Twist of Fate: A Heartbreaker Bay Novella Read online

  Daisy gave him another look.

  The baker seemed startled. “Well, not exactly. There’s cake toppers. We’ve got everything from collectible figures to—”

  “Figurines,” Daisy said, sneaking another bite of cake, once again licking her lips and the fork. “Tyler loves to collect. Two men, of course.”

  They both looked at Diego.

  Since he was having a hard time thinking past the sweet glide of Daisy’s tongue along the fork, he simply nodded.

  “Done,” the baker said, smiling widely, typing on her tablet as fast as she could. “This is wonderful. Everyone happy?”

  “Very,” Daisy said.

  They both looked over at Diego, who needed a sharp stick to stab himself with.

  “What do you think?” the baker asked.

  What did he think? He thought that his testosterone levels had dropped dangerously just sitting there. Standing, he fished out a credit card, which he thrust at the baker. “Let’s get this done.”

  Five minutes later, Daisy was glowering at him as they exited the bakery. “You couldn’t have been any more obnoxious.”

  “You underestimate me.”

  She snorted. “Seriously, you’re such an a—”

  “Amazing brother?”

  “I was going to say asshole.”

  They were in front of the bike now. Daisy had parked next to him.

  “Just…take in the big picture here,” she said.

  “Which is what? That Rocco and Tyler ditched us here today on purpose for who knows what reason other than to torture me?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I like how you assume you’re the only one being tortured.”

  “Hey, I’ve been nothing but a—”

  “I swear to God if you say delight…”

  He shrugged.

  She sighed, looking a little overheated and frustrated and ticked off, which made two of them.

  Except he was also turned on. He couldn’t help it. Daisy talked with her hands, her eyes flashing. She looked sexy as hell.

  “Look,” she said. “Rocco’s in love. He’s marrying the man of his dreams, so it’s not about you or me. Or us. Or the utter lack of an us—"

  “Funny, because it feels a whole bunch like it’s about us,” he said.

  She opened her mouth to argue that—because God forbid she not argue with every little thing he said—and he decided he’d had enough. So, he pulled her to him and put his mouth over hers.

  He’d meant to shut her up, of course, but what he hadn’t intended was to forget himself, the wedding, his brother, and everything but the soft little sound that escaped her throat just before she fisted her hands in his shirt.

  Going to shove me away or pull me in, babe?

  She kissed him back. More than that, she pressed all those sweet, sexy curves up against him. With a groan, he wrapped his arms around her, feeling every contour of her sweet bod against his. Her mouth had started out icy cold from the chill in the air, but it was hot now. They were both hot.

  She made another little sound, a sweet little mewl of pleasure that shot straight through him. That alone tamed his inner caveman, and an unexpected tenderness and sense of affection hit him hard. He cupped her face, his thumbs lightly brushing against her cheeks to kiss her again with a soul-searing gentleness he hadn’t even known he possessed.

  “Diego,” she whispered, and he blinked, shocked to find that he had her pressed up against her car. She had her hands beneath his shirt now, one of them resting over his heart, the other low, nearly at the waistband of his jeans. Even as he thought it, her fingers lightly danced over his abs, which quivered at her touch.

  For a beat, they just stared at each other, both breathing heavily, neither moving. Except for her fingers, which seemed extremely eager to go south. With a groan, Diego caught her hand in his. “Playing with fire.”

  She yanked her palm free and lightly banged the back of her head against her driver’s side window a few times.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to knock something loose,” she said. “Like my good sense.” Lifting her head again, she gave him a light push on the chest.

  She wanted space.

  Fine by him. He stepped back but didn’t go far.

  “You’re looking at me like I’m a ticking time bomb,” she said.

  “You are.”

  “Flattering.”

  “Look…” He tried to access any part of his working brain, but there appeared to have been a shutdown across the board, all circuits down. “That—”

  “Can’t happen again,” she said and nodded. “Agreed.” She paused. “That’s what you were about to say, right?”

  Actually, no.

  “Because it can’t,” she said slowly, looking a little uncertain as she took in his expression.

  “When did you come to that conclusion?” he asked. “When you had your tongue shoved down my throat, or when you yanked my shirt up to get to bare skin?”

  Her mouth went tight. “When you stopped kissing me and started talking.” She pointed at him. “We made a pact to stay as clear of each other as possible through this. Let’s stick to it.” And then she got in her car and drove away.

  The theme song of his life.

  Chapter 4

  The next day, Daisy got up early because eating ice cream for dinner as she had been lately required hitting the gym a few days a week. She was on the treadmill for an hour and a half before she looked down to check the screen. She’d only been on it for four minutes.

  It was going to be one of those days.

  When she got to the office, she worked her fingers to the bone with Carol on her back about more incoming bids, more clients, more, more, more…making Daisy question whether she would ever really retire.

  “Of course, she’s not going to retire,” Daisy’s best friend from college said, video chatting Daisy during a quick lunch break from New York City where Poppy worked at a large corporate concierge firm. “She’s just dangling a carrot to keep you from entertaining other offers.”

  “I have no other offers,” Daisy said with a laugh, shoving the last of her sandwich into her mouth.

  “Well…” Poppy gave her a hopeful smile. “I’ve already planned out my New Year’s resolution. It’s a doozy. You ready to hear it?”

  Daisy’s New Year’s resolution was to put the clothes she tried on every morning back on hangers and into her closet instead of on the chair in the corner of her room. “Sure.”

  “Well…I’ve been thinking. You’re unhappy there. I’m unhappy here. And we both do basically the same thing. So, why not—?”

  “Run away to an island beach somewhere and become barmaids?”

  “Or…you come here, and we start our own business. And before you say no,” Poppy said quickly, opening her second laptop and swiveling the screen to face Daisy, “I’ve been putting together some numbers and specs. I think we could rock our own event planning company here in NYC. You’re always saying how much you miss the city—and me.”

  Daisy had absolutely loved New York. A lot. Going across the country at eighteen had freed her from a rough family life and upbringing. It’d given her an education. A different view of the world than her previous narrowed one. But…she loved being back in San Francisco, too. “Poppy…”

  “Wait,” Poppy said quickly, holding up a hand. “Don’t say no off the cuff. Just promise you’ll think about it?”

  “I will if you promise to think about doing exactly as you’ve just said but here in San Francisco.”

  Poppy bit her lower lip, clearly thinking and thinking hard. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You make me a proposal for San Fran, and I’ll finish making mine for NYC. But, FYI, mine’s going to be irresistible.”

  Daisy laughed, but it faded quickly when she heard her boss coming. “Gotta go,” she whispered and disconnected just in time.

  Carol swept into the room. “Did you get the two new client portfolios I sent over?