by Addison Cole
After what felt like hours of reveling in his sweet kisses and loving touch, when she finally opened her eyes, the look in Blue’s was so caring that she had to close hers against the emotions she saw there, for fear of her own tumbling out.
He pressed another kiss to her lips. “Spend the day with me.”
She opened her eyes, reality creeping back in. This was her moment of decision. She knew she should end it here. Take what he’d given and go back to her secret life. But how could she do that when the man she’d wanted for so long was looking at her like she was truly all he ever wanted? She hadn’t counted on this, even though she’d known the dangers of allowing herself to go out with Blue. She hadn’t counted on feeling as if every moment sucked her deeper into him. Reality waited outside these cabin walls. Monday would bring the need to film her webcast. Tuesday, the commitment of editing…She stopped those thoughts by sealing them beneath a hard, painful swallow.
Reality, it turned out, was no match for her heart.
“Okay.”
BLUE COULD HARDLY believe his luck. After a year of asking Lizzie out, not only was he blessed with the most amazing night, but now he was given the gift of another day with her. And that’s how it felt, like a gift. How could an afternoon that had yet to come feel so special? He didn’t need to pick that apart, because he already knew the answer. He’d been falling for her every time he saw her. Falling harder every time she turned him down. He’d seen the way Lizzie looked at him, and he knew it took a strong woman to fight the attraction that had simmered between them for so long—and that strength was just one of the things he admired about her, even if he still didn’t understand why she’d fought it for such a long time.
“Okay? You’re not going to fight me on it? Or give me stipulations?”
“Only one,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “I need to go home and shower.”
“Darn. I thought I’d convince you to shower with me.” He pressed his lips to hers again. He’d never get enough of her lips, and seeing them pinked up, swollen from their intense kisses, her skin flushed from the heat between them, made her even more alluring.
“If we get naked, we won’t be doing anything today but naked things.” She giggled, and he raised his brows.
“And that’s a problem because…?” He was teasing, but her eyes turned serious.
“Because, we’re not there yet.”
“Agreed. We are still partially dressed, but we could be there pretty quickly.”
She rolled her eyes.
“We moved too quickly. I’m sorry, Lizzie.” He reached for her shirt and helped her dress.
“No, we didn’t. You’re so careful with me. I appreciate that. But it makes it easy to forget…”
He rose to his feet and brought her up against him. “Forget?” He searched her eyes, and she had an uh-oh look in them that made his gut clench tight. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s just easy to forget that my life is complicated.”
“You keep telling me that, but I just don’t see it. So you run a business? So do I.” He brushed her hair from her face and kissed her again. “Lizzie, we both have busy lives. So what? I love being with you, and you seem to enjoy being with me.”
“Too much. That’s the problem.” She was clutching his waist like she had last night. He could feel her desire in the firmness of her grip, which was in stark contrast to the worry in her eyes. He wished he knew why she was holding back. He didn’t want to just be with her. He wanted to know everything about her, to care for her, for her to be his and for him to be hers.
“Why?”
“Because my life isn’t about going out with a great guy.” Her voice escalated. “Or sleeping on his couch, comfortable and safe against him, or making out in the morning and wanting to laze the day away in his arms.”
“Whoa.” The harsh regret in her voice startled him. He held her against his chest, feeling her heart beating fast and hard. “You’re really upset.” He tipped her chin up and looked into her confused eyes. “Talk to me.”
She swallowed hard, as if she could contain whatever was creating distance between them, and silently shook her head.
“Do you want me to take you home? We don’t have to spend the day together.” The last thing he wanted was to cause her pain of any kind. Even if he didn’t understand why she needed space, he’d give it to her. He’d give her anything she needed.
“No.” She clung to his arms. “More than anything else, I want to spend the day with you.”
“Well, that makes me happy, but we’ll go back to only kissing.” Even if it kills me. “I never want you to regret being close to me.”
She pressed her cheek to his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I will never, ever regret being close to you.” She gazed up at him and smiled, but he swore he saw something else there. Maybe not regret, but something curious. “I’ve never felt so much for someone so fast, and I’m sure it’s because we were friends for so long before we decided to become more. I’ve never had that type of foundation with anyone else I’ve gone out with. I feel so comfortable with you. It’s easy to skip all those early, awkward moments. And that’s amazing, but scary, too.”
Fear, that had to be the flicker he’d seen in her eyes a moment ago.
“You’re scared.” He breathed a little easier. This he could handle. This he understood. Sarah Jane had left him scared of letting anyone too close, and Lizzie had touched something in him that made him willing to push past that fear for the first time in more than a decade. “I’m scared, too.”
They held each other for a long while, and Blue knew they were each contemplating their fears and the goodness of what they felt. When Lizzie’s breathing calmed and she took a step back, they left the cabin to take her home, so she could shower and change as Blue had promised—but hopefully not change her mind.
In the truck Lizzie moved beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. It already felt like her spot, and as he drove to her house, he found himself opening up to her.
“I haven’t been in a relationship in a very long time, and I’m not sure what the rules are. Or how fast we should go, or any of that. All I know is that for the first time since I was in college, I want a relationship, and I want it with you. I want to figure out the complicated things, and I want to know what scares you.” He stopped at a red light and gazed into her eyes. “I want to be the guy you can count on. The person you trust with your secrets and the guy you let in here.” He pressed a kiss over her heart.
“You make it all sound so easy.” She fidgeted with the edge of her shirt.
“It’s not going to be easy, but we both know that nothing worth anything is easy. I want happy, not easy, and I know we can have that together.”
Chapter Eight
AFTER BLUE DROPPED Lizzie off at her house with more heart-stopping kisses, she showered and dressed as quickly as she could, thinking about the things he’d said. He wanted a relationship with her, and just as she’d feared, going out with Blue had unearthed the feelings that had been seeding and growing over the past year. And overnight they’d bloomed into something beautiful and desirable. But looming above her, dark clouds threatened, clouds that only she could see.
She couldn’t figure that out right now. Blue was coming back in less than an hour, and she still had to check the Naked Baker email, review stats on last night’s show, and figure out what she was going to bake for tomorrow’s program.
She pulled up her email and readied herself for the onslaught of lewd and suggestive messages that had become the bane of her existence.
One hundred and seventy-seven new emails.
Fun.
Not.
She riffled through them, scanning for anything important. Sometimes viewers sent in baking ideas, and she was thankful for the ones that weren’t looking for naughty-shaped cakes or cookies, although those were interesting to bake. It had taken her a while to get past her own hang-ups o
n inappropriately shaped food, but once she got into her Naked Baker mind-set, just about anything went. The sexier the shows, the longer viewers watched, and the longer they watched, the more money she earned. Oh, the joys of monetizing videos. Not to mention that her website was also completely monetized. There were months when she raked in more than ten grand, making up for slower months, when she made just a few thousand dollars. Of course, being the good girl Lizzie was, she reported the income to the IRS and paid her taxes diligently. She wasn’t about to be caught with her pants down, so to speak.
With offers ranging from the greatest sex she could imagine to a guy who was willing to lick whipped cream from between her toes—ew—she made it through with one golden nugget. MrWhipIt@whipmegood.com requested a cake in the shape of handcuffs. That, she could do!
She checked her website stats next. Views were up, as was length of viewing time. She must have done something right in the last show. She noted the stats in the ledger where she kept track of these types of things. She’d watch that video again tomorrow and compare it to the others that did well and the ones that didn’t, noting the differences. Lizzie was always trying to figure out what the viewers liked best. It seemed to be a moving target.
That thought brought images to her mind of potbellied guys pleasuring themselves while watching her videos, which she tried not to think about, but sometimes it was impossible to push those images away.
Her phone rang, startling her. Mom. She closed the laptop and headed upstairs as she answered her mother’s call. She wasn’t even comfortable talking to her mother in the same room where she made the videos.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, Busy Lizzie. How are you?”
She smiled at the endearment. “Fine. Sorry I haven’t called lately. Things have been crazy.”
“That’s okay, sweetheart. I know how busy you are with the flower shop. We were just wondering if you were still planning to pick up Madison this weekend or if you needed Daddy to do it.”
“I can do it. I’m picking her up Friday night and coming straight there for dinner. She wants to stay with me and then she’ll take my car to see you Saturday.” Lizzie closed her eyes as silence filled the airwaves. This was a recurring theme. Madison liked to stay with Lizzie. Who wouldn’t prefer staying with a sibling rather than eagle-eyed parents whose idea of a wild night was watching CNN and discussing current events?
“Oh.” Disappointment rang in her mother’s tone.
“Mom?” Lizzie went into the bedroom and checked her outfit one last time. She had on her favorite crushed-cotton skirt and a long-sleeved V-neck shirt that was soft as butter. Since she’d decided to give herself one more day with Blue, she hoped he’d find her irresistible and want to keep her close—even if she wasn’t going to sleep with him. She’d drawn that line in her head, and now, as she looked in the mirror, she wondered if it was fair to want him to find her irresistible. No, she reasoned. It was one thing to enjoy another day together before cutting ties, but a whole other thing to become even more intimate and then try to go back to real life. She ran her fingers through her hair, remembering the exquisite sting on her scalp when Blue had tangled his fingers in it. She flushed with the memory.
“That’s fine,” her mother finally said, bringing Lizzie’s mind back to their conversation. “We’ll enjoy our time together when you get here. We love you, honey.”
Familiar guilt settled around her as she ended the call. Not guilt over her sister staying with her, but the feeling that she was hiding part of herself from her own family. She wished she could talk about the show, and Blue, and that her parents would be supportive and understanding. Maybe even thankful that she was helping Maddy financially and thankful that she’d done such a miraculous job of helping herself. But knowing what their reaction would be, that wasn’t an option, which was why she hadn’t even told Maddy or Sky. She couldn’t take the chance of her parents finding out about the Naked Baker. She couldn’t take the chance of losing them.
A knock at the door startled her back to the moment, and a new type of guilt found her. She glanced at a photograph of her and Madison, both sticking their tongues out at the camera, and she reminded herself that these lies of omission were just her way of doing what she had to do to help her sister. Her flower shop earned her a good living, but the desolate Cape winters meant stretching every penny, and she didn’t earn nearly enough to pay for four years of college for Madison. She’d never dipped into the Naked Baker income for herself or her flower shop, but if she were honest with herself, even knowing it was an option helped her through the rough winters.
She pulled open the door and found Blue casually leaning one arm on the doorframe, holding the picture they’d painted together in the other. Her breath caught in her throat, but it was her heart, once again, that pulled her under. It wasn’t just the way his inky hair magnified the rugged edges of his cheeks and jaw, or his athletic physique that she’d slept beside, touched, and practically memorized. She knew her heart wasn’t skipping to a new beat because of Blue’s innately captivating presence. What she felt went too deep for just good looks. It was the depths of emotion in his eyes that had her stepping forward, going up on her toes, and kissing him like he was hers. And when he wrapped his strong arms around her waist, holding her as close as two people could be, and kissed her possessively, she knew she’d crossed an invisible line. She was already his.
“That was the longest hour of my life.” He kissed her again. “Let’s not do that again.”
She laughed. “How will we go to work?”
“Work is highly overrated.” He squeezed her to him. “This is where we should always be. Right like this.”
He captured her mouth again in a slow, sensuous kiss, leaving her powerless to resist his charms—and unwilling to even try.
AFTER HANGING THE picture they’d painted between her kitchen and living room, so she could see it from either area, they drove out to Yarmouth, stopping for muffins and coffee along the way. Blue wished Lizzie had accepted a date with him a year ago. Despite her claims that her life was too complicated for them to date, she was warm and openly affectionate, holding his hand and kissing him without his prompting. He could only assume she’d somehow waylaid those worries in the hour they’d spent apart.
She was acting different, even more relaxed than last night and when they were making out this morning. More present and less hesitant. Not only was she not afraid to join him in singing off-key like a goof on the way into Yarmouth, but she tortured him—in the very sweetest way—with the silliest knock-knock jokes known to man. He loved seeing that uninhibited side of her almost as much as he loved seeing the unguarded sensual side of her.
They spent the morning perusing arts-and-crafts booths at the annual Seaside Festival. The grounds were lined with large blue vendor tents, selling everything from handmade furniture to used books and children’s toys. Lizzie gravitated toward the more crafty exhibits, like homemade quilts and pottery, which didn’t surprise him, given her creativity with flowers and plants.
Children ran around the lawn, and a clown entertained a group outside the largest tent. Lizzie pulled Blue over to watch.
“When I was little I was afraid of clowns,” she confided as the clown made balloon animals for the children.
“Because of the whole strange man dressed up in a costume and playing with little kids thing?”
She laughed, and he tugged her in closer for a kiss.
“That scares me, too. But I’ll protect you.”
“I bet you will,” she said with another sweet laugh.
After watching the clown, they meandered through a few more booths, then wandered over to listen to the band playing by the beach. Lizzie pulled Blue into the center of a crowd of people who were dancing.
“I suck at dancing,” he said, holding her close and hoping she’d stick with a slow dance.
“You couldn’t suck at anything. Just let yourself go.” She pushed away and swayed her
sexy little hips, awakening his entire body. “Come on, move with me.” She stepped in closer and placed her hands on his hips. Pressing her body against him, she guided him to the beat, instantly arousing him. “See? You can dance. You just needed the right motivation.”
He clenched his jaw against his mounting desire. She was so sexy, with those dimples beckoning to be kissed as she smiled up at him, oblivious to what she was doing to him.
“Only with you, Lizzie.”
Her fingers trailed over his chest, making it impossible to take his mind off of her seductive dancing. And when she lifted her hands over her head and swayed, it was all he could do to keep from taking her right there.
“Lizzie,” he warned.
Her eyes narrowed, darkened, and a wicked smile split her lips. She was clearly aware of the effect she was having on him. He took her hand and led her out of the crowd.
“Where are we going?” She stumbled to keep up as he pulled her too quickly behind the stage and gathered her warm, pulsing body against him.
His hands traced over her curves as he took her in a punishingly intense kiss, knowing it was all they could have. She pressed her body to his, moaning with pleasure, making him want to go further despite the fact that they were outside at a festival with hundreds of people walking around just out of eyesight.
“I’m sorry,” he said against her mouth. “I had to kiss you.”
“You don’t have to take me away from people to kiss me, Blue. I’m with you.”
He loved the sound of that, although he would have liked it even more if she’d said, I’m yours. “I didn’t take you away just to kiss you.” He stepped back, and her eyes dropped to his very noticeable arousal.
“Oh.” She covered her mouth with a giggle.
“Get over here.” He kissed her again, and she rocked against him. “You’re not helping.”