Beefcake & Cupcakes

by Fennell, Judi

  He managed to separate them and get her onto the bed when her legs refused to cooperate.

  Though they did pretty well when he knelt by the bed and draped them over his shoulders, as he proceeded to send her on another round of pleasure.

  By the time neither could move, Lara had lost count of how many times she’d come. Lost count of how many different positions they’d tried. But she knew each and every time he’d growled her name as he’d come, clasping her as the shudders wracked him, and Lara was so damn grateful for the gift that was Gage.

  He intertwined their fingers as they lay on their stomachs facing each other, their eyes heavy with exhaustion, one of his legs thrown over hers, but there was still the glimmer of desire in his gaze when he looked at her.

  “Spend the weekend with me.”

  Emotion shimmered through her. She’d like nothing better. “I’d love to, but I can’t. It’s our busiest weekend after the winter holiday season. I’m booked.”

  “Okay, so let me spend it with you. I’ll knock off early on the third and can help you with your parties.”

  “You really want to spend your holiday working?”

  “If it’s with you, it won’t be work.”

  It was the right thing to say. “Are you sure?”

  He ran his fingertip down her nose and over her lips. Lara resisted the urge to suck it into her mouth.

  For all of about two seconds. Seriously, why couldn’t she suck it?

  He groaned at the first touch of her tongue and pulled his finger out. “God, woman, you’re going to wear me out.”

  “Good. Turnabout is fair play.”

  His smile was way too cocky, but she couldn’t really complain. He’d earned it.

  “Look, I’d love to take you up on the offer, but we both have to get up in the morning. I suddenly have even more of a rush on the gazebo I’m building, so I need my sleep.”

  “Party pooper.” Though, really, she was just as pooped, but it was fun to tease him.

  He rolled over and tucked her against his side, her head resting on his chest, and he kissed the top of her head. “Yeah, that’s me. A real killjoy.”

  She smiled and snuggled up to him. Gage was definitely a joy.

  Chapter 26

  The rest of Lara’s week, however, wasn’t so joyous. The wedding on Saturday was iffy on the weather, which meant she had to have a contingency plan for the wedding cake and nine groomsmen’s cakes, the most intricate order she’d had to date. The wedding cake itself was seven tiers tall, most of which had to be assembled on-site, and the humidity was making that a challenge as the buttercream beneath the fondant started to complain.

  Thank God Gage came with her. He rigged up a tent outside that the wedding planner had forgotten, then held the tiers as Lara set them in place in the country club’s kitchen so the cake could be wheeled out in time for the reception. Cara would normally have helped her, but she’d taken an order from a last-minute panicked new client whose previous bakery couldn’t deliver. Luckily, there’d been an extra cake in the fridge so Cara was off delivering that. Jesse was holding down the bakery, putting more “firecrackers” together for the cake the township had ordered for their Fourth of July celebration the next day.

  Lara had three more tiers to assemble when the bride walked past them for the start of the ceremony. Gage looked luscious in the tux jacket he’d slipped into. Lara wondered if the pants he was wearing were the rip-away kind.

  She wouldn’t mind finding out first-hand.

  “What are you smiling about? The bride’s in tears,” Gage stage-whispered to her.

  God, he smelled good. Even with the heat and exertion, that special scent that was all his wrapped around her like he had last night.

  “Weddings make me smile.”

  “Sweetheart, that is not a happy smile. That’s an I’ve-got-a-secret-I-want-you-to-uncover smile, and you’re tempting me to do just that.” He nipped her ear.

  “Stop. We’re working.”

  “You’d do well to remember that instead of tempting me with your sexy self.”

  She rolled her eyes. She was in her chef coat and hat. About as asexual as she could get.

  He kept up his banter and those heated looks as they worked to finish the cake in time for the reception.

  The looks only got worse while they waited for the cake cutting part. “Come on, let’s go find a coat closet.”

  “You’re incorrigible.”

  “No, I’m horny. And so are you.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “I know how to get you to roll your eyes.” He waggled his eyebrows.

  She tried not to laugh, but yeah, that move he’d done last night with his tongue had not only had her rolling her eyes, but seeing stars, too.

  “Gage, stop.”

  “That’s not what you said last night.”

  How he’d even understood what she’d said last night was beyond her; she’d been incoherent. “You know, at some point, I’m actually going to need a full night’s sleep.” Texting and sexting was keeping her up far too late.

  “That’s what retirement’s for.”

  He had an answer for everything. And Lara was coming to think of him as the answer to everything.

  He made her smile. He made her feel beautiful. He made her feel special and cared for. He made her feel alive in a way she hadn’t since long before her divorce.

  The cake cutting ceremony went off without a hitch (of buttercream), the bride proclaimed it the best cake ever, and Lara and Gage got out of there in time to help Jesse finish up the last five dozen fire crackers before midnight.

  “Well, Cinderella,” said Gage, dragging her chef’s hat off those adorable curls he’d thoroughly enjoyed burying his fingers in last night as she’d gone down on him and taken him to paradise, “it’s the bewitching hour. Do you turn into a pumpkin if we don’t have you home and in bed by then?”

  “I feel like more like a squash.” She plopped onto the bench seat in his truck.

  She didn’t look like one.

  She looked beautiful.

  Gage stared at her for a few more seconds, enjoying the way her eyelashes rested on her cheeks, curving slightly at the end. Her makeup had worn off hours ago, and to him, that natural beauty only made her prettier. Lara was so honest with her feelings, with who she was. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d looked into her eyes and known she was there, with him, in the moment, and was so damn glad to be there with him.

  That was the thing with dancing; sure, it got him a lot of women. And, sure, he’d been glad about that. But almost everyone had been into him for the experience. Because he was sexy and his body was cut. Because he knew how to use it. It’d been all about the physical pleasure, and hey, there was nothing wrong with that, but he hadn’t ever connected to anyone the way he had with Lara. Not even Leslie though she’d come closest to being The One. But Lara was with him because of him, not because of what he looked like, and that made the sex that much more amazing. More sensuous, more pleasurable.

  It also made it making love. So different from sex.

  He took her home, and for the first time since they’d been together, he just held her. Tucked her against him, stroked his hand through her curls, kissed her gently on the lips, and held her as she fell asleep.

  It was the most beautiful thing in his world.

  Chapter 27

  “Gazebo’s looking pretty good.”

  The prick stood on the terrace with a mug of coffee in his hands, his hair slicked back from his shower, argyle vest over a button-down, razor-edged pleats on his linen pants, and even spats, or whatever those funny shoes people wore to play golf were called, while Gage sweated his ass off on the trusses.

  He’d left Lara sleeping at five a.m. to get here and finish the framing. The copper flashing was coming on Monday, which had been enough time when he’d ordered it, but that’d been before he started spending time with Lara. A lot of time.

  Too much
time to keep going at this pace. He knew that, but he didn’t want to change things. Already, though, Missy had told him Connor missed him. And he missed Connor, too. The lawn at his house needed to be mowed, he’d promised to put a shower bar in the bathroom before Connor’s next surgery, and Missy needed the top shelf in the closet lowered so she could reach it.

  But he was going to spend today with Lara, no matter what. Real life could roar back in on Monday.

  “You’re not cutting corners, are you, to get it finished this quickly? I don’t want it falling down around us at the party.”

  Gage yanked the nails out of his mouth. Normally he wouldn’t justify that asinine comment with an answer, but this guy brought it out in him. Then again, most people wouldn’t have the balls—or stupidity—to even ask that question. “I don’t skimp on my work. My reputation’s on the line.”

  “Glad to hear it. So many times contractors come here, see what I’ve built, and think I owe them. It’s my hard work and expertise that earned me what I have. I want the best and I pay for it.”

  That was because the guy was the worst. Too bad he didn’t realize that what he was picking up from those other contractors was disdain. Just because a guy had a fancy title, a hot car, and five thousand square feet more than one man needed didn’t make him any better than the guy who worked with his hands for a living. In J.C. McCullough, it made him less of a man.

  But Gage kept his mouth shut. A few more days then he’d collect the balance of what he was owed and be done with this prick.

  “I was surprised to see you today. I thought you’d take the holiday weekend off.”

  Gage hammered another nail into the truss, pretending it was this guy’s super-inflated ego. “Too much to do. Plus I’m spending the afternoon with my girlfriend at the park.”

  Girlfriend. The word had a nice ring to it. He hadn’t had a girlfriend in a really long time.

  “Ah, yes, the annual community picnic. I went once with my ex-wife. It was… pleasant.”

  This guy had been married before? He’d found not one but two women willing to deal with his pomposity? Though the other one had gotten smart and was now an ex.

  Gage hammered another couple of nails in, then moved on to the next truss. He didn’t know what it was about J.C. McCullough that got to him so badly, but he couldn’t wait to finish this job.

  But he’d meant what he’d said. It was his name, his reputation, on this gazebo. Regardless of how he felt about the client personally, he was all over making sure this structure was sound and solid. Because that’s who he was.

  “I was wondering how long you plan to leave that sign on my lawn? Our HOA doesn’t permit signage or solicitation and I’ve been getting some complaints.”

  The complaints were in the guy’s head. Gage knew exactly what the HOA guidelines were; he always checked before posting. Contractors were permitted signage through the completion of the project. Gage had every intention of taking the sign down when he drove his truck off the lot for the last time.

  “It’ll be down on Wednesday.”

  “That’s cutting it close to the party.”

  “It’ll be finished. I’ve built in time for any last-minute items and clean-up. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Oh I’m not worried. That was the date you gave me to be finished. I’ll hold you to it or dock your pay accordingly.” He took a sip of his coffee, then waved the mug in a half-hearted salute, turned on the heel (and there was a bit of a heel on that pretentious-ass shoe, too), and strode back through the over-sized French doors into the mausoleum he called home.

  Gage wanted to shove the cup up the guy’s nose. He knew exactly what J.C. had meant; the asshole didn’t have to rub his nose in it. But man, would Gage love to rub his fist in the guy’s face when he finished early.

  Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to. Not enough time. He would finish by Wednesday, though, so let the asshole sweat it out, worrying if Gage was going to leave his backyard a mess for the party or not. He might think money talked, but it’d be worth it to take a hit just to see the guy blow a gasket.

  Except Gage wouldn’t do that either. Besides needing the money and his reputation being on the line, he felt sorry for the woman who was going to be marrying this guy. Though maybe she was just like him.

  He wondered what the first wife had been like. Since she’d been smart enough to leave J.C., she sounded like someone he’d like to know—well, if he weren’t with Lara.

  But he was. He definitely was.

  Chapter 28

  “I thought you said loverboy was going to show up to help?” Cara hauled the box of twirly lollipop firecrackers—complete with sparklers at the ends—onto their table at the park.

  “He will be. He has a job, too, you know.” Lara tried to keep her temper under control as she set out the red cupcakes with the strawberry licorice stripes on top. Cara had been getting testier by the day since mid-week, but would deny it every time Lara tried to talk to her about it.

  Cara muttered something beneath her breath about where she’d like to light the firecrackers she was putting on the cake.

  Lara let it go. She was in too good of a mood to let Cara’s bad one get her down.

  Gage had left a note on the pillow when he’d left this morning. Can’t wait to see you later.

  So thoughtful. So caring. So wonderful. She’d been floating ever since.

  “Ugh. Are you going to be waltzing around here like a cat with a bowl of cream all day?”

  She opened the box of cupcakes sprinkled with powdered sugar. “Car, what’s going on? I thought you and Nick were doing okay?”

  “Nick is—” She jammed a lollipop stick too far into the cake and cracked the fondant. “Shit. Sorry.”

  Lara pulled the stick out and nudged Cara out of the way so she could repair the damage as best as possible. “Why don’t you take a breather?”

  “That’s exactly what I said to Nick. I told him it was too much. We were in each other’s space too much and do you know what he said? Do you know what he said?”

  Lara resisted the urge to unclog her ear from that shrill squeal. “What?”

  “He said that if I need a breather from him, it’ll have to be permanent. That he didn’t want to be with someone who didn’t want to be with him a hundred percent of the time. I mean, come on. A hundred percent? I don’t even want to be with myself a hundred percent of the time; why would I want to be with anyone else that much?”

  “You might want to ask yourself why you feel that way about yourself and then maybe you’ll be able to give Nick the answer he wants.”

  “Oh, God, not you, too.”

  “Yes, me. I’d love to be with Gage that much. If I could figure out a way to spend all my time with him and still keep money coming in, sure, why not? I mean, don’t you have fun with Nick? Don’t you like him? Don’t you want him?”

  “Well, yeah, sure, but…”

  “But what? What’s stopping you?”

  Cara opened her mouth to say something, but didn’t. She clamped it closed, spun around, and stalked off toward the van.

  Great. Lara couldn’t go after her or half the box of firecrackers would disappear in the hands—and mouths—of the kids checking out her table. When today was over, she and Car needed to have a serious heart-to-heart.

  Speaking of heart… Gage was jogging toward her and, wow. He looked as good jogging as he did dancing. And she had first-hand knowledge of both.

  “Hey, sorry I couldn’t get here sooner.” He swept her up into a bend-back-over-the-arm sort of breath-stealing kiss.

  “You can be late all the time if that’s the way you apologize,” she said, holding on tight to his biceps. Not because she was scared he’d drop her—she wasn’t—but just because his biceps felt amazing.

  “Shall I pay in advance for the next time then?” He planted another kiss on her, every bit as fabulous as the first one.

  “Ewww!”

  Leave it to kids to ruin the mom
ent.

  Not that it was ruined, actually. Gage ended the kiss, but kept his arm around her as they faced the sugar-craving horde.

  “Hey, gang,” he said, all chummy and friendly, as if his heart weren’t racing.

  Lara put her hand on it just to make sure it was because hers was going a zillion miles a minute. It was only fair his was, too.

  It was.

  “Are we allowed to have the cupcakes now, mister?”

  “You’ll have to ask Ms. Cavallo since they’re her cupcakes.”

  She bit her lip. Gage had chosen his wording for a reason; he’d thoroughly sampled and enjoyed her cupcakes several times over the last few days.

  “Can we, Ms. Cavallo?” asked six kids at once.

  “Let me get the rest of them out first. What would a Fourth of July celebration be without the Stars & Stripes?” She pointed to the empty square on the cupcake flag. “I only have the stripes on the table.”

  Gage brought out a box from beneath the table. “Is this them?”

  “Yup.” She removed a couple of blue-frosted cupcakes that she’d sprinkled with white nonpareils for the “stars.”

  It took the kids a lot less time to dismantle the flag than it had for her to set it up.

  “Geez, who would have thought kids were like a swarm of locusts when it came to sugar?” Gage shook his head as he helped her re-stock the flag.

  “Connor’s birthday party wasn’t enough evidence of the power of a sweet tooth?”

  “Mmm, you’re right. How could I forget? Connor hasn’t stopped talking about how great his party was. Or how great his cake was. Do you know he still has that figurine you made? Missy finally had to put it in the fridge because it was starting to melt.”

  “I’m surprised he hadn’t eaten it yet.”

  “Are you kidding? He wanted to sleep with the thing. Missy had a hard time talking him out of that one.”

  Lara smiled. It made her feel good to hear how happy her work had made someone.

  “Looking pretty pleased with yourself.”

  “It’s nice to hear. I put a lot of thought and effort into my work. And sure, I know people are going to eat it. I know it’s not a great masterpiece, but for those few hours that it hasn’t been touched, it is a masterpiece. A memory people will remember the rest of their lives if I do my job right. I’m so glad Connor enjoyed it.”