by Jamie Pope
She wanted to take back what she’d said. She wanted to submit to the passion he built up inside her because in that moment she had forgotten all the reasons she should stay away.
He hands grabbed the hem of her skirt, hiking it up to reveal her underwear. “No sex. I promise you. I just want to touch you. Say you trust me.”
She nodded, not caring if she trusted him or not. She wanted to feel his hands on her that badly.
“I need to hear you say it.”
“I trust you.”
“Good.” He leaned down and gave her one long scorching kiss as he pulled off her underwear.
She was wet. She could smell the arousal in the air. Chase just knelt back and looked at her. She must have been a sight with her hair standing wildly all over her head, her skirt hiked up and her legs open to him. “Just so damn beautiful,” he said as he exhaled.
He touched her between her legs, stroking the length of her, slipping his long thick finger inside of her. Her toes curled then. Her heart beat faster and she looked up at him, waiting impatiently for what he would do next.
He shifted his body again and she thought he was going to lower himself on top of her but he didn’t. He settled his head between her legs, looking up at her once before he dipped his head and licked the place that throbbed for him.
She gasped, surprised that he did that and astounded at how amazing it felt. Steven had never done this to her, for her. He took and took and took and never gave. But Chase was giving to her and it was one hell of a present. He worked his tongue in connection with his fingers, bringing her right to the edge and backing her down. He was driving her insane and she could feel herself writhing against him and panting out his name. She forgot to be quiet. She forgot to temper her passion. She forgot to think.
He had that kind of effect on her.
“Please, Chase. Please.” She wasn’t sure what she was begging for. Release? For this to never end? Whatever it was, she couldn’t help crying out his name.
Whatever it was, he seemed to know and he sucked her nub into his mouth, causing an orgasm to take over her body. The world slipped from beneath her then and she felt as if she was falling through air.
It took a while for her to come back down, but when she did, Chase was sitting over her, a tight look on his face. She knew what he needed. To be soothed. To have his own release. She reached for him, but he backed away. “You can’t touch me. I made a promise to you and if you touch me, I’ll break it. I’m a man of my word.”
“It’s okay.” She held out her hand to him, but he walked away from her.
“I’m going to go now. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He walked out the door then.
But he still managed to surprise her because, when she walked outside the next day, he was waiting for her. He had come to take her to work.
Chapter 7
Chase could tell Amber was surprised to see him sitting on the steps of her porch the next morning. He had thought about her all night. He even saw her face in his dreams, and when he woke, his first thought was of her. But not those heated sexual thoughts that had kept him hard and wanting her all night. He remembered that she didn’t have a car.
He was glad for the excuse to be here—now that he had tasted her, he knew he needed to have all of her.
“Good morning,” she said with her eyes still wide. “You’re here.”
He stood up and looked at her. She wore a black shirt and a denim skirt that showed off her shapely legs and a pair of brightly colored flats. He felt his groin twitch. The memory of her lying on the couch, her skirt bunched up at her waist, entered his mind again. “You still don’t have a car and I noticed that you are kind of far from public transportation.”
“It’s just a few blocks or so.”
“Eleven.”
“Good exercise. I need to work off all that dinner we ate yesterday. Thank you, by the way. I don’t know if I told you that. For the ride. For dinner. For...dessert.”
He grinned at her. “Are we going to talk about that? About...dessert?”
“There’s nothing to talk about. It was just one friend doing a very nice favor for another.”
“Oh. Is that what we’re going to call it?”
She nodded. “That’s what we’re going to call it.”
“Okay then.” He stepped forward, slid his hand into her thick curls and kissed her. She placed her hand over his, shut her eyes and let herself be kissed. He was glad they were standing outside on her porch. He was glad that she had to be to work in a few minutes because, if she hadn’t, he would have tumbled her into bed and not let her out until dinnertime.
“Chase,” she groaned with her eyes half closed.
“I’m sorry, Amber, but I’m going to kiss you like that every day until you tell me it’s okay to do more.”
She looked into his eyes for a moment and he knew that there must be a million thoughts going through her head, but he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. She just nodded and said, “Let’s go to work.”
They arrived at work a few minutes later and for a moment he was tempted to linger behind and let her walk in alone, but he didn’t care who saw them walk in together. Not even Mariah, who was behind the counter placing a fresh tray of Draynuts, her invention of croissant-doughnuts, beneath the glass. “Well, good morning, you two.”
Chase couldn’t help but note the curious look in his sister’s eyes and, unlike with Amber, he knew exactly what she was thinking.
What the hell are you doing with my friend?
“Hey, girl,” Amber said as she clocked in behind the counter. “You know my car broke down again. I came back here yesterday to ask you for a ride, but you had already left. I had to ask Chase to take me to the community center.”
Amber was smart, cutting his sister off at the pass so that she didn’t have anything to say. He liked that.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I cannot believe your car broke down again! You should really think about getting a new one. I don’t want to hear someday that you got stranded alone in the middle of the night.”
“I love my little bug and I can’t afford a new car. I’m not even sure I can afford the repairs on this one.”
“What can’t you afford?” Jackson walked in from the back, wearing expensive jeans and a T-shirt that seemed to be his uniform lately. He wrapped his arm around Amber in a way that would seem intimate to anybody. Chase knew that was just how Jackson was, and yet seeing his brother with his arm wrapped around her made him want to knock him on his head.
“A new car. Mine broke down again. Your brother was nice enough to give me a ride.”
“I thought I saw you leaving here last night with Chase. I thought it was for a good reason, but I should have known it wasn’t with my brother.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Amber asked, seeming curious.
“You’re fine, Amber. If Chase was smart he would have taken you out. He would have wined and dined you, but if my brother is too stupid to do it, I will. Let me take you out. I’ll show you a good time.”
Chase reached over and smacked Jackson in the back of the head. “Watch yourself, little brother. Just because I’m good at math doesn’t mean I can’t kick your behind.”
“You hit me.” Jackson looked truly surprised. “Mariah, he hit me.”
“He did hit you. Stop being fresh with Amber. There are a million women in Seattle you can dip your fishing pole into. Why can’t you look outside the bakery?”
Chase knew Mariah had said that for his benefit, too, but he was the oldest, and he didn’t have to listen to her. “I’m going to conference in with the managers of the Chicago and LA branches of Lillian’s so we can get our heads around our next marketing strategy. I wanted to see what worked for them and what didn’t, so we can plan our next move. I would like both
of you there when I speak to them.”
“I’ll be there,” Mariah said. “Jackson and I have been conferring on some new recipes. He wants to expand the menu and offer different specialty items each month. I’m leaning toward doing a few things well to ensure quality.”
“Both are valid points. Amber, what do you think?”
“Me?” She pointed to herself.
“Yes, you. You manage our coffee café. We would like your input.”
“I think they are both great ideas. What about rolling out one specialty bakery item a month in conjunction with a specialty coffee drink? We could do some seasonal things that aren’t done at the other Myers stores.”
“We could call it dessert pairings or something to that effect,” Jackson said. “Like wine pairings but sweet. What kind of flavors were you thinking of?”
“Summer is coming. I was thinking of doing some frozen drinks and really playing with our iced coffee flavors. Like ice-cream-flavored coffees. I think I could be successful in making a cookies-and-cream flavored iced coffee.”
“I like that.” Jackson nodded. “I have been thinking of doing a cookies-and-cream brownie with a ganache icing. What do you think, Mariah?”
“I like the idea, too. We can also do a more chocolaty version. With fudge and a cookie right in the middle as sort of a filling.”
Chase watched as the ideas sprung from his siblings. They talked about catchy names and flavors, their creativity blooming before him. He envied them. He didn’t have that, but he had the focus to pull all the ideas together. “Amber, can you make a list of seasonal drinks and flavors and get that to me before the end of the week?”
“I can.”
“Jackson, Mariah, I would like you each to come up with twelve promotional products we can sell. They don’t have to be crazy creative but something we can do at not a lot of cost that we can upsell.”
“It won’t be a problem. Jackson has so many ideas it might be hard for us to narrow it down. You should hear some of the stuff he’s coming up with for his cupcake bite for Bite of Seattle.”
“Sweet potato cupcake with a marshmallow frosting,” Jackson said proudly. “Like having Thanksgiving anytime.”
“That actually sounds amazing, Jackson,” Amber said. “I would love to try one.”
“Me, too. I need Mariah’s help nailing down some of the flavors.”
“Your palate is better than mine, Jack. You just have to spend some time in the kitchen.” She looked at Chase. “How’s your cupcake idea coming?”
It wasn’t. His mind was completely blank when it came to an idea for his mini cupcake. “I’m thinking about it.”
“Okay.” Mariah didn’t look convinced. “Let me know and we can start playing around in the test kitchen.”
He nodded. “I have to start working.”
“Wait. I wanted us all to go out to dinner in a couple of days. We got a babysitter for EJ. Is everyone still free this week?”
Chase tried not to look at Amber, but he couldn’t help it. He would take her out to dinner every night this week if she would let him. She was protecting herself, keeping herself away from him even though the pull between them was so strong. If it were any other woman he would think that she was playing games. He wasn’t into games. He didn’t have time for them. But he knew that wasn’t what Amber was doing. He was going to have to work hard for her.
He welcomed the challenge, because he knew that the best things in life were the ones you worked the hardest for.
* * *
“Excuse me? How much is it going to cost?” Amber asked her mechanic for the second time. She wasn’t sure she had heard him correctly.
He repeated the price and she knew her hearing was fine, but her stomach had certainly taken a turn for the worse.
“Can you just give me a report of what needs to be fixed? I’m going to have it towed home.”
Thirty-six hundred dollars. She didn’t have thirty-six hundred dollars. She would never have that much money. She was doomed to take the bus forever.
She walked in through the back door of the bakery, her head running through the numbers, wondering if she had anything of value that she could sell for quick cash. But there was nothing. Nothing but the jewelry she made and that wasn’t quick cash. It would be another couple of weeks before she would get any money from the boutiques that were carrying her pieces.
“Hey.” She smashed into a hard chest and then felt strong hands grip her shoulders, steadying her. “Are you okay?”
She looked up to see Chase standing there, although she had known that it was Chase before her eyes had focused on his face. She had come to know his scent and for some reason she found it soothing. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not.” He shook his head, his eyes filled with more concern than she would like. “What’s wrong?”
“I...” She thought about brushing him off, but she couldn’t bring herself to. “I just got off the phone with my mechanic. It’s going to cost all my arms and legs to get it fixed.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“I think the list of what’s right with it is shorter. It needs new guts. I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”
She didn’t realize that she had rested her head on his chest until she felt his lips brush her forehead. “What can I do?”
“Nothing.” She wrapped her arms around him. “This is enough.”
She shut her eyes, allowing herself to completely relax into him. She couldn’t think of the last time she had leaned on anyone, the last time she felt comfortable enough to lean on anyone. “Is it wrong for me to be secretly glad that your car is not working? I’ve never looked forward to carpooling so much.”
She felt herself smiling. When he had dropped her off last night, that was it. She hadn’t invited him up. She hadn’t lingered any longer than she should have, and yet it didn’t stop the constant thoughts of him. It didn’t stop her from wishing that she wasn’t lying alone in her bed. It didn’t stop her from feeling unsatisfied when she woke up this morning. And it certainly didn’t stop her heart from lifting when she’d seen him waiting on her steps when she walked out of her building.
“Oh, excuse me,” she heard Mariah say. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No. I’m hugging your brother in the hallway in the back of your very busy bakery because I’m having a crappy day.”
“You could talk to me about your bad day.”
“I don’t want to talk. I just wanted to hug your brother.” She lifted her head to look at her friend. “We’re not sleeping together, Mariah. But if we ever do get to that point, I want you to be okay with it. And I want you to think that Chase and I would go into it with our eyes open and that we are both levelheaded enough to handle whatever comes our way.”
Mariah looked taken aback for a moment, but she nodded. “Of course. I trust you both. Can’t blame a girl for being curious, can you?”
“I blame your birth for most of the things that have gone wrong in my life,” Chase said with a smile as his sister’s eyes widened.
“You’re joking, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“Oh.” Mariah grinned at him. “If you’ve got a few minutes, Jackson wants us to try the cupcake recipes he’s been toying with.”
“You come, too, Amber.”
“Okay. I will.”
“We’ll be there in a moment,” Chase said, looking down at Amber. After Mariah’s heels clicked away, he spoke again. “I’m feeling the need to kiss you right now.” And then he did and then she got swept away for a moment, even though it was a soft, simple kiss.
He had that effect on her. He made her forget herself. He made her forget everything and that wasn’t good for her.
She broke the kiss. “I didn’t say I was going to s
leep with you, you know,” she said, trying to keep her voice light.
“I know, and I’m hoping you know that I don’t just want sex from you.”
He could get that from any woman. But he seemed to like her and she couldn’t figure out why. In the back of her head, she knew that the tiny bit of self-doubt was left over from Steven. He had tried to make her feel as if she was nothing without him. As though she couldn’t survive on her own. He had stripped little pieces of her away without her even noticing, and that scared her.
She’d thought she was stronger than that. And that’s why she was so afraid of Chase. He really was the type of man she could lose her heart to. It wasn’t easy to stay away from him when her body ached to be near his. It would be hard to keep him at arm’s length when all she wanted to be was close.
She could get firm. She could put her foot down, tell him that it was never going to happen, but she had started this. She had slid the coffee in front of him that night. She had come to him when her car broke down. She had invited him into her home that night. She had wrapped her arms around him.
“I would love to know what’s going on in that head of yours.”
“It’s a complicated mess.”
“Well, maybe I’m in the mood for complications.”
She swallowed hard. Chase Drayson was not going to leave her without taking a piece of her heart.
Chapter 8
“This place,” Amber said as she looked around Chase’s condo the next evening, “It makes my apartment look like a dingy little shoe box.”
Chase watched her wide eyes as she took it all in. He kind of felt a rush at seeing her in his space. With a small duffel bag in her hands. He wished she held it because she was planning to stay the night, but she had it for a much more innocent reason. They were all going out to dinner tonight and instead of her changing her clothes in the bakery bathroom he had invited her to do so here. He had to change anyway. He had read up on the restaurant that Jackson had picked for them, and he knew that it was a place where people dressed to impress.
