Unlikely To Fall In Love

by Esmeralda, Debie

  I loved seeing him upon waking up, loved seeing him smiling.

  I grinned at him, but then frowned and scowled the moment something hit me. “You cannot go to work today.” I reminded him.

  “No work. I promise.” He shook his head in the cutest way I have ever seen. Yep, he knew how to be cute too.

  I couldn’t help but raise a speculative brow at him. “Really?”

  “Yep. You are here to forbid me, how can I?” He said as he shrugged before smiling in a very cute way.

  “Good point.” I nodded and then stretched my limbs and arms as I yawned.

  “I made you breakfast.” He announced and then tucked a lock of hair behind my ear.

  I cocked my head at him. “You do?”

  “Yup.” He leaned down and to my surprise planted a chaste kiss on my lips. “Wait here.” He said before leaving the room, then a moment later, came back with a tray of freshly made breakfast meals.

  I scowled at him. “You shouldn’t be out of your bed. You just came from being sick.”

  He leaned and kissed the furrow in my forehead. “Trust me baby, I am much better.”

  After we ate the breakfast that he made for me, I took a shower and was now in one of his shirts, a cashmere pullover just like what he was wearing. He must have a huge collection of cashmere pullovers in his closet. And we matched, both in gray color.

  “I love seeing you in my shirt.” He said as I dried my hair with a towel. He was standing on the door with his arms crossed over his chest and his left hip leaning on the threshold.

  “I love your shirts, they are so comfy.” I said as I continued drying my hair.

  He sauntered behind me and I couldn’t help but look at him with a raised eyebrow. “Let me dry your hair.”

  “I can do it.” I said as I continued towel drying my hair.

  “Let me.” He grabbed the towel from my hand and started drying my hair. “I want to take care of you.” He murmured.

  “I can take care of myself.” I said as I watched him in the mirror as he dried my hair.

  “I am very much aware of that. But please, just let me, I wanted to.” He stared at me in the mirror with a serious look on his face for a moment, then he let go and returned to the work at hand.

  He was really gentle with my hair, and I love watching him taking care of me. Heck, I just love him. Period.

  “What else can I do? You’re already drying my hair.” I said sarcastically.

  He ignored my sarcastic remark and instead continued drying my hair. I closed my eyes in pleasure as he worked his magical hands on me. When he was done, he placed the towel on the bathroom counter and swept my hair on one side.

  “Until next time.” He smiled at me and planted a kiss on the top of my now towel dried hair.

  “Sure.” I mockingly sneered at him, and then followed it with a loving smile. “So what are you going to do today?” I asked as I brushed my hair. The shampoo Damon bought for me smelled so good, like vanilla.

  “Spend the entire day with you.” He said as he wrapped his arms around me just under my breasts and then planted a kiss on my temple.

  I shook my head. “I can’t. I have to go to work.” I needed to be at the bakery in an hour.

  “No you’re not.” He stated as we stared at each other’s eyes in the mirror.

  I frowned at him. “But I’ll get fired.” I told him. He just gave me a coy smile and I couldn’t help but raise a brow at him.

  “I called the diner, they’re cool with it. And I gave your new employer a call too, and she understood that you couldn’t come to work today.” He said.

  My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. “Damon.” I hissed at him.

  He hugged me tighter to his body as he was afraid that I would run, and then kissed the spot behind my ear. “Please, spend the day with me.” He murmured softly.

  How could I say no when he was being like this?

  I sighed and gave up to his request. “What else can I do?” I said when he met my eyes on the mirror.

  His eyes were blue, shining like stars and mine were green, sparkling like gems. When he smiled, it lifted up his whole handsome face and I couldn’t help smiling back at him. And there in the bathroom, standing and staring in front of the mirror, we just smiled like two crazy people.

  In love with each other.

  Although he was very vocal about his feelings to me and he didn’t know that I was in love with him too.

  “You’re used to always getting what you want, don’t you?” I said after a moment of lunacy, the smile couldn’t be removed from our faces.

  “Yeah, I am. But there’s just one thing I couldn’t get.” He murmured and then kissed my temple. I love it when he gave me sweet kisses.

  “Oh, really?” I teasingly sneered. Like he did not already have everything.

  “You.” He murmured close to my ear, just a few inches above my heart. The smile faded from our faces, replaced by serious facial expressions.

  I turned to look at him instead of looking at his reflection and blinked. “What?”

  He turned me around so we were facing each other. He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear as he looked at me with his eyes full of emotions. “I cannot have you. You always run whenever I tell you I love you.”

  I gaped at him as he looked at me, then he cupped my face in his hands and leaned down to plant a kiss on my forehead. I closed my eyes as I lingered on the touch of his soft lips on my forehead. He always has me, if only I could tell him. I love him more than he ever knew.

  ~***~

  “So what are your plans today, Damon?” I asked as I gathered all the ingredients I needed for the cupcakes I was going to make.

  “I have no plans. I am going to play hooky all day.” He said as he helped with the ingredients.

  I paused and turned around to face him. “You’re playing hooky? Wow. I never heard any billionaire CEO does that before.” I teased.

  “Yup, I am playing hooky.” He wrapped his arms around my waist and settled them on the small of my back, then pulled me closer to him and ran his nose with mine, our foreheads pressed together. “And you will be joining me.” I could see the gold flecks in his blue eyes when we were this close and I loved it. I bet no one has seen the gold in his blue eyes before.

  “Why don’t we finish this so you can play hooky?” I pulled away from his embrace and started mixing.

  We moved in complete synch as if we knew which way the other one would go, it was easier to bake when someone made it easy for you. It took us about two hours until we got to take a bite of our homemade cupcakes. We made cupcakes in three different flavors, mocha, lemon and chocolate cupcakes. I love chocolate the most and I recently learned that Damon was into chocolate too.

  “So after baking, what do you want to do?” I asked in between bites.

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Are you done?” He asked as he threw the last bite of his chocolate cupcake into his mouth.

  “I am. I’ll just put these so you can eat it later.” As I was on my way to look for a container where I could store the cupcakes, Damon grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the task.

  “Let Mrs. Miller do that, come with me.” He said as he dragged me out of the kitchen and into the hallway of his penthouse.

  “Where?” I asked as he continued on dragging me with him.

  “Just come with me.”

  He dragged me gently until we were in a room I have never been before, located on the second floor of his penthouse. He turned the knob, pushed the wooden doors open and let me took in the room.

  Inside was a white painted room with a white grand piano in the center. From where I was standing I could see out of the window the view, it was quite higher than the one below but the sky looked better. There was a balcony and it was open, the wind blew the white silk curtains inside.

  We took a step in and I finally took inventory of what else was inside aside from the grand piano. There were guitars, saxophone and a violin.
It was a freaking room of musical band in here.

  “Music room?” I couldn’t hide the element of surprise in my voice. Why would he bring me in the music room?

  “Yup, I play the piano. How about you?” He asked with a grin. The grin made him looked younger, bet he loved playing the piano and was good at it.

  I shook my head. “Nope.” Hell, I did not even know the difference between the instrument they called cello and viola, all I knew was that they both looked like violin to me.

  “I’ll play it for you.” He smirked at me before tugging my hand towards the piano. “Sit.” He commanded me to sit I front of the piano before taking the seat beside me.

  “You are very bossy, aren’t you?” I said as he opened the lid of the piano keys.

  He smirked at me. “I’m bossy all the time.”

  I nodded in agreement. “I know that.”

  His fingers started moving and each press produced a note. His hands were gliding smoothly over the piano, he even had time to look up at me and smile as he continued playing. It was like he memorized the keys by heart and has a way of communicating with it. It was so beautiful to watch him playing the piano.

  As he continued to play, he hummed along the melody and the next thing I knew he was singing. I knew that song, it was sung by Lifehouse entitled You and Me. I heard it from Smallville and, of course from none other than my favorite show, The Vampire Diaries.

  Originally played with a guitar, but he adjusted the note to accommodate the piano. He sang it beautifully. His voice spoke to my soul and it tugged my heart and fluttered something I have been keeping down inside.

  Then he removed his eyes away from the keys when he was on the second verse and stared at me with those blue eyes shining like stars under the lights. He was staring at me with the emotions that I always saw in his eyes whenever he told me that he love me. Our eyes locked and I could not help but fall more than I ever knew I could. He continued to stare at me as he sang.

  This was a very bad idea.

  I was not sure if I would be able to deny it anymore, not sure, if I would be able to stand up if it was not him who would help me get back on my feet. I didn’t know if I could live without him anymore.

  He ended the song before smiling at me, and leaned forward to kiss my cheek. “It’s you and me, baby.” He whispered in my ear.

  ~***~

  “What do you want to watch?” Damon asked as he led me towards the shelves of DVDs he owned.

  And when I said shelves, it meant in plural form. It looked like a movie rental store here inside his entertainment room with an eighty-two inches plasma TV screen mounted at the gray painted wall. The room was sound proofed with the highest kind of sound system built in it. There was also a large plush couch, popcorn making machine and a soda dispenser near the DVD shelves.

  “I don’t know you got your very own cinema in here.” I said as I scanned every DVD he got. It was a very huge collection, ranging from comedies down to romance. He got it all in here. “Do you come here often to watch?”

  “I don’t have time to watch, and I don’t want to watch alone.” He said as he got soda for the both of us from his soda dispenser. He was really freakin’ spoiled, he didn’t even have to go to the movie theater and wait in line to watch a movie.

  “Because you are a very busy person, I know. But you have time to play hooky.” I said as I read the blurb behind the case of a movie I wanted to see.

  “So you got any movie that piques your interest?” He asked as he placed the soda on the table in front of the couch.

  “I do.” I walked over to him and handed him the DVD.

  He walked towards the system to play the movie without looking at the case and switched off the lights for better viewing. The only lighted area was the place where the popcorn machine and soda dispenser was.

  We took our seats side by side and I grabbed my popcorn tub. I started throwing popcorn inside my mouth as the movie intro flashed on the screen. I saw Damon glanced at me and I glanced back, he lifted a brow the moment he realized what we are about to watch.

  “Dirty Dancing?” He asked as if it was a horrible flick.

  Hello, Dirty Dancing was the most popular romantic movie with dancing in it. Who wouldn’t love it when Patrick Swayze was that freaking hot?

  I smiled sweetly at him. “Yup, I love Patrick Swayze.”

  “You love Patrick Swayze, huh?” He took the tub out of my hand and put it down on the table.

  “Hey!” I smacked his forearm. “That’s my popcorn.”

  “You love Patrick Swayze? Let me take him out of your mind baby.” He murmured to me, and the next thing I knew, I was beneath Damon and we were kissing.

  I didn’t know how we ended up in his bed, I have no idea, he might have carried me perhaps. My arms were around his neck and I was tugging his hair that was touching the collar of his shirt gently. His hands were all over me, and I was not going to stop him. I have no idea how this would end up, but I didn’t care.

  Sixteen

  I woke up in warmth with Damon’s arms and legs all over my body. We were a tangle of sheets and body. The sun was peeking through the crack between the curtains as I reluctantly opened one eye at a time. I moved and Damon stirred with me. He looked at me with love and happiness in his just woken up blue eyes. His eyes were so lovely. I would never get use staring at their blue depths.

  “Good morning.” He smiled as he leaned to kiss my forehead.

  I looked at him as I returned his smile. I love his smile. They were breathtakingly beautiful.

  Then when he stood up, God, I must be in heaven. His body was perfect with or without clothes. Every muscle, contours, everything, was created by the hands of God.

  I sat up, pulled the covers up to my chin, and smiled at him when he looked behind his shoulder with a knowing smirk on his handsome face. Then suddenly it hit me that today we have to go back to our normal lives.

  “Going to work, darling?” I asked as I watched him made his way to the bathroom.

  He peeked around the door and smirked at me. “Yup. The company must have missed me yesterday because a certain blonde kept me up all day.”

  “Bet she loves keeping you all day.” I said as I batted my lashed at him.

  “I love being with her all day too.” He gestured for me to come to the bathroom with him. “Now get up and shower with me. We have to go to work today. You’re only excused from the bakery for yesterday.”

  “Oh, right.” I stood up as fast as I could and rushed towards the bathroom.

  ~***~

  “I’ll pick you up at six.” Damon said as he walked me towards the front door of the bakery with our fingers intertwined.

  “There’s no need to pick me up. I can take a cab on my way home.” I told him as I held the doorknob and turned it to open the door. I felt his hand tightened its grip on mine.

  “But I want to. I just got you back.” His voice suddenly turned hard and I couldn’t help but sigh. This was going to be a fight if I didn’t let him have it his way.

  I rolled my eyes at him. “Okay. Pick me up at six.”

  “I’ll be here.” He smiled at me and it took my breath away, I couldn’t help but smile back. Then he leaned and planted a soft kiss on my lips.

  “Have a nice day, baby.” I called out as he walked towards his limousine. He waved a hand as he climbed inside the car and I stood there as I watched the car drove away, a huge grin on my face.

  I opened the door of the bakery and flipped the “close” sign to “open”, went into the kitchen and wondered if Susan was already there baking pastries, but she wasn’t. I fished out for my phone inside my purse and dialed her number, she answered on the second ring.

  “Hey Susan, I was wondering, what time are we opening today?” I asked as I flipped the sign back to “close”.

  “Oh, I’ll be late. Do you bake?”

  I blinked as my hand stilled at the signboard. “Uh-huh.” I answered slowly. Where was she getti
ng here?

  Then I heard her smile on the other line. “Good. Bake something while I am still not around.” She sounded so calmed and relaxed about this thing.

  My eyes widened. What was she thinking, letting an amateur did the baking? “But―”

  “I trust you, Amanda. I’ll come by at around one.”

  “Okay.” I slowly agreed.

  Oh God.

  “See you later.” Then she hung up.

  Oh. My. God.

  Oh my God!

  I was an amateur and had no experience in baking pastries except for my brother, Trey and Damon. No one has ever tasted my baked goods except those men who claimed to be dear to my heart, maybe they were just saying that my pastries tasted good because they did not want to hurt my feelings and I totally get that. But this?

  I didn’t know what to do. I was in panic mode. I dashed into the kitchen, left the sign flipped on “close”, and glanced around trying to analyze which one to do first. My mind was scattered into a mess, I didn’t know what the first step in baking anymore was. I have no idea what to do.

  Relax, Amanda, relax! You didn’t have to freak out! You could survive this…

  I took a deep breath and glanced around the sterile kitchen, the condiments, main ingredients and tools that were arranged neatly. I swallowed the huge lump in my throat making it hard for me to breathe.

  …Or not.

  I decided to bake croissants with raisins so I started gathering everything I needed. I mixed, kneaded, rolled, molded and placed the dough in the silver stainless tray. I opened the oven, set the time, placed the tray of dough inside and closed the oven door. Then I realized croissants were not enough I have to make something else, so I started mixing, kneading, rolling and molding again. Minutes ticked by and passed until I was done. I baked five pastries for the costumers. I made raisin croissants, lemon cupcakes, blue berry muffin, chiffon cake and chocolate chip cookies.

  Now here was the hard part, selling them to the market. What if they tasted bad…or worst, what if they were not edible at all? What if the costumers found out that the baker was not the usual baker? What if they hated it and do not come back anymore? I might ruin Susan’s store for good.