My Curvy Valentine: A Perfect Fit Novella (8 page)

“You’ll burn him up as soon as you walk into the room. Why don’t you guys stop by
Sweet Eats
for dessert? Chef Sanna is doing a special menu for sweethearts this week.”

“Is that place any good? I keep walking by, but haven’t stopped in yet.”

“Good? I’d have his babies just for another taste of his chocolate pudding cake, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Stop by. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Go get dressed and I’ll meet you at the register with your other things. You are going to look great in those shoes. Just don’t walk more than twelve inches in them.” She walked away from her and ran smack into Alex.

He grinned at her and if his hands hadn’t been full, he would have pulled her soft body into his and held on tight. “Four kids is a good number. I think we should name our firstborn son after my grandfather if it’s a boy.”

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.” Her cheeks went red. She was adorable normally, but embarrassment somehow made her even more appealing. “You’re not supposed to be here. What
are
you doing here? Go away.”

“Is that how you greet me? Alina came in so I could sneak out. I thought you might need this.” He held up an extra-large cup of coffee and a small paper bag.

“Ooh.” Her eyes narrowed and her mouth went pouty when she breathed that word. “What’s in the bag?”

He was so distracted by her lips it took him a moment to answer. “Ham, egg, and cheese on a freshly made croissant and strawberry cheesecake cookies.”

She gasped a little and then frowned at him, but he could only focus on that gasp. It conjured images of her naked body beneath him. It made him wonder if she would sound like that in bed.

“Three babies instead of four,” she said to him, pulling him from his naughty thoughts. “I’m not a factory. And I get to name our girl after a celebrity. Like Beyoncé or Norma Jean. You know, something fierce.”

“Deal.” He grinned at her. “Can you take your lunch break now? This is getting colder and colder by the moment.”

“She can go,” Ellis said, coming out of the back, “but only if you brought me something.”

Alex pulled a cellophane bag full of cookies out of his coat pocket. “You know I couldn’t come here without bringing something for you.”

Ellis did a little dance and clapped her hands before she grabbed the cookies. “Go on break, Maggie. I’ll finish taking care of Pam. The commission you earned today already will pay your rent next month.”

“Thanks, Ellis. I’ll be in the back. Call me if you need me.” She locked eyes with Alex. “Come on, Chef. I’ll share some of my cookies with you.” He expected most people to look him in the eye when they spoke to him, but there was something about the way Maggie looked into
his eyes that made heat spread through his entire body. She turned away from him and like the rats following the Pied Piper, he followed her to the break room, unable to pry his eyes off her backside and liking the way the fabric of her dress slid over her hips. He had meant to only drop off her food and leave. He was working on zero hours of sleep and still had a store to run, but he would much rather spend the next few minutes with her. It was the very first time he’d ever put a woman before his work.

That troubled him. He never thought he would do that. And he never thought Maggie would be the woman he was doing it for.

“How do you know so much about hips?” he asked, still watching her swish.

“I took a lot of science courses while I was getting my degree in biomedical engineering. I’ve read a lot of studies. I was the Medical Jeopardy champ in class two years running.”

“Why did you leave that field? I thought you really liked it.” As a kid she always had her nose in a book and when she didn’t, she was playing with Bunsen burners and beakers. He had thought she was a weird kid, but was sure she was going to be a scientist when she grew up.

“I thought I was going to change the world and do research on adaptive technology for people with disabilities and work on creating limbs for amputees.”

“I thought you
were
doing that. Your mother always tells people you made bionic limbs.”

“That’s because I lied to her,” she said as they entered the storage/ break room. “You know what I was working on? Penile implants. Bend it up when you’re ready for action, push it down when you’re not.”

“You’re kidding?” He sat on the couch, laughing and cringing at that new bit of information.

“No, unfortunately I’m not. There are actually three types of implants. The kind I just told you about was the basic model. I was in charge of the team who made the Rolls Royce of penile implants. Natural looking and feeling and currently the number one selling implant on the market. I got a huge bonus.”

“I’m sure there are thousands of men who will thank you for it.”

“Yeah, men.” She removed the sandwich from the bag and placed it in the microwave. “I had a hard time stomaching that some insurance companies would pay for erection pills and pricey weenie implants, but denied women the most basic of reproductive health care. I had worked so hard to be successful in science because there are so few girls that go into those fields and ended up helping men make their junk function better. So I quit. Now I help women play dress-up and get to touch pretty clothes all day. Some days I feel like I made a wrong turn in my life.”

“Do you regret leaving?”

“No,” she sighed as the microwave went off. “I really like pretty clothes and dressing up every day. I like working with my beautiful bosses and talking about the best shapewear and Saturday’s episode of
Outlander
. And they bring babies in. And cute little kids. And I really like babies and cute little kids. Does that make me a sellout? Does that make me a bad feminist?”

He looked at Maggie, who had morphed from the shy girl she had once been into the beautiful woman standing before him. He had never seen her happier. It might be why he was so attracted to her lately. She had a smile that made a man want to get closer. It was probably why
he couldn’t get her out of his head. “You’re not a sellout, but you are a liar. You told me that you didn’t want kids.”

“That’s because you had to go all mannish and smug on me and I wanted to shut you down.”

“There’s nothing wrong with liking babies and pretty clothes, Mags. Especially if it makes you happy. It doesn’t make you any less strong.”

“I know I can’t be the assistant manager of this store forever.” She sat down next to him on the couch, her lush body settling against his and leaving no space between him, but he still wanted to get closer, wanted to feel more of her, to smell that pretty scent of hers that somehow smelled how home should feel. He had thought about her all morning, about how she felt with her entire body pressed against him, about how her skin felt under his lips, and how her eyes drifted shut as she made those soft sighs every time he kissed her. But she had left before he was done. She left before he had gotten to press his lips to hers. Maybe it was a good thing. Maybe it was a line they shouldn’t cross because they were old friends and he didn’t want to ruin that.

He pulled his mind off how good she felt against him and focused on their conversation. “Why can’t you work here as long as you want?”

“Every time I walk in here and help a woman pick out a dress instead of designing devices to make people’s lives better I feel like a hypocrite. Especially since I truly feel that more women should go into the science fields. My father always says that you only get one life and that it’s your only shot to leave your mark on the world. Make sure you leave a deep one. That was the best lesson he taught me.”

“Just because you’re not perfecting bionic limbs doesn’t mean you aren’t leaving your mark, Maggie. You make women feel great about themselves every day. You’re a good friend. You’re sweet. You put others before yourself and you’ve got an ass that makes my day a little brighter every time I look at it.”

“You like my ass?” She grinned up at him.

“Yeah, it’s a good one.”

“I agree. My best feature.”

He wrapped his arm around her, bringing her closer, her head falling on his shoulder. “Eat your lunch, Mags. It’s going to get cold again.”

“Thank you,” she said, taking a big bite. “This is good. You didn’t have to do this.”

“You didn’t have to stay up all night. This is the least I could do.”

The smell of the sweet salty ham combined with melted cheese and freshly baked bread should have made his mouth water, but it wasn’t the food itself that made him hungry. It was watching Maggie eat, watching her enjoy something he made. Watching her mouth and delectable lips move.

“Eat some.” She fed him a bite, then wiped a crumb off his face with her thumb. He wondered if she had any idea at all how much her simple touches affected him. Her simple innocent touches. Her chaste kisses. Her sweet hugs. It turned him on in a way he didn’t understand. “Eat more,” she prompted. “I know you didn’t eat anything either today.”

“How do you know?” he asked, finishing the sandwich.

“I know you,” she yawned widely. “You work so hard, you forget to eat. I worry about you.” She placed her warm hand on his stomach. Under his shirt and it sent a jolt right to his manhood. “I shouldn’t worry too much.” She rubbed his stomach. “This thing is rock hard.”

It wasn’t the only thing that was. He looked down at her. Her eyes were closed, her face relaxed and sleepy and she went from simply being pretty to being beautiful. He wanted more of this woman. “Eat the cookies I brought for you, Mags,” he said needing her to take her hand off him so he could regain sanity.

“I’m too tired to eat cookies. And that’s a big damn deal for me.” She yawned again. “I’m too tired to chew.”

“Go to sleep, Maggie May. You’re not going to make it through the day if you don’t.” She was halfway there. Her eyes were still closed, her feet were tucked under her, and her head had drifted to his chest.

“I can’t,” she yawned. “I have to work.”

“You get an hour for lunch, don’t you? You’ve got forty minutes left. I’ll wake you in thirty-five.”

“What about you?” She snuggled into him. “Don’t you have to get back?”

“No,” he said, even though he knew he should leave her. “Alina is there. Fernando wants her out of the house when he’s sick because she’s pregnant. She runs the front of the house better than I do.”

“You should have gotten some sleep yourself. I worry about you.”

“I know. I’m fine. I showered and drank a gallon of coffee. I could run a marathon right now.” He kissed her forehead. “Stop talking and go to sleep.”

She exhaled deeply and before he knew it she was out like a light.

Her hair had fallen across her face. He touched it, just to move it away, but he got caught up again in how silky it felt between his fingers, the rich dark color, the peachy smell of her shampoo. He couldn’t help himself. He buried his fingers into her thick locks. She moaned a little, shifting her face upward, seemingly wanting to give him more access but she didn’t open her eyes.

“Oh! Excuse me.” Alex looked up to see Belinda standing in the doorway. The glamorous pregnant redhead narrowed her eyes, concern spreading across her face. “You okay, Maggie?”

“She’s out cold. I promised to wake her when her lunch hour was over.”

“Is she sick?”

“No. She exhausted. I kept her up all night.”

Belinda grinned at him. “And she said there was nothing going on between you two. I don’t know why she denied it. We love you. You’re hot and you bring us sweets.”

“I kept her up all night baking,” he clarified. “She and her mother helped me fill a cake order last night when my bakers called out sick.”

“Well, that’s a less fun reason to stay up all night. I’ll send her home early today. She’s been picking up so much slack around here since I’ve got this bun in my oven.” She rubbed her belly. “I should make her take a few days off soon. I don’t want to run her ragged.”

“She likes it here. She says she likes having beautiful bosses. I think working with all those stuffy engineers was sucking the life out of her.”

“I almost didn’t want to hire her, you know. I couldn’t wrap my head around why anyone would go from being an engineer to being a sales girl, but then I remembered that Ellis was a lawyer before she found this place, and I had a million careers. This store kind of helped us find ourselves. I wonder if Miss Maggie is doing a little soul searching during her time here.”

“She might be.”

Her eyes traveled to Maggie’s sleeping form. “The girl sleeps like the dead, but then again if I had you for a pillow I might not want to come out of dreamland either.” She winked at him. “I’m going to stop by your shop later. A customer told me you had some cherry chocolate cake to die for. The baby needs to try some.” She patted her pregnant belly and walked away and Alex found himself smiling. He had had three new customers who had bought his cakes at Kerman’s this morning come in, wanting to try more of his stuff. And that would have never happened if Maggie hadn’t helped him last night. She more than helped him. She saved his ass even when he didn’t want her to. He was grateful to her, but there were some other feelings there as well.

He looked down at her slightly upturned sleeping face. Her mouth was relaxed, her hair was spread across her shoulders, and it made him wonder what she would look like with her hair spread across his pillow, with her mouth swollen from his kisses. He wondered how she would look after she was made love to.

He pressed his mouth to hers softly, kissing her full lips. He hadn’t meant to, but he had a hard time controlling himself when all he could think of was her and how sweet she was, and how good she felt, how good she made him feel.

“Mmm, Alex.” Her hands slid up to his face. Her mouth opened beneath his and she kissed him back. Not like those sweet chaste kisses she had given him earlier. Her tongue swept into his mouth and if he thought there was heat between them before he had been dead wrong. This was full-blown fire.

She kissed him deeply, her tongue licking the inside of his mouth in a way he could only describe as sexual. It was seductive. It was hot. It made him want to shut the storeroom door and strip her naked so his entire body could get in on the experience.