by Sophie Stern
“You know, you were the one who told me about the app,” Meredith says. “And I found the most wonderful guy through it.” She looks right at Foxy and she sighs. “It’s not fair that I found someone perfect and you ended up with a guy who tried to hurt you.”
It’s not fair.
None of it’s fair.
It’s not fair that Foxy and I broke up. It’s not fair that we’ve lost so much time when we could have been together. It’s not fair that she tried to put herself out there only to be broken. None of this is fair.
“Foxy is a good lady,” Meredith turns to me. “She deserves to be safe. I know you’ll take care of her, Brendan, but damn, the fact that this tiger when after her just pisses me off.”
“We have his name,” Henry offers. “Aaron Erin.”
The entire room is silent for a minute, and then Meredith’s jaw drops.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Meredith rolls her eyes so hard I think they’re going to slip out of her head. “That’s his actual name?”
“He goes by A.”
“I would, too. Fuck.”
She grabs a rag and starts wiping down the bar. All the while, she’s shaking her head. Foxy looks over at me and reaches for my leg. She squeezes it gently, letting me know that she’s here for me, and that we’re in this together. No matter how this whole thing started, right now, we’re partners.
Now and for always.
I hope.
When this is all over, I’m going to beg that girl to marry me. I’m going to give her anything she wants, and I’m going to love her forever. If she’ll have me, I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for all of the time we’ve been apart. I’ll do anything for her. She deserves that and more.
“Where does he hang out?” Meredith asks. It’s a good question. Figuring out where he likes to lurk could lead us to this guy. Even when someone is dealing with a chaotic sort of situation, they tend to fall back into old routines. It’s a sort of self-soothing method people like to utilize.
“We don’t know,” I tell her. “We were hoping you could tell us.”
“Not true,” Foxy corrects me, pointing to the bottles of liquor behind Meredith. “We were hoping to get drunk before we have to deal with this.”
“I can help you on both counts,” Meredith says, leaning against the back counter.
“Really?” Foxy seems thrilled, and for the first time since we found out about Aaron, she seems hopeful.
The look on her face is pure magic right now, and it makes me so fucking happy that she has a friend like Meredith that she can count on.
“Really,” Meredith agrees. “First things first.”
She pours a couple of shots and starts handing them out. It’s still early – barely past noon – and the bar is empty. Technically, it doesn’t even open for a few hours, but I know Meredith comes in early to set up and make sure everything is ready for when her evening crowd comes rolling in.
I take my drink, hold it up to the others, and we all tap our shots together before downing them. Even Meredith gets in on the action, and I’m impressed by how she’s responding to this situation. She really is a good friend, and Foxy is lucky to have her.
“Better,” I say. “So you know where Aaron is?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?” Henry asks.
“It means that Allison comes in here a lot. She’ll be here tonight. I don’t know where she lives, and I don’t know where she goes, but this place is kind of a second home to her.”
“Are you sure?” Foxy asks. “I’ve never noticed her here.”
“She’s a closer,” Meredith shrugs. “She comes in late, has a couple of drinks, and leaves. She’s not here every single night, but it’s pretty damn close. When you’re here, she always seems to disappear early.”
“I can’t believe I never noticed,” Foxy says.
“I never knew she hated you,” Meredith says. “So it’s not really something I ever thought to bring up. Actually, I never really made the connection until tonight.”
“So that’s it,” Henry says. “We’ll wait until she leaves tonight, and then we’ll follow her.”
“Seems foolproof,” I say dryly. “And much too simple.”
“Sometimes things don’t have to be as complicated as we like to think,” Foxy says. “Maybe the hard part was just figuring out who he is.”
“Maybe,” I say, but Meredith gives me a look, and I know exactly what she’s not saying. We both think there’s something we’re missing. What piece of the puzzle do we still need? And what’s going to happen when Allison comes into the bar?
Chapter 9
Foxy
We have a few hours until the bar starts to get busy, so Brendan and I go back to the bakery for a little while, and Henry goes home to check on his very pregnant wife. Meredith has been given explicit instructions to text us the moment Allison arrives. Ideally, we’ll be back by then, but we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves by just lurking in the corner of the bar, and it’s not like hiding in the walk-in cooler would be a better option.
When we arrive at the bakery, he unlocks the back door and we enter that way. The space is totally silent, and I take a second to just breathe in the smells: pies, breads, cupcakes. The air smells sugary and wonderful. He leads me into the kitchen, but I pause in the doorway.
“Not the office?” I ask, jerking my head toward the room with the computers.
“Not right now,” he says. “I want to bake something and start moving things with my hands. It might sound kind of silly, but it always helps me focus, and right now, that’s what I really need.”
“It’s not silly,” I tell him. “Let’s go.”
When we walk into the kitchen, I have to choke down a gasp. I saw it earlier when we walked by, but I didn’t really see everything that’s inside. It’s just so damn lovely. It’s huge, with lots of space. There are big, wide tables here for working. He’s got endless counter space. There are a couple of fridges, and the ovens are huge.
“This is where the magic happens,” he tells me.
“This kitchen is almost as big as my house,” I squeak out. It’s not an exaggeration, either. While the outside of Brendan’s bakery looks simple and down-to-Earth, the reality is that the inside is completely huge. There’s a lot of space for food storage, of course, and he’s got all of his ingredients neatly organized. Then there are other things: decorations, toppings, and recipe books.
“It’s nothing much,” he says modestly.
“It’s incredible.”
“Thank you,” he says, and he looks proud. It’s a good look on him. I like knowing that he’s happy with his accomplishments. It’s a good feeling to know that he’s really satisfied with what he’s managed to do with his life. A lot of people live with regrets and have all of these wishes that they just never managed to fulfill, but Brendan?
He’s on top of the damn world.
“I can see how you like this place,” I tell him.
“It’s calming to me,” he agrees. He gestures at the space. “Who knew I’d end up as a baker? It’s definitely something that just sort of happened.”
“What happened that year you were away?” I ask him. He’d never really talked about baking before. I knew he wanted to stay close to home, but both Brendan and I fell victim to the “we don’t know what we want to do” situation after college.
“I baked for my grandfather,” he tells me. He leans against one of the counters and looks at me with a grin on his face. “He was sick, so I went to care for him. I didn’t plan on turning into an incredible baker, but you work with what you’ve got. Grandpa had a sweet tooth. As soon as I figured that out, I was determined to make the last part of his life unforgettable.”
“That’s incredible,” I whisper. “So you just baked for him?”
“Every day,” he nods. “Grandpa would give me an order and describe exactly what he wanted, and I’d just start working on it. First we started simple wi
th cookies and cakes, but then I learned how to make other pastries, breads…you name it.”
“That’s really wonderful.”
“Thank you,” he says. “When I came back to Claw Valley, I missed my grandpa. Losing him was hard on me. I opened the bakery in memory of him, if I’m being honest. I wanted a way to remember the time we spent together.”
“Well, in just a few years, you’ve really managed to turn it into something incredible,” I tell him. I walk over to Brendan and place my hands on his chest. “You’re incredible,” I tell him again. It seems to be something he needs to hear: something no one else has told him. I don’t know why, but it seems as though Brendan hasn’t had anyone really appreciate all that he’s accomplished.
“I’m nothing special,” he tells me gently, pushing away a strand of hair from my face. He looks at me carefully, cautiously.
“You’re special to me,” I tell him.
“I feel the same way.”
“This morning was…”
“Unexpected?” He chuckles a little, but he cups my cheek, and he smiles at me, and when he looks at me like this, I feel like I can take over the world. I feel empowered, and strong, and wonderful.
I feel like nothing can hurt me if he just keeps looking at me like this.
“That’s putting it lightly.”
“I didn’t plan to seduce you when you showed up on my porch,” he tells me. He looks so innocent that I have to laugh.
“I know,” I say. “I didn’t plan to seduce you, either.”
“Oh, let’s get one thing straight,” he says. “I’m the one who seduced you.”
“No way!” I laugh. “I definitely made the moves first. I mean, I did show up naked on your porch.”
“Hmmm,” he considers this for a moment. “I suppose that’s true.”
Then he kisses me, pulling me into his arms. I love this. I love how he touches me like nothing else matters. I like the way he kisses me, teasing my mouth. He runs his tongue over my lips and he seems to play my body like it was made just for him. He makes me feel like I’m incredible, like I’m special, and most of all, like he can’t get enough of me.
“So true,” I murmur, kissing him back.
He reaches for my lips, holding me in place. Then his hands dip down into the sweats I borrowed from him. He slides his fingers between my legs and starts stroking me. I groan against his mouth, kissing him deeply as he touches me over and over.
“Such a perfect pussy,” he murmurs. “So soft and sweet.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, and he laughs, shaking his head.
“What?” I ask. “Isn’t that the polite way to respond to such a personal compliment?”
“The right way to respond is by coming for me,” he says. This time, when he kisses me, he slides his fingers inside of me and starts touching me there. Over and over, he strokes me, and I lose all sense of time. Maybe he touches me for a few minutes. Maybe he’s touching me for an hour, but no matter how long it might be, everything else stops making sense or mattering until I come for him.
I explode, and even my heart seems to stop beating. I cry out in the silence of the kitchen, and he silences me once more with a kiss.
“So perfect,” he murmurs against me.
“Wow,” I groan. “My knees actually feel a little wobbly,” I tell him.
Brendan just laughs, shaking his head.
“Good,” he says. “That means I did something right.”
“It’s been a long time since I had wobbly legs because of a boy,” I tell him. He kisses me again and again and again, and as we kiss, I reach for him. I start touching him now, stroking him over his jeans. I can feel his length and I want him inside of me again. He hasn’t come yet, after all, and besides, we have time to kill.
“Oh, little fox,” he groans. “What are you doing to me?”
“Something you like, I hope,” I whisper.
“Don’t stop,” he groans.
“Take off your pants.”
He just laughs and shakes his head. Then he lifts me up and carries me to one of the counters. He sets me on it and helps me out of my sweat pants. I’m sitting there, totally naked from the waist down, and he just looks at me.
If any other person was staring at me like this, I’d be wildly upset, but Brendan looks at me like I’m hot as fuck, and that just makes me want him even more.
“Please,” I tell him, wiggling a little. “I want you.”
“I do love to hear you beg,” he smiles, and he unzips his jeans and pushes them down over his hips, along with his boxers. He strokes his cock for a second, looking at me. “You are so fucking gorgeous,” he says, and then he slides inside of me.
He fills me up, and I realize, suddenly, that we keep making love in kitchens. I don’t know what that says about us, but the thought floats away as he kisses my neck, nipping at me as he slides in and out of my body. He fills me up over and over again, and I grab his neck, pulling him closer to me as he makes love to me in the bakery.
I can’t believe I’m having sex in the middle of the afternoon in a bakery, of all places, but I love it.
When Brendan comes apart, he murmurs my name, and a look of pure bliss crosses his face. It’s the most satisfying way to end our lovemaking, and he kisses me over and over again. The words I love you are on the tip of my tongue, but somehow, I manage to bite them back. Those are words I don’t deserve to say to him.
Not just yet.
I didn’t miss what he said earlier about us being mates. I don’t know if he actually meant that or not, but the fact that he wants me makes me feel…
Well, it kind of makes me feel complete.
It kind of makes me feel like everything is going to be just fine.
“What time is it?” I suddenly ask, looking at him. I have no idea how long we’ve been together in the kitchen. “Is it time for us to go find Allison and Aaron?”
“No need,” a voice from the hallway says, and we both turn instantly to see the brother-sister duo standing there. Instantly, I feel sick. How could they have gotten into the bakery? We didn’t even notice. Then I realize that Brendan and I were so caught up in our sex that an elephant could have knocked a hole in the side of the bakery building and we wouldn’t have noticed.
What’s worse than having the two of them invading our space and ruining our personal moment, though, is the fact that I think I finally realize what Allison wants from me.
She’s pointing a gun right at my head.
Allison Erin wants me to die.
Chapter 10
Brendan
A horrible day just got a whole lot worse.
When I was in the middle of making love to Felicity, nothing else mattered. I wasn’t thinking about anything else. Every rational thought seemed to flee from my mind and was replaced with her.
Only her.
All her.
We missed out on so very much, and we were apart for so long that somehow, the idea that we’ve reunited only to be torn apart again seems unbearably horrible, and I know instantly that this isn’t something I’ll allow to happen.
Allison and Aaron are standing in the doorway to the kitchen. They’re just inside now. Who knows how long they’ve been standing in the hallway waiting for us to finish? If they were clever, they would have killed us while we were having sex. Waiting was stupid. Now they have my full attention, and I’m going to do anything – anything – to save Felicity.
I don’t wait to hear a long explanation about how wronged Allison thinks she is. I don’t stop and pause long enough to hear Aaron tell Felicity how he wishes she was already dead. Nope. Instead, I just shift and throw myself toward them, barreling directly at Allison. I land on her before she even has time to shift, before she even has time to fire. For fuck’s sake, she probably still has the safety on the gun. Either that, or the gun doesn’t even work.
I land on her, knocking her unconscious. She won’t be shifting anytime soon. I growl, turning my attention to Aar
on. I’m not surprised to find that the tiger has already shifted by the time I hit his sister. She might be blinded by love, but he’s not. Aaron is the kind of guy who comes to fights because he enjoys them – not because he feels the need to seek revenge.
I don’t know what the two of them were thinking or how they dreamed up this little scheme, but it doesn’t matter. He’s going to die, and it’s going to happen now.
Today.
Right now.
The tiger throws himself at me and I growl as I fall backwards. I land on my back with him on top of me. He practically hisses at me. Then he opens his mouth, preparing to go for the throat.
Fuck that.
I use my hinders to push him up and away from me. He falls back and hits his head on one of the fridges. I realize right away that I’m going to be spending a lot of time fixing up my kitchen once this entire thing this over, but that doesn’t matter. The fridge topples, but then rights itself. Part of me hopes it’ll fall over and land on him, pinning him. That would make things so much simpler than they are.
As it is, I dive at him again. This time, I’m on top, and I land on him. We wrestle, rolling over and over. We hit the counters and we knock one of the freestanding tables over. I don’t see Felicity in my peripheral vision, but that’s a good thing. I want her staying out of this fight. She’s a fox, and I love her to bits, but this isn’t a fight she needs to be a part of.
Besides, this fight is about so much more than anger. It’s about so much more than the bad date. This fight is revenge for what he did to Felicity. He tracked her down, hunted her, and scared her. He made her feel afraid. Aaron made her feel stupid and foolish, and Felicity should never have to feel those things.
He swipes at me with his paw, and he gets a good hit in. I’m going to have a few scratches when this thing is over: maybe even some serious bruising. I’m not sure. All I know is that I’m seeing red, and this fight needs to end.
Now.
We tumble a few more times, hitting and batting at each other. I can scent his anger and his frustration. It wafts throughout the room, but I know that my own anger is mixed right in there with it.