by Scott, J. S.
Mara gaped at Jared, who was standing right outside the door she’d opened to his knock, her first cup of coffee still in her hand. Jared was never this cheerful in the morning, and this was very unusual behavior for him before nine a.m. He generally woke up, drank his coffee, and grumbled as he went downstairs to his gym. By the looks of his damp hair and mischievous grin, he’d already gone through his morning routine, which included a shower after he hit the gym, and it was only eight o’clock.
He’s up early.
Holding the door open for him, she watched him saunter into the living room, and he smelled deliciously of coffee, fresh air, and sandalwood as he brushed past her.
God, he smells good.
Dressed in jeans and his normal button-down shirt, he looked good enough to eat for breakfast, and Mara had to clench her fist around her mug to keep from reaching for him and making him her first meal of the day. “It’s up?” The sight and scent of Jared distracted her so much that it had taken her a while to process what he’d said.
Moving to the kitchen and helping himself to a cup of coffee, he turned to her with a naughty grin and propped his hip casually against the cupboard. “It’s been up since the second I saw you.”
Her eyes went immediately to his groin, and then back up to his face. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see anything because his shirttail was covering his crotch. She nodded. “Our website, you mean? It’s live?”
He smirked. “That’s up, too.”
Too? Wicked man!
She tried not to smile, but her lips turned up as she watched him take a sip of his coffee. Jared Sinclair was way too hot not to appreciate when he was being perverted, and his flirty words made her heart flutter inside her chest.
He looks so damn perfect, and I’m a mess.
Mara had barely gotten out of bed. She ran a hand through her wild hair, fairly doubtful that her cotton, pink pajamas were really turning him on right now.
“You look beautiful,” Jared drawled slowly, as though he could read her mind. “You look warm, luscious, and cuddly, like you just crawled out of bed.”
“I did,” she told him unhappily, still trying to finger comb her hair. “I never thought you’d be here this early, and I’m behind schedule.” She walked to the cupboard and took out some ibuprofen for her headache. “I think I had one too many strawberry daiquiris with the bridal party.”
“So the girls were playing last night?” Jared asked with amusement in his voice.
Mara shrugged. “Talking mostly and putting together the bags for wedding favors. And drinking.” She swallowed the pills with a sip of her coffee, trying to forget just how much she’d said that she wished she could unsay now. Groaning inwardly, she wished she hadn’t spilled her guts about Jared. Not that she thought the women would gossip, but just because the relationship was way too new to be so intense.
“How many did you drink?”
“Three? I think.”
“Tell me you didn’t drive home,” Jared growled, crowding her against the cupboard.
“I didn’t drive,” she assured him quietly, knowing how sensitive he probably was after what had happened to his friend and girlfriend. “Dante just lives down the road. I walked. And please don’t try to tell me you guys were angels at Grady’s house.” She looked up at him expectantly.
He lifted a brow. “We had a few. It was all very tame. Evan dropped us off. He wasn’t drinking.” Jared moved away from her and into the living room. “Do you want to see your website or not?”
She drained the rest of her coffee by taking several gulps, then set her empty mug down on the kitchen cupboard. “Yes,” Mara squealed, then regretted it because it made her head hurt worse. Still, she was excited to see her completed site. Moving behind Jared, who now had his laptop open, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his back. “Thank you.”
Placing his coffee carefully on one of the low tables near the couch, Jared held the laptop with one hand and pecked the keys with another. Without stopping what he was doing, he muttered, “If you move those hands down another six inches, you won’t be seeing this site until this afternoon.” Setting the computer on the coffee table, he turned and wrapped his arms around her. Stroking a hand down her back, a lopsided smile on his lips, he said lightly, “Hmm . . . I was right . . . very cuddly.”
Mara shivered as she felt the warmth of his palm through the light cotton of her pajama top. “I know, right? Very sexy lingerie.” The top was flimsy, with spaghetti straps and lace, but it was far from seductive. The matching drawstring shorts hung almost to her knees. It was light, comfortable sleepwear for summer, but nothing to inspire a man to ravage her.
Jared tipped her chin and kissed her, a lingering, sensual kiss that nearly made Mara’s toes curl.
“You look hot in anything you wear,” he told her hoarsely, his mouth trailing over her temple. “Even hotter in just your soft, perfect bare skin.”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled back and smiled at him playfully. “Uh-huh. Smooth talker.”
Reaching up, he pulled her hand from his nape and moved it down to his cock. Mara’s fingers flexed as they met his rock-hard erection.
“I’ll never say anything I don’t mean to you,” Jared told her harshly.
Mara shook her head. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I just find it so hard to believe that you feel this way about me.”
“Ditto,” he answered in a gentler voice, pulling her hand away from his erection and wrapping it around his neck again. “I missed you last night. That’s why I woke up early. I couldn’t wait to see you, find out how your night went. I wanted to call you, but your lights were off and I didn’t want to wake you up.” He bussed her on the forehead tenderly and stepped back, fishing something from his back pocket. “I got this for you. I know yours was destroyed, and you’re going to need it.”
Mara gawked at the sleek, beautiful new iPhone. “For me?” she asked incredulously. She took it, cradling it in her hand. Her old cell phone had been a relic, and she hadn’t planned on replacing it anytime soon. Every penny she had that wasn’t needed for basic necessities was going back into the business.
“When I couldn’t see you, I texted you,” he said huskily.
Pushing the button to activate the phone, Mara clicked on the one text message showing as unanswered.
I miss you.
The message had been sent at two o’clock in the morning. Just three simple words that tugged at her heart.
Fumbling with the newer model phone that she wasn’t used to, she didn’t look up at Jared as she replied.
I missed you, too.
She heard the muted ping of his phone, and she waited breathlessly as he pulled it out of his pocket.
Lifting her head, she drew in a sharp breath as he tilted her chin and kissed her with a possessive voraciousness that held her in his thrall for a moment before she wrapped her arms around him and returned his embrace. Jared kissed her like a man possessed, his hunger undisguised as he plundered her mouth. His body shuddered, and he was breathing heavily as he pulled his lips from hers. “I don’t want to miss you anymore. I think I’ve missed you my entire life. Be with me, Mara.”
“I am with you,” she whispered softly, soothingly near his ear. “I’m not going anywhere.” The ferocity of his need for her fed her own cravings for him, and she wrapped her arms around him tighter, harder.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you. I want you to live with me, be in my bed with me every night. I want your face to be the first one I see every morning when I wake up, and the last person I see or talk to before I sleep.” He molded her body against his, the covetous hold enveloping her.
He’s scared that something will happen to me.
Jared had only one other woman in his history that he’d cared about, and she’d died in a tragic accident. “I’ll be here, Jared,”
she crooned, stroking the hair at the nape of his neck. She’d learned that life could end unexpectedly at any moment after her close call when her home burned to the ground. But she’d never leave Jared by choice. Not as long as he really cared about her.
Seeing him like this made her both elated and protective. This was the real Jared Sinclair, a big, gorgeous man with a tender heart. He’d opened his tortured, bottled-up emotions to her, and she was taking a leap of faith with him. She’d be just as open, just as willing to show him how she felt about him. She had the same fears, the same insecurities, but they weren’t at the same painfully high level as his were. She’d had a mother who had loved her, and no painful past to overcome. Even with her lack of baggage, it wasn’t easy to open her heart completely to a man that she cared about as much as she did about Jared. She wanted him so badly that it nearly terrified her. The emotion between them was so powerful, so intense that it was nearly painful.
“Stay,” he grumbled greedily as Mara tried to pull away slightly to see his face. He dropped into the recliner and pulled her down onto his lap, keeping his arm locked around her waist as he reached for the laptop. “Here’s your site.”
Mara set her new phone down carefully on the small table beside their coffee and took the computer on her lap.
Incredible.
The site was amazing, colorful without being gaudy, and the name of her own business was sporting the logo she and Jared had designed together. It was classy and professional—everything she could have hoped for and more.
He reached around her waist and showed her how the site functioned, how to see her orders, traffic, and the various pages about her featured items.
When he was finished, Mara stared at the screen, lifting her hand to trace the logo on the website. “It’s real. Mara’s Kitchen is really happening.” She and Jared had worked out most of the details except the actual business contract while she’d been laid up in his home, but this was so much more than she’d imagined. Jared had taken their ideas and made them come alive. Squinting at the screen, she clicked back hesitantly to her orders. “Oh, my God. Do I really have this many orders? How can that have happened so soon? The site just came up.”
“I might have called in a few favors to advertise the launch of the site,” Jared muttered sheepishly.
“You’re already marketing?” She gaped at him, amazed at how efficiently and effortlessly he seemed to arrange things.
“I’m a billionaire with a hell of a lot of contacts, sweetheart. It doesn’t exactly take a lot of effort on my part to get other businesses involved or to get the message out about an exciting new business.”
“I have to get busy. I’ll be dashing to fill these orders and get them out before Sarah’s wedding. You called in what kind of favors?” She turned and looked at his face. He was smiling, one of those happy smiles that reached his eyes and turned her to mush.
“Okay. I called in quite a few favors. This is just the beginning. The orders will keep coming in.”
“You’re forcing friends or associates to order?”
Jared put his hands in the air in a sign of surrender. “I’m not forcing anyone to order. It’s all about the products. I just asked for advertising and a few reviews from some food product reviewers. I sent them some of my personal stash for reviews. You owe me some more jam and taffy.” He grinned at her.
“They all liked it?” she asked excitedly.
“They all loved it. Sweetheart, your skills are out of this world. I didn’t expect anything less, and I asked them to be brutally honest. I didn’t twist anybody’s arm for a good review. I swear.”
“Can I read some of them?”
Setting his head on her shoulder to see the screen, his fingers flew over the keyboard. “Here’s one of them.”
She read the words quickly but thoroughly, astonished that such a big food reviewer had actually tried her products. There wasn’t one negative word, every bit of the review positive. At the bottom of it, her website link was displayed boldly. “No wonder I have orders already. Most of the country follows her advice and recommendations. Anybody who likes to cook or bake uses her recipes. I know I do.”
“I know,” Jared replied with a touch of arrogance. “You’re going to outgrow this house and the equipment very quickly. And you’re going to need some help.”
“I have you.” Not that she really expected Jared to don an apron and get to work, but she could do the cooking. He’d incredibly managed everything else with ease.
“Sweetheart, you want your products to succeed. I don’t cook. You need help in the kitchen.”
Mara lowered the computer to the floor. Her hands free, she swung her leg over and straddled his lap. “You’re amazing.” Eyes watering, she stroked a palm down his strong, freshly shaved jawline. “I think you’d look hot in an apron,” she teased.
“Not happening,” he rumbled. “But I’ll do whatever else I can to make the launch fantastic.”
“It’s already incredible. I have to get moving and start getting the products ready.” She started to scramble out of his lap, but a steely arm around her waist kept her planted exactly where she was.
“Not so fast. I expect a proper thank-you.” His jade gaze drilled into her dark eyes.
“What do you consider proper?” She’d give this man anything he wanted. “Thank you for the phone, and everything you’ve done for the business. I’ll reimburse you for it. I probably really do need a cell.” If her business was going to start booming like this, she needed to be reachable at all times, and she could access the Internet with her phone.
“I don’t want you to pay me back. It’s a gift. I want you to kiss me,” he demanded bossily.
“I’d do that anyway. The things you give me have nothing to do with how much I care about you.” Her love for Jared was just there. But the thoughtful things he did just made her fall deeper and deeper in love with him.
“Show me.” His tone was domineering, but his eyes were pleading.
Leaning down, her mouth so close to his that she could feel his warm breath on her face, she murmured seriously, “We have to solve your big problem before I get to work.”
“Do I have a big problem?” Jared sounded puzzled.
Wiggling her hips, she pressed her core against his hard erection. “Very big.”
“You’re the only woman on earth who can fix that now,” he replied, both challenge and desperation in his voice.
“Done,” she whispered as she lowered her head and kissed him senseless.
She didn’t get her orders started until noon, but it was time well spent. When she finally started cooking to fill orders, she did so with a whimsical smile on her face.
CHAPTER 16
Mara’s Kitchen kept right on growing, and Jared was there every step of the way, clearing out other problems so she could focus on the products. She started working early and finished late at night. But she’d never been happier in her life.
The evening before Sarah’s wedding, she and Jared sat at the living room table signing the contracts he’d finally produced. It had taken another threat of switching her business partnership to include Evan instead of Jared to get him to finally do the business paperwork. Mara had hated every moment of using that against him, but she’d hate herself even more for continuing to take advantage of Jared’s kindness.
He’d hired a few teenagers temporarily for a summer job because her orders were getting overwhelming. She now had Nina to help her do some of the basics with the cooking prep, and Todd to do the continual cleaning of the kettles and equipment she needed several times every day. Jared had asked Emily to help him recruit the teens, both of them coming from families that Emily knew could really benefit from the extra money, since she ran the Youth Center and was aware of which families in the area were in need. Both of them worked hard at their assigned tasks, and it took a considerable am
ount of pressure off Mara to have their help every day. Jared worked on the marketing and business aspects of Mara’s Kitchen, and he was doing an incredible job, judging by the explosive amount of orders she was getting on a daily basis. She knew that Jared was also starting to work on contracts for restaurants and businesses outside of Amesport to use her products on a regular basis.
“We need a hell of a lot bigger site for production, and a bunch of permanent employees,” Jared grumbled as he signed his name grudgingly to the contracts that gave him equal interest in the company after Mara had signed.
Mara smiled at him, both of them sitting at the dining room table, papers spread out in front of them. “We can keep going like this for a while. We need to make money before we spend it.”
“You need to invest money to make more money,” Jared rumbled. “And you can’t keep working these kinds of hours.” He paused for a moment before he asked hesitantly, “Do you miss the doll shop?”
“No,” she answered honestly. “I still regret the irreplaceable things I lost, stuff that belonged to my mom, but I’ve always loved making my consumable products more than I loved making dolls. I’ll enjoy it as a hobby someday when I have more time, but making my products for the market has always been my favorite thing to do. Coming up with new things is challenging, new products that can be used for different recipes. Cooking has always been my first love.” Mara sighed. “I wanted to hold on to my mother, but I’ve realized I didn’t need the doll shop. She’ll always be here.” She put her right hand over her heart, her finger adorned by her mother’s wedding ring. “I think she’d be proud of what I’m doing now. I may not be making dolls, but I’m still using traditions that have been passed down for generations, with my own twist. Honestly, I don’t think she would have cared what I decided to do as long as I was happy doing it.”
Jared leaned toward her and clasped the hand over her heart, bringing it to his lips to kiss her palm gently. “I think she would, too, baby,” he said huskily.
“Do you think you’ll ever go back to doing what you really love someday?” she asked him carefully. His former love of restoring old homes was a touchy subject.
