Chapter 13—Wolfe #2
“You know what I mean,” she paused. “It’s the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room we haven’t really talked about.
Why were you so agitated the night of our food truck dinner?
I mean, you were the one who said we should go out, and then returned with a massive thunder cloud roaring above your head. ”
It was all Wolfe could do than to share the shit that went down with his dad, but the words sat in concrete in his throat.
“Just work stuff,” he tried to shrug it off.
His reply resulted in BB lifting up the perfect arch of her brow higher. “Try again.”
Silence stretched between them.
The stubbornness Aspen exuded with her shop extended to this moment and her don’t-give-me-your-bullshit excuses. No one dared to challenge him like that. He was Connor fucking Wolfe.
Before he realized it, the words began pouring from his mouth.
“Just had a rough phone call with my dad. Par for the course. Let’s just say we don’t see eye-to-eye and sometimes his phone calls affect me far more than they should for far longer than it should.”
“That’s fair.”
A big gaping hush fell over the table. The only sound that could be heard featured the clanking of plates and the low murmur of the other diners in the restaurant.
“Want to share more?” Aspen asked, a look of concern across her face.
“No.”
“I totally get the parent thing,” she said, neatly ignoring his protest to continue the conversation.
“I don’t know the particulars of your situation, but for me, I felt so betrayed by my folks when I bought the bakery.
They didn’t share the depths of the issues.
I thought I could take over and go up, not have to climb out.
You’ve seen firsthand how little they did around the shop for the years they had the place, and, instead of helping me dig out from what they’d thrown me into, they needed every single penny to pay for a place they bought in Florida.
And, as if that wasn’t enough of a slap in the face, they needed additional financial support from me.
That said, they call me to tell me how to run the business all the time when it’s obvious they weren’t stellar in operating the business in the first place. ”
She promptly cut off her words.
“That’s bullshit, BB,” Wolfe was even more appalled at the situation she battled through. “You’d almost be better off selling the business due to the primo location and finding a new spot where you could start fresh.”
“Not willing to do that, Connor,” she said with conviction. “My place is right there. I’ve spent my life downtown. I’m not ready to give it up.”
“What about investors?”
He’d write her a check tomorrow if he thought there was a snowball’s chance in hell that she’d take the money.
“That’s fair, but I want to do this on my own, not owe anyone else.”
“Which is why you won’t take anything from me other than the labor around the shop.” A statement, not a question.
He began to understand her perspective. He didn’t like it, but comprehended it.
“Getting back to parents in general, although they mean well, sometimes they aren’t the most helpful in situations,” she circled back to Wolfe’s original confession.
“I speak for myself when I say that time might be the biggest healer of all. For me, the longer my folks are in Florida, the more I’m starting to feel like the bakery is really my own, even though they try to tell me how to run it. ”
Wolfe pondered her sensible words and thought about every single conversation he’d had with his father since he was twelve.
Each chat ended the same way: A drunken berating about how Wolfe wasn’t good enough and that it should have been him that died, not his sister, topped off with a serving of you killed your mother.
Time had healed dick for Wolfe, but how could it when each conversation was on repeat, but BB didn’t need to know that.
Wolfe needed to move past this conversation if he was going to keep his emotions tamped down and not start blubbering like a chick watching the Titanic movie.
“You probably don’t want dessert since you bake all day, right?”
“Wrong, BB,” she switched gears from her probing and threw her wadded-up napkin at his face, which he promptly swatted away like an all-star.
“BB? That’s my name for you.”
“You don’t have the patent on nicknames. I think I’ll call you BB, short for Bluster Britches,” she teased, her smile lighting up her incredible green eyes to the point they nearly glowed.
“I think not,” Wolfe was stern in his response.
“And yet you just proved my point with your crankiness right there,” she reached across the table and squeezed his forearm before grabbing the dessert menu to check out the dishes. “I actually love to sample desserts. They inspire my new creations.”
Wolfe loved to see the energy in her description of her baking. Once she leveled out the business side of the bakery, he had no doubt her catering would be a mega success.
“What new treat are you working on now?”
She became even more animated and covered Wolfe’s hands with her own, barely containing her own enthusiasm.
Wolfe’s excitement surged directly south as his dick got insta-hard at her touch.
“I’m so excited about this... ‘Fugetaboutit’ cupcakes. Think decadent chocolate sponge with creamy, cannoli filling at its center, topped with chocolate buttercream with a hint of orange and speckled with mini chocolate chips. You’ll have to try it.”
“Sounds amazing.”
“Oh, wait. You don’t eat sweets,” Aspen cocked her head and squinted her eyes like she was close to uncovering his deepest, darkest secrets. “Why is that again?”
Hell no. If he wasn’t going to talk about his ‘daddy’ issues, he sure as hell wasn’t going down the road of the story about his sister.
No matter how close to the surface those stories simmered and threatened to bubble over, he would compress the desire he had to share things with BB that he’d never told a soul.
“Training,” he replied, flatly relaying the topic was closed.
Wolfe was saved from further explanation when the waitress returned to the table. Aspen promptly ordered a slice of blueberry pie to go.
A short time later, they made their way back to his truck without any Crush fans wanting to chat about the upcoming season, autographs or selfies.
Wolfe placed his hand at the base of her back and relished the fact his large paw fit so perfectly in the narrow space.
She was tall, which Wolfe loved so he didn’t have to crane his neck downward to have a conversation or other scorching engagements, but her thin body beckoned some inner caveman to provide protection.
Maybe that was one of the reasons he wanted to help her around the shop so much.
He had this overarching sense to safeguard her.
A base part of him wanted to fuck her. Desperately.
But somehow he knew that union would be far more than a release for her.
That connection would be sated in some deeper meaning for this boss baker who was passionate about all things in her life and did them in her own way.
Was Wolfe ready to go down that road?
A resounding ‘no’ shouted in his mind, so he’d soak up the tantalizing touches, their easy banter and secret smiles before he’d head home and jack himself for the release he wouldn’t pursue with this boss baker that had him turned inside out.
Once they arrived back at her place, Wolfe found a spot on the street and killed the engine of his truck.
“I had a really nice time, Conner. Thanks so much for dinner.” She opened the truck door and slid to the pavement holding her boxed-up dessert.
“Not so fast, BB,” Wolfe left the driver’s side of his vehicle and moved toward Aspen standing on the sidewalk. “It’s not over until I walk you to the door.”
Or your bed. Or naked in the shower.
You’re flying solo, big guy, lest you forget that.
Once again placing his hand at her lower back, fuck he liked that feeling, they entered the building and headed up the two flights of stairs to her door.
“Well, thanks again,” Aspen turned toward him, her breathing increased, and Wolfe bet it wasn’t from their ascent up the stairs. “I had a nice time. You’re nice, Connor.”
“Nice really isn’t any word used to describe me, BB,” he rumbled and moved closer to Aspen so her back was against the door.
“You know, you don’t fool me, Connor,” she said, her magnetic eyes moving across his face and landing on his lips. “You come across gruff and bossy and all business, but here...” she placed her fingertip on his chest, over his heart. “...here you are as soft as a teddy bear.”
“And I’d say you’re as misguided as a broken compass.” He bent his head just a bit, hovering just over her lips. “I’m no teddy bear. A fierce grizzly, but no child’s toy.”
With that he completed the journey and kissed Aspen. He brushed his lips against hers once, twice, three times, then slid his hands into her hair before plunging his tongue into her waiting mouth.
A puff of breath whispered against his cheek to accompany lilting whimpers pulsing from her body. He consumed her as their lips tangled in an erotic dance as old as time.
His need to possess this woman popped in his body like flames sparking a piece of pitch-filled wood.
Over and over Wolfe brought BB closer to him through his hands that tightened in her hair, his body crushed against hers, and of course his mouth that was melded to hers as if trying to capture her magical essence.
Wolfe pulled back just a fraction to look into her eyes. They were glazed with the same desire he was certain flooded every cell of his body. “Tell me to stop, BB.”
Her answer was to tug his head back down and return to their captivating kiss.
Wolfe didn’t need a prompt. That tiny jerk of his head by BB resulted in pure combustion between the two.
The world melted away into tiny grains of sand and all that remained was he and his boss baker taking exactly what they needed from each other.
With each twist and turn of their heads, glide of their tongues, bodies pressed together, Wolfe felt closer to this woman than anyone in his life.
Ever.
Wolfe tore his mouth away and rested his forehead against the crook of her neck, needing her support, her comfort. His breathing mirroring her own labored inhales.
With a fortifying breath, like those he took at the end of a long shift on the ice, Wolfe stood upright. He gently ran his fingers through the glorious ringlets of her hair.
“Congrats on getting the hockey camp catering gig, BB.”
“Thank you, Connor,” her breathing still toiled, her chest heaving. “Do, um, do you want to come in?”
She looked up at him with expectant eyes, shimmering like dazzling emeralds.
Now he was waxing poetic about her features. Focus.
Did he? Did he want to go inside her place?
He wanted to fuck this woman more than anyone he could ever remember and yet he held back.
Was it the talk of his father? Was it a fear that she might want more of him than he could give?
Was it his fear that he wanted to give her everything and it wouldn’t be good enough for her?
He needed to sort that out before he engaged in anything physical with the boss baker. She deserved nothing less.
“Soon, BB. Very soon.” Wolfe took the keys from her hand, opened the door to her place and planted a kiss on her forehead as he placed the fob back into the palm of her hand. “I’ll see you at the bakery tomorrow. I have a date with your air conditioning unit.”
He turned to leave. He knew the confused expression on her face would chase him as he looked to find sleep later that night.
He completely understood her bewilderment at the sight of him walking away. He wanted her more than anything, but just as he was tormented by losing his sister, he couldn’t imagine the impact of not having the boss baker in his life even after such a short time in her presence.
He needed to move cautiously. He could keep whatever bubbled between them at bay until he figured out how to ensure the BB box was well defined, couldn’t he?
He had to... for both their sakes.