by Danica Avet
She’d done it all innocent-like, as though she just so happened to think about it while they were unloading the boat. He hadn’t missed Colette’s big, honking hint to learn how to delegate responsibilities. And now was the time to put them into motion.
All because Colette had so casually mentioned how well their company ran because the burden was shared. Willis handled the swamp tours, her Uncle Frog took care of maintaining all the vehicles and promotions for the business, while her Uncle Tudu did the finances. They weren’t rich, but they were well content with the way things were going. Colette was being groomed for the tours, had been working them with her father since she graduated from college, while her cousins Cotton and Beau would split the finances and other duties. It was a family business they wanted to stay in the family forever, but not run the family the way Zach’s baker and catering service had run his life.
“What’s the point in working for it if you never have time to enjoy it?” she’d asked as she licked her spoon clean. “Don’t get me wrong, I think you need to keep workin’ on makin’ new recipes and stuff, but you’re gonna kill yourself if you don’t pace yourself.”
He turned to the shifter staring at him as though he’d grown a second head. “You’re my right hand in the bakery, Emily. You’ve worked for me without much complaint, putting up with my temper and you’ve proven to be one hell of a baker. I want you to take over the day-to-day operations at the bakery.” He smiled, amazed at how much lighter he already felt. “And you’re getting a ten-percent wage increase as well as a share in the profits at the end of the year.”
When she hit the floor in a dead faint, Zach rubbed the back of his neck with a frown. He needed to work on his delivery. But he still reached for his phone and called down for Dwayne Paulsen, telling the cougar shifter to make his way upstairs. May as well dole out the shock all at once.
Chapter Fourteen
The dark, decadent chocolate hit her tongue, followed by heat that sank into her bones. Colette reached up to grab Zach by his hair, forgetting he’d tied her hands to the legs of his stainless-steel worktable. He kissed her, the taste of Zach and bitter chocolate going straight to her head like a drug. Only his lips touched her, but she swore she felt him all over, the warmth of his body bathing her naked skin.
When she’d arrived at his apartment, stomach fluttering with shy excitement and arousal, Zach had swooped down on her like an avenging angel. She’d barely managed to squeak out a hello before she found herself pinned against the door, her pants around her ankles and his cock powering into her. She shivered at the reminder of how he’d thrust into her over and over as though he wanted to be a part of her. They’d both come loudly and with a wet rush that made her thankful his apartment was above the now-closed bakery. Otherwise, everyone would’ve known what they were doing.
They’d eaten at the table, both naked as the day they were born, but it hadn’t seemed like a big deal. He’d fed her fried alligator and creamy white beans, spooning the deliciousness into her mouth. The tiger cooked as well, if not better, than her own mother, a feat very few ever managed. He’d made sure she was nearly full before he ate. As though her care came first with him. It’d left her feeling shy and a little breathless, but he hadn’t taken his eyes off her.
Then he surprised her with dessert. Colette had imagined his infamous Triple Decadence Chocolate cake. What she hadn’t expected was for him to make her the dessert. Which was how she found herself tied to his table with thick chocolate and caramel swirls all over her body.
“Mm,” he said as he pulled away from the kiss, lapping at her lips like a lazy cat. “You taste better than anything I’ve ever made.” His mouth moved down her throat, stopping a moment to suck at her pulse before he nibbled his way to her left breast. Swirling his tongue around the hard peak, he gathered the sticky sweet he’d left to warm against her skin. “Delicious.”
Her entire body flushed with pleasure at his compliment even as she shook her head. “I don’t know. Those apple caramel cookies you make are pretty damn good,” she blurted the first thing that came to mind. How did you respond to a man saying you tasted better than his desserts? By deflecting the attention away from her on to something else.
Except it backfired on her.
His tongue stopped and his lustful face appeared over hers. “Apple caramel cookies?” he asked with a frown. “I haven’t made those since last year when they didn’t sell well.”
If there was one thing Colette hadn’t wanted, it was for Zach to find out exactly how long she’d crushed on him. She hadn’t lied to him earlier that day when she said she’d wanted him from the moment she saw him, she just hadn’t wanted him to realize she’d first seen him a year before. So instead of answering him, she lifted her head and kissed him, tasting caramel and Zach, which was way better than cookies.
One of his hands found its way to her thigh, where they were splayed at the edge of the table. Her entire body quivered from that simple contact. She knew what he was capable of giving her and she needed it like she needed her next breath. But while his hand slid up the tender length of her thigh, he didn’t touch her suddenly drenched cunt. His fingers played high on her leg, the back of his hand tickling the trimmed hair covering her mound, teasing her.
“Colette,” he said in that deep, rumbling voice. “Have you been to my shop before? Without your family?”
She opened her mouth to say something along the lines of, “I really can’t remember,” but the evil man proved himself to be an interrogator of the sneaky, sexy kind. When she would’ve hedged on the truth, he stroked his fingers along her slick lips, gathering moisture and skirting her aching clit. Her breath caught, trapped by his gaze. He stared down at her with all the patience of a skilled hunter, the tiger obviously determined to know.
“I remember my kitchen assistant talking about some of our regular internet customers,” he remarked casually, although his fingers were very deliberate as they played at her entrance, teasing her with the promise of penetration. “And she always wondered why someone from Bayou Ange would have desserts shipped to them instead of picking it up themselves.” He slid one lean finger inside her tight entrance, curling it to tap her G-spot. Colette twitched, muscles tight with the need to clamp her legs together, holding his hand to her. But there was no moving. He’d tied her down too well. “I never thought of it much until now,” he mused as he pumped his finger inside her, adding a second one when her channel relaxed. “I bet if I pulled up the database, I’d see your address, wouldn’t I?”
He did something, stroked harder, or was it softer? She couldn’t even tell and didn’t care as long as he continued. Her back arched off the table, her limbs straining the limits of her tethers, head thrashing as tortuous pleasure tore through her, stealing her breath, the buildup almost more than she could bear.
And then it stopped.
Colette’s mouth opened in shock as she was left hanging. Zach stared down at her, a smile playing around his sensuous lips as though he knew exactly what he was doing. “Fils de putain,” she snapped at him, the insult bouncing off him as though it meant nothing. He even beamed at her.
“Now that wasn’t very nice,” he teased. “Would I find your address in my database, Colette? I’ll finish what I started if you tell me.”
She squirmed, embarrassed and turned-on and frustrated, but she knew she wasn’t going anywhere for a while. Not until he let her go. Her heart leapt at the thought, her body going liquid with the realization that she was at his mercy. And the dark, dangerous glint to his eyes suggested he had none.
She bit her lip to keep from responding. God, was she sick? Did she actually want him to torture her with pleasure? Yes, yes she did. She loved everything he did to her, even when it was this, her body soaking up every ounce of pleasure he gave her like the soil after a drought.
And he didn’t disappoint. He went to work on her again, his face disappearing from view, but a peek downward showed Zach pulling a chair up to th
e table, seating himself right between her spread legs. Her heart hopped up her esophagus when he looked at her, gold eyes gleaming with dangerous mischief.
“No,” she breathed even as her pussy grew slick at the implied threat. “You wouldn’t.”
The smile he sent her was lethal and then she couldn’t see it at all because he proved he would. Very well.
Colette’s cries echoed in his ears, her harsh breathing rasped along his nerve endings. And still he didn’t stop. He wouldn’t until she told him what he wanted to know, what his heart told him was fact. In his mind, he remembered her talking smack about his cakes, his desserts. The tiger rumbled with barely suppressed humor. It liked how sassy she was, enjoyed the thought of pleasuring her until she confessed. The sweet scent of her arousal and the salty tang of her cream told him how much she enjoyed it as well.
He lapped at her cunt, burrowing through her slit until he reached her clit. And purposely bypassed it. She twitched, the muscles of her legs straining. She babbled in Cajun French, curses and pleas, but she didn’t tell him what he wanted to know. Zach smiled against her soaked sex, eyes closing as he toyed with her, fucking her with his tongue. It wouldn’t be enough to make her come, but it would make her hotter, wetter. And he was proved correct when his forays were met with more moisture.
“Tell me you liked my desserts,” he rumbled against her pussy, knowing the vibration of his voice would add to her torment. “Tell me you want me to cook for you again, Colette.”
She panted, strained some more, her beautiful body gracing his table like the finest of desserts. “No.”
“Tell me,” he insisted, wrapping his lips around her hard clit and suckling just enough to make her screech. “Tell me.”
She shook her head, her body glistening with sweat. If anyone had told Zach he’d purposely tie a woman to his worktable, one of his sacred, sterile surfaces and torment her there, he would’ve looked at them as though they were crazy. But the minute he’d tempted her with the ties, had seen the shy excitement on her face at the thought of being helpless, he’d shrugged and tossed her on top of his table. It could be cleaned and since she was the only woman who’d ever graced it, he didn’t mind at all.
He twisted his fingers in her tight sheath, pumping them as he worked her clit, scraping it with the edge of his fangs. And she went tense around him.
“Yes,” she sobbed. “Yes, I do, yes. Now please let me come.”
He didn’t waste time with a triumphant grin. His balls hurt too much for that. Instead, he grabbed one of the condoms he’d thrown on the counter after dinner and tore it open. He rolled it down his length and plunged into his mate’s tight body with one strong thrust. Zach barely had time to enjoy the way her muscles opened around him before those same muscles clenched on his cock hard enough to leave him gasping. Colette cried out, singing out her pleasure as she came, urging Zach and his tiger into a frenzy of pumping as he followed her into bliss.
And it was full-on bliss, not the abbreviated kind he’d had with other females in the past. Colette turned him inside out, upside down and he loved it. Loved her with every fiber of his being.
* * * * *
His bed wasn’t as comfortable as hers. Colette stretched her back, causing Zach to tighten his arms around her. As if she were going anywhere. Yet. She cracked open one eye to look at the clock. It was just after midnight and she wasn’t ready to leave even though she’d have to. Snuggling deeper in his embrace, Colette enjoyed the moment. It amazed her how comfortable he made her feel with her body, with her sexuality. There was nothing embarrassing when they were together. After he’d tortured her into telling her dirty little secret, he hadn’t lorded it over her. Much.
She grinned into the darkness because that was a flat-out lie. When he let her go, limp and panting for breath, he’d picked her up and strutted to his shower where he proceeded to clean her from head to toe. And he hadn’t been able to keep from smiling, like the cat that got the cream. And then some.
“I knew you wanted me for my baked goods,” he told her as he scrubbed his hair, looking as smug as any man could possibly be. “No one can resist those.”
In that moment, he looked completely carefree in a way she’d never noticed before. It was as though she were seeing him for the first time. She’d fallen for his sexy smile and his charm, but that love solidified when she saw his boyish grin and pride in his accomplishments. As if her opinion really mattered to him. If that didn’t make a girl feel special, Colette didn’t know what would. And she wanted to see more of that part of him, wanted to know everything about him, but unlike a lot of women, she wasn’t the best conversationalist. More often than not, she put her foot in her mouth, which was why she spent more time with her male relatives and Kanda than her cousins-in-law.
But her curiosity urged her to ask him something. They were both relaxed and sated from their climaxes. She wet her lips and cleared her throat. Ease into it, ask something everyone could talk about. Family was good. She loved talking about her family. And he’d seemed receptive to the chatting they’d done in her boat after the last time they made love. Except, he never spoke about them. Never mentioned them, or any funny stories he might have. She knew his grandmother had raised him, had taught him the business, but he never really talked about her other than as a teacher.
“Zach?”
“Hm?” he hummed into her hair, his embrace still tight.
“What’s your family like?”
If he hadn’t been holding her so close, she probably wouldn’t have guessed anything was wrong. His breathing didn’t change and she couldn’t see his face, but his entire body stiffened slightly and his purring stopped. Not enough to be a flinch, but enough that she felt it. And it worried her because she felt as though she’d inadvertently hurt him.
Colette twisted in his hold until she faced him. His face was in shadows, the streetlights streaming through the window doing little to alleviate the darkness in his bedroom. Still, she could see the glitter of his eyes. “You don’t have to answer that,” she said, suddenly desperate to hear him purr again, to feel his contentment. “I didn’t mean to be nosy.”
One of his arms fell away from her, his hand reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear and almost petting her as though the movement soothed him. “No, you have every right to ask me,” he said after he spent a long time smoothing down her hair to his satisfaction. “I just don’t have the kind of family you do.” He huffed out a laugh, relaxing slightly. “Probably a good thing too.”
“You’re always welcome at my parents’ house,” she said shyly. “My mama liked you.” She held her breath because this was when he should start backpedalling. There was no way he could mistake her feelings if she was inviting him to come back to meet her family, especially her mother.
“She’s a great cook,” was all he said.
This was not going the way she’d wanted it to, but she persisted, even though it was obviously a sore subject. “What about your family? Were they all good cooks?” she asked instead, thinking that had to be a safer subject. His lip curled, not in a smile, but in a frown and her heart sank. She was worse at this after-sex talk than she’d thought.
“My mom left me with my grandmother when I was young, maybe six or seven,” he said in a rough voice. He cleared his throat. “I don’t know where she is.”
She felt like scum to bring up such an ugly memory, but he continued before she could recant her questions.
“I— Mamaw tried to teach me about the rest of her family. I didn’t realize it at the time.” His whole body moved with his shrug. “I had this chip on my shoulder, thinking she was just rubbing it in, that I wasn’t like the rest of the Trahans. I imagine they were all great cooks. They would have to be to keep the bakery as long as it’s been around.” He was quiet a moment. “But when I have kids, I plan to share with them as much of the Trahan legacy as I can remember and the rest we can find out together. I don’t want my cubs to ever feel as though they don�
��t belong.”
Her heart flat-out hurt. She wanted to hug him and promise to love and cherish the little boy he’d been. Then she wanted to find his mom and kick her ass. But that wouldn’t help him now. Instead, she traced circles on his chest, trying to find the right words.
“I think your grandmother would have been so proud of you,” she said quietly into the deep silence that’d fallen between them. “You’re the best baker in the history of Pointe-Aux-Chat Parish.”
He snorted out a laugh. “You don’t have to try to make me feel better, I’m not torturing you anymore.”
She levered herself over him with a frown. “I’m serious. I’ve been hearing about Trahan’s Bakery all my life. Trahan’s is a landmark for everyone in the tri-parish area, but it wasn’t until you took over that anyone really knew how good dessert could be. And then you opened the catering business and everyone discovered you were the best. You think we haven’t heard all those important people out in Hollywood want you to work for them?” She poked him in the ribs. “Your employees brag on you all the time and even if they didn’t, we know how good you are because we can taste it.”
He caught her finger and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “So passionate about food,” he murmured, making her blush.
“No, I’m passionate about people fulfilling their potential. Like you’ve done.” She looked down into his shadowed face, throat tight with fear and excitement. “Don’t you have any idea how amazing you are?”
She thought he was amazing? He wanted to shake his head in shock, but couldn’t do more than stare at the woman whose voice throbbed with emotion. This wasn’t a typical conversation he had in his bed, but then again, she wasn’t a typical kind of woman. Colette was his mate. She didn’t know it, would probably hand him his ass on a platter if he went all Tarzan on her, yet she still defended him, was fiercely protective of him. A shifter who outweighed her in his animal form. He had no doubt she’d fight for him if anyone offered him insult or made him feel less than “amazing”.
