Delicious (Cooking Up A Storm)

by Walker, Annie

  “Hard headed. You know you might actually like it here.”

  “Yeah, but what happens in a year when you move back. You’re not going to want a third wheel getting in the way of your little model hunt,” she teased.

  “Who says I’m going to be hunting models? They’re really kind of boring, you know?”

  Cara gave a hard shove to his chest and he let her go this time.

  “I know you. You’ll have them lined up. Here and in Little Rock. Okay, you have yourself a deal, but only because I’m desperate.” Aiden didn’t doubt that for a second.

  * * * *

  “Good, desperate is always good. Okay, let me show you around the place.” It occurred to Cara then that she’d only seen a few rooms in the house. The living room, kitchen and, of course, the bedroom. How could she forget the bedroom?

  Apparently, Aiden had no intention of letting her. “You can stay here,” he said calmly as they reached the door to the master bedroom. Cara dug her nails into her palms to keep from reacting to Aiden’s seductive voice. Did the man have any idea how hard to resist he was? She’d been squirming the whole evening. Especially when he was this close.

  “I’ll take the guest room,” she insisted and turned to open another door, hoping that it was actually the guest room.

  “What’s wrong with my room?” Aiden followed her inside another bedroom that was only slightly smaller than his and only one door down.

  “Nothing besides the fact that it’s your bedroom.”

  “Umm, I’m still not seeing a problem,” he told her, watching her walk across the room to the window. The room was directly above the deck. The view was even more breathtaking than below.

  “This room is perfect. I love the view.”

  Aiden stopped close behind her. Too close. Cara closed her eyes and started counting. One, two, three…

  “I like the view as well,” he said, his hands sliding around her body pulling her back against his. “I like it a lot,” he whispered close to her ear.

  “No, Aiden.” But for the life of her, those words sounded like an invitation.

  “I’ve been going out of my mind all evening wanting you,” he told her, his voice husky with desire. Aiden’s hand slipped beneath the band of her skirt, touching her stomach.

  She leaned against him and couldn’t stop the moan that escaped as his fingers slipped beneath her panties and touched the moist center of her, stroking gently.

  “God, you feel good.” His voice didn’t sound like Aiden. It was laced with passion. His free hand moved beneath her top to stroke her breast beneath the thin covering of her bra.

  “Aiden,” Cara whispered, her breath catching in her throat as his fingers slid inside her body. She pressed closer. She could feel his arousal against her bottom.

  “I’ve wanted this since the last time. I, I needed to know that what happened wasn’t just a dream. I know you want this too, Cara.”

  What was the point in denying it or herself any longer? She’d wanted Aiden from the beginning. Through all of those other women. She could only pray that when the time came, when he was through with her, that she could let him go.

  “Yes. Yes, I want you, Aiden. I want you so much.”

  He turned her in his arms and his lips took hers. Aiden kissed her like none other. His lips were gentle but demanding. He parted hers, his tongue tasting her. Cara met him touch for touch. His lips left hers to trail hot kisses across her cheek down to her throat. Cara’s head rolled back. Aiden’s lips ravaged her throat.

  “God, Aiden, I can’t wait any longer.” He lifted her up in his arms and carried her to the bed.

  Aiden’s fingers slipped beneath the hem of her blouse and lifted it up over her head and then he stopped.

  “What is it?” she asked as her eyes locked with his.

  “I just want to look at you. Before things get carried away I want to look at every inch of you.”

  Cara couldn’t hold his gaze. Not when Aiden looked at her like he was at that moment. Like he wanted to eat her alive.

  He slowly unclasped the bra. It landed with her blouse. She felt his fingers reach out to touch her for the first time without the encumbrance of the bra and she drew in a sharp breath. His fingers trailed across her breast and underneath. To the sensitive skin beneath. Cara shuddered.

  “God, your eyes are so sexy. When I touch you like this, they are so damn sexy. You’re so damn sexy. I don’t know how long I can wait.”

  Cara couldn’t wait either. She pulled him closer and claimed his mouth. Her trembling fingers pushed his pullover up and out of the way.

  For a moment, Aiden was too surprised by her actions to do more than let her lead the way. Cara’s fingers stroked over his chest, down the hard plane of his abdomen, to the button on his pants when he stopped her.

  “Wait. Slow down baby. If you go any further I’m not going to be much good to you.” Aiden pushed her back against the soft bed. “Just lie back and let me look at you. Let me love you.”

  He had no idea how much he was asking. Cara wanted to feel him inside of her. She didn’t want to wait any longer.

  Aiden slid the skirt down her hips and away from her body followed by her panties. She was shivering from the reaction to his touch. From the look in his eyes, she wasn’t sure how long she was going to hold out either.

  Cara closed her eyes and tried not to think about his lips, moving along her stomach. He was playing with her tattoo.

  “I love this, you know? Look at me, Cara. I want to see your reaction.”

  “I can’t. Not and hold out. I want you inside me, Aiden. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

  She met his eyes, saw the slight disappointment, and knew that he’d been looking forward to exploring her body with touch and taste. Too bad. She couldn’t wait any longer. Aiden unzipped his pants and stepped free of them along with the boxers before taking her back into his arms.

  “All right, we’ll do it your way this time. But only because I love that your as desperate as me. But don’t close your eyes. Look at me Cara.” Aiden parted her legs with his body and with one strong thrust he slid inside her body.

  For a moment, time stood still. Their eyes locked, their breath driving away with the joining of their bodies to each other.

  Kyle saw him hesitate. He was looking at her as if he’d never seen her before. Aiden didn’t move. His body was still within hers. He lifted a finger and brushed something from her face in wonderment.

  “You’re crying?” he asked in amazement. “Did I hurt you?” This wasn’t the Aiden she knew. This man looking at her so tenderly almost made her believe this was more than just sex.

  Cara couldn’t speak. She didn’t even know why she was crying. She only shook her head.

  “Please, Aiden. If you don’t make love to me I think I will just melt away into a million little pieces.”

  He shook his head and moved slowly within her. Cara moaned as his lips took hers once more; his tongue matching the rhythm of his body. Slowly, he thrust deeper, harder. She tilted her hips to meet his thrusts. She felt him groan against her lips and then he slid into her over and over again.

  He was close. She was closer. She arched closer to him as the force of her climax exploded. Her muscles tightened around him. With another deep thrust came another ragged groan, he filled her. Fulfilled her, just before, he collapsed on top of her.

  “That was intense. No, that was beyond intense. That was amazing. Out of this world. Unbelievable,” Aiden said in a voice that wasn’t recognizable as Aiden.

  Cara slowly found her bearings again. The world around them at least stopped spinning enough for her to recognize that Aiden was still inside of her. She didn’t want him to ever leave her again.

  He looked down at her as if he’d never seen her before. “Your eyes are that color again. I love that color.” He kissed her long and hard. Cara returned his kiss. She couldn’t get enough of tasting him. She felt his body responding again to their closeness.
She shivered, her muscles contracted around him as he begin to move again within her. It was even better than before. It was one long, sensual climax. He collapsed once more on top of her and she was crying. Actually crying with reaction to emotions she’d never felt before with a man.

  “My God, that’s never happened before,” he whispered against her throat, kissing her there. “Has it with you?”

  She could only shake her head. Words just wouldn’t come.

  Aiden rolled over on his back and took her with him. Aiden slowly slid out of her, before gathering her close. “I think we’d better play it safe. Otherwise, someone’s going to find our dead bodies in a very compromising position in a few days. I can only imagine their reaction.”

  She didn’t speak. Cara didn’t even think she could form words together at that point.

  “Are you okay? You’re crying again.”

  She tried to answer him. Tried to reassure him that she was fine but all that she could do was cry harder.

  Aiden held her close and whispered reassuring words against her ear until she had no more tears left.

  “Cara, are you sure I didn’t hurt you? Please tell me that I didn’t?”

  “No, I’m okay. I guess. It was. I’ve never felt like that before.” She watched the concern in his eyes disappear. He smiled down at her.

  “Me either. A first for both of us.”

  “Yes.”

  “You know, you can call this whatever you want, baby. If it makes it easier to accept for you to call it friendship, then that’s okay. We both know there’s more between us than that. But I can accept that you need to take things slow. If it makes you happy to call this friendship, then who am I to argue? Just as long as you only have this type of friendship with me.”

  Cara couldn’t speak. She didn’t need to. Aiden had seen the only answer he needed in her eyes.

  * * * *

  Cara awoke to the sound of her cell phone ringing from somewhere in her bag. She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She didn’t know where she was.

  She looked around the unfamiliar bedroom and remembered. She was in Aiden’s house. She’d just spent the most amazing night making love with Aiden.

  She was alone. She looked around the room and realized that Aiden had told her he was leaving this morning. This morning? The light streaming through the window told her that it was late morning. She glanced at her watch. It was almost lunch.

  Shelby would be going crazy by now. “Oh, God.” Cara ignored the ringing phone and showered. She found her clothes tossed all over the room and wondered what Shelby would say when she saw her wearing the same clothes from the night before.

  She didn’t want to face Shelby’s I told you so expression just yet. Cara couldn’t look at the bed. She decided changing the sheet could wait. She needed coffee. In the kitchen, she found that Aiden had left the pot going. Beneath a waiting mug was a note and a couple of keys. The house key. And a spare key to the Range Rover. She was moving in with him. She read the note.

  I hate that I’m always leaving you after we make love. Maybe we need to talk about that. I’ve left the spare key to the house and to the Rover. I took a cab to the airport, use the Rover today and whenever you like. Move in whenever you want. If you need help, call Sam. He’ll give you a hard time, but he knows that you’re moving in. I’ll call you later. Please don’t run away from me Cara. Aiden.

  She smiled at his consideration. But she wouldn’t call his high school friend. Most of the furniture was Miranda’s anyway. She only had a few personal things and her clothing. Cara wondered what he would say if he knew how much she didn’t want to run away from him.

  Her cell phone rang again. But she wasn’t ready to talk about it just yet.

  Cara turned off the coffee, put the spare key on her key ring, and decided it was time to get Shelby’s questions over with.

  * * * *

  “Where have you been?” Shelby’s question hit her before she even had the door opened.

  Cara had tried to put some respect to her appearance on the drive over to the store but she didn’t carry any makeup with her and there was nothing she could do about that freshly…

  She’d stopped for coffee. She needed all the help she could get to face the inevitable but there wasn’t anything pressing this morning. In spite of what she’d told Aiden the day before.

  “I’m sorry. I overslept. What’s going on?” Cara stopped as Shelby rolled her eyes when the phone rang.

  Cara stood half way to the cookie counter and listened to the strange one-sided conversation. She was even more confused when Shelby didn’t pick up on the fact that her top was on backwards. Shit.

  “Have you seen this?” She told Cara holding up a copy of the Dallas American Statesman. Cara could only shake her head. Aiden had gotten the paper delivered to his front door but she hadn’t thought about reading it. She could barely focus on driving much less read about the state of the world around her.

  “You made the cover of the Statesman,” Shelby exclaimed, coming to a stop in front of her.

  “What? How did they find out about this?”

  “Are you kidding, your picture’s in the paper. You’re big news. You’re the latest fad.”

  Cara swallowed with difficulty. Suddenly she was finding it hard to breathe. How could the paper have found out about the night she’d just spent with Aiden? She’d just spent it with him. And more importantly why would the news of it make the front-page of the Statesman?

  “Who told them about it?” she asked and saw Shelby’s eyes narrow as they traveled over her backwards top. And then it dawned on her.

  “Oh my God! You spent the night with Aiden!” She all but shouted as the phone rang again. “You did, didn’t you? Oh my God, tell me everything,” she exclaimed, ignoring the phone.

  “Aren’t you going to get that?” Cara wondered what had come over her friend.

  “No!” Shelby said as if she’d lost her mind. Let the machine get it. It’s been ringing off the hook all morning. Since the news is out about you.”

  “How did the paper find out?” Cara closed her eyes while trying to run damage control through her mind.

  “Apparently you’re the toast of New York. The article has gone nation wide. This is great.”

  “What?” At that point, Cara caught a glimpse of the cover. She took the paper from Shelby’s hands without answering. At the top of the page, the headline read:

  Delicious fulfills this New York critic's every desire…

  “Oh my God.” Cara stared back at a picture of herself, unaware of the camera, looking almost invitingly at someone. In the frame next to her picture was one of Shelby.

  “Where did they get this picture?” She asked.

  “Does it matter? This is great. You look hot. This will put us on the map big time.”

  At that moment, it dawned on her that this had nothing to do with Aiden. She felt the awful color creep into her cheeks as that same truth dawned on Shelby.

  “Oh, no. You didn’t? You did? No, Cara, you idiot, the article is about the shop. More importantly, it’s about your secret cookie recipe. This New York critic apparently went crazy over them.”

  “Just a minute.” Cara sank down into her favorite chair and started scanning through the article before reading it aloud.

  “Ms. Bennett has a tempting little hit on her hands in the form of ‘Delicious.’ Her secret cookie recipe, which this critic cannot even begin to unravel, is almost as alluring as its creator. Cara Bennett, along with her associate, Shelby Edwards, are two reasons why they say things are hotter in Texas…’

  The cookie in question had come about by accident. Cara had been finishing a batch of her chocolate chip cookies late one night when she’d decided to get creative. Late at night was usually when her best creations had come about. The result was a mixture of chocolate chips, Texas Native pecans and her secret ingredient that nobody knew. Not even Shelby. In spite of all of the attempts by Shelby to find out the ing
redients.

  The following morning after Shelby had dubbed it almost as good as sex, Cara had jokingly called it ‘Delicious.’ Shelby had run with the idea. The cookie had become the trademark of the store. They were delicious. And a top seller, but she’d never imagined they’d catch this much attention.

  “Do you even remember this guy?” she asked Shelby who only shook her head.

  “No, but apparently you made quite an impression on him.”

  Cara stopped reading. “I’m not the only one. He makes us sound like…”

  “Yeah. Isn’t it wonderful? We’re hot.” Cara shook her head. Trust Shelby to like this type of publicity. She glanced back at the paper and continued reading.

  “The luscious Shelby is as hot as a Texas summer.” She looked up and caught Shelby’s smile. “But it’s the illusively, sultry Miss Bennett that steals the show. Like her cookie, she’s sweet on the outside, but don’t be fooled by all that innocence. Nobody with eyes that color is all innocence itself. I have a feeling Cara Bennett can be tempting to a man’s heart as she is to his stomach given half a chance. There are definitely two women living in that very attractive body.”

  “What’s this article supposed to be about?” It sounded like an advertisement you’d find in a guy’s magazine.

  “Who cares? It’s bringing in tons of business. The phone is going crazy. Everyone wants to know if we have a website. But I don’t want to talk about the article anymore. I want to hear about you and Aiden.”

  She threw Shelby a look. That was the last thing she wanted to talk about with Shelby. As Cara continued to read, she remembered Miranda mentioning a write up in a ‘little New York rag’ about the store. At the time she’d been too worried about Miranda’s reaction to finding out she’d slept with Aiden to put much question into it.

  “Delicious is worth braving the Texas heat. This little, out-of-the-way shop was an oasis to this critic right from the start. From its smoldering little name, to its ‘come hither’ lovely, leading ladies, to its secret recipe that I’d do just about anything to discover, Delicious is destined to fulfill .”