Sweetened With a Kiss (19 page)

She nodded.

“Any chance of getting rid of the hippie while we watch them?”

She laughed. “Doubt it, he loves zombies too.”

“Just my luck.”

“Can we just watch
Shaun of the Dead?
I’m not up for a serious zombie apocalypse.”

“You got it.”

So Jen found herself sandwiched between Stefan and Jared with a huge bowl of popcorn they were demolishing on her lap as they both howled at the movie. The oven dinged. Jared grabbed the popcorn and announced, “Brownies are ready. You go, Jen, you don’t like the next part.”

Apparently, Stefan’s anti-white flour and refined sugar diet did not stretch to brownies. And when he found out they were black bean brownies, he and Jared almost ate the entire batch. She watched them laughing from the kitchen as she fetched more beers - because you needed a cold beer to go with the warm brownies, according to the rock god.

Her two favorite guys. They were supposed to be sniping and arguing. Instead they looked like old friends. It was just so wrong. Stefan glanced back over the couch at her and nodded his head for her to come back. “There’s a girl in the garden, you’re missing it.”

She couldn’t help but smile back at him, then headed back to the sofa. Stefan’s arm slid around her and she curled into his side as if she had been doing it for years. The side door opened and Rogan stalked in.

“You assholes, I knew I smelled brownies and you’re watching
Shaun
without me?”

He already had his own beer, so he grabbed one of the last brownies and dropped down in the oversized chair. “I love this part. She’s so drunk.”

“I saved you some brownies,” Jen said. “They’re in the kitchen.”

“That’s my girl,” Rogan grinned.

“Ah, no,” Stefan said, sending Rogan’s grin into orbit. “Mine.”

There was something so delicious in the way he said it. She really shouldn’t like it so much.

My boys, she sighed as the warmth from Stefan’s body lulled her into relaxing even more against him. Her eyes fluttered shut and she was dimly aware of them laughing at the movie. Her last thought was that maybe this wasn’t so bad. Stefan brushed the top of her head with his mouth, and pulled her tighter against him. No, it really wasn’t bad at all.

Later, she roused just enough to find him sliding into bed next to her. He pulled her against him, tangling his legs with hers.

“Don’t want to wait ’til April,” she said dreamily, settling into his heat and sighing when his mouth pressed against the curve of her neck. “War is still on.”

“We’re waiting,” he grumbled against her tingling skin, “Unless you want to show me what you needed those batteries for.”

She smiled, laughing softly. “Dream on.”

“You’re bluffing,” he insisted.

She shook her head. “Nope.”

“I can’t believe my sugar-sweet fairy princess would even know what one of those was.”

She stretched, then settled back, not so accidentally rubbing against him so he might share the ache she wasn’t sure how she could keep living with. “Not a princess,” she insisted.

“Oh, really,” he chuckled this time. “What color is it?”

“Pink,” she sighed. “With sparkles.”

He pushed his face against her shoulder and the groan that rumbled out of his chest told her that he did in fact share her pain.

Stefan sat in the boardroom the next morning, trying not to wonder if Jen really had a pink vibrator with sparkles. Sparkles? Fuck! She was bluffing. She had to be.

Damn.

His whole body tightened and he sighed, a little too loudly. The suits on either side of the table paused in their arguing to look at him. He looked back, keeping his expression slightly bored. They squirmed in their seats a little. Had he actually worried that he wouldn’t be able to handle this? Hell, he’d seen frat meetings that were more difficult than this mess.

“The Russians are under control,” he assured them.

There was a collective sigh of relief, until somebody grumbled about Andreas Maretti and then the board started bickering again. Stefan let them go. Maybe they would exhaust themselves. He caught Mac’s conflicted expression across the table. He looked proud but also a little nauseous. Stefan knew this meant Mac no longer had any other excuses to avoid the cruise Nadine had been threatening him with.

The conversation going on around him was pointless.  His mind wandered back to Jen. She’d had coffee and homemade blueberry muffins waiting for him when he came downstairs ready for work this morning. He loved blueberries, but he’d still hesitated about the muffins. He’d just grab a protein smoothie through a drive-thru because he was pretty sure she would get upset if he pulled out the blender.

“Relax,” she told him, as she continued to set up a strange assortment of gadgets on the kitchen island. “I baked them with your protein powder and they have flax seed in them.”

He had no choice but to try one. She smiled at his involuntary moan of pleasure. Elliot was right. She was a genius. Another bite of the muffin and Stefan decided the bakery could not open soon enough. “Is this your recipe?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to find high-protein foods that taste this good?” he asked.

She smiled. “No.” He didn’t quite believe her.

He dropped a kiss on her mouth, then stuffed the rest of the muffin in his. “We’re going to make a fortune. Internet sales alone. You come up with a high-protein cookie we can mass market, and I know athletes who will sell parts of their soul for them.”

“I can only do that in the French Quarter,” she said smoothly, and Stefan couldn’t help the grin that warmed his entire body.

He kissed her again, trying to keep it light and failing miserably. They were both breathing heavily when he finally stepped back, but for once, Jen recovered first.

“Have a good day at work, honey,” she teased him, and for the first time in his life Stefan had almost been late.

Now, he picked up his cell phone and sent her a text.

“Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me,” Mac said quietly, standing up and bringing a sudden halt to the conversation. Stefan looked up from the text he’d just sent Jen to find the entire board staring at him as Mac walked out of the room.

The heavy door snicked, and the silence in the room was deafening as Stefan faced the board alone for the first time. He’d known most of these men since he was a kid. Some of them he liked. Several were there as a necessary evil. All of them were waiting for him to say something.

So he said the first thing that came to mind. “I had Matt Hansen release a story on his news blog that STI was going ahead with expansion on the north Mississippi plant and those plans had nothing to do with rumors that a Russian company was expanding into Cuba. Alex called a few hours after it hit the internet to say he’d see us this afternoon. The deal is done.”

There was a collective sigh of relief and general agreement around the table that Volikov was indeed a pain in the ass and there had really been nothing to be alarmed about. Stefan knew then that he absolutely had this. Adrenalin snapped through him, not unlike crossing a finish line after punishing your body for ten hours, but this had been easy.

Jen sat in the kitchen brushing delicate gum paste flowers with paint and gold dust. She was making lilies and doing her best not to think about anything. Just concentrate on the flowers. She loved making them. It was soothing in a way, something perfectly ordinary and normal to do. And she needed normal and ordinary right now.

She had finished the lilies and started on orchids. Her phone buzzed. She set the intricate flower down before picking up the phone. Nothing could have surprised her more.

It was from Stefan.
Show me your flowers.

She took a picture of the tray of pear blossoms she had finished that morning then sent it to him. Just as she finished the orchid, her phone buzzed. She made herself count to twenty before she picked it up.

Are you sure you didn’t cut that out of a magazine?

She smiled. He had to be incredibly busy. She almost didn’t like how warm and good it made her feel that he was thinking about her. She smiled to herself and took one of the delicate lilies. She held it between her index finger and middle finger so it was next to the engagement ring that not even the gloves she wore could dim. She snapped another picture and sent it to him.

She got one back a few seconds later.

You take my breath away.

The lily dropped out of her hand, cracking one delicate petal. She squeezed her eyes tight and admitted to herself finally that she did not want to give him up. Despite everything. Even if he ultimately just wanted her trust fund, she didn’t care. She didn’t even care if he regretted marrying her one day.

Her phone buzzed again.

Make me that cake. The secret one Elliot wants.

K :-)

And she could make him happy. He’d even said he wanted kids. Talked about them like they were a foregone conclusion. Part of her just couldn’t give in. Part of her wanted to win, to prove that she could and show him that she wasn’t weak and broken. That he didn’t need to protect her. That she wasn’t his responsibility. She wanted him to love her because he couldn’t help himself. Not because he thought it was the right thing to do.

She just had to figure out a way to push him over the edge. She didn’t think the chances were very good that she could actually find a pink vibrator with sparkles in time. She still couldn’t believe he fell for that. But then, he seemed to have a weakness for pink.

Jen caught her breath, then a really sly, super-wicked smile curved her mouth. “Pink,” she said out loud, and she knew exactly what she was going to do. She grabbed her phone to call Lizzie. She almost felt sorry for Stefan.

Jen ran to answer the door, nervously watching the time. “Do not ask any questions,” Jen warned Lizzie as she took the wardrobe bag out of Lizzie’s arms.

“Can I at least come in? We need to see if it fits.”

Jen pulled her inside, checked that the coast was clear, then shut the door. Stefan could be home any minute and she wasn’t ready yet.

“I wonder if my brother really understands what he’s getting into,” Lizzie said as they rushed upstairs. “He’s only ever seen your sweet and fragile side.”

“Shut up,” Jen hissed, but she was laughing. “I am not fragile. And trust me, he’s seen my stubborn, bitchy side now.”

“I steamed it,” Lizzie said, as Jen pulled the floating cloud of cotton-candy pink tulle out of the bag. It was a pretty dress, but she didn’t see what the big deal was. It wasn’t low cut, just tightly fitted to her until it exploded in tulle just below her waist.

“I think I hate you,” Lizzie said as she zipped the dress up for Jen without a single hitch.

Jen almost didn’t recognize herself in the mirror. The pink did something for her skin. She always had a natural tan but the rosy shade of pink made her skin even warmer. It fit her perfectly except now it accented the soft swell of her breasts. At sixteen she probably had looked like a fairy princess, but now there was very little princess about it. The dress made her sleek and alluring. “I think it looks better on you now that you actually have boobs.”