by Té Russ
Dana snatched her hand away. "Too bad you'll never find out." She tacked on a smile as she added, "Thanks for stopping by and have a nice day."
Aiden turned and walked off, his devious chuckle following him out of the bakery and making Dana throb in places she'd have to satisfy on her own later after work.
She turned and headed toward the office to join her sister.
She needed a drink now too.

"Tessa! How are you, dear?"
Tessa looked up as Mrs. Noble entered the bakery. She gave the older woman a genuine smile.
"I'm doing great, how are you?"
"I'm wonderful."
"Do you want your usual?"
"Of course."
As Tessa began to put together Irene's order, she asked, "How is the filming going?"
"It's coming along," she said. "I actually tagged along with Isaiah as he did something called 'B-roll filming'. I've never seen that side of his career. I was amazed by it. He even let me hold the camera for a little bit."
"That sounds like a lot of fun," Tessa said as she finished up Irene's order.
"It was. Of course, I knew he had talent after we watched his short film. I'm sure after he finishes up this documentary, he'll be itching to head back to L.A."
Tessa's fingers froze over the cash register and she got a strange feeling in her chest.
"He's been talking about going back to L.A.?" she asked.
Irene looked up and her eyes grew wide. "Oh, no! Not right now, but I'm sure he wants to. I mean he wouldn't have come home in the first place if his father hadn't basically tricked him in to it."
Tessa remembered him mentioning that the night he brought her dinner.
"I'm still not happy about that," Irene went on. "I've told Isaac over and over that these kids will come back to Sweet Rapids if and when they're ready..."
Irene kept chatting, but Tessa seemed to check out at some point. She'd been enjoying her time with Isaiah so much that the fact that his stay in Sweet Rapids was most likely only temporary seemed to slip her mind.
"If they're meant to come back, they'll come back when it's time," Irene said on a sigh, bringing Tessa back into the present.
She smiled tightly, and gave Irene her order. After she paid for it, Irene said, "I understand you've been spending a lot of time with Isaiah lately."
The wide grin on her face made Tessa believe that his mother approved of their spending time together.
"Yes ma'am," Tessa said.
Irene nodded her head. "He needs someone like you in his life."
Tessa thought about Irene's words long after she'd left the bakery. They hadn't defined what was growing between them; but the point was, something was growing. It was more than just sexual chemistry, though that was off the charts. When she was with Isaiah, she felt amazing. But after Irene's mention of Isaiah inevitably going back to L.A., Tessa began to wonder; what if she was beginning to fall for him, only to have her heartbroken when he decided his time in Sweet Rapids was over?
Chapter 15
"If you would just try it!"
Tessa walked into the kitchen of the bakery to find Dana and Janet in a stare down.
On the island was a cupcake, one of their new creations they'd been working on.
"For what?" Janet asked, haughtily. "It's not going to change my mind about adding it to the menu."
Dana let out an exasperated sigh. "This is stupid."
"You watch your mouth, girl," Janet said, standing. "Last time I checked, I was still the mother in this relationship."
Dana shook her head, eyes filling with tears. Then she yanked off her apron, tossing it on the island as she left out the back door.
Tessa looked over at Janet, who lifted her chin stubbornly.
"What happened in here?" she asked.
It was Friday afternoon and Tessa had spent most of the day in the back office.
"I came over to check on these...new employees," she said. "I come in here and find Dana baking these."
"They're good," Tessa offered.
"They're not on the menu," Janet threw back. "Soon, you two are going to start telling me our old recipes aren't good enough anymore."
"Mama, the old recipes are fine. We just...we want to give the customers more options."
"We haven't stayed in this business for this long by changing things all the time," Janet said. "People enjoy coming here because they know what to expect. We've always been tried and true."
"No one wants to change the classics. But what's wrong with trying a few new things?"
"That's all of you young people's problem. You're too busy trying to do something new, do whatever's 'in the now', that you don't know what consistency is. You don't know how to maintain something that will last."
"And you don't know when it's time to let go."
Janet balked at Tessa's words.
"Excuse me, young lady?"
"Daddy's ready to retire. He's been ready. And he wants to retire with you, Mama. But for some reason, you just can't let go of this place. What is it? Do you think we're going to run the place into the ground?"
"With all your fancy new ideas...you just might."
Tessa turned away from Janet and ran her hands through her hair, feeling the pressure of a headache rising up her neck.
"You can't be serious," she murmured. "Mama, you've been raising Dana and me to take over this place since we were barely walking. But now you think we're going to be its demise, just because we have some new and good ideas, and because we think Everetts’ Bakery is worth expanding."
"Everetts’ Bakery is about family!" Janet yelled. "Not making a commercial dollar by turning it into some impersonal chain."
Janet snatched her purse and stormed toward the door Dana had vacated earlier.
"Everetts’ Bakery is fine just the way it is. I don't want to hear another word about changing it."
Tessa was left alone in the middle of the kitchen, confused and upset.

Isaiah knocked on Tessa's door, and when she opened the door, his eyebrows bunched together in concern.
"Isaiah," she said, rubbing her forehead. "What are you doing here?"
"May I come in?" he asked.
Tessa sighed and moved to allow him into her house.
"I got your text saying you didn't think this weekend was good to go to my place because you weren't feeling well, and I wanted to come by and check on you."
"There's just a lot of stuff…family stuff going on and I didn't think I'd be good company," she murmured.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked. "My ears are still available, as well as my shoulder."
He took her hand in his and led her to the couch. Once they were sitting, he wrapped his arm around her and kissed her temple as he squeezed her tightly. It was obvious she was upset about something.
"Talk to me, sweetheart."
Tessa was silent for a moment before saying, "Dana and I have been experimenting with some new dessert ideas for the bakery."
"That sounds promising."
"It would be, if my mother wasn't so adamant about not letting us change or add to the menu at all."
She went on to tell him about walking in on Dana and her mother's argument, followed by the argument of her own with Janet.
"I'm sorry you're having a rough time with her," Isaiah said. "Maybe once she cools off, you can talk to her about it again."
Tessa shook her head. "There's no point," she said, defeatedly. "She doesn't even trust us to run the place ourselves. She's always looking over our shoulders. And she made it abundantly clear she doesn't want to discuss it anymore. There's no point."
"Don't say that," Isaiah said. "You've just...you've just got to try a little harder."
Tessa stood. "Just 'try a little harder'. You think it's just that easy? You don't think we've been doing that? You don't know what it's been like. She won't back down."
"If this is what you want, then yo
u can't back down either," he said, standing up as well.
"We've been at this battle a long time now, Isaiah. If she doesn't trust us or our judgment by now, then what's the point?"
"The point is that this is your legacy too, and you're entitled to it."
"Legacy?" she laughed. "You want to stand here and talk about legacies? I'm fighting tooth and nail with my mother over our legacy, and your father is practically throwing yours at you and you've been dodging it every chance you get."
Isaiah looked at Tessa as if she'd grown a second head. "When did this become about me and my family's business?" he asked, confused.
"When you started talking about I needed to try harder, as if you knew what it was like."
"You can't compare our situations," he said. "My siblings and I have been expected to work for Noble Naturals since we earned our degrees at eighteen years old. We barely had a normal childhood. We wanted to, at least, experience adulthood without having to be tied down to Sweet Rapids for the rest of our lives, before we were truly ready."
"And there it is!"
"There what is?"
Isaiah was beyond baffled with Tessa's tirade; it was jumping from one tirade to the next.
"You're leaving. You don't want to be tied down to Sweet Rapids. So you'll leave and I'll..."
"You'll what?"
"Nothing...nevermind."
"Tess," he said, rubbing a hand down his face. "Who said anything about me leaving Sweet Rapids?"
"Your mother came by the bakery earlier this week and said–"
"My mother?" Isaiah cut her off. "So I see both of our mothers have gotten in your head, making you crazy."
"I am not crazy, Isaiah," Tessa said through clenched teeth.
Isaiah sighed. "That's not what I meant, Tess."
"But that's what you said. I've got all this stuff going on with my family. And then you drop into my life, but for how long? How long will you be here before you decide you're ready to move on?" The quiver in her voice made him want to reach out to her.
"Tess–"
"The more time we spend together, I feel like it's going to make it that much harder when you finally leave. So maybe..."
Don't, he thought, dread crawling up his neck.
"Maybe we should just cool things down."
"Are you serious right now?"
"I just...I need a break. There's too much going on in my life right now." She walked over to the door and opened it. "You should go, Isaiah."
He stood there staring at her for a moment, with his mouth hanging open. Finally he closed it, and then headed for the door. Before he could turn back around to say something, she quietly closed the door. The sound of the lock was like a stab in the heart.
Chapter 16
She marched through the house and yanked her front door open at the incessant pounding. When she saw him standing there, she sighed.
"What are you doing he–"
The rest of her words were cut off, when he cupped the back of her neck and crushed his lips to hers. She placed her hands against his chest, determined to push him away, but instead, found herself melting into his body. She tried to resist him, but she couldn't fight it.
His tongue dipped into her mouth, tangling with hers as his hands went to cup her ass, gripping it tightly. Soon he lifted her into his arms and she hooked her legs around his waist, shamelessly grinding against his erection. He carried her to the bedroom, and tossed her onto the bed, seemingly not giving a damn about gentility at the moment.
He shoved her skirt up, yanked her panties down and dropped to his knees as he pushed her legs open wide. Her back flew off of the bed at the first swipe of his tongue against her clit. He pressed her back down as he ferociously devoured her, licking, slurping and sucking on her until her mind dove into sweet oblivion.
She tried to shove his head away, the pleasure too much for her to handle, but he gripped her wrists and pinned them against her belly.
His tongue curled inside of her and the scream she'd been holding back ripped from her lungs. He continued kissing her slowly as she came back down to earth.
Finally, he sat back on his haunches and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"I knew these lips would taste as good as the ones on your face."
Dana sat up on her elbows and looked down at Aiden, who was watching her with a salacious grin on his face.
Tessa was never going to let her live this down when she found out, Dana thought. At least she had the weekend to figure out how to break the news.
"You're still an arrogant ass."
His low, sexy chuckle made her pussy, that was still on full display in front of him, tingle with renewed arousal.
"And you're still a spoiled brat," he said, looking her in the eyes.
Her lips tilted up. "Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's see how you taste," she said, before she lunging at him on the floor.
Tessa's phone rang and she sighed, tempted not to answer. She swiped it anyway and took the call.
"Isaiah–"
"Did it ever occur to you that leaving here would be just as hard for me?" he asked, not letting her get a word in.
"I–"
"Spending time with you here has been wonderful. And I'm not ready for that to end, Tess. Not even today, when you're obviously having a bad day. Even when you're infuriating, you still fascinate me."
He was right. Her argument with her mother that afternoon had put her in an extremely foul mood, and the thoughts his mother, unintentionally, planted in her head had been festering for days. It had all bubbled over at the same time.
"I want to be in this...whatever this is that's happening between us...with you. So, please, don't shut me out, Tess."
She wanted to be with him too, Tessa realized, no matter how long. If and when they parted ways, she'd deal with it then.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I shouldn't have taken my frustrations out on you."
"No, you shouldn't have. But if you come open the door, I can properly forgive you."
She rushed to the door, pulled it open and Isaiah pulled her against him, kissing her deeply.
"I'm sorry," she said again, against his lips.
"Apology accepted."
She pulled back slightly and looked up at him. "Did you ever leave?"
He shook his head, a hint of a smile on his lips. "I've told you before, you're not getting rid of me that easily," he said, tugging her chin between his thumb and finger. "Now that we've gotten our first fight out of the way, go pack your bag so we can head to South Lake Tahoe."

"Welcome to my home, Tess."
Isaiah sat their bags down after they entered his home and watched as Tessa looked around in awe.
"This is your place?" she said.
"Yeah."
"Why would you ever want to leave a place like this?"
She moved to the patio door, surrounded by floor to ceiling windows, that led out to the patio. The house sat right on Lake Tahoe.
Isaiah shut the front door. "We're not about to start arguing about me leaving again, are we?" he asked with a grin on his face.
She turned and looked at him, rolling her eyes. "No."
"Good," he said, moving further in the house toward her. "Because we haven't properly made up for the last fight yet."
"We haven't?" she asked, smiling as well.
He pulled her into his arms. "I've heard that make up sex is some of the best."
"Is that right?" She draped her arms around his shoulders.
He hoisted her up into his arm and headed for the stairs. "Why don't we just go and find out?"
Isaiah had always loved to look at the view of the mountains over Lake Tahoe from his bedroom through the long horizontal window that stretch nearly the entire length of the wall. But the view was even more beautiful with the two round mocha globes up in the air, between his hands, as he pounded in and out of Tessa from behind.
Her back rounded a
nd then arched, the sexy curve of her spine dipping low, as she tossed her head back, her hair whipping through the air. Her moans filled the room as he reached forward and slid his hand into the large mass of curls, twisting it around his fist.
His body shuddered as her walls clamped around him. It felt as if she was pulling something from him. Quite possibly his heart.
She screamed his name and a few pumps later he was coming right behind her.
He collapsed onto his side, so he wouldn't put all of his weight on her.
"I guess they were right about make up sex," he heard Tessa say a few minutes later.
He chuckled and pulled her closer, kissing her shoulder. "Are you hungry? I know you've had a hell of a day."
"I'm starved," she said. He could hear the smile in her voice.
"That Mediterranean place delivers out here," Isaiah said. "Or I can cook you something."
Tessa rolled in his arms to face him. "You cook?" she asked, slightly surprised.
He laughed again and squeezed her bottom, pulling her closer to him. "I'll have you know I make some bad ass risotto. How about I make dinner and you make dessert?"
"That sounds great." She hopped from the bed, taking his hand. "Come on, let's shower and get down to the kitchen."
After Isaiah cooked dinner and Tessa made dessert, he finally gave her a tour of the rest of his house. After showing her the main floor and second floor, he guided her down to the basement where Tessa discovered his in-home studio.
"Wow," she said, looking around.
"It's one of the first upgrades I did when I bought the place," Isaiah said.
He watched as she walked around checking the place out. He followed her into the recording booth. She stopped in front of the wall of violins being held up by mounted instrument hangers.
"That one's my favorites," he said about the one she stopped in front of.
