Beefcake

by Jenna Jacob

  There was an almost carefree lilt in her voice, which pissed Noble off even more than being left out of the loop.

  “Alrighty then. I’ll be back first thing in the morning. If trouble does come calling, I’ll be ready…with both barrels.”

  “Thank you. You’re a sweet man.” Ivy smiled as she unlocked the door to Sweet Flours and stepped inside.

  “You keep an eye on her for me, Grayson,” Emmett ordered.

  “I will,” Noble promised.

  After nodding somberly, Emmett turned and walked away. With a growing unease, Noble entered the bakery and locked the door behind him.

  “You want to tell me what that was all about?”

  “I’ll explain it all to you while I work.”

  A sardonic smirk tugged his lips. He loathed the way she took control every time she stepped foot on her home turf. Biting back the smart-assed volley he was dying to lob her way, Noble followed her through the swinging metal doors and into the kitchen.

  The room, distinctively designed for business, was large, meticulously clean, and gleaming with massive, high-dollar stainless steel appliances, while the combination of fresh baked bread and cake lent a homey feel.

  It wasn’t until he saw the look on Ivy’s face that Noble finally grasped her need to take charge and direct him. It was the bakery…this kitchen. She was in an environment that made her feel safe…secure.

  Realizing that something ominous enough for her to reach out to Jasper might be threatening to destroy her or her safety zone prompted Noble to assert his own control.

  “Start talking,” he instructed, as Ivy tied a long apron around her waist.

  “It’s all ancient history, or was until today. About a year ago, my former boss sexually harassed me. I filed a lawsuit against him and won. The courts awarded me a settlement that paid for all this,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I found out today that his wife committed suicide and in his twisted mind, he thinks it’s my fault.”

  “You think he’s going to come here and try to hurt you?”

  “Oh, heavens no.” She shook her head. “It’s nothing as fiendish as that, but in a news conference he gave earlier today, he named Haven and the bakery in the same ugly breath. I simply wanted to warn Jasper that the town would be inundated with news crews by morning.”

  Ivy sounded almost dismissive about the sexual assault, and that sent up acres and acres of red flags in his head. He plucked out his phone and leaned against the counter by the sink as Ivy began measuring and stirring something in a bowl. “What’s the name of your former boss?”

  She glanced over her shoulder and saw the phone in his hand and blanched. “It-it’s not important. He wouldn’t show his face in town. Trust me. He’s too…important.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Noble…”

  “Name?” he repeated in a tone that brooked no argument.

  Her shoulders slumped. “I came here to get away from my past and start a new life…make a new future for myself. Please…just leave it alone. Okay?”

  Noble tucked his phone away, temporarily, and pushed off the edge of the counter. Easing in behind her, he wrapped his arms around her, unable to ignore how naturally she fit against him.

  “Your past defines who you are. The new life you’re seeking and your future are going to involve me if the baby is mine.” He placed his palms on her belly. A rush of emotions he’d never felt before came crashing though him.

  In his mind’s eye, they were both stretched out on a blanket, picnic basket resting on the grass. The summer sun spilled though her long blonde hair and warmed their skin. In the creek a few feet way, three little blonde-haired girls with pale blue eyes splashed and giggled.

  His girls…all of them.

  Noble’s heart rate tripled, not from fear but longing.

  He’d spent years adamantly denying what his heart had always longed for—a family, the chance to make a lifetime of memories his children could carry into adulthood, just like the ones he had. The fear of finally living out his dreams, then having them ripped away, like Sawyer, had colored his idyllic fantasy so brutally that he’d denied himself the possibility of ever obtaining it in the first place.

  Like a waterfall of enlightenment, Noble realized that he wanted that little life growing inside her to be his. To carry that stubborn Grayson DNA strand. He wanted to hold that tiny life in his big hands and teach him or her about life, love, and the importance of family. The idea of spending his life with Ivy, of settling down and binding himself to her exclusively sent a flutter of anxiety uncoiling inside him. The implication of monogamy usually sent him running for the nearest exit, but Noble didn’t even feel a twinge to flee.

  Noble couldn’t move…didn’t want to.

  Splaying his fingers over her slightly protruding belly and holding Ivy in his arms, Noble realized he wanted to spend eternity with her. Wanted to inhale the familiar scent of peaches and sunshine morning, noon, and night. Wanted to move heaven and earth and the seas to keep her safe…protected.

  Christ, could I actually be in love with her?

  Before Noble could begin to process the possibility, Ivy settled her hands over his and issued a heavy sigh. “I know you have your doubts and will demand a DNA test, but I can guarantee you, the baby is yours Noble. And I promise that I will raise him or her with enough love for both of us.”

  Again, her determination to shut him out of her life stung like a slap to the face. But Noble shoved the insult aside. Every cell in his body was screaming that this baby was his, and he felt zero desire to sprint out the front door and run screaming into the night.

  He had no idea if he was actually in love with Ivy or if his moral code was so set in stone he couldn’t turn his back on his responsibility to her and the baby.

  The only thing he knew for certain was that he wouldn’t stand to be some faceless, nameless ghost in this child’s life.

  “I heard you the first time, but you haven’t stopped to consider that maybe I want something from you.”

  Ivy tensed and slid around in his arms until she faced him. “Like what?”

  “Like to be a part of your life and our baby’s life.”

  Her eyes grew wide as she blanched. A look of abject terror lined her face. She squirmed from his hold and stepped back, putting a cold, void between them that Noble didn’t like.

  “What?” She shook her head. “No. I can’t do the whole marriage and family thing. If you want white picket fences and minivans, you’re going to have to hit up one of the women in town who are…what did Trudy say? Oh, yeah… all cryin’ in their pillows, missing the magical ways you make them scream your name.”

  Noble cringed. He’d suspected one day that his man-whoring ways would come back to bite him in the ass. But why did it have to be this day with this woman?

  “I wasn’t blowing smoke up your ass earlier when I said I hadn’t been with anyone since you, darlin’. I haven’t…” He scrubbed a hand through his hair and laid it all out on the table for her. “Because, try as I might, I can’t stop thinking about you.”

  Ivy quickly banked the look of shock dancing over her face and lifted her chin. “Well, you’re going to have to learn how, because there’s no future for us, Noble.”

  “And why is that?”

  She scoffed. “I won’t raise my child in a town teeming with rumors about how his mother and father are both whores. I can deflect their comments and explain their hateful remarks for one parent—me—but not two.”

  Noble loathed the rumor mill maligning either of them.

  From either anger or fear, Ivy visibly trembled. He pulled her into his arms. Reaching up, he tucked a couple of strands of hair behind her ear. “We can fix it so they have nothing to talk about.”

  “There’s nothing we can do to stop the gossip, Noble. Not a damn thing.”

  “You could m-marry me,” he stammered.

  What. The. Fuck? Why am I not hauling ass over elbows to get out of
here?

  He had no idea where those four life-altering words had come from, but they were out and floating in the air, like a lead balloon now.

  Ivy gaped up at him as if he were a space alien who’d just landed in her kitchen.

  “Are you out of your fucking mind?” she screeched. “Didn’t you hear me? I already told you, I don’t do marriage. Hell, I don’t even have time to date, let alone have a relationship of any kind.”

  “Oh, I heard you loud and clear, darlin’. And until a few hours ago, when I saw you standing there in the living, breathing flesh, I swore the very same thing.” He dropped his hands to the swell of her soft, warm hips. She met his stare with a beseeching expression. “Please don’t shut me out, Ivy.”

  Her eyes trailed to his mouth and stilled as the plea spilled free. A tiny shudder rippled through her. Memories of her melting and shattering beneath him clawed up his spine.

  He could almost taste her sweet kisses.

  But fuck if he could live without them ever again.

  He dipped his chin and brushed his lips across hers.

  When she didn’t tense or shove him away, he swept a second time…then a third. As he pressed in slowly and tenderly the next time, Ivy wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

  Relief poured through him, sending bottle rockets and cherry bombs detonating inside him. Though tinges of unease crept under his skin, they were quickly erased by the utter rightness of her in his arms and pressed to his mouth. Noble deepened the kiss and slid his tongue into the soft, warm recesses where he belonged.

  I want her…need her…until the end of fucking time.

  His unspoken conviction was still ringing in his ears when Ivy suddenly pulled from his mouth and his arms.

  Breathless, with her chest rising and falling, she shook her head and took a step back. “I-I can’t do this with you. Th-there’s too much happening. I-I can’t divide my head up like this… I just can’t.”

  “Jasper can handle the news crews, darlin’. I’m not asking you to tear yourself in two, I simply want to—”

  “It’s not just the news crews. My parents…and m-my lawyer are coming to Haven in the morning. I’ve got to bake so I can open the shop in the morning, and I have to…god, I don’t even know what else I need to do, but I’m not ready. I’m not ready for any of this.”

  The absolute panic in her voice damn near broke his heart.

  She was completely falling apart at the seams.

  His insistence that she allow him to be a part of her life was only adding to the weight she was trying to carry on her slender shoulders.

  Her need for time and space scraped his flesh like knives.

  “I have to get busy. You don’t need to stay. Watching me work is going to get awfully boring.”

  Noble shook his head. “I’ll keep out of your way, but I’m staying.”

  She pinched her lips together tightly but ceded with a nod.

  As Ivy fluttered around the room, gathering ingredients, mixing bowls, and baking pans, Noble plucked out his cell phone and eased his ass onto the smooth metal counter near the sink.

  When she was fully engrossed in her work, he covertly typed her name into a search engine. Immediately, photos and websites filled his screen. He tapped the first image of Ivy. Dozens of microphones were thrust toward her face, which was turned as if she was trying to shield herself. She was wearing the same blank expression she’d donned during Trudy’s visit, but the sheer terror Noble saw in Ivy’s eyes made him gnash his teeth. She was pressed between the older man that he’d seen, months ago, washing the windows of the bakery—her dad—and a middle-aged woman wearing a tailored suit and a look of determination. Noble didn’t know if she was Ivy’s mom or her lawyer, but he made a mental note to find out.

  As he studied several more disturbing images of Ivy, the sight of what she’d endured made his stomach swirl. Noble tapped a Dallas-based news site and began reading the details of the trial.

  Halfway through the article, there was a photo of Eugene McMillian and a paragraph of information about the mid-sixties man. He had the look of a sleazy politician.

  Noble studied the image intently, mentally plotting gruesome and painful ways for the prick to die. Finally, he forced himself to continue reading the article. McMillian, the lecherous fuck, had a pattern of soliciting sex from his former female employees. At the end of the trial, Ivy’s attorney, Margaret Neill, had given a statement to the reporters.

  Yes, my client and I are satisfied with the guilty verdict and the monetary settlement awarded today. However, the women victimized by Eugene McMillian will always carry the scars he inflicted. Especially my client, Ivy Addison, who had to endure not only his verbal assault but his abhorrent and demeaning physical exploitation, as well.

  A white-hot rage raced through Noble.

  Bile bubbled up from his stomach.

  The motherfucker McMillian had done more than sexually harass Ivy. He’d physically assaulted her, as well.

  Christ. Had the sick fuck raped her? Beat her?

  Scrolling back up the article, Noble studied the bastard’s photo again, vowing that if the prick ever showed his face in Haven, he’d never get the chance to leave town again. Noble would kill the son of bitch with his bare hands.

  Numerous websites touted Ivy’s ordeal as: the trial of the century, and unemployed bakery assistant takes down multi-billionaire philanthropist.

  As he skimmed each disturbing article, Noble lost track of time. He glanced at his phone as his stomach growled in hunger.

  The buttery-rich aroma permeating the air only made the empty void in his gut harder to ignore. But Noble dismissed his own needs, opting instead to watch Ivy as she squeezed a fat tube of icing, creating perfect red rose petals on top of a tall pink-iced cake.

  Watching as she meticulously painted bright green leaves all around the pretty roses, Noble held a new level of respect and pride for his girl. Her life had been dissected and dragged through the mud, yet she’d come out whole on the other side.

  Ivy was brave and strong, yet he now knew she was horrifically scarred. Still, she hadn’t let Eugene McMillian or the embarrassment of the very public trial break her spirit.

  She was tenacious, determined, and as bullheaded as Noble…and the incredible little minx had somehow stolen his heart.

  The overwhelming need to protect her and help her fully heal from the vile assault rode him hard. But keeping her in his life was his ultimate goal.

  Oh, she’d fight him every step of the way.

  Of that Noble was sure, and while he’d never force her in any way, he’d somehow draw her out from behind those infuriating walls and into his arms.

  Patience and persistence were his specialties…among his other talents.

  As Ivy set the icing down, he eased off the table and moved in close behind her. Unable to stop himself, Noble threaded his fingers through the thick curls spilling from her ponytail. She jolted slightly, but before she could turn around, Noble pressed himself against her back and leaned in close to her ear.

  “Are you hungry?” When she shivered beneath him, Noble wanted to send up a fist pump.

  “No. I’m fine. Go ahead and get some dinner. I’ll be fine here by myself.”

  “Why are you so eager to get rid of me, sweetheart?”

  “I-I’m not,” she stammered as she turned her head and met his stare. “It’s just…I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “You think that’s what I’m doing here…babysitting you?”

  Ivy shrugged. “You got your kiss, so…”

  “There’s still a lot we need to talk about. Why don’t you take off that apron and we’ll walk down the street and grab some dinner at Toot’s Café?”

  “I can’t. I still need to make a ton of cookies and fill the cream puffs.”

  “You need to eat something. Not only to fuel your body but the little one growing inside you, darlin’. Come on. It won’t take but thirty minutes or so.�
��

  A pained expression crawled across her face. “Noble, it’s not a good idea for us to be seen together any more than we already have.”

  “Why? So people don’t talk?” he asked, unable to keep from grinning.

  “Yes.”

  “Sweetheart, they’re already talking. I’d lay odds that half the town knows I’m here with you now. And not a one of them thinks we’re standing in this kitchen baking goodies.”

  “See? That’s what I’m talking about. You shouldn’t even be here. It’s only going to fuel more nasty rumors. Those news crews that are coming will talk to everyone they can. The second your name comes up, they’re going to dissect your whole life like a frog in high school science class. They’ll plant their vans in front of your house. You won’t be able to step outside to work or go to the grocery store without five or six microphones shoved in your face. That kind of invasion isn’t pretty.”

  “I’m a big boy. I can take care of myself.”

  Ivy exhaled a frustrated sigh. “Oh, yeah. What if they talk to Trudy? Can you imagine all the stories she’d gladly tell them about you? This bullshit better blow over soon, ’cause if they find out I’m pregnant…”

  She let out a long, mournful groan and dropped her head.

  He cupped her shoulders and turned her into his arms. Pulling her in against his chest, he dropped a soft kiss on the top of her head. “I think you worry far too much about what other people think.”

  “Oh, god. I’m turning into my mother,” she moaned.

  “I don’t know, I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her yet, but I will…tomorrow.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  Noble arched his brows. “And why not?”

  “Because she expects the baby daddy to make an honest woman out of me.”

  “I already tried that, darlin’. You shot me down, remember?”

  “You weren’t serious and we both know it.” Noble frowned. He’d correct her soon, but not now. The tight tone in her voice told him she’d had enough stress for one day. “No. You’re not meeting my parents tomorrow. That’s nonnegotiable for now.”