Sweetly, Deeply, Absolutely (Sweet Love) Read online

  Maybe. There was one huge oat with Jared’s name on it that was begging to be sown. And she was never good at resisting temptation.

  “Good to know. Because the king of the wild oats is coming back this way.” Gina nodded at Jared, who was marching back toward them with both a look of triumph and the distinct air of a little kid who’d done something he knew was going to get him in trouble.

  This did not bode well.

  …

  “You said we could do what?” Gina shouted.

  Jared had known she wouldn’t be happy, but he hadn’t quite expected the whole meltdown. He shrugged. “What? We make incredible baklava and gorgeous wedding cakes. So what’s more natural than to combine those two and make a baklava wedding cake?”

  “We don’t make the baklava. Eric and Nat do. And they are in Barbados. And they are very particular about the wedding cakes they take on. They want to make sure they can give the client what they want, so there are no surprises. Promising a client something we can’t do does nothing but piss off the client. What were you thinking?”

  Jared frowned, trying to keep a rein on his frustration. Jenny stood off to the side, looking a bit stunned and happy to be out of the line of fire. “I was thinking that doing an impressive wedding cake for the sister of a woman with her own show on TV might be a great marketing move for the bakery. They like it, they’ll put us on the air. Do you have any idea how much promotion that is? How much exposure we’ll get?”

  Gina took a deep breath. He could almost see her counting to ten. “And what happens when we can’t pull it off and they end up with a sticky, gooey mess? What kind of exposure will we be getting then?”

  He waved that off. “That won’t happen.”

  Gina glared at him.

  “It won’t,” he insisted. “What was I supposed to do? We were sitting there, enjoying the baklava, when her sister burst in, crying because the bakery that was going to do her wedding cake had to cancel because their shop flooded. I had to say something. I mean, we do make wedding cakes and I know there’s nothing on the schedule two weeks from now, so we’ve got the time…”

  Gina smacked him upside the head. He grimaced but ignored it other than a quick rub at his head. She was the only one who ever did that to him, though he was sure a lot of people would love to have a go. But Gene was special. Only she got smacking privileges.

  “What we don’t have is Eric and Nat. The people who know how to make the stuff and might have some idea at how to create a twelve-layer—”

  “Fourteen,” he said, automatically ducking before Gina could get him again. She didn’t swat at him this time, just took another deep breath and carried on.

  “Baklava wedding cake,” she said. “Send them somewhere else.”

  “I can’t. I already told them we’d do it. And they said every other place in town is booked. The wedding is two weeks away.”

  Gina’s rapid breaths made her belly rise and fall alarmingly and Jared watched, fascinated as the baby twitched and rolled inside her.

  “So, why does it have to be a baklava cake? What’s wrong with a nice regular cake?” Jenny piped up, looking back and forth between the two of them. “I know I haven’t officially done a cake for a client yet, but I could make them something they’d love, I’m sure.”

  Jared shrugged. “She doesn’t want a nice regular cake.”

  “What about a croquembouche? Those are beautiful, tasty, and pretty impressive if we make it big enough. I’ve made them many times in Paris.”

  “I don’t think that would work. Her fiancé is Greek. She loves the idea of bringing his culture into it. And she wants something absolutely spectacular. Nice and regular doesn’t get you promo spots on TV shows.”

  Gina threw her hands up. “Well, like I said. That promotion opportunity isn’t going to be so exciting when they show a picture of the horrible cake that ruined her sister’s wedding on live TV.”

  “Ah, come on. Have a little faith. Besides.” Jared glanced back at Jenny. “We’ve got her.”

  Jenny held her hands up. “Yeah, I said I could do a beautiful cake. Not a beautiful tower of baklava. Don’t get me mixed up in this mess. I’m temporary.”

  “Oh, come on,” Jared said, moving closer to her. “You do know how to make baklava, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. I mean I haven’t made it often, but a couple times, at least.”

  “Well, there we go.” He smiled at her like she’d saved his life. And judging by how angry Gina seemed to be, maybe she had.

  “But,” she said, trying to head off his victory lap, “that was just regular baklava. One flavor. One size and shape. And spread out nicely on a couple trays, not stacking fourteen layers high in the shape of a cake.”

  “I’ve got faith in you,” he said with a wink that turned her pale cheeks pink.

  “All the faith in the world won’t get this cake made.”

  “No, but maybe you and I can.”

  Gina snorted. “She can, maybe. You, not so much. You screw this one up, Crew, and Eric’s going to kill you. Either way, I’m going to leave you two to it and go home and put my feet up. After I pee.”

  Jenny laughed and went with Gina to the bathroom. Why do girls always do that in packs? They came out a few minutes later still laughing, and Gina looked a lot more relaxed, though still irritated when her gaze settled on him. That was nothing new.

  Jenny, on the other hand, lit the place up with her smile. Quite a contrast from her intimidating brother, Officer Richard Boyd, one of Hoboken PD’s finest. Jenny looked enough like him that you could tell they were siblings, but her hair, although not blond like it was last time he’d seen her, was quite a bit lighter than Rick’s dark brown, falling in chestnut waves around her shoulders. They both had blue eyes but Jenny’s were a softer shade, more sea wave than sapphire. Almost green in some lights. And more fitting for the softer curves Jenny possessed.

  “I’ll lock up on my way out,” Gina said. “You’ve got the rest?” she asked Jenny, who nodded.

  “No worries. Go home.”

  Jared walked her to the door, frowning at her enormous belly. He didn’t know how much larger she could get and not topple over. Surely it wasn’t normal to get that big. Not that he’d ever say that. He did have a few working brain cells.

  “Is Rick coming to get you?” he asked, not loving the idea of her walking home. She looked like she was going to go into labor any second.

  “No.” Jared’s frown deepened, and she laughed. “He offered. I told him not to. The exercise is good for me. Plus, maybe it’ll get things moving along here so we can finally meet our little peanut.”

  Jared glanced at her belly again. “You sure you’ll be all right? Want me to walk you home?”

  “No. Go back and help Jenny. I’ll be fine.” She took a deep breath and stretched, which made her belly swell to alarming proportions. “I’m mostly looking forward to a good long nap.”

  Her fatigue was obvious and sparked a flood of guilt. “I can help out more around here, you know. Jenny and I can hold down the fort tomorrow, instead of taking the truck out, if you want to stay home and rest up.”

  Gina shook her head with a fond smile. “I’m fine, really. Women have babies every day. Stop fussing.” She gave him a fond, but firm, pat on the cheek and went out the door muttering.

  Jared laughed. He loved that woman. Not in that way. But still. She was probably the only woman other than his mother he could say that about. A fact that had never bothered him. Until recently. That was probably more a consequence of being surrounded by happy couples than his own desire to be in a happy couple.

  Maybe.

  Chapter Six

  Jenny watched Jared walk Gina to the door while she wiped down the counters. He was unexpectedly sweet to her sister-in-law. Not that she knew Jared at all, but he didn’t seem the type to go out of his way to be overly considerate to someone he couldn’t jump into bed with. A harsh and probably unfair assessment, but his reputation
preceded him.

  She’d heard a lot about him since Gina and Rick had been together, even after she’d left for school. Jenny had switched focus from regular college to culinary school shortly after meeting Gina and being introduced to the whole bakery scene, and had gone away for training to a program in Paris right after Gina and Rick had gotten married. So she hadn’t been around much in the last couple of years to see if all the wild stories Gina had told about him were true. But from the extremely short time she’d known him, she would be willing to guess most of them were.

  He exuded “super-fun playboy” vibes. Great for the night, but not for the long haul. Which was perfect for what she was after, and normally, she’d be all over that. Especially since the residual ache she felt whenever she looked at him was getting harder to contain. But Jared wasn’t someone she could spend one night with and never see again. For better or worse, he was in her permanent circle as one of the best friends of her sister-in-law. Probably the future godfather, or one of them anyway, to her soon-to-be-born niece or nephew. That kind of killed the casual hookup vibe she preferred.

  Maybe it was for the best. She was embarking on the new “adult” phase of her life. She was working her first bakery job and had another lined up for when she got back to school in Paris. Life was good. The last thing she wanted was to complicate it for one night of sex. No matter how mind-blowing it might be.

  Then again, she was on vacation. Vacation sex didn’t count, right?

  She cleaned up the counters and went back to the kitchen to finish up in there. Jared followed her back. She started getting things organized and stowed for the night. He actually grabbed the broom and pitched in.

  He raised his eyebrows at her apparently surprised look. “What? I am supposed to be helping while Nat and Eric are gone. Not sure why everyone seems so surprised I’d actually do what I said I was going to do.”

  “Sorry,” Jenny said.

  He shrugged it off. “All right, maybe I was looking for a way to butter you up a bit, in light of my apparently tragic news that I landed a massive opportunity for the bakery.”

  “Which you are going to have to call and cancel. I’m not making that monstrosity just because you want to impress some woman.”

  “Jealous?” he asked, staring at her with eyes that knew way too much.

  “In your dreams. But I fail to see why I should kill myself, and possibly fail miserably, because you couldn’t close the deal without grandstanding.”

  “I wasn’t grandstanding. They needed a cake. We make cakes. And they are going to put us on television. Why does everyone keep glossing over that fact?”

  “Probably because we have to provide the cake they are putting on TV, and the one you said we could make is insane.”

  “Not for you. I bet you can do it.” He stopped sweeping and leaned an elbow on the counter, pinning her with what was probably his best smoldering look.

  And damn him, it really was. She tried to look away from those staggering brown eyes of his that seemed to drink her in. No fair using those babies on her.

  “Oh, and speaking of closing deals…” He pulled a napkin out of his pocket and dropped it on the counter. A napkin with a phone number written on it.

  “What’s that?” she asked, though she knew perfectly well what it was.

  “That is the phone number of a certain Miss Lopez.”

  Jenny zeroed in on the lips that were already within kissing distance, and her head spun with the sudden lack of oxygen to her brain. It would probably help if she remembered to breathe, but all she could focus on was the intoxicating hint of Jared’s cologne and the memory of his lips moving over hers. And the fact that she now owed him. Big-time.

  She swallowed and forced a deep breath. “She probably only gave that to you so you could call her about the cake.”

  Jared moved closer, backing her up against the counter. “That’s exactly why she gave it to me. However, you never said why I had to get her number. You just said to get it. And I did. I win.”

  She looked up at him from under her lashes and drew her hand up his chest until she reached the neckline of his shirt. “Lucky me,” she murmured. Then she grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him toward her.

  He didn’t hesitate for a second. His lips met hers with a frenzy that told her he’d been thinking about this moment as much as she had. He nipped at her bottom lip, and she opened to him, wrapping her arms around his waist as he deepened the kiss. She moaned, and he bent her slowly backward until she was almost lying on the counter. Sweet heaven, he’d barely touched her and she was ready to rip his clothes off right here in the kitchen. Her fingers reached beneath his shirt and brushed against his back. He jerked against her, and she chuckled and lightly raked her nails down his spine.

  Her laugh broke off in a gasp when he moved to her neck and his teeth gently grazed the sensitive skin beneath her ear.

  “Two can play at that game,” he said, his hand reaching for the hem of her shirt.

  A buzzing from the vicinity of his ass stopped her mid-moan and she looked up at him.

  “You’re vibrating,” she said.

  “Bonus for you.”

  She laughed and reluctantly pushed him away. “You better see who it is.”

  He sighed and released her so he could grab his still-vibrating phone. “Gina got home okay,” he said, reading the text out to her.

  “Good to know.” It would have been better if she’d waited a few more minutes before texting, but good to know all the same.

  “So,” Jared said, leaning against the counter. “Where were we?”

  Jenny tossed a towel at him. “We were getting the shop cleaned up for the night.”

  He grabbed her hand before she could move too far off and pulled her back against him. “Hmm, nope, I think I was right about here.” He started nuzzling her neck again, and for a moment, Jenny let herself melt against him. She’d like nothing more to pick up where they’d left off, but they did have work to do. And while she’d love to get down and dirty with Jared, she’d prefer to do it someplace she wouldn’t have to bleach-clean afterward.

  She groaned and grabbed his face, pulling him in for a quick kiss. Then she pushed him away. “You got your prize for winning the bet. Don’t be greedy.”

  “Sorry. Can’t help it where you’re concerned.” The smile he gave her had her body tingling from top to bottom, and she had to clench her hands into fists to keep from reaching for him again.

  “Behave.” She went back to wiping up counters, and he swatted her butt.

  “Hey!” she said, laughing.

  “So…you going to make that cake?”

  She sighed. “You didn’t kiss me to get me to say yes, did you?”

  “No. But I’m willing to do it again if it’ll help.” He watched her with that smug smile that said he knew he’d won. She was definitely going to find a way to wipe that off his face.

  “Fine. I’ll make your cake.”

  “Excellent!”

  “Yeah, well, let’s hope it actually ends up being the good opportunity you think it will be. If I botch this, it’s going to be my ass on the line, not yours.”

  “Then it’ll be perfect, just like your ass. No worries.” He picked the broom back up and resumed sweeping. “So, what’s your deal?”

  He switched gears so fast it took her a second to catch up. “My deal?”

  “Yeah. I mean, you’re Rick’s sister, but until our little episode at the club, I don’t think I’ve seen you since the wedding. How is that even possible? Most of Rick’s family drops in here on a weekly, if not daily, basis.”

  Jenny shrugged. “I’ve come in when I came home to visit, but you must not have been here.”

  Jared grabbed the dustpan to gather the bits he’d swept up. “Rick’s family all seem like homebodies. It’s interesting you decided to go that far away. I mean, it’s not like you moved a few miles away. Or even a few states away. You’re in school in Paris?”

 
; “Yeaaahh,” she said, drawing the word out.

  His eyebrows rose again, and she echoed the expression. “What? Can you think of any other place in the world that’s better to study the art of food than Paris?”

  Jared opened his mouth, probably to argue with her, and then grinned. “No, guess not. Although I’m not sure I’d get much studying done. Isn’t that the City of Love?”

  Jenny snorted. “I have a feeling any city you’re in is the City of Love to you.”

  He hopped on the counter and leaned back against the wall. She tried not to notice how the material of his jeans pulled tightly across his legs or how his shirt lay against his chest and abs, offering a tantalizing glimpse of the incredible body under all those clothes.

  “This is true,” he said. “I’m never one to waste an opportunity.”

  “So I’ve heard.”

  One eyebrow raised, and those chocolaty-brown eyes of his sparkled with what seemed like permanent amusement. “You shouldn’t believe everything you hear, you know?”

  Her own eyebrow rose, and she leaned against the opposite counter and folded her arms. “I shouldn’t?”

  He leaned forward, bracing himself on chiseled arms she was dying to be held by.

  “No. Personally, I prefer to experience things for myself rather than listen to other people’s opinions.”

  She leaned forward as well. She smiled, knowing she was more than a match for Jared at his own game. “I totally agree.”

  His gaze dropped to her lips and despite her best efforts, her breath hitched in her throat. He heard it. He looked back into her eyes, his teeth scraping along his bottom lip. “You do?”