by Emma Vikes
I took a step closer to him again and patted his cheek. “Relax, Ansel. That was us, eight years ago. I understood what you meant when you said it. I did lack time for our relationship because I was too busy. I’m sorry about that.” It had been my choice not to spend time with Ansel back then as I spent more time fussing over recipes.
Ansel placed his hands on my shoulders and smiled. “It’s all in the past now. What matters is what we have at the moment, this second chance that you’re giving me.”
I bit my lip at his words and then took a step back. “I do hate to say it but can we eat now? I am short on time here.” I felt bad for a moment, for not responding to what he just said. Still, I felt like I was treading through dangerous waters and I was scared to dive, no matter how deep I already was.
As I took out the boxes from the brown bag, I noticed Ansel seemed to be busy with a bottle of wine in my peripheral view. “You’re not trying to make me drunk at this hour, are you? I still have to get back to work, Ansel.”
He laughed but still poured me a glass. “I’ve never opened this bottle before but people swear by Adrianna Vineyard. There’s no one I’d share it with but you and it’s just a glass, Maia. You won’t get drunk.”
As much as I didn’t want to, I was tempted at the sight of the wine. I just needed to ease myself and one glass would be enough. I took it from him and drank, surprised at how quickly I finished the glass. Drinking it so fast was a mistake.
Ansel was quick to give me a refill.
I gave him a pointed look just as my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I took it out, seeing Taylor’s name flashing on the screen. I was about to answer when Ansel took my phone from me. He looked at me innocently. “Taylor’s probably wondering where you are. You usually spend your breaks together.” He handed me the glass of wine.
I accepted the glass. “It’s been eight years. I don’t have the same alcohol tolerance anymore, Ansel, and I’m just gonna tell her where I am.”
“Are you really gonna tell her you’re here with me in my penthouse, having a glass of wine?” He asked, smirking at me as he fidgeted with my phone and then set it on the counter. Then, he moved closer to me and leaned in.
In an instant, my pulse raced. His masculine scent was intoxicating as he moved closer, his chest pressed against mine. I wondered if he was going to kiss me.
Then he snatched something from behind me. It was the box of takeout. He grinned. “I thought you were pressed on time and I’m also quite hungry, the takeout smells so good right now." Now he gave me a smirk. “I’m also quite hungry for something else but I don’t think you would approve of that dish.”
The statement seemed so out of the blue and so sudden but it still managed to heighten my own desire even more. I swallowed and took a step back from him, unsure if I could even trust myself. Just like him, I had the same kind of hunger. It didn’t help that his words had awakened the vixen inside of me.
Ansel seemed to notice the sudden shift in my attitude because he pulled away from me. He took a sip of his wine.
I did the same thing, downing half of its contents. When I came up here, I didn’t really know what would happen.
“I wondered if you were mad at me,” Ansel said quietly.
I looked at him, my eyebrows raised. “What?”
He met my gaze and smiled a little, shrugging his shoulders. “You seemed to be detached whenever I called you since we got back from Nana’s. It’s like you’re pulling away and I wondered if I had something to do with it. It bothered me a lot and I wanted to ask you about it but I knew I needed to do it privately.”
His words made me take a step closer to him again. I wrapped my arms around his waist and then rested my head on his chest, hugging him. Ansel was still the same guy I dated eight years ago and yet so different too. “I’m not mad at you, Ansel. There’s just a lot of things I’m thinking about.”
“Is ‘us’ one of the things on your mind too?” Ansel asked, his eyes staring deeply into mine. “Because I think about us a lot. I keep wondering what we are to each other. I know you want to take things slow, Maia, and I totally respect that but I want to know where I stand in your life. All I really want is to be a part of your life again, of yours and Sage’s. Even when she’s not mine.”
His last statement made me suck in a deep breath then finish the remaining contents in my glass and pour myself another one. My reaction must’ve worried him because when I looked at him, I could see his confusion. Taking a deep breath and downing the newly poured content, I walked over to Ansel when I finished it. I wanted to respond to what he just said but I didn’t even have the right words.
So instead, I wrapped my arms around his neck and crashed my lips into his.
I knew the line I was crossing as I pressed my lips to his, pushing my body against his. As Ansel pulled me closer to him, I could feel his dick straining against his pants. A shiver of delight rushed through me as the thought of him getting excited pleased me. I couldn’t control myself anymore. It was as if the restraint I had, just suddenly crumbled down.
The desire and longing to have Ansel inside of me were no longer controllable and I wanted him to have me, all of me.
“Maia, if we don’t stop now, I don’t think I can.” His voice sounded pained.
His husky voice banished whatever resolve I had left. “I’m not stopping you, Ansel,” I whispered, unbuttoning the top of his shirt. My lips grazed his exposed skin as Ansel shivered under my touch. “Do what you want with me. Fuck me. I won’t stop you.”
It was as if something snapped inside of Ansel and I saw it when he leaned away for a moment and stared at me, his eyes searching mine for consent. When he saw it, he roughly crashed his lips against mine, picked me up, and placed me on the countertop. He spread my legs apart and stood in between, his hands unbuttoning my uniform.
Throwing away my top to one side, his lips left mine and descended on my skin, to my neck, and then to my collarbone, his teeth grazing the sensitive flesh and leaving a mark. It always had been his favorite spot to give me a hickey.
From there, his hand reached to my back, unclasping my bra and letting it fall between us. “It’s been a while,” Ansel whispered but more to himself as he stared at my breasts.
I let out a laugh but it turned into a gasped when Ansel bit my nipple and his hand roughly massaged my other breast. A moan escaped my lips as his tongue flicked over the sensitive bud and his mouth sucked on my nipple hard. His hand on my other breast began to linger downward… Ansel unbuttoned my pants, his hand cupping my pussy.
My eyes rolled back in pleasure when his finger roughly massaged my clit through my panties. I pushed him away for a moment, shimmying out of my pants and throwing them aside.
Ansel grinned, lifting my leg to the side and crouching in front of my pussy.
“Oh shit!” I yelled when I felt his mouth on my pussy.
Pulling my underwear aside, his mouth worked magic on my sensitive flesh. He paused only to take off my panties and then went right back to work, sliding a finger inside and relentlessly fucking me with his mouth and fingers simultaneously.
“Ah, shit, shit, shit, Ansel!” I screamed when I felt the tension rising within me and the sudden release of it, cum squirting on Ansel’s face.
He stood up, still fully clothed, cum on his mouth and grinning widely. He unbuttoned his shirt and casually threw it away, removed his pants. When he removed his boxers, his dick sprang out.
I reached for his cock to suck him senseless and return the pleasure.
Then as I hopped off the counter, Ansel grabbed me and forced me to turn around. “Now you’ll know just how much I missed you,” he whispered to my ear, gathering my hair and then putting it to the side. He kissed me on the shoulder gently and without warning, slammed his dick inside of me without even easing himself in.
“Oh, my god!” I moaned loudly.
Ansel gripped my waist, ramming into me as roughly as he could. He kissed my neck and
as I gripped the countertop, supporting myself because my legs felt like jelly. The pleasure was building up again and I came but Ansel didn’t even stop.
For a brief moment, he paused and flipped me around. He lifted me up and I automatically wrapped my legs around his waist as he slipped his cock inside of me again. We groaned at the connection and I buried my head to his neck as he brought us to his living room. Ansel roughly laid me on the couch and then proceeded to fuck me senselessly all over again.
Desire and longing flared between us, as if we were making up for the eight years that we’d been apart.
Ansel leaned down and kissed me, biting my lower lip and dragging it down slowly as he roughly slammed his dick inside me again. “God damnit, Maia!”
For the third time, I came and I could feel Ansel tensing above me. He pulled his dick out of me. I reached for his cock then pumped him up and down as quickly as I could until he came on my torso. Panting hard, I released Ansel’s softening cock as the two of us collapsed on the couch, catching our breaths.
“Shit,” Ansel whispered, pulling me close to him and kissing the top of my head. “I never imagined it’d be that wild.”
I laughed right next to him, kissing his chest and wrapping my arms around him. My legs still felt like jelly but the rest of my body tingled with pleasure. “It’s good to know that I still exceeded your expectations.”
Ansel looked down and grinned, kissing my nose. “You always exceed my expectations, Maia. Always.”
20
Maia
I was snuggling with Ansel, my head resting on his chest. We were trying to fit on his couch and despite how big it was, it felt small with two people lying on it. Ansel was drawing circles on my bare arm, kissing the top of my head from time to time.
It felt nice to be under a blanket, wrapped in Ansel’s arms. “What time is it?” I muttered, remembering where I was.
Ansel checked his watch but just as he was about to tell me what time it was, a quick knock sounded on his door.
The moment I heard it, I sprang upright. “Shit, shit, shit, shit.” For a moment, I was rushing around the room, trying to find a place to hide.
Even Ansel seemed to be panicking.
My heart raced and my anxiety suddenly spiked up. It would be embarrassing for anyone to walk in on me naked and with Ansel. It’d be worse if they were someone working in the hotel too, because I wouldn’t know how to face them after if they’d caught us.
I wrapped the blanket around me as Ansel rushed to dress. I gathered my clothes and Ansel pointed me to the kitchen and his pantry cabinet. He opened it for me as he put on his tie and tried to straighten his hair.
Then, we heard someone entering the passcode, the door opening and then slamming shut.
“Ansel?” Joey called out.
Ansel quickly closed the pantry door. “Here!” Ansel said. “What’s up?”
“Have you seen Maia? We’ve been calling her for the past hour.”
“Why? Is there a problem in the kitchen?”
“The food critic that I told you about came in. Taylor noticed him‒ bless her soul‒ and relayed the message to the kitchen. We’ve been trying to reach Maia since then but we couldn’t, so the station chefs had to do it themselves.”
My heart sank as I realized I had abandoned my staff.
“What did the critic say?” Ansel asked him.
“Nothing,” Joey said, “and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.”
I wanted to stumble out of the pantry and rush back to the kitchen but I was only wrapped in a blanket.
“Anyway, we’ll try to contact her. Maybe you can get a hold of her. Doug and Alice want to see her.”
I waited until I heard the door shut close and stumbled out of my hiding place. Wrapping the blanket tightly around myself, I searched frantically for my phone. I remembered how it fell from the countertop when Ansel and I were making out. It had been vibrating and I had wanted to stop kissing Ansel to check but he had distracted me.
“Maia…”
Ignoring him, I grabbed my phone and turned it on, seeing the number of missed calls everyone in the kitchen had given me. “Oh shit, shit, shit.” I quickly got dressed.
Ansel stood there, completely dumbfounded at the situation. “Maia, look at me.”
But I didn’t want to look at him. I had allowed myself to be swayed by his charms and had let my restraint crumble. “Ansel, I need to go. Doug and Alice want to see me and maybe, maybe I could still do some damage control.”
“Maia, I can talk to Alice and Doug for you, I can…”
I gave Ansel a pointed look. “I know that you can, Ansel. I know that despite what we have, you are still our boss. And I didn’t let things unfold between us, just so I could use your position to my advantage. So please, don’t do anything. The last thing I want is for them to find out that we’re together and I was with you the whole time.”
“Maia, please, I can help!” Ansel grabbed my wrist, looking at me earnestly. “Let me help.”
But I didn’t want him to. I couldn’t let him. If I let him do so, then what would that mean? It meant I could take the easy way out simply because I was seeing the owner of the hotel. “Please, don’t,” I replied, forcefully removing his hold on my wrist. “If they reprimand me, then that’s on me. I was the one negligent of my duty, after all.”
Stopping only to make sure I looked presentable, I rushed out of the penthouse and into the elevator, thinking of the excuse I could use.
When I reached the restaurant, Taylor immediately whisked me away. “Where were you, Maia? I’ve been calling you nonstop.”
My stomach churned and I honestly did not know how to respond. “Are Alice and Doug in the kitchen?”
She shook her head. “They’re at the office. Go. They’re waiting for you. You owe me an explanation after.”
I reached out to tie my hair but realized I’d left my hair-tie at Ansel’s so with pursed lips and messy hair, I rushed to the office.
When I arrived, Alice was on the phone.
Doug saw me and motioned me to sit and there wasn’t any trace of warmth in his eyes.
When Alice put the phone down on her table, she sat down with a sigh.
I took it as my cue to apologize for my absence, “Alice, Doug, I am so sorry. I was only meant to step out for a short time but I got carried away and I—”
“The critic caused quite a damage on Seacoast’s restaurant with his review,” Doug said, staring at the phone in his hand, “and I can only hope that we don’t suffer the same fate as them because there hasn’t been any restaurant that suited this critic’s taste.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, not knowing what else I could say other than apologies for my absence.
Alice let out a long sigh and then looked at Doug. “Can you give us a moment, Doug?”
After Doug left, I felt even more anxious being left alone with Alice. “Alice, I’m sorry that I lost track of—”
She shook her head and raised a hand to stop me from talking. “Doug stepped in at the last minute to save this restaurant’s dignity.”
I wasn’t sure if I should feel relieved or not. I looked down, still not knowing what to say.
She went on, “I know that something’s going on between you and Ansel, Maia, and I do not mean to be pushy. But I thought you would know how to balance your personal life and career.”
Biting my bottom lip, I continued to look down. I felt like a teenager being reprimanded by a parent.
“I didn’t choose you as the sous chef because of your history with Ansel. I chose you because I thought you were competent. Please, do not let me down again, Maia, and I think it’ll be best if you took the rest of the day off.”
My eyes suddenly stung with tears as I left her office. Instead of heading to the kitchen to take my things and apologize, I slipped inside a restroom then locked myself in a cubicle. I closed my eyes, taking in deep breaths as I tried to calm myself. Everything
happened so quickly that it was hard to wrap my mind around it.
I had been lost in pleasure only about half an hour ago. Now, I felt embarrassed and irresponsible for leaving my staff alone to deal with a critic. Even when Doug stepped in, I knew that both he and Alice had been relying on me to guide everyone else but I wasn’t there. What made things worse, they couldn’t get a hold of me.
My phone began to vibrate again in my pocket and I pulled it out to see Ansel’s name flashing on the screen. I stared at his name, feeling the vibration on my hand for a while until I slid my thumb to reject the call, resting my head against the wall. My heart sank and tears fell from my eyes again.
I thought you would know how to balance your personal life and career.
I thought I did too but I let Ansel sway me today and it created this mess for me and his restaurant. Maybe letting Ansel back into my life was a bad idea. Maybe giving ‘us’ another shot was an even worse idea. Maybe I shouldn’t have done so. I’d allowed myself to be weak and fall in love when my main focus was supposed to be raising Sage and giving her the life she deserved.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped out of the cubicle and out of the restroom, heading back to the kitchen to apologizing to everyone for my absence. They tried to reassure me but I was still upset with myself as I grabbed my things and headed out. I texted Joanne when I was on the bus, telling her to bring Sage home rather than the hotel.
The moment I arrived home, I took a long bath and then when I was done, stared at the hickey Ansel had given me earlier. I thought of the pleasure I felt when he was kissing me, of how his mere touch was enough to make me explode. It had been so long since I’d felt the touch of a man since I’d felt one inside of me.
But I never thought allowing my desire to be quenched meant that there were consequences to suffer.
Joanne called me and told me that Sage wanted to bake some cupcakes for her class and asked if she could stay at Joanne’s bakery for a while. I didn’t mind if she did. I actually needed some alone time to process everything that just happened earlier.