by Sosie Frost
“Do you need any help?”
The last time Delta entered my kitchen she accidentally baked a knife into an apple pie, broke the handle of my best copper-bottomed pan, and melted the groom topper on the Miller’s wedding cake with a Crème brûlée torch I specifically hid from her. Delta swiped a Lego man from her kid brother to replace the plastic figure, but it just wasn’t as elegant.
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I like baking on the weekends. I like baking any time.”
“Freak.”
“Party-Animal.”
Delta howled, which I’m sure her office loved, but it was a Friday and they were probably relieved she wasn’t pole dancing next to the Xerox machine. I promised to call her on Saturday and headed home.
Or…I went to my apartment.
I lost my home in the fire—the cute little rooms over the shop. But my new apartment was comfortable, if only because I packed every available space with fifty-pound bags of flour, tubs of sugar, a variety of nuts, cocoa powders, chips, and baking spices. Even my linen closet was filled with brown sugar and corn syrup and cookie sheets.
My apartment still teased with a vanilla scent from the last batch of cookies I made. It’d only get better. I dumped my recipe book on the table and sorted through what’d work best for the event. Nolan ordered an obscene quantity of cookies…
…Probably because the creep liked the thought of my slaving over a hot stove.
And other places I refused to imagine.
I had no place to prep. Most of my counters were crowded with too many papers and folders. They were the final piece in my puzzle—the crown of my yearlong investigation of Nolan that would prove his involvement in the fire. It took a while to find, but I finally had the blueprints, plans, and engineering schematics Nolan commissioned for my shop. The plans were delivered the week he made the offer on my property. Public record was a funny thing, and having a former classmate on the inside of the busiest engineering firm in the county helped when I needed more information.
The engineers designed plans for Nolan’s renovation and reconstruction of Sweet Nibbles from bakery to a trendy bed-and-breakfast. If nothing else, the plans were presumptuous, the makings of a man used to getting what he wanted when he wanted it. Had I agreed to the sale, he’d have taken his first reservation for the inn the night I signed the transfer. But I refused him and his perverted proposal, and my store burned to the ground.
I spun sugar for a living, but when the licorice whip needed to crack, I was all business. It took me a year, but I’d prove Nolan belonged behind bars. Then, nothing would stop me from getting my shop back.
Nothing.
Except a knock at the door.
I dove over the papers, shoving them in the first available hiding space…which happened to be my refrigerator. I edged the milk and a couple containers of yogurt out of the way and jammed my future legal case beside the week-old lunch meat.
Damn, Delta. It was just like her to be too sweet to let me spend a weekend alone. She stayed with me every Friday since the break-up, since the trials started and he was gone. I loved having her around, but tonight was a date with two dozen oatmeal raisin cookies before moving to nut horns and the pecan tassies before the…
The knocking thudded louder, insistent. A fist punished the door frame. I bit my lip.
That wasn’t Delta.
I edged close, flinching as the pounding shook the door. Almost angry.
But who would be angry? My stomach clenched. The reaction was ridiculous. Nothing bad ever happened in our sugar-starved little town.
Nothing except arson.
Nothing except almost losing my life in a terrible fire.
But who was counting?
The slamming practically jarred my teeth. Something wasn’t right. I should have dialed the police or called someone for help.
Instead, I opened the door and made the biggest mistake of my life.
He waited on my porch. Silent. Staring.
Maddox was free.
And he’d come for me.
2
Josie
Nothing I did could save me from him now.
My breath caught somewhere between my chest and the imagined words I’d whispered to him in the worst moments of my loneliness.
The last time I saw Maddox, the police were shoving him into their cruiser. The EMTs hid me in the ambulance. I didn’t remember much. My shop was burning. Granddad was already in transit. And the love of my life stared at me, his eyes blazing as fierce and hot as the flames that consumed my world.
He’d saved me from the fire.
And then they took him to jail.
Maddox stood in my doorway, as huge and intimidating as I remembered. His leather jacket clung to his body, so much bigger than the last time I saw him. He’d bulked up in jail. Massively. The town feared him when he was just lean muscle and attitude. Now he grew silent and imposing.
He was still the most amazingly beautiful man I’d ever seen.
And he couldn’t be here. Not now. Not when I was so close. It’d ruin everything and jeopardize everyone.
Tears prickled my eyes, but not out of relief. Not because my fractured heart healed itself as the man who controlled its every beat replaced the scattered pieces with the only thing more dangerous than his presence.
Hope.
And fear.
If he was back, then none of us were safe.
“Maddox?” I didn’t recognize my voice. Didn’t recognize the word on my lips.
It wasn’t possible.
But I was so glad it was…and I was terrified of what would happen.
“Josie.”
Maddox’s voice seared through me, igniting everything I’d buried deep down, hidden in ash and misery. The word sizzled through me. Hot.
If fire came to life, it’d take the form of Andrew Maddox. Someone violent when uncontrolled, beautiful when tamed, and unpredictable and strong, even as the world attempted to extinguish it.
Once upon a time…his touch warmed my every chill. The intensity of his stare could suck the air from the room. In his darkest moments, his midnight eyes trapped me in desire.
Then, I never wanted to be apart from him. Now, I couldn’t let him near. Losing him wasn’t a punishing burn. That loneliness was cold. I lived in isolation and longed for the strike of a match.
“You’re out of jail?” Why did I ask the question? Part of me feared it was true…the rest trembled, imagining some sort of reckless escape from the law.
Maddox’s lips teased a smirk. “Does that surprise you?”
“Yes.”
“I was innocent.”
That wasn’t what the judge said, and it certainly wasn’t what the town thought. Enough rumors and whispers and frightening stories passed through the three streetlight town about Maddox before the fire. I believed some of them. I ignored the rest. Then I caused more when I fell in love with him.
Now he was home. Out of jail.
I couldn’t protect him here.
How was I supposed to send him away?
His dark hair obscured most of his face. He kept it just long enough to frighten people when he popped the collar of his leather jacket and waited in the shadows. His chin jutted, hard and chiseled, and his nose, never perfectly straight, matched the severe angle of his jaw.
“Josie.”
I dared to look up, even knowing how much I’d lose if I met his gaze. He used to hate when I compared his eyes to my favorite dark chocolate brownie recipe, but nothing else came close. Espresso maybe? Chocolate ganache? I used to get hungry with Maddox…but what I craved most wasn’t dessert.
“It’s been over a year.” He spoke as if I hadn’t counted every hour, minute, and second we’d been separated. “Too damn long, Sweets.”
I melted like a truffle every time he used the nickname. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for you.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
&n
bsp; “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Maybe to him. He always knew what he wanted. He always got what he wanted. I had no idea if he was right or wrong for me, only that I never considered the consequences when he took me in his arms. That danger made him all the more attractive. He was tall, dark, but he wasn’t classically handsome. Handsome implied trustworthiness, someone gentlemanly and tender.
Maddox was none of those.
Trusting him was a mistake. Welcoming him close was a disaster. His warmth consumed me. Entirely. Dangerously. Inescapably.
“We broke up.” I said it gently because I hated saying it at all.
Maddox nodded. “That was my mistake.”
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“This is the only place for me.”
“When did you…”
“I had a parole hearing…” He tensed in the doorway, his fingers crushing the wooden frame. “You didn’t get my letter?”
Uh-oh. “No.”
“You didn’t take any of my calls either.”
I stumbled backward, hating that it looked like an invitation. Maddox stepped inside my apartment, shutting the door.
Trouble came in many forms, the worst of which existed in my heart. My back pressed against the wall, and I looked up to meet the shadow of his stare. I was never once afraid of this man, not even now when he studied me, memorized me, towered over me. Not many people knew the real Maddox. No one gave him a chance. I did, and I was the fool who fell for him.
“How’d you get so beautiful?” His voice lowered to that honeyed growl. “Christ, I missed you.”
I didn’t speak if only because I didn’t trust what I’d say. How badly I missed him? How I was lost without him in my bed?
How angry I was that nothing I did had prevented what happened.
His hands flattened on the wall behind me, pinning me beneath the simmering, molten man. My heart thrashed, beating everything inside my chest well beyond soft peaks. The paleness of his skin clashed against my smooth, nutmeg brown complexion. I resisted the urge to touch him and entwine our hands. I used to love nothing more than to admire how beautiful we looked together, light and dark, tender and hard, gentle and…
Rough.
Dangerous.
Wild.
But surrendering to his touch was risky. Maddox stared at me, hungry and desperate and so unbelievably lonely.
And I knew why. It shamed me. It hurt me.
But I had no choice.
“I wanted to find you.” His words roughened, but they were as much a caress as Maddox could give. “I had to see you again. To hold you.”
He wanted more than that. His chest strained the thin T-shirt, hardly containing the twitching, testosterone-packed muscles. The leather jacket creaked as he leaned in, crackling the tight material. I hadn’t looked down yet, but I knew what waited in his jeans. Something hard. Something equally wicked.
I held my breath. It did nothing but invite his spicy, cedar and black pepper scent deeper into my lungs. It banished every lingering, nauseating nightmare rattling in my memory. Burnt sugar. Acrid smoke. Antiseptic.
Was it possible the man I lost, the one I couldn’t let myself love again, was the only one who could chase away the fear from the fire?
I spent a year fighting to forget him.
I tossed and turned every night denying my desire for him.
I refused to let my heart break for him.
And it was all for nothing.
Maddox descended on me. His lips crashed against mine in a blind fury, ravenous, unrivaled by the times in our past when he was so desperate to make me his. He was the first man to take me, the only one who’d ever had me. Maddox transformed me from an innocent virgin into wanton woman, transfixed by his strength and eager for his grip upon my hips.
He grabbed me. Time stilled. I counted.
One second, and my gasp blended into a gentle mew.
Two seconds, and he pressed me hard against the wall.
Three seconds, and I was his again.
His lips didn’t nibble, and his kiss wasn’t kind or slow. Maddox was ravenous.
When he wanted me, he took me, and nothing prevented us from exploring that pleasure. A man as fierce as him should have terrified me. Instead, I was only overwhelmed by his lust. A year of separation only made that need worse.
His tongue flicked against mine, quick and insistent. This wasn’t a tease. I clawed at him, pulled him closer, and waited for that moment when I might have caught my breath. I should have stopped him from leading us into a temptation beyond what we could handle.
But I’d missed him. I ached for him.
I wanted Maddox more than anything—more than my store, more than finding the real criminal who destroyed my life with this perfectly imperfect man.
“Did you…” Maddox broke the kiss. He stared, challenging me to deny him. “Did you think about me?”
“Yes.”
He smiled. A look of vindication didn’t belong in the bedroom. Good thing he pinned me to the hallway wall.
Maddox seized my mouth once more. He stole my breath and nipped my bottom lip. His hand dragged along my face, his fingers calloused. I didn’t expect him to be gentle. He never was.
“You didn’t come to see me.” His words were harsh. If he expected an answer, he didn’t give me time. His lips crushed mine, and he ripped the leather jacket from his shoulders.
My heart fluttered and broke.
Scars.
His arms and hands were covered in scars. Burns. He didn’t hide them. Every silvered strike against his flesh came from the night he saved me.
I didn’t have time to move away. My lips tingled from his kiss, but even they couldn’t move, couldn’t speak to tell him what a mistake we made. I pressed my hands to chest. Pushed.
He grasped my wrists. I murmured as he forced my hands over my head. Now I was in trouble, but my core clenched, hard. Wanting. Needing.
“You never visited me.” Maddox grunted between kisses, his lips heating a trail as he captured the soft hollow of my neck. “You never came to check on me. To make sure I was okay.”
No. I hadn’t visited him in prison. I couldn’t.
What was I supposed to say?
His kiss became a bite, pinching the sensitive skin of my neck. It’d leave a mark. Always did.
Maddox loomed over me, pinning me to the wall and savoring the view of my body exposed for his amusement. His pleasure. He forced me still. I once loved knowing that his strength controlled every part of me.
That desire had never faded.
“I was innocent, Josie.”
We both knew that. Difference was, I couldn’t say it.
“We’d broken up,” I whispered.
“You still loved me as much as I loved you.” He reached for me, brushing my cheek, pushing me too hard into the wall. “Don’t lie. You’re still in love with me.”
I shook my head. “We can’t do this.”
His touch cascaded shivers over my body. “Can’t do what? Love each other? Be together? Feel each other?”
Yes, yes, and yes.
I wasn’t ready to face him again. I couldn’t prepare for the heat of his breath on my neck or his rough fingers tugging on the hem of my shirt. He didn’t strip me to see what he had missed this past year. He was after something more…rewarding.
His fingers flicked the button of my jeans. My heart raced my flipping stomach, daring the other to punk out first. This was too much. Too fast.
I had no idea the prison released Maddox, but I should have known he’d find me the instant he gained his freedom. He got drunk on the words I offered, the kisses he took. It would only get worse and better and out of control.
Why was this so hard? I fought every instinct to surrender to my wild, emotionally crazed ex-boyfriend who had taken me so many times before. We couldn’t do this.
My lips refused to breathe the word no, but what would happen if I didn’t refuse him? I
f I let him back into my life? My bed?
My body.
He unfastened my jeans, and my breath squeezed too tight in my lungs. God, I was unraveling. I was always a few chocolate chips short of a functional cookie in his presence. Now, I melted at his feet. His stare was too much to handle while my memories danced through our every romantic moment and passionate embrace.
I couldn’t free myself from his grip. The zipper on my jeans lowered.
I quieted. He didn’t have to hold me. Maddox could’ve pinned me to the wall with just his raptor gaze.
“If you knew how much I missed you.” His voice boiled, a slow and dangerous rumble. He traced the exposed patch of my belly hiding under the zipper. “I spent every minute of my sentence thinking of you.”
What might have been romantic only made this so much harder. “Maddox—”
“I worried about you.” His hand tightened on my wrists. I heard the bite in his words, but it hung as a fearful question rather than a lunge for my throat. “Were you safe?”
I nodded.
“Don’t lie to me.”
My voice wavered. “I’m not lying. I was fine.”
“Someone burned down your store, Sweets. You almost died. I had nightmares that they’d try again and I wouldn’t be there to protect you.”
My heart pounded. “I’m not yours to worry about anymore.”
“Like hell.”
He released my hands if only so he could hold me with both of his. His lips crushed me, and he pressed me into the wall. I shivered, trapped between heat, muscle, and an undeniable desire that layered me in the goose bumps only he could create. Every shift of his body churned a deeper, desperate urge for his touch, his kiss, his…
Everything.
I groaned against him. Maddox tugged my jeans down. My panties tucked inside the denim. I had only a moment to prevent this mistake.
I was too slow.
Maddox remembered everything about my body, including how to tease where I was the most vulnerable. He stroked between my legs, finding shamefully slick folds. I learned how to pleasure myself once he was gone, but nothing rocked me harder than the flick of his fingers against my clit.
Fireworks and sprinkles and a crash of desire.