Cakewalk: A Calhoon Small Town Romantic Comedy

by Ivy Summers

  Griffin’s eyes lowered to the wooden floor, and he said under his breath, “Well… I hope you come to the town hall meeting, where I’ll be addressing these concerns in greater detail. It was a pleasure meeting you.” With that, he turned and walked out.

  I hurried after him, and I could tell from his clenched fists and set jaw that he was holding a lot back. How he managed any level of civility with Betty after what she said was a miracle to me. I half-wanted to wring her neck myself.

  “Griffin,” I said, keeping my tone soft despite Betty riling me up past my boiling point. “That’s so unfair, what she said. I hope you don’t take it to heart.”

  He simply shook his head, clearly not wanting to talk. He turned into an alley between two shopfronts, then leaned back and rubbed his eyes, his body language the image of exhaustion. “Some people sure can be vicious.”

  I grabbed his hands, held them to my chest. “Forget her. Everybody else we talked to seemed open enough, right?”

  He looked down at my hands holding his. “She’s the only one who did her research. And a lot of research too, if she knows about my mother. Everybody else will learn it all eventually, and then how welcoming are they going to be? And I can’t say a word about my innocence, as those are the terms I agreed to in order to take full control of this operation.”

  I groaned, though not at him. More in frustration at the idea that anyone would judge Griffin the way Betty did. “I’m going to PR the shit out of your business. Everybody’s gonna be singing your praises, or so help me—”

  “You’ve only known me for a few weeks. How are you so sure I’m not who people say I am?”

  “I just have a gut feeling about you, Griffin. I did from the start. And if it turns out you are some evil fat cat looking to fleece this town, I’ll make you pay so hard, you’ll wish you never came here. But I know you’re better than that.”

  His eyes glistened. Had nobody ever believed in him before? “I would hope so, Jade.” He discreetly rubbed his eyes again, then looked back out at Main Street. “Maybe we should call it a day.”

  I didn’t want to stop what we had going on. I felt more connected with him than ever before. “Want to have lunch?”

  “A… professional work lunch?” His eyes looked so weary.

  “A date.” I winked.

  “But I thought—”

  “Who cares? Anyway, if people are going to judge us regardless, then what difference does it make? You said so yourself, earlier.”

  He let out a huff, and for a moment I wasn’t sure if I had convinced him. Finally, he said, “How about we grab some takeout, eat at my place. It’s just down the sidewalk, and I really don’t want to deal with any more confrontations today.”

  Eat at his place? That was a lot more intimate than I thought we’d get again. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll grab something from the sandwich shop, and I could meet you back at the apartment. If that sounds good…”

  He smiled. “It does.”

  “What kind of sandwich?”

  “Club is fine. I have drinks covered at home.”

  I gulped and nodded, though maybe I was being silly thinking this would be some full-on drinks-at-his-place thing. Maybe he just meant he had a nice variety of sodas to choose from. It wasn’t even late yet, or dark enough for our inhibitions to go out the window like that one night.

  “You’re blushing,” Griffin noted.

  I spun away. “No, I’m not. You are! I’ll see you at your place.” I stomped off before he could read into things any further.

  Chapter 15

  Jade

  Yeah, Griffin hadn’t been talking about soda when he mentioned drinks. I entered the apartment and set down the paper bag with our sandwiches, seeing he had set out a bottle of wine on the counter.

  I tried to forget about that for a moment as I looked over the wide open apartment. Though I had offered to help him move in, it seemed he managed quite well by himself, and didn’t have a bad sense of style either. A large bed sat along the back wall, and a comfy sofa stood in front of a TV. He had a full bookshelf and a nice reading spot right beside it too.

  Hell, I wanted to move in.

  “Nice place,” I commented, then chuckled nervously.

  “Thanks. I pay an exorbitant price for the rent, but it’s right above this cute little cake shop, so I guess that makes up for it.”

  I laughed, then pulled the sandwiches out of the bag. “Hey, you’re the one who offered to pay quadruple the original price. I sure hope you’re a better negotiator in your other pursuits.”

  “I couldn’t help it. The woman I’m renting from made me all mushy-brained at the sight of her.”

  I rolled my eyes, though I couldn’t help but smile. “Please.”

  He lifted the wine bottle. “You seemed to like the red wine at the restaurant. I have beer too. Or, you know, soda.”

  “How about a beer? That would pair better with our sandwiches.”

  “Ooh, it ‘pairs’ better? Very fancy.” He put the wine bottle back and grabbed some beers out of the fridge. After popping the cap off mine, he sat beside me on the bar stools at the counter. “I appreciate you sticking up for me, by the way. Even if it’s your job and everything.”

  “I’d do it even if it wasn’t my job, now that I know the facts. Really puts us in a pickle, though, that we can’t tell other people what really happened.”

  “It’s fine. As long as I have one true believer, with any luck, I can build from there.” He took a bite of his sandwich and followed it up with a swig of beer. “But that’s enough work talk. You’re so focused on me and everyone else that I’m worried you’re neglecting yourself. So, how are you doing?”

  “Uh. Fine, I guess. I mean, I’m sorta making bank working for you, so I’m saving it all up for when I need to move out of the Davidson’s place.”

  “Going to get a little place of your own?”

  “I hope so. Real estate is cheap enough here.” I bit into my sandwich, not sure what to do with a conversation that wasn’t about work. It was sweet that he was concerned about me, but weren’t we avoiding this? Trying to keep things strictly professional?

  Hell, who was I kidding? I came up to his apartment for drinks, for goodness’ sake. We both knew what we wanted. That one night hadn’t been enough for either of us. Hanging out in the office trailer with him so close had been pure torture for me. And judging by the looks he tried to hide, he had shared in my misery.

  “There was something you had mentioned that first day we met,” Griffin started.

  I frowned, immediately wracking my brain. That first day we met was a hell of a day… and a night. I still couldn’t believe I had been adventurous enough to sleep with him after having only known him since that morning. “Refresh my memory?”

  “You really didn’t want me taking a peek at your phone’s photo gallery. But I was thinking, if you hadn’t so much as tried to get back into the dating scene before you met me, what kind of salacious pictures could you have been taking?”

  I groaned and half-considered burying my face in my sandwich. “Well, I was considering getting back into it. So I did take some pictures, experimentally, to maybe post on some dating app. But I chickened out instead.”

  “Can I see?”

  “God, no!”

  “I’ve seen you in far more compromising positions, I’m sure.”

  Well, he had that right. “But it’s so embarrassing and desperate.”

  “Nothing desperate about a beautiful woman wanting to be seen.”

  I rolled my eyes again, but of course I found it charming as hell. “All right, but if you laugh, I’m going to join the angry mob along with everyone else.”

  I pulled up the folder in the photo gallery, quickly glimpsed through it myself just to be sure there wasn’t anything too mortifying in it, then relinquished my phone over.

  Griffin grinned like a fiend at me, then turned his eyes to the screen, scrolling slowly, his eyebrows lifting higher a
nd higher with each picture. “You’re very cute in an oversized T-shirt and nothing else on.”

  “Keep scrolling.”

  He put a hand over his mouth as he gasped. “Lingerie? Hang on, I need to sear this image into my brain.”

  I crossed my arms. “Now you’re messing with me.”

  “Absolutely not. I’d ask you to send them to me, but lewd photos are what takes down a lot of professionals, aren’t they?”

  “Send me a few of yourself then. Mutually assured destruction.” I grinned.

  “Photos are nice, but we’re right here in the flesh. Why not the real thing?” His eyes looked me up and down, like he was already undressing me in his mind.

  I felt my cheeks flush as I finished my lunch and downed the rest of my beer. “You first. I’ve never really gotten a good look at those tattoos.”

  He immediately started unbuttoning his shirt. “If you insist.”

  “Don’t act all bashful. You know what we both want.”

  He laughed wickedly and had his shirt off before I knew it. And damn, was he beautiful. Those muscles, which I could assume now were the product of the prison’s gym equipment, tightened and rolled as he tossed his shirt behind him. He then spread his arms, letting me see his tattoos in all their glory.

  They were tasteful, not too much color, simple designs that told stories I could only guess at. “You get any of these in prison?”

  He nodded, then pointed at a few. “Nothing too exciting. I don’t have any murders under my belt, and they don’t exactly have any cool designs for people who’ve committed tax fraud.”

  “I’d imagine they don’t.”

  He pointed at one, a black cat in a spiffy top hat. “Cat burglar. Closest thing the artist could come up with for my so-called crime. You know, with tax fraud being a form of theft and all.”

  “But you didn’t do it.”

  “I was convicted. All that really matters.”

  I looked closer at the grinning cat. “It makes a cute tattoo, at least.”

  “I call him Mittens.”

  I laughed, having not expected something so cute out of a story that was essentially so sad. Here he was, permanently branded for a crime he didn’t do, but I could see how it gave him some power to own it. “I like Mittens a lot. He looks like a cheeky bastard, just like my boss.”

  “Sounds like you need to set your boss straight.” He had a fire behind his eyes, a hunger.

  “Well, now,” I started, feeling the same flame rise in me. “How do you propose I do that?”

  He stood and closed the distance between us, putting his hands on my hips. “Are we saying to hell with it, Jade? To hell with professionalism and what everybody thinks?”

  The heat between my legs definitely was. “Pros and cons,” I suggested, and he waited, his face suspended above mine. “Pro, we both really like each other and see eye to eye on a lot of things. Con, people are going to think this is nothing more than a work fling, one of us taking advantage of the other.”

  “People think a lot of things.”

  “Pro, neither of us care that much what people think at this point. We’re kinda used to it.”

  “On the flip side, I care what you think, a lot, and I want to be the man you think I am.”

  Hot. “I’d file that under ‘pro.’ But con, I’ve barely got my shit together, and you’re still picking up the pieces of your own life.”

  He moved closer, his voice barely above a whisper. “If we all waited until everything was perfect, we’d never get anything done.”

  My eyes dropped to his lips, and I unconsciously licked my own. “Con, we’ll have to keep this a secret.”

  “And what is ‘this’?” he asked, his deep eyes searching for answers in mine.

  What was our first agreement? Friends with benefits? Why couldn’t we be more? “‘This’ is whatever you want it to be.”

  “I can’t lie to you, Jade.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not ready yet to be abandoned again.”

  “I wouldn’t.” I never meant anything more in my life.

  “We don’t know how things are going to turn out. It’d be better if we kept this an indulgence and nothing more. At least, for now.”

  I knew he was being practical. I knew he didn’t want either of us to get hurt or to risk disappointment. I definitely didn’t want to repeat what happened with my last relationship, thinking it was more serious than it was.

  “You’re right,” I said, and I saw just the slightest glimpse of pain in his eyes. “We’ll just enjoy ourselves. Not make this into a thing. When we aren’t working together, we’re just two lonely people who really like each other’s bodies.”

  “Let’s just get this out of our systems. Then we can think clearly, and act like two sane adults again.”

  I nodded, as much as I wanted it to be more than that, as much as I knew he did too, and he slid his hands beneath my ass and picked me up like I weighed nothing. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he carried me to the sofa, his lips finding mine. He sat with me straddling his legs, his grip still tight against my ass.

  My hands traced the crevices of his back muscles as he unzipped my skirt. “Stand,” he commanded, and I did, only for him to pull down my skirt, then panties. He traced a finger between my legs, finding me already wet for him. “Fuck,” he whispered. “Are you always like this for me?”

  “It’s become quite the workplace hazard.”

  “Let’s just say you’re not the only one who’s been having a hard time at work.”

  “Is that a boner joke?”

  He stood, and speak of the devil, his hard cock was straining against his pants. “Shush and bend over the sofa.”

  I did as I was told and got to my knees, laying over the cushions. He walked off to pull something out of a drawer, then came back, unfastened his belt, and pulled out the cock I’d been fantasizing about since it was last inside me.

  “Oh, hello,” I said as I gaped at it from over my shoulder.

  “I said shush. Don’t make me gag you.”

  Don’t threaten me with a good time. Yet somehow I managed to bite my tongue. I turned away just as he rolled a condom on, and I welcomed the fact that we were getting right to it. Any sort of tongue or lips would just be teasing at this point. I wanted him, and I wanted it deep inside me.

  I felt the tip of him press against my throbbing pussy as his hands reclaimed their grip on my ass. Then he went down on his knees, spreading mine apart with a nudge. I was spread wide open for him, my wetness making me cold against the open air.

  His tip entered, and I bit back a whimper. He’d given it to me hard last time, after his five years of nothing. I wondered if he’d have the same vigor this time around.

  He didn’t leave me wondering for long. He pushed in fully, each inch eliciting a sharp breath from me, my pussy clenching around him as his hot length throbbed deep inside me. Once he’d taken me to the root, he pulled out all the way to the tip again. “You wanted it hard last time.”

  “I still do.”

  “Naughty.” He then thrust in, out and in again, the slapping of our flesh loud and echoing in the wide open apartment. He leaned back a few inches and started pulling me into him, until I started repeating the action myself, the both of us meeting in the middle of the thrusts. His hands migrated around my hips, to my clit, and he rubbed the sensitive spot in just the right way to send waves of pleasure through me, his cock pounding against me all the while.

  All the sensations were too much, along with the primal position, being taken like an animal. My pussy tightened around his cock as his fingers brought my clit to an orgasm that rocked through my body.

  “I’m not letting this end so soon,” he told me, then he pulled out, picking me up and sitting down again, setting me onto his lap.

  As he lifted my top off and unstrapped my bra, he said against my ear, “You’ve been neglected for too long, Jade. You deserve to get fucked out of your mind.” />
  Sweet Jesus. “Okay,” was my whimpered reply, then he entered me again, our clothes fully discarded now, just two completely naked, touch-starved people who needed each other like nothing else.

  From my position on his lap, his mouth was at the right height to give my breasts all the attention he could, his hands kneading them, his mouth sucking one nipple then another, all the while pounding deep into me like a fucking jackhammer.

  I couldn’t help the noises coming out of me as I wrapped my hands around his neck, pulling him against my breasts, my legs squeezing his thighs between me. The sounds of our desperate and unrelenting pounding reverberated throughout the room, and as much as I wanted to moan and yell, I knew better. Knew that sometimes the shop downstairs could hear feet stomping around or the television blaring. I opted to bite my lip instead.

  I grabbed the back of the sofa and used it for some leverage to bounce up and down on his cock, making him give a satisfied growl as he leaned back to watch my body on his, attached at the hips. “Fuck, Jade, you are beautiful.”

  “You too,” I said, too out of my mind to say anything more clever or sexy.

  A little laugh rumbled in his throat, then he put his hands on my waist and said, “Lean back. I’ll hold you.”

  I did as he said, his powerful hands making me confident to throw my head back, the position letting him drive his cock even deeper into my dripping pussy. “I can’t fucking stand it, Jade. You’re so fucking gorgeous. Makes me not care about anything else.”

  He shifted us so I was on my back, laying across the sofa. Then he gripped his hands around the back of my thighs, pressing them against my shoulders, hammering into me so hard that my mouth opened in a silent cry. He must’ve held back last time, because right now I could feel the years of isolation being taken out on my pussy, and it both hurt, yet was the greatest pleasure I’d ever felt.

  I was close, and so was he, his feral eyes inches from mine. He put a hand against my cheek and stared at my lips. He wanted to devour me, kiss me with all his passion, and so did I. But our arrangement, whatever it was, was so vague, neither of us knew if it’d be a step too far to kiss like lovers while he was so deep inside me.