16. Elka
Chapter 16
Elka
A ll the ingredients were laid out on the island counter, again, ready for a real attempt at making chili. It was already past seven and I’d given up hope that Deputy Vargas would show up. It was clear he was in the market for some kind of casual hate-sex. I’d spent the entire day working on new products and fulfilling orders, which meant I could spend the rest of the night on this. Cooking chili.
I laughed as I thought about the ridiculous sight I made, knowing that if Austin were here, he would give me a hard time and probably mock me for the Kiss the Cook apron I wore. He’d probably lecture for me letting Antonio touch me so intimately given the way he’d treated me from the second we met. You’d be right, I said to him, acknowledging what a bad idea it had been and what a worse idea it was to fantasize about what we’d done. And to wish we could do more.
We couldn’t and that was that.
“Back to work,” I growled in frustration because thoughts of the man wouldn’t stop distracting me. Thankfully the bell chose that moment to ring and I knew that his company was the only thing that could remind me what a terrible idea it was to fantasize about him. “You’re late,” I told him when I opened the door and returned to the kitchen.
“Paperwork,” he grumbled close behind me.
My body tingled with the intensity of a live electrical wire and I made sure to keep my distance. “I’ve done everything that needs to be done because I wasn’t sure if you planned to show, so there’s nothing for you to do.” With my back to him, I added oil to both pots and turned on the fire.
“I can keep you company.” It was a nice offer but we both knew he’d rather pull out his own fingernails.
“Not necessary. If it’ll make you feel better, you can tell Janey you helped.” It was no skin off my back. In fact, I’d rather he take credit for something he didn’t do than sit there and stare at me.
“I thought we were starting over,” he said, voice low and sexy, almost like he was flirting.
“I never agreed to that.” And I wouldn’t. Just because my body found him irresistible didn’t mean my heart and mind would let it go beyond wanting. Longing.
“How was your day?” he asked.
“Seriously?” He nodded and leaned against the counter. “My day was fine.”
“Mine too. Thanks for asking.”
It turned out trying to cook two types of chili at once was too much with a six-foot-three distraction so close by, so I turned off one of the burners and added the base vegetables to the other. “You work with your best friend, so that isn’t surprising.”
“What about you—do you have a best friend?”
Why was he suddenly acting so interested in me? It didn’t make any sense and I was going crazy trying to figure it out. “Not anymore.”
“What about family? My dad died when I was working in New Orleans so it’s just me and Mom now. She’s a handful—always butting into my business whether I want her to or not.”
A meddling mother sounded both nice and and foreign to me. “I wasn’t born in a lab, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Are you close to them?”
“No.” A sprinkle of salt and pepper went into the pot and I had to consult the recipe to see what came next.
“Where are you from, Elka?”
Okay, now I was just plain upset and I turned to face him, smacking my hands on the counter. “What the hell is going on, deputy? I know you don’t care, so just run a background check to satisfy your curiosity!”
“Or you could just tell me.” He thought he was being cute, but despite how sexy he looked in jeans and a fitted gray T-shirt, he was not as cute as he seemed to think.
“Fine. I had a brother and he was my best friend and now he’s dead. Happy?”
If he was shocked by my outburst, the deputy didn’t let it show. “Is that why you moved here?”
I nodded and turned away. “It was too painful to stick around without him there.” I heard the snort of disbelief before it truly registered and when I glared at him, I found a matching glare.
“You’re lying.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Tell me why you came to Tulip.”
And now I was officially back to being pissed off. “None of your damn business, deputy.”
Deputy Vargas unfolded his big body from the deep red chair and his long legs ate up the steps that separated us. “You’re incapable of telling the truth, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you.” The words were new but they felt right on my tongue. “I don’t owe you any explanation and if you came to fight with me, you can go away. Now.”
“I could, but that’s not what you want.” His voice was pitched low and sexy and my body responded instantly. The pull was strong and I was powerless to stop the surge of desire that shot through me.
“Y-y-yes it is.”
“Another lie,” he said with a smack of his smiling lips. Before I could tell him to go straight to hell, his mouth was on mine again and my body lit up like fireworks.
I felt hurt and confused and angry, but none of those feelings managed to make it to my body. Once again, I melted into the kiss, unable to think clearly about anything except the way he was making me feel. His kiss was like pouring gasoline on a raging fire. When Antonio added his hands to the mix, a moan erupted, and he quickly swallowed it.
I should stop him. I knew I should.
But I couldn’t.
When his lips moved from my mouth to my neck, I could only lean back to give him better access. When his hands slid under my shirt and found bare breasts, I gasped. The gasp turned to a cry when his lips closed over a nipple. All I wanted to do was beg him to taste more of me. To make me feel more of what I was feeling. “Oh god!”
My shirt flew over my head and he pushed up my skirt. “Fuck, I love that you’re always wearing skirts.”
His hands were hot and rough on the soft skin of my inner thighs but a low moan escaped when his hands gripped my thighs and laid me on the kitchen table. Again. “Oh!” Antonio shoved my thighs apart and buried his head there, licking and sucking me in an unbelievable sensation that made my whole being vibrate with need. “Oh my god!”
He chuckled but when he looked up at me, it wasn’t just desire swimming in his eyes. It was anger or something close to it. I froze, watching mutely as he opened his pants and exposed an impressive erection. “Elka,” he growled, and that one word snapped me back to action.
“Wait, I don’t—”
He cut me off and rolled his eyes. “Do this often? I’ve heard that before, sweetheart, but you don’t need to lie to me.” I was too stunned by his words to think straight, but the moment his giant erection slid inside of me, my eyes clouded with tears.
“Ow!”
He froze and stared at me like I was an alien and that only compounded my humiliation. “Elka, I’m—”
“Get out.” My voice was low and I was proud to say there were no tears in sight, even though I felt them stinging the back of my eyes.
“I’m sorry, Elka. I didn’t know.”
“Get. Out.” Of course he didn’t know because Mr. Arrogant Cop thought knew everything, including the fact that I was some criminal whore who had done him wrong in a previous life.
“Elka, please.”
I looked down at myself, naked from the waist up with my skirt up around my hips, I looked exactly like what he thought. “Get out! Get out!” I pushed at his chest until he moved and jumped off the table as the weight of my humiliation brought me to my knees.
“Elka.” He reached out for me and I smacked his hands away.
“Get out! Get out! GET. OUT!” The more he tried to talk, the louder I screamed, feeling more worthless than I had ever felt in my whole damn life. More than when I realized my parents had forgotten about me and left me at the funeral home. It had taken them just three days to forget about me. “Go. Please.” I glanced up into his horrified face then away, not daring to look up again until I heard the front door close behind him.
I scrambled to my feet and made sure all the doors and windows were locked before making my way to the bathroom for a long hot bath that, in the end, did absolutely nothing to soothe my sore muscles or wounded pride.
Leaving Tulip sounded really good, but as I made my way back to the kitchen later that night, I knew I couldn’t leave until after I kicked butt at the cook-off.
Tears fell as I got the first chili going and left it to simmer. Tulip had just started to feel like home but now it just felt like my old home.
Which meant it was time to go.