Gabriel: I can always come over there, and you can tell me exactly why my cupcakes are so good.
Sari’s jaw dropped, at the same time as butterflies started to riot in her stomach. Was she supposed to pretend that she wasn’t flirting with him? Was she supposed to flirt back? How hard? How did she want this to go?
She felt like she should be the one in control of the conversation, even if she wasn’t in control of her emotions at the moment. She blamed the sugar, she blamed the cupcakes, but really, she knew it was him. The way he was making her feel.
Oh really? She bit her bottom lip, typing slowly. How are you going to do that?
Gabriel: Well, first I’d have to break down that door.
Sari: Only if you promise to put it back.
Gabriel: Of course. I’m very handy that way.
Sari rolled her eyes. Trust Gabriel to grab the nearest innuendo and wave it around like a toy sword.
Gabriel: Then, I would wrap my arms around you. Touch you everywhere you need it.
Maybe press you against the door, feel your body against mine.
Where would you like me to touch you, Sari?
A frisson of heat shot through Sari’s body, pooling in the place that, to use Sam’s words, was “getting dusty.” She might have gasped, but she’d clapped her hand over her mouth already. Her heart was beating a little too fast in her chest, and her knees felt jiggly and weak. Was it just her or was it suddenly really warm, and dark in this room?
And three gray dots were still showing up on the bottom of her screen. He was still typing.
Gabriel: I can picture it. My hands on you. Warming you up. I bet your skin will be smooth in my hands. I want to give you...
She sucked in a breath.
Pleasure.
“Holy shit,” she said out loud, and it almost sounded like a moan to her ears.
Gabriel: Tell me what you want?
I don’t really know what I want. Sari’s hands were faster than her brain right now, which wasn’t surprising given that she worked with her hands. Oh, she knew she seemed cool and confident over text and when Gabriel was looking at her, but that was just a poor attempt at keeping her own emotions in check. Sari was not that cool.
But you could be one of those things.
Three gray dots from him.
There was a knock on the door. Sari jumped approximately fifty feet in the air, even if the closet couldn’t have been more than nine feet tall.
“Password?” she asked, her hand over her chest to calm her rapidly working heart.
“Yeah, nice try, Sari. I’m still not going to tell you where the mango farm is,” he said, and Sari’s laugh bubbled out of her before she could help it. It actually sounded a little strangled, which was definitely not a good thing.
But how did Gabriel get into her coffee lab? Did her desire for him just...open doors now?
“Your fire escape door was propped open,” like he’d read her mind, he quickly explained through the still closed door. “Can I come in?”
Sari turned to face the door and pressed her hand against the wood, taking a deep breath. Then she unlocked the door and opened it slowly, enough to reveal Gabriel looking at her, his mouth slightly parted, his breathing rapid, like he’d run here. He looked exactly how she felt—out of her element, but way too excited about the possibilities to worry. He was, clearly, as hot and bothered as she was.
She was into it.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” she said back, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him into the closet with her, plunging them both into darkness. She couldn’t see, but she could feel Gabriel’s hands when he placed them on her waist. His hands were so hot she thought she heard the hiss of steam rising in the air, like freshly frothed milk. They skimmed and roamed, sneaking under her skirt, gripping her thighs and making her gasp.
“I love that you wear skirts all the time,” he said, as his lips claimed the skin on her neck. “Are you warm enough?”
“No.”
“Good,” he said, and he somehow managed to spin them around and press Sari against the back of the door, his hand hot against her skin as he pulled one leg around his waist. “I believe I made a promise to pleasure you, Sari.”
“Stop talking and start doing, then,” she said, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She felt the weight of her body shift as Gabriel lifted her up and pressed her back against the door. She immediately felt light-headed and off balance, because oh wow. Who would have thought that baking did a body good? Gabriel was strong and warm, and Sari loved touching him, grabbing him, pressing against him. Her skirt was bunched up against the base of her stomach, and she had the room to roll her hips against his leg.
“Oh, fuck,” she heard Gabriel mutter darkly, gripping her thighs tighter as his finger brushed up against her underwear. “Wet for me already, Sari?”
“Mhm,” was all she managed to say, still moving her hips against his hand as he stroked her over her underwear, teasing and torturing her at the same time, because she wanted more. God, did Sari want more.
“Can I touch you?” Gabriel asked, his voice low as his lips pressed against her neck, kissing the skin there and leaving a little mark. “Sari, please let me touch you.”
“Okay,” she breathed. “Do it.”
The noise she made when his fingers found her clit did not sound like her at all. She never thought she would feel so uninhibited around him, shameless and bold as his magic fingers moved inside her, stroking, feeling, brushing. He seemed to be a little lost, staying on a particular spot and a particular motion until Sari directed him. “Harder. There. Oh, Gabriel, yes, there.”
He made her feel like her entire nervous system was a string of Christmas lights, firing at all synapses and making her squeeze tighter, roll her hips harder, ask for more.
“I really like you, dimples.” She half panted, half groaned as Gabriel’s hand squeezed her breasts through her shirt, and she found a spot on his skin that tasted sweet.
“I want you, Sari,” he breathed like he was the one getting an excellent hand job. She didn’t think that just hearing his voice like this would be such a turn on, but the way he said it, soft and husky, it was everything. Everything.
It made her squeeze her thighs together as she sucked particularly hard on the nearest spot on his skin. She pressed her fingers against the back of his neck to brace herself and slid her hand between her legs to help him along. Gabriel almost growled, she felt that rumble against her own body. She moved her fingers with the rhythm they were making, almost as if to show Gabriel that this was what she wanted, that this was how she found pleasure. Gabriel gently pushed her fingers aside and took over.
“And?” Sari threw her head back because ohholycrap this was so delicious, and there was nothing to hold on to but Gabriel, so she did, which only made it better. There was a brief moment of madness where Sari actually thought, maybe this one would stay, maybe he could actually stick around...
“And I think,” he murmured into her ear. “You are absolutely irresistible.”
Sari lost her breath. She gripped hard on the back of his neck, needed him to anchor her, steady her, because this was all so much. Gabriel seemed to have a hard time breathing too, his breath hot against her neck. They were actually sweating, the both of them.
He slowly released her other leg, her grip on the back of his neck loosened in favor of just holding him for a few more moments. She pressed her cheek against the space between his neck and shoulder and listened as their breaths sped up and slowed.
“Simbang Gabi,” he finally said as reality reasserted itself around them, like it had to catch up to the moment that they just stole. Sari very quickly got a hold of herself. Gabriel kissed her on the cheek, and despite the fact that he’d just spent his time ruining her for other people’s kisses, this kiss was the
most tender.
“I think I know what to wish for,” he said, his voice low and husky as he reached behind her to open the closet door. Then he sauntered out of her lab, and all Sari could see was his back muscles, and the little marks she’d left on the back of his neck.
Chapter Seventeen
“M’am, Sir Gabriel just left,” her manager informed Sari five minutes later. She was back behind her coffee machine after cleaning herself up and willing her cheeks to stop being so hot. Eh ano ga? she thought, shaking off the feeling. In her estimation, she was doing a fantastic job of acting like absolutely nothing had happened, even if every cell of her skin was still tingling, her cheeks still warm and her lips still tingly, even after re-application of her lipstick and gloss.
“He seemed to be in a real hurry.”
Sari was doing her best to hide a grin, but the look on her manager’s face made her think she wasn’t doing a very good job of it.
“He should be,” she chuckled.
“M’am, sure ka, you’re not dating Sir Gab?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” she said, because technically it wasn’t a lie. She hadn’t gone on a date with him yet, so they weren’t dating per se. But her staff didn’t need to know that.
“Sure na sure? And your sister just arrived.”
“Has she?” Sari singsonged, smiling and thoroughly rubbing hand sanitizer from the bathroom into her hands, when she saw Selene sitting in the café.
Selene Tomas was all business in high gloss, the kind of woman who put on eyeshadow and mascara on a daily basis and walked in four-inch heels even in the heart of Lipa City. She was two years older than Sari, and was actually the shortest among them, but the way she carried herself just screamed “responsibility” and “no time for bullshit.”
“Is it just me, or are there more people in the Laneways now than there were last year?” she asked one of Sari’s staff as Sari took a backward step up the stairs to hide from view.
“The bakery and the café are a huge draw,” Sari’s store manager explained with a smile. “They’ve been having a lot of...theatrics lately.”
Sari thanked God very silently that her store manager wasn’t a gossip, and that her sister seemed to have no idea what she and Gab had been up to in the last one and a half weeks. Selene looked like she was casually surveying the café, and Sari could just tell that she was assessing it, scanning for anything substandard, but Sari felt ready for anything.
“Long black, please.” Selene smiled sweetly to Sari’s cashier, and immediately Sari knew it was a test. She didn’t have long black coffee on her menu, mostly because her customers were more familiar with Americanos and lattes.
Her barista shot Sari a panicked look, as if expecting Sari to come in and make the order for her. Sari made a little shooing gesture at her as if to tell her she could do this, because she’d been trained well, and knew the difference between an Americano and a long black. It was all down to the preparation—a long black would mean pouring the espresso into a cup of hot water, instead of the other way around. The key was in preserving the crema of the espresso. Pouring the coffee after the water would preserve that little bit of tawny amber liquid that came from the initial extraction.
Selene assessed the finished cup with her laser sharp gaze. She actually lifted it to closely examine if the crema was there. That was Selene in a nutshell. She knew exactly what she wanted, and wasn’t shy about letting other people know.
“You can come out now, Sari,” she said, raising her brow over the rim of her cup before she turned and walked to the customer tables and took a seat. “What were you doing back there?”
“I was...checking inventory,” Sari explained to her sister, sitting across from her with her shoulders hunched and her fingers laced together so tightly that the tips were almost white.
“Were you really? You look a little...windswept.”
“Crazy winds. Global warming, am I right?”
“Uh huh.”
Sari flinched.
“Relax, Sar, I won’t bite. At least not right now.” Selene gave Sari’s hands a pointed look, putting her coffee down. “The Carlton group loved your coffee blend. Enough that they want to have it in all of their hotel lobbies in the country. I talked to Sam, and she said we should be able to keep up with the demand, especially if we partner up with another farm in Lipa to grow the fine robusta.”
“Oh!” Sari exclaimed, genuinely surprised, blinking at her sister. “That’s great. About the blends, I mean, I knew they would like it.”
“I know.” Selene smiled. “Papa did say that you have the gift.”
Sari snorted and shook her head. “I don’t think I want the gift if Papa said I have it. Where is he nowadays?”
“Last I heard, in Singapore with his newest. Younger than Sam this time.”
“And Mom?”
“In a Balinese retreat house re-creating Eat Pray Love, but in reverse. They individually send their best Christmas wishes and their regrets that they can’t be here for the holidays.”
Sari scrunched her nose. “Role models, our parents.”
“You still hate them, don’t you,” Selene noted, and did Sari detect a note of disappointment in her sister’s voice? “Have you seen a therapist about your residual anger and disappointment? I have. It’s been very helpful.”
“I don’t need—Selene. Please don’t tell me you drove two hours to Lipa to ask me if I have a therapist.”
“If you say so.” Selene shrugged in that all-knowing, older sister way of hers. “Now this is somewhat confidential, but I need to discuss it with you. You know that big construction site across the Laneways?”
Sari blinked at her sister, not knowing what she was trying to say. The lot across the Laneways contained the rest of the warehouses that used to belong to the Luz family, but according to Kira they’d lost the land in a bidding war against one of the big banks. It had been sitting there, waiting for a buyer...and now they had it in the form of the Lai Group, one of the fastest growing investors in the country. Ate Nessie had announced it on the Laneways chat group as soon as she found out late last month.
“Yes?”
“The Lai Group is opening the biggest mall in South Luzon, and they’re offering us a lease.”
Sari’s jaw dropped at her sister.
“Selene, are you telling me we should abandon the Laneways?” she hissed, not wanting the staff to panic, and she was sure that they were listening. This was a small community, and gossip caught and spread and mixed like ketchup and mayo until it was completely unrecognizable. And it wasn’t just that. Selene was talking about taking away the one place in the world Sari called home. She was talking about giving up on a place that was the backdrop of every good moment from the last three years, just because someone else was building a mall monstrosity across the street.
No. No. No, her brain protested. She can’t be asking you to do this.
“I’m asking you if you think we should sign the lease.” Selene took a deeper sip of her coffee like she wasn’t crushing everything that Sari considered her home. “They really want us there, bad food and all. Along with the Carlton order, this could be everything we need to put us on the map. Sari, this is the next logical step for us.”
Sari tried to ignore the way her heart flipped upside down at her sister’s use of the word “us.” Was she talking about the company? The family? It was hard to tell, but for the first time in some time, Sari had an instant answer.
“No.”
“What?”
“It’s a bad idea.” Sari shook her head. She didn’t know why her fingers suddenly felt cold. “A really shit idea.”
“Are we going to discuss this logically, or are we going to argue?” Selene asked, and Sari knew her sister wasn’t being bitchy, she was really asking her what she wanted. Selene could go either way. This was how the sis
ters always resolved conflict, and while Sari appreciated her sister’s demeanor, she wasn’t sure she was calm enough to discuss this logically.
“I’m trying for logical discussion,” Sari sighed. “The best thing to do would be to stick it out here with the other owners. They’ve treated us really well, they’ve helped us when we were starting out here. The Luzes especially, they helped us get our first clients. Why would we leave? We still have two years on our lease here, and everyone knows that this is where we are. The mall is going to kill the Laneways.”
“We don’t know that,” Selene argued. “I know the café is doing really well now, but it’s not going to be the holidays forever.”
Sari shook her head to disagree. She wasn’t about to tell her sister that her biggest sale days over the holidays so far had been in the middle of her friendly competition with Gabriel. Her sister did not need to know that.
“We’ve got a good track record here, and more and more people are coming in, looking for something different, something that isn’t in a mall,” Sari insisted. “When have you ever heard of a whole tour bus of people coming in for a bunch of little shops?”
Selene’s bottom lip jutted out as she thought for an argument. Sari’s hands shook every time she and her sister spoke like this, and she always wound up crying in the end, but she was determined to keep focused, keep calm, lay out all her arguments and make her sister see her way.
She knew her sister just as well as Selene knew her. She wouldn’t have come all this way to ask Sari if her mind was absolutely sold on the move. Sari just needed to say the right thing to convince her otherwise.
“Selene, it’s...it’s my home. Don’t take it away from me now.”
Selene opened her mouth.
“At least until the lease is up. Then we can put this to a vote between the three of us,” Sari added quickly. Logic always appealed to her sister.
Selene was considering it, taking a sip of her long black and closing her eyes for a moment. Was she considering what to say to put Sari down? Thinking about how to argue back?
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