he was the owner of his own business and an ace with accounting. Liv shrugged, sidled over to the dresser, and ran a brush through her dark hair. “Oh…you know. Expenses…”

  “What expenses? Jesus, Liv.” Brody waved the checkbook ledger in her direction. “Where did it go? You entered the dollar amount but only put down M.C. What does that even mean?”

  Liv took in Brody’s guarded expression and reached up to run her hand down the side of his face. “Can we talk about this later? I kind of wanted to continue where we left off before Penny woke up.”

  “No. Five hundred dollars is missing from our account. What gives?” Brody slipped out of her reach, his focus intent.

  Hindsight being what it is, Liv realized she should have told Brody her plan, but instead he’d gotten irritated and it spurred her temper into overdrive.

  “It’s my money, too. I don’t give you the third degree when you spend money on yourself. Why can’t you extend me the same courtesy?”

  “You’re not going to tell me?” Brody shot her a wide-eyed look that screamed hurt. “Wow.” He slapped the ledger shut and vacated the bedroom.

  Shit.

  “Brody…”

  “No. You don’t want to tell me and suddenly I don’t want to know.” He waved his hand at Liv wearily and sat down at his desk where his laptop glowed in the dim light. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting to plan for tomorrow night and an agenda to work on. Despite your nine to five life, my work doesn’t stop.”

  Ouch.

  “Brody. Please.”

  Liv wrung her hands and tried to think of a way to tell Brody her plan without giving away the surprise. She opened her mouth to speak but he headed her off.

  “No. Just go to bed, Liv.”

  And she had. The whole night she tossed and turned, thinking about how she could’ve told Brody the money had gone to a deposit on their summer vacation. He’d been wound way too tight, lately. With all the travel and late meetings he had to contend with, it was no wonder.

  But something told her there was more to his upset than what he was saying. How many nights had he spent supposedly at work, only to come home and not be able to meet her eyes?

  He’d been distracted, and when she asked him to take Penny to class or pick up something from the store, it became a major deal.

  She wanted this vacation to be a fresh start. Something to make their family feel like something other than her and Penny against him. He even resented her work in the garden. He knew what she was when he married her, but now everything between them was a bone of contention.

  That wasn’t what she wanted, but more and more it was starting to become that way.

  But that was just it.

  She knew what Brody’s schedule was and she’d made plans around it. In fact, he’d marked off some specific days in his calendar starting the following week and didn’t tell her why. Well, to be accurate, his secretary, Stephanie, had marked them off for him when she’d explained what was going on.

  “Yes. Get him out of here. If he doesn’t get some time off, I’m going to lose my mind.”

  Except when she checked back with his online calendar, the dates she’d requested had never been entered at all.

  That was when she first suspected there was a problem. Too many things were starting to add up.

  And that night, everything had come to a head. They’d argued about money again and he’d lashed out, striking her. He’d never done that before, and she’d been too shocked to do anything other than hold her hand over her face and cry. He’d torn out of the house to take Penny to her tumbling class, and then next thing she knew, life as she knew it lay in the charred wreckage of her husband’s Lexus.

  He’d been cheating on her for months and she never even known it. When she saw Stephanie scrambling to meet him in the hospital, everything clicked into place.

  Everything, except her daughter.

  How did a person recover from that?

  Chagrined, Caroline slid her makeup bag into her purse. “Look, I know you’ve had a rough time. You never text me at night. I’m worried about you. You hardly ever go anywhere, and if you’re not at work, you’re reading another one of those novels of yours. Life balance. Didn’t you used to tell me that?” Her elegant eyebrow tilted up in question, her perfectly glossed lips bowed into a smile.

  “Caroline…” Liv groaned. The swishing sound of the windshield wipers loud in the sudden silence. Winter rain in Texas could go from a light mist to a gully washer in moments.

  “You better not just drop me off either. This event could really help our business. Some of the top area businesses are supposed to be there. So, we can both network till our hearts’ content.”

  Lightning flashed in the Texas skyline, illuminating the new construction of the Randolph Parkway rising into the sky. Liv used to recognize where she was going, but since they had started working on the new toll road everything was a mess and all of her landmarks were hidden behind giant walls of concrete.

  “Erm. Yeah.” She pressed the navigation button on her phone and listened to the droning female voice guide her to the next stop on their journey.

  “In two hundred feet, take a right onto State Highway 290. Then take a left to Goldenrod road.”

  “I said I was coming. Do you think I would wear this just to leave you at the door?” Liv chuckled, waving a hand over her dress.

  “You better not.”

  She guided the vehicle along, making the required turns.

  “In fifty feet, turn left onto Stone road.”

  The voice startled her and Liv blinked, reacting quickly to the last minute direction. She dove into the left lane, earning her a long honk from a car nearly on top of her.

  “This phone…” Her heart was beating fast and the icy prickle of hyperawareness slithered down her back. “God, I hope they have an open bar.” She turned left and the highway was replaced by a two lane, badly maintained road with potholes and no street lights.

  Caroline giggled. “Oh my God, Liv.”

  “Turn right in twenty-five feet and you have reached your destination.”

  Liv grimaced and followed the directions. Up ahead was a plantation style home with trees wrapped in twinkle lights. The rain had become a sparse drizzle.

  Two police officers stood at the entrance to the parking lot waving the guests to where they were to park their vehicles. Liv pulled in and with a sigh, turned off the engine.

  “We made it. On Friday rush hour traffic, no less.”

  Caroline rolled her eyes. “Come on.” She collected her purse from the floorboard and exited the Kia. “Hurry, before it starts raining again.”

  Liv angled the rearview mirror down to check her lipstick, the new Mac color making her lips pop. “Sin” was her new favorite color. It went with nearly everything, especially red. Her long, chocolate curls she left to their own devices for a change, making her look younger than her twenty-eight years.

  Knocking on the window, Caroline startled her. “Come on, glamour puss, let’s go.”

  “I’m coming.” Liv snagged her purse and opened the door. She stepped out of the car and slammed the door, pressing the lock button on the key fob. Caroline was pining to head inside. “Go ahead. Just text me later if he doesn’t bring you home, okay?”

  Caroline squealed and enveloped her in a floral scented hug. “You’re the best! But promise you’ll give that hot doctor a kiss if you see him tonight.”

  “Caroline!”

  “I mean it…” she sang as she released her and tottered off down the pavement toward the lit up house where groups of tuxedoed men and elegantly dressed y
oung woman clustered. Her friend would have fun. And it looked like the wedding was gearing up in the room next door.

  Cool.

  She would try to have fun.

  Hell, it beat staying home with Watson, her cranky old bastard of a cat. And if it was a bust, she’d make her rounds, check the flowers, and be home tucked into bed with her iPad and a box of takeout from her favorite sandwich shop.

  But at least she made it this far.

  Hell, what would Dr. Thomas Merton be doing here of all places?

  Unless her friend was, as usual, up to something.

  “Not a cupid, my ass.”

  It was that pink hair. She knew it. Freaking Valentine’s Day and she couldn’t leave well enough alone.

  Liv took her time making her way inside. The sky was clearing up and she wanted to enjoy a moment of quiet before she faced whatever Caroline had signed her up for.

  But it was still butt chapping cold, so she wasn’t able to stay put for long.

  She’d taken a moment and looked this place up online just to check out more information on the venue and the pictures were amazing.

  In the winter and during rainy days, they had a gorgeous glass paneled room, but for days when it was sunny, the gazebo was absolutely perfect. It was a shame the night was rainy, but with the winter months most sensible brides and event coordinators would choose indoors over the risk of having things completely ruined by mother nature’s fickle moods. This was Texas, after all.

  The exterior was well lit. Trees wrapped with sparkle lights paired with spotlights made the landscape pop. The bright lights of the window lined event space glowed bright, and with the first droplets of rain, Liv scurried for the walkway leading to the back door.

  She entered the main entrance and immediately inhaled the citrus scent of hot spiced tea. With low ceilings and wooden floors, it was confining, but got better as you got to the event spaces. It was lovely for the time it was built, but for today’s standards it was a bit confining. The bar was crowded and people were making their way into the two events to the rear of the house.

  Caroline had vanished into the fray of glamorously dressed people but that was fine with her. She would get a ride with Chef Patrick, more than likely, and be home before midnight. Liv wasn’t worried. The woman had sense and would never do anything to compromise her safety.