The Secret Ingredient (10 page)

He breathed in an intoxicating combination of luxurious fragrance, body lotion, shampoo, and Lottie.

She smelt fabulous. Felt. Fabulous.

He dared to inch closer behind her, until he could feel the length of her body from shoulder to groin pressed against him.

His arms wrapped tighter around her waist, the fingers pressing, oh, so gently into her ribcage, and he was rewarded by a gentle but tantalising low sigh.

Rob smoothed her hair away from her face so that he could press his lips against the back of her neck.

‘Dee told me that you gave up your job in banking to spend your life doing something you loved instead,’ he said, and his low soft voice seemed to resonate against the side of her head. ‘That takes guts. And passion. If Lily gave you even a hint of that, then, yes, the lady does deserve the best cake you can make. Even on a Sunday. But why do I feel that you are only telling me part of the story?’ He paused and slid just far enough way so that he could run his fingers back through her hair.

‘Why did you really leave your old life behind, Lottie? What made you give up a well-paying job and take a risk on a bakery? You must have had choices.’

He sensed her shoulders lift with tension but waited patiently until she was ready to fill the silence. ‘I did. If I’m honest, I had too many choices. My parents couldn’t help. My dad wanted me to move to France and a ready-made slot in an IT company he had started as a retirement project. But not one person thought that I had it in me to retrain for a completely new career and start my own company. And that...hurt for a while.’

He swallowed down hard, stunned by the calmness of her voice, and pressed his chin against the top of her head. ‘Then they didn’t know you. Their loss.’

A deep chuckle bubbled up from inside Lottie’s chest and he could feel it through his fingers. ‘You’re right. They didn’t know the real me at all. My boss, my friends—even my boyfriend at the time—thought I would be back to work and my old life within six months. They were wrong. I love it. I sold enough shares to make it happen, but with Dee’s help I think we created something very special. I
am
Lottie’s cake shop now, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.’

‘So you gave it all up? Career, lifestyle, everything you had?’

‘I traded up. Some of the happiest times of my teenage life were spent helping Lily in the kitchen, experimenting with pastry and flavours and textures.’

‘Any regrets?’

‘Some. I thought the friends I had made at school and university would stay my friends. But that didn’t happen. Suddenly we didn’t have anything to talk about any longer. Packing it all in and starting a bakery was what you did for a hobby when you retired, not your life’s work. So I’ve had to make new friends instead.’

‘Wait a minute. Your boyfriend didn’t support you when you were going through so much upheaval?’

Rob slowly but firmly turned her around at the waist until his gaze was locked on that stunning face, his hands resting lightly on her hips.

‘You are a beautiful woman, Lottie. He was a fool to let you go.’

Lottie smiled and pressed the flat of her hands on his chest before replying in a low, hoarse voice.

‘He didn’t let me go. We both knew that our relationship had come to an end. He wanted to climb the corporate ladder and achieve his dreams in banking. I didn’t want that life any longer and he didn’t understand how I could leave it all behind and start again on a shoestring. So don’t judge him—that wouldn’t be fair.’

‘Then he was an even bigger idiot. Although it does make me wonder.’

‘Wonder what?’

Lottie leant back within the circle of his arms so that she could gaze up into his face, and the compassion and need that Rob saw in those wide green eyes fractured the frosting of ice around his heart like an ice pick and kept on picking away until the warm and vulnerable core was exposed to the world.

It destroyed him. Broke him. Blasted away the shell that he had built up.

So that when he did reply, every word came from the heart instead of the head before he had a chance to change his mind.

‘I was simply wondering whether you’d be willing to give another bloke a chance to show you how stunning you are. Is that so outrageous?’

Lottie inhaled a sharp breath and her gaze scanned his face as though she was looking for something. And found it.

‘No. Not so outrageous at all.’ She smiled.

‘Excellent. Then why not start right now? Today. With me.’

* * *

Lottie’s brain froze.

Him? Rob wanted her to start dating him?

He was holding out the most delicious temptation and all she had to do was say yes and find out if his touch was as exciting as she thought it would be.

For a night or even a weekend, if she was lucky, she would find out what it was like to be the object of a man’s desire again.

Until he left. And she would be right back where she started. Alone.

Her gaze scanned his face. He was serious.

As serious as the most forbidden fruit could be.

‘You don’t know how to give up, do you?’ Lottie said with a shaky smile.

‘Not good enough for you?’ Rob grinned back.

And then he nodded his head up and down, just once.

‘Ah. I see your problem. You’re too afraid you might get used to the idea of having a fling? Maybe even like it. Yup, could be trouble.’

‘Come on, Rob. Your life and work is in California and you’ve already told me that you don’t plan to come back to London any time soon. I have my bakery and right now there are no plans to open a cake shop and tea rooms in Carmel. So thank you for the compliment, but you know it would never work out. I’m not interested in long-term relationships.’

‘Good. Because that’s not what I am suggesting. In fact, just the opposite. My rules are pretty simple: a short-term relationship between two consenting adults, no strings and no expectation of anything more than what we have for as long as we have it.’

She looked into those eyes. Fatal mistake. It meant she was powerless to resist when he moved forward and pressed his long, slim fingers either side of her head and tilted his head to lean in.

His full mouth was moist and warm on her upper lip, and she could not help but close her eyes and luxuriate in the delicious sensation of his long, slow kiss.

Her arms moved around his neck, he moved closer, and she kissed him back, pressing hotter, deeper, the pace of her breathing matching his.

Somewhere at the back of her brain a sensible voice was shouting out that this was not a clever thing to do.

Bad Lottie. Very bad.

His lips slid away down her jaw to kiss her throat so she could gasp a breath.

‘Take a chance on me, Lottie,’ he whispered as his cheek worked his way down the side of her neck to her collarbone. ‘I want to be with you, get to know you. Will you give me a chance to do that? Can you learn to trust me that much?’

She forced her eyes open wide enough to see that his own eyes were closed, his face...oh, his face. She was so going to regret this. One of her arms moved around so that she could run her fingers through his hair. ‘I don’t know. It would mean that you have to be around long enough to find out. Can you do that?’

He looked at her, his fingers pressing on her back.

‘I will be around long enough. Will you give me a chance?’

She looked at him so long her stomach knotted up, his eyes scanning her face as though they were begging her to accept him. There was something in those eyes that went through her skin and penetrated her heart, blowing away any chance of resistance.

There was a lot to be said for giving in to impulses.

Lottie found herself grinning back at him, suddenly drunk with the smell, the feeling of his touch on her skin, the power of his physical presence.

Her fingertip traced the curved fullness of this man’s lower lip, and his mouth opened a little wider at her touch.

Lottie stared up at Rob, into his sea-blue eyes, and knew that he wanted to kiss her again. She focused on his mouth as his long fingers stroked the sides of her face.

It terrified her. And thrilled her.

She wanted him to kiss her. To make the connection she longed for. There was no way that she could freeze this man from her life—it had gone too far now for that to happen. Her lips parted and she felt his mouth against hers as her eyes closed and she let herself be carried away in a breathless dream of a deep, deep kiss.

Tears welled up in Lottie’s eyes and she tried to turn away as a single bead escaped but it was too late. Rob wiped it away with his thumb, the gentle pressure stroking her cheek with such tenderness it took her breath away.

How could she have doubted that this man was capable of being gentle and loving?

Yes, loving.

Her gaze scanned the cheekbones of his face, the bumpy nose, coming to rest on the bow of his upper lip above the full mouth. She felt as though she had known him all of her life.

Her fingertip moved over the crease lines in the corners of his mouth and eyes, which she knew now were down to more than just laughter.

Life had not been easy for this man. His love for his mother had driven him to take risks. If he had become ambitious it was not for his own ego. He had made sacrifices for the people he loved and would do so again.

His hand slid from her cheek into her hair. Smoothing it back from her face as his lips pressed against her brow, closer, and closer.

Her heart was racing, blood surging in her ears and she forgot how crazy this was as she closed her eyes and sensed the raw moistness of his lips on one eyelid, then the other. One of his hands moved around the curve of her waist, drawing her body closer to his.

The delicious sensation of being wanted as a woman dulled any sense of control she might have had left.

There was only this moment in time. There was only Rob.

She needed him as much as he needed her. How had that happened? And why did it feel so absolutely right to be in his arms, feeling his fingers stroke her back and hair, his lips on the crook of her neck, his chin pressed against her jaw? She knew she would be powerless to resist if the heat of that mouth moved closer.

She wanted him to kiss her again, and again, and her head shifted so that she could caress his chin and cheek. Her lips parted and she felt the touch of his tongue on her neck.

Heaven was about to happen.

The pressure of his lips increased as he moved slowly under her chin and nuzzled her lower lip, back and forth, and she was lost in the heat of his embrace.

His hand slid down her arm and up to the hollow of her back, moving in slow circles on her skin at her waist, sending delicious waves of heat and desire surging through her body.

Her eyes closed with pleasure. He was so good.

There was a movement at her waist. He had started to work on the buttons at the back of her dress.

She wanted him to. She needed him to. She wanted...him to stop!

Something inside her screamed and she jerked her face away from his, her eyes catching a flash of his passion, his desire for her in that split fraction of a second before he realised that she was leaning back.

‘I thought I was ready for this. Truly, I did.’ She forced in a noisy breath. ‘And I’m not. I am so sorry.’

His brows came together until understanding crept back into the rational part of Rob’s brain and he exhaled, very slowly. A couple of times. Before refastening her buttons, single-handed.

His arm was still around her waist and he used his free hand to stroke her cheek as he drew her closer.

She cuddled into his chest, listening to the beat of his heart, knowing that she was the cause of the palpitations and smiling at the need. The smell of his sweat combined with his aftershave filled the air she was breathing.

Lottie pressed her lips together then closed her eyes and blurted out the truth before she lost her nerve.

‘I’m so tired of being average, and, most of all, I’m really tired of being so scared.’

‘Scared?’ There was concern in his voice. ‘What are you frightened of? Me?’

‘This. Intimacy. Letting go of my inhibitions and simply enjoying myself with another human being.’

She squeezed her eyes tight shut.

‘I’m not a prude or frigid. That’s not the problem. I just cannot let myself relax. It’s totally ridiculous. I am an adult, I’m single, and I’ve had more chocolate profiteroles in my life than I have had orgasms. Which for a woman of twenty-seven is a disgrace.’

Instantly she covered her mouth with her hand. ‘And I have no idea why I just said that.’

‘A total disgrace. You’re a beautiful woman, Lottie. You deserve to be adored. Fed chocolate ice cream in bed every night. Whatever you want.’

‘Thank you. But adoration is not on my list of priorities right now.’

Her hand pressed against Rob’s chest. ‘I am vanilla ice cream. Nice, dependable. Can be excellent. But on the whole pretty unadventurous and average.’

The rumble of a deep-seated chuckle started low in his body but when he spoke the words were murmured through the lips pressed against her forehead as he hugged her closer.

‘I happen to like good vanilla dairy ice cream. There is nothing wrong with that.’

‘Now you’re trying to be nice to make me feel better. Please stop. It’s a lot easier if you slip back into the scamp role.’

‘Then let me ask you a question. How many times have you practised a recipe in that bakery kitchen of yours before you’re happy to serve it to your customers?’

Lottie laughed out loud. ‘Way too many. It always takes me six or seven test batches before I have something I love.’

‘Right. Same here. The only way to get past average is to test yourself in a safe environment where you are in control and no one has to see the results but you.’

‘Yes, I suppose so...but where are you going with this?’

‘Just this. It seems to me that the lovely Miss Rosemount needs to connect with her sensuality in a safe place where she feels comfortable and secure. With a lover who she can trust.’

‘Ah, that’s where you’re going. And I suppose you are the perfect candidate for the position? I mean job. Role. Oh, stop laughing.’