by Jamie Pope
“Maybe a vacation home. I like being around my family again. I didn’t realize how much I missed them when I lived in Chicago. Besides, you and I just became good friends, how could I move away?”
“If your beachfront mansion has a guesthouse, I would be more than happy to stay with you for extended periods of time. I could design jewelry out by the pool and sell my wares to the tourists.”
“You imagine big, don’t you?”
“I do.”
They grinned at each other.
“It’s a nice dream,” Mariah said with a sigh, and that reminded Amber of what Chase had said about dreams a few days ago.
“We haven’t talked in a while. We should catch up.”
Mariah’s eyes lit up. “Is there anything new we need to catch up about?”
“No. You don’t have to look so excited. I just haven’t seen you in a while.”
She looked slightly disappointed. “Oh, I thought there might be a new man in your life.”
“No. Nobody but Professor Habibi.”
“Is he a sexy academic type with a six-pack?”
“He’s an eighty-year-old with a hearing aid.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “You would tell me if something was going on, right? I told you about Everett.”
“Yes, Mariah. I’m not seeing anyone. I promise.” Chase had asked if Mariah had grilled her about them yet. She guessed that this was it. They had kissed a couple of times, but she wasn’t seeing him. They definitely weren’t dating.
“We should all have dinner. Jackson was talking about trying this new Chinese place that just opened. I’ll invite Chase. We’ll make it a night.”
“Okay. That sounds fun—just let me know when.”
“I’ll call you later. I’ve got a meeting with a supplier in a few minutes, but we’ll definitely set something up for next week.”
“Sounds good.”
Mariah squeezed her arm before she walked away. Amber attended to a few more customers, but it was the time of day when the coffee café slowed down. She wished it wasn’t. She needed the customers, the little bits of conversation to keep her going. She was tired, feeling a little run-down these past couple of days. She needed to stay busy so she could get through the next part of her day.
Chase walked behind the counter and poured hot water into a paper cup and dipped a passion fruit tea bag in there. She was surprised when she saw him pour honey in the cup. She hadn’t pegged him for a tea drinker.
“I think you could use this.” He handed the cup to her. “You look tired.”
She was touched by the simple gesture. “Is it that obvious?”
“Not with the customers, but I can see it in your face. You should go to bed early tonight.”
The words you should come with me almost slipped off her tongue, but she caught herself. The vivid image of climbing into bed with him and sleeping in his arms appeared in her mind. She could just imagine how the skin of his hard chest would feel against her cheek, how his arms would feel wrapped around her, how languid she would feel after hours and hours of lovemaking.
She was aroused, she discovered. Unexpectedly and fully aroused just by thinking about him, just by standing before him. She had never experienced this kind of attraction to a man.
“Are you all right, Amber?” Chase lifted his hand to her cheek, stroking the backs of his fingers along it. He glanced at the clock and issued an order to the busboy who was wiping down the tables to take over the counter.
“Your shift is almost over.” He grabbed her arm. “Come sit down.”
“I’m fine, Chase.”
“You’re exhausted. You’re sitting down.” He led her to the back of the café to the table with the comfy armchairs in the corner where he sometimes liked to sit when he worked. He had kissed her for the first time at this table. She mentally shook her head again. She couldn’t believe that she was holding that memory in her head. She certainly couldn’t remember where her ex had kissed her the first time. But she remembered Chase’s kiss and what he was wearing and how he smelled.
And what it felt like. She would never forget what it felt like or how she’d stayed up all night thinking about his lips on hers. Thinking about how much she would love to feel them on hers again.
“Drink your tea.”
“Chase, I’m fine. I swear.”
“You looked like you were going to pass out.”
“I wasn’t. I was just thinking about some stuff.”
“Okay,” he said, clearly not believing her. He walked away from her then, only to return with a large gooey chocolate chip cookie for her. “Eat this. It will make your blood sugar go up.”
“But—”
“No arguments. Just eat it.”
She did as he asked and he watched her chew the cookie. It was a damn good cookie. One of the bakery’s bestsellers. She allowed herself to have one a week. They were large, and she knew if she ate more than one, her behind would end up spreading from here to California. “You eat some, too.” She broke off a piece and held it up to his mouth. He looked her in the eye while she fed it to him and she realized what she was doing. She was feeding the man she worked for, in the place she worked, in the middle of the day. Luckily no one was around them and they couldn’t easily be seen from the counter.
“Why are you so tried? What were you doing last night?”
“Nothing fun. What did you do last night?”
“I went to the gym, took a shower and watched three hours of wrestling.”
“What?” She let out a startled laugh. “Wrestling, like gold-medal, men-in-singlets wrestling?”
“Get real. I’m talking pile driver and chokeslam wrestling.”
“I don’t believe you.” Super educated, corporate finance guru, Chase would never watch a tables, ladders and chairs match.
“I’ll show you my cable bill. I order every event on pay-per-view.”
“Why?”
“It’s ridiculous and fake and absurd, but I like it. It helps me unwind.”
She smiled at the thought of it. “What does your family think of this?”
“They don’t. They don’t know anything about it. It’s my dirty little secret and now I’m sharing it with you.”
“I’m honored.” She liked having that little secret with him. She liked that she knew something that nobody else knew about him. She liked that he wasn’t as stuffy as the world thought he was. “I used to watch it myself when I was a kid. I had a thing for that big, sexy, Samoan guy.”
“He’s an action star now.”
“Really? I don’t keep up with many movies.”
“Because you don’t have time. You accused me of not taking time to enjoy life and yet you’re running yourself ragged. When is the last time you relaxed?”
“What day is it?”
“Thursday.”
“Oh, then it was eighteen months ago.”
He smiled, showing off those gorgeous white teeth of his, and she smiled back, unable to help herself. “That’s not the answer I wanted to hear.”
“I’m a busy woman. I thought a man like you would appreciate that.”
“I do. Come out with me.”
She blinked at him. He had kissed her twice. His request shouldn’t have been a surprise and yet it was. She felt kind of breathless hearing it.
“Let me buy you lunch. Wherever you want to go.”
Yes. She wanted to say yes, but her mouth wasn’t working for some reason. “What time is it?” came from her mouth instead.
“It’s two thirty.”
“Two thirty!” She jumped out of her chair and pulled her coffee-scented work shirt off to reveal a cream-colored tank top that she loved to wear with her paisley-print maxi skirt. “I can’t have lunch with
you. I have to go.”
“Where do you have to go?”
“To class. I teach a class every Thursday. I’m going to be late.”
She stepped away from him, prepared to sprint out the door, but something made her look back. “Thanks for the tea and cookie. I appreciate it.”
He simply nodded and she rushed away from him to the back to get her things and clock out. She was out of breath by the time she left the bakery and she couldn’t tell if it was because she was really in that much of a hurry to get to class, or if she was in that much of a hurry to get away from Chase. She wanted to go out with him, to be alone with him, but she didn’t trust herself around him. It would be far too easy to give in to temptation, to let a few kisses turn into full-blown lovemaking. And maybe a little bit of lovemaking was what she needed. She hadn’t been with anyone in a long time. She hadn’t felt the touch of a man in over a year. Chase was right. She was tense. She did need to relax. A night with Chase would certainly help with that, but then she would have to come to work in the morning and see him and know what he felt like inside her, know what his face looked like when he made love, know what sounds he made while he was taking his pleasure.
And that was bad because she worked for him. She was good friends with his sister. She didn’t want to risk either thing.
Her car was parked just around the corner from the bakery and she could feel her heart rate slow down as she approached it. She loved her old red VW Bug. It had been a gift from her grandfather on her sixteenth birthday. He and her father had restored it for her and she’d had it ever since. She got in and put the key in the ignition to start the car, only the car never started. It sputtered and died.
Shit, she cursed to herself. How much was this going to cost her?
Chapter 5
Chase sat at the corner table for a few minutes after Amber rushed out. He had been turned down for dates before, but he never had a woman run away from him after he asked. If he didn’t know any better, he could have sworn he had seen smoke where she had stood. She had left the room that fast.
A barista. A jewelry designer. And now a teacher. The last one he was surprised about. He wasn’t sure how she had time to do it all and do it well. Of course, she could be using it as an excuse not to go out with him. Though, he wasn’t sure why she would. She seemed to enjoy his kisses. She seemed to like kissing him back. He thought that they had a connection. He had felt it. But maybe he was wrong. Maybe he was slipping. He wasn’t a player, but he never had trouble getting a woman. But Amber, it seemed, wasn’t going to be easy to get.
He shouldn’t have asked her out. He hadn’t meant to do it then, like that.
But the question just slipped from his lips. He thought she was beautiful and vivacious. She made his insides heat every time she smiled at him. And every time she bit into something sweet and shut her eyes, letting out one of those deep moans, a pure surge of lust traveled straight to his groin.
But did they have long-term potential?
Did they have a single thing in common?
A shared interest?
She was just so different from him in every way. Different upbringing. Different background and careers and educations, but he liked her anyway.
He liked her and he thought about being with her despite everything.
But backing off was probably for the best. Getting involved with somebody in the workplace could be messy and awkward. If he wanted a little noncommittal bit of fun he could turn elsewhere.
Amber didn’t seem like a no-strings-attached kind of girl.
He got up and mentally shook himself as he walked back to his office. He should take her refusal as a sign to move on.
Should.
Didn’t mean he was going to.
Not two seconds after he sat down behind his desk, his sister appeared inside of his doorway.
“You heading out for the day?” he asked, noticing her keys and bag in hand.
“I’m going to meet with a supplier. We’re going to talk chocolate.”
“Sounds exciting.” Mariah didn’t move. “Was there something you wanted, sister dear?”
She frowned slightly, and he knew she didn’t like it when he called her that. “I saw you talking to Amber. Is there something you want to tell me?”
“No.” He folded his hands and just stared at her.
“I saw you touch her face.”
“Did you see me make her sit down? You talked to her just before I did. You couldn’t tell she was exhausted?”
“You saw me talking to her?” she asked.
“Of course I did. You don’t think I’m aware that everyone can see what I do, what we do in this bakery? Do you think if I was carrying on with Amber, that I would be so open about it in front of all our employees?”
“I—I... Why did she want to talk to you alone yesterday?”
Chase inhaled deeply and opened his desk drawer where he pulled out the bracelet that Amber made for Mariah. “Happy early birthday. Don’t stand there. Come and get it.”
“Oh.” She took the bracelet from him and looked at it. “Oh.” She looked back to him. “I love it. Amber made this?”
“I had one made for Lillian, too.” He pulled that one out of his desk and handed it to her, too.
“Gorgeous.” She looked up at him kind of surprised. “She’ll love it. This was very thoughtful of you.”
“I know. I still haven’t paid for them yet, so you’ll probably see me talking to her again. I like Amber, Mariah. As a person. She manages the café section. You’re going to see me talking to her again. I’m going to be friendly with her. I might even touch her again. I do not want, need or appreciate your giving me the fifth degree every time you see us together.”
“She’s been mistreated before. She’s been hurt. I know you. I know you’re a good man, but if things go wrong, I don’t want to lose her as a friend.”
“Why would you lose her?”
“Because you’re my brother and in the end I have to stick with you.”
“Why are you so sure I would hurt her?”
“You wouldn’t mean to. But you have been burned before. You both have and you have thrown up these walls protecting yourselves from getting close to anyone. I’m not sure how two people so wounded and unwilling to open their hearts could ever make things work.”
“I’m not wounded.”
“A woman accused you of fathering her child and then dumping her. That would leave a mark on anyone.”
He thought about that difficult few months in his life. Two dates. He had been on two dates with a woman and nearly eight months later she showed up at his place of work claiming that he had fathered her child. If he had, he would have taken care of his responsibilities, welcomed a child. But he knew he hadn’t. Because he had never gone to bed with her. He would be a fool not to recognize the similarities between Amber and that woman. She was a cocktail waitress working her way through school. Beautiful, outgoing, likable. Someone he might have gone to bed with. Someone who had invited him in, but he hadn’t slept with her. There was something in his mind that had warned him not to take things all the way, even when things had gotten hot and heavy.
He still ended up paying for going even that far.
“I’m recovered.”
“Amber needs to be supported. She needs to be loved completely. And after what she went through with that guy, she deserves it.”
That last line stuck with him. It must have been her ex. The one she threw the big party for, the man she must have spent a substantial amount of her savings on to buy that old photograph for.
The one who didn’t appreciate her.
He was a damn fool, her ex.
Amber deserved to be appreciated, treated like a queen. But was Chase the man to do it? He didn’t kn
ow. Maybe she had turned him down because she wanted to be with someone more like herself. Someone artsy and creative. Someone not as rigidly focused as him. He could come up with business plans and projection charts in his sleep, but the thought of coming up with a cupcake flavor for Lillian’s debut at the Bite of Seattle was making him sweat.
“Okay, Mariah.”
“Just okay?”
“Yes, just okay.”
She nodded. “I have to get going right now. But I want all of us to go out to dinner next week. Including Amber. Will you come?”
“I will.”
“Good. We have to let Jackson pick.”
“I know. He knows the best places. The best chefs. He thinks he’s the best at picking out restaurants.”
“He is, though.”
“I know, but as the oldest, I believe it is my duty to give him a hard time.”
She smiled at him. “I’ll set things up, Chase.”
“Let me know how things go with the supplier.”
She nodded at him and was off.
He opened up his laptop again, ready to get back to work. Ready to push Amber and all the conflicting thoughts he had about her out of his head.
“Um, Chase?”
He looked up from his computer to see her there. And for a moment he believed his thoughts were magic. But then he noticed the distressed look on her face. “What’s wrong?” He stood up. He knew she was exhausted. He shouldn’t have let her walk out the door earlier.
“I hate to ask you this, and normally I never would, but I’m in a bind. My car is dead. Will you please take me to my class? Mariah pulled away just before I could get her attention.”
“Of course.” He grabbed his keys. “Why do you hate asking?”
“I don’t like to ask you for favors.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you to think I want anything from you.”
He stopped her, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Not even my friendship?”
“I’m broke, Chase. I’ve got student loan debt up to my ears and a business that nobody thinks I’m going to make successful. If people see a girl like me anywhere around you, they are going to think I’m a gold digger and I’m hanging around with you to get ahead. Plus I work for you, so I don’t want any of the other employees to think that I’m getting special favors.”