by Maggie Way
Tonya had planned out the sculpture in her mind. Baking chocolate for the last couple of years and helping Dezrah with her own chocolate café had taught her a lot too. Since Dezrah’s shop had suffered for months with a lack of customers, it gave Tonya the chance to experiment with new designs. If she hadn’t chosen to bake, she probably would’ve loved to become an artist. Watching a multitude of colors and shapes collide to create something magnificent sounded like a dream.
She was still picturing masterpieces in her head when she finally got the kitchen. She wasn’t expecting to find Hudson in her preparation space. That brought her down from her high real quick.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. Her voice sounded hostile, even to her, but she was looking forward to the serenity of her kitchen.
He looked up from something he was fixing on the metal table. “I work here, so, obviously, I’m working.”
“We don’t need to meet the McKnights until later this afternoon. Why are you here so early?”
He smirked. “I could ask you the same thing.”
“I want to get a head start on the project. This is an important deal for us. I don’t want anything to go wrong.”
“That makes two of us.”
She tried her best to ignore how sexy he looked in an apron. He still had on his fancy business clothes underneath, but the apron wrapped around him so she could see the outline of his muscles underneath.
What was up with her? She wanted to rip his head open sometimes. Yet, she found herself lusting on him wearing an apron. The immediate thought of him being naked under the apron and having on nothing else messed with her mind. It messed with other parts of her, too, parts she couldn’t easily ignore.
“You okay?” He asked. “You look a little plush.”
She stormed past him and shrugged off her coat. “I’m fine.” I’ll be better if I don’t keep picturing you naked in my kitchen, she thought. Yes, she was being selfish by referring to it as her kitchen, but it was one of the only calming retreats she had. Now that he was there, she had to find a way to keep him out of her head.
“If you say so,” he said, his eyes studying her.
Tonya could feel them roam all over her body. She felt goose bumps all over her skin, she hated the way he made her feel uneasy. Not because she was uncomfortable, because mine kept flashing back the night together. He was looking at her the same way he had the night at the Christmas function that Gold & Smith had thrown for their Bluehaven opening night. It was meant to show the small Virginian town what they had to offer by opening their chocolate store there, and it was a success. She remembered tasting their chocolate samples and closing her eyes to savor it.
It also meant that Gold & Smith was going to be big competition for Dezrah’s Chocolate Café. Tonya had cozied up to Hudson in the name of getting to know the enemy.
What she didn’t expect was to sleep with him. It was also a night that was the most erotic one she ever had. No man had ever turned her body into complete mush with touches and kisses before. The next morning, he treated her like dirt and said he had a meeting to go to. He needed her to leave before he could do that. How could a man make her feel so amazing one moment and completely shitty the next?
Hud House, that’s who, and she was going to keep that name for him and his annoying ways.
“Try this,” Hudson said.
Before she could process his words, a piece of chocolate dangled in her mouth. She couldn’t stop an eye roll “I can feed myself.”
“I know,” he said. “You can do a lot of things yourself. Just humor me.”
She thought about arguing more, but she sighed instead and opened her mouth. He took his time letting her bite it, and his fingers brushed her lips.
Hudson didn’t pull his fingers back right away, and she could feel his eyes lingering on her lips as she chewed.
He popped the remaining piece of chocolate into his mouth and chewed along with her. “What do you think?”
She had been so busy watching him feed her and then himself that she completely forgot to actually taste what he gave her. That was when she realized the sweetness and smoothness that fills her mouth. And it looks like milk chocolate, but he had the remnants of white chocolate inside of it too.
“It’s good,” she said. “What is it?”
“A hybrid I’ve wanted to try out. I mixed milk chocolate and white chocolate together along with my secret ingredient.”
She chuckled. “Are you serious? Secret ingredient? You do know we work for the same company now, right?”
“What? A baker can’t have his secrets?”
“Whatever. Why did you want me to try it?”
“I think we should use this for the McKnight sculpture.”
“You know I’m the one who cooks, right? You just handle the business side of things. The meeting is all you. You can handle it and go crazy all you want, but I’m the one who does the chocolate making. We need to get this straight now before they arrive.”
“Just because I’m a good businessman doesn’t mean I can’t get my hands dirty in the kitchen sometimes. This isn’t just your kitchen. We share the space. I thought were at a truce.”
“We were. We are. I just need to have my own space to work in. It’s hard to do that with you hovering around me.”
“You need to get used to me being here, Tonya. I’m not going anywhere.”
She washed her hands in the big sink thoroughly and didn’t look at him. It was hard not to at least glance his way as she grabbed her apron and started prepping the ingredients she put together in her head days before learning he would be helping her, or more like helping himself. She could still feel his eyes on her.
“You still didn’t tell me what you thought.” His voice lingered and softened.
“About what?” she asked, still trying not to look at him.
“My chocolate. What did you think about it?”
“It was okay.” There was no way she was going to stroke his ego and tell him how good she thought it really was. He so did not deserve that.
“Just okay? That’s all you’re going to give me?”
“What else do you want me to say?”
“Look, I apologized for treating you so badly. It was a fucked up thing to do. I thought we could move past it and do something extraordinary here. I mean, you’re one of the best bakers I have ever been around. I was really looking forward to working with you today.”
His compliment threw her off, and she finally looked over at him. “You think I’m good?”
That smile of his immediately came back and made him look irresistible. “Not just good. We don’t hire good. We hire the best. It’s a Gold & Smith standard.”
“Is that so?”
“You bet.” He placed his hand on her arm and turned her to face him. “Listen, I want this to work. I have a few ideas that I think would be good to try. Why don’t we both create a set of samples, you do the ones that you want, and I’ll do the ones that I want. That way we can give them choices when they get here. Better to be safe than sorry.”
She couldn’t argue with his reasoning. It would allow both of them to work without distracting the other.
“Fine, but you still on your side of the kitchen and I’ll stay on my side. I don’t want you ruining my cooking vibe.”
He chuckled. “I definitely wouldn’t want to ruin your vibe.”
He said it so seductively that it made her shiver just a little. She wasn’t going to think about that. They’d tried that, and it didn’t work out. Okay, there was never really time to try anything, but she wasn’t going there. This was a professional relationship only nothing more.
It didn’t matter how good he looked in an apron. She wasn’t going to fall for his charms twice.
Chapter Four
Hudson
“Is this the best you can do?” The woman’s voice squeaked so loud that Hudson did his best to not cringe. “I thought you guys were one of the most prestigious ch
ocolate companies on the East Coast.”
“We are definitely a top-rated company, Miss McKnight,” Hudson said. “We always make sure customers are satisfied with our products.”
“Well, I’m definitely not satisfied. These all look dreadful.” Arianna McKnight and her mother looked at their chocolate samples like they’d presented them with dog food instead of premium quality chocolate from the finest cocoa beans in the world.
Hudson snuck glances over to Tonya. He could see the muscles tensing underneath her quiet demeanor, and that was bad. Tonya was never the quiet type. He thought she would explode any minute. The last thing they needed was for Tonya to do something rash like throw chocolate at their clients, although even he would pay to see that right about now. Just because the bride and her mother were rich didn’t give them the right to be snobs.
Was he ever like that? Sure he grew up in a wealthy home, but he refused to use his parents’ money or influence for himself. Not that his background stopped others from using it.
He worked hard in business school and earned half the funds that helped him and Austin launch their company. Austin made the chocolate, and Hudson handled the logistics, but Hudson had always wanted to be on the creative side of the business too.
He had a minor in art, and the artsy bug stuck with him. His loft was filled with pieces he couldn’t live without that inspired him. Art that reminded him to take pause every once in a while and appreciate how much his and Austin’s hard work had paid off.
Apparently, the McKnights didn’t know how to appreciate hard work. Money didn’t mean they needed to be rude. The thing that upset him the most was how bad they made Tonya feel for the effort she put into the damn thing.
“I’m sorry you’re disappointed,” Hudson said. “But we didn’t have much to go on. Only that you wanted something lavish and exciting. Maybe if we knew exactly what you wanted for your sculpture, we would be able to deliver it.”
“I shouldn’t have to tell you what I want,” Arianna said. “You should be able to show me exactly what I want without me having to tell you.”
Great. The woman wanted mind readers instead of chocolate makers.
“Keep in mind that these are just small replicas of what the big one will look like,” Hudson said. “Your sculpture will be twenty times bigger than these. But we need to know that you are comfortable with the designs first.”
“I’m not comfortable with any of these poor excuses for wedding pieces. I’ll give you a few more days, but if you can’t get this right by Monday, I’ll find someone else who can complete a creative vision without me having to instruct them the entire way through it.” Arianna shot up from her seat. “Let’s go, mother.”
Mrs. McKnight stared down at me before turning to Tonya. “My husband is on the Bluehaven town council. If you ruin my daughter’s wedding, he’ll make it really difficult for you to find another opportunity like this.”
“Then we’ll have to make sure not to ruin it then,” Hudson said, not caring if he sounded sarcastic.
The woman huffed and followed her daughter out of the kitchen.
He waited for the front door to slam before turning to Tonya.
“What an evil hag!” Tonya said, seething.
“Which one?” Hudson asked.
Tonya looked at him and then they both laughed.
“They’re both awful,” she said.
“Sadly, they can make this town a living hell for us, too,” he said looking at the discarded chocolate.
It was his fault. He should have known the McKnights would be problematic when Arianna said she wanted them to surprise her. That had been a disaster waiting to happen. Now, he had to do damage control, or one unsatisfied bride was going to ruin their reputation in Bluehaven, maybe in the entire state of Virginia, just because she didn’t like her chocolate centerpiece.
“She actually made me despise this kitchen,” Tonya said. “I didn’t think that was possible.”
“Maybe we need to get out of it to find a solution.”
“What do you mean?”
“We can use my place. I have a huge kitchen, two industrial ovens, a refrigerator humans could fit in, and a layout with the works. Maybe we just need a change of scenery.”
“And your place is the change?”
“Why not?”
“It’s ridiculous, that’s why. We have everything we need right here.”
“Yet, the customer wasn’t impressed.”
“So your solution is to spend all weekend cooped up in your place, and, what? Have some chocolate building marathon?”
He couldn’t keep the teasing out of his voice. “All weekend? I meant a day, but that works too.”
“That’s crazy.”
The idea of having Tonya back in his loft wasn’t a crazy thing at all. If he was honest with himself, he thought about her even more now that they started working together. That beautiful body of hers looked like perfection in his bed, and he remembered it well. He wouldn’t mind having her there again, but he’d blown it. He had a chance and missed it, but maybe this was the opening he needed to show her he wasn’t a complete self-absorbed jerk.
“Do you have a better idea?” he asked.
He watched her bite the side of her lower lip as she thought about it. He had an urge to bite that lip himself. Hell, he wanted to see if she tasted as great as he imagined. He had a feeling it’d be better. Better than chocolate.
“I don’t know, Hudson,” she said.
At least she didn’t call him Hud House again, which had to be some progress.
He shifted a little closer to her. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
“Said the kidnapper to his victim.” She grinned and leaned against the counter.
Hudson was mesmerized by the outline of her hips, parts of her he hadn’t gotten his hands on since months before. Damn, he was an idiot for letting her walk away angry. Maybe this was the chance he needed to get her to trust him.
“Is it a bad thing for me to want to steal you away?”
“Depends on what your motives are.”
“Business,” he said. He didn’t realize he had moved closer to her. She was like a magnet pulling him in, and he was okay with being consumed by her.
“What? No pleasure?” she asked.
“Are you offering?”
She leaned in a little then caught herself. “Nope. Business only. I don’t want to ruin this for Dezrah and Austin. They’re counting on us to come through for them.”
“Agreed. Business only.” He said it, but he was hoping to change her mind by the end of the weekend.
Chapter Five
Tonya
Tonya swore she would never step foot back inside Hudson’s loft, not after the way he’d treated her. So why was she almost eager as she rode the freight elevator up to the top floor?
The man infuriated her to no end. Pushed all the wrong buttons, but every once in a while, when they did cross paths, she caught herself staring at him. She didn’t see him that much, so her eyes usually stayed on him whenever he entered a room. Something was seriously wrong with her, because even after all their arguing, she still thought he was one of the most handsome men she ever met.
What was with him that made her want to smack him one minute and then long for him to brush up against her the next? She remembered the hard plains of his body contrasting with the softness of hers. They melded well physically. It was everything else that was the problem.
How could she be so attracted to the one man who made her crazier than a chocolate addict?
When the elevator stopped, Tonya lifted the gate and stepped into the loft space. She expected Hudson to be there, but he was nowhere in sight.
“Hello?” she called out.
“Be out in a minute,” he said. It came from the side she remembered the bedroom was located.
Of course, she thought. Probably still staring at himself in the mirror.
The loft looked different since the last time she w
as there. Before it was almost barren, except for the bed in Hudson’s bedroom, which she knew too well.
This time art lined the walls and a few sculptures rested on high pedestals with well-placed spotlights highlighting their features.
There was one sculpture that caught her eye. It was the head and bust of a woman, and the angle seemed to show both light and shadows evenly, giving it more depth than the others.
Tonya’s eyes stared at the life-like art piece. It was made of some type of white stone, maybe marble. The woman’s emotions were stilled in its figure, but there was something sensual in the way her lips parted, and her eyes were half-lidded. It was both beautiful and tragic. Tonya had never really been an art person, but something about the way this was carved made her wish she had paid more attention in art history class at college.
“Entrancing, isn’t she?”
Tonya jumped as Hudson moved next to her, but his arms steadied her by resting on her shoulders.
“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I’m fine. Just taking in your art collection.”
Tonya turned to face him, so he had to let go of her. She noticed Hudson’s wet hair and bare chest. He was fresh from a shower. He still had some water on his chest, and she felt her stomach and other parts of her twinge a little.
With blue jeans the only clothing concealing the rest of him, he looked like he was meant to be a part of the decor.
She had almost forgotten what that muscular chest looked like with a six-pack to make any grown woman pant and a happy trail of hair leading straight down to his—
“What do you think of it?” he asked.
He spoke words, but she had no clue what coherent structure they made.
“Huh?” She was in a Hudson daze. Damn him and that just-showered look.
