High Stakes (The Kingdom Book 2) by Nikki Groom

hips, and a smile on my lips.
    We sit at the bistro table, enjoying the morning sun before it gets too hot. Denham takes my hand from across the little table, and strokes the back of it with his thumb.
    “I have work to do today,” he sighs regretfully, “I’m sorry. I swear the fucking place would grind to a halt if I wasn’t here to crack the whip.”
    My eyes widen. “You have a whip?” I joke.
    “Yeah, darlin’. How’d you think I keep those lazy horses working hard?” He winks and smiles with such affection, I could kiss him all over.
    “So, will you be gone all day?” I ask, disappointed already.
    “Mostly. There’s so much to do. Crap to sort out. I tried to pawn it off on someone else but there are things that only I can do. I tried to get a hold of my mom to come sit with you, but she’s busy and Lottie and Spike aren’t picking up their cells. Probably be midday before they surface, so …”
    “Denham.”
    “I’ll pop back as often as I can—”
    “Denham!” I say a little louder and he stops talking. “I’ll be fine.”
    “I don’t want you on your own, Ari.”
    “I know, and I appreciate that. But, I have to be on my own sometime.”
    “What if—”
    “I’m not gonna pass out again.”
    “How do you know? We haven’t had the tests back yet. We don’t know what happened last time. What if you’re epileptic or something triggers it again, and next time you really hurt yourself?”
    I lift my mug to my lips and try to cover my smile. He’s sweet. He doesn’t like to think it, but he is.
    “What’s so funny?” he asks with a frown.
    “Nothing.”
    “What?”
    “You’re waffling,” I say. I place my mug down on the table and walk over to him. I rest my hands on his shoulders, squeezing his tight muscles, which are bunched from his concern for me. I kiss the top of his head, and let my lips linger there. “You’re so sweet,” I murmur.
    “Well, you’re just full of compliments this morning, aren’t you?”
    “Look,” I say, matter-of-factly. “I feel great today. I’m not going to go anywhere, or do anything while you’re gone. I’m not going to try and go to the gym, or go shopping or anything like that, yet. I’m just going to lounge around, maybe sketch a little. I should really call Beth, too. So go run your empire. Call me, text me. Whatever you like. But I don’t want you to worry about me.”
    I straddle his hips, inadvertently pulling his head into my chest to keep my balance. He raises his eyes to mine and grins.
    “Is this your way of taking my mind off the conversation?”
    I shrug. “Maybe.”
    “What other methods do you have in mind?”
    I pause, looking upwards and placing a finger on my chin. “Maybe, this …” I dip my head and press my lips to his. His lips are full, and wet from his coffee, and I let my tongue run along the length of his full lower lip. When his tongue darts out to meet mine, I tease him by moving and kissing my way along his smooth, clean-shaven jawline. “I thought maybe I’d also distract you with this,” I whisper softly in his ear, making him shiver, before I take his lobe between my teeth and pull gently. He tilts his head to let me have better access, and he groans deep in his throat as I suck and nip his soft, sensitive flesh. I smile inwardly knowing that I’ve found one of his weak spots, and the way he’s gripping the shirt tightly around my waist tells me he’s loving this. I kiss up and down his neck, and when he turns his head towards me, I capture his mouth. We kiss passionately, hungrily, and with a tenderness I can’t explain. I moan into his mouth and he swallows my soft noises, keeping them for himself, which is just how it’s intended. All for him.
    Denham’s cell phone buzzes across the table, and although I could ignore it and carry on like he is, it reminds me that he has things he should be doing, and my distracting him isn’t constructive towards his day.
    “You’re in demand,” I