The Cosy Christmas Chocolate Shop

by Caroline Roberts

  She spotted a few last Prosecco glasses they’d missed on the counter. She picked them up as if to head to the kitchen. Delaying tactics, you coward, her mind was heckling her, Bouncer had definitely left her head space. Oh jeez.

  Max caught up with her in two steps, brushed the hair from the side of her neck and kissed her there, oh so tenderly, making all sorts of strange things happen to her insides.

  She turned to face him, her back now against the counter. He pressed his body against hers as he kissed her once more, deep and sensual with tongues probing, twining. Oh my …

  Sod the washing-up. She placed the glasses back down beside her and cupped the back of his head in her hands, where his hair was short, slightly spiky, firmly holding his face to hers as the kiss continued, intensely. They both knew where this was heading.

  Max pulled back gently. His deep green eyes fixed on hers. ‘Are you okay? You sure about this?’

  ‘Yes,’ her voice squeaked. Bloody hell, why was she so damned nervous? She was a thirty-six-year-old woman, for heaven’s sake. It wasn’t as though she’d never done this before. ‘Ah … it’s just I haven’t had sex in four years,’ she blurted out.

  ‘Four years?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Well, no wonder you’re nervous. And hey, no pressure on me then … Better make it worthwhile.’ He gave her a gorgeous, cheeky grin, and took her back into a hug.

  It might just be all right. Hopefully, much more than all right. In fact, she couldn’t think of anyone else she’d rather be about to have sex with, to be honest, and that included Ryan Gosling and Gerard Butler.

  Go girl! A new voice took over in her mind. It was feisty and sexy and she hadn’t heard it in a very long time.

  She took his hand and led him upstairs, heading initially for the living room (she felt slightly anxious about leading him straight off to bed), where she gently told him to sit down.

  ‘You have a thing about sofas, don’t you?’ he smiled. A smile that was warm through to his eyes – his very sexy eyes.

  She moved to position herself on his lap, so very close. Took his face in her hands again and began kissing him extremely slowly, yearning growing between them. She felt this huge, rather scary, overwhelming feeling of love for him. Oh my, could this really be love again? He had made her laugh, smile, had wiped her tears, held her hand – he’d even stood in for the carpenter, despite being so busy himself, to make her chocolate shop café come true, dammit – and now this, this last beautiful hurdle.

  They were both fully clothed, but couldn’t be much closer. She could feel the heat from his jeans, the firmness there beneath her. She was obviously doing something right, even though she was a little out of practice.

  She gave a long, slow sigh. ‘I think we should take this to the bedroom.’

  Alfie, who’d followed them through and was sitting beneath the sofa, raised an eyelid, and then slid his head back down to the floor.

  Emma took Max’s hand and led the way, excited and slightly anxious all at once.

  She was with this gorgeous man in her double room. And there was Luke looking at her from the dressing table. Oh, no, she hadn’t thought to move his photo. But that would have seemed wrong too. No, she mustn’t think of him now. But how could she not, he was still such a huge part of her life? But she knew if she didn’t give herself to Max, she’d never give herself to anyone again. He’s gone, Emma. It’s okay, a voice in her mind spoke out. A silent tear welled in her eye. She blinked quickly, turned to face Max, and buried herself in his kisses.

  Max was tender and caring, taking things slowly, yet not too slowly, kissing her shoulders as he slipped her blouse over her head, tracing her body with confident, caring hands. She kissed him back, touched him, tracing the hard, muscular lines of his body so different from Luke’s leaner form, his body, so wonderfully new to her.

  Then there was nothing but skin on skin, and their slow, rhythmic dance of love. Every nerve ending tingled, delighted, so alive. He plunged deep within her, still kissing her. Oh, my!

  And they moved together, until she came in a warm, beautiful pulse around him.

  They clung to each other.

  ‘Wow,’ Max whispered, still above her.

  Then from nowhere tears formed, Emma struggled to keep them back.

  ‘Em, are you okay? Did I hurt you?’ Max scanned her tearful face.

  She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand as he gently moved to lie beside her.

  ‘I’m okay,’ but she couldn’t hide the sniffling from her voice. ‘Really, I’m okay. Sorry.’

  He held her to him for a few tender moments. She could feel the mass of balled-up emotions within her unravelling.

  She needed to try to explain. ‘I didn’t think that I could ever feel like that again.’ It was so beautiful, tender, like he’d reached her soul somehow. It was so much more than sex.

  He smiled, relaxed a little, looked at her as she spoke again. ‘And it feels kind of strange too. Disloyal to Luke, you know …?’

  ‘Yeah, I get that.’

  ‘I’m sorry … Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s nothing against you.’

  She lay quietly. Her head on his chest, his arms gently around her.

  ‘You know,’ he began, ‘if I were your Luke I wouldn’t want you to be sad or lonely, or not have someone special in your life to care for you. It’s been what, seven years, Emma? I think he’ll be happy for you, honestly.’ He stroked her hair. ‘If he thought as much of you as I do, he’d want you to be happy again.’

  The words sank in … Max must feel so much for her. Were they learning to love each other? She snuggled up close to him. He was still slightly sweaty from their lovemaking, and that felt good. And though her heart was still in two places, yes, put like that, it made sense.

  ‘Thank you.’ She spoke against his chest.

  ‘Well, I mean, I’d like you to wait at least five years or so, after I’m gone. I’ll be haunting you else – if you were to go near another bloke too soon,’ he quipped to lighten the mood.

  The thought of losing someone else she cared so much for … She couldn’t begin to imagine being faced with that again, felt a prickle of fear. ‘Well, I’m kind of hoping we won’t have to go through anything like that …’

  ‘Yeah, me too.’ And he kissed the top of her head.

  36

  ‘Morning, beautiful.’

  What a lovely way to be woken up. ‘Morning,’ she answered.

  Emma vaguely remembered coming to in the middle of the night and realising there was a man in her bed; a lovely, gorgeous, Max-shaped man. And then was a little mortified as she remembered how she’d been in a bit of state over Luke.

  But Max hadn’t taken it too personally by the sound of it. He leaned across and gave her a peck on the cheek, his light beard rather tickly.

  ‘Gotta get up and get going, I’m afraid. I need to be on site at Gateshead by eight thirty. I’m meeting the owner of the property we’re working on.’

  ‘Ah, shame.’ And she snuggled in a little closer, with her bare breasts nestled against his chest. She really did not want Max to leave her bed just yet.

  He looked down at what was going on, not able to hide the longing in his eyes as he took in the fullness of her breasts against him. ‘Now that’s mean,’ he smiled, ‘when I haven’t got time to do anything about it. I really, really do have to go, Em.’ He sounded like he was trying to persuade himself, and with a decisive lurch he started getting out of bed.

  Emma watched his firm, bare back, the muscles defined there, the neat buttocks below a little paler than the rest of him. Hmm. She lay there smiling to herself, but the bed was starting to feel colder already.

  She also had loads to do herself, but she couldn’t resist leaping out of bed to follow him. She had missed this physical contact, these feelings so much. She embraced him from behind, her arms tight around his chest, and started kissing the back of his neck. He turned to her, his erection
perfectly formed, kissed her mouth provocatively, setting light to every nerve in her body.

  ‘Another time …’ He grinned, moving away from her to grab his clothes, then heading for the bathroom. ‘I really have to get ready and go.’

  ‘Do you want to come back tonight?’ Emma had called Max by mid-afternoon. She’d gone from ice maiden to red-hot lover in the space of a weekend.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Oh, yes.’

  ‘Well then, I won’t keep a lady waiting. Of course. I’ll drive up after work.’ She could hear the smile in his tone.

  ‘I’ll make some supper. But, don’t get too excited. It won’t be anything too fancy. Anything you don’t eat?’

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘Good. See you later then. Better go, there’s someone just come in to the shop.’

  ‘See you later, Em.’

  After clearing up the final debris from last night, taking a quick shower, and making more choc-chip shortbread as the jar was emptying out, Emma had another hectic day. Whilst Holly served at the counter, Emma was dashing about making up the orders: teas, coffees, hot chocolates (she ran out of spray cream at one point and had to make a dash to the grocer’s), and she warmed slices of Maureen’s wonderful three-layer cake served with a blob of cream as an option which was proving extremely popular. There were milkshakes to blend, brownies to cut to size for the mini bites – it was all go. In fact, there was someone in constantly from opening to close, which was just fabulous and the till had kept on dinging.

  They finally turned the sign over at twenty past five.

  ‘Hey, what a day,’ Holly said, as she cleared the last of the cups and saucers. ‘It never got this busy even in the chip shop. It’s just brill, Em. Everyone loves the coffee shop idea.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m still pinching myself that it’s all really happened. Thanks so much for that lightbulb moment, Hols, and for all your help in making it a reality.’

  ‘No worries, Em. I still love working here, even though my feet are done in today.’

  ‘Mine too.’ In fact, she felt like she was pretty much aching all over. The physical and mental effort of the past few weeks was catching up on her.

  She paid Holly her wages in cash and was able to give her assistant a little bonus. ‘Just to say thanks for all the help you’ve given me over the last couple of weeks too.’

  ‘Aw, Em. You don’t have to.’

  ‘No, you’ve worked hard. You deserve it. Go and get yourself a little treat. Also, Hols, I’m going to need you to do full days on a Saturday for me, right up until Christmas at least, and I know in two weeks’ time I’ve got myself booked to do a Christmas market. Thought I’d give it a try. Do you think you can manage here? I could get Bev to come in and give you a hand, knowing how busy it was today. Yes, that’d be better, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘Yeah, the two of us would be good, if you were away. But yes, that’s fine. The extra pay will be great for getting Christmas presents. I have no idea what to get Adam yet and I want it to be special.’

  Emma smiled to herself. They were both thinking of the other. ‘You’ll have to have a think on it. There’s plenty of time yet.’

  ‘Yeah, I know, but thanks for the extra cash today.’ And with that Holly gave her boss a hug as she left.

  She’d better think of something to make for supper for her and Max. Salmon, that would be nice; if she could find some fresh fillets in the supermarket down the road, she could pan-fry them in sweet chilli sauce – she had a jar of that in the cupboard. Okay, that was a bit of a cheat, but she didn’t have a lot of time to play with here, or a large budget, and she could serve them with some baby potatoes and vegetables. For dessert, she could make a couple of batches of brownies for tomorrow for the shop, and use two of them tonight served with some fresh raspberries – hey presto! Meal sorted. She whizzed to the supermarket – yes, they had salmon in, and raspberries, and she also picked up a bottle of white wine as a treat.

  Max arrived soon after seven and they dived into each other’s arms. She had missed this so much, this physicality, when you just couldn’t wait to be near to someone.

  ‘Good day?’ he asked.

  ‘Yeah, pretty busy. I think word is getting around about the Chocolate Café already.’

  ‘Great.’

  ‘You?’

  ‘Yep, all good. Finally made some progress on those kitchen units, so we can crack on again with that job.’

  ‘That’s good.’

  They chatted, they ate, they enjoyed a glass or two of the wine.

  As Emma took the plates across to the sink, Max moved in behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, burying his head in her neck with a flurry of gentle kisses. She turned to kiss him back, deeply, passionately. They were both keen to get back to where they’d left off rather abruptly this morning.

  Then, naked in her double bed, Max was massaging her back with long firm strokes. Boy, was that good. She’d been really achy after a full day on her feet serving in the café, and from the last week’s painting, cleaning, cooking, chocolate crafting and more.

  She could feel the tension starting to ebb away, her muscles beginning to relax and respond to his touch. Mmm, he was rather good at this. This was going in such a lovely, blissed-out, sensual direction.

  She came to. It was getting light. Half-past seven on her wristwatch. What the …?

  Emma opened her eyes. Max was there beside her, all warm, naked, and manly.

  He must have sensed her movement, opened his eyes, saw her looking, smiled. ‘Morning, beautiful.’

  ‘Hi, gorgeous.’ But she couldn’t remember, what had happened before she fell asleep, had they? Curiosity got the better of her. ‘Uh, last night … did we?’ She’d been so looking forward to it.

  ‘Nope. I was giving you a massage and you fell asleep on me.’ He gave a wry grin.

  ‘Oops.’ How embarrassing.

  ‘Snoring and everything. I think you even dribbled at one point.’

  ‘Noooo.’ How mortifying. ‘I was just so shattered, though.’ She hid under the covers for a second. The shame. She resurfaced to find him laughing.

  ‘Had you for a second there, didn’t I?’

  ‘You swine.’ She launched a pillow at him.

  ‘I must admit, though, I really do need to rethink my foreplay technique if that’s the end result.’

  ‘Hah, well in that case you might just need to get some more practice in.’ She was grinning back at him now. They had time on their side. It was a Sunday. Yes, she had chocolates to make as always, but the shop didn’t open till midday on Sundays.

  And he did get some more practice in – and it did not send her even remotely to sleep this time. In fact, he woke up every little nerve ending in her body and it was rather bloody amazing.

  Max had to leave just after 9.00 a m., as he had to get down to a new building project in Jesmond. He’d missed breakfast, saying it was worth it with a cheeky smile, and mentioned there was a handy little coffee shop near the site which did the most amazing banana milkshakes, so he’d drop by there.

  Emma found herself heading downstairs to the shop for the day with a big smile on her face, but already she’d started wondering when she might be seeing him next, and there was a strange sense of fear too. It had been so long since she’d opened up her heart. Yes, the sex was pretty damn amazing, but was she beginning to like this guy too much? Had she just got carried away with it all?

  The next evening, she was in Bev’s kitchen, a glass of Pinot Grigio to hand.

  ‘Good weekend?’ Bev asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And …? Come on, tell me all about the hot hunk. You have, haven’t you? I knew it! The way he kept looking at you on Friday night – honestly, I’m surprised all those chocolate canapés didn’t melt! And then it was so obvious that he wasn’t going to leave …’

  Emma gave a careful smile. She felt it had just snowballed around her, somehow.

  ‘So, what�
�s the problem?’

  ‘I’m not sure. It’s just maybe we’ve both fallen into it too easy, too soon.’

  ‘What are you saying?’

  ‘Well, he seems a nice enough guy and we get on fine. But can it really go anywhere? We’re both busy people, with businesses …’ She let her voice trail. It was like she was building her own get-out clause, just in case.

  ‘So, let me get this straight, because you both have busy lives you can’t have a relationship? Well, that counts out most of the human population, Em.’

  ‘Maybe I’m just a bit wary.’

  ‘Well, that’s understandable. Why don’t you just take it steady and see how it goes?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  Suddenly she was feeling so confused.

  37

  Despite her emotional wobble, Max stayed over again the following Saturday night. Waking up to find someone was in your bed still felt strange after all these years for Emma, but as they made early morning love, her body felt wanted, and warm, and so very alive.

  ‘Any plans today?’ Max asked later, at breakfast, chatting over coffee and toast at her little fold-up table in her upstairs kitchen. ‘I imagine the shop’s opening as usual this afternoon, but for once I’m not expected on site. It’s Sunday and I’m taking some time out. No dramas this week, a full quota of staff. Brilliant.’

  Alfie was in his basket beside them, looking up at Emma, hopeful of a crust of toast.

  ‘Well, Bev’s coming to cover the shop, actually. Adam’s gran is involved with a Christmas Fayre for Age Concern down at the village hall and asked if I’d go across for a couple of hours and hold a stall there. They’ve got cards and a gift stall coming, and they’re organising teas, cakes and coffees. I think there’s also a raffle and some kind of auction going on. Sorry, it may not quite be what you were imagining for your day off … but you’d be welcome to come along and keep me company.’

  ‘Why not? I’ve nothing better to do, and at least it means I can spend a bit more time with you. Yeah, we’ll go check out the oldies scene, see what we’ve got to look forward to. It’ll be all Zimmer frames and slippers, no doubt.’ He grinned.