I can’t imagine a life without the three of them together. it doesn’t feel right to even imagine it. Where would they be now? Without Bear’s steady leadership, who would have held themtogether? Without Elliot’s sharp, calculating mind, how would they have built a thriving business together? And what about Clay? His loyalty and intensity give the others reason to keep going.
“Can I ask about your parents?” His quiet question brings me back to the moment. “I know that you and your sister manage the bakery, but I never hear anything about them.” He speaks gently, and I know if I decide not to speak he will respect that. He wants to know if they are still alive but doesn’t know how to phrase the question, and I don’t blame him. It’s not really something he would ask in polite conversation.
“My parents died in a car accident.” I wave him off before he can say anything or offer apologies. It’s not that I don’t care anymore, but a long time has passed and the grief that I once felt has numbed. “It was years ago now, and I still miss them, but I know that their true desire was for me to keep the bakery going. For it to stay within our family.” The familiar frustration starts to rise inside me as I think of my sister. “They were organised. They had already left the bakery to me and Ivy, so it was a simple process of us taking over.”
He watches me intently, reaching out to brush a stray couple of my hairs back behind my ear. “I don’t see your sister around much.”
Again, the question is phrased as a statement, only this time it’s aimed at me. Grumbling under my breath, I try to keep my annoyance to myself. “Ivy has never been interested in the baking side of the business, only the finances. She focused on that, while I run the practical side of the bakery.” I’m not sure I manage to hide my frustration towards my sister, but he doesn’t mention it or try to ask questions. To be honest, I’m not sure I would fully be able to give him a coherent answer now. I resent the fact that Ivy doesn’t share my passion for keeping the bakeryopen. It was our parents’ life work – how dare she throw away so easily?
I close my eyes, squeezing them tight and trying to release some of my tension. Ivy has taken up enough of my evenings, filling them with worry, so I’m not going to allow this quiet moment with Bear to be tainted by her.
I close my eyes, determined to put it behind me and focus on what is in front of me. “Anyway, as you know, I am now taking over the bakery myself.” Ivy might be abandoning a legacy, but I can’t deny the thrill that courses through me at these words. The bakery will be mine, and I will finally have full say as to what happens within it.
Bear’s expression shifts to one of pride, his smile soft but true. “You are incredible.”
“You’re only saying that because you want to get in my pants,” I tease, flashing him a wink and chuckling slightly at my own joke. After all, he runs a business, and Clay bought the nightclub years ago. Thousands of people run businesses; there is nothing special about what I’m doing.
“Seriously though, Holly.” He brushes my cheek with his fingers, pulling my attention back to him. “You are living your parents’ dream while making it your own, and you’re doing it all by yourself.”
I don’t know what to say in return. His opinion of me has always been higher than my own view on myself. All I do is try my best, even when it doesn’t feel like enough. There was no way I could ever let the bakery be sold into different hands, so for me, there was never any doubt that I would take over. That doesn’t feel all that special to me.
As though knowing exactly what I’m feeling, he shifts below me so I’m now lying on top of him. My instinct is to put my hands out to brace myself, not wanting to allow my full weightto press on him. He grumbles low in his chest, the vibration passing straight through me and making my thighs clench.
“Don’t you dare,” he warns in a low voice. A small smile on his lips and raised brow hint at him joking, but the steel in his eyes tells me otherwise. “I love you, every single part of you. Don’t you dare try to hide from me. You are perfect, and I can handle all of you.” His hands rest on my ass, punctuating his words.
“Not everybody feels the same way you do.” It’s a statement, something that I know to be true, yet my voice betrays me, wobbling and making me sound weak.
When Jake left, he didn’t just shatter my heart and take all of my future plans with him. He seemed determined to break me. It wasn’t enough that he was leaving to start an amazing future, no, that would have been a perfectly legitimate reason to end a relationship. Jake listed reasons not to be with me that had never previously come up, but played on all of my insecurities. My weight, how unattractive he found me, my lack of education, my lack of desire to ever leave Hinton Grove. Every single one of these was thrown back in my face. This has caused more damage than I realised, as I am unconsciously trying not to crush Bear under my weight.
“Anyone who has told you otherwise was clearly an idiot. A blind idiot, at that.” His hands continue to skim my curves. My body tingles where he touches and I feel the slow burn of desire low in my abdomen. I am suddenly reminded that I am pressed up against him, laid out on the sofa, all alone in my flat. There is nothing to stop the two of us from exploring each other’s bodies like I know we both want to.
“You already know my love for you, Holly. Can you not feel the strength of my desire?”
Putting pressure on my hips, he presses my pelvis against his. A gasp catches in my throat as I feel his hard cock against me, with only our clothes separating us.
I know how much he wants me, especially after our first date when we almost fucked in the stairwell of my flat. Not to mention that Clay has never made it a secret that he desires me. With two gorgeous, sexy men wanting after me, you would’ve thought that there would be no room for doubt. However, it is in these moments that my fears make themselves known. I need to push past this, to embrace this feeling and begin to see myself as they see me.
“Why don’t you show me?”
I expect the words to sound cheesy, like I’m trying to mimic those flawless girls in the pornography movies. Although I feel my cheeks flush, I don’t feel the embarrassment that I assumed I might. In fact, seeing his reaction to my words reassures something within me.
His eyes light up like I just told him he’s won the lottery, and the smile he gives me in return is full of male satisfaction. “It would be my pleasure.”
His voice is practically a purr and sends a thrill pulsing through my body. Before I even have a chance to consider what to do next, he shifts his left leg, bending at the knee and creating a gap that my lower body slips into. My torso is still pressed against his, but this new position has me cradled by his body. It makes me feel small, dainty, and he touches me in a way that makes me feel treasured. I want him to feel the same when I touch him, not to mention that I need to feel his bare skin against my fingers.
I reach for his shirt, and slowly start working on buttons, revealing his muscular chest an inch at a time. In reality, all I want to do is rip open the shirt, sending buttons flying everywhere and revelling in his glory. However, I’m not in amovie, and knowing my luck it wouldn’t be strong enough to break the threads. Biting down on my lip, I force myself to slowly and methodically remove his shirt. He seems to be enjoying the process, his breath hitching every time my fingers ‘accidentally’ brush against him. Finally, his chest is unobstructed by the fabric and I can run my fingers over the ridges of his muscles. I’m never going to get over the feeling of his abs beneath my fingers; the smooth, warm skin that shifts under my touch. Bear makes a low noise in the back of his throat and I look up in response, catching his reaction a second before he moves towards me. His expression is intense, and everything about him screams predator about to pounce on his dinner. If that’s what it is about to happen, then I will willingly be his prey.
Pulling me down the rest of the way, our lips meet in a clash of tongues and teeth as we desperately seek out the taste of each other. I groan into his mouth, hooked on the taste of him, his touch, the way he smells. I want it all. As our lips move against each other, my hands move of their own volition. I want to scratch down his chest with my nails, to sink my teeth into his biceps and the muscle that joins his shoulder to his neck. The desire to mark him as mine is so strong that it almost brings me out of the moment. He awakens something primal in me, a side of me that I buried long ago.
I never felt this way with Jake. Our sexual encounters were predictable, vanilla and rarely ended in pleasure for me. Jake filled my head with nonsense about how most women don’t reach climax during sex. Of course, I now know that this is bullshit, things he would tell me to make himself feel better and to keep me from wanting more than he could give me. Even in this short encounter with Bear, I have felt more arousal and love than I ever did with my ex.
Bear’s fingers thread into the hair at the back of my head, gently controlling our kisses with light pressure. It sends a thrillthrough me, letting him take the lead and allowing me to simply enjoy this, yet I have no doubt in my mind that he would stop if I wanted him to.
The waistband of my skirt gives way, and before I have even fully registered this in my mind, I feel his hand skating down the curve of my hips, over my ample ass, and skimming around to the apex of my thighs. His mouth pulls away from mine and he lifts his head to peek over my shoulder to where his hands are resting on my underwear.
“Hmm,” he murmurs in my ear, his breath tickling against my ear as his fingers trace over the lace covering my most intimate areas. “I like these, very much.” Closer and closer, he moves towards my entrance, my skin tingling with anticipation. “It’s a shame they’re getting away.”
When I chose to put on my matching lacy rose underwear today instead of my usual comfortable ones, was I hoping that it might get seen? Guilty. I certainly didn’t plan on this happening, though, the underwear was purely to make me feel sexy and confident. Now, though, I’m glad that I made this choice.
