Chapter 30 Bring It On
brING IT ON
Wyatt
I leaned back in the dining room chair, stretching out my back as I watched her over the camera, the volume turned up because I was indeed insane for this woman. She shifted side to side, probably still shocked she allowed me to leave the plug buried in her ass.
I silently pondered if she thought about my cock every time she moved. Fuck I hope she did.
She handed a guy his coffee, but instead of turning away, he lingered a moment. I knew that look—fuck, I’d had that look. The look of trying to gear up with some modicum of confidence to speak to a woman as stunning as Ember.
“How’s your day been so far, Ember?” he finally asked, his voice somewhat shaky.
I watched, thrilled that I had every angle of this bakery on camera view, as she stared at him for a moment.
“It’s been good today. Steady and lots of coffee and muffin orders,” she replied with a shrug.
She continued to stare at him, the level of confusion clear on her face.
Her lips parted once more, and it looked like she was about to say something along the lines of ‘bye’, but he spoke before she could.
“So, Ember,” he said, clearing his throat. “I was wondering if you’d consider letting me take you out sometime.”
I heard the words, and though I knew in my gut she was about to tell this guy to fuck right off—though probably nicer than I would—I opened the app on my phone and hit the power button, turning the plug on low.
“Um,” she began, but instead of more words coming out, she gasped, gripping the countertop as if her life depended on it. Her eyes glanced up to the camera that sat across from the front counter, and she glared.
I couldn’t help myself at this point as I unzipped my jeans and pulled my cock out and into my hand.
“Ember?” Mr. Can’t-Take-A-Hint questioned. “Are you okay?”
“Me? Oh yeah, great. Um, I’m sorry. I’m actually see—” I tapped a button and the vibrating kicked up a level, because of course I had picked out ones with levels to it.
She paused, and I could see her body slightly shaking.
I swapped from the app to my camera, turning it on front view and leaning it against my cup of coffee.
I wanted her to hear the conversation in the back when she watched this.
“I’m seeing someone,” she spat out quickly as I stroked myself faster.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I groaned. Everything about this was fucking perfect. Watching someone else lust after her, knowing she was mine, my cum inside of her, thoughts of me in her head.
“Oh, well, okay. I didn’t know. Anyway, I hope you have a great day, Ember. See you tomorrow?” he asked, the crestfallen look clear on his face, but she just nodded.
He walked out the front door, and I watched as her arms braced against the counter and her eyes squeezed shut. The bakery was empty as she let out a low moan that sounded an awful lot like my name, and I couldn’t stop it as ropes of cum shot all over my hand, and my opposite hand gripped the table.
With my breathing calming down, I smirked at the camera before hitting the stop button, sending her the video, and turning off the vibrating for her.
I watched as I cleaned myself up. She glanced at her phone, her lips parting as she tapped the video.
“Fucker,” she mumbled beneath her breath as her arms leaned against the counter and her eyes glued to the screen. “Maybe I’ll shove one of these up his ass.”
Chuckling at her sass, I couldn’t help picking up my phone and sending her a quick text.
Me: Bring it on, little flame.
I watched as she read it, rolled her eyes, and then flicked off the camera with both hands, only to shake it all off and go back to work.
Meoooowwwww.
I jumped slightly and stared back at the orange fluff ball behind me. “Don’t judge me. It isn’t my fault your mom is hot as hell.”
CC tilted his head, staring at me, before he stood and walked into the bedroom, leaving me alone to feel his judgment from another room.
“Can’t believe I’m worried about impressing the cat,” I mumbled to myself.
Ember
Time passed quickly after that. Pastries in and out of the oven.
Fancy coffees brewed to perfection. Clean up, wipe down, and do it all over again.
All the while, Wyatt stayed upstairs and out of my way.
Aside from the random vibration in my ass, the dirty video I’d be keeping forever, and his text, I hadn’t heard a peep from him.
When it was finally time to close down for the night, I literally sighed with relief.
Thursday’s weren’t busy days by any means, but after the escapades of last night?
I needed a long, hot bath and a good night’s sleep—neither of which seemed to be in my future until I was able to kick Wyatt the hell out of my apartment.
Walking the coffee pots back to the sink, I glanced at the clock, relieved it finally read seven thirty, but as I walked around the counter to lock the front door, it opened, the chime ringing louder than it normally felt.
I felt the blood drain from my face as I looked over the man that stared back at me, my throat feeling tight as I took a step backwards, my back hitting the countertop.
“We’re closed,” I said in the most confident voice I could muster.
He let out a dark chuckle. “Talk to your Pop’s yet?”
I shook my head and crossed my arms across my chest.
“Hm,” he hummed as he looked around. “This place will go up nicely, Ember. Call him, or it’ll be someone more…official calling him to update him about you. It’s him or you. Understand?”
I nodded. “I tried…” I began, but I shut up. This man didn’t want to hear my shit right now, so I dropped it. “Yeah, yes. I understand.”
“Good. Now, lock up. I’ll check back in soon.” He turned and walked out, and I rushed behind him, locking both locks and flipping the sign to say we were closed. Taking a shaky step back from the door, I stared out the glass window as he disappeared down the street.
“Ember?” a sudden deep voice from behind me questioned, and I let out a small scream as his hand brushed my shoulder.
I looked up into his deep blue eyes, and so many feelings crossed my mind at once.
Relief. Exhaustion. Anger. Paranoia.
But along with the feelings came clear visions of what it all meant—if they were willing to dispose of me to get to my father? What would they do to Wyatt?
“Why are you still here?” I snapped, taking a step away from him. “Go the fuck home, Wyatt.”
He stared at me, his hands now in his hoodie pocket, as if he felt they should be tucked somewhere so he didn’t reach for me. He was always reaching for me. Even before he knew I was me, he’d reach for me. It didn’t make any sense.
“Who was that?” he asked, ignoring my question in favor of his own.
“You don’t listen, do you? It doesn’t fucking matter who it was. It doesn’t concern you, so get out. Go. Home.”
“And if I don’t? You going to take another bat to my bike?
My SUV, maybe? I have a decent enough house you could go after if you wanted to.
” He was so calm, so matter-of-fact. Nothing moved this man the way it did me.
I stayed uptight, forever feeling too much, and Wyatt was a fucking rock. Everything was controlled.
I laughed, but it wasn’t comical. It was hollow and tired-sounding. “Fuck you, Wyatt.”
“Full intentions. It’s on the list for tonight.
” He looked around for a moment before walking around me.
I didn’t turn, but I had a sliver of hope he’d listen and leave, but I should’ve known better.
He started closing down the blinds on the front windows instead, and double checked the locks were bolted tight.
“You clean up in the back, I’ve got the front area, little flame,” he said, acting like nothing I’d just said had happened.
He didn’t touch me again; he just quietly cleaned up.
The chairs flipped onto the tables, he swept and mopped the floors, wiped down the counters, and brought me back any dishes I’d missed in my clear panic.
When that was finished, he helped pack up any leftover pastries so I could have Jade take them to the local hospital and firehouse in the morning.
Less than an hour later, everything was cleaned up for the night. The bakery was dark as I leaned against the counter and looked around, my thoughts lost in a mirage of darkness.
His hand slid into my own, a warmth in a cold spot. “Upstairs, come on.”
I didn’t fight him. I just let him lead me upstairs and into the bathroom. He turned on the hot water, adding different oils and bubble bath before turning and stripping me of my clothes. It didn’t feel sexual like I thought it would—I felt cared for in a way I never had prior to now.
“Lean over the counter.”
“What?”
“I have the feeling you aren’t in the mood to play tonight, which is fine, but you probably want the plug out of your ass, right?” He was so matter-of-fact, but it didn’t stop the heat from crawling up my cheeks as I leaned over and he gently pulled the toy out.
“Good girl,” he whispered and kissed my cheek. “Now, bath. Hop in,” he said as he took my hand again, keeping me steady as I climbed into the now full tub.
A few minutes passed in silence before he began what I knew was coming.
“Tell me what you know so I can help, Ember.” He didn’t sound demanding or angry like I expected.
I turned my head, looking over at him as he sat on a small stool next to the tub, his hoodie sleeves pushed up and his jeans a bit damp from wiping his hands on them.
He looked just as tired as I felt, like maybe this was killing him as much as it was me, so I did what I never do—I opened up.
I didn’t have it in me to hide shit right now.
“What do you know about my father?” I asked.
He arched a brow. “Quite a bit from the last couple of years, but nothing prior to maybe five years ago. When I dug into your past, I didn’t see the need to go back that far. It felt unnecessary and…rude.”
I grimaced. “My dad grew up with my Grandpa Joe and his mother, my grandmother, whom I never met. His younger brother, Howard, owns the Dunagan Ranch now, next to you, and that was the family fifty-some odd years ago.” I cleared my throat and pulled my knees to my chest. “When Bennett was seventeen, he ran his first con. Told the ranchers he was starting a paper route so they wouldn’t have to go into town every week just to get the updates on the world.
Most of them didn’t have televisions since they worked sunup till sundown.
They all thought it was a great idea, so he collected money, a great deal of money… and he left.”
“He left?” Wyatt questioned.
I nodded. “Dropped out of high school and moved to Denver for a while. Got involved in selling anything he could—cars, four-wheelers, real estate, timeshares. Whatever. He was great at it, but he’d get bored and need something bigger, something with more of a risk.
” I laughed sadly. “He used to tell me when I was a kid, the greater the risk, the greater the reward, but my Uncle Howie used to come in and say the greater the jump, the harder the fall.”
“When Denver ran out of luck, he came home. Figured he could sell it that he was a dumb kid who’d fucked up.
Said he’d work on paying everyone back what he owed them.
Ended up meeting my mom, moved off the ranch, and married her after about a year, had me a year later.
He was able to keep his issues under wraps for a while, at least from everyone except his brother and father.
After my brothers were born, loan sharks started coming around.
He was betting under the table illegally.
He’d go to the casinos where it was simple five-dollar bets, only he’d play with the wrong people.
The people where five dollars was really five hundred bets.
He was in too deep, and he bailed on us.
My mother said it was to keep us safe, and I believed it for a while, but eventually you grow up and you realize that the addiction is just that… a hard fucking fall.”
“So when I came and told you it was your father behind the identity theft issues?” he cautiously questioned.
I shrugged. “It made total sense. He’s my father.
Of course he had my social and shit. I just…
I didn’t want to, no, I don’t want to believe he’d do something like that to me.
I’ve wanted to open this place since Grandpa Joe shared my grandmother’s recipe box with me as a child.
I talked about it all the time. To think he’d risk ruining my one and only dream for me for his own gain, even if he doesn’t like me?
It was, and is, too much for me to understand. ”
“Doesn’t like you? What does that mean?” he asked suddenly, his brows drawn in confusion.
“When I was a kid, I spent all my time with Grandpa, which I’d mentioned before.
But it was because that’s where they’d drop me.
When I was in middle school, I tried to ask Dad to come to this father-daughter dance with me.
He said no, and I ended up hearing him tell my mother that it was essentially because he didn’t like me.
Grandpa ended up taking me himself, which went better anyway.
” I shrugged as if I was indifferent, but Wyatt knew better.
“The man today?” he pushed.
I let out a long sigh. “He came to see me yesterday morning before yoga. He’s some guy my father owes money to, I guess. Basically told me to relay the message, and if he didn’t get his money, he’d burn my bakery down.”
“He said that exactly?”
I glanced down to see him clenching and unclenching his fists, and it brought a small smile to my face to see his calm facade cracking around the edges.
“Not directly, but it was a pretty clear threat there, Batman.”
“Let me help you, Ember.”
I scoffed. “I don’t want your help, Wyatt. I want you to leave. Go home, be safe, and I’ll handle it. On one hand, it isn’t your problem, and on the other hand, we aren’t together. I simply do not have the time or energy for a boyfriend, or really anything else that isn’t my own life.”
Wyatt stared at me before he started chuckling, the sound turning into a full laugh. “Well, I’m not leaving.”
I stared at him, and he stared back. “You really can’t take a hint, can you?”
He shook his head. “Nope. I’m a dog with a bone. Ready to get out? I want to cuddle.”
I leaned my head back on the edge of the tub. “I tell you that I have what is essentially a mobster loan shark after me, threatening to burn down this very building, and your thought is, oh this chick seems like a catch, let’s go cuddle?”
He let out a laugh. “Not quite. It’s your hot ass that I’m oh so eager to fuck.”
My mouth dropped open. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
He shrugged, standing up and letting the water from the tub. “Okay, let’s go. Cuddle time.”