“Yes.” Hendrix ran her hands down his back. He reached for a nipple and drew it between his teeth, teasing the hard nub with a flick of his tongue. She was going to faint. She hadn’t felt like this ever. The anticipation, the passion and the depth of her need filled her.
Donovan began to move inside her. The hot sandalwood scent of his skin drove her crazy. She tightened her legs around his hips pulling herself up to meet each thrust as they grew faster and faster. His lips found the sweet spot behind her ear as he whispered her name over and over again.
Her inner muscles clenched, tightening around him and she knew she was seconds from letting go. She squeezed her eyes shut and wave after wave of ecstasy overtook her, flooding her senses with such exquisite hunger and lust she could barely breathe. Hendrix felt herself tumble over the edge and a second later Donovan joined her with one last powerful thrust. His body grew rigid as he poured himself into her.
She cried out.
For a long moment, she lay beneath him, his hands still gently kneading her breasts. As she slid into sleep, she had only one thought—he was way better than her best cake.
Chapter 10
Hendrix found herself humming as she puttered around her kitchen. She felt as if she were glowing. Every one of her nerve endings was still on fire from their night of almost continual lovemaking. She had never felt so sated in her life. Not until the wee hours of the morning did they finally fall into a deep sleep with Donovan curled around her, keeping her warm with one hand on her breast and the other holding her close to him.
Donovan had left her just before sunrise with a gentle kiss and smile. She’d had the best day of her life yesterday and the best sex ever. Her body felt alive.
A knock sounded on the back door and it opened before she could gather her wandering thoughts.
“I couldn’t wait any longer.” Billy Hernandez said as he walked into the kitchen. He took one look at her swollen lips and partially opened eyes and grinned. “Someone had a great night,” he said as he sat on the counter, swinging his legs.
“What are you doing here?” His voice brought her back to the present and she looked up from her prep table, remembering that she was making brownies. Wow, this was the first time a man had distracted her from her baking. Donovan Russell was a powerful distraction but a welcome one.
“Couldn’t wait. I quit yesterday.” He cut a wedge off the piece of cake Hendrix had already cut. He popped a bit of the cake into his mouth and closed his eyes in satisfaction as he chewed. “I didn’t think I was ever going to get my cake fix again.” He took another bite. “Those two women are hardcore jealous of you. Nothing they are doing is going to get Mitzi’s Cake Magic back on its feet.”
Hendrix sighed. “Sometimes I wish I could talk to Mitzi.”
“You couldn’t even if you wanted to. They put your name on a list of people not allowed in to see her. We’re all on the list.”
“I know.” Hendrix sighed and finished measuring chocolate powder into the brownie mixture. She wouldn’t have expected anything different from them.
“So here I am. I know you said you’d call, but...” He cut another slice of cake and plopped it on a paper plate.
Hendrix didn’t know where he put his food. He was tall and skinny and never seemed to stop eating.
“And what they’re doing to you is criminal.”
Hendrix agreed. She was still seething with anger over the suit. “I’m going to be angry for a long, long time.” She turned the mixer on and reached for the brownie pans, laying them out in a row, ready to receive the batter when it finished mixing.
Billy hopped down from the counter and came to help her measure parchment paper for the bottom of the pans. “Do you think your Mr. Russell will hire me?”
“I will get down on my knees and beg and cry.” And after last night, he’d cave. The memory of his lips on hers sent a tingle through her that left her gasping for breath. She hadn’t had such earth-shattering sex in her entire life. She realized her hands had paused in what they’d been doing. Heat bloomed across her cheeks. Billy gave her an odd look. She hastily looked away.
The front doorbell chimed.
“I’ll get it,” Billy said and headed toward the front door.
A minute later Donovan entered the kitchen, eyeing Billy suspiciously. Billy chattered away enthusiastically and after one look at Hendrix the tension drained away from Donovan’s face.
“Billy worked with me at Mitzi’s. Billy, this is Donovan. Donovan, this is Billy. Donovan, Billy needs a job. Can I hire him? I need an assistant.”
Donovan grinned. “Done.”
Billy’s mouth fell open as he stared at Donovan. “That was easy. Too easy. What’s the catch?”
“No catches. I’ve been thinking about an assistant for Hendrix for a couple of days. My kitchen nearly burned down and right now everything she makes with her magical hands is helping to keep us in business. I’m not messing with the karma goddess or Hendrix. You’re hired. Get yourself over to Human Resources first thing tomorrow. I’ll let them know you’re coming.”
“I have a big kitchen with an industrial-size oven and fridge. I can bake at my house, too,” Billy added.
Hendrix raised her hand and high-fived Billy. “Baking in our jammies and gettin’ paid. Living the dream, my friend, living the dream.”
“Not together, right?” Donovan said.
“He’s seen me in my Betty Boop pajamas before,” Hendrix said with a wicked grin.
Billy stood straight. “I’ve never seen her out of her Betty Boops.” For a second he looked startled. “That didn’t sound right, did it? I’m out of here. See you tomorrow, Hendrix, Mr. Russell.” He raced through the house like a teenager and the front door slammed after him.
“Ignore him,” Hendrix said with a grin. “He’s the younger brother I never had.”
Donovan pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “Keep it that way.”
“Oh. Jealous. I think I like that.” She kissed him again. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For hiring Billy. He couldn’t stand his job anymore. Lisa and Susan were making him miserable. If I were a different person, I’d say some truly unkind things about them, but my grandmother would be unhappy with me.”
“It can hurt when you don’t live up to family expectations,” Donovan said.
“I can’t imagine Miss E. ever being disappointed in any of you.” Hendrix turned off the mixer.
“Scott is the only one who inherited her craftiness.” Donovan helped her scoop batter out of the bowl and into the cooking pans. “I think she would have liked it if we’d been better poker players.”
Hendrix shook her head. “My grandmother would have liked me to be more of a ‘let it go, let it flow’ kind of person.”
“Your grandmother survives in the food business in San Francisco. That’s pretty cutthroat.”
“My grandmother survives because she makes a person feel bad if they do anything wrong to her. She has this Catholic nun stare that could put the president of the United States in his place. And there isn’t a politician who doesn’t miss her when they’re on the campaign trail. She knows everybody. She treats everyone with respect and makes sure everybody loves her—one scone at a time. I always thought she should run for office.”
She put the brownie pans into the ovens and set the timer. “What did you bring me?” she asked when she turned her attention back to him.
“Catalogs.” He handed them to her. “For your kitchen. We have a five-thirty appointment this afternoon with the sales rep and I want you to pimp out your kitchen.”
“Pimp out my kitchen.” She grabbed the catalogs with the excitement of a woman who’d just scored some major Tiffany bling. “Anything I want?”
“Anything you want.”
She sat down on a stool, her heart racing and her palms sweating. “Would you be embarrassed if I cried like a schoolgirl?”
He laughed. “Not at all.”
She opened the first catalog but not before she noticed how pleased he looked with himself. “You’re not doing this because of last night, are you?”
He kissed the end of her nose. “I’m doing this because dessert sales have increased 32 percent and my grandmother told me I had to make you happy. Also, she’s giving you a display case in the diner just for your baked goods.”
She could live with that. “You made me happy last night.”
He kissed her on the nose. “Then we are on the right path.”
What was not to like about this man? “To the promised land.”
“Have fun. I have a meeting with the linen people and I’ll be back to pick you up at five.” He waved as he walked down the hallway and out the front door.
She half waved back even though her gaze was on the open catalog. After paging quickly through all the catalogs, she found her thoughts wandering back to Mitzi. Mitzi had been her other mother, giving her a place to be herself. She hadn’t insisted Hendrix follow recipes making the same boring thing day after day. She’d let Hendrix experiment. Donovan was finally coming to understand Hendrix’s way of baking. No, she didn’t write things down because she kept them all in her head, but she loved the experimenting, the blending of unexpected flavors and the looks on customers’ faces as they allowed the flavors to explode on their taste buds.
Then it hit her, she had picked her path before Donovan and his catalogs came into her life. She had to make a decision. She’d wanted her own bakery so she could be her own person and here she was being given the kitchen of her dreams. She had never expected something like this. In her mind, her job at the hotel had been temporary but it was clear that Donovan wanted to make it permanent.
Last night Donovan had showed another side to his personality. They were so different, so at odds with their cooking styles, yet something worked. She and Donovan were two unexpected flavors that had come together in the most surprising way. How had that happened?
The timer on the oven dinged. She pulled the brownies out of the oven and set them on the worktable to cool.
When she’d first started working for him, she hadn’t thought they would ever get along. He was too much of a by-the-book kind of chef. And yet they’d found a common ground despite their differences. She was happier working with him than she’d been with Mitzi and she loved Mitzi.
Oh, my goodness. Did that mean she loved Donovan because she was so much happier? She had to think about that. And right now wasn’t the time.
* * *
Donovan didn’t know what he was doing. He’d never been so deeply attracted to a woman before. Not even Erica. He wanted to impress Hendrix and he liked that she looked at him as if he were a big, sexy, cream-filled cannoli.
He’d never known anyone before who had the same consuming passion for food he did. She was unconventional and eccentric, but she knew how to put a dessert together and seduce people with it. She’d certainly seduced him.
After meeting with the linen people, he walked into the restaurant to the sound of hammering and sawing. He liked the new blues and greens he’d finally decided on with Lydia’s help. She certainly knew how to make something unremarkable into something truly classy. The restaurant would be the finest dining experience available.
A crash sounded in the kitchen and he heard Lydia cry out.
“What are you doing?” Lydia’s voice rose.
Donovan entered the kitchen to find her standing in the center of the huge room staring at a wall of cabinets. “Those are not the cabinets we chose.”
“Ma’am,” the construction foreman said, “these are the cabinets that were delivered.”
“Don’t move. Not one step.” Lydia dug her phone out of her pocket. She looked like a bulldog—a very pregnant one.
Donovan had thought to help, but Lydia had the situation completely in control. He backed out of the kitchen to let her deal with it. Nothing he could say or do would help things move along any more quickly.
A hand landed on his shoulder and he found Scott behind him. “I need a minute of your time.”
“You got it,” Donovan said.
Scott led him to a table against a wall. On the table blueprints had been spread out. “Just wanted to show you what I’m doing with the new camera layout.” He pointed to various spots marked with ink. “I rearranged the security cameras to give better coverage in the kitchen areas.”
Donovan nodded. He had no idea how his brother could figure these things out, but he was the security expert. “My office, too?”
“Do you really want cameras in your office?”
“Why not?” Donovan asked confused.
“It’s your private office and I’m sure you want to do private things in your private office.”
“What do you think I’m going to be doing in my office?” Donovan wasn’t good at hiding his feelings, but he tried. The least he could do was protect Hendrix’s reputation with the staff.
“A good bodyguard is like a piece of furniture. People forget you’re there and do things. Use your imagination, bro.”
“Oh.” Donovan’s imagination was getting a workout. “I think I see. No security cameras in my office. But if we do have them, I should be able to turn them off when I want. Or maybe not. Let’s go with none at all.” In the heat of the moment, he’d forget to turn them off and Scott and his whole security team would get a front row seat to a very exiting show.
“My suggestion is that we put security cameras in the hallway outside your office and on the door to your office. That way if you do something private in your private office, you won’t have an audience.” A teasing smile lit his brother’s face.
Donovan laughed. “I get the picture.” If he wanted to kiss Hendrix he wouldn’t be sharing it with the world.
Scott rolled up the blueprints. “I spoke with the fire marshal this morning and he believes the fire wasn’t an accident. He thinks the rag was left on the stove deliberately. He interviewed all the staff, and according to my surveillance footage, nobody was near the stove just before the fire broke out. He’s tracking down all the delivery people who were on site just prior to the fire.”
“A lot of odd people work in the food business.And a lot of normal people, too.”
“What are you saying?” Scott asked.
“We’ve had so many odd things happening. The temperature gauges in the refrigerators have been broken or gone missing so many times, I keep extras locked in my desk. The tampering with the fire extinguishers and the first-aid kits. Someone isn’t happy.”
“It’s almost like someone wants to nitpick this casino to death. Nothing major happened until the fire broke out. And even then, you’re still feeding everyone so service wasn’t completely disrupted. I think whoever is behind all this can’t afford to be out of work.”
“But why. What’s the purpose behind all these little sneak attacks?”
“All of these issues go on record. That means if anything really major goes down, the health department will have this trail of violations. And maybe they could decide to shut the kitchens down completely.”
That sort of made sense. “That would ruin us.” Who would come to a hotel like the Mariposa if they didn’t have all the services they would expect somewhere else?
“I want to run something by you.” Scott’s face was set in serious lines. “I’m going to pull all the employment records for the restaurant and kitchen staff for the past two years.”
“Why?”
“This is an inside job, I just don’t know who the inside person is. And then I’m going to start looking at their financials.”
“You ca
n’t do that. Isn’t that illegal? It won’t hold up in court.”
“How do you know?” Scott looked surprised.
“I watch cop shows.”
“I’m not going to use this information to arrest anyone, just to establish a connection. Once I have that, I’ll take the information to one of my new friends at Reno PD. After all, I did get them a tank for their SWAT team.”
“You sure know how to make friends and influence people wherever you go, don’t you?”
“That’s the way I roll, brother.” Scott just grinned. He tucked the blueprints under his arm and waved as he walked out the door, bypassing Erica who was entering.
Erica stopped and looked around. “This is a major headache.” She gestured at the workman.
“Don’t I know it. I appreciate that you always handled this type of stuff.”
Erica smiled. “It was never easy.”
“What brings you here?”
“Would you like my assistance in dealing with all this?”
“No.” Erica never did anything without figuring out what she could get back. She always came with a price.
“In that case, I want one last attempt to talk you into coming back to Paris.”
“You already know the answer, Erica. No matter how aggravating all this is, I’m not returning.”
“You don’t owe your grandmother anything.”
Her remark irritated him. Just because she wasn’t on good terms with her family didn’t mean he wasn’t on good terms with his. “You may feel that way, but I don’t. She’s my grandmother. If I didn’t know any better she’s been plotting this for years.”
“I’m sure Miss E. would be really flattered that you think she’s that conniving.”
And so are you, Donovan thought. She’d lied about being pregnant to get him to marry her. Erica being conniving wasn’t the same as Miss E.’s meddling. What Erica did had been for selfish reasons. What Miss E. did was out of love for her grandchildren. The whole idea of finding investors and winning the poker game was just too complicated. Too much could have gone wrong.
Bet on My Heart Page 12