Delectable Desire

by Farrah Rochon

Carter’s eyes shot to hers.

  “Movers were at my parents’ home today, packing up my things. I’m moving to my loft until I can find something more permanent. Also, on Monday, I’m holding my first art class at Comer Children’s Hospital. I will be teaching there and at the burn unit twice a week. Neither of those things would have happened if not for you, so I wanted to thank you.”

  Carter shook his head. “I don’t deserve credit for that.”

  “Yes, you do.” She nodded. “I should have moved out of my parents’ home a long time ago. But I stayed, thinking that the freedom I gave up was a small price to pay in return for the security they provided. I know now that I can stand on my own. As for the hospital...well, let’s just say that once I saw you with those children, several things became clear.”

  Carter studied her, struck by the self-assuredness she exuded. He tried to recall that reserved, timid woman who’d walked into Lillian’s to order a cake for her sister’s bridal shower. He could barely picture her; that was just how much confidence she had acquired.

  “What became clear?” he asked.

  “Carter, before I met you I was lost. I knew I wanted to do more, but I didn’t know what, if anything, I could contribute, other than writing a check from the Hawthorne-Hayes Foundation. The night of the event at Lincoln Park Zoo, I realized that there was a way for me to give back. After we visited the hospital, and I saw Delaney’s sketches, I knew I’d found it.”

  She took several steps forward, stopping a few feet from him. “So, thank you,” she said. “And goodbye.”

  Carter fisted his hands against the cold granite of the kitchen island as he listened to the hollow sound of her footsteps as she made her way toward the door. He pinched his eyes shut, felt a muscle jumping in his jaw as it clenched in angry resentment.

  “I want to know why,” he said in a quiet voice.

  Her footsteps halted.

  Carter turned. To her back, he said, “In the time we were together, what had I ever done to make you think I was capable of doing what you accused me of, Lorraine?”

  Finally, she turned. Her chin dipped for just a moment before she brought her head up and looked him directly in the eye.

  “It had nothing to do with you, Carter. It was about me, and what I had come to expect.” She paused, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. After a moment she dropped her hands and brought her gaze back to his, that silent strength returning.

  “A month ago, when I accepted that first dinner invitation from you, it was the boldest and scariest thing I had done in years,” she said. “Those first few days, it felt as if I was a different person, some actor pretending to be this woman who flirted and kissed a man on the first date. But then I started to realize that the person I’d allowed myself to become—this aloof, unapproachable person—was the real fraud.”

  She pointed to her chest. “This person, the one you helped me to rediscover—this is the real Lorraine.”

  “I’d fallen in love with the real Lorraine,” Carter said quietly. “You don’t know what it took for me to say those three words to you. I’d never said them to another woman.”

  The look of anguish that crossed her face ripped at Carter’s heart. She pulled her quivering bottom lip between her teeth.

  “I have never loved someone the way I love you, Rainey. I didn’t think love could happen that fast, not the deep love I found myself feeling. But it did. And then you throw me in the same boat with the bastard that blackmailed you, all because of a picture that was taken nearly ten years ago. Do you know what that did to me?”

  He drew a frustrated hand down his face.

  “I only joined that fraternity because my dad and uncle were a part of it, but I knew from early on that it just wasn’t me. I didn’t take the time to get to know anyone there. The day that picture was taken, I showed up to the frat house, was there for the five minutes it took the photographer to snap the photo and I left. I don’t remember ever meeting Broderick Collins, and I’ve never had any dealings with him.”

  “Carter, please try to see things from my perspective. At the time, all I had to go on was the evidence sitting right in front of me, and my mother’s warnings ringing in my ears, telling me that you were making a fool of me.”

  “But—” Carter started, but she stopped him.

  “No, please. You need to understand this.” She folded her arms across her chest, rubbing her hands over her forearms as if warding off a chill. Her voice, when she continued, was muted. “What happened with Broderick has haunted me every single day for the past five years. It has controlled my life in more ways than my mother ever could.” She looked up at him. “You showed me that it doesn’t have as much power over me as I thought it did. You showed me that my past mistakes do not have to define my future.”

  “So why did you let it?” he asked, running an agitated hand through his hair.

  “Because it’s what I had become used to. Don’t you get it, Carter?” She held her hands out, as if pleading with him to understand. “I didn’t know how to be happy. I didn’t think I deserved it. That’s my ugly truth. As amazing as these past few weeks with you have been, a part of me has been waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the joy I’d found to be snatched away from me.

  “When my mother handed me her so-called proof, in a way, I felt justified, as if it was nothing more than what I had expected to happen all along.”

  “So you’re telling me that this entire time you’ve just been waiting for me to break your heart?”

  She lifted her shoulders in a hapless shrug. “I thought it was inevitable,” she said, the words coming out ragged, clogged with emotion. She pushed out a weary sigh. “And in the end, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. I figured out a way to get my heart broken on my own. I thought I was more prepared for it this time around, but it seems that the harder you love, the greater the hurt.”

  The words clutched at Carter’s heart, squeezing it like a giant fist. He’d felt that kind of love, and knew that kind of hurt.

  Lorraine straightened her shoulders, and drew in a shattering breath.

  “Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to apologize. I didn’t want you to leave for New York believing that I still thought you were guilty.”

  He had to swallow several times before he was able to speak. Finally, he asked, “What changed your mind about me?”

  “Other than the fact that the timeline doesn’t match up?” she asked. She tilted her head to the side, a somber smile touching her lips. “It was something I told my mother from the very beginning. You and Broderick are nothing alike. I know the type of person you are, Carter. You have shown me your heart. It’s not capable of such treachery.”

  With a brief nod, she turned and started for the door.

  Carter swallowed hard, closing his eyes tight. The lump of emotion clogging his throat felt as big as a baseball. He heard the soft click of the doorknob turn as she opened it.

  “Don’t leave,” he managed to get out. He opened his eyes. Lorraine stood with her back to him, her hand still on the knob.

  “Don’t leave,” Carter said again.

  She turned. A mixture of hope, regret and uncertainty glistened in her expressive brown eyes.

  “If you know what’s in my heart,” he said, “then you know better than to think I would let you walk out of here.”

  In two strides he was standing before her, mere inches separating their bodies. Carter brought his hand up and caressed her warm cheek, just as a single tear escaped and trailed down her face.

  “Carter, I am so sorry,” she whispered.

  “Never believe that you don’t deserve happiness, Rainey. If there is anyone in this world who deserves to be happy, it’s you.”

  She looked up at him, her eyes brimming with tears.

  “Do I deserve you?” she asked. Her soft palm cupped his jaw. His eyes slid shut, savoring the feel of her. “Say that I deserve you, Carter.”

  “We deserve each other,” he
said before dipping his head and capturing her mouth in a slow kiss. Everything in his world fell into place the moment his lips touched hers. Each doubt faded with every swipe of his tongue as it plunged in and out of her sweet, warm mouth. Everything he could ever want was standing right here, wrapped in his arms.

  “I love you,” Carter breathed into her. “With every single part of me, I love every single part of you.”

  “I thought I’d never hear you say those words to me again,” she whispered. She rested her forehead against his, and looking into his eyes, said, “I love you, too, Carter. With every single part of me.”

  He kissed her again, long and slow and deep. He had suffered through an entire week of not tasting her lips; it had been the hardest week of his life. With a certainty that reached to the depths of his soul, Carter knew he would never go this long without her again. Not if he wanted to survive.

  He finally released her lips but kept his arms around her. He needed to feel her against him. Forever.

  Lorraine lowered her head to his chest, resting her cheek against the place where his heart beat.

  “I suppose I will begin earning quite a few frequent-flier miles,” she said.

  “You don’t need to fly to Michigan Avenue, do you?”

  Her head popped up. “But I thought—”

  “I didn’t take the job,” he said. “I belong at Lillian’s. That bakery is a part of me. It’s my family.”

  “Lillian’s is lucky to have you,” she said.

  “I’m just as lucky to have it, and the rest of my family. I’m lucky to have you, too.”

  “We’re lucky to have each other.”

  With a smile, Carter lowered his head and found heaven in her kiss.

  Epilogue

  Lorraine tucked the silk sheet more firmly underneath her arms as she sat up in bed. Dozens of papers were strewn across her lap. She had forms for several grants she was applying for that would benefit Comer Children’s Hospital. For once, she had no problem throwing around the Hawthorne-Hayes name, especially if it meant more money for the hospital.

  She stumbled over the application for the fellowship she’d applied for several weeks ago—the one her father had ripped apart in front of her. Back then she’d thought that earning the fellowship would provide the validation that she had been seeking. Lorraine stared at the paper, then balled it up and tossed it aside.

  Carter came around the dividing wall in her loft carrying a coffee mug in one hand and a fluted ramekin in the other. He was bare-chested, and he looked good enough to eat.

  He set the mug on the table next to the bed. Taking a seat on the edge of the mattress, he picked up the crumpled paper she’d just tossed.

  “What’s this?”

  “Something I thought I needed,” Lorraine said. “But I don’t. Not anymore.”

  Carter shrugged and tossed it with the other forms scattered around the room. He scooted closer to her and spooned a helping of the ramekin’s contents. Holding the spoon out to her, he said, “Tell me this crème brûlée isn’t the best thing you’ve ever tasted.”

  “Crème brûlée for breakfast, Carter?”

  He shrugged. “It’s time for dessert somewhere in the world. Now open up.”

  Lorraine shook her head, but obliged. “Mmm...”

  “Good, right?”

  “Wonderful.”

  “Better than the one at Les Nomades?”

  She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “Goodness, look at all the paperwork I have to complete.” Carter let out a groan, and she fell into a fit of giggles. “I’m only teasing you. It is the best crème brûlée in the entire world.”

  “You’re just saying that so I’ll stop trying.”

  “Yes, I am, but I know that won’t stop you.”

  “Damn right,” he said. He set the ramekin on the table next to her coffee mug and climbed over her on the bed. He sat up against the headboard and pulled her into his arms. “I’m going to perfect that recipe, even if I have to buy every egg yolk in Chicago.”

  Lorraine belted out a laugh. “I’ll alert the area chickens.” She nestled closer to him, her naked back against his solid, equally naked chest. “Is there anything special on your agenda today?” she asked.

  “I’m heading to the bakery as soon as I can tear myself away from you,” Carter replied, kissing her bare shoulder and sending shivers up her spine. “The entire Drayson clan will be there today. It’s one of our last meetings before heading to L.A. for You Take the Cake.” He let out a sigh. “We’ve got a lot riding on this show, Rainey. We really need this to go off without a hitch.”

  “It will,” she said. “Don’t worry.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. I have a feeling that some family secrets may not remain a secret for much longer.”

  “Why so cryptic, Carter?” she said absently, grabbing another grant form.

  He tightened his arms around her waist. “I may have inadvertently stumbled across something in New York that I wasn’t supposed to know. It explains a lot about something that’s been bothering me about my cousin Shari.”

  His voice held a note of unease that had Lorraine twisting around to face him. “Is it something serious? Is Shari in trouble?”

  He peered down at her, and Lorraine realized that the sheet covering her breasts had fallen. Carter’s eyes instantly heated.

  “It’s nothing Shari can’t deal with on her own. Besides,” he said, pulling the covers completely away from her and tossing them onto the floor. “I’m about to give you all you can handle.”

  * * * * *

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  DELECTABLE DESIRE

  ISBN: 9781460312438

  Copyright © 2013 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

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  Table of Contents

  Back Cover Text

  Introduction

  About the Author

  Title Page

  Dear Reader

  Dedication

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

 
Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  Copyright