Beefcake

by Jenna Jacob

  “You fucked her?” Gina snarled.

  “No!”

  “Yes!” Ivy countered angrily.

  “You son of a bitch,” Gina seethed. “When did you fuck her?”

  “I didn’t. I swear!” Rage, blistering and white-hot, rolled off his rugged frame. His eyes blazed with an indignant fire.

  Each ugly second that he denied their one-night stand only served to fuel Ivy’s fury.

  “Liar! I suppose you’re going to try to deny that you ever said”—sneering, Ivy dropped her voice to a masculine timbre—“Christ, you feel like silk…hot, slippery silk. Shatter hard for me baby.”

  “You motherfucker! You say those exact same words to me.” Gina’s voice cracked as she started to cry.

  Noble/Nate tossed his head back, raised his hands to the ceiling, and let out an angry roar. The sound was so primal and loud a shiver rolled down Ivy’s spine.

  “For the last fucking time…I. Did. Not. Fuck. This. Bitch.”

  Bitch. Bitch. Eugene McMillian’s demeaning words echoed in Ivy’s head. A fury more potent than when she’d knocked Harvey Hay’s lights out blossomed within.

  “I am not a bitch, you lying prick!” Ivy spat.

  “I’m not the one who’s a pathological liar, darlin’. You hold that title, hands down.”

  “Dammit, Noble,” Ivy barked. “Cut the innocent act. We both know—”

  “What did you call me?” Nate interrupted, cocking his head as a slow smile tugged his lips.

  “Noble,” she spat. “That’s the fake name you gave me that night.”

  His expression instantly softened as he darted an enlightened glance at Gina, who was suddenly scowling. “And where exactly did you and I spend the night fucking each other’s brain’s out?”

  “Don’t play dumb,” Ivy scolded. “At the hotel in Vegas.”

  “Ah, got it,” Nate answered in a sudden, strangely calm demeanor. He turned to face Gina and nodded. “You and I need to talk.”

  “Yes, we most definitely do.” Gina wiped the tears from her face.

  “I-I’m sorry it all had to come out like this. I never meant to hurt you or ruin your relationship. I-I lost my shit…I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay. But Nate and I need to talk for a few minutes…alone.”

  “Of course.” Ivy sniffed. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”

  “Thanks.” Gina nodded soberly.

  Ivy lowered her chin. Overwrought with remorse, she couldn’t look at either of them as she turned and left the room. Standing at the industrial metal sink in the kitchen, Ivy splashed cold water on her face. She inwardly berated herself for getting so angry with Noble/Nate that she’d detonated like a bomb and spewed it all in front of Gina. Ivy had let her fury override common sense. But dammit, she couldn’t tolerate liars.

  At least Nate/Noble had finally tossed his mask of subterfuge away. Hopefully, he and Gina could find a way to salvage their relationship.

  Ivy had clung to the fantasy that she might run into the man who’d managed to turn her world on its axis in just one night. But after discovering he was nothing but a lying, cheating pig, she’d unequivocally erased him from the masturbation movies that played in her mind. There’d be no way Noble/Nate could ever redeem himself.

  “Bastard!” she muttered.

  She wouldn’t bother wasting an ounce of pity on the man. He was getting exactly what he deserved. Gina, however, was a different story. The woman projected a rough exterior, but it was brutally obvious she was head-over-heels in love with the man. She deserved so much more than a skeevy player who’d probably been cheating on her all along. While the friendship she’d shared with Gina was irrevocably ruined, Ivy prayed her friend’s heart would heal quickly.

  With a heavy heart, she silenced the timer that had started chiming and dragged several loaves of bread from the oven. Whenever Ivy needed to soothe away the jagged edges life tossed her way, fresh-baked bread was her go-to comfort food. Right now, she’d give heaven and earth to slice open a steaming loaf, slather it in butter, and eat the whole damn thing. Instead, she simply popped them from their pans and placed them on the cooling racks.

  Gina poked her head in the kitchen. “Do you mind coming back out for a few?”

  “Of course not.” Ivy studied the woman, trying to get a bead on her mood, but couldn’t.

  When she stepped through the doors, she instantly noticed that Noble/Nate had left. She closed her eyes and exhaled a heartfelt sigh. “I’m so sorry, Gina. Sorry for so, so much. I should have told you what happened between us the first night you introduced us at the bar.”

  “I wish you would have,” Gina said with a soft smile. “It could have saved us both a world of heartache.”

  Ivy nodded sadly. “I’m sorry. I swear to God, I never meant to hurt you like this.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for, sugar. You didn’t know.”

  “No, I didn’t, but that’s no excuse. If I’d known he was already in a relation—”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I’m not following you.”

  Gina moved in beside Ivy and gently wrapped a hand around her elbow. “I meant, you didn’t know about this.” Like one of the models on the Price Is Right showing off a new car, Gina extended her arm toward the dark hallway that led to the bathrooms.

  Noble/Nate stepped from the shadow, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Ivy wrinkled her brow in confusion, but when a second Noble/Nate stepped from the blackness and locked eyes growing wide in unadulterated shock on her, Ivy’s heart sputtered.

  Her body trembled.

  A wave of dizziness sent her teetering in her tennis shoes.

  Gina gripped her elbow tighter and leaned in close to her ear. “You didn’t know Nate had a twin. That one there’s your Noble.”

  Twin?

  All at once, a parade of mind-numbing emotions charged Ivy’s system.

  Relief that she hadn’t slept with her best friend’s man came first, followed by excitement that the real Noble was actually standing in front of her again. But the stunned, blank expression now lining his face sent anxiety pinging through her like popcorn. What if he wasn’t happy to see her again? She swallowed tightly as she drank in the sight of his broad, strong body and sinfully intoxicating face.

  “Ivy?” Noble whispered her name like a reverent prayer.

  “Noble.” She barely breathed his name, too afraid that if she displaced the air, he might vanish, like smoke.

  “Thank fuck you two know each other.” Nate grinned. “At least the baby will know its rightful father.”

  “Baby?” Noble spat the word out as if it were poison.

  He turned a ghostly white as he slid his shocked gaze from Ivy’s face to the slight bump at her belly. Sinking her teeth into her bottom lip, she tried to read the slew of emotions zipping over his gorgeous face.

  Suddenly, Noble’s eyes fluttered toward the ceiling.

  “Oh, shit!” Nate barked.

  “Noble!” Ivy screamed. Finding her footing, she rushed forward as Noble toppled to the floor like a giant sequoia.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Trapped beneath a wall cloud of blackness, Noble registered an annoying hum echoing in his ears. From far off in the distance, he heard someone calling his name. He felt as if he’d been encased in cement. He tried to open his eyes but couldn’t lift his heavy lids.

  Then, like a lifeline, he heard Nate’s voice in his head. Come on, man. You need to come back to us, bro. You’re scaring the shit out of the women. And I’m no poster child for calm myself.

  Hearing and feeling his twin’s anxiety, Noble worked to part the inky veil surrounding him.

  “Noble, please wake up,” begged a sweet and palpably terrified female.

  It was the same voice that had been plaguing him night and day for what seemed like a lifetime.

  Ivy.

  A ribbon of light spliced through the gloom, and Noble followed the golden rays like a roadmap to the
surface and forced his eyes open.

  Ivy was hovering over him with worry marring her angelic face.

  The air in his lungs caught and his heart rate tripled.

  It wasn’t a dream this time. She’s really here.

  Speechless, he gazed into her long-lost pale blue eyes, now rimmed red and filled with concern. Sunlight spilled in behind her, casting her golden curls in an ethereal glow.

  Damn if she isn’t the most beautiful woman in the whole world.

  “Noble? Can you hear me?” she asked in a tone thick with panic.

  A bolt of adrenaline zipped through his system, making him want to murder whatever had upset her. But her fear-filled eyes told him the only thing that was scaring her was him.

  Aiming to erase her fright, Noble sent her a gentle smile. Fuck, she was as stunningly gorgeous as the last time he’d laid eyes on her…exhausted, sated, and sleeping. Charged with the boiling need to drag her beneath him again, Noble reached up to touch her and realized that he was flat on his back in the middle of the bakery.

  “What am I doing on the goddamn floor?”

  “Y-you fainted,” Ivy stammered.

  So that’s what passing out feels like.

  “The…the news, shocked you so hard you…” She paused and dropped her lashes.

  Wait! What news?

  His question was internally cresting when the image of Ivy’s rounded belly flashed in his brain, sending a tsunami of dread crashing down on him. Sitting upright, probably faster than he should have, Noble ignored the sparks of light behind his eyes as well as his heart thundering against his ribs and zipped his gaze to the tiny swell of Ivy’s abdomen.

  Well, that certainly hadn’t been there when they were in Vegas.

  Son of a bitch! She was fucking pregnant.

  No. No. No! It’s not mine. Can’t be mine! denial shrieked in his brain.

  No way could he have knocked her up.

  You sure about that? a little voice inside him prodded.

  Had he gloved up that night? Quickly racking his brain, Noble tried to remember, but like the meaning of life itself, the answer eluded him.

  Every cell in his body recoiled as the icy hands of fear gripped both his throat and his balls.

  No way. I am not the one who knocked her up. It’s impossible.

  You sure about that? Nate wordlessly asked, mimicking Noble’s own silent entreaty.

  No, he wasn’t sure, but he damn well better not be the one responsible for…that!

  As if sensing his repugnance, Ivy slid a protective hand over her stomach.

  “Do you feel well enough to get up and sit at one of the tables?” she nervously asked.

  Noble lifted his gaze to Ivy’s angst-ridden face and his heart sputtered. Christ, he wanted her again…wanted her desperately.

  Swallowing tightly to bury his lust, he nodded. Nate offered him a hand. After accepting, Noble stood. On unsteady legs, he shuffled to the nearest chair and plopped down hard on the seat. Gina hurried to the table and set a cup of water down in front of him before sending him a sympathetic smile.

  Ivy was as quiet as a church mouse as she took a seat across the table from him. Her posture was rigid—spine straight, hands tightly folded in her lap. The pensive, uneasy woman in front of him was the polar opposite of the uninhibited sex kitten he’d spent that one unforgettable night with.

  Noble took a sip of the cool water and cleared his throat. “So, you’re…p-pregnant?”

  I’d say that’s been well established, Captain Obvious! he inwardly chided.

  “Yes.”

  Her singular, clipped reply was void of any detail he frantically sought. Namely, whose sperm got loose and impregnated her.

  Surely, she wasn’t going to try and pin that baby on him, was she?

  Noble still couldn’t recall gloving up with her, which was pissing him off. He remembered plenty of other things from that night, like the feel of her soft skin yielding beneath his touch, the taste of her warm, tart cream spilling over his tongue, the sound of her keening cries as she erupted on his face and his cock.

  The visuals violently running through his head only magnified his ravenous need to strip her bare and devour her right here and now. The only thing stopping him was the prickly panic pumping through his veins.

  His heart thundered wildly as he struggled with the sensation of fire and ice consuming him. Part of him was about to spontaneously combust in fiery lust, while another part of him was frozen in a block of unmitigated fear.

  Sweat dotted his brow, while his nerves were screaming like an eighties hair-band.

  A million questions burned his tongue like a ghost pepper, but Noble couldn’t push a single one past his lips. He was too fucking scared.

  “We’re going to head back over to the bar and give you two kids some time alone to…talk,” Nate announced.

  Noble soberly nodded, grateful for the brief respite from the guillotine blade pressed against his throat.

  Gina leaned in and gave Ivy a quick hug. “If you need anything, I’m only a phone call away.”

  “Thanks. I’ll be fine,” Ivy assured halfheartedly. “I’m sorry again for causing—”

  “Nothing to be sorry about,” Nate interrupted. “I’m just glad we were able to get you two…reintroduced.”

  Leave, dammit. Noble gave his brother a mental shove.

  We are. But chill out. And don’t be a dick to her, all right? Ivy’s a hot mess right now. The last thing she needs is you acting like a bobcat with his balls caught in a bear trap.

  Isn’t that Ivy’s purpose…to trap me?

  Not if that baby really is yours. Nate flashed a wolfish grin. Then it’ll be…here comes the bride, gorgeous, pregnant, and wide. Here comes the groom, sweating, swearing, and filled with gloom.

  Out! Now! Noble clenched his jaw as his nostrils flared.

  Nate simply smirked as he slung an arm around Gina’s waist and headed toward the front door.

  Noble sat silently cursing Ivy’s still, stony posture until the bakery door snicked closed.

  “Before we start discussing…the obvious,” Noble began, straining to harness his growing contempt, “how the hell did you track me down?”

  Ivy’s face creased in confusion before she pursed her lips and lifted her chin.

  If my first question has already offended her, this is going to get real ugly.

  “I didn’t track you down. I…moved here months ago to open Sweet Flours. The fact that you live here too is nothing but a tragic coincidence.”

  “You gotta be shitting me,” Noble scoffed. “How the hell have you been living under my damn nose all this time without me knowing it?”

  “I don’t know. I wondered the same thing when I first saw you…err, rather, Nate at Gina’s bar.”

  “So where exactly do you live?”

  “Upstairs,” she replied, pointing to the stairway beyond the cash register.

  “You live here alone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where’s your husband?”

  Ivy blanched. “My husband? I-I don’t… I’m not married.”

  “Boyfriend then. Where’s the guy I saw outside washing your windows a while back? He sure as hell wasn’t from Haven.”

  Lost in thought, she wrinkled her brow. Long seconds later, she softly laughed. “That was my dad. He was here for my grand opening.”

  Noble’s gut coiled.

  By process of elimination, the wicked blade at his neck sank in deeper. Still, he wasn’t ready to wave the white flag and give up hope that some other prick had knocked Noble’s dream girl up. Immediately, that thought sent a firestorm of jealousy to race deep in his soul. His stomach pitched as images of someone other than him driving in and out of her sweet pussy filled his brain. The brutally disturbing sensation assaulting him made him gnash his teeth and bite back a howl. He knew then he’d fucked up…broken his most coveted cardinal rule—neverer let a woman worm her way into your heart.

  A
rush of heat sailed through his body.

  Panic gripped him by the throat, the balls, and the heart.

  Noble was thoroughly and unequivocally fucked!

  The walls of the bakery barreled in around him.

  Breathe, man. Nate’s calm and reassuring tone reverberated in Noble’s head, piercing the angst consuming him. Just breathe. Whatever is happening, we’ll deal with it. Just remember you’re not alone.

  Right, Noble sent back as he sucked in a ragged breath. Look, no offense, but I need some privacy. I don’t have room in my head for you and all the other shit I’m trying to process here.

  Reach out if you need me, Nate mentally sent back, then disappeared.

  “Noble,” Ivy whispered softly. “I know the shock you’re feeling right now. Trust me, when Doc Knight told me I was…pregnant, I passed out just like you did.”

  “I guess it’s time to stop pussy footing around and just come right out and—”

  “You’re the father,” Ivy affirmed barely above a whisper.

  Like a lion, rejection roared within.

  “How do you know? Show me the blood test that proves it’s mine and not someone else’s kid.” The words, slathered in accusation, were out of his mouth before he could soften them.

  Noble immediately wanted to kick his own ass. He’d all but called her a whore. In his heart, he knew she wasn’t a slut. She was a good girl…an amazingly good girl.

  Ivy recoiled. Pain was written all over her face as she mutely gaped at him.

  Fuck!

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insinuate that you were a… It’s just, back in Vegas, you were really willing and I don’t… You had every right to hook up with someone after I left without… I’m not saying… Aw, shit.” Noble shoved a hand through his hair. He was struggling to put his jumbled emotions into words. But the contempt, pain, anger, and insult lining Ivy’s face told him he was failing…miserably.

  Even though his gut told him she hadn’t crawled into someone else’s bed after he left her in Vegas, self-preservation and fear had him grasping at straws.

  Ivy cleared her throat as her whole body turned to granite. Her lips pressed into a tight, angry line as she lifted her chin defiantly.