by Maggie Marr
He lifted his coat and his scarf dropped to the floor. Brinn reached for it, and as she stood, Tyler—gorgeous Tyler—was right in front of her. Sun-kissed hair that dared to retain shades of blond even in the dark of winter. Bright blue eyes that still held shadows of want. That square jaw and those damn lips. Lips that had traced down her neck. Heat fired between them. A desire they couldn’t fake.
In a split second, Tyler’s lips were on hers again, this time not tentative or seeking but with a solid passion and hard desire. Brinn kissed him back with the same urgency. Forget her belly fat. She wanted him and he wanted her. Brinn pressed the flat of her hand up under his Henley to the hard, well-muscled plane of his belly. Little electrical pulses shot through her fingertips. Her hand moved up the fine hairs on his belly to his chest.
Oh my God, his chest. Pure perfection. She pulled the Henley up and over his head. He stood in her living room without a shirt. She leaned back. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. That body.
Brinn was wet for him, and that was before his fingers pulled her sweater up and over her head. He slid his fingertips around to the back of her bra and opened the clasp, and her breasts fell free.
“Brinn, you’re gorgeous.” He pulled her tight bud of a nipple between his lips.
Heat seared through her, and a sharp breath rushed over her lips. Brinn’s head fell back as his mouth worked her nipple and his other hand slipped down the front of her pants and grazed her panties. Her hips arched forward. With one deft snap, her jeans were unbuttoned.
He walked her back to the couch and they both sank onto the soft material. She rested her head on the pillow, and he bent over her, his lips sucking her nipple while his other hand caressed her breast. Such pleasure. Such pleasure she hadn’t experienced in so long. His lips trailed across her chest to her other breast and pulled her nipple into his mouth. His hand unzipped her jeans and pulled them down over her hips, her knees, her legs.
She was nearly naked. Her entire body splayed out in front of Tyler. She fought the sudden urge to cover herself, to cross her arms over her breasts and her middle. She was so exposed. He was so beautiful and she was simply so…
“Brinn, you’re amazing.” Want filled Tyler’s eyes. Pure desire.
Her fear seeped away. His lips trailed over her belly and he rolled her panties down over her legs and tossed them on the floor. Brinn’s hips thrust upward. Tyler kissed along the edge of her mound, then down one thigh and up the other. His hand slid between her legs and gently parted them.
Her muscles tightened, and she squeezed her eyes shut. How could she do this? Why would Tyler want to do this? God, please let him do this. His tongue slid along the inner sensitive flesh of her thigh, and his finger trailed down her center.
She gasped, nearly unable to breathe.
“So hot. So wet. So beautiful.”
With his words, her whole body simply melted into the sensations of his mouth above her sex. His tongue slid along the side of her folds but had not yet touched her most sensitive spot.
Brinn’s hips pressed upward. She sought his mouth, his touch. Tyler pressed two fingers into her wet center. He slowly pulsed in and out of her sex. Pleasure coursed through her, but it wasn’t enough; she wanted his mouth on her. Her hands grasped his blond hair.
“Please, please,” Brinn begged.
A smile crossed Tyler’s face and his lips were on her. His tongue stroked her clit and traced circles along that sensitive spot. Her body trembled. A quiver started low in her back. Her sex squeezed around his pulsing fingers.
He pulled his lips from her. “Come for me, Brinn.”
With another stroke of his tongue upon her clit, she trembled, her entire body shook.
“Tyler!” Brinn convulsed and fell over the edge.
Chapter Nine
The third tower on the Christmas castle was built. Brinn climbed down from the ladder. Her hands clasped her hips and she examined the castle. Strong. Sturdy. Not yet beautiful, but soon. Decorating would begin in the next two days. She turned to Pieter.
“Thank you for helping today.” Her gaze bounced past Pieter to the giant glass doors of the Grande lobby.
There was Tyler.
Heat flooded through her body and her sex tingled. The memory of his mouth heated her blood. She closed her eyes for a split second and sank into the memory. His lips upon her lips. His tongue upon her sex. The earth-shattering feeling of falling over the edge.
He walked toward her. He was the type of man that men wanted to be friends with and women wanted to sleep with, and she was merely Brinn Bartoli. An average-looking baker from Powder Springs.
How was this happening to her?
“Hey.” The fresh scent of soap and mint wafted around him. He gripped her elbow and leaned forward and planted the sweetest kiss on her lips.
Brinn’s heart beat hard with surprise. She slid her eyes to the left and to the right. The lobby contained not only tourists but many locals from Powder Springs. If Ma hadn’t heard about Brinn’s date last night, she definitely would now.
“What?” He dropped her elbow. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s fine.” Brinn tugged at the bottom of her chef’s whites. “I’m just not used to being connected with someone. It’s been such a long time and—”
“You’re right. This is your workplace too, and you may not want—”
Brinn pressed her fingertips to Tyler’s lips. “It’s fine.” Brinn stood on her tippy toes and placed her lips to Tyler’s.
“I could do this all day.”
Heat thrilled through Brinn.
“How about dinner tonight? Maybe we stay in? Order Chinese?” Tyler looked hopeful.
“I’d love that.”
“You want to come to me or me come to you?”
Brinn tapped her fingertip to her lip. She wasn’t certain she wanted to go to Tyler’s yet. She didn’t want to confuse Charlotte, and while she really liked Tyler’s parents, spending an evening at their home while on a date with their son would feel strange.
“How about my place.” Brinn flipped her curls over her shoulder.
“Around eight?”
“Eight.” Alison would open the bakery tomorrow, and there was no baking on Sunday mornings.
“I’ve got documents waiting for me upstairs. I’ll see you at tonight.” Tyler turned toward the elevators, then stopped and turned back. “Nearly forgot. Mom wants to know if you’ll come to dinner next Thursday?”
Brinn rubbed her hands across her checkered kitchen pants. This had to be a dream. Tyler Emerson standing in the lobby of the Grande, kissing her and asking her to the Emerson family dinner?
Brinn nodded. “Of course.”
“Great.” A smile spread over his face. A smile that caused Brinn to tremble. She could hardly look at Tyler when his smile was that wide. Brinn lifted her hand and waved. Her gaze remained fixed on Tyler until he disappeared behind the elevator doors.
“You have a new friend.”
Brinn spun around.
Hans stood just beside her. His face wasn’t stern but serious. “A friend that is very smitten with you.”
“We’ve gone out once.” Brinn picked up a frosting bag. She would go over the seams of the third tower just to be certain it was sound.
“That is the Emerson man, Tyler? No?”
“Yes.” Brinn stepped up the ladder.
“He is very handsome. His daughter is very beautiful. His ex-wife”—Hans shook his head—“she was very horrible.”
An oily feeling climbed through Brinn’s belly with the mention of Charlize. She didn’t have many memories of the Powder Springs homecoming queen. Charlize had been an ice princess who really didn’t care for anyone other than herself.
“Why do you say that?” Part of her wanted to know.
“She worked here, for one summer, in college. You would not know this.”
When she left for San Francisco and culinary school after graduating h
igh school, Brinn hadn’t returned for nearly three years.
“She was a most unpleasant worker. We did not invite her back.” Hans said no more than that. He did not warm up to people easily. The flip side of that trait was that generally he didn’t dislike people either. He didn’t waste his time with the luxury of intense emotion. “Surely this comes as no surprise to you? You were in school with her. You must have witnessed some of this unpleasant behavior.”
Yeah, sure. Charlize had been cold in high school, but they’d traveled in such different circles that Brinn hadn’t been the recipient of Charlize’s unkindness. Deborah, Brinn’s sister, had been around Charlize and her friends. Even though Brinn’s sister was two years behind Brinn and Charlize, Deborah had often, due to her social status, beauty, and popularity, gotten invited to parties thrown by Charlize’s crowd.
Brinn couldn’t ask Deborah about Charlize. She didn’t want to appear that desperate to her family. Ma and Deborah would already have plenty to say when they discovered that Brinn and Tyler were dating. None of their words would feel supportive or helpful.
“He would be lucky to have a woman such as you.” Hans clasped his hands behind his back and rolled forward on his feet. He didn’t smile, but he raised one eyebrow and a twinkle lit in his eyes. “Any man should be so lucky to be with Miss Brinn Bartoli.”
*
“Home for dinner tonight?” Mom set a stack of clean shirts on Tyler’s dresser. He pulled his body up and rolled his shoulders back. His neck muscles were tight. He’d hunched over the drafting table for hours looking at the boundaries for the new land for the Grande project.
“Mom, I love you for doing my laundry, but you really don’t have to. I can do Charlotte’s and mine and even yours and Dad’s.”
“Gives me something to keep busy. Charlotte’s napping and I wanted to do it. Next load is yours. So, dinner tonight?”
“I’m going to Brinn’s.” Mom greeted his words with a smile. “Once Charlotte goes to bed.”
“Is Brinn coming to dinner this week?”
“She said yes.” He scrubbed his hand over his hair. “Are we sure having her over for the family dinner is a good thing?”
Carol tilted her head. “Those are your brothers. How could you possibly deny them the opportunity to embarrass you in front of the girl you’re dating?”
Tyler cracked a smile at his mother’s joke. “Right, and I respect that my brothers get to embarrass me. All I’m asking is does it have to happen so soon? Maybe we wait a while? Give Brinn a couple of weeks to really fall for me before we expose her to everything that is Breck and Kent.”
“You forgot about Chuck.”
“Chuck’s married and pretty well tamed. Katherine keeps him on a tight leash. Not nearly as worried about him as I am the other two.”
“Brinn’s known your brothers a long time. She’s been exposed to them for nearly as long as you have. I don’t think she’ll be too surprised. As for the two that remain unleashed? They’ve both called me asking what’s going on with you and Brinn. You may not make it to next week before you hear from them. You and Brinn were spotted last night on Main and then kissing at the Grande today.”
“We weren’t kissing.” Tyler rolled his eyes. “I had to stop by the Grande and get some paperwork.”
“Paperwork that couldn’t wait until Monday.”
“Got me a date for tonight.”
“You’re smart like your father. He used to pull the same types of tricks that I didn’t even know were tricks until well after we married.”
“Can’t just rely on the Emerson good looks and charm.” He tapped his temple. “Gotta use the old brain to impress a girl like Brinn.”
“Daddy?”
Charlotte rounded the corner, rubbing sleep from her eyes and pulling her pink wubby blanket behind her.
“There’s my girl.” Tyler lifted Charlotte into his arms. She cuddled her face into his neck. “How’d you sleep?” The soft, milky scent of sleep and her warm little body pressed against him. “I have something for you.” Tyler walked to his dresser and picked up one of the gingerbread castles wrapped in cellophane and tied with a brilliant red bow. “Brinn made that for you.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened and she sat straight up. She examined the gingerbread cookie through the cellophane wrapper. Pink and purple sugar sparkles and silver icing decorated the cookie. Pearlescent white beads lined the edges. Even a princess with long, curly blond hair leaned out from the window at the top of the tower.
“A princess.” Charlotte breathed out with wonder and excitement. “The pretty lady made me a princess.”
“She told me to bring you by next week to see the castle again because it will look more like a castle.”
Charlotte smiled and met her father’s eyes. Tyler’s heart melted. Her pleasure, her joy, Charlotte’s happiness meant everything to him.
“Come on, bug. I have some milk to go with that cookie.” Carol reached her arms toward Charlotte.
“Grandma, we can’t eat the cookie.”
“Then what shall we do with it?” Carol asked with great seriousness.
“Let’s hang it on the tree.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Carol turned toward Tyler’s bedroom door. “I have some other cookies you can have with milk, okay?”
Charlotte nodded. The two walked out of the room, and Tyler settled into his chair. He had more work he wanted to finish before he took Charlotte for a walk and a swing at the park. They might even build a snowman in the front yard. His phone beeped. He grabbed it and flipped it over. A text from Kent, his younger brother.
Pool tonight?
Busy.
I bet you are. Tomorrow night at seven.
Tyler shook his head. His brothers would not be denied. He surrendered.
Done.
He wasn’t going to escape the teasing of his brothers until the family dinner. Better to get their harassment out of the way sooner rather than later. By the time the family dinner rolled around next Thursday, maybe they’d behave better since they would’ve already teased Tyler. At least he could hope.
Chapter Ten
Avoiding Ma on a Saturday wasn’t tough. Brinn stayed at the Grande and worked on the Christmas castle. Then she lingered in the kitchen, talking with Hans and Edgar about the upcoming week’s work and how she guessed they’d be finished a half day before the official ribbon cutting. At the end of the day, Brinn slipped into the back of Bea & Barbara’s, pretty certain that Ma had already left so she could pick up Nonna from her book club’s Christmas luncheon. Ma’s car wasn’t out back.
Brinn took a deep breath and slipped off her coat. She lifted the ancient clipboard Ma still used to track orders in and deliveries out of the bakery. Another bit of the bakery that Brinn had yet to convince Ma needed to be changed. A computerized order system was needed, and yet Ma didn’t agree. Brinn walked to the giant stand-up mixer. There were more cookies to be made. She poured in fifteen cups of flour, the eggs, the sugar, and turned on the mixer, which folded the ingredients.
The scent of Chanel No. 5 and the poke of a finger into Brinn’s shoulder informed her she’d not dodged Ma.
“Brinn, a word.”
Brinn flinched and her head dropped forward. She followed Ma into her office like a bread thief on the way to the guillotine. Ma’s office wasn’t much bigger than a coat closet, but they both squeezed in, and Ma sat at her desk while Brinn sat in the one worn chair beside the door.
“What’s this I hear about you and Tyler Emerson?” Ma’s brows pulled tight and her head tilted to the side. There was no joy in her eyes. For a woman who had desperately wanted Brinn to date, Ma seemed unhappy about Brinn dating Tyler. “Kissing at the Grande? Holding hands on Main Street?” Ma looked away and jutted her chin. “Not even having the courtesy of mentioning any of this to me, your mother. I have to hear it on the street, at a luncheon full of old birds? Even your grandmother knows more than I do. Said she was there the first time he asked y
ou out.”
Brinn’s neck heated and cold film of perspiration covered her hands.
“It’s nothing serious.”
“Serious enough for him to waltz into the Grande while you’re working and plant a kiss on your lips.” Ma pressed her fingertips along the edge of the desk and then dusted the surface with her palm. She didn’t look at Brinn. Her eyebrows were pulled high and her jaw tight. Her nostrils flared and her gaze finally met Brinn’s. “Not exactly how I want my daughter to be known in town.”
With each word, Brinn’s shoulders hunched forward. She was a grown woman, and yet her mother’s displeasure could sink her into a state of near-adolescent silence. How was that possible? Why was that possible? Brinn took a deep breath. She rolled her shoulders back and kept her face soft but her eyes firm. “Ma, who I date isn’t any of your business.”
Ma’s head whipped back toward Brinn and her mouth dropped open. But she fought back the words that Brinn knew she wanted to say.
“I’m a grown woman and who I choose to see has nothing to do with you.”
“Maybe in San Francisco, but have you forgotten that Powder Springs is a small town? Who you see, how you behave, what we do in public has a direct impact on our business. You represent the Bartoli family when you’re in public. How do you not know this? Your father and I drilled that into you and your sister.”
“Maybe a little too much drilling.”
Ma’s features flattened out into a softer look, and she leaned forward the tiniest bit. “Brinn, I just don’t want what happened to you before to happen to you again.”
“Tyler isn’t Marco.”
“I’m not comparing Tyler to Marco. There’s no comparison, no reason to believe that Tyler is that type of man. Look at how he cares for Charlotte.” Ma’s fingertips pulled her locket to the left and then the right, and her eyes darted from Brinn to the calendar on her desk. “It’s just…” She paused as though she didn’t know how to say her next words, didn’t want to say the next words. Her hesitation held so much meaning. Finally her gaze met Brinn’s. “It’s just that Tyler and Charlize…” Ma’s words drifted away. “There is a type of woman that Tyler seems to find appealing and…”
