Chapter 10 Stella
TEN
STELLA
I was so nervous. I had already changed my outfit once. Not because I didn’t like how it looked, but because I had sweat stains that most definitely would not give the romantic signals I was hoping to project this evening.
I changed into my backup outfit, which was a long-sleeved navy dress that came down to just above my knees.
It had puffy sleeves to hopefully help limit sweat stains since the fabric wouldn’t be tight across my underarms. Plus, the dark navy color would hopefully do a better job at hiding them compared to the red dress I’d had on earlier.
My favorite part of this dress was the triangle cut-out on my lower back.
It was a very simple dress from the front, but the back was where the cute factor bumped up.
All around the triangle cut-out was a frill of lace that gave it a more feminine touch.
This fit my style perfectly—simple, muted, but with small cute features.
I was more excited about this date than I had ever been for anyone else. I hadn’t dated much, especially in the last five years, with moving back home and starting my own business, but even before that, no guy had ever sparked the level of interest in me like Axel did.
The last few weeks of getting to know Axel—mostly through our conversations at the bar—had been so much fun.
I had visited him at the Watering Hole several times, and ever since he asked me out earlier this week, we had texted or talked on the phone every night.
He spoke wonderful English, sometimes almost too proper, but he was getting much better at learning all the colloquial phrases.
I was also learning new terms. He’d informed me that last night, he was staying in to have a quiet meal by himself and read a book on his couch—something very common for Swedes to do.
“It’s called fredagsmys,” Axel had explained over the phone. “It means cozy Fridays with friends or family. So I had a solo fredagsmys.”
“Oh, kind of like hygge?” I asked him.
“Sort of. The cozy part is similar, but that is a Danish word, and Swedes are cooler and awesomer, so we use fredagsmys.” He ended that in a way that, even though I couldn’t see him through the phone, I could hear the humor in his voice.
I told myself the tutoring and visits to the bar were because I was paying him back for digging into my stalker, but it was more than that. I enjoyed spending time with him, and he was definitely pleasant to look at.
I chuckled to myself as I put on some mascara.
He was more than pleasant to look at. He was rugged and dreamy and carried a very suave presence.
The man was fine. Which was why I decided to wear a dress tonight.
I wasn’t really a dress person. In fact, I only owned three, but all Axel had ever really seen me in was jeans and tees or my flour-covered apron.
I wanted to show him what I could look like when I actually put in some effort.
I was wiggling my feet into wedge booties when a buzzer sounded.
I hurried through my kitchen, turning off the light and grabbing my purse off the kitchen counter.
Scandinavian Sweets was in an older part of town, and the main town square had a bunch of old one and two-story homes that had been converted to businesses.
I loved this location, and there were no other bakeries nearby, which was great, but I’d also picked this spot because of the building itself.
Not only was it the perfect size for my bakery, but the second floor had been converted into a one-bedroom apartment.
It wasn’t big, but I loved being able to just walk down the stairs to get to work.
You could enter through a separate door in the kitchen, or there was an external door on the side of the building.
Even though I’d told Axel I could just meet him in the bakery, he’d insisted on picking me up at my door, so I’d given him instructions to find the side door, where I had one of those doorbell cameras.
My apartment kitchen was small, but just off to the side was the stairwell. It split into two—one going down to the first-floor kitchen, and the other going to the main door outside.
I jogged down the stairs in excitement and looked through the peephole to find Axel on the other side.
He had on a light-blue dress shirt the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and navy blue pants.
His hair was pulled up into his signature bun on the top of his head, and I once again yearned to run my fingers through his hair and see if it was as soft as it looked.
I opened the door and gave him a big smile. “Hi. You look nice.”
He smiled back at me, but slowly, his gaze raked over my body inch by inch until he was looking back into my eyes.
“You look fucking beautiful,” he said with so much sincerity and intensity that I almost forgot how to breathe.
I stepped out of the doorway and closer to him. “Thank you.”
“Do you need to lock it?” he asked, still not breaking his gaze from me.
“No, it, um…auto-locks,” I said, finding it hard to focus with his eyes boring into me.
His intense stare had me biting down on my lip, causing his eyes to travel south to look at them.
“I really want to kiss you, but I’m going to wait,” he said, his voice low, as though he was just saying his thoughts out loud.
“What if I want you to kiss me?” I said, gazing back at him, and I leaned forward, hoping he’d take the hint.
I may not date often, but I also wasn’t shy about dating. If I were interested in a guy, I would go for it.
At my comment, his hands moved to grip my head on each side—his thumbs sliding along my jaw and his palms just under my ears.
His head moved toward mine slowly, as if to give me a chance to change my mind.
Instead of backing away, I arched into him just as his lips connected with mine.
My whole body lit up as a buzz swept through me.
The kiss was soft and gentle at first, as if he were trying to savor the moment. But as electric tingles coursed through me, I moaned, which caused him to tilt my head and deepen the kiss.
“Get a room,” a male voice called out, breaking me from the dream stupor Axel had put me in.
I looked up to see Milo’s back as he chuckled while carrying the trash bags to the dumpster behind the building.
“Let’s go before we miss our reservation because I can’t stop kissing you,” Axel said as he moved his hand from my face to hold my hand.
I was going to say goodnight to Milo, but Axel pulled me in the opposite direction. His car was parked in the front, and he moved to the passenger side to open my door and let me in.
As he walked around the front of his silver SUV, I took a deep breath, trying to calm the nervous excitement bubbling through me.
That kiss.
It wasn’t a long kiss, but it was memorable for all the best reasons.
“Do you like living above your bakery?” he asked as we pulled out of the parking lot.
“Yeah,” I responded. “It’s super convenient if I need to pop down to the bakery for anything. Plus, it helped me save all my money for one building instead of having to buy both a spot for Scandinavian Sweets and another for me to live in.”
“Smart,” he replied. “I’m glad it worked out for you.”
“What about you?” I asked. “Do you live close to work?”
“Yes. I only live about three blocks from the office and pub. While I do have a car, I spent most of my life walking or taking public transportation wherever I needed to go in Sweden, so I wanted to be able to walk to work if I could.”
We spent the rest of the fifteen-minute car ride talking about cars, the lack of public transit here, and how American traffic might be one of the biggest sources of his stress since moving here. Even though I had lived here all my life, I felt that.
After we pulled into the parking lot, Axel came around to get me at my side, though I wasn’t used to that, so I was already getting out of my door when he arrived.
“You make it hard to be a gentleman,” he grumbled.
“Sorry,” I told him as he closed my door and grabbed my hand.
It was a simple gesture, but I loved the connection.
We walked into the restaurant still holding hands when Axel gave the hostess our reservation name. The restaurant was nice—modern and sleek but still cozy. I had looked up the menu earlier, and they specialized in Mediterranean food, which I loved.
The front waiting area, though, was small—as in very small.
There were four other people in that area with us, and it felt crowded.
A woman in a wheelchair came into the restaurant, and Axel and I moved out of her way, over toward the side wall to give her and her date more space to get in.
That put me chest to chest with Axel. His hand, which had been holding mine, now moved to my lower back, his fingers skating over my bare skin at the triangle opening of my dress.
His thumb began to draw casual circles against my skin, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand up and goosebumps to form all over my skin—just from his touch.
My gaze, which had been off to the side taking in the restaurant, now turned to meet his. I knew he felt the goose bumps when I saw the lustful sparkle dancing in his eyes and the small smile form on his lips. Lips that had just been on mine not even thirty minutes ago.
God, this man was so attractive, I could just stare at him for hours, but that would be weird.
“You keep looking at my lips like that, and I am going to have to kiss you again,” his murmured voice teased me, but I couldn’t break away from staring at him. That magnetic pull was too strong.
He leaned down, putting his mouth next to my ear as he growled my name. “Stella…”
I couldn’t help myself. His close proximity to me, the way his body enveloped mine. And his scent was intoxicating, making it hard to focus on anything else around me. Which is why I turned my head just slightly to softly kiss his cheek.
His hand that was on my back tightened and his fingers flexed into my skin, sending even more tingles through me.