Chloe’s expression softened and she squeezed my elbow. “She’s ready for this, I promise you. She’s talked to me about it several times. She’s not only ready… she’s excited.”
In my heart, I knew that was true. I knew Elaina wouldn’t have told me she was ready unless she truly, one hundred percent meant it. And yet, my brain, my silly brain was racing with a million doubts and questions.
Chloe sighed heavily. “Can I see the ring?” she asked.
I crossed to my desk, opened the bottom drawer, and pulled out a small, dark-blue velvet box. (If we needed further proof that Elaina and I weren’t ready to get engaged last year—apparently, that simple, square-cut diamond I had proposed with was all wrong for her. She wanted an antique. Something that had a story, a history.) Chloe leaned in as I opened the box, and the emerald-cut diamond, in its vintage platinum setting, gleamed even in the low light.
“Wow.” The word came out in a gush of air as Chloe took the box from my hands, examining it closely. “That’s at least a carat,” she said.
“1.25.” Not that it mattered. Not to me, and I know it didn’t to Elaina. I could propose to her with a Ring Pop, and she’d be just as happy, I was certain. But she deserved something that sparkled like her eyes. Something she loved. As we shopped at antique stores to furnish our home, she would always pause near the jewelry counter, admiring the beautiful etched jewelry from the twenties. And now that we were both not only out of debt, but thriving financially, I could afford to get her the perfect ring.
Chloe held out her free hand, her eyes not leaving the ring. “Your guest list, too,” she stated, back to being all business.
I rolled my eyes, opened the other desk drawer, and retrieved a notebook with names and contact info scribbled on it.
“Thanks.” She grabbed the notebook. “Now… hide, please.”
“Excuse me?”
“You want indisputable evidence that Elaina will say yes… so, hide in the closet.” She didn’t wait for me to move and instead shouted, “Elaina! Come here for a second!”
My eyes went wide, and I panicked. My heart slammed in my chest. “What are you doing?” I hissed.
“Hide your ass in that closet now.”
I dove into the closet, peeking through the sliver of a crack in the door, just as Elaina made her way into my office.
“What is it?” Elaina asked.
“Neil’s in your bedroom, changing or something, but he told me to grab the guest list from his office desk drawer… and look what I found.”
My breath hitched as Chloe held up the closed velvet box to Elaina. My chest tightened, and I was unable to breathe. Unable to think. Stars flooded my vision. But I kept my gaze on Elaina’s face as her mouth opened into a tiny gasp, her eyes wide.
She glanced over her shoulder and leaned into Chloe, whispering. “Is that… is that what I think it is?”
She couldn’t actually see the ring itself because Chloe had shut the box. “It is. Do you want to see it?” Chloe asked.
I didn’t want Elaina to see the ring before the proposal… ideally, I wanted the first time she saw it to be when she said yes. But Chloe knew her sister best. And if she thought this was needed, then I would let this go down the way that best suited Elaina.
“Yes,” Elaina breathed. Then quickly shook her head and stepped back. “I mean, no. No. I want the ring to be a surprise.”
I had to stop myself from letting loose a sigh that she would have heard. Elaina grinned wide, biting her bottom lip. “Is it the ring from a couple years ago?”
Chloe shook her head no.
“Is it… is it beautiful?”
“It’s gorgeous.” Chloe gushed. “And you’re sure you’re ready? No doubts this time?”
Tears filled my eyes as I watched Elaina’s face beam, her cheeks rosy and glowing, her eyes as misty as mine. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life… I cannot wait to be Mrs. Beefcake.” Elaina laughed, blinking back happy tears, and pushed her sister’s hand away. “Now put that back before he sees us! I’m going back downstairs.”
After they left to go back downstairs, I stayed in the closet where I needed an extra moment to compose myself.
Elaina Dyker was going to be my wife.
Mr. and Mrs. Evans.
No…
Wait…
Mr. and Mrs. Beefcake.
Thin Mint Cupcakes
FOR THE CUPCAKES
•2 eggs
•1/2 cup granulated sugar (or substitute sugar-free granular erythritol)
•1/2 cup brown sugar (or substitute sugar-free Swerve brown sugar)
•1/3 cup melted coconut oil
•2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•3/4 cup flour (or substitute ¾ cup of almond flour)
•1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
•1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•3/4 teaspoon baking powder
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•1/2 cup buttermilk
FOR THE GANACHE
•2/3 cup sugar-free chocolate chips (Lily’s is my favorite brand)
•3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
FOR THE MINT FROSTING
•3/4 cup butter, softened
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•1 - 1-1/2 teaspoons mint or peppermint extract (add this gradually to taste as the intensity of mint extract varies from brand to brand)
•2-3 cups powdered sugar (or substitute Swerve Confectioner’s Sweetener for a sugar-free option)
•green food dye
INSTRUCTIONS
FOR THE CUPCAKES
1.Preheat oven to 350°F and line pans with cupcake liners.
2.In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, brown sugar, oil and vanilla extract together.
3.In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Pour in half of these dry ingredients into the oil mixture and stir.
4.Add milk and gently stir again and then add the rest of the dry ingredients. Be careful not to over mix.
5.Fill cupcake liners half full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until and inserted knife comes out clean. Let cool.
FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE
1.Place chocolate chips and whipping cream in a small microwave-proof bowl and microwave for 40 seconds. Remove and stir and continue to microwave until smooth.
2.Dip cooled cupcakes into the ganache and turn right side up to let set.
FOR THE MINT FROSTING
1.Beat butter until smooth.
2.Add vanilla and mint extract and beat again.
3.Slowly add in powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency (add milk if it becomes too thick).
4.Add as much green food dye as desired.
5.Pipe on over ganache and top cupcakes with Thin Mints! I crushed a few cookies and used them as "sprinkles".
Chocolate cupcakes with maple buttercream & Candied bacon
FOR THE CUPCAKES
•2 eggs
•1/2 cup granulated sugar (or substitute sugar-free granular erythritol)
•1/2 cup brown sugar (or substitute sugar-free Swerve brown sugar)
•1/3 cup melted coconut oil
•2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•3/4 cup flour (or substitute ¾ cup of almond flour)
•1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
•1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•3/4 teaspoon baking powder
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•1/2 cup buttermilk
FOR THE MAPLE FROSTING
6 tablespoons butter
4 cups confectioners' sugar
4 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons natural maple extract
FOR THE CANDIED BACON
•12 strips bacon (not thick-cut, about one pound)
•1/4 cup light brown sugar (Sugar substitutes don’t work as well, but can be made to work)
INSTRUCTIONS”
FOR
THE CUPCAKES
1.Preheat oven to 350°F and line pans with cupcake liners.
2.In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, brown sugar, oil and vanilla extract together.
3.In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Pour in half of these dry ingredients into the oil mixture and stir.
4.Add milk and gently stir again and then add the rest of the dry ingredients. Be careful not to over mix.
5.Fill cupcake liners half full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until and inserted knife comes out clean. Let cool.
FOR THE MAPLE BUTTERCREAM
1.Beat the butter with an electric mixer until it is light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar, 1 cup at a time until it is smooth and incorporated.
3. Add the maple syrup and continue beating until fully combined.
4. If the frosting is too thick, add milk, one teaspoon at a time. If the frosting is too watery, add more confectioners’ sugar one teaspoon at a time.
FOR THE CANDIED BACON
1.Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place a wire rack on a foil lined baking sheet.
3. Using about 1 teaspoon of light brown sugar per bacon strip, spread the sugar along each side of the bacon and line the baking sheet with the bacon strips.
4. Bake the bacon for 20 minutes or until the sugar is melted and the bacon is brown.
5. Allow the bacon to cool completely before eating.
Looking for more books in Maple Grove?
Meeting You (Prequel and FREE!)
Capturing You (Maple Grove #1 & only .99 cents!)
Healing You (Maple Grove #2)
Sweet on You (Maple Grove #3)
Remembering You (Maple Grove #4)
Or get the Maple Grove Box Set of Capturing You, Healing You, and Sweet on You for only $6.99… which basically gives you one book for FREE!
Maple Grove Novellas:
Holiday Intercepted
Bewitching You
Want to see more of Neil, Jude, and Ash?
Check out Role Play by Katana Collins!
(Keep reading for a peek at chapter one!)
Chapter 1
Ash
I was born a daredevil. Always the risk-taker, I exited the womb so fast, the doctor only just barely caught me as I shot out of my mom’s vagina like some sort of infant Evel Knievel.
Needless to say, not much rattles me in life. Not when I challenged the largest kid in fifth grade to an arm wrestling match. Not when I was caught cheating on my PSATs. Hell, I wasn’t even rattled when my sister walked in on me beating my meat in the bathroom while flipping through her Seventeen magazine.
So why the hell was I sweating like a pig in a bacon factory the first week of directing my first major motion picture?
I rushed down the halls of Silhouette Studios, sweat pushing out of my pores and dripping down the sides of my face. The headset encasing my ears bounced off my jaw with each heavy-footed step, and the clipboard tucked under my arm was quickly becoming saturated.
We were only a week into filming this movie, and already I was in over my head.
I briefly squeezed my eyes shut, taking a breath. No, I told myself. I've got this. The second I started doubting, started believing the whispers of insecurity and pessimism, Hollywood would swallow me whole.
My cell phone was practically affixed to my palm, and I was constantly checking updates and communicating with my executives.
Around me, the lights were on full blast and hotter than the goddamn Los Angeles sun at the beach. This movie was my baby. I had directed at least a dozen movies already in my career—but none like this. My reel consisted of college-aged comedians getting high and doing stupid shit. This script was different. I knew it from the moment it landed on my desk; from the moment I flipped open the first page. A BDSM introspection that represented me. My kink. My lifestyle. I had to do it justice. Not only for the sake of my community, but for me. Because a film like this? It could make my career if I did it right.
“If you can keep your dick in your pants,” my boss, and the president of Silhouette Studios, Richard Blair, had joked. That booming voice resonated in my head like a snare drum. Okay, yeah. I had a reputation… but it wasn’t that bad, was it? Sometimes I hook up in the old-fashioned way… meet a girl at a party, go to her place, bang one out vanilla-style. Sometimes, I meet a submissive at LnS or go the professional route with Eve, a career submissive. I just like sex. No matter how it comes to me… though if I was being honest, I prefer being a Dom. Leaving marks on her skin and hearing her cries, trying to decide which are cries of pain and which are cries of pleasure.
But according to Richard and Jude, the way I was fucking my way through Hollywood had to stop. Rich nearly shat himself when he learned that I had hooked up with our costume designer at a party—I think her name was Callie. Or was it Katie? Shit. In my defense, I met her before the movie was in pre-production and I had no clue we’d be working together at all, let alone this soon after.
“Ash, I need to see you in my office,” Richard’s voice boomed within my earpiece.
My eyes adjusted to the blue backlit numbers on my phone. Was it already eight-thirty a.m.? I needed to get the lead out of my ass. I’d been up since four, and on set since five a.m. almost every day this week. We were not only shooting today and tomorrow, but we were also prepping for Sunday’s shoot—the sexiest scene of the movie. When I was done with it, Jude and Marlena would go down in sex scene history with Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas.
Sunday was a closed set to make sure Jude and Marlena were comfortable. It needed to go perfectly. Hell, if I was being honest, I needed every day to go smoothly, but if I only had to choose one day out of the three-month schedule to go well? It would be Sunday. If this film earned Silhouette Studios an Oscar nod, Richard would have to consider me for other more serious movies. Even with my best friend, Jude, on my side, I had only ever managed to assistant direct the serious films, being looked over time and time again.
Until now.
I hit the rubbery button on my headset. “Sure thing, Rich. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Make it thirty seconds.”
I all but ran down the corridor to Richard’s corner office with the view of Hollywood hills. When the CEO of your production studio asks you to be quick… you haul ass. With a light knock, I opened the door and slipped inside. “Rich,” I said, finding my boss sitting at the large mahogany desk watching yesterday’s scene on his monitor. Jude was standing over his shoulder, already dressed in his costume and makeup, his eyes lifting from the monitor to look at me as I entered. They both looked tired, but Richard more than usual. Though he was older than me at forty, the lines on his face seemed deeper today, and he wasn’t smiling and offering to pour me a scotch like he usually did.
“Come on in,” Rich said, pausing the footage. “And shut the door behind you.”
Uh oh. This wasn’t good. I did as I was told and slid into the seat opposite Richard as Jude circled around to the other side of the desk and lowered into the armchair beside me. “What’s going on?” I didn’t often feel nervous, but right now, with Richard’s glare not faltering from the monitor… I squirmed in my seat like a schoolboy being sent to the damn principal’s office.
“I called you and Jude in here because I’ve been reviewing last week’s shots. And… they’re lacking a bit of nuance in my opinion.”
The air punched out of my gut. In his opinion? What fucking opinion was that? My hands balled into fists, my chest tightening painfully. Everyone on the crew had been working tirelessly—nonstop—for three months in pre-production. Those shots were gorgeous. The script was perfect.
I paused, gripping the small wedding band that barely fit around my pinky. Hammered white gold. Classy. Understated. Just like Brie had been. Emotion clogged my throat, and I had to swallow twice before it dislodged. Five years. Had it already been that long? It felt like a lifetime,
and yet, also like it was only yesterday that we were lying on the couch together watching Friends reruns as she threaded her fingers through my hair.
I released my hold on her wedding band, pulling my attention back to the here and now. Here. On the lot of Silhouette Studios directing my biggest film yet. Now. Brie was gone. Here. Surrounded by my crew and employees. Now. I wore her wedding band as a constant reminder of the woman I lost.
Now... I was miserable. Five years and I was still as miserable as the day she died.
Deep breaths, baby, Brie would have whispered if she’d been here. She would have squeezed my knee to calm me down. Yeah, she still talked to me. Every day—several times a day—like a fucking lunatic, I still heard her voice.
I listened to her words deep in the back of my mind and dragged a shaky breath through my tight lips. Every day it felt like her voice was growing further and further away. Each morning, I was forgetting something so minor, so small—the way her voice would be rough in the morning before coffee, or how it would crack when she tried to sing karaoke—and with each fading memory, she was slipping further and further away from me.
Which only pissed me off more.
“Some of the problem lies in the script, but I think there’s been a slight misinterpretation of it, too.” Even though Jude was voicing a criticism of my direction, I was thankful for the disruption as I was about to wander down memory lane. For some people, it was paved in candied, sweet memories. For me? It was dirty, bumpy, and I was bound to get lost there in the twisting, winding darkness.
“Meaning… I’m misinterpreting the script? How so? We chose these shots together. We developed these storyboards together.” I had to calm down. These sorts of meetings were part of what directing was. I forced my balled fists to uncurl—even if I didn’t agree with my boss, I had to remain professional. One of the best things to ever come from Brie, and my position as a Dom, was that I learned to control my temper in work situations. My temper wasn’t an issue in the bedroom. But on set with employees? It was one of my biggest faults. I took a deep breath and tried again. “I understand that the first week’s shots may not be perfect, but we can adjust them in post-production—”
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